The Buddha’s teaching is essentially practical. It is not just for one group of people or one country, but for all human beings. People can follow this path as per their ability and inclination. I, for instance, started my Buddhist education as a child, and although I am now 86, I am still learning. Therefore, whenever I can, I encourage Buddhists I meet to be 21st century Buddhists, to discover what the teaching really means, and to put it into effect. This involves listening and reading, thinking about what you have learned, and making yourself deeply familiar with it.
Although our world has changed a great deal since the time of the Buddha, the essence of his teaching remains as relevant today as it was 2,500 years ago. Both the Pali and Sanskrit traditions possess methods for attaining liberation from ignorance and suffering. The Buddha’s advice, stated simply, is to avoid harming others and to help them whenever you can, in whatever way possible.
We can begin to do this by recognising that everyone is just like us in that they want happiness and wish to avoid suffering. Seeking joy and freedom from suffering is the birthright of all beings. Our personal happiness very much depends on how we treat others. By developing a sense of respect for one another and a concern for each other’s welfare, we can reduce our own self-centeredness, which is the source of many of our problems, and enhance our feelings of kindness, which are a natural source of joy.
The Buddha declared: “The Enlightened Ones do not wash unwholesome deeds away with water, neither do they remove the sufferings of beings with their hands, nor do they transplant their own realisation into others. It is by what they teach, revealing the truth of suchness, that they liberate beings.”
Buddhism is just one of the many religions in the world. What is unique about it is that the Buddha counselled his followers not to accept what he said at face value, but to examine his words as a goldsmith analyses the quality of gold. All religious traditions teach the importance of love for our fellow beings, but the Buddha also encouraged his followers to scrutinise what he taught and to take it to heart only when they understood it to be reasonable and beneficial.
The Buddha gave us a rational method to counter those factors which, rooted in our self-centred attitudes, disturb our peace of mind. The ancient Indian practices of compassion and doing no harm—karuna and ahimsa—are not limited to physical conduct, they have to do with our mind. We harm others in various ways because our minds are undisciplined. In Buddhism we say, a disciplined mind is happiness while unhappiness is an unruly mind.
Buddha Shakyamuni lived in India and what he taught was subsequently preserved in great centres of learning like Takshashila, Vikramashila and Nalanda. In the seventh century, the Tibetan emperor chose to design a Tibetan form of writing modelled on the Indian Devanagari alphabet. A century later, the then Tibetan ruler invited a great philosopher and logician, Shantarakshita, from India to introduce Buddhism to Tibet. He promoted the translation of Buddhist literature—the Buddha’s actual teachings as well as the treatises of Indian masters who came after him—into Tibetan. This is the basis of the tradition that we continue to keep alive today.
Shantarakshita introduced a comprehensive presentation of the Buddha’s teachings, one that relied on the exercise of reason and logic and encouraged analysis of what was written in the scriptures. It is an approach that is now preserved only in the Tibetan tradition. Rigorous study is a process that I, as a monk, have followed from an early age. I began by memorising texts which I studied, reflected on and then worked at gaining experience in meditation.
Tibetans have been custodians of this tradition for more than 1,000 years. We can say that historically Indians were our teachers, but since then, we the disciples have kept the tradition alive. So, it stirs special feelings in me today to be able to discuss with my Indian brothers and sisters what the Buddha taught.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso is the spiritual leader of Tibet. Since taking asylum in India in 1959, His Holiness has become a global advocator of peace, compassion and happiness. He is the first Nobel Laureate to be recognised for his concern for global environmental problems.
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