Gelek Rinpoche is a great gelug master and spreading the tradition all over the world.
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2011/7/22/lifefocus/9131250&sec=lifefocusA message of healing
By HARIATI AZIZAN
[email protected]Gelek Rimpoche espouses ageless and universal wisdom for modern times.
IN his modern short-sleeved shirt and khaki trousers, it is hard to believe that Gelek Rimpoche is an incarnate lama.
With his easy smile and unassuming demeanour, it is even harder to believe that he has been trained in 26,000-year-old knowledge.
Yet, as soon as he speaks it becomes evident that he is indeed a highly learned and disciplined lama with a deep understanding of humanity.
It is his Ordinary Joe persona that makes the ancient wisdom he advocates not only accessible but also relevant.
Material world: Master Gelek Rimpoche believes ancient wisdom can heal the world of hatred and anger.
“I have been teaching the ancient wisdom of 26,000 years over three decades across the world now, particularly in the US.
“I have discovered that the problems Asians face are the same as those many in the West face. The ancient wisdom has been helpful for many in the West, so I carry the same ideas and the same message here,” says the US-based spiritual teacher.
Gelek Rimpoche is in Malaysia for a two-week Dharma tour, which started in Kuala Lumpur and will end in Penang tomorrow, after stops in Taiping and Gerik, Perak.
This is not the first time the Rimpoche has come to Malaysia.
In the 1980s, he was invited as a guest of the Young Buddhist Association and had met many young Malaysians at its centres.
“Then, what I found was that many young Malaysian Buddhists followed their faith simply because their parents taught them to do so. Many did not know why they were doing certain rituals or following in the teachings,” he says, sharing that he felt fortunate to be able to serve the young Buddhists in Malaysia and help them reconcile their belief and their “parents’ belief”.
The experience, he adds, reinforced his own belief that the problems we face are similar regardless of who we are and where we are in the world.
The ancient wisdom he espouses can help deal with negative emotions like anger and hatred, which he points out are common problems that have been present for thousands of years.
“Every major religion – Islam, Judean-Christianity or Hindu-Buddhism – is trying to solve the same problem. I am trying to draw on the experience of Buddha himself when he overcame his difficulties in his time.
“His followers can follow in his footsteps, not as a way of worship or religion, but as a way of life, a way of handling the difficulties and a way of thinking or managing your emotions to overcome problems,” stresses the Rimpoche, explaining that the talks are not only meant for Buddhists, but everyone.
For those of other faiths, he affirms, the core beliefs of each religion should not be touched.
As he puts it, the situation in the world today is terrible.
“There are wars, cold war and non-cold war, there is poverty everywhere and many countries are affected by the economic downturn, including the US.
“People have difficulty finding jobs, paying their bills, maintaining their houses and car loans.”
Michigan, where he currently lives, is one of the worst-hit areas, shares the Rimpoche.
The problem of poverty, which he sees every day, brings tremendous mental agony and fear to everyone.
Ancient wisdom can help relieve some of the anguish.
“It is not a solution but a relieving aspect that can lift the mood of the individual so that one can gain more confidence and improve all facets of one’s life,” he shares, reluctantly describing it as some form of “self-help” knowledge.
That is what he was looking forward to before coming to Malaysia: the opportunity to share that wisdom with Malaysians and help them find the solution to help themselves.
As he highlights, there are eight inner obstacles that contribute to our daily suffering, also called “The 8 Fears”, namely Pride, Ignorance, Anger, Jealousy, Wrong View, Miserliness, Attachment and Doubt.
To overcome the obstacles, one needs to access and understand these eight fears, as well as learn how to hone them.
Some may be surprised to learn that the Rimpoche spent many years wrestling with his own inner obstacles after fleeing Tibet, and that he even gave up his monastic vows in the 1960s.
As he wrote in one of his books, Good Life, Good Death: Tibetan Wisdom On Reincarnation, “I tried everything – smoking, drinking, sex, looking for some kind of kick that I thought I couldn’t get from dharma.”
