My Spiritual Journey Read online

  The Dalai Lama

  My

  Spiritual

  Journey

  Personal Reflections, Teachings, and Talks

  Collected by Sofia Stril-Rever

  Translated by Charlotte Mandell

  CONTENTS

  FOREWORD: Listening to the Dalai Lama’s Appeal to the World by Sofia Stril-Rever

  PART ONE: As a Human Being

  1. Our Common Humanity

  I Am No One Special

  I am just a human being

  In our blood, a vital need for affection

  My mother, a compassionate woman

  It’s time to think in human terms

  Every person we meet is our brother or sister

  Loving-kindness, the condition of our survival

  I pray for a more loving human family

  We are all alike

  Until My Last Breath, I Will Practice Compassion

  What do we mean by “compassion"?

  True compassion is universal

  The power of compassion

  I am a professional laugher

  I am a devoted servant of compassion

  Compassion, path of my happiness

  I love the smile, unique to humans

  2. My Lives Without Beginning or End

  I Rejoice at Being the Son of Simple Farmers

  My everyday life

  I was born on the fifth day of the fifth month …

  I can see into the humblest souls

  My parents never thought I might be the Fourteenth Dalai Lama

  I recognize my rosary

  I successfully pass the tests of remembering my previous life

  My Childhood in Lhasa

  I climb up onto the Lion Throne

  I find my teeth

  Childhood memories

  I indulge in illegal treats

  I almost looked like Moshe Dayan!

  My Reincarnation Lineage

  I am summoned to become the Dalai Lama to serve others

  The Tibetans will decide if they want a Fifteenth Dalai Lama

  My Dalailamaship

  Why shouldn’t a very beautiful woman be my next incarnation?

  We are without beginning or end

  I could reincarnate in the form of an insect

  PART TWO: As a Buddhist Monk

  3. Transforming Oneself

  My Ideal: The Bodhisattva

  My identity as a monk

  My monk’s vows

  The daily meditations of a Buddhist monk

  Living as a bodhisattva

  Spiritual practice in order to become better human beings

  Temples of Kindness in Our Hearts

  Toward brotherly exchanges between religions

  Politicians need religion more than hermits

  My pilgrimages, from Lourdes to Jerusalem

  A life of contemplation on love

  Temples inside

  Transforming Our Minds

  Analysis of the mind as a preliminary to spiritual practice

  Impermanence and interdependence, or seeing the world as it is

  Transforming our mind on the Buddha’s path

  Actualizing our potential

  Training our emotional life

  4. Transforming the World

  I Call for a Spiritual Revolution

  We can do without religion, but not without spirituality

  Spiritual revolution and ethical revolution

  The sickness of duality

  The disregard of interdependence by Westerners

  I Do Not Believe in Ideologies

  Humanity is one

  Interdependence is a law of nature

  A sense of responsibility is born from compassion

  War is an anachronism

  Everyone must assume a share of universal responsibility

  My Dialogue with the Sciences

  Why is a Buddhist monk interested in science?

  Humanity is at a crossroads

  Ethics in the sciences to save life

  The tragedy of September 11, 2001, taught me that we must not separate ethics from progress

  5. Taking Care of the Earth

  Our Ecological Responsibility

  As a child, I learned from my teachers to take care of the environment

  The Tibet of my childhood, paradise of wildlife

  In Tibet the mountains have become bald as monks’ heads

  Reflections of a Buddhist monk on our ecological responsibility

  Our Planet Is One World

  The Buddha in the Green Party!

  Human rights and the environment

  Mind, heart, and environment

  Taking care of the Earth

  Interdependence as seen from space

  PART THREE: As the Dalai Lama

  6. In the Dalai Lama Meets the World

  I Was the Only One Who Could Win Unanimous Support

  At sixteen, I become the temporal leader of Tibet

  We wrongly believed that isolation would guarantee us peace

  I endorse the Kashag’s appeal to the United Nations

  The motherland, a shameless lie

  Mao’s personality impressed me

  March 10, 1959, a day of insurrection in Lhasa

  My Children, You Are the Future of Tibet

  Forced exile

  My priority is stopping the bloodshed

  Children of hope

  I am a proponent of secular democracy

  Liberty, equality, and fraternity are also Buddhist principles

  I love the image of swords transformed into plowshares

  Human beings prefer the way of peace

  What would Gandhi have done in my place?

