Todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, and#8220;Sincerity, Thoroughness, and Strenuousness,and#8221; is a thoughtful look at the synthesis of the total Buddhist tradition emerging in the western world. Sangharakshita points out that as a living religion, Buddhism is very new in our western cultures. The Chinese occupation has had enormous effects on Tibetan Buddhism. What future does it have, and what can Western Buddhists learn from its unique heritage? From the talk and#8220;The Future of Tibetan Buddhismand#8221; given in 1968, part of the series: and#8220;An Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism.and#8221;
Dharmabytes from free buddhist audio
Sincerity, Thoroughness, and Strenuousness
[music] Dharma Bites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for your life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. Thank you, and happy listening. Now, Western Buddhists can certainly learn from all this. As a living religion, Buddhism in this country is very recent, in fact very, very recent. At first we just had a bit of the Telavada, then the little Mahayana was added, including Zen, at least books Zen, mouth Zen, I don't know about any other kind. And more recently we've come to know something about Tibetan Buddhism, including, of course, a little bit of the tantra about which everybody seems very interested and very curious. This word tantra seems to draw people almost as much as the word Zen. But I think it's already become obvious from all that we can see that English Buddhism at least, I can't speak for that of America, English Buddhism at least will not be confined to any one of these traditions. As I said earlier, it won't be exclusively Telavada, in Omaha, Yana, or Zen, or anything else. It'll be a synthesis, all the more. But not just a jumble, and from Tibetan Buddhism we in this country can learn how to achieve this synthesis of all these different elements in the total Buddhist tradition. And obviously, such a synthesis will not be achieved without mutual respect and mutual tolerance, and this too we can learn. Even in the West we can't possibly hope all of us to see Buddhism in exactly the same way. I'll see it in one way, somebody else will see it in another way, and a third person in the third way. And we just have to accept this fact and work together nevertheless, reconciling all differences ultimately in the one ideal, the one objective which we all accept, which is Buddhahood, or enlightenment. So if we can do this, if we can in this respect follow, however hesitatingly, in the footsteps of the Tibetans who have achieved in the past is very glorious, this magnificent, this very rich synthesis of the total Buddhist tradition than English Buddhism, though it may not be very big, though it may be confined to comparatively few people, at least by itself a rich and either many splendid thing. Now we can learn several other things from Tibetan Buddhism, apart from those I've mentioned, we can learn depth and sincerity. Tibetan Buddhism remarkably sincere, in the full sense of that much abused word, sincere in their approach through their religion. They really do believe in it, and this has to be seen to be believed. And we can also learn from them thoroughness. They do everything very, very thoroughly. It's very difficult to get a Tibetan to commit to himself. If you ask a Tibetan, will you do this? Or will you help in such a such way? He agrees very slowly and very reluctantly. He'll go through every step of it with you, right, first I've got to do this, yes, and then I've got to do that, yes, then something else, then something else. He'll understand fully, he'll go into it in detail, and then he'll commit to himself, and then he'll say yes. And when he said yes, once he said yes, well you can rely upon him there. He is very thorough, and he is very reliable. And we can also learn strenuousness. The Tibetans take their religion very strenuously. I've often heard Tibetans say there's no religion without difficulty, or no religious life without difficulty. And they tend to think that if any religious practice is easy, it can't be really and truly religion. They think that if it's a real religion, it's difficult. They think there's no easy way around, no shortcut. So they are prepared for hardship and for sacrifice, for the sake of their religion. And this is one of the lessons which we learned. I hope we all remember this from how Buddhism came to Tibet. And because of that talk, towards the end of that talk we saw, how King Yeshi U, of Western Tibet, literally sacrificed his life for the sake of the Dharma, sacrificed his life so that the Buddhist teaching might be revived in Tibet. So this is true we can learn from Tibetan Buddhism. We hope you enjoyed today's Dharma Bite. Please help us keep this screen. Make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donny and thank you. [music] [music] [music] [BLANK_AUDIO]