A Letter to the King of Nepal

Your Royal Highness, the King of Nepal – beautiful and holy Nepal, our country.

My name is Thubten Zopa, Lama Zopa for short. I was born in Solu Khumbu, close to Namche Bazaar. When I was young I went to Tibet, lived there for three years, then escaped through Bhutan to India when Tibet was overtaken by communist China. I lived in India for about eight years. During this time I studied Buddhist philosophy together with the monks who had escaped from Lhasa and who were from the largest monastic university, where there was the most extensive learning of Buddhist philosophy, as taught by Buddha 2,500 years ago.

Then I returned back to Nepal, my home. Together with my Guru-ji, Lama Yeshe, we started to teach Buddhism – philosophy and meditation – to Westerners. We gave teachings mainly in Nepal, also sometimes in India. This has continued now for 32 years. The people who came to Nepal to listen to the teachings and practice meditation consequently found that their lives became very meaningful and beneficial. With whatever teachings and meditation practices we taught them, they went back and started centers, of which there are now 135. Most of them are meditation centers, while some are hospices for dying people, leprosy projects, destitute homes, and schools – universal education schools.

Universal education schools offer very special education to develop the children’s’ good heart – loving kindness and compassion, universal responsibility and tolerance, and to practice kindness in everyday life toward others: friend, enemy, stranger, anybody. This is the schools’ aim. Bringing up children with all these precious qualities, qualities which are in the mind, gives so much peace and happiness. Firstly, there is peace and happiness in the family – in his or her home – then there is so much peace and happiness in this life and in all lives until that person is liberated from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and their causes – delusion and karma – until that human being achieves full enlightenment. Therefore, children brought up in this way are able to bring peace and happiness to society, in their country as well as in the whole world.

I think that giving this special education to young people, a special education that develops compassion and loving kindness – kindness with everyone in everyday life – is very, very important. Not only does it affect the person’s life, but also how children are educated in the present determines how the near future world will turn out. It all depends on how they are educated now. Whether the new future world will be much worse than the present, much more wild and harmful, all depends on the present. Bringing this kind of education to public schools is the method to stop this. Children who grow up with these very precious human qualities – the good heart of loving kindness, compassion, tolerance – and practice kindness, compassion, and universal responsibility, feel, “I am responsible for all living beings’ happiness. I am responsible for all living beings.”

This project, Universal Education, doesn’t involve religion. It is basically education to develop a good heart, tolerance, and the practice of kindness in everyday life toward others and the special attitude of taking universal responsibility. From different traditions, the models of great compassion and the life stories of those who brought peace and happiness to this world are taught. For example, Mahatma Gandhi-gi, and Mother Teresa from the Christian tradition. Those like her offered incredible service to people who were hopeless and unable to recover. If they were dying, she looked after them. She tried to sacrifice her life for all these kinds of people. Being such a great example of compassion, she brought so much happiness and peace to so many people. Saint Francis was also a great saint, also from the Buddhist point of view. His wishes were for what he could do to help others and his supreme powers came from only cherishing others, being totally detached from this life. He offered himself as a servant to all living beings. Although he appeared as a Christian, praying to God and so forth, his realizations were exactly those of a Buddhist saint. He is another example of great compassion, and brought so much peace and happiness to this world. Everyone liked him, whether rich, poor, communist, non-communist; everyone respected him.

Also from Buddha’s past life stories, when he was a bodhisattva in Nepal, he sacrificed himself for others. At one place called Namo Buddha, on the mountain, on seeing a tiger family with five cubs in danger of dying of starvation, he generated great compassion and gave up his body to the tiger family. There are many stories of his practice like this, sometimes being born a king, giving his wealth and offering charity to others. By reincarnating in different forms, he sacrificed himself in the service of others. Practicing charity and morality, patience and perseverance, concentration and wisdom, and so forth for three countless great eons, he served other sentient beings. He collected merits, good karma, purified all the gross and subtle defilements, and then completed the path and achieved enlightenment for sentient beings. Then he revealed the path to us, that path which he, himself, actualized, and which liberated him from the oceans of samsaric sufferings, from all the delusion and karma, from ignorance, anger, attachment, and so forth. Becoming totally free, he achieved peerless happiness and full enlightenment then revealed the path to us, sentient beings. So, children learn of a few of Buddha Shakyamuni’s past life stories as a bodhisattva, and about great holy beings from different traditions, as examples of great compassion, who brought so much peace and happiness into this world. Also, they learn about this through drama, so that eventually they become like that, able to become a great holy being, to serve, and bring so much peace and happiness to sentient beings.