  7. I Appeal to All the Peoples of the World

  I Denounce the Sinicization of Tibet

  I ask the world not to forget that thousands of Tibetans were massacred

  In the name of humanity, I appeal to all the peoples of the world

  The Han-ification campaign in Tibet

  Five hundred Tibetans perished while fleeing their occupied country

  Tibet, Sanctuary of Peace for the World

  My people’s contribution to world peace

  I propose that Tibet become a sanctuary of ahimsa for the world

  In the name of the spiritual heritage of my people

  My weapons are truth, courage, and determination

  Tibet is still suffering from flagrant, unimaginable human rights violations

  In China, I see that change is on the way

  To all my spiritual brothers and sisters in China

  CONCLUSION: I Place My Hope in the Human Heart

  We Can Only Live in Hope

  AFTERWORD: Winning Peace with the Dalai Lama

  NOTES

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  INDEX

  Acknowledgments

  My Three Commitments in Life

  Editor’s Note

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  FOREWORD

  Listening to the Dalai Lama’s Appeal to the World

  The Dalai Lama is fourteenth in a lineage of reincarnations that came into being with the first emanation of enlightened compassion, Gendun Drup, in 1391.1 The Dalai Lama discusses the anecdotes and accomplishments of his previous lives as naturally as he relates his childhood memories. He maintains a living link with his thirteen predecessors, often mentioning their beloved, familiar presence. He is seventy-four years old, but since he took on the burden of spiritual and temporal leadership of Tibet, his awareness encompasses seven centuries of history. In this book we meet the Dalai Lama at a time when he is reflecting on his next incarnation, for he knows that his present exis
tence is drawing to an end. But he also knows that his life will not stop with death.

  He asserts, however, that he is “no one special” but “a human being” like everyone else. Meeting him calls many certainties into question, for his “human” dimension does not exhibit the ordinary limits of our condition; I have often wondered whether the essential teaching we receive from him is simply about becoming fully human.

  I asked myself this question again on March 10, 2006, in Dharamsala, as I listened to the speech the Dalai Lama was giving to commemorate the Lhasa insurrection. I had the feeling that his words carried far beyond the cloud-wrapped mountains and the hundreds of people gathered in a cold, steady rain to hear him. He called for human rights to be respected in Tibet, but the range of his words was universal. It was our humanity he was defending against a barbarism that dehumanizes it. The Dalai Lama was appealing to the world’s conscience.

  For fifteen years, I had followed and translated his teachings on the meditation system of the Kalachakra (the Wheel of Time), regarded as supreme by Tibetan Buddhists and dedicated to world peace. That day I saw a profoundly coherent connection between his formidable humanity, his words as a master of the Wheel of Time, and his political discourse. Thinking back on this, I understood that to be human means for him to live a spirituality that comes from the heart and is spontaneously manifested in his everyday life, as in his exchanges with world-famous scientists or his declarations in international forums. It is certainly not by chance that His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama has adopted a policy called “the Middle Way” toward China, since the Middle Way represents, in Buddhism, the essence of the wisdom that perceives emptiness.

  I realized that with such an approach to spirituality, one could break down the barriers that usually compartmentalize activities, thoughts, and feelings and reach the universality of the heart. And when I agreed to let these barriers fall, I had an experience of transparency and internal conversion. I understood that, for the Dalai Lama, prayer goes beyond forms of belief. To pray starting from what is universal to all religions invites us to discover the internal dimension of our humanity and to reclaim our “human-ness.”

  I discussed this at length with Samdhong Rinpoche, prime minister of the Tibetan government in exile and companion in exile of the Dalai Lama; I had met him when I was studying in India at the Tibetan University of Sarnath, of which he was rector. I suggested that I bear witness to this “open” spirituality of the Dalai Lama by publishing a selection of texts that had not previously been published in French, including his March 10 speech and his speeches given in the international arena. This publication would show the impact of the Dalai Lama’s humanity on our world at a critical time in history when the survival of future generations seems threatened. His declarations, calling for a spiritual revolution that is also an ethical revolution, urge us to acknowledge that humanity is one, in conformity with the Buddhist principle of interdependence. The awareness that everything is connected in the participatory reality of life is expressed on the individual level by compassion and on the collective level by universal responsibility. These notions have contributed to renewing the terminology and forging the spirit of recent United Nations texts dedicated to a culture of peace.

  After the Dalai Lama agreed to the general outline of my work, which at first was titled An Appeal to the World, I devoted myself to it, and in the course of my research a second form of coherence struck me: that of the temporal continuity of the Dalai Lama’s thinking. Indeed, although over the years his statements have been supported with new references and linked to current events and to the developments of contemporary society, analysis of those statements has followed a current that leads us back to the same source—a seemingly inexhaustible wisdom and kindness and a truth that is unfailing.

  I had a striking experience of this in February 2008, at the end of our long interview for the film The Dalai-Lama, One Life After Another.2 When Lhasa and Tibet flared up a month later, there was a moment of doubt. During its showing, which was planned for August, wouldn’t the film be seen as out of step with current events? But very quickly it became clear that both before and after these events, the Dalai Lama’s commitment to nonviolence, reconciliation, and dialogue remained unchanged. I came to the conclusion that his words have a pertinence that does not fluctuate with the events of history. His truth possesses the rare quality of constancy.

