The Situation in Tibet

My very dear Jack,
Thank you for sending this. You know it is very important to have a clear understanding of things.

In the beginning in this world we were all in animal form. We did a lot of bad things to each other, like eating each other, then we evolved a little bit, but there was still so much fighting and causing harm to each other, all over the world. My point is that nobody was enlightened from the beginning. In Tibet, in the beginning, there was the Bon religion, then came Buddhism. It is wrong to think that everyone was good or everyone was bad, that doesn’t make sense. How can one expect or think that in Tibet everyone is good or everyone is bad. Mostly everyone is born with anger, ignorance, and attachment. Everyone is like that.

A very important thing about Tibet is that many great holy beings achieved the path, achieved Amitabha, and were able to benefit others, bringing unbelievable benefit, deeper than the oceans, vaster than space. Still, those great holy beings can show the aspect of being displeased when someone does wrong, and show the aspect of being pleased when someone does good. Good and bad exist. Bad has suffering results and good has the result of happiness and peace. What the holy beings want is for everyone to be good, to try to follow the correct path, practice, have realizations, and achieve the highest enlightenment.

Of course, there were many problems in the past in Tibet; there is no doubt about that. Some of what we hear is accurate, some may be exaggerated. The difficulty is that some scholars and professors often only talk about certain aspects of the culture—they don’t understand the great achievements of the holy beings.

You can’t think that if one person is bad then everyone is bad, or if one person is enlightened then all people are enlightened. Your mind has to be a universal mind and see all the different aspects, not just the good and not just the bad. You have to see the different mixtures, the different aspects, otherwise you get yourself in trouble.

In the beginning, when Buddhism came to the West and people heard about Milarepa, they all had this very high view that if you are Tibetan you must be a great yogi and free of all negative emotions. In my view, Westerners really thought like that, especially during the time when LSD was popular. They only saw all these unbelievably good things, and didn’t see the not so good aspects.

The great achievement in Tibet that no other country achieved was the preservation of the complete Buddhadharma. In the beginning, Buddha taught 84,000 teachings, the entire path to enlightenment. Then, the great Indian pandits, in particular the Six Ornaments and Two Jewels of India, preserved the Dharma—Buddha’s teachings—and condensed them. Then, many great lamas in Tibet, like Lama Tsongkhapa, studied and experienced the path. So did the great Indian yogis.

In Tibet, for over 1,300 years, the complete Buddhadharma was translated and spread, starting with Padmasambhava and Atisha. It was taught extensively, and many studied and practiced in hermitages and caves in the mountains all over Tibet. Where individuals actualized the path, some of them did it living in vows. So many achieved enlightenment in all the four traditions, and had great attainments. They lived in those caves, completely giving up this life. This is Tibet’s unique and great achievement, preserving the Buddhadharma in its complete form.

If the Tibetans hadn’t preserved the Buddhadharma, where would we be now? There would have been a complete degeneration. But because they preserved it, now, many are still studying, living, and practicing the Dharma. Because this is possible, the Tibetan people can hand back the complete Buddhadharma to the mother land: India. This is a very, very special achievement. So many bodhisattvas, holy beings, and enlightened beings came about in Tibet. Even in other Buddhist countries it was not like this, the complete entire Buddhadharma was not preserved. They had meditators, of course, and correct understanding, but not the entire Buddhadharma. Also, Tibet was subdued by Chenrezig. That is its connection with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Anyway, the essence is I want you to see the incredible achievement of the Tibetan people, the vast achievement of preserving the entire Buddhadharma, not only the intellectual understanding of the complete Dharma. Of course, Tibetan people also are just very simple people, living with yaks and dogs, not doing business with other countries. But that is the point—essentially the Tibetan people were focused on Dharma and developing inside, there was very little effort in developing outside.

This is my news, this is not the CNN or BBC news, but Sherpa Yeti from Mexico City talking to Dear Jack in the United States of America.

With much love and prayers...