Tibetan Buddhism goes West... Interview with His Holiness the Dalai Lama

HH the Dalai Lama

In Rimini, on the morning of the second day of ceremonies and meetings in that most opulent of the Adriatic coast resorts, the Dalai Lama, in exile from Tibet, had an encounter which in these times seems a good omen.

On invitation from the Associazione Italia-Tibet in the medieval town of Pennabilli, Tenzin Gyatso, a monk and Nobel peace prize winner, embraced the Muslim Imam of Rimini before the local Catholic bishop and a vast audience.

It was an emotional moment for everyone and there were tears in the eyes of many people at the thought of the hatred and violence instilled elsewhere in Italy and in the world by a few extremists.

"Whatever the reasons, let us reflect on the fact that they are unhappy and let us try to share their unhappiness" is the radical piece of advice that the XlVth Dalai Lama had to offer westerners in this interview at the end of his visit to Rimini.

Q. Your Holiness, you have often asked that we try to understand the reasons at the roots of hatred. What do you deduce about the origins of what has today been called a "clash of civilisations"?
A. "I have said on other occasions, after the terrible and painful event of 9/11, that the cause is to be looked for in earlier centuries, the twentieth century, the nineteenth century and even earlier. Colonisation was followed by western progress while the Islamic nations were left behind. But they were not the only ones. Many Indians and Asians have had problems with the so-called "American cultural invasion". For many reasons the Muslims consider the western way of life a serious threat to their traditions. Then there are the political reasons, because America is Israel's greatest ally and so on, but the list of causes, as you know, would be a long one. First of all we should consider that this long lasting dispute has created and hardened enormous emotional conflicts which are not easily resolved with a short term strategy".

Q. What do you mean by short term strategy?
A. "That of strict security provisions, which are necessary but have consequences which are not always controllable. For me, as a Buddhist and a religious person, what would be more interesting is an intensive long term cure because there is a need to reconstruct our world's immune system. When the system is strong, minor infections do not damage us, but when it is weak then the risk is that illnesses can take over body and mind."

Q. And how can we reconstruct a weakened world system?
A. "What is necessary, first of all, is to tear out the roots of negative emotions, of afflictions, to extinguish the very source of anger and hatred. Then a respect for the reciprocal dimensions will soon be re-established in the relationships between North and South, between rich and poor, between atheists and Christians"

Q. Your Holiness is aware that that would take a long time, perhaps too long for us to live to see the results.
A. "Unfortunately, up to now, only negative seeds have been planted, with human intelligence on the part of a few, being used to create as much damage as possible to the whole of humanity, with no care for children, for the innocent, even for their own brothers in faith. Such actions are not easily wiped out of the memory, but what is needed, in order not to continue to damage minds with negative attitudes, is a counter-measure, beginning with the promotion of human values because we are human beings, and we must live together."

Q. What can the West or westerners do in a concrete way at this point?
A. "Listen. Listen to their complaints and their reasons. They are unhappy and we should share their unhappiness."

Q. Your Holiness, you have to admit that is a bit difficult.
A. "But if we analyse the problem we can see that the limits of the fundamentalists lie in their inability to tolerate even the idea of dialogue, there is proof in their attempts to be invisible when they carry out their actions. Among the Imans there are different interpretations of the Koran but the final understanding is left to the individual. This is why there are extremists and black sheep, as there are in any religion".

Q. Even in Buddhism?
A. "Certainly even in Buddhism. In 1997 a group claiming to be from my same religious school were strongly suspected of having killed a lama who was very dear to me, the director of the School of Tibetan Dialectics in Dharamsala, and two monks, translators who were playing an important role in interpreting with the Chinese. These same people have beaten up and threatened other Tibetans in the name of their vision, which I would define as Buddhist integralism. They consider a certain protecting spirit, that I used to pray to and that I now distrust to be as important as the Buddha himself. In order to assert this, they went on to damage those round them instead of respecting them and understanding them, in line with the teachings of the man who spread the principles of universal compassion five centuries before Jesus Christ. From this point of view our experience is no different from that of Christianity, or of Hinduism".

Q. In your opinion do the suicide killers belong to a fundamentalist army organised on a global scale or not?
A."lf terror organisations find people ready to follow their orders, the seeds of hatred automatically take hold. Many dear friends, who are Muslims are worried about the actions of those who are claiming to be Muslim but really they are not, because in both modern and ancient Islam the tolerant bases of the religion have inspired generations of erudite and wise men. For example, a certain banking system is forbidden because it is considered to be a form of exploitation of man by man, this is a noble motivation. A journalist who lived in Teheran during the years of the Ayatollahs' rule told me that a Mullah that he knew had received very rich donations and he had distributed them equally among the poor. This is compassion. For this reason, we cannot hold it against all of them, it would be a total mistake. Even we Tibetans cannot attribute our present condition of suffering to the Chinese. Looking at one's own mistakes is the beginning of a process of universal understanding."

Raimondo Bultrini
Engl. Trans. by Alison Duguid

With kind permission from Merigar www.dzogchen.it