Tibet Festival Reconnects 21st Century to Buddha\'s Teachings

Tibet Festival Reconnects 21st Century to Buddha's Teachings

Bangalore: The third day of the three-day event marking thank you India and 50 years of Tibetans in exile in Bangalore on Tuesday set the stage to reflect and review the relevance of Buddha's message of universal human values in the 21st century.

In a soul-searching session on Buddhism in the 21st century, Geshe Lhakdor, an eminent Buddhist scholar and who served as the translator of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for more than 16 years, emphasised the absolute necessity of ethical values of love, compassion, affection and trust to find the ultimate happiness and harmony in today's world.

Buddhism not only fits into the 21st century of modernisation, which primarily symbolises equality and respect for fundamental human values, Geshe Lhakdor told a gathering of Indians and Tibetans in Bangalore.

Buddhism is a teaching, which cures and heals the sickness of the human mind, so long as we have the physical and mental illness with constant need of doctor and medicine, we would be in constant need of Buddha's teachings, Geshe Lhakdor said.

Describing Buddha's teachings as spirituality rather than religion, Geshe Lhakdor said we need a spiritual revolution involving complete orientation of our ways of life and thinking to stop preoccupation and habituation to neglect the needs of other beings.

Buddhism is not against development, it teaches us to consider for the welfare of other beings in this interconnected world, Geshe Lhakdor said while emphasising his points with short inspiring parables.

Human values like love, compassion, affection, wisdom, nonviolence and morality are the best friends of human beings and these will never betray us, he said.

There should not be duplicity and treat other sentient beings as you treat yourself in one's daily life by understanding the absolute truth of reality in accordance with the law of nature which is transient or impermanence in nature, Geshe Lhakdor added.

He underlined that positive mental attitude brings miracle and happiness in one's life and one should appreciate the Buddha nature, which is within every sentient beings.

He said the Tibetans are privileged to present the teachings of Buddha preserved in its pristine form back to India where Buddha was born.