Another subject of Universal Education is philosophy, which is basically the science of mind. Without understanding mind, there is no way we can fully understand external phenomena. This philosophy is not just blind faith, but uses reasoning in the same way that scientists analyze phenomena, how they exist, how they function, like that. It is an analyzing, reasoning kind of philosophy, hence the clearest philosophy that relates to life. In reality, it seems to be what the Buddha explained, but we also put together philosophy from other, including western, traditions. We put together anything that is beneficial to mankind. It all comes under the category of science and basically it is the science of mind.

In educating the children, the understanding of why in our life we need to help others and why it is not enough, not sufficient, to live life only to achieve happiness for oneself, can be made deeper by giving reasons. Thinking only for oneself not only doesn’t work, it brings so many problems. Neither can you achieve happiness for others, nor can you even succeed for yourself. Regarding happiness for oneself, there are two kinds: temporal and ultimate. Ultimate happiness is not what ordinary people know about, or experience in their own lives; this kind of happiness is only temporal, sensual pleasure, dependent on external phenomena. For ordinary people, that is what their view of happiness is. So, the need to practice compassion for others is also presented with reasons.

Then there is the development of wisdom, to understand the reality of the “I,” the self, or the person, and what the “I” is. This is extremely valuable and the most important subject to study: learning about oneself, the ultimate nature of the “I,” the five aggregates – form, feeling, cognition, compounded aggregates, and consciousness – which are the basis of the imputed “I.” There are so many different things to learn. Basically, it is studying what you are and the potential of your mind: how you have the potential to be free from all the dukkha and to achieve total, ultimate liberation from all suffering and its causes; how this mind has all the potentials and can achieve even peerless happiness, great liberation, full enlightenment; that the mind can be completely pure, free from gross and subtle karmas, all the wrong notions; and to realize that the problems and sufferings that we are experiencing now are only temporary, that this ignorance, anger, and attachment, all these heavy emotional minds which are so painful and bring so many problems in life, are only temporary. This must be realized. Then you discover how much unbelievable freedom you have in your life. One has freedom to achieve all happiness for oneself, both temporal and ultimate, and to achieve, to cause all happiness, for countless other living beings. It is like that.

So, these are the three main subjects of universal education: firstly, the good heart; secondly, the life stories of those persons who are great models of compassion – the source of so much peace and happiness in this world; and then, lastly, science or philosophy.

Additionally, there are secondary subjects. One is healing. The children learn various types of healing so that they can help so many other people in this world, those who have sicknesses, mental and physical problems. There is also astrology, to do things at the right time, so that everything succeeds, without obstacles. For whatever one does, whether starting projects or any other thing, by knowing the right time to do things, they become successful and obstacles do not occur. In Tibet, also, this was one way to help to solve peoples’ problems and to help them have peace, happiness, and success in their lives. Another subject is feng shui, which is a Chinese term, but exists also in Tibetan Buddhism. In the Chinese tradition this is very common: building, arranging, and decorating the house and garden in such a way that the family has a long life, good health, all the children have a good education, and all success comes in business. This study has a lot of benefits: prosperity, wealth, and health.

From these methods, and through consultation, through discussion, many people can change their minds and then they can stop their problems, including emotional problems, since the basis of a problem is the concept. If one looks at a situation in life, interpreting it as “bad” then one thinks “bad.” If it appears “bad” to you then you believe it is “bad,” and then you get angry, upset, and unhappy. Basically it comes from your mind. Recognition of unhappiness in the midst of trouble in one’s life comes from one’s own concept which gives a negative label to a situation. At a certain time, when there is change, one gives it a negative label because our attachment doesn’t like it, or the self-cherishing mind comes in. Self-cherishing arises and doesn’t like what is happening and then one puts a negative label on it, because one’s mind follows or is a friend of those minds of attachment and self-cherishing. So, it is like that. In the view of the trained mind, the pure and free mind, such a situation doesn’t come about at all. When one doesn’t achieve material gain or reputation, praise from others or comfort, in the view of the trained mind this is not a problem at all. There is peace and happiness. However, in the view of attachment, when attachment is there, then when these things happen, when these conditions occur, then there is a problem. Attachment labels these situations as “negative” and “bad,” and then they appear as bad. That is why the person becomes depressed and unhappy, angry and jealous. Similarly, when certain things don’t happen, then the self-cherishing thought dislikes this. What the self-cherishing mind wants – reputation, praise from others, material gain, comfort – when these don’t happen, then the self-cherishing thought is upset and unhappy. Not liking it, it then gives it a negative label: “bad” or “harm.” Then the person experiences harm. When others feel harmed or are upset, are angry, it has come from their own act of giving something a negative label. It came from the self-cherishing thought, from making a wrong relationship.

