Life is a Journey, Why Not Share it?

by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama
——————————————————————-
This text was kindly supplied on 17th May 1993 by Phil Calvert

Reprinted, with permission, from the Spring 1993 issue of Snow Lion Newsletter and Catalog.

Rinchen Dharlo, the representative of H.H. the Dalai Lama in N. America asked to have the following article printed. It is very relevant for Westerners to consider these thoughts carefully and for all of us to do what we can.

I am very happy today to communicate with all of you American Buddhists from [the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center], the oldest of the Tibetan Buddhist monastic centers in America. It is encouraging to note the present spread of  Tibetan Buddhism, some 1000 centers around the world with over 250 in the United States alone. As I often say, Buddhism has a special gift for helping people calm their minds and learn to live more happily. In the midst of what can accurately be called “the Buddhist holocaust” of the 20th century, we Tibetans were forced into exile by the Chinese invasion of our homeland. Since then, we have been privileged to share the gifts of Buddhism with fellow beings of other nations, who all must face the countless difficulties of life in our restless, anxious, modern world. Perhaps the only good thing that has come from our tragedy is the spread of the teaching and practice of Tibetan Buddhism.

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by Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche

Many great Buddhist masters have prophesied that centuries from
now, when the forces of aggression amass on earth and no reason can
turn them back, the kingdom of Shambhala will open its gates and its
enlightened warriors will come forth into battle. Whoever they
encounter will be given a choice–turn away from non virtue to virtue
or, by direct, wrathful intervention, be liberated into a pure land
beyond suffering.

A Buddhist story tells of a ferry captain whose boat was carrying
500 bodhisattvas in the guise of merchants. A robber on board planned
to kill everyone and pirate the ship’s cargo.

The captain, a bodhisattva himself, saw the man’s murderous
intention and realized this crime would result in eons of torment for
the murderer. In his compassion, the captain was willing to take
hellish torment upon himself by killing the man to prevent karmic
suffering that would be infinity greater than the suffering of the
murdered victims. The captain’s compassion was impartial; his
motivation was utterly selfless.

Now, as I write this, the Middle East is inflamed with war.
Watching the television news, I pray that this war will prevent
greater wars, greater suffering, and that those opposed to war develop
the skills to bring about authentic peace. We cannot fully discern
the motivation of any participants involved in the conflict, but it is
unlikely that many have the ability to bring about ultimate liberation
for friends and enemies alike, or that they will be able to sustain
the bodhisattva’s impartial compassion as they engage in conflict.

What we can know is our own minds. We can adhere to Buddhist ideals
in our activities, whether we are combatants, protestors, decision-
makers or concerned witnesses. We can pray that whatever virtue there
is in the situation prevails, that genuine peace be established. The
Buddha has taught that throughout countless lifetimes all beings have
been our parents and have shown us great kindness. Now they have
fallen under the sway of the mind’s poisons of desire, anger,
ignorance, and they suffer terribly. Could we exclude any from our
compassion any more than the sun could exclude any from the warmth and
radiance of its rays.

As we aspire to peace, now and in the future cycles of our
existence, we cannot deny the possibility that each of us may be
confronted with the need for wrathful intervention in order to prevent
greater harm. May the spiritual mining we undertake now allow us to
enter such situations free from the delusions of the mind’s poisons.
May we act with spontaneous compassion to bring ultimate liberation to
all alike, both victims and aggressors.

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Now destined to make its way across the Internet: a new (and highly subjective) list of the top 10 worst Bible passages, as suggested by readers of Ship of Fools and announced by the webzine’s editor, Simon Jenkins, at the recent Greenbelt festival. The list was reported first by the Telegraph and then made its way, via some cyberintermediaries, to Episcopal Cafe, where I spotted it. I chose verse translations from the New American Bible. Without further ado, the list:

1. “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man. She must be quiet.” (1 Timothy 2:12)
2. “Go, now, attack Amalek, and deal with him and all that he has under the ban. Do not spare him, but kill men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and asses.” (1 Samuel 15:3)
3. “You shall not let a sorceress live.” (Exodus 22:18)
4. “Happy those who seize your children and smash them against a rock.” (Psalm 137:9)
5. “When the men would not listen to his host, the husband seized his concubine and thrust her outside to them. They had relations with her and abused her all night until the following dawn, when they let her go. Then at daybreak the woman came and collapsed at the entrance of the house in which her husband was a guest, where she lay until the morning. When her husband rose that day and opened the door of the house to start out again on his journey, there lay the woman, his concubine, at the entrance of the house with her hands on the threshold. He said to her, ‘Come, let us go’; but there was no answer. So the man placed her on an ass and started out again for home.” (Judges 19:25-28)
6. “And the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity.” (Romans 1:27)
7. “Jephthah made a vow to the Lord. ‘If you deliver the Ammonites into my power,’ he said, ‘whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites shall belong to the Lord. I shall offer him up as a holocaust.’ … When Jephthah returned to his house in Mizpah, it was his daughter who came forth, playing the tambourines and dancing. She was an only child: he had neither son nor daughter besides her. When he saw her, he rent his garments and said, ‘Alas, daughter, you have struck me down and brought calamity upon me. For I have made a vow to the Lord and I cannot retract’.” (Judges 11:30-1, 34-5)
8. “Then God said: ‘Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a holocaust on a height that I will point out to you’.”(Genesis 22:2)
9. “Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:22)
10. “Slaves, be subject to your masters with all reverence, not only to those who are good and equitable but also to those who are perverse.” (1 Peter 2:18)

What are your thoughts? Is the effort offensive? Instructive? Are there passages you would add to, or subtract from, this list?

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When people ask me what I do for a living, I show them this video.

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