ON THE first of three days of teaching in Glasgow’s Scottish Exhibition Centre, the Dalai Lama was in characteristically good form. “I hope I have not disturbed your Sunday lie-in”, was his first remark. Everybody laughed. He told us that he would use an interpreter, not just to make things easier for himself, but also because “if he’s not used, it’s a waste of money”. At one point, he recalled how, as a young student angered by a line of text that he could not commit to memory, he just crossed it out. This easy humour, like the bright orange visor he suddenly put on half-way through, was somehow unexpected — but very well received.
It complemented a lecture that was serious and intellectually demanding. “During the next few days”, he said, “we are going to experiment with our minds and our emotions, in order to learn how to live a meaningful life”. He emphasised that our attitude to learning about and practising meditation should accordingly be serious and sincere.
The talk was not only for Buddhists, but also for members of other traditions with some knowledge of Buddhism. “If you find a common concept, then take it”, he said. “If you find something alien, then close your ears! I don’t want to shake your faith!” After giving an account of the major Buddhist figures and texts, he focused on the first section of Acharya Kamalashila’s The Middling stages of Meditation. The ultimate aim supported by the text is to achieve what is called an omniscient state of mind. “We create the conditions for our own suffering”, he told us. “This must result from some distortion in our understanding of how things are.”
An important concept underlying Kamalashila’s text is that of cause and effect, and — related to that — “emptiness”, or the non-existence of essence in either animate or inanimate things. It was explained that people are psycho-physical aggregates, who — despite having intelligence and an ability to conceptualise — are nevertheless an agglomeration of molecules, whose composition is subject to constant change due to a multitude of causes and conditions.
We should trace our experiences of happiness and pain not only to immediate conditions, but also to deeper underlying causes: our primal substance. “There is the capacity for understanding in all of us”, we were told, “but conditions such as ignorance obstruct it. According to the natural law of contrary forces, opposing forces need to be cultivated to remove obstructions.”
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As he spoke from his low seat below a colouful image of Buddha, we watched the Dalai Lama on screens at each end of the stage. His words were rendered in impeccable English by the interpreter.
“Now you must go and eat!” was our cue to buy some lunch in the SECC’s shops and cafes. It was a scene of exotic busyness, like a page in a children’s book: monks in the drinks queue, monks eating sandwiches, monks by the cash point. I watched as one monk leant over a buggy and “shook hands” with a baby’s foot.
In his introduction, a representative of the Dharma network had expressed the hope that His Holiness might soon be able to return to Tibet and help the people there as much as he has helped all the Tibetans in exile. After four hours of observing the Dalai Lama in action, I shared that hope even more strongly.
A five-star guide
VENUE: The Scottish Exhibition and Convention Centre, Glasgow
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EVENT: The first of three days of teaching on the 37 Bodhisattva Practices and Acharya Kamalashila’s The Middling Stages of Meditation, given by His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso. It was organised by the Dharma network, a non-profit making organisation formed from Buddhist groups based in the UK
MUSIC: There was no music during the teaching, but a recording of Buddhist chanting was played as we arrived
SPIRITUAL HIGH: The compelling presence of the Dalai Lama
AFTER-TALK CARE: A number of cafés and shops. There was also a hall filled with stalls, people selling books and videos about Buddhism