My Spiritual Journey Read online

  —Sofia Stril-Rever

  Kirti Monastery

  Dharamsala, December 2008

  NOTES

  Foreword

  1. The first Dalai Lama, venerated as an emanation of Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of Compassion, lived from 1391 to 1474.

  2. Dalaï-lama, une vie après l’autre: a documentary directed by Franck Sanson, based on an idea by Mehramouz Mahvash, and written by Sofia Stril-Rever.

  My Three Commitments in Life

  1. Speech delivered to the European Parliament, Brussels, December 4, 2008.

  Part One: As a Human Being

  1. Acceptance speech for the Congressional Gold Medal, Washington, D.C., October 17, 2007.

  2. "Human Rights, Democracy, and Freedom,” statement for the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, December 10, 2008.

  3. Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, December 10, 1989.

  4. Statement made in Taiwan, June 2008.

  5. See Paul Ekman, ed., Emotional Awareness: Overcoming the Obstacles to Psychological Balance and Compassion (New York: Times Books, 2008).

  6. A dzomo is a cross between a yak and a cow.

  7. Heinrich Harrer, Seven Years in Tibet, trans. Richard Graves (London: R. Hart-Davis, 1953), p. 225.

  8. Statement by the Dalai Lama in Amaravati, January 10, 2006.

  9. Dharma is a polysemous Sanskrit word meaning, here, “the teaching of the Buddha.”

  10. Gendun Drubpa, the first Dalai Lama, lived for eighty-three years.

  11. Samdhong Rinpoche is Kalon Tripa, or prime minister, of the Tibetan government in exile. Born in Kham in 1939, he was recognized as a reincarnate lama at the age of five, and he went into exile in India, following the Dalai Lama, in 1959. In 2001 he was elected Kalon Tripa for the first time, with 84.5 percent of the vote.

  12. Declaration made on December 2, 2007.

  13. Shantarakshita, an eighth-century spiritual master and Indian philosopher, introduced Buddhism to Tibet at the invitation of King Trisongdetsen.

  14. The Tibetan term tulku, which designates lamas who are leaders of their lineage, is the translation of the Sanskrit nirmanakaya, which means “transformation body.”

  15. The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, interview with Martin Brauen, in The Dalai Lamas: A Visual History (Zurich: Serindia Publications, 2005), 9-10.

  16. Quoted in Claude B. Levenson, “Tibet, le talon d’Achille de Pékin (Tibet, Beijing’s Achilles’ Heel),” Revue de politique internationale 117 (Fall 2007).

  17. Egil Aarvik, speech presenting the Nobel Peace Prize, Oslo, December 10, 1989.

  18. The Dalai Lama and Victor Chan, The Wisdom of Forgiveness: Intimate Conversations and Journeys (New York: Penguin, 2004), 14.

  Part Two: As a Buddhist Monk

  1. Excerpted from the Dalai Lama, The Good Heart: A Buddhist Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus, edited by Robert Kiely (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1998), 38-42.

  2. The Sanskrit word mara can be translated as “demon.”

  3. Aryadeva, an Indian sage of the second and third centuries, was the principal disciple of Nagarjuna, the author of fundamental Buddhist treatises.

  4. The “essences” are the elements of the subtle body.

  5. Tsongkhapa, a Tibetan saint and scholar of the thirteenth century, founded the Gelugpa school, to which the institution of the Dalai Lamas belongs.

  6. Lama Thubten Yeshe, Introduction to Tantra: The Transformation of Desire, edited by Jonathan Landaw (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2001), 32-33.

  7. The September 11, 2001, attacks.

  8. Speech to the European Parliament, Strasbourg, October 14, 2001.

  9. "Human Rights, Democracy, and Freedom,” speech given in Dharamsala, 2008.

  10. Excerpt from a speech to the Society for Neurosciences, Washington, DC, November 12, 2005.

  11. Ibid.

  12. Nagarjuna, “Hymn to the Buddha Who Transcends the World” (in Sanskrit, Lokatishtava; in Tibetan, ‘Jig rten las ‘das par bstod pa).

  13. Speech delivered January 14, 2003.

  14. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Ancient Wisdom, Modern World: Ethics for a New Millennium (New York: Little, Brown and Co., 1999), 214-16.

  15. Excerpt from a speech given at the “Tibet in Danger” conference, Sydney, Australia, September 28, 1996.

  16. In this epithet for the Buddha, Tathagata is the Sanskrit term for “thus-gone.”

  17. Ikshvaku is the first king of the solar dynasty of Ayodhya, the origin of the Chakra-vartin lineage, into which Prince Siddhartha Gautama, who became the historical Buddha Shakyamuni, was born.

