THE SNOW LION NEWSLETTER


His Holiness at the Waldorf-Astoria

It All Began with Kindness, Clarity, and Insight:
Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of The Dalai Lama's First Visit and Book Published in the West

by Jeffrey Hopkins

Timed to coincide with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Dalai Lama teaching in North America, this celebratory new edition of the very first book of teachings by the Dalai Lama in the English-speaking world—Kindness, Clarity, and Insight—is a testament to the kindness, clarity, and insight of the material within it. Twenty-five years after its original publication it remains one of the most readable and wide-ranging books by His Holiness.

Broad in scope and revealing the depth of his knowledge, these teachings introduced the range of the Dalai Lama and his message, covering a plethora of topics, including: the need for compassion, the common goals of the world's religions, karma, the four noble truths, the luminous nature of the mind, meditative concentration, selflessness, the two truths, and the fundamental innate mind of clear light that all the various schools of Tibetan Buddhism aim at manifesting. Although others in Tibet have mentioned that all orders of Tibetan Buddhism have the same basic outlook, the Dalai Lama has been the first to explain in detail how this is so, his brilliant syncretic exposition being the final chapter in this book.

The book's twenty chapters are deftly arranged in a developmental sequence so that readers easily understand the background needed to appreciate the more complex, later topics. Taken as a whole, the teachings in this book provide an accessible map of Tibetan spiritual culture.

The teachings in this book comprehend and encapsulate in a concise and crisp manner all of the topics to which the Dalai Lama returns repeatedly-the core subject matter of Tibetan Buddhism. Readers of this single volume, undaunting in size, will be well prepared for understanding all of the Dalai Lama's subsequent books. This book remains the heart-message of this great world leader.


The Dalai Lama Giving a Teaching

The following excerpt from the Preface of the new edition of Kindness, Clarity, and Insight offers some of the back-story on organizing H.H. the Dalai Lama's first visit to the U.S. and on Snow Lion's early days.

Snow Lion Publications, now celebrating its twenty-fifth year as the preeminent publisher of books exclusively on Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism, grew out of the wish to make available to the general public the profoundly appealing series of lectures that His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave in the United States in 1979 and 1981, and in Canada in l980. Although the Dalai Lama had escaped from Tibet to India during a public demonstration against the Chinese Communist occupation in 1959, the U.S. government repeatedly had caved in to Chinese pressure and did not allow him to visit this country until the Carter Administration in 1979.


Lunch with representatives from
Newsweek, The New York Times, and other publications

Prodded by Joel McCleary, deputy assistant to President Carter, and myself at a meeting in the White House with key staff from the National Security Council, the Carter Administration (which from its inception was concerned with human rights) undoubtedly saw the human rights issues involved, and agreed to permit the Dalai Lama's visit. Although they requested a six-month delay before the visit, this fit right in with our wishes, since extensive preparations had to be made by the Office of Tibet in New York under the leadership of Tenzin Tethong (later to become Prime Minister of the exiled Tibetan government headquartered in Dharamsala, India) for what became a forty-nine day, twenty-four city lecture tour with sixty-seven talks. The first planning meeting between McCleary, Tenzin Tethong, and myself began in McCleary's office in the Executive Office Building several days after the meeting at which approval was given for the trip, and continued through lunch in the restaurant under the Oval Office in the White House.

McCleary and Deputy Assistant to the President Tom Beard were particularly effective in overcoming many bureaucratic obstacles to the Dalai Lama's final visa approval, making Washington contacts with future friends and allies of His Holiness such as Congressman Charlie Rose, and arranging for security throughout the trip for the then relatively unknown Dalai Lama.

Tenzin Tethong formed a committee to arrange the details of the visit, which focused on the content of the lectures and avoided any media hype. This meant that His Holiness' introduction to the U.S. was on the basis of his message of compassion, meditative concentration, and examination of reality, leading to the title of the collection of his talks in this book, Kindness, Clarity, and Insight.

Broad in scope and revealing the depth of his knowledge, the lectures moved from the East Coast to the South, the Midwest, the West Coast, the Upper Midwest, and again the East Coast. These teachings introduced the range of the Dalai Lama and his message in a dynamic and concise way to the English-speaking world, covering a plethora of topics—the need for compassion in society and the world, the cause and effect of karma, the four noble truths, the luminous nature of the mind, the common goals of the world's religions, meditative concentration, emptiness and selflessness, the two truths, and the fundamental innate mind of clear light that all the various schools of Tibetan Buddhism aim at manifesting. Although others in Tibet have mentioned that all orders of Tibetan Buddhism have the same basic outlook, His Holiness has been the first to explain in detail how this is so, his brilliant syncretic exposition being the final chapter in this book.

