Dalai Lama Toulouse 2011, Part 2

Fortunate to have attended Chögyal Namkhai Norbu's wonderful teachings in Paris last weekend, and keeping up with sundry dharma activities in real life, I am sorry that my posting here has been so sparse. Such is the way of a modern layperson's life, especially one that involves small children: so many things arise and fall away in a day that the mind loses at least some of its tracks at least some of the time. The dharma is ever-present, though I do forget to write about it here on the Internet.

The Dalai Lama spoke to us in Toulouse of prayer, its main function of giving hope, and its meaningfulness only in light of a clear understanding of the system of which it is born. There are multiple excellent reasons for which prayer is important, for which it is very good for us to pray, but it is no good to do so without the right amount of background information and comprehensive knowledge.

This seems very important to my situation as "teacher" (for no matter which title I find for myself it is exaggeration and requires quotation marks, reminding me that I was named as such by one of my own teachers even though I was not ready), in that those who come for meditation sessions here generally have very little background in Tibetan Buddhism, apart from having read a few popular books. In this case, then, I have two options, depending mostly on who attends: explain as much of the background as I can, or leave out the prayers and prostrations.

Although it has crossed my mind and been suggested to me more than once, I cannot separate meditation from Buddhism and hold secular mindfulness sessions. I am Buddhist, and to me the two come as an inseparable package deal. So, I have the altar, and sessions are held in the altar room, where the ambience is decidedly Tibetan, and decidedly Buddhist. I can, however, do opening prayers, make offerings and do prostrations before people show up for sessions, and say closing prayers silently to myself, if needed. I haven't yet omitted anything during sessions, but I can, when those present are new and/or not themselves Buddhist.

His Holiness urges today's Buddhist to be a good 21st century Buddhist, one who is full of knowledge about everything. He says an open mind is essential. This is to say that we must remain open to revising our way of thinking, and on this Path, we cannot very well do otherwise, can we? If we are closed to possibility, there is no way we can learn anything or understand how phenomena work, not to mention the mind. We may not let new information in even if it goes along with our preconceived notions, if we close our minds. This is also to say that even if the holy scriptures hold something to be true, and over the millennia millions of Buddhists have held it to be true, if it is satisfactorily proven to be untrue, we have to accept that. Constant re-questioning, re-investigation and re-vision is what will show us the way to the truth.