Kindness, Clarity, and Insight: The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso

274 Pages·2009·2.06 MB·English

by  Dalai Lama

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Kindness, Clarity, and Insight
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Kindness, Clarity, & Insight
.
. The Fourteenth Dalai Lama
.
.
His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso
Revised and Updated
Edited and translated by Jeffrey Hopkins
Co-edited by Elizabeth Napper
Snow Lion Publications
ithaca, new york (cid:129) boulder, colorado
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Snow Lion Publications
P. O. Box 6483
Ithaca, NY 14851 USA
[phone]
www.snowlionpub.com
Copyright © 2006 His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without
prior written permission from the publisher.
Copyright in the photographs is held by the respective photographers
with the following exceptions:
Brian Beresford’s photographs © Brian Beresford/Nomad Pictures
Alison Wright’s photographs © Alison Wright Photography
Jacqui Walker’s photograph © Dalai Lama Trust New Zealand
Mitchell Layton’s photograph © The Mind and Life Institute
Printed in USA on acid-free recycled paper.
ISBN-10 1-55939-251-7
ISBN-13 978-1-55939-251-8
The Library of Congress catalogued the previous edition
of this book as follows:
Bstan-’dzin-rgya-mtsho, Dalai Lama XIV, 1935-
Kindness, clarity, and insight / the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, his Holiness
Tenzin Gyatso ; translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins ; co-edited by
Elizabeth Napper.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-937938-18-1 (pbk.)
1. Buddhism—Doctrines. 2. Buddhism—China—Tibet.
I. Hopkins, Jeffrey. II. Napper, Elizabeth.
BQ7935.B774K56 1984
294.3’4—dc19
84-51198
Designed and typeset by Gopa & Ted2, Inc
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C
ONTENTS
...
Preface 7
Editors’ Note 13
Religious Values and Human Society 15
The Luminous Nature of the Mind 25
Four Noble Truths 29
Karma 35
Medicine of Wisdom and Compassion 39
Altruism and the Six Perfections 43
Religious Harmony 57
Treasures of Tibetan Buddhism 63
Compassion in Global Politics 71
Meditation 79
Buddhism East to West 99
Deities 111
Eight Verses for Training the Mind 117
O˙ Ma˚i Padme HÒ˙ 135
The Path to Enlightenment 137
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6 ✦ kindness, clarity, and insight
Self and Selflessness 179
Tibetan Views on Dying 191
Transforming the Mind
through Meditation 207
The Two Truths 217
Union of the Old
and New Translation Schools 227
Notes 255
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P
REFACE
...
S
now Lion Publications, now celebrating its twenty-
fifth year as the preeminent publisher of books exclu-
sively on Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism, grew out of
the wish to make available to the general public the profoundly
appealing series of lectures that His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave
in the United States in 1979 and 1981, and in Canada in 1980.
Although the Dalai Lama had escaped from Tibet to India during
a public demonstration against the Chinese Communist occupa-
tion in 1959, the U.S. government repeatedly had caved in to Chi-
nese pressure and did not allow him to visit this country until the
Carter Administration in 1979.
Prodded by Joel McCleary, deputy assistant to President Carter,
and myself at a meeting in the White House with key staff from
the National Security Council, the Carter Administration (which
from its inception was concerned with human rights) undoubt-
edly saw the human rights issues involved, and agreed to permit
the Dalai Lama’s visit. Although they requested a six-month delay
before the visit, this fit right in with our wishes, since e xtensive
preparations had to be made by the Office of Tibet in New York
under the leadership of Tenzin Tethong (later to become Prime
Minister of the exiled Tibetan government headquartered in
Dharamsala, India) for what became a forty-nine day, twenty-four
city lecture tour with sixty-seven talks. The first planning meet-
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8 ✦ kindness, clarity, and insight
ing between McCleary, Tenzin Tethong, and myself began in
McCleary’s office in the Executive Office Building several days
after the meeting at which approval was given for the trip, and
continued through lunch in the restaurant under the Oval Office
in the White House. McCleary and Deputy Assistant to the Pres-
ident Tom Beard were particularly effective in overcoming many
bureaucratic obstacles to the Dalai Lama’s final visa approval, mak-
ing Washington contacts with future friends and allies of His Holi-
ness such as Congressman Charlie (cid:2)ose, and arranging for security
throughout the trip for the then relatively unknown Dalai Lama.
Tenzin Tethong formed a committee to arrange the details of
the visit, which focused on the content of the lectures and avoided
any media hype. This meant that His Holiness’ introduction to the
U.S. was on the basis of his message of compassion, meditative
concentration, and examination of reality, leading to the title of
the collection of his talks in this book, Kindness, Clarity, and
Insight.
Broad in scope and revealing the depths of his knowledge, the
lectures moved from the East Coast to the South, the Midwest, the
West Coast, the Upper Midwest, and again the East Coast. These
teachings introduced the range of the Dalai Lama and his mes-
sage in a dynamic and concise way to the English-speaking world,
covering a plethora of topics—the need for compassion in soci-
ety and the world, the cause and effect of karma, the four noble
truths, the luminous nature of the mind, the common goals of the
world’s religions, meditative concentration, emptiness and selfless-
ness, the two truths, and the fundamental innate mind of clear
light that all the various schools of Tibetan Buddhism aim at man-
ifesting. Although others in Tibet have mentioned that all orders
of Tibetan Buddhism have the same basic outlook, His Holiness
has been the first to explain in detail how this is so, his brilliant
syncretic exposition being the final chapter in this book.
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preface ✦ 9
In 1979 the only books by the Dalai Lama in English, or any
other language except Tibetan, were his autobiography, My Land
and My People, and The Buddhism of Tibet and the Key to the Mid-
dle Way.In Ithaca, New York, and later in Toronto, the young, ide-
alistic, compassionately motivated but nearly penniless founders of
Snow Lion Publication approached His Holiness for counsel on
how to communicate the breadth and depth of Tibetan Buddhism
to the English-speaking world. The Dalai Lama quickly expressed
his enthusiasm for a publishing house that could serve two audi-
ences. In his own words (recorded during that audience):
Basically, two main types of books are needed: one chiefly for
study by scholars and academically minded practitioners and
another primarily for practitioners without much concern
for deeper philosophy. These two basic types are essentially
the same, but have slightly different approaches. One is more
detailed, while the other is more condensed. If you can make
both of these available, that would be excellent.
Snow Lion has brilliantly succeeded in both of these avenues,
providing a massive, diverse body of texts for an ever-growing
audience throughout the world where interest in Tibetan Bud-
dhism has spread. Although many publishing houses have pro-
duced books on Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism, Snow Lion has
remained, through thick and thin, the only one publishing exclu-
sively in this area, keeping almost all of its back list of over two
hundred titles in print throughout these twenty-five years. Thus,
the apparent leap of confidence in permitting this unknown,
underfunded, inexperienced company to publish this important
first book of his teachings in the West has borne rich fruit.
In addition, His Holiness counseled the founders of Snow Lion
to be nonsectarian and unbiased in their efforts and to publish