6,000 People attend His Holiness’s Teaching

By Zalina Gamat / September 23, 2013;

His Holiness the Dalai Lama bestowing an empowerment during the final day of his three day teaching.
Photo/Lobsang Tsering/OHHDL

Around 6,000 people of all faiths, from over 50 countries attended the teachings. The organising committee was comprised of members from several Southeast Asian countries including Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia.

In his introductory speech, His Holiness said that inter-religious harmony was the need of the hour, and that every religion preached the same truths of love, compassion and peace. He recalled his experience of inter-faith tolerance in Tibet, “Though my country is a predominantly Buddhist region, I remember hundreds of Muslims co-exist with Tibetans and that the Fifth Dalai Lama provide lands for Muslims to build mosques in Tibet”.

The topic of the teaching was Shantideva’s “A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life” (chodjug). Last year His Holiness taught from the same text, and on this occasion he continued the teachings from Chapter V: Guarding Introspection. On the last day of the teachings His Holiness bestowed the Bodhisattva Vows, and in the afternoon he held a special question and answer session with his Southeast Asian devotees.

Thai monk Phra Eakkaluk Pengprom, 29, said that attending the teachings was a great experience for him, “Though I could not understand His Holiness completely as there was no translation in Thai, I could make out most of what he was saying. I really respect the Dalai Lama as he practices what he preaches. He said that the Hinayana and Mahayana traditions are equally important as both stem from the teachings of the Buddha. His Holiness was kind enough to come to the section where we, the Thai monks were seated. He greeted and talked to some of us. We also had the opportunity to present prayers in Pali, but in the Thai style before him. He said that he liked our prayer recitation!”

His Holiness is returning to Dharamsala to give further teachings from September 30 to October 3, this time at the request of his Taiwanese devotees on Nagarjuna’s “Sixty Stanzas of Reasoning” (rigpa drugchupa) and Tsongkhapa’s “Concise Treatises on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment” (lamrim dudon).

Translations of the teachings in English, Chinese and Vietnamese can be viewed online at http://www.dalailama.com/webcasts.