It was Red Nose Day yesterday in the UK — comedians and celebrities doing funny, embarrassing, and risky things in order to bring awareness and money to children who need it.
Thanks to the Internet I was able to watch 6 celebrities — including Sporty Spice Mel C, Philips Idowu (who has a terror of water), and Jack Dee — risk life and limb rafting down the Zambezi Β in βThrough Hell and High Waterβ.
In between the great photography and voiceover of their exploits (they seemed to be in real danger on a few occasions), the celebs were visiting children like 11-year old Cynthia, who couldnβt go to school as she was too poor and had too much housework to do in lieu of her sick mother. They joined children on their daily 2-hour walk each way to get to school, and not along nice paved sidewalks either — even Philips Idowu found it grueling. The celebs spoke movingly about what they were seeing, and they made me press Yes to text money a few times until I remembered that it was ending up on my mumβs phone bill (long story, oops! Iβll pay you back!) Red Nose DayΒ raised 75 million quidΒ this year, a lot.
Even when they had a totally terrible, scary day, these celebrities remained determined to carry on because they wanted to help, and unfailingly good-natured with each other despite the heat, the exhaustion, the dirt, the fear, the insect bites.
I was struck by how easy it can be for us to see what’s going on in other parts of the world, to potentially expand our horizons through the power of the Internet. How easy it could be for us to communicate and spread good ideas, and meet people all around the world β to feel part of the same huge human (and animal) family. If it wasn’t for the fact that we seem to prefer staying locked up in our airless echo chambers, and the algorithms that make fake and bad news travel far faster than anything else, we could be letting go of all sorts of musty, ancient prejudices in the oxygen of Internet exposure.
Modern Buddhism, the book
As with any tool for communication, the Internet can be used for good or for bad. But overall I welcome this “modern miracle power” (as Venerable Geshe-la has called technology) β and there is no doubt that it has been a very useful way to spread meditation and Buddhism throughout the world.
With his free gift of Modern Buddhism, Geshe Kelsang showed his understanding of the power of modern communication and harnessed it to an immensely beneficial end. Modern Buddhism is (I believe, and correct me if Iβm wrong) in the top ten Buddhist books on Amazon, downloaded hundreds of thousands of times and counting. That is hundreds of thousands of people who might not have met Buddhism for years if theyβd had to rely on their local library storing a hard copy of a Buddhist book.
Kadampa Buddhist meditation is immensely practical and useful for people in all walks of life and all over the world, and it doesnβt belong just to Buddhists. A lot of it is simply supercharged common sense β it doesnβt require us to believe things that we canβt test in our own experience or through using our own powers of reasoning. And once we know the methods for finding inner peace, freely given in Modern Buddhism, we can practice them whenever and wherever we want — no one can take that away from us.
Modern lives
We are all about βmodern Buddhismβ these days, and modern Buddhism necessarily takes place in modern lives. In the early days, as Kadampa Buddhism segueyed from sequestered Tibetan monasteries into the West, we did things very differently. We tried to a large extent to emulate the monastic way of life, even as lay people β pretty much everyone who was “serious” moved into residential centers, joined full-on study programs, and worked full-time for those centers. Back in the day we had no TV, no Internet, no Smartphones β it is pretty much impossible nowadays to live and practice as we did in the UK in the late 70s and early 80s. Many people still live, study, and work full time in the large residential centers; but the vast majority of Kadampa Buddhists worldwide live βoutβ in the world with their families, regular jobs, mortgages, etc., and are learning to put the teachings into practice and get results in many different contexts.
The world has modernized beyond belief and the New Kadampa Tradition is moving with it. I think we are all still very much in the process of modernizing the presentation of Buddhism to fit into this new reality so that people can still gain deep realizations like the monastics and Yogis in Tibet. I for one am watching this process with great interest. I welcome this adaptation of Buddhism to the modern world — I like that it is so much easier for people to share ideas and awaken to the lives of others even if they live in far-flung places, and my hope with this blog is to help that process along in one small way.
