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The Dalai Lama – Essential Writings
Session 3 – Wisdom
1. General Introductions
2. Summary of Key Points in Dalai Lama’s words as
selected by editor Forsthoefel in the form of
paraphrase.
3. Video excerpt from Vancouver Peace Summit –
Nobel Laureate’s Conversation - 27 September
2009.
3. Break
4. Discussion in Small Groups on Chapter 3.
Paraphrased Selections
From Chapter 2 - Wisdom
•
Wisdom is Buddhist Metaphysics
•
Wisdom is the capacity to see rightly.
•
Universal responsibility based on kindness has
become a question of survival.
•
No absolute – everything relative. Must judge
according to circumstances.
•
All things have 2 sides.
•
Only a strong will can manage feelings.
Paraphrased Selections
From Chapter 2 - Wisdom
•
Certain sufferings can be mitigated, other sufferings
are insurmountable and one must develop the right
attitude to this.
•
How one perceives life plays a role in attitude
towards suffering.
•
We add to our pain unnecessarily.
•
We are one planet.
•
Our neighbour’s interests are our own as well. Your
well being depends other people.
Paraphrased Selections
From Chapter 2 - Wisdom
•
In harming our enemy we harm ourselves.
•
All major religions recognize compassion.
•
There are no human beings who are irrelevant to
your life.
•
Cause and Effect are in everything.
•
There are 2 sorts of cause:
•
substantial
•
cooperative.
Paraphrased Selections
From Chapter 2 - Wisdom
•
•
Substantial Cause – the seeds of our present
circumstance:
•
our previous state of mind,
•
the situation outside ourselves.
Cooperative Cause – the growing of those seeds:
•
our character, concerted effort,
•
meditation, training, progress.
Paraphrased Selections
From Chapter 2 - Wisdom
•
We believe we are independent but we are not. It is
the root of our misery.
•
Everyone and everything is interdependent.
•
Every action, every deed has consequence for
others.
•
The difference between ourselves and others is an
exaggeration.
•
Too much “me” means too much “mine”.
Paraphrased Selections
From Chapter 2 - Wisdom
•
Concept of “Emptiness” comes from this
understanding of interdependence.
•
Emptiness is not finding any independent existence
– a flower is not among its parts.
•
Things do not exist as they seem to.
•
Things do exist – it is only that they do not exist
without interdependence.
•
The appearance of independence is the illusion.
Paraphrased Selections
From Chapter 2 - Wisdom
•
Our perception and naming of reality is recognizing
the complex causes that everything contains.
•
Some cause leads to suffering, other cause leads
to happiness – that wisdom is ethics.
•
Ethics is the interface between my happiness and
yours.
•
Compassion is an aspiration – wanting others to be
free of suffering.
Paraphrased Selections
From Chapter 2 - Wisdom
•
Mahayana monks devote themselves to generosity,
ethics and patience, and so develop wisdom.
•
Suffering has 3 levels:
•
sensory - physical and mental pain,
•
change - disillusionment and dissatisfaction,
•
conditioning – life’s apparent reality, our
negative emotions, and non-enlightened
existence.
Paraphrased Selections
From Chapter 2 - Wisdom
•
Karma – the consequence of past actions –
appears stuck in a cycle of suffering.
•
Renunciation is not of goods but of state of mind.
•
Buddhist understanding of “soul” is the continuance
of individuality from moment to moment and from
lifetime to lifetime.
•
Soul is not unchanging.
Paraphrased Selections
From Chapter 2 - Wisdom
•
Our existence is utterly contingent.
•
Intention results in actions.
•
Retaliation leads only to suffering. It is very shortsighted.
•
Insight into selflessness is antidote to delusion.
•
One’s pain is one’s own creation.
Paraphrased Selections
From Chapter 2 - Wisdom
•
Comfort and discomfort are in your own hands.
•
Reflecting on these things increases one’s worth
and confidence.
•
When the mind can dwell in wisdom that knows the
ultimate mode of being, one is able to destroy the
deepest root of distortion, negative karma and
sorrow.”
•
The more honest you are, the more self-confident
you will be.
Paraphrased Selections
From Chapter 2 - Wisdom
•
The root cause of one’s spiritual development is
oneself.
•
Dissatisfaction is the seed of anger.
•
We can lose hope or we can wake ourselves up.
•
Spiritual happiness is not like that gained through
materialistic, political or social success … it has
further supports.
•
A change of heart is a change of mind.
Paraphrased Selections
From Chapter 2 - Wisdom
A video excerpt from the Vancouver Peace
Summit yesterday 27 Sep 09, as webcast by
CTV, “I don’t know”
The conversation was held on the subject of
compassion between the Dalai Lama and 5
woman Nobel Laureates, immediately after
Karen Armstrong’s presentation on her Charter
for Compassion.
The Dalai Lama – Essential Writings
Ch 2 – Wisdom – Buddhist Metaphysics
Break
-
Group Discussions