By Phuntsok Yangchen
DHARAMSHALA, May 11: The Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama on Sunday began four-day teaching on Je Rinpoche’s “The Three Principal Aspects of the Path”, “The Concise Stages of the Path” and “Praise to Dependent Arising” at Gyuto monastery in Dharamshala.
His Holiness highlighted the importance of being a 21st century Buddhist by not just following the Buddha only on the basis of faith but instead study and analyze its teaching. “There are people who follow the path of Buddha on faith alone, so this instruction is also reference to them. We do have faith but in the teaching of Buddha, we really don’t know the essential points of Buddhism and the profundity and specialty of Buddhism, we don’t understand. So I usually say today we have to be 21st century Buddhists.”
“Today, in the world, whether it is comfortable livelihood or education, there is lots of progress. So, at the same time, we should not follow our own Buddhist tradition merely based on faith but through understanding and if you could practice them, then you will become 21st century Buddhists. Otherwise if you just think the Buddhism is like a custom, when it comes to the certain challenges then you are not able to deal with them,” he added.
Calling on Chinese disciples to pay more attention to the study of the dharma where Buddhism is said to have spread few centuries before it spread to Tibet, he said, “To the Chinese brothers and sisters, I would like to tell you that you should pay more attention to the study of the dharma. Put efforts even for your own practice. If you are able to do your practice based on understanding what are the methods or the wisdom and so forth then your practice will also be stable.”
The Tibetan spiritual leader who turns 80 in July said that the Tibetan Buddhist traditions of Sakya, Nyingma, Gelug, Kagyu and Jhonang have basis in Nalanda tradition and that all traditions should share and exchange ideas and opinions among them.
He also noted that it is important to be unbiased when we study texts and carry out the study of teachings.
His Holiness further added that unlike the Tibetans in Tibet where facilities are relatively poorer, Tibetans in exile, blessed with more facilities, should use the opportunity to study the teaching of the Buddha. “In Tibet, Of course the monastic institutions used to learn philosophical texts but we remain rather isolated from the rest of the world. But today we are actually able to come out in the world and interact with many people, and so we should also be able to make ourselves more learned and informed about what’s going on around the world,” said His Holiness.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama will conclude the teaching on May 13.