In helping with and consulting as to what children need, when people can’t communicate and can’t help someone through talking, either they can’t understand the language or for some other reason, then there are other ways to help to solve a person’s problems, either through feng shui, healing, and so forth. Lastly, an extra subject of universal education is psychotherapy, not the old western psychotherapy, but the new type. We have students who are experts in this field and they teach this.

So, I am hoping that maybe you can try to experiment with education like this in Nepal.

Your Excellency, Your Majesty the King, Nepal has been a very simple, serene, peaceful, and holy place, which has also Mount Everest and the rest of the mountains. Nepal has many very beautiful aspects, together with many ancient and beautiful traditional cultures: Buddhist, Hindu, and so forth. Being from Nepal, I was therefore terrified by the changes in Nepal’s situation in recent years: that things are in turmoil; that there are people from villages who are meant to be helping the poor but it is not certain whether their motivation is pure, and also their methods are totally wrong – they use violence. This never works; it only causes people to kill each other. Before, people from the Western world found Nepal very beautiful and they liked to learn about the ancient traditions and enjoy the beauty of Nepal.

Buddha was also born in Nepal, at Lumbini. Buddhism has now spread all over the world, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama teaches to millions and millions of people, outside of Tibet, in many different parts of the world, including the west and the United States. Through Buddhism, which I have been teaching in so many countries, so many, many people have been able to find peace and happiness, and have made their lives meaningful. Now they can enjoy their lives, experiencing satisfaction and fulfillment, and can benefit all living beings, from life to life. They can devote their lives to the spiritual path and can complete it. All this has come from Nepal; it is a gift from Nepal, from this country. Please rejoice in this. Teaching Buddhism is my contribution to world peace, while in this world; this is Nepal’s gift. Buddhism has spread all over the world, to all the educated countries, where there is so much development and where there is now so much interest in Buddhism. So many very educated people want to learn and practice.

Therefore, I think we really need to preserve Nepal. We shouldn’t lose it. We should study extensively and educate the people, not just intellectually, but have them actualize their learning and develop into good human beings, beings who have peace and happiness, compassion and wisdom, are able to help themselves and others. To do this is so important. If things degenerate and are then lost, then I think, not only will we have to learn Buddhism from western people, but we will have to learn the other traditions of Nepal from Western people also, and that would be very shameful. People in the world, in Europe, in the United States, from hearing about Buddhism and by reading this wisdom from Nepal, come here to practice and learn, to see the ancient and holy places blessed by Buddha and great enlightened beings, and to visit the monasteries and learn the depth of the practice in order to actualize it. In these ways, Nepal becomes a very important country in the world, and very beneficial. These are incredible things to offer to the rest of the world and to the mind, which is the most important thing. Nepal offers peace of mind, not only day-to-day peace of mind but everlasting happiness, the total cessation of and liberation from the entire suffering of samsara and its cause – full enlightenment. This is something that everybody in Nepal can feel really happy about, can rejoice in, that Nepal can help the rest of the world to become free from suffering.

In particular, the government of Nepal can help its country. There are people here who have learned Buddhism and other religions, and from them there are many methods to overcome the recent problems. From Buddhism, from sutra and tantra, there are many methods. From among the monks in the monasteries here in Nepal, there are very high lamas who are supremely qualified to perform pujas to stop this harm from people. If the government was to request these high lamas to gather, for the monasteries to take responsibility to perform pujas, and if the government could make offerings to cover the expense of the pujas suggested in order to overcome the situation and change the minds of those who want to make trouble and cause harm in Nepal, I promise this can help. Also, if all the Sangha, the monks and nuns, could be requested to gather together and make appropriate prayers, this would also help, as would offering clothes to the great stupas of Swayambunath and Boudhanath.

Also, there is a supreme mantra from the great saint, the Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha, to recite when others attack the king or the country. It also gives peace to oneself as well as to one’s people. It is very, very good. As my service, I am suggesting these things, from the little I know about the Buddha’s teachings. My very humble suggestion to Your Excellency, the King, is to recite a few malas of this mantra each day, the practice of which I have put together here, translated from Tibetan texts. It is very good for the whole of the King’s family, friends, and even for the government to recite, whoever wishes. It is very good and helpful: the problems can be solved through peaceful means, through changing the minds of those giving harm.

Humbly and in your service,

Thubten Zopa