Moving around from continent to continent as I grew up meant that I knew a lot about the people I was living with, my local schools, and so on; but had little to no awareness of the rest of the world. There were no TVs (let alone computers) where I lived. One UK newspaper arrived most weeks in the diplomatic bag, and was then passed between the embassy staff. We used the telephone on Christmas Day to call my grandparents, keeping the call short due to its ludicrous expense. I watched my first movie aged around 8 — it was a Dracula movie at a drive-in theater with a scratchy screen (and I was mesmerized.) I read — a lot! I had lots of time to think, and there was time for my imagination to go crazy in 20-page stories I wrote for my teachers and long-suffering parents. I was outside running and biking all over the place, and started lots of societies for my friends β dancing, animal protection, gymnastics etc. I collected tortoises, cocoons, and ants, so I could have pets. (They should have just got me a dog.) My first accent was Sri Lankan where I learned to speak, later I had a West Indian accent, later still I knew enough Turkish to get around.
When I was eventually sent back to the motherland for βreintegrationβ in my teens, I knew a lot about different places and people and the contents of (often old, unfashionable) books, but I was clueless about global and current affairs. I had never studied anything except English and maths, and a bit of local history and geography, and I had a lot of catching up to do.
I left scores of friends behind in all the countries I grew up in β I never heard from them again, unless we wrote letters (didnβt happen, except in the case of Debra, whom I recently re-found miraculously through Facebook). And how different to Facebook, where it might now be impossible for a child ever to lose a friend even if they wanted to β friends can follow you around forever! If the Internet had existed when I was a child, none of the above would apply. (Not that it was a problem for me at the time. I was very lucky with my childhood.)
Everyone my age and thereabouts has this experience of how life has changed, modernized, and become transparent in communication beyond our wildest dreams. The New Kadampa Tradition has been changing with it.Β
Judging by the shares, people are appreciating the videos of how Buddhism is helping communities in South Africa too, such as this one.
One inspiring recent development in communication has been the possibility of Ben Fletcher teaching Buddhism in sign language. Ben was born deaf and has never heard a sound. He is losing his eyesight. He is one of the most radiant meditators I have met. Young Dorje, aged 3, living at Manjushri Centre, summed up the usual reaction to meeting Ben for the first time when he turned to his mum after 2 minutes and asked: βMum, why do I love that man so much? Ben blows people’s socks off. I will try to watch and share every video ever made of him. Talking of which, I just found this one:
This blog is just one small way of how to capitalize on the Internet to share Buddhist ideas. Geshe Kelsang once told me that I needed to βgo where the people areβ and, as well, to give not Dharma teachings but “advice for a happy life”; and I think that most of you can be found here in cyberspace. Since I started writing Kadampa Life at the end of 2011, there have been more blogs appearing that share peopleβs experiences of practicing Buddhism and meditation in their daily lives. You can find a list here (let me know if your blog has inadvertently been left out).
Finally, since I wrote this article nine years ago, much has changed even in this short time. Social media has pretty much taken over our lives, for good or for evil. COVID-19 struck — with a silver lining being the worldwide proliferation of livestream Buddhist classes.
Red Nose Day, spinning off from Live Aid, also reminds me of how Kadampa Buddhism first came to America. I want to finish today with an amazing story by a friend of mine who accompanied Venerable Geshe Kelsang to the US on that first trip. This has always struck me as a fortuitous example of the power of communications to transform many lives if harnessed to an extraordinary end.
The frog story
In the 1980βs a simultaneous rock concert in London and Philadelphia called Live Aid was organized to beat back famine in Ethiopia. It reached a worldwide television audience.
My Teacher saw some of it too and became aware of the donation appeal to help the starving people. Someone had just given him a shiny new car to assist his increasing travels across the UK and, not having any other possessions, my Teacher phoned this benefactor and asked for permission to sell the car and donate the money to Live Aid. The benefactor agreed.
The local newspaper in Ulverston, a quiet Lake District town just next to Manjushri Institute, picked up the story and ran a small piece with a delightful picture of my physically tiny Teacher standing next to the huge car he had just sold. This story was syndicated across the newswires and also appeared in a newspaper in Palm Springs, USA, where it was read by Leland C. Miller, President of the Kilner Foundation, a non-profit organization that dispensed grants for worthy causes. Mr. Miller had recently purchased a copy of my Teacherβs book, Clear Light of Bliss, from his local bookstore, put two and two together, and concluded that here was βthe real deal.β He wrote and requested my Teacher to come and give his first teachings in America, saying that his Foundation would sponsor the trip.
