President declares Buddha Vihar open
GULBARGA: President Prathiba Devisingh Patil declared open the Buddha Vihar, built on sprawling 75 acres of land by Siddarth Vihar Trust, near here on Wednesday.
...Referring to Buddhism and Buddha, she said Buddhism is acting as a strong bond between India and other countries where Buddhism is in practice. "The strength of Buddhism lies in its middle-path approach to all the problems dogging the society. Advocating avoidance of extremes, the middle path calls for approaching the issues in a moderate and balanced manner," she said, adding the middle path is good for both people and the country.
Recalling the `sangha' philosophy of Buddha, she said `sanghas' were run on democratic principles and this has become the basic tenet of India's democracy. "The ethos of democracy __ to respect diverse views and tolerance __ are part of the Indian civilization since ancient times," she said.
Describing the Hindu and Buddhist religions as 'twin sisters', Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama yesterday lauded the marvelous tradition of communal harmony and coexistance in the country despite the presence of several outside religions. "Buddhism and Hinduism have preached equality and are like twins," Tibetan spiritual leader said on Saturday in Gulbarga.
The 74 year-old Tibet's spiritual leader also spoke about the human anger from negetave actions and minds saying that attachment is the basis cause of anger. More the attachment creates more the anger. "Less attachment, less anger," he said.
His Holiness said that the main cause for sorrow is: 'attraction towards silly things'. "If we control our desires and attraction to various things, automatically our sorrows will vanish," he said.
He said wherever he goes, he refers the ideal and exemplary Indian tradition of communal harmony and unity in diversity. ''There are different religions in the country including Christinaity, Islam, Sikh, Jain and Buddhism, and each of the religion has its own philosophy. But all religions give the same message of love, campassion, harmony and co-existence,'' he preached.
Union Minister Mallikarjun Kharge, who is also the chairman of the Siddhartha Vihar Trust welcomed His Holiness. Gulbarga in-charge secretary E Venkataiah, Gulbarga Regional Commissioner Rajanish Goyal and Deputy Commissioner Vishal R were also present.
His Holiness was here to deliver spiritual discourses on December 19 and 20 on the occasion of first anniversary of opening of Buddha Vihar.
Make Buddha Vihara A Centre of Learning: Dalai Lama
December 19th 2009
Gulbarga, Karnataka, India, 20 December 2009 (Deccan Herald) - Buddhist spiritual leader and Nobel peace laureate the Dalai Lama has underlined the need for developing the Buddha Vihara constructed here in to a centre of higher learning in Buddhism instead of remaining a religious centre.
Delivering a religious discourse on 'The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism' at the Buddha Vihara organized by the Buddha Vihara Trust here on Saturday, the Dalai Lama had full praise for the construction of a marvelous Vihara and lauded the senior leader and Union Labour and Employment Minister Mallikarjun Kharge for initiating a lead for the construction of the rare structure. Addressing the gathering as 'spiritual brothers and sisters' he said that he was very happy to be at the Buddha Vihara for the second time saying he was very much impressed over the structure. "It should not remain a mere Buddhist temple but should transform into a learning centre," the Dalai Lama said.
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The Dalai Lama said that utilization of human intelligence and wisdom for attaining the purity of mind and for one's advancement was very important in Buddhism. He made it clear that his discourses are not mere ritualistic nor religious but the ocassion should be treated as an educational seminar. The Dalai Lama at the end of the discourse gave opportunity to the audience to ask questions. He replied to all the questions and invited even arguments on important issues.
The Dalai Lama said that the distinction of Buddhism from other religious cults was that it does not believe in atma. This similarity could also be found in Jainsim. He said that there are certain cases of rebirth which he himself had come across and it was for the science to investigate these cases. He also asserted that the big bang theory of scientists goes very well with Buddhist phitlosophy as it doesn't believe in the theory of creation of something by someone.
Good number of devotees had turned up for the discourses which were heard attentively. All the devotees except a very few were seated on the floor. The Dalai Lama's discourse in English was translated for some time into Kannada and half way through it was done away with. However, for many in the audience it was difficult to follow what His Holiness was saying.
The Dalai Lama felicitated Mallikarjun Kharge, his wife Radhabai Kharge, and two sons Rahul and Priyank.
Dalai Lama In His Elements
December 19th 2009
Gulbarga, Karnataka, India, 20 December 2009 (Deccan Herald) - The 14th Dalai Lama who has made India his home from the last five decades may have the image of being a serious spiritual and religious leader. But the sense of humour appears to be intrinsic in him. On ocassions, he was in his elements while pouring out the circumstantial sense of humour.
The Dalai Lama had a caution for the audience that they should not take his English language seriously. "Be careful of my English. It is very broken. It may carry some wrong meaning and message,:" the Dalai Lama set up a rider half way through his discourse sending the audience in to peels of laughter. However the audience were kind enough to him. "Those who do not understand my broken English please raise your hands," the international Buddhist celebrity asked the audience. Needless to say no hand was raised.
The discourse bagn with Kannada translation by Mr. Srinivas Murthy. However the translation was not smooth and was causing some irritation. At one point of time the dalai Lama spoke for about four minutes. An the translator dismissed it in just one sentence. The spiritual leader wondered asking 'Is it over?' when the trnaslator nodded affirmatively the Dalai Lama remarked 'Very fine!.'
The translator was sitting at a distance from the Dalai Lama who felt some uneasiness. The dalai Lama asked the trnslator to come to his sidesaying "You are my mouth and should translate effectively sitting by my side." The translation was however done away with half way through on the demand of the audience.
The Dalai Lama appeared to be transparent, He did want his discourses to be one sided. He gave an open invitation to the audience to ask questions. "Even if you want to argue on any point you are welcome," he quipped.
