The Dalai Lama My Spiritual Journey Personal Reflections, Teachings, and Talks Collected by Sofia Stril-Rever Translated by Charlotte Mandell CONTENTS FOREWORD: Listening to the Dalai Lama’s Appeal to the World by Sofia Stril-Rever PART ONE: As a Human Being 1. Our Common Humanity I Am No One Special I am just a human being In our blood, a vital need for affection My mother, a compassionate woman It’s time to think in human terms Every person we meet is our brother or sister Loving-kindness, the condition of our survival I pray for a more loving human family We are all alike Until My Last Breath, I Will Practice Compassion What do we mean by “compassion"? True compassion is universal The power of compassion I am a professional laugher I am a devoted servant of compassion Compassion, path of my happiness I love the smile, unique to humans 2. My Lives Without Beginning or End I Rejoice at Being the Son of Simple Farmers My everyday life I was born on the fifth day of the fifth month … I can see into the humblest souls My parents never thought I might be the Fourteenth Dalai Lama I recognize my rosary I successfully pass the tests of remembering my previous life My Childhood in Lhasa I climb up onto the Lion Throne I find my teeth Childhood memories I indulge in illegal treats I almost looked like Moshe Dayan! My Reincarnation Lineage I am summoned to become the Dalai Lama to serve others The Tibetans will decide if they want a Fifteenth Dalai Lama My Dalailamaship Why shouldn’t a very beautiful woman be my next incarnation? We are without beginning or end I could reincarnate in the form of an insect PART TWO: As a Buddhist Monk 3. Transforming Oneself My Ideal: The Bodhisattva My identity as a monk My monk’s vows The daily meditations of a Buddhist monk Living as a bodhisattva Spiritual practice in order to become better human beings Temples of Kindness in Our Hearts Toward brotherly exchanges between religions Politicians need religion more than hermits My pilgrimages, from Lourdes to Jerusalem A life of contemplation on love Temples inside Transforming Our Minds Analysis of the mind as a preliminary to spiritual practice Impermanence and interdependence, or seeing the world as it is Transforming our mind on the Buddha’s path Actualizing our potential Training our emotional life 4. Transforming the World I Call for a Spiritual Revolution We can do without religion, but not without spirituality Spiritual revolution and ethical revolution The sickness of duality The disregard of interdependence by Westerners I Do Not Believe in Ideologies Humanity is one Interdependence is a law of nature A sense of responsibility is born from compassion War is an anachronism Everyone must assume a share of universal responsibility My Dialogue with the Sciences Why is a Buddhist monk interested in science? Humanity is at a crossroads Ethics in the sciences to save life The tragedy of September 11, 2001, taught me that we must not separate ethics from progress 5. Taking Care of the Earth Our Ecological Responsibility As a child, I learned from my teachers to take care of the environment The Tibet of my childhood, paradise of wildlife In Tibet the mountains have become bald as monks’ heads Reflections of a Buddhist monk on our ecological responsibility Our Planet Is One World The Buddha in the Green Party! Human rights and the environment Mind, heart, and environment Taking care of the Earth Interdependence as seen from space PART THREE: As the Dalai Lama 6. In the Dalai Lama Meets the World I Was the Only One Who Could Win Unanimous Support At sixteen, I become the temporal leader of Tibet We wrongly believed that isolation would guarantee us peace I endorse the Kashag’s appeal to the United Nations The motherland, a shameless lie Mao’s personality impressed me March 10, 1959, a day of insurrection in Lhasa My Children, You Are the Future of Tibet Forced exile My priority is stopping the bloodshed Children of hope I am a proponent of secular democracy Liberty, equality, and fraternity are also Buddhist principles I love the image of swords transformed into plowshares Human beings prefer the way of peace What would Gandhi have done in my place? 7. I Appeal to All the Peoples of the World I Denounce the Sinicization of Tibet I ask the world not to forget that thousands of Tibetans were massacred In the name of humanity, I appeal to all the peoples of the world The Han-ification campaign in Tibet Five hundred Tibetans perished while fleeing their occupied country Tibet, Sanctuary of Peace for the World My people’s contribution to world peace I propose that Tibet become a sanctuary of ahimsa for the world In the name of the spiritual heritage of my people My weapons are truth, courage, and determination Tibet is still suffering from flagrant, unimaginable human rights violations In China, I see that change is on the way To all my spiritual brothers and sisters in China CONCLUSION: I Place My Hope in the Human Heart We Can Only Live in Hope AFTERWORD: Winning Peace with the Dalai Lama NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX Acknowledgments My Three Commitments in Life Editor’s Note Copyright About the Publisher FOREWORD Listening to the Dalai Lama’s Appeal to the World The Dalai Lama is fourteenth in a lineage of reincarnations that came into being with the first emanation of enlightened compassion, Gendun Drup, in 1391.1 The Dalai Lama discusses the anecdotes and accomplishments of his previous lives as naturally as he relates his childhood memories. He maintains a living link with his thirteen predecessors, often mentioning their beloved, familiar presence. He is seventy-four years old, but since he took on the burden of spiritual and temporal leadership of Tibet, his awareness encompasses seven centuries of history. In this book we meet the Dalai Lama at a time when he is reflecting on his next incarnation, for he knows that his present existence is drawing to an end. But he also knows that his life will not stop with death. He asserts, however, that he is “no one special” but “a human being” like everyone else. Meeting him calls many certainties into question, for his “human” dimension does not exhibit the ordinary limits of our condition; I have often wondered whether the essential teaching we receive from him is simply about becoming fully human. I asked myself this question again on March 10, 2006, in Dharamsala, as I listened to the speech the Dalai Lama was giving to commemorate the Lhasa insurrection. I had the feeling that his words carried far beyond the cloud-wrapped mountains and the hundreds of people gathered in a
