gat

The Dalai Lama And The Genius Of The West
Some time ago, I found myself on a warm evening in June in Boulder, Colorado, sitting in a big
white tent on a camp chair. Directly in front of me was the Dalai Lama, who sat about fourteen
feet away with nobody between us. 1 As he spoke, our eyes met now and then, as I listened with
growing delight to this eloquent, humorous, plain-spoken man talk about wisdom and the world.
Most of the things he said were familiar: that love and compassion are human necessities, that
forgiveness is essential, that Western education lacks a dimension of heart, that Americans need to
rely more on inner resources. But some of his presentation was surprising—that it is better to
stick with the wisdom traditions of one’s own land than to run from them pursuing in exotica
what was under your nose all the time. At one point, with what looked to me like a mischievous
gleam in his eye, he offered that he had always been made to feel welcome in Christian countries,
but Christians were not so welcome in his own country. I suspect that many who were there
primarily to add to their Buddhist understanding missed this pointed aside.
It was only when Tenzin Gyatso, fourteenth Dalai Lama, spiritual and temporal leader of the
Tibetan people, came briefly to the structure, goal, and utility of Buddhism—a location he spent
no more than five minutes visiting—that I was able to see in somewhat sharp perspective where
Christianity had taken a different path, and American Christianity a very different one. The goal of
Buddhism was "happiness," he said, happiness was the key. The Dalai Lama divided major world
religions into "God-religions" and "God-less" religions, with Buddhism in the latter category. 2
His Holiness seemed to focus marvelously when in response to a question from the audience
about how wealthy people and countries could find spirituality, he replied (again, I think, with a
mischievous smile) that Buddhism, with its orientation toward comfortable situations, found it
easier for rich people to be spiritual than poor ones! Tenzin Gyatso also tossed another bitter herb
into the pot for those romantic souls who expected a continuous sweet presence in their lives
from imported religious teaching which they felt lacking in their own, [saying, "Better not take
someone else’s religion, plenty wisdom in your own."] The Dalai Lama said at another juncture,
as if talking to himself, that religion was not for every day; religion was for times of pain. As I
recall, his exact words were, "Religion something like medicine, when no pain no need medicine;
same thing religion."
The next morning, it was my turn to speak, and with the Dalai Lama’s words fresh in mind, I
framed the Christian road as one whose goal wasn’t happiness in the usual sense. It was a road
where wealth can be an obstacle to the ends of obedience to God, to loving neighbors as you love
yourself, and to redemption through self-transcendence. Unlike Tibetan Buddhism, Western
religion has no ultraspecific application, so it can’t be compared with medicine. According to
Christianity, religion is not a sometimes thing when you need it but a medium in which we act out
our lives. Nothing has any meaning without religion. Remember, even if you violently disagree
with what I just said here, it isn’t relevant to this discussion. I feel no urgency to convert you to
anything. My purpose is only to show that the wisdom tradition of American Christianity has
something huge to say about where we’ve misstepped in mass compulsion schooling.
Table of Contents
Page 338