DalaiLama.com, 2018; Sheldon S., Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
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With students from Woodstock School
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| The Dalai Lama addressing students from Woodstock School at the meeting room next to his office in Dharamsala, HP, India on October 11, 2018 (photo by Ven Tenzin Jamphel). |
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(Oct. 11, 2018) High in the Himalayas, Thekchen Chöling, Dharamsala, HP, India - The happy chatter that filled the meeting room next to the Dalai Lama’s office fell silent when he walked into the room.
He scanned the faces of the students waiting for him. He smiled broadly, wished them “good morning,” and sat down.
[It's like going to see jolly Santa Claus]
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| The Dalai Lama loves to get a laugh. |
There were 51 students belonging to Classes 11 and 12 from Woodstock School, visiting the Dalai Lama's Himalayan enclave (and government in exile) during their extracurricular “activity week.”
He first made friends with Woodstock School at the beginning of his life in exile, when the Tibetan spiritual and temporal leader lived in Mussoorie, the Indian hill station where the Woodstock School is based.
Are there any Palestinians here?
After asking how many Tibetans and Bhutanese there were in the group, he wanted to know where the rest of the children came from. The majority were Indian, but among a total of seven nationalities there were also students from Palestine, Syria, and [and formerly Buddhist now Muslim] Afghanistan.
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| Woodstock School student stands up to ask the Dalai Lama a question (Ven Tenzin Jamphel). |
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He reported that he had just been talking to a group from Indonesia [home of the magnificent Borobudur Buddhist Temple] about how sad he feels to witness friction between Shia and Sunni Muslims.To him it is unthinkable that people who worship the same Allah [God] and follow the same Quran [Koran or Islam's Bible] should fall out as they seem to do.
“However, I’ve never heard of such quarrels between Sunni and Shia adherents here in India,” he told them. “Indeed, India is unique in that all the world’s major religions, those indigenous to the country, as well as those that came from abroad, all live here happily together.
“India’s long-standing tradition of inter-religious harmony is exemplary, and now the time has come to share this practice with the rest of the world.”
Israeli Jews and Americans visit the Dalai Lama in his home in Himalayas
The first of several questions from the students concerned the Dalia Lama’s pastimes.
“When I was a boy,” he replied with a laugh, “I used to enjoy taking things apart.
“I examined my toys and watches to see how they worked. I dismantled and reassembled a movie projector that had belonged to [my predecessor] the 13th Dalai Lama to make it work. Since I was young, I’ve also enjoyed growing plants.
“I grew beautiful tulips in the Norbulingka garden [the Jeweled Park around my palace] in Lhasa [the capital of my former Himalayan empire]. These days, however, as I get older, I have less interest in these things.”
Who decides what’s moral?
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| Always bring the Dalai Lama a gift. |
Some traditions, like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam [the Abrahamic faiths], believe in a creator God and regard us all as children of that God.
Other Indian [Dharmic] traditions like Jainism and Buddhism see beings themselves participating in creation, so responsibility for change rests on our shoulders.
“We should not let ourselves be dominated only by sensory awareness,” he advised, “we should also pay attention to mental consciousness, develop a single-pointed mind, and use it to analyze the nature of self and the nature of reality.
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“Just as we can’t say that one particular medicine is the best on all occasions, we cannot say that one religious tradition is best.
“We need our different traditions because of people’s different dispositions and therefore we need to treat all religious traditions with respect.
“Many problems we face we bring on ourselves because we are prey to destructive emotions. We tend to think in terms of ‘us’ and ‘them’ with little sense of the oneness of humanity.
“And yet, climate change, for example, because it affects us all, means we have to take a more global view. We can’t neglect it. We are interdependent...” More
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