  18. Avalokiteshvara is the Sanskrit name (Chenrezig in Tibetan) for the Buddha of Compassion.

  19. The Tantras are the treatises of Vajrayana Buddhism that describe the subtle body.

  20. Tsongkhapa (1357-1419), great teacher of Tibetan Buddhism. He recast the Kadampa tradition and renewed it, establishing Ganden Monastery, where the new Gelukpa school originated. The Dalai Lama is the most notable figure in the Gelukpa tradition. Manjushri is the meditation deity who embodies wisdom and learning.

  21. Vinaya is the Sanskrit term for “monastic discipline.”

  22. The Kalpataru is one of the five trees of Svarga, the heaven of the god Indra, situated at the top of Mount Meru, where the souls of mortals migrate after living virtuously and stay until the time comes for them to resume an earthly body. Legend says that the Kalpataru grants all wishes.

  23. The Jambu tree, or rose apple tree, gives its name to Jambudvipa, the southern continent, the one inhabited by human beings according to the Buddhist cosmology of the Abhidharma.

  24. To avoid destroying insects and earthworms when the foundations were built.

  25. Poem written to accompany the offering made by the Dalai Lama of a statue of the Buddha to the Indian people during the opening of the “International Conference on Ecological Responsibility,” New Delhi, October 2, 1993.

  26. The Buddha was born in Lumbini, Nepal, near the village of Kapilavastu.

  27. It was as he sat at the foot of the Bodhi Tree—which was a pipal tree (Ficus religiosa)—that Prince Siddhartha Gautama attained Enlightenment. In Bodhgaya, on the historic place of Enlightenment, Buddhists venerate a tree that is said to be the offshoot of the Bodhi Tree.

  28. Teaching given in Sarnath, January 14, 2009.

  29. This initiation in Beijing was given in 1932.

  30. Quoted from the teaching given at the conclusion of the initiation on December 29, 1990. See the development of this theme in the book Kalachakra: Un mandala pour la paix by Sofia Stril-Rever and Mathieu Ricard, with a preface by the Dalai Lama (Paris: Éditions de la Martinière, 2008).

  31. Declaration at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, 1991.

  32. Speech delivered September 20, 1991, at the inauguration of the World Conservation Union’s “Take Care of the Earth” campaign, September 21, 1991.

  33. Excerpt from Edmond Blattchen, La Compassion universelle (interviews with the Dalai Lama), translated into French by Mathieu Ricard (Liège: Alice Editions), 34.

  34. Excerpt from UNESCO, “Earth Charter” (Paris: UNESCO, March 2000), available at: http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/pages/Read-the-Charter.html. The International Secretariat of the Earth Charter, on the campus of the University for Peace in San José, Costa Rica, coordinates global programs and projects in connection with fifty-three national committees of the Earth Charter and partner organizations such as the National Councils for Sustainable Development.

  Part Three: As the Dalai Lama

  1. This spiritual master-lay protector relationship is called chö-yon in Tibetan.

  2. The Dalai Lama, My Land and My People: Memoirs of the Dalai Lama of Tibet (New York: Potala Corp., 1977), 75.

  3. See Tibet Justice Center, “Appeal by His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet to the United Nations (1950),” UN document A11549-11 (Kalimpong, November 1950), 5, available at: http://
www.tibetjustice.org/materials/un/un2.html.

  4. The International Commission of Jurists is the UN consulting organization that examined the Tibetan question in 1950.

  5. Located on the shores of the Brahmaputra, in the Indian state of Assam, Tezpur was the first Indian town across the Indo-Tibetan border. It sheltered the Dalai Lama and his retinue for several days after their escape.

  6. Mussoorie is a city in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, in the foothills of the Himalayas. In April 1959, at Nehru’s invitation, the Dalai Lama established the Tibetan government in exile there, before transferring it to Dharamsala in 1960. The first Tibetan school was founded in Mussoorie in 1960; today about five thousand Tibetans live there.

  7. In February 1957, Nehru had advised the Dalai Lama to negotiate the principles of the Seventeen-Point Agreement with China.

  8. Talk given in Dharamsala in May 1960.

  9. The government and the prime minister are now elected by the Assembly of Deputies of the Tibetan People, which, to reflect the diaspora, includes ten deputies for each of the three provinces of Greater Tibet, two deputies for each of the five main religious schools, two deputies for Europe, and one deputy for America.