  I asked myself why this was. The reason seemed to me to be that the Dalai Lama’s vision embraces universal life, in perfect reciprocity. Those who reach this level of truth—called satyagraha by the Mahatma Gandhi, another great figure of humanity and one dear to the Dalai Lama—oppositions no longer antagonize each other but join together in harmonious complementarity. Thus, the Chinese, for instance, are not “enemies” but “brothers and sisters.” My challenge was to make such profundity perceptible in the structure of the book.

  In the last phase of my work I realized that the first-person texts I had selected made up a spiritual autobiography. I use the term “spiritual” here in the sense that the Dalai Lama gives it—namely, the full blossoming of human values that is essential for the good of all. I spoke to Samdhong Rinpoche about this idea in December 2008, during a stay in Dharamsala. When the Dalai Lama became aware of it in early January 2009, he approved of it, saying that he was very happy with the concept. He found that his statements as presented in this book articulate his fundamental aspirations, and he also authorized the publication of the facsimile of his speech on March 10, 2007, annotated with his handwritten notes and preserved by Samdhong Rinpoche.

  I understood from this confirmation that I had met the challenge I set in writing this book—the challenge of making it come alive and bringing the reader close enough to the words of the Dalai Lama to hear them and meditate on them in an invigorating heart-to-heart dialogue from which hope can shine forth.

  —Sofia Stril-Rever

  Sarnath, January 2009

  PART ONE

  As a Human Being

  1

  Our Common Humanity

  I Am No One Special

  I am just a human being

  THE TERM “DALAI LAMA“ takes on different meanings according to different people. For some, this term signifies that I am a living Buddha, the earthly manifestation of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. For others, it means that I am a “god-king.” At the end of the 1950s, to be the Dalai Lama meant fulfilling the function of “Vice President of the Steering Committee of the People’s National Congress of the People’s Republic of China.” Then, in the beginning of the exile that followed my escape, I was called a “counter-revolutionary” and a “parasite.” But none of these designations correspond to me.

  As I see it, the title “Dalai Lama” represents the responsibility that has come down to me. As for me, I am just a human being, and it just so happens that I am also a Tibetan who has chosen to be a Buddhist monk. So before I narrate the events of my own spiritual journey, I would like to reflect upon what binds us all together, the essential elements of our common humanity and the compassion it calls for.

  In our blood, a vital need for affection

  OUR LIFE DEPENDS ON OTHERS so much that at the root of our existence there is a fundamental need for love. That is why it is good to cultivate an authentic sense of our responsibility and a sincere concern for the welfare of others.

  What is our true nature as human beings? We are not just material beings, and it is a mistake to place all our hopes for happiness in external development. Without going into the controversial debate over the creation and evolution of our universe, we all agree that each person is the product of his parents. For the most part, our conception involved not only the sexual desire of our parents but also their decision to have a child. Their plan was based on altruistic responsibility and the commitment to take care of us until we became independent. So from the very instant of our conception, our parents’ love was an essential factor.

 
Moreover, we depended entirely on our mother’s care in the beginning of our life. According to some scientists, the state of mind—calm or agitated—of a pregnant woman has an immediate physical impact on the child she is carrying.

  The expression of love is also essential at birth. Since our first gesture was to suck milk from our mother’s breast, we instinctively feel closer to our mother, who must also feel love in order to feed us, for if she is angry or unhappy, her milk will not flow so freely.

  Then there is the critical period of formation of the brain, from birth until the age of three or four. Affectionate physical contact is the main factor for a child’s normal growth. If he is not pampered, cuddled, loved, his development will be limited and his brain will not grow to its full potential.

  Since the child cannot survive without another’s care, love is essential. These days many children grow up in unhappy homes. Deprived of affection, later on in life they will rarely love their parents and will often have trouble loving others. This is very sad.

  A few years later, when children enter school, they need to be helped by their teachers. If a teacher doesn’t limit himself to academic teaching, if he also takes on the responsibility of preparing his students for life, they will have respect for him and confidence in him. The things they learn from him will leave an indelible imprint in their minds. Conversely, subjects taught by someone who doesn’t care about his students’ well-being will be of only passing interest to them and will soon be forgotten.

  Similarly, when a sick person is treated at the hospital by a doctor who shows him human warmth, he feels comforted. The doctor’s wish to lavish the best care is therapeutic in itself, regardless of the technical details of medical procedures. On the other hand, when a doctor lacks empathy and seems unfriendly, impatient, or contemptuous, even if he is very famous, his diagnosis is correct, and he prescribes the most effective remedies, the sick person is still in distress.

  In the case of an everyday conversation, when our interlocutor speaks to us with human feeling, we listen and respond with pleasure, so that the conversation becomes interesting even though it is quite ordinary. On the other hand, if someone speaks coldly or harshly, we feel annoyed and want to end the conversation quickly. From the smallest to the largest event, the affection and respect of others are vital elements.