|
THE SNOW LION NEWSLETTER
The Dalai Lama teaching in Tucson with Thubten Jinpa translating
(Photo by Kathryn Wilde)
|
His Holiness The Dalai Lama in Arizona
"I'll use these three days to discuss the potentials of our inner world," says the Dalai Lama. The days in question are September 16-18, and the setting is a huge, hideously carpeted conference room at a resort in Tucson. His Holiness is sitting on a dais in front of an unusual black thangka depicting a Buddha floating above what appears to be an Arizona mountain. Tall pink flowers lean out of vases arrayed across the stage, rather like indiscrete desert flamingos.
Here, in the Marriott Starr Pass Resort—a quasi 21st-century god-realm—food appears and disappears, the swimming pools are mostly empty, and the views spectacular. Just about the only perfection required of the attendees is patience, and an immunity to hayfever. |
His Holiness, along with many members of the audience, is reacting to a potent allergen in the air. He sneezes-and suggests that the crowd will have to say "God bless you" to him frequently. It's a joke of course, but the group of several thousand complies loudly several times throughout the weekend. In accord with the Dalai Lama's usual style, the teachings, a rich presentation based on chapter 8 of Shantideva's Guide to the Bohdisattva's Way of Life, are liberally flavored with his contagious good humor and interesting forays.
|
His Holiness recollects his struggles as a young boy to memorize various texts. Apparently he would be hit with a yellow whip when he failed to perform up to expectation. "The memorization of this text under the shadow of this yellow whip was not easy," he recalls.
In a discussion about severe drowsiness during meditation, he recommends that the practitioner "walk around, wash the face, find an expansive view toward the horizon—and in the future eat less dinner." For those who have "too many internal processes," he suggests a meditation on counting the breath, from one to ten, and then back down from ten to one. "It relaxes the mind and prevents distraction."
"In meditation you're trying to attain a very alert and clear state of mind," he adds. "It's not about closing your eyes and just becoming relaxed. If it were, the rabbits would be very good at it."
| 
Dalai Lama in Tucson by Kathryn Wilde
|
In response to a question about helping pets who have died, His Holiness comments that the patterns in the bardo are the same for humans and animals. He points out that just as prayers by a teacher can have a beneficial outcome for students, prayers by an owner can have a positive effect on pets.
About relationships, he notes how quickly so-called love can turn into hatred. His comment: "If intimacy is based on a genuine recognition of the person and his qualities, that kind of love is much more stable and less likely to slide toward hostility." And adds that a genuine recognition of interdependence is key.
"Negative emotions are impulsive; positive emotions are grounded upon a realistic way of seeing things and are complemented with wisdom," he observes.
"Sometimes people mistakenly think that Buddhism promotes people without emotion," he says, "but Buddhism promotes a very high level of emotion—empathy with all sentient beings—not detachment."
* * *
To read more on this topic, see A Flash of Lightning in the Dark of Night
|
 |
