Shot on Right is the LANGUAGE Menu

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, 1989 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
 
 

Under the founding patronage of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tibet
House U.S. is dedicated to the proposition that the wisdom and arts of
all human civilizations vitally enrich the emerging global culture.
Within this, we focus on a special concern for Tibet, its people, its
spectacular highlands, and its civilization of extraordinary wisdom
and beauty. Tibet's vast high plateau is the size of the United States
west of the Mississippi. Its mountain snows give rise to Asia's
greatest rivers, sustaining the lives of 40% of humanity. The hidden
heart of Asia, it has served during the last thousand years of
imperial invasions as the safe treasury of Asia's most sophisticated
spiritual arts and sciences. Now its precious Buddhist civilization of
wisdom, compassion, peace, and harmony is under a real threat of
imminent extinction. By presenting Tibetan civilization, its profound
wisdom science and its special art of freedom, to the people of the
world, we hope to inspire them to join the effort to save it. Tibet
House U.S. is part of a worldwide network of Tibetan institutions
committed to ensuring that the light of the Tibetan spirit never
disappears from the face of the earth.
 
 

The work of Tibet House U.S. is:

To present to the West Tibet's ancient traditions of art and culture
by means of creating a permanent Cultural Center, with Gallery,
Library, and Archives, and developing traveling exhibitions, print
publications and media productions;

To preserve and restore Tibet's unique cultural and spiritual
heritage, by means of developing a Repatriation Collection for future
repatriation of outstanding examples of Tibetan art, creating an
archive of rare photographs, opening a research library, making a Web
site on the Internet for the wide distribution of information, and
providing support to conservation activities both inside and outside
of Tibet;

To share with the world Tibet's practical systems of spiritual
philosophy and mind sciences, and its arts of human development,
intercultural dialogues, nonviolence, and peacemaking, by means of
innovative programs in cooperation with educational and other cultural
institutions.
 
 

Please join Tibet House U.S. today!

www.tibethouse.org:
 

ABOUT THE TEACHING
by Prof. Robert A.F. Thurman

It is a great honor to host His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, for his bestowing of the radical "mind-transformation" (lojong) teaching called "The Sharp Weapon Blade Wheel" (tsonchay korlo), written by Dharmarakshita (10-11th century C. E.). This text was used as a root for the live heart teachings of many of Tibet's greatest spiritual masters, not only from the Kadampa and Gelukpa orders, but also from the Sakya, Nyingma, and Kagyu orders. For that matter,
the "mind-transformation" teachings are the most fundamental teachings of all forms of Buddhism: all Buddhist teachings have the unvarying aim of isolating the individual's egocentric, self-preoccupation habit. They bring it up into the realistic light of the wisdom awareness that sees through the illusion of its having a solid basis. This makes it possible to see how such delusion results in suffering for oneself and others. Then, one naturally moves to gradually exchange it
for the altruistic, other-preoccupation of love and compassion. The immediate result of this transformation is an amazing happiness and the long-term result is the complete freedom of nirvana.

Dharmarakshita was a refugee from the Turkic invasions of North India, which had destroyed his monastery and community. He fled to Tibet where he lived as a cowherd, unrecognized as the great teacher that he was, since he knew no Tibetan. By practicing the Dharma, he turned his sense of outrage and blame inward upon himself, making an advantage out of a catastrophe, and evolving to a very high state of enlightenment, immune to even the fear of death. His greatest student was the great Bengali master, Atisha (ca. 982-1054), who fortunately was recognized by the Tibetans, and spent the last 12 years of his life on the high plateau. He transmitted the mind- transformation heart insight to his disciples, most notably Drom Tonpa Gyalway Jungnay ("Source of Buddhas"), who founded the mainstream Kadampa order, and, centuries later, began reincarnating as the Dalai Lamas of Tibet.

Today we live also in very disturbed times, and even have no such place as peaceful Tibet to which we can flee. This Weapon Wheel teaching can help us not merely to burn with impotent outrage at the stupidity and barbarity we see all around us, but instead burn powerfully within to develop an inner peacefulness, a sound health glowing with inner victory, and a patience that enables us to remain happy and positive even in the midst of the most oppressive and provocative circumstances. Once we wear the shining armor of patience, soar with the energy of altruistic compassion, and penetrate the problems before us with the mindful intelligence of enlightened realism, we will become a living part of the proverbial solution and never more part of the problems.

///  PRODUCTION CREDITS  - is a VIDEO ASSET
Played AFTER the final session,  AFTER Thurman Summary; day 3 automatically