I was thrilled when my Teacher called me and asked me to help him organize the trip and accompany him on it. Working with Mr. Miller and responding to other invitations to teach in the US, including at Geshe Sopaβs Deer Park Center in Madison Wisconsin, we arranged the following schedule: Madison Wisconsin, Toronto, Montreal, and Seattle Washington, where Geshe Kelsang would give teachings on Lamrim and the Highest Yoga Tantra empowerments of Heruka & Vajrayogini at the appropriately named Bliss Hall.
It was a magical trip, including a journey to the rainbow-filled Niagara Falls and many other delights. I was snap-happy and took many photos of this historic event. When we returned to the UK, I decided to present my Teacher with an album of these photos as a gift. We looked through the photos together and came to the last one, a group photo of about ten people with my Teacher right at the front. He paused and looked at me; and then he asked a question I was not expecting: βWhich one is me?β
I was so dumbfounded that I had no idea what to say. Here was one of the greatest Buddhist Masters of our time, who had written books of astonishing intelligence and brilliance, apparently unable to recognize himself in a photo. It was not a problem I had ever had!
Of course this question stayed with me, and I thought about it for a long time afterwards. I would take a picturesque daily afternoon walk around the lake at Madhyamaka Centre. There is a bench at the bottom of the lake, which presents the most beautiful view of the centre and the rolling hills behind, where I often stopped and meditated for a while. On one of these occasions I noticed a group of frogs in the water below. As I watched this scene I had a revelation.
Buddha taught that there are six different realms of existence, including animal realms, human realms and god realms β all dream, or nightmare-like, projections of mind where we take repeated rebirth according to our karma. I had recently read that from the perspective of someone who has taken rebirth in the god realms, we human beings are as ugly and smelly as frogs. I also understood from Buddhaβs teachings that enlightened beings have the power of emanation, and that one of these powers is the ability to appear in many different forms, both animate and inanimate, for the benefit of living beings.
It dawned on me β what if I, as a human, wanted to help these frogs directly by teaching them how to be happy, co-exist peacefully, not be so attached to each otherβs bodies, and attain a higher rebirth such as in the human realm? Would I not need to appear in a form that they could relate to, namely as another frog? I would still keep my human mind and my sense of my human life, but would simultaneously appear as a frog. What if I asked a keen young little frog to help me organize a trip across the pond to the other bank, where I could meet other frogs and teach them a spiritual path? What if that frog kept snapping photos of me here and there? And what if, the journey safely concluded, that young frog presented me with a group photo of ten frogs in a row? Would I not have to ask, βWhich one is me?β
32 Comments
How lucky the frogs are having such a compassionate and enlightened being around…
Brilliant and moving. Thank you for your posts, your pure Guru devotion and clear, meaningful Dharma teachings for modern practitioners β like me.
Love,
Lekso
That is a kind and generous thing to say, thank you Lekso π
You’re so right about Ben Fletcher, beautiful man. His mother’s book ‘Language for Ben’ is what inspired me to become a signing Teacher of the Deaf. Years later I met Ben at the Bodhisattva Centre in Brighton, he gave a beautiful teaching which had us all crying. I would love to see him being given a platform to teach which would be easily accessible through YouTube. I think he’s moving up North soon, maybe a centre up there could facilitate it?
A lovely article, you were so fortunate to have been close to Geshe La all these years and to see how he has enabled the growth and transition of Buddhism into the modern, Western world.
Thank you for sharing your insights.
I think putting Ben on YouTube makes a great deal of sense. Let’s ask Ben! I wonder what Center he is close to, we can ask them too.
What a wonderful story about the emptiness of the body for surely that was what it exemplified. Why donβt we imagine our emanations to come as a way of losing our current attachment to this body?
Good idea!!!
I ‘geddit,geddit,geddit’.Geddit?Wonderful insight.Thanks
which bit do you ged?!
