Theos-Talk Archives (April 1996 Message tl01457)

I'm reading, slowly, "Violence & Compassion" by HH The Dalai Lama and
Jean-Claude Carriere a screen writer.

They're talking about religious traditions.

JCC "Reflecting from an ancient point of view can help us. Apart from
experience, this supplies us with both doctrine & distance. Very often we go
astray in the chaos of present-day life. If we look at our world from too
close up, we can't see it anymore. It's good to start out again, every day,
from far  away."

HH "But can that permanent recourse to tradition also close our eyes?"

JCC "Naturally. It can paralyze us. We must above all remain open &
sensitive. Then, if we have the means, we have to show others what must be
done. It's certain that the old religious prohibitions sometimes harm us.
But how to bend them? With what weapons?"
                        ...................

JCC "For centuriess Westerners have been telling themselves that they are
the crown of creation, made in the very image of God. They have wound up
believing it. Our efforts to extricate ourselves from this myth which
Buddhism has never known, are slow and hard, and they always have to begin
over again. Only 20 years ago people in the West who felt themselves an
inseparable part of the wheel were very rare."

HHM "On the contrary, the majority - and this is still true - took
themselves to be the ones who made the wheel turn."


JCC Sure. You were speaking of some groups of businessmen who are here to
make a retreat and who ask your advice. What are they by comparison with the
milllions of organized "executives" whose only project is to exploit and
further overwhelm Bhumi?" (the earth)

HH "It's true that the West is fascinated by efficiency. If the problem of
survival is not taken care of, there will be nobody left even to discuss the
problem. And Buddhism can help here. First of all, as I said, with the
enormous attention it pays to the notion of interdependence. That can never
be repeated often enough. Then with the attitude that it adopts towards
dogmatic truth.
"Anyway, the identity of the doctor and the rememdy he prescribes are of
little importance.  The Buddha cited the famous example of the man struck by
a poisoned arrow: he doesn't want to let himself be treated until he learns
the name of the man who shot him, until he knows what caste he belongs to,
to what family, if he is tall or short, in what forest the arrow was cut.
And so he dies before he can be cared for."

Aren't they nice?

Liesel TI