The Dalai Lama in Chicago, May 6, 2007

Since His Holiness's entire address will be available by archive at lamrim.com, I won't type my notes in their entirety here. But here are a few things that stood out for me:

What is Buddhism?

"What is Buddhism? In order to know what Buddhism is I think it is important to know what the word Buddha means. In Pali, 'Buddha' means two things: 1) cleansing or purification, 2) perfection of enlightened qualities. Baiscally, the potential possibility--every sentient being has that same potential. We all possess the quality to be aware and know--the potential for enlightenment is already there. This eans that the facility to be aware and know is in all of us, the perfection of that is Buddhahood."

On knowledge, ignorance, and Tenzin Gyatso:

So knowledge and ignorance are contrdictory at some level like darkness and light. The training of the mind is a way to get a certain mental quality we want--make efforts to increase that. Then the opposite is reduced. For example, take compassion. I analyze, use reason, and develop conviction about compassion and familiarize myself with that. As compassion is increased, anger and hatred are reduced. Sometimes anger and hatred are together, but as you progress, it can become rare. That is basically the Buddhist system--the law of opposing forces. So our emotions, now, the negative emotions such as anger and hatred are actually much based on projection. When we develop anger, when we are angry, the negativeness is 90 percent our own mental projection. That is why in Buddhist texts much of our affliction results entirely from false projects of our mind. Some kind of ignorance: There are two kinds: 1) conventional, and from that ignorance comes 2) another kind of ignorance, which grasps things as though they have objective existence. The antidote is wisdom--the insight that such things do not possess inherent existence. Emptiness is the absence of independent existence. Emptiness is the absence of independent existence--everything, when we pinpoint it. For example, the human being named Tenzin Gyatso surely exists and is alive here on this seat. The Dalai Lama is speaking; it is true. Further, your minds see Tenzin Gyatso's body, hear his voice. Through is speech and gestures, you may see his mind. It is impossible to judge the whole complex mind through his speech. But according to words and his smile, you can tell his mind is OK. He is not angry. Tenzin Gyatso's body speech and mind--now where is Tenzin Gyatso? There is nothing where you can point your finger and say, Tenzin Gyatso."

This made the crowd laugh and everyone was really engaged at this point.

HHDL on Je Tsongkhapa's Spiritual Autobiography

The Dalai Lama's teachings in Madison were on Tsongkhapa's spiritual autobiography. This was a detailed explanation of all he learned and all the texts he studied, by Nagarjuna, Atisha, Chandrakirti, and many many others. One thing that struck me was the idea of a "spiritual autobiography." In this era of tell-all autobiographies and memoirs, where people like George Tenet can make money talking about all the things they didn't do on the job when they had the chance, the notion of someone describing his or her spiritual growth is really notable. That's the kind of biography I would buy.

The Dalai Lama on diversity of religion

Some of H.H.'s opening remarks in Madison:

"I always believe different people with different cultural heritages are now here in America, which like Europe, basically has a Judeo-Christian background. I want to make clear, it is important to keep one's traditional faith. So remain with your own tradition. Changing religions is not easy. Sometimes it may create confusion. Therefore, it is important to stay with one's own faith. Learning new traditions is also useful, but the reality is that the whole planet of six billion beings is one family, multiethnic, multiracial. Not only in the past but even today, many things happen that are very confusing. For that, closer relationships among traditions, or at least some knowledge of what they practice, is very helpful to develop mutual respect."

Following the Dalai Lama

Like the subculture of people who Grateful Dead, there are certain individuals who follow His Holiness the Dalai Lama around the country when he comes to the states. Wherever he goes, as many Tibetans as possible congregate. Tibetan people are quite possibly the best dressed people in the world when they are in their formal attire. The men wear these elaborately tied robes called chubas. The women wear dresses in rich brocades. I know these thoughts aren't very spiritual, but this is only my first impression of His Holiness's teachings in Madison, Wisconsin May 2-4, 2007.