TSEWANG RIGZIN
LEH: India has the capacity to combine modern education with ancient Indian knowledge. So called modern education doesn’t pay attention to inner values and moral principles. Modern psychological domain is like a kindergarten as compared to ancient Indian psychology.
This was stated by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama while addressing a three-day National Seminar on Buddhism in Ladakh in the Nagarjuna Auditorium of the Central Institute of Buddhist Studies (CIBS), Leh – a deemed to be university – on Tuesday. The seminar is being organised jointly by the CIBS and the Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR), Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.
The Dalai Lama once again reiterated that Buddhist philosophies must be studied thoroughly, analyzed and investigated as Buddha himself has asked his followers not to accept things out of mere devotion and faith without understanding. He said people have the liberty to reject anything that is found contradictory and advised for the use of logic and scientific findings as was done by Nalanda masters centuries ago.
Talking about how Buddhism is not just about performing rituals, Dalai Lama observed that traditional Ladakhi way of Buddhism with mostly ceremonial ‘Pujas’ coupled with blind faith was not the proper way to preserve Buddha Dharma.
The Dalai Lama also stressed on the practice of Buddha’s teachings than constructing statues, temples, and stupas which he said as waste of money. “I never give donation to make statues; we need teachings but not statues,” he added and jokingly said that a statue will never speak even if it lasts for thousand years.
Admiring all religious traditions of the world for propagating love and compassion, Dalai Lama called Jesus and Mohammad as manifestation of Bodhisattvas for their infinite love and compassion. In terms of serving society, Dalai Lama asked Buddhist monks to learn from Christians.
Expressing gratitude to the Dalai Lama for sparing time to inaugurate the seminar, Chairman ICPR Prof R.S Bhatt assured to provide financial assistance through ICPR for innovative researches in Buddhism by institutions like the CIBS in future also.
Earlier, Director CIBS Geshe Konchok Wangdus, while presenting a brief achievement report of CIBS of the last few years, informed that besides taking various researches the institute is also considering to admit students from Asian countries like Mongolia and Russia in future.
