{"id":74,"date":"2010-09-10T08:52:37","date_gmt":"2010-09-10T12:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepson\/2010\/09\/10\/the-dalai-lama-my-religion-is-kindness\/"},"modified":"2010-09-10T08:52:37","modified_gmt":"2010-09-10T12:52:37","slug":"the-dalai-lama-my-religion-is-kindness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepson\/2010\/09\/10\/the-dalai-lama-my-religion-is-kindness\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dalai Lama: My Religion is Kindness"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest from the Heroes: What They Do and Why We Need Them <\/a>by UR’s profs Scott T. Allison and George R. Goethals<\/p>\n

\"Dalai<\/a>In a previous blog post, we noted that the story of Jesus of Nazareth<\/font><\/a> is undoubtedly the most powerful story of "the born hero" in the western world.\u00a0 But what about the eastern world?\u00a0 We would say that the greatest born hero in the east is the Dalai Lama, the head of state of Tibet and the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. \u00a0The current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is believed to be the latest reincarnation of a series of spiritual leaders who have chosen to be reborn so as to enlighten others. \u00a0There have been 14 Dalai Lamas since the year 1391.<\/p>\n

After the 13th Dalai Lama died in December of 1933, Buddhist monks prayed for guidance to find the new Dalai Lama. They consulted oracles and meditated for signs that would lead them to him. \u00a0Within a few years they received a vision that the new Dalai Lama would be found in the northeast part of Tibet, and that he would be living in a house with turquoise roof tiles near a monastery.\u00a0 Many monks journeyed to this region of Tibet to search for this house, ultimately discovering one that fit the description in the village of Taktser.\u00a0 Living in the home was two year-old Tenzin Gyatso and his parents.<\/p>\n

The monks presented young Tenzin with a number of objects that were owned by the previous Dalai Lama, and these objects were mixed with other imitation objects.\u00a0 \"Dalai<\/a>When Tenzin correctly identified the items belonging to the 13th<\/sup> Dalai Lama, the monks knew they had found the reincarnation of their leader.\u00a0 The boy and his family traveled to the city of Lhasa, where he was taken to the Drepung Monastery to study the Buddhist sutra in preparation for his role as the spiritual leader of Tibet.<\/p>\n

The Dalai Lama's central purpose is to help people achieve enlightenment from Buddhist spiritual practices.\u00a0 Buddhism provides insight into the true nature of life, and Buddhists use meditation and other practices to develop the qualities of awareness, kindness, and wisdom. \u00a0The Dalai Lama's job is made somewhat difficult by the fact that neighboring China has never recognized Tibet as an independent political country.\u00a0 When China annexed Tibet in 1959, the Dalai Lama and thousands of his supporters fled into exile. \u00a0He has lived in Dharamsala, India, since 1960, and heads the Tibetan government from afar.<\/p>\n

One of the most respected spiritual leaders in the world, the Dalai Lama embraces religious diversity. "I always believe that it is much \"Dalai<\/a>better to have a variety of religions, a variety of philosophies, rather than one single religion or philosophy," he said "This is necessary because of the different mental dispositions of each human being. Each religion has certain unique ideas or techniques, and learning about them can only enrich one's own faith."\u00a0 The Dalai Lama also embraces the union of science and spirituality.\u00a0 Recently, he collaborated with MIT to study what role Buddhist meditation plays in human emotion and cognition.\u00a0 He said, "If science proves facts that conflict with Buddhist understanding, Buddhism must change accordingly. We should always adopt a view that accords with the facts."<\/p>\n

Born heroes such as the Dalai Lama and Jesus are not revered because of their special lineage or conception.\u00a0 They are revered because they combine their inborn gifts with a lifetime of practicing good deeds and helping others do the same.\u00a0 The Dalai Lama's message is quite simply one of love.\u00a0 "If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion," he said.\u00a0 "My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness."<\/p>\n

– – – – – –<\/p>\n

One of our readers suggested that we profile the Dalai Lama.\u00a0 We welcome your suggestions as well.\u00a0 Please send your ideas to Scott T. Allison (sallison@richmond.edu) or to George R. Goethals (ggoethal@richmond.edu).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest from the Heroes: What They Do and Why We Need Them by UR’s profs Scott T. Allison and George R. Goethals In a previous blog post, we noted that the story of Jesus of Nazareth is undoubtedly the most powerful story of "the born hero" in the western world.\u00a0 But what about the … Continue reading The Dalai Lama: My Religion is Kindness<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":247,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[751,763,765],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","category-practice","category-reflections"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/247"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}