Abbot of the important monastery at Dharmsala, India, a most highly honored teacher of Buddhism and a world lecturer, Khempo Rinpoche discusses the Buddhist views of core principles held in common by the world's major religions.

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The Monthly Aspectarian: Many people are aware of the prophecy of one of the past incarnations of the Dalai Lama, who said, "When the iron bird flies, the dharma will move West." We are all, of course, very saddened with what's going on in Tibet, what has happened there, and we hope for a speedy return of the country to Tibetans. But the good thing is that the teachers, the Rinpoches, have come to the West.

Venerable Khempo Yurmed Tinly Rinpoche: This is a prophesy of the thirteenth Dalai Lama. Many enlightened beings in Tibet, especially Guru Rimpoche left treasures [i.e., sacred texts, meditational practices and objects], known as the 100 great treasures and the 1000 small treasures. Those treasures were left in response to prophecies of coming world problems, and are, in the Tibetan view, antidotes to demons' obstacles to world peace. Today, people need to study to learn about the special Buddhist treasures of Guru Rinpoche. These treasures were placed in the sky, in rock--places where they could be found by people in future times for their benefit. If people study these treasures, [i.e., these meditation practices] and do continual practice of meditation, they can achieve enlightenment within one lifetime. These predictions, like the flying of the iron bird, are referring to the time when the Buddhadharma [the Buddha's instructions] will come to the whole world.

When the Buddha was dying, Avalokiteshvara [the Bodhisattva of Compassion] pleaded with Buddha, "You cannot die. You are needed to tame all the world, especially the countries that have never been exposed to your teachings. You have a responsibility to teach those people. They need to achieve enlightenment so that there will be no more suffering." Then Buddha said "Dying is my next step. You have the responsibility." Before Buddha died, he gave Avalokiteshvara 36 countries that later became Tibet and all the world's countries. All the people of the world are really the same—they all need enlight-enment. This is not only for one country. That's why the Buddha's energy has spread to the whole world.

Some people don't understand the effect of Buddha's energy. You have seen what happened in Afghanistan. Some people there in the past were very knowledgeable. Centuries ago they built Buddha statues for world peace. Of course we know that in recent times, there were some miscomm-unications and misunderstandings which led to the destruction of these statues. This created a big obstacle to world peace, as we have seen in the last year. But it's difficult for people to see the connection and relationship of these events.

It's true also that the Tibetan people are now suffering. But it's a temporary suffering. We have suffering in all countries. All countries want to have their own freedom, and sometimes countries try to capture each other. Centuries ago, Tibetan kings captured some Chinese areas and also some of India. But now the Chinese Communists have captured Tibet and made a problem for Tibet. That's how it is—from time to time the world situation changes, and the situations will always continue to change. Who knows, perhaps Tibet will capture China, and then China will have a big problem!

Regardless of these changing outward situations, people like the truth; they don't like to lie, cheat those things. They want the truth and the truth is very strong. In order to become educated about how to achieve world peace, we need to understand the world's situation--and the importance of studying the Buddhadharma on world peace. Then we'll automatically have world peace. This suffering associated with race, culture, religion--these confrontations are not beneficial to people. It just causes suffering and problems for the entire world.

We need to feel like we're one race, one culture, one religion--and that one religion is a religion of world peace. That one culture is to bring happiness to all people. We are all one humanity--there's no difference. All people fundamentally don't want suffering. They all want pleasure, happiness. That's a fact; that's how it is with humanity.

TMA: Life is very different in America and in Western Europe than it is in Tibet or India. How applicable do you think the practices are here?

VKYTR: The practices are applicable here as well as in the East. In fact, the Buddha actually took this into account. These practices aren't just for Tibet or Tibetans in their traditional culture. Tibetan Buddhism is for every culture, especially Tibetan Tantrayana Buddhism, which is perfect for this century, for Kalachakra times.

