August 3, 2008 Often in this blog, I've bemoaned the fact that the Midwestern United States is like a desert of spirituality. I understand that this is not really the case. It just seems that on the edges of this great continent, people now and throughout recorded history have recognized the sacredness of the lands they inhabited.
Much of this has to do with the great natural beauty of the rugged Pacific Coast, the awesome isolation of the inland deserts and the spectacular Majesty of its mountains. Occasionally, however, the Midwest becomes blessed by Spirit for a brief time.
Today. I had the great honor and privilege of attending an important ancient ceremony for the Dalai Lama in Madison, Wisconsin.
His Holiness has been in Madison all week speaking and teaching. Today's ceremony, however, was very special to the Tibetan people themselves.
The ritual I attended is called Tenshug or Long Life Ceremony. It is initiated by the Tibetan people for their spiritual and political leader, the Dalai Lama, and is the first time this ceremony has ever been seen in the West.
I would love to have attended his teaching sessions, but alas, I must work like everyone else and I simply don't have enough days to be able to do all the things I want to that interest me on my journey. But I've wanted very much to see His Holiness in person for a long time.
I am not a practicing Buddhist, but there is much about the teachings of this great philosophy and religion that resonates within me. Moreover, in my mind there are few more impressive living human beings than the Dalai Lama.
He is a modest, intellectually curious man with an immense compassion for all of mankind--but especially for the plight of his own people, the indigenous Tibetans who have been treated so brutally by the Chinese government since Chairman Mao "annexed" Tibet in 1951. By 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso was forced to leave his homeland due to the serious threats made against him by the Chinese because of his ancient position as political leader of his people; a position the Chinese still refuse to accept.
At his acceptance speech for the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, he said this:
I am very happy to be here with you today to receive the Nobel Prize for Peace. I feel honored, humbled and deeply moved that you should give this important prize to a simple monk from Tibet. I am no one special, but I believe the prize is a recognition of the true value of altruism, love, compassion and non-violence which I try to practice in accordance with the teachings of the Buddha and the great sages of India and Tibet.Especially now, a mere days before 2008 Beijing Olympics is about to begin, this man has, simply by his courage, example and compassion, brought fear to the entire Communist political structure in China.
Tragically, however,when a regime as insecure as China feels threatened in any way--even by one small 73-year old Buddhist monk--the repercussions on society and the world can be grievous. The upswing of violence and repression against the Tibetan people--and especially Buddhist monks in recent months--exemplifies how, long after Mao's death, evil still rules in the incredible entity that is China; even as the greedy West grovels at the feet of the world's newest economic giant and geopolitical superpower.
For these reasons, security was tight at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison. As we entered, we were all searched with handheld metal detectors. We were also informed that no cameras or recording devices would be allowed, except for a few authorized individuals. As soon as I entered the Center, I immediately regretted this last prohibition because of the incredible color and pageantry on display there.
Despite these prohibitions, this was a day for celebration. It was a day for as many as 5,000 of the 12,000 Tibetan exiles who live in the United States to offer prayers and good wishes so that the Dalai Lama might live many more years as their leader.
According to the program we received, Tenshug is described this way:Tenshug is the Tibetan term for a ceremonial long life offering to a spiritual teacher who has chosen to be born in this life in an ordinary form. This ritual is done to request the spiritual teacher (lama) to live a long life for the preservation of the Buddhist teachings (dharma) and the happiness of all living beings. Among the many methods for making long life offerings according to sutra and tantra, the present Tenshug offering will be made by means of supplications to the Goddess White Tara, the deity of longevity.
With dedicated prayers for His Holiness the Dalai Lama to live a long life in an unshakable, continuous way (vajra-like), without any obstacles, may His wishes be fulfilled to the fullest extent.
The first thing I saw when I entered the auditorium was an enormous approximately 60' foot tall thangka wall hanging behind a huge stage. While not the exact thangka, this is a similar to the one there. It is called a Shakyamuni (Buddha) Thangka.
It was a very colorful and impressive sight indeed!Already on the stage were perhaps 30 or 40 monks seated on the floor in their bright ochre and saffron robes. In the audience were many Tibetans, excited to give their offerings to the Dalai Lama and waiting with anticipation for his arrival. Most were dressed in brightly-colored and beautifully-designed native Tibetan clothing.
Just after 9:30, the entire hall hushed, and then I heard horns, temple bells and drums which signalled the arrival of the beloved Dalai Lama.The small monk was guided to the center of the stage and toward a large ornate golden throne. After climbing onto the throne, he sat down with legs crossed, Indian style. At that point, the monks on stage as well as a number of Tibetans in the audience began the throaty drone-like chanting many associate with Buddhist monks. This chanting would continue throughout most of the ceremony.