  10. Speech given in Washington, DC, April 1993.

  11. Ibid.

  12. Declaration made in Aspen, Colorado, July 2008.

  13. Speech given at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 6, 1992.

  14. Samdhong Rinpoche, with Donovan Roebert, Uncompromising Truth for a Compromised World (Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2006), 156-57.

  15. Speech given in Dharamsala, March 10, 1961.

  16. See the facsimile published in the back of this book.

  17. In 1962 detachments of the People’s Liberation Army invaded the Sino-Tibetan border regions and were quickly expelled.

  18. Speech given in Dharamsala, March 10, 1965.

  19. See the exhaustive study on the subject by Claude B. Levenson, Tibet: l’envers du décor (Geneva: Éditions Olizane, 1993).

  20. Speech given in Dharamsala, March 10, 1967.

  21. Speech given in Dharamsala, March 10, 1968.

  22. Tenzin Tsendu, Passage de la frontière, dictated to Sofia Stril-Rever for translation and publication in French.

  23. Speech given to the Human Rights Commission of the U.S. Congress, September 21, 1987.

  24. Ibid.

  25. Speech to the European Parliament, Strasbourg, June 15, 1988.

  26. Samdhong Rinpoche, Uncompromising Truth for a Compromised World, 143.

  27. Speech given in Dharamsala, March 10, 1990.

  28. Speech given in Dharamsala, March 10, 2008.

  29. Speech given at the European Parliament, Brussels, December 4, 2008.

  30. Interview with the Dalai Lama, Der Spiegel (May 2008).

  31. Interview with the Dalai Lama, Nouvel Observateur, December 30, 2008.

  32. Speech given in Hamilton, New York, April 24, 2008.

  33. The Dalai Lama, My Land and My People, 233-34.

  34. From Shantideva’s The Way of the Bodhisattva.

  35. At a teaching given in Lisbon in September 2007, organized by the Chanteloube Center for Buddhist Studies.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  The Dalai Lama

  The Universe in a Single Atom. New York: Morgan Road Books, 2005.

  Ethics for the New Millennium. New York: Riverhead Books, 1999.

  Freedom in Exile. New York: HarperCollins, 1990.

  My Land and My People. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1962.

  The Dalai Lama and Co-Authors

  Emotional Awareness: Overcoming the Obstacles to Psychological Balance and Compassion, with Paul Ekman. New York: Times Books, 2008.

  The Dalai Lamas: A Visual History, with Martin Brauen. Zurich: Serindia, 2005.

  Journey for Peace: His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, text by Mathieu Ricard and Christian Schmidt, photographs by Martin Brauen. Zurich: Scalo Publishers, 2005.

  The Wisdom of Forgiveness, with Victor Chan. New York: Riverhead Books, 2004.

  Advice on Dying and Living a Better Life, with Jeffrey Hopkins. New York: Atria Books, 2002.

  The Art of Happiness, with Howard Cutler. New York: Riverhead Books, 1998.

  The Good Heart: A Buddhist Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus, with Laurence Freeman, Geshe Thubten Jinpa, and Robert Kiely. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1998.

  The Power of Compassion, with Geshe Thubten Jinpa. New York: Thorsons Publishers, 1995.

  A Policy of Kindness, with Sidney Piburn. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 1993.

  Kindness, Clarity, and Insight, with Jeffrey Hopkins. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 1984.

  Samdhong Rinpoche

  Uncompromising Truth for a Compromised World, with Donovan Roebert. Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2006.

  Sofia Stril-Rever

  Kalachakra, un mandala pour la paix, preface by the Dalai Lama, photographs by Matthieu Ricard and Manuel Bauer. Paris: La Martinière, 2008.

  Traité du mandala: Tantra de Kalachakra, foreword by the Dalai Lama, unabridged text translated from the Sanskrit. Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 2003.

  Kalachakra: guide de l’initiation et du Guru Yoga, teachings by the Dalai Lama and Jhado Rinpoche. Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 2002.

  L’initiation de Kalachakra, unabridged text of the Kalachakra ritual with commentary by the Dalai Lama. Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 2001.

  Enfants du Tibet: de coeur à coeur avec Jetsun Pema et soeur Emmanuelle. Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 2000.

  Kalachakra, photo album of Namgyal monastery, preface by the Dalai Lama. Rome: Tibet Domani, 2000.

  Tantra de Kalachakra: le livre du corps subtil, preface by the Dalai Lama, unabridged text translated from the Sanskrit. Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 2000.

