EYEWITNESS, Continued: 1 | 2 | 3

THE SIMPLICITY OF the Dalai Lama's comments, in his admittedly limited English, do not so much mask his keen intellect, as hone it, making the basic point that the most profound teachings are very direct and very simple.

Each morning, after meditation, we retired to the Root Institute a few miles out of town, and listened to a dialogue between Father Freeman and the Dalai Lama. After lunch, they opened the dialogue to the larger group's questions.

The Dalai Lama's perspectives on Christian traditions are too extensive to be summarized here (an excellent introduction is the book produced from the above mentioned seminar, "The Good Heart.") But I remember one exchange as particularly illuminating as to the potential---and the limitations---of dialogues between East and West.

One of my fellow pilgrims asked a question about guilt and original sin from Judeo-Christian traditions and their place in Buddhist perspectives. Our teachers pursued a conversation about the connections between original sin and the concept of evil being rooted in ignorance. Finally, His Holiness cut to the quick, waving aside his translator to make his point himself.

He believes there are two kinds of guilt, a guilt that is instructive, that is a path to right behavior. Then there is the guilt that paralyzes and prevents growth. Much of the discussion he had heard of sin and guilt was the latter kind and when we get stuck there, his Holiness urged, "Just remember that you all part of God's creation and that God's creation is good."

Another pilgrim noted the difference between the Dalai Lama's laughter-filled perspective on even the weightiest topics, and the comparative seriousness of the Christian perspective. Father Lawrence said that one of the criteria for sainthood in the early church was "hilaritasi." To which the Dalai Lama replied, "Then why don't you practice it!"

WE HAD PREVIOUSLY spent three weeks visiting holy sites of Indian Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Jains and Buddhist, including a week at two very different ashrams. The first was Sri Ramana Mahariashi Ashram at the foot of Mount Tiruvannnamalai (a particularly holy site for the Hindu god Shiva) and the Christian/Hindu Saccidananda Ashram, where Father Bede Griffiths lived most of his life.

India lived up to its reputation for rich complexity. I had previously spent time in extremely poor communities , working with street children in 1982 in Colombia, and visiting activist communities in the 1980s in Nicaragua, in addition to more recent visits to poorer parts of Brazil and Africa through Kellogg. But nothing prepares you for the sheer density of the human experience in India.

I was most moved, however, by the suffusion of faith into everyday life, whatever the religious tradition. No city block is complete without some road or curbside shrine. There seemed to be a courtyard-framed temple every few blocks, with a mix of holy men in orange robes, men in business suits and everyday people worshipping together.

Bodhgaya proved and extended these mainstays of Indian culture. We were there during the festival of lights and right at the beginning of a major public teaching by the Dalai Lama, at which more than 10, 000 devotees were expected to gather under tents for three days. Each night, thousands of young monks, prayed, prostrated themselves and chanted at the temple which has arisen beside the Bodhi tree.

As the streets were lined with people hoping to catch a glimpse of His Holiness on the night we arrived, I was reminded of how privileged I was as a member of a Western pilgrimage group that was able to spend several days in much closer proximity.

PAGE 3: Morning with Tibetans

	Page One | Editor's Notes | Buddhascope | Buddamerica | Dharmatalk | Foundobjects | GuestColumn | Meditation | Poetry | Quotes | ReadingRoom | SiteIndex | Contact Us | Subscribe