What a great story! Congratulations on all the visits! Keep up the wonderful work! Missing you in San Francisco, Sarah k.
Miss you too, Sarah K!
I’ve just joined 2 groups – one for Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, n one for the NKT. Was happily surprised to find their admins were 2 old cyber friends π The internet really does make this a very small world β₯
I do like that about it.
Some Buddhists do discuss rather lively if Buddhism can survive, let alone flourish, without a healthy secluded monastic practice. Modern Buddhism and urban temples makes it clear that we Kadampas have decided that it can. Not only that it can but that fast paced, highly communicated people and societies are precisely where Buddhism should flourish. It is up to us to make it happen.
You make some important points here. How can Buddhism survive without secluded practice? And how can we make Buddhism flourish in our fast-paced, highly-communicated world?
The discussions sort of boil down to 1) All significant teachers have been in monasteries and 2) Todays westerners are not going to flock into monasteries and our societies have no ways to finance them.
I think Gueshela by means of the NKT is covering 1) with IRCs. I have no experience with an IRC but I understand that not much teaching goes on. The teaching happens in KMCs and Dharma Centres. I believe that urban/commercial Dharma facilities will provide what a modern busy person can have a regular access to. I would like small gompas in these places where anybody could drop in at any time and meditate in a convenient environment. Many people can’t find it. So this can be a solution for 2)
As to making Buddhism flourish in our fast-paced, highly communicated world I frequently give it thought and haven’t come up with much. Much is discussed about teaching Dharma through the internet. I don’t know.
I love that idea about having a small gompa where “anybody could drop in at any time and meditate in a convenient environment.” Doesn’t have to be big, after all…
Our modern fast-paced, highly communicated world gives people the possibility of finding Dharma wherever they go, almost, which is a major benefit. Then they have to learn how to practice it in their daily lives, with mindfulness, and probably using a lot of Lojong — taking away the teachings and meditations they’ve learned and actually putting them into practice 24/7 in their own environments.
Beautiful story telling with such meaning! Thank you π
I hope your move went/is going smoothly and look forward to more articles on your blog π http://heartofcompassionblog.wordpress.com/
I really LOVE the frog story! Thanks for a great blog post.
Nice blog, Dave! I lived in San Francisco for a few years, and I liked your account of your road trip there 30 years ago. Nice picture of you and Gen Jampa too π http://davexrobb.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/100-posts/
Thanks for visiting and for the kind words. I’ll be checking back here, and hope you’ll keep visiting as well.
A great teaching and a really lovely piece of storytelling to boot!
Now this is my favorite post. βΊ Thanks for sharing.
Thank you Madeline βΊ
Congratulations on a quarter of a million hits! I am not suprised as your post always have something special about them; this one is remarkable too! Thank you. Please keep posting!
Thanks! I still have a million ideas so, as time permits, I will keep posting π
Thanks for the mention Luna! Most appreciated π and for the frog story. It gives a neat little twist to who our Spiritual Guide is to us.
Congrats on that many page visits as well :~) Very well deserved.
Congrats on your blog too, I hope lots of people find and enjoy it.
Ooh, i hope so too ( and a million more for you! :~) Blogs can be a pretty effective way of spreading the Dharma and encouraging people on their spiritual journey, can’t they.
“Which one is me?” That’s really blown my mind this morning! I will have to contemplate that one.
It’s amazing that I can sit here every day (on my Β£45 second hand computer) and link to all the practicising Kadampas out there and find easily the most profound Teachings and how people use them daily. Such meaningful generosity.
I got the wake up call in the 90s from a free Buddhist text left in a hotel room in Canada carried all the way back to the UK by a holidaying friend who knew I was interested. However,it was only through Geshe-la’s kindness that I could actually start to understand what that text meant when I finally found a local GP class. Now countless people benefit from easy access of Dharma on the web and the many beautiful images that accompany those teachings.
Thanks, Luna. Great teaching as always. x
I always like hearing stories of how people in the West first encounter Buddhist meditation — it often seems so entirely random and chancey, like your book in a hotel in another country story. If your holidaying friend hadn’t thought of you, when would you have encountered it?