In 1979 the only books by the Dalai Lama in English, or any other language except Tibetan, were his autobiography, My Land and My People, and The Buddhism of Tibet and The Key to the Middle Way. In Ithaca, New York, and later in Toronto, the young, idealistic, compassionately motivated but nearly penniless founders of Snow Lion Publications approached His Holiness for counsel on how to communicate the breadth and depth of Tibetan Buddhism to the English-speaking world. The Dalai Lama quickly expressed his enthusiasm for a publishing house that could serve two audiences. In his own words (recorded during that audience):

"Basically, two main types of books are needed: one chiefly for study by scholars and academically minded practitioners and another primarily for practitioners without much concern for deeper philosophy. These two basic types are essentially the same, but have slightly different approaches. One is more detailed, while the other is more condensed. If you can make both of these available, that would be excellent."

Snow Lion has brilliantly succeeded in both of these avenues, providing a massive, diverse body of texts for an ever-growing audience throughout the world where interest in Tibetan Buddhism has spread. Although many publishing houses have produced books on Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism, Snow Lion has remained, through thick and thin, the only one publishing exclusively in this area, keeping almost all of its back list of over two hundred titles in print throughout these twenty-five years. Thus, the apparent leap of confidence in permitting this unknown, underfunded, inexperienced company to publish this important first book of his teachings in the West has borne rich fruit.

In addition, His Holiness counseled the founders of Snow Lion to be nonsectarian and unbiased in their efforts and to publish what is of value from all schools of Tibetan Buddhism and from Bon, the pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet. Following His Holiness' advice, Snow Lion has been remarkably successful in becoming a platform for all of Tibet's great spiritual traditions.

It all began with this book, Kindness, Clarity, and Insight, the first book of teachings by the Dalai Lama in the English-speaking world. Foundational to His Holiness' message, it is now reissued in this celebratory twenty-fifth year. With this book serving as a model, scores of writers have been inspired to turn his oral teachings into books; it is likely that the Dalai Lama has inspired more writers to work with him on publications than any other person in the world, these mutual efforts now totaling more than sixty books.


Dalai Lama's Arrival at John F. Kennedy Airport

Kindness, Clarity, and Insight draws on his lecture tours in the United States in 1979 and 1981, and in Canada in 1980. The Dalai Lama spoke at scores of universities, colleges, ecumenical gatherings, Buddhist centers, and public meetings, gradually explaining his message of the need for kindness, compassion, concentration, and penetrative insight in the world. Serving as interpreter, I was continually amazed and moved at the personal relevance of his message, its practicality and applicability, for as he says, human society begins with people and specifically our capacity to recognize in others our common aspirations to happiness. The appeal is to the heart by way of the mind, using reason and sense to curb selfishness and to generate deeply felt altruism based on wisdom.

Although the teachings in this book are the result of just the first three trips of the Dalai Lama in North America, they comprehend and encapsulate in a concise and crisp manner all of the topics to which he has returned repeatedly, and eloquently, in his subsequent speaking tours—the core subject matter of Tibetan Buddhism. Readers of this single volume, undaunting in size, will be well prepared for understanding all of the Dalai Lama's subsequent books. Translated into twelve languages, including Tibetan, the book remains the heart-message of this great world leader.

The book contains presentations of basic Buddhist doctrines—how to develop clarity of mind useful in all walks of life and how to penetrate beyond appearances to the profound nature of both persons and other phenomena, thereby negotiating the conflict between appearance and reality. His is a message of hope, both in terms of the potential for individual and social transformation and in terms of the potential of the human spirit.

Centering around fundamental Buddhist attitudes that are at the core of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's outlook, the twenty chapters are deliberately arranged in a developmental sequence so as to allow the reader to acquire the necessary background to appreciate the more complex, later topics. Thus, the teachings in this book, taken as a whole, provide a map of Tibetan spiritual culture.

Jeffrey Hopkins
Professor Emeritus of Tibetan Studies
University of Virginia
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More about the Dalai Lama . . .

To read more about about His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and his activities, visit:
www.snowlionpub.com/pages/dalailama.html

To learn more about the Dalai Lama's World Peace Initiative, visit His Holiness's website to promote world peace at www.dalailama.com

For an updated biography of His Holiness the Dalai Lama visit The Office of Tibet New York's website at www.tibetoffice.org.

You can also view His Holiness's updated 2006 teaching events at: www.tibetoffice.org/en/index.php...

The Dalai Lama is the contributor to and author of numerous books, including: