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Living a life of non-voilence and peace

It is an unfortunate paradox that even though all of us love peace and non-violence, we see and hear of so much violence around the world. We can only imagine how much violence is inflicted upon women and children in their homes and men and women tortured in prisons across the world and how much violence is inflicted upon animals. We all are agreed that no body wants violence and yet we are very often tempted to use violence on things we deem unimportant such as the life of an insect. We have to understand that if we are ourselves prepared to use violence upon those who we think we risk no retribution then we have to come to the conclusion that those who use violence and torture also use them against those who are hapless. The mentality of abusing those whom we do not like is same in both cases. Therefore we cannot be non-violent unless we have a healthy respect for the life of all beings. However this is unfamiliar territory for most of us. We have to therefore cultivate a genuine love for all beings irrespective of what species they are. It is a natural feeling that we are fonder of the more cute species than the less cute. The fonder we are the better the chance of not wanting to hurt that particular being. This indicates that first we have to make an effort to generate loving kindness. This involves in being able to see all sentient-beings as lovable and cuddly. This sounds bit odd but it is possible to see all beings sweet and cuddly. The Buddha has taught that first we must understand the fact all living beings have been our mothers because delusion and karma has forced upon us without choice to be reborn again and again. When we are reborn we have to be conceived in somebody’s worm. This somebody also has to be a being who has sense and sensibilities like us because trees does not give rebirth. They just grow but ones they die that is the end of their life. They do not have passionate feelings like we do for our siblings or among themselves. Therefore the rebirth has to have some one as a conduit and all through these innumerable live times we have taken, all sentient beings have been our mothers many times. We have to remember that there is no end to the beginning. When we die of course we change the body but the consciousness is the same. In many cultures, people believe that the spirit is still living and that is why it is looked as a desecration when people’s graves are dug up or destroyed. People believe in this because they cannot envisage their loved ones changing into some one else because that is beyond comprehension. They imagine their loved ones to remain the same and some even hope to meet them in future somewhere. However, the Buddhist believe goes a step further where the loved one is still there but having discarded the previous body has now taken a new form. As a result they cannot recognize that being any more because this process of perpetual rebirth has been going on for so long that each and every body has been ones mother. When we come in grips with this idea and achieve a certain conviction, this will engender the need to return the gratitude. The more we think of the wonderful things our mother has done to us, the stronger we will feel to return the gratitude. Thus, by contemplating the kindness of our mother, we will feel an endearing sense towards our present mother and when we apply this to all sentient beings, we will feel a sense of gratitude to all beings. This develops into loving kindness for all beings. The loving kindness is therefore the real deterrent for violence against others. It is of course not easy but we can all practice loving kindness to all living beings on our planet and this will bring peace and happiness to all sentient beings. We ourselves will be happier and most important thing in all this is we will cease to sow the cause of suffering in our future lives. Therefore it is good for now and for the future. It is good for us and good for all others.

OUR LIVES ARE LIKE A DREAM

Life seems very much like a dream. The changes seem to occur so expectedly that they are at times difficult to believe. I was happily living in Perth and never imagined that I will land in Switzerland but I did. On the 7th of May I had to leave many of my loved students way back in Australia and the country that I loved and called my own. It was sad to part with the people who had graciously accepted me as one of their own and with whom I spent eight long years. Ever since that day, I have kept in touch with them as much as circumstances permitted and I have missed them as much as I missed Australia. My heart goes back to the wonderful Australian out-back, so vast and barren yet so exciting. I was fortunate to visit many remote areas while I lived there, thanks to the people who invited me for teaching purposes. The beautiful ocean and clean beaches and a people who are very carefree. In one moment I was no more there and all of the beautiful things in Australia and the beautiful people I came across became just a memory that I cherished. When ever I think of those lovely people I feel a sense of sadness that I am so far away from them and cannot even share a cup of tea with them any more. It seems to me there are many sadness in life. The more I look at my own life from having to flee my original country at the age of eight and travel across the Himalayas as a child with no protection from harsh weather like rain and cold except caves where we, the whole family huddled together to keep ourselves warm from the freezing cold of the mountains and fend ourselves from robbers who took away our animals under the cover of the night and the danger of wild animals and losing my parents at the tender age of eleven, I feel life has many things which is sad. I therefore feel more and more inclined to believe the compassionate Buddha and what he has said about life. There is lot of pain in our lives. We have of course different sufferings but all the same it makes us all sad. Anyway, when I first arrived here in Switzerland, I was not sure how things were going to turn out. We all I suppose experience this form of fear of the unknown and I was very home-sick as well. I called my students in Perth to keep myself happy and at least and trying to keep the memory of my life in Australia alive which felt good and perhaps that was one of the reasons I was ringing my students or writing to them. I feel good I that I met some very wonderful people in Australia who have been supporting me all along and that has been something which has made me feel good even at the worst of times.