There's a historical example. The King Suchandra asked to be taught practices by the Buddha. But he didn't want to give up his sensual enjoyments in the process. Because of the King's position on how he wanted to learn, the Sutrayana practices of the Buddha were not applicable—the King wouldn't do them. So, the Buddha taught him Tantrayana practices--like those taught by Guru Rinpoche. These practices were designed to take into account people who were not going to reject the world, but people who wanted to evolve themselves and their practices while living in the world. These Tantrayana practices are perfect for this time and in the Western world.

TMA: It's said that it's important to choose one path. But that doesn't seem to be the way of the West or the nature of the times we are in. Do you believe that we need to settle on one path or can we choose components from various paths?

VKYTR: There is one path that people need. It's the path of communication. It's the path of truth and peace. The Buddha said that peace and truth is the path. It's the same for any other religion ... it's not different for Buddhism, Christianity or Islam. If they are for truth and peace, then they are following the true path. If not, they are just using miscommunication to bend the views of their religion to impact people, which is not beneficial for the followers of that religion or any sentient beings.

TMA: Some see Buddhism less as a religion and more as a system for enlightenment.

VKYTR: Whether people call it religion or call it something else--that's not what's important. Those are just labels. What is ultimately of importance is what's in people's minds. It's the study of knowledge and enlightenment. The mind is where freedom from individual suffering resides. The antidote to the innate and inherent suffering of individuals is the wisdom of their individual minds, call it what you will!

We need to understand that when you talk about a god or demon, it's all about positive and negative. In this world, all of this comes from interdependent origination, that is, it all depends on people's minds. Really, everything depends on people's minds.

We cannot see God as separate and a demon as somewhere else, because if people's minds are positive, everything is God, we have the mind of God. If people's minds are negative, everyone is himself or herself a demon, because they are making harm and being destructive, destroying peace.

So religion, non-religion--that all depends on people's minds! Yes, a lot of people wonder what Buddhism is. A lot of people question whether Buddhism is a religion or not, or if it's some kind of education. It's all in how you perceive it. And so religions come also from mind. For example, Judaism comes from Moses' mind and the ten commandments. Christianity comes from Jesus' mind; Buddhism comes from Buddha's mind. So religion comes from the positive mind of enlightened beings.

TMA: I believe that global meditations brought about the end of the cold war and that the same process can be used for all the other major problems that humans have here on earth.

VKYTR: Yes, that's true. In 1959, 1960, I was 10 years old. I knew there was a danger of nuclear war between Russia and the United States. They developed nuclear weapons on both sides. Some of the leadership's minds were not positive. They wanted to challenge each other's countries. So those miscommunications, challenging peace, were not positive, and all of the countries had problems as a result. But now people recognize this.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama talked to the Russian leaders and the United States leaders and requested that they talk to each other, to have communication. His Holiness did that many times, and after they met each other, they became like brother and sister. Each country is going to support the other and that is great for the whole world. All countries need to be like that. We need to see that human beings are the same.

Nuclear weapons are confrontational, but really it all starts with people's minds. If their minds are peaceful, they won't want to develop nuclear weapons. If their minds are not at peace, we cannot stop this kind of thinking or action. And if we continue to develop these weapons, then we'll have bad results, like in Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

Most important is following truth. Does the truth mean only one country is not developing [weapons]? That is not truth. If the whole world is stopping, then this is a good position. Otherwise, if one country has developed [them and] one country has not, then challenging will always be there. These things will be bad for future generations.

TMA: In terms of healing the planet and the problems we have, do you see value in people from all over the planet at the same time coming together in meditation?

VKYTR: Group meditation is very positive in the world. But more positive is wisdom. The power of meditation comes from wisdom. Wisdom means you have the truth. And then your meditation is powerful. If you lose wisdom, there will be meditation, but not like that power.

Every country's problems stem from a lack of wisdom, and education leads to wisdom. So wisdom will even dictate the success of meditation practice.

We need to talk about why Buddhism is not for just one particular country. This is important. For example, the 173-foot tall Buddha statues built before in Afghan-istan were built by enlightened, wise people for world peace. The energy of those statues held peace for many generations in Afghanistan, and in other countries too, because the blessing is very powerful.

