LEH: Material development alone doesn’t bring peace of mind. Inner values have been neglected as we advanced materialistically. That is why many industrialised and highly developed nations also have high suicides rates. Suicide is something unheard of in the past in Ladakh but this is happening because inner values are not being developed simultaneously with material development.
His Holiness The Dalai Lama stated this at Jivetsal in Leh, in response to a question on increasing suicides rates, as he concluded the four-day teaching with the conferment of an Avalokiteshvara Empowerment (Wang) to thousands of devotees.
The spiritual leader asked Ladakhis to conserve water and plant as many trees as possible. He appreciated Kargil for being advanced than Leh when it comes to plantation and cultivation of barren lands. “From helicopter I saw Kargil greener as compared to Leh which is very good.”
The Dalai Lama also expressed happiness over different religious communities of Ladakh living in peace and harmony with each other and asked that this tradition of communal harmony be carried forward in future. Earlier, before his teachings at Jivetsal started Muslim communities of Leh hosted The Dalai Lama and interacted with him.
President Ladakh Buddhist Association (LBA) Tsewang Thinles expressed gratitude to His Holiness for sparing time to bless Ladakhis. He requested the Dalai Lama that ‘Yarchos Chenmo’ – the Summer Buddhist Council – be made an annual feature as it benefits Ladakhis a lot. He also prayed and requested the Dalai Lama to visit Ladakh next year. “I will come back next year,” the Dalai Lama promised.
The teachings at Jivetsal were organised by LBA Leh and ‘Yarchos Chenmo’ which took place at Thiksay this year organised by Thiksay monastery under the leadership of Khenpo Rinpoche.