Birthday of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama | Naming the Days

Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, has touched way over simply the hearts and minds of the Tibetan individuals, for whom he’s a beloved non secular and temporal chief. Now in his 80s, his knowledge, compassion, peacemaking, interfaith endeavors, scientific curiosity, and pleasant humorousness make him a shining gentle for numerous individuals from all walks of life and all non secular traditions. He accepts invites from around the globe to provide public talks for non-Buddhist audiences of 1000’s, to supply his college students teachings on traditional Buddhist texts and commentaries, and to interact in dialogue with non secular and political leaders.

Born in 1935 to a farming and horse-trading household in a small village in northeastern Tibet, His Holiness was given the title Lhamo Thondup. He spent his first two years in easy rural household life. Then all the things modified. Guided by premonitions, indicators, and clues in accordance with Buddhist custom, a search celebration sought him out as a potential reincarnation of the thirteenth Dalai Lama. Its chief, Sera Lama, pretended to be a servant and sat alone within the kitchen with the earlier Dalai Lama’s prayer beads. When the younger boy approached him and requested for the beads, the lama replied, “If who I’m, you’ll be able to have them.” The boy replied, “Sera Lama, Sera Lama,” talking within the accent of Tibet’s capital metropolis, Lhasa — an accent that his mom could not perceive! A number of related exams satisfied members of the search celebration that they’d discovered the following successor to the Lion Throne, a place earned by rebirth somewhat than inheritance.

He was introduced together with his household to Lhasa for coaching and given the non secular title Tenzin Gyatso. At age 15, with Communist Chinese language troops infiltrating Tibet, he grew to become Head of State and Authorities, three years earlier than the standard age for ascending to the throne as Dalai Lama. Pressured into exile in 1959 when his efforts to convey a couple of peaceable answer to the Sino-Tibetan drawback had been thwarted, he acquired political asylum in India. From there, he oversaw schooling, rehabilitation, and efforts to protect tradition for Tibetan refugees. As his affect continued to develop, he labored tirelessly on behalf of human rights and world peace. He acquired many worldwide awards, together with the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize. You’ll be able to study extra about his life and teachings in our Dwelling Religious Academics Undertaking.

Quotes

We honor His Holiness at present by making our personal finest efforts to convey concerning the “non secular and moral revolution” — one in all compassion, generosity, endurance, forgiveness, and mutual understanding — round which he has primarily based his life. Take one in all these quotes to information your efforts this week:

“Whether or not one is wealthy or poor, educated or illiterate, non secular or nonbelieving, man or lady, black, white, or brown, we’re all the identical. Bodily, emotionally, and mentally, we’re all equal. All of us share fundamental wants for meals, shelter, security, and love. All of us aspire to happiness and all of us shun struggling. Every of us has hopes, worries, fears, and desires. Every of us needs one of the best for our household and family members. All of us expertise ache after we undergo loss and pleasure after we obtain what we search. On this basic stage, faith, ethnicity, tradition, and language make no distinction.”
— in Towards a True Kinship of Faiths

“Some individuals assume that cultivating compassion is sweet for others however not essentially for themselves, however that is incorrect. You’re the one who advantages most straight since compassion instantly instills in you a way of calm (these days medical researchers have proven in scientific research {that a} calm thoughts is crucial for good well being), inside power, and a deep confidence and satisfaction. . . .”
― in The right way to See Your self As You Actually Are

“Relating to my precise day by day apply, I spend, on the very least, 5 and a half hours per day in prayer, meditation, and examine. On high of this, I additionally pray every time I can throughout odd moments of the day; for instance, over meals and whereas touring. On this final case, I’ve three most important causes for doing so: first, it contributes towards success of my day by day responsibility; second, it helps to move the time productively; third, it assuages worry! I see no distinction between non secular apply and day by day life.”
— in The Path to Tranquility

Religious Practices

Br. David Steindl-Rast, a famend Catholic creator and speaker who’s buddies with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, asks, “In case you needed to choose a single phrase for what makes the Dalai Lama so particular, which wouldn’t it be? For me, it’s the phrase ‘all-embracing.’ His compassion embraces not simply Tibetans or Buddhists, however all individuals in every single place; and it embraces all of each particular person — thoughts, soul, and physique. I skilled each. As soon as, after I was privileged to sit down subsequent to His Holiness whereas another person was lecturing, he observed that each of us had been fingering our prayer beads. Quietly, he reached over, took the string of beads I used to be utilizing, and let me use his. With this one gesture, a Buddhist embraced all Christians. On one other event, he observed that my palms had been chilly, merely took them between his personal palms, and rubbed them, as a mom would possibly do with a toddler. With this one gesture, one other human being embraced all of me.”

What’s one easy factor that you are able to do at present that demonstrates your full embrace of one other particular person’s means of being?