Then obstacles started. The people's minds changed then and they destroyed the Buddha statues, and then later they destroyed the World Trade Center. These are both part of and related to world peace. The spiritual part in this is the Buddha statues' energy holding world peace, whether we believe that or not. And second is the World Trade Center, where people of many cultures, races, and countries were joined together, working there, being happy, helping make world peace. But the people who destroyed them didn't know that. They destroyed the buildings anyway. After they destroyed them last year, how many problems came to this world? Afterwards we understood, but before we didn't know.

We had seen how the Buddha statues were destroyed with weapons. All of the world's peoples were looking, and one-hundred-seventy-something nations asked, "Don't do that," but they did that. Now that country is being bombed, but the other situation came first. The cause was there first. That's how it happened in Afghanistan and this is how it's happening in the rest of the world.

The Buddha statue is a powerful blessing for world peace. Since they've been destroyed, how many obstacles have we had for world peace? We need to understand this. People need to be wise. They need to change their minds.

We built these things to have positive energy for the world. We need to rebuild the Buddha statues; we need to rebuild New York World Trade Center. Really. People need to join together for world peace. We are wise people. We can join together. We shouldn't think about East or West, about race or color problems. We need to understand that wisdom and enlightenment are the same.

TMA: How is it best to discipline the mind?

VKYTR: We need to understand more, but the heart is closed to understanding. This happens all over the world. That's not a problem of one religion like Islam, Christianity or Buddhism. All people want peace, not suffering, really. That is, we do not need to use only Buddhism, Buddha's name or instruction. What's special and important is truth. People's minds becoming positive--that is the Buddha's goal.

We need to understand that we should all try to act in a way that is beneficial to all people, and all of the people's minds will become positive. That is the Buddha's goal. So that is what is needed; it doesn't matter who is practicing religion or not.

It's difficult to change people's minds to become positive. But that's why the Buddha taught his practices and teachings—they facilitate positive change. There is truth there. If you incorporate these teachings, wisdom is the outgrowth. People will become positive. Nobody wants suffering—no people. People need to understand better these principles. Regardless of religious persuasion, they all need to understand the benefits of the positive, of wisdom, of the development of mind. That was Buddha's goal. It's not just about one religion. All religions have truth as a common element.

Selfish mind is not selfless mind. All people have developed selfish mind. This does not make world peace and inner peace. It tends to hold on very much to attachment, suffering.

Selfless mind is helping other people; Buddha mind is not selfish. It is selfless, always thinking of another's problems to solve, to help. If you have developed this Buddha mind, you'll have Buddha's energy, and can make world peace.

We have had countless lives to learn to be selfish--and really nothing positive has ever come of that. Now we still have suffering, because the cause of suffering is selfish mind. We need to have the antidote to selfish mind inside our mind. We need to turn our mind to being selfless, to be of help to other countries, other people, other generations.

We mostly live in a state of very selfish minds. We don't have to be that. We can be different, by deciding to be selfless. We need to choose to be selfless, to help other people. In that process, our mind goes from its smaller, selfish, normal awareness, to a broader and expanded selfless mind like that of the Buddha.

If everyone proceeded from a place of selflessness, including the leaders of the world, we wouldn't have the problems that we have today. We'd all feel like we were one.

It's important to follow these teachings to be selfless, to help people, to do selfless dharma, to treat each other, each country as a brother and sister. All leaders will find that positive results depend on this. They will change this world to become one generation, one religion, one.

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Ven. Khempo Rinpoche is a highly revered teacher of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism and a teacher of Mahayana and Tantryana practices at Buddhist institutes and monasteries in Bhutan, India, Europe, and the United States. He attended the UN Millenium World Peace Summit in August 2000 as one of four senior religious leaders sent by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Khempo Rinpoche will make several free appearances at locations in Chicago from Friday, May 17 through Monday, May 20. Please see the advertisement in this issue, or call 773/427-9135 for information.

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