  INDEX

  The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.

  affection, 8–10

  ahimsa (nonviolent peace) zone, 224–225

  altruism, 28, 29, 35–36, 102, 105–107

  analysis, 88–89, 93–94, 96, 101, 121–122

  anger, 21–22, 28, 129, 250

  Avalokiteshvara, 7, 146, 169, 209

  awareness, 77, 96–98, 101–102

  “Be a Source of Hope,” 259–260

  Bodhi Tree, 84, 151

  Border Passage (Tenzin Tsendu), 215–217

  Buddha, 35, 80, 81, 84, 91, 97, 101, 127, 147–149, 151, 190, 252

  Buddhism: bodhisattva, 65, 79; equality and freedom, 62, 190–191; imperma- nence, 56–57, 90–92; interdependence and compassion, 11, 158; medita- tion, 35–36, 77–78; nonviolence, 135, 219; other religious traditions and, 80–81; reincarnation, 55, 62–63, 65–67, 135–136; and science, 120–124, 127–131. See also Tibetan Buddhism; transforming the mind

  Bush, George W., 192

  causality, 93, 121, 152

  cerebral plasticity, 122, 123

  cheerfulness, 23–24

  childhood development, 8–10

  China, 153, 168–171, 195, 208, 220, 227–228, 233–234, 242–243, 252–254, 275–276

  Chinese invasion and occupation of Tibet: attack on religion, 177, 209–211, 213, 232, 237, 249, 253; brutal repression, 202, 206–207, 228, 235– 239, 248–250, 275; denouncing the Dalai Lama, 7, 181, 232, 236–237, 241, 243–244, 249; environmental degra- dation, 139–144, 277; genocide, 202, 264–265; Han population transfers, 208, 228–230, 238, 240, 247, 250; and India, 183–184, 207, 219, 224; initial events, 51, 165–167, 172–175, 177–179, 181–182; Lhasa insurrection, 178–179, 204, 206, 275; nuclear threat, 207, 208; ongoing flight from, 212–217; period of liberalization, 221–223; post-insur- rection events in Lhasa, 197–198, 211, 232, 248–250, 252; regulatory control of lineages, 67–69; Seventeen-Point Agreement, 173, 174, 177, 183, 197; sinicization, 33, 196, 209, 211, 240– 241; torture techniques, 237–238

  compassion
: bodhisattva ideal, 79; to heal humanity, 13, 15, 106, 112, 114, 117, 123; as path of happiness, 26–27, 88, 89, 122; practice of, 11, 18–22, 25, 28, 102; vital need for, 8–10, 14

  Congressional Gold Medal, 192–193

  consciousness, 93–95, 135

  Dalai Lama: appointed temporal leader, 165–166; as Buddhist monk, 1–2, 7, 25, 35–36, 55–56, 75–79; childhood in Lhasa, 11, 46–56, 139; choice of nonviolence, 194–198, 228; Congres- sional Gold Medal, 192–193; daily life, 35–36, 77; family farm life, 37–41; Five-Point Peace Plan, 225, 227–232, 234–235, 238; flight to India, 178–184; founding Tibetan democ- racy, 187–189, 235; influence on UN declarations, 158–159; Kalachakra initiation by, 153; lineage, xiii, 42–45, 48, 55; meeting with Mao, 176–177; message to exiled Tibetans, 185–187; Middle Way policy, 226, 240, 244, 246, 250–251, 276; negotiations with China, 221–223, 226, 232–235, 240, 243–248, 250–251, 278; Nobel Peace Prize, 16–17, 69, 195, 236, 261, 280; photos of, 3, 71, 161; pilgrim- ages, 84–85; poems by, 15, 145–150, 259–261; search party discovering, 42–45; Seventeen-Point Agreement response, 174–175; Strasbourg Pro- posal, 232, 234, 235, 246; succession of, 58–59, 62–65, 67, 69–70, 189

  Dalailamaship, 7, 60–61

  death, 56–58, 77–78

  democracy, 187–190

  Deng Xiaoping, 221, 222, 226, 241, 276

  desire, 18, 76, 93, 96, 100

  Dharamsala, 31–33

  diversity, 1, 87, 109–110, 159

  duality, 107, 108

  Earth Charter, 158–160

  ecological responsibility: call to action, 137–138, 145–150; China’s destruction of Tibet, 141–144, 277; ethics in sci- ence, 126, 131; growing realization of, 152–153; and interdependence, 154–160; Tibetan beliefs, 135–140

  ego, 100, 102, 107

  Ekman, Paul, 31

  emotions, 93, 96–100, 129, 131

  emptiness, 36, 77, 91–92, 128

  enemies, 20, 28, 250, 259, 264

  equality, 190–191