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28 EASTERN HORIZON | FEATURE

His Holiness the Dalai Lama listening to a
question from a student during his talk on
“Our World in a Time of Change” online from
his residence in Dharamsala, HP, India on
March 29, 2021. Photo by Ven Tenzin Jamphel

“We human beings are His Holiness stated that this was taught. Later, the masters of the
compassionate by nature. From the practice of great masters of the Nalanda Tradition employed reason
birth we are sheltered by our past and is a practice he himself has extensively. Those like Nagarjuna
mother’s love. We depend on others followed. It’s because the nature of and Chandrakirti had very sharp,
for our very survival. Scientists the mind is clear light that we can independent minds. Chandrakirti
observe that because we are social reduce and eliminate ignorance. taught that nothing exists by
animals, we are naturally concerned This makes us masters of our own itself; things only exist by way of
about our own community and yet destiny. designation, which is a very subtle
modern education concentrates interpretation of the Middle Way.
on external things. If we were Another Buryat student enquired Other great scholars were unable
to cultivate a sense of emotional why more women than men seemed to accept this because of fear of the
hygiene, the way we observe to be interested in the spiritual notion that nothing exists the way it
physical hygiene to preserve our life. His Holiness conceded that appears.
health, we’d learn to tackle our he’s noticed that in the West, for His Holiness emphasized that
destructive emotions and nurture a example, there are more Christian because wisdom is the antidote to
sense of altruism.” nuns than monks. He speculated ignorance, investigating different
that women may be more aware of ways of thinking in the light of
A young woman from Moscow State how dependent we all are on each reason is immensely important. This
University wondered how humanity other. He declared that the Buddha approach, typical of the Nalanda
would be if everyone became had given the same opportunities Tradition, is what has enabled His
enlightened. His Holiness clarified to men and to women inasmuch Holiness and thousands of scholars
that Buddhahood is a state in which as both could receive monastic from the monastic centres of
the mind has been completely ordination. learning in South India to engage
purified of negative emotions. The fruitfully with modern scientists.
nature of the mind is clear light and A young woman from Moscow was
compassion, whereas destructive interested to know how Buddhism After a year in which students
emotions are rooted in ignorance. had been affected by greater have related to their teachers and
However, it is because negative interaction with other cultures and studied online and His Holiness
emotions have no sound basis that systems of knowledge in recent himself has taught regularly online,
they can be eliminated and the times. His Holiness told her that at he told a young Kalmyk woman that
clear light nature of the mind can be the time of the Buddha, followers of when it is possible, direct personal
revealed. what later became the Pali Tradition communication has its own benefits.
did not scrutinize what he had However, no Buddhist alive today