I did little initially here in the institute except to for long walks which was another way of trying to keep myself busy and engaged. I have to say the authorities here in the institute and especially have been very good to me. Geshe Khedup has been especially good to me and he helped me to settle down. He is a 72 year old Tibetan monk who finished his Geshe in independent Tibet before the Chinese occupation. Mr Chhime Chokyabpa who served as the Representative of HH The Dalai Lama in Canberra in the late nineties and who is the current Representative of HH in Europe was at the airport along with two representatives of monks and the Representative of the Tibetan Community in Switzerland and Lichtenstein. When I was driven from the Zurich airport to the Tibet Institute, I was not sure what to expect but when I finally got there, the beautiful trees lining the road towards the monastery was no doubt fascinating but when I actually got inside the monastery and saw the very basic amenities, I must say I was a bit disheartened. Coming from Australia where I enjoyed much better facilities, it was a bit difficult but I also realized what an ideal place it was for somebody who really wished to practice the Dharma seriously. So, in another way, I felt quite good because I have long wished to be in a place like this. A place far from the madding crowd and pristine in nature and the only noise you could is the chirping of the birds and whistling of the wind through the trees. I tried to look on this positive side in order to feel good about the prevailing situation. During this difficult period, I had an opportunity to meet HR The Dalai Lama in Rome on 7th of July during a Conference on Inter-Religious Harmony. It was the first ever private audience one on one I ever had with HH The Dalai Lama. The last time I had an audience with him was in 1996 when I arrived in Australia. HR was incredibly gracious and warm and I felt like He was like my own father. He asked me about my schooling and what classes I had passed. He also asked me who my teacher was and how many years I had studied the Buddhist Philosophy. He spoke of his personal relationship with Tibet Institute and the importance he attaches for it’s development especially in establishing a viable study programme for Buddhist Philosophy. He also spoke about Buddhist practices and how important they are. After asking how old I was he said there are still good many years ahead. I was thrilled to have had the honor of seeing him personally for the first time.

After this meeting with HR The Dalai Lama, I somehow found it easier to live in Switzerland. May be I had to reconcile myself but whatever the reason, I felt better.I did my daily practices as usual and went for walks as often as possible to help my knees. I became more familiar with the monks, the environment and slowly the country itself.

I started teaching from 3rd of September on Friday evenings. I have been teaching “the Buddhisattva’s Way of Life” in order to prepare the students for next year’s visit of HH The Dalai Lama to Switzerland.. He will be giving teachings on this text and I am therefore preparing the people for that occasion, I have been teaching at the Tibet institute since the 3rd of September. I started with just two people but gradually it has built up and now after exactly three months of teaching I have seven to eight people on a regular basis with two fellow Tibetans. Sometimes I get twelve to thirteen but it has not been less than six or seven after the first session. I am happy about it. I also taught at the Songtsen House in Zurich, which is a centre for Tibetan Culture set up by the Tibetan children who were sent to Switzerland in the mid-sixties for adoption by Swiss families. So far I have met two girls from that era who are of course grown-ups now and have their families but who does not speak Tibetan. There are some who can and there are others who cannot but these two girls felt they lost a lot of their Tibetan culture. One of them felt a “foreigner” with both side of the cultural divide. It seems that this venture has a fair amount of heart-ache even though there are those who does not want to think about it while others have come forward to help these kids to get their roots by setting up Songtsen House. The idea behind Songtsen is to give an opportunity for them to come together sometimes to share their Tibetan culture and their sense of being Tibetan in their own way and in the midst of themselves. The most touching thing I have heard from one of the girls is that the children who were given to adoption are now going to built an annex in the Tibetan Children’s Village in Dharamsala with their own money in remembrance of the little children who were sent away to a far off place in Switzerland and also serve as a Tibetan Cultural Centre for Tibetan children in future. I was very touched by this project.

I taught to the members of the Tibetan Youth Association of Europe and others both Tibetans and westerners who joined for the two day course. There were thirty people who enrolled for the weekend. While I teach in English at the Tibet Institute and Songsten House, I had a translator in Zatul Losang, to teach the young Tibetans here in Switzerland. They can understand better in German than Tibetan because these youngsters have been born and raised here and they are like any other Swiss youth. However, even though, many of them may not speak fluent Tibetan, there is a growing interest to speak their mother tongue and they are still proud to identify themselves as Tibetans. I was amazed that not only the full Tibetans strongly identify themselves as Tibetans but even the children of mixed families very strongly identify their culture as Tibetan and participate in Tibetan celebrations like the Birth Anniversary of H}1 The Dalai Lama. I was impressed by the interest the young Tibetans are taking in their culture and religion. I thought to myself, if I can do something for these impressionable young people, it is worthwhile to live here in Switzerland. I have been teaching Tibetan young couples and their children in Rapperswil. Here most of them are Tibetans as this place has quite a large Tibetan population. However, there were westerners who were dressed like Tibetans (women). They looked just like Tibetans except for their colour. Here, I also saw elderly people attending teachings. In future, I think, I will be going around to different places where there are Tibetans living in clusters. Apart from these teachings which are mostly during weekends I do my practice. I have to say this is an ideal place to do Buddhist practice.