But even during his personal spiritual struggle, he never stopped believing and continued his meditation practices and studying with his many teachers, such as Kyabe Ling and Kyabe Trijang Rimpoches, the senior and junior tutors of the Dalai Lama.
In fact, it is his combination of worldly experiences with his classical Tibetan training and his dedication to the Tibetan Buddhist practice which makes him a valuable spiritual teacher to many all around the world.
Obsession and attachment
Gelek Rimpoche was born in Lhasa in 1939 into the family of Thubten Gyatso, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama.
At the age of four he was recognised as the reincarnation of the abbot Tashi Namgyal and a year later he was sent to Drepung monastery, the largest Tibetan monastery ever, housing in its prime over 13,000 monks. There he was taught by many of Tibet’s greatest masters and received at a very early age the Geshe Lharampa, the highest degree given.
His training was interrupted when China invaded Tibet in 1959, and he fled to India with the Dalai Lama and his fellow scholars and teachers.
In 1964, Rimpoche became an exchange student at Cornell University in New York, where he worked on mastering English.
When he returned to New Delhi, he helped run the Tibet House.
There, he was dedicated to preserving and promoting Tibetan culture, editing, translating and publishing nearly 200 rare Buddhist manuscripts, works that would have been lost but for his efforts.
In the 1970s, he served as head of Tibetan services at All India Radio and began getting offers from around the world to teach. So, in 1985, he went to the Netherlands and established his first teaching centre. In 1987, he established the Jewel Heart centre in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the US, where he later settled.
Over the years, Jewel Heart expanded to New York, Chicago, Cleveland and San Francisco, among other cities, as well as to Malaysia and Singapore.
The biggest inner obstacle or fear for many today, says the Rimpoche, is attachment.
“The other day I read about a young woman in China who is obsessed with her sports cars.
“The problem in the modern world is that people have a lack of good role models, so many are looking for something even though they don’t know what they are looking for. Many end up getting attached to their material possessions. They believe that material possessions will bring them inner peace and happiness.”
He points out, it is not that you cannot have material possessions; it is that you should not be their slave.
“Buy the sports car if you can afford it, but do not become obsessed if you can’t afford it. This is how attachment brings suffering – you become obsessed with owning something and will do anything to get it.”
In today’s terms, for example, it would mean spending over your budget and getting caught in a cycle of debt, which brings pain and misery.
Gelek Rimpoche speaks from experience, as his life has been a hard-won lesson in non-attachment. When he fled Tibet, he not only lost his parents, friends and teachers but also his possessions, his family’s wealth and even his country of birth.
He has had to adapt to a new life and his ensuing experiences have also been a cycle of ridding himself of his attachments and adapting to new cultures, new countries and new worlds.
As he reiterates, the problems people face are not controlled by the boundaries of culture and tradition.
“Anger is anger no matter who you are. Hatred too – Asian hatred or American hatred or European hatred – it is the same. These negative emotions do not recognise borders of culture or traditions.
“They don’t have any colour difference. So, the wisdom should also not have borders.”
Crucially, he stresses, while it is true to a certain extent to say that the sufferings we have here are given to us – some traditions will say that this is our bad karma – it is not a big obstacle that you cannot overcome.
“It is dependent on your condition.”
This is what he draws upon in his journey from Tibet to the US and now worldwide.
“I’ve learnt that life is full of surprises. When I left Tibet, I thought I would have to become a garbage collector and not be able to practise my faith. But now here I am with the opportunity not only to keep learning but also share my knowledge with others.”
> Gelek Rimpoche will be speaking at the Than Hsiang Temple, Penang, on Overcoming Fear today and on Healing with Wit and Wisdom of Tara tomorrow (both sessions are from 8pm to 9.30pm). For details, call Brother Chew at 012-481 5526 or Brother Choong at 012-474 2822.