For the next two hours or so, we witnessed a formal ritual that was conducted almost entirely in Tibetan. Even the programs we received were written for the most part in Tibetan. Occasionally, the Dalai Lama made an aside in English to briefly explain what was happening, but for the most part this ceremony was about the Tibetan people themselves and their relationship to the Dalai Lama.
During most of the chanting, the Dalai Lama, being a monk himself, joined in and sat upon his immense throne mildly swaying left and right as he chanted. Occasionally, he would give instructions to some of the monks; at times mildly chastising them in Tibetan if they did something wrong. Yet even here, his trademark humor came out.
As so often happens when the he speaks, the Dalai Lama would break into laughter or chuckling. The audience seemed to love those moments when he would "come down to earth" for a moment and share the joke with us.
Throughout the ceremony, a large number of volunteers were constantly going up and down the aisles, passing out small cups of rice and a cup of some kind of nectar which I couldn't distinguish. It tasted quite good, however. This seemed to define the ceremony as something more than just a sacred ritual. It was also a symbolic feast and a celebration not only for the Dalai Lama, but for his people as well.
In front of the stage itself was a long table full of large colorful boxes. I assumed that these, too, were part of the offerings. When the formal presentation of the offerings began, I could see that many of the offerings were small Tibetan statues and other icons as well as bolts of beautifully ornate yellow cloth. They were all given to the Dalai Lama by Tibetans who carried them on long white silk cloths. It was apparent that it was a great joy for them to give their gifts to him. In return, the Dalai Lama gave each offerant a small red silk cloth. To do this, he would lean over from his throne and place the silk around each person's neck.
While this was proceeding, volunteers began to quickly gather up the boxes from the table and hurried through the auditorium and up into the aisles where they began passing out whatever was inside.
Since I couldn't see them very well from where I was sitting, they looked like colorful Oriental packages one might see in a bustling Chinatown shop. As they got closer, however, I was surprised to see that they were the most un-Oriental of items: small bags of Ritz Bits and Cheeze-Its as well as small packages of fruits and nuts.
And thus the feast continued.
Finally, when the actual procession of offerings was completed, the Treasurer of Deer Park Buddhist Center, which hosted the six-day visit, presented the Dalai Lama with an accounting of income and expenses for the visit. The net income was in excess of $200,000 and this too was offered to the Dalai Lama. When this man finished, the Dalai Lama told the attendees in English that he would donate the money to health programs in Dharmsala, India; which is where the Tibetan government-in-exile is located and where many Tibetan refugees now live. He also said that some of the money would go to educational endeavors inside Tibet.
The final offering made to the Dalai Lama was a statement from the exile community in America.
Except for an afternoon talk to the Tibetan community entirely in Tibetan, the end of the Tenshug ceremony was also the end of the Dalai Lama's six-day visit to the Madison area. The visit was hosted by the Deer Park Buddhist Center just outside Madison in the town of Oregon. Deer Park is the only full-scale Buddhist monastery and teaching center in the Midwest.
It was the Dalai Lama's seventh visit to the area in the past 30 years. He has close ties to Madison because an associate, prominent Buddhist monk Geshe Sopa, moved here in the 1960s to teach at University of Wisconsin-Madison and later founded Deer Park.
* * * * * * * * * *
Far from being the self-effacing description of himself at the Nobel ceremony, the Dalai Lama is certainly much more than "a simple monk from Tibet". He stands as a great example to the world that mankind has the ability to bridge the intellectual with the spiritual and the political with the honorable--and to do so with a great and profound compassion and love towards even those who would seek to destroy him. His very modesty and simplicity is his greatest strength.
In this respect, he carries on the traditions of great enlightened souls throughout history like Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and a man whose ideas have been twisted and dishonored by his supposed followers for over 2,000 years; Jesus Christ.
All of these men in their way were the personification of Gautama Buddha; the man who some 2500 years ago, began teaching that all men and women have the ability and, in fact, the destiny to awaken from "the sleep of ignorance" and attain liberation by understanding the true nature of reality. This meant by means of accepting The Four Noble Truths about our unawakened worldly life and by living a life of compassion and love so that all fellow beings that share the divine consciousness from whence we were all created can return to the divine at the end of our cycles of death and rebirth.
One of the most difficult things to do in our ego-driven existence is to understand this fundamental commonality with each other. It is harder yet for most of us to accept that to strive for Buddhahood is our most important and most difficult goal in life.
Yet a man like the Dalai Lama is a great example that this is indeed possible. Perhaps more than any other reason, this is why this "simple monk from Tibet" has touched so many people throughout the world with his simple honesty, his simple love and his simple desire that all people attain personal, spiritual and political liberation; because this is most basic and blissful state of all existence.
