Tibetans have freedom in India unlike their own country: Dalai Lama

Siliguri (West Bengal) [India]: Tibetan spiritual leader the 14th Dalai Lama on Thursday said Tibetans have freedom in India unlike their own country where “there is a lot of control”.

“We Tibetans became refugees. In our own country, there is a lot of control. But here in India, we have freedom,” the Dalai Lama said in Siliguri.

He further said: “Since the Tibetan culture is very much related to the Nalanda tradition, so, we preserve those thousand-year-old traditions, mainly, way of thinking and psychology.”

“We have a lot of methods to keep peace of mind when we are angry or jealous, we deliberately try to reduce it. This I consider Tibetan Buddhist culture, but it can be relevant to every human being,” the Dalai Lama added.

Earlier on Thursday, the Dalai Lama arrived at Siliguri’s Sed-Gyued Monastery to deliver teachings to his devotees.

Preparations were in full swing at the monastery ahead of the Buddhist spiritual leader’s visit after a gap of 13 years.

He visited the monastery after completing a three-day tour of Gangtok, the state capital of Sikkim.
At the monastery, the Dalai Lama delivered a two-hour-long teaching on Bodhicitta, the main cause of a Buddha, and the thoughts that help bring peace to the mind.

Around 20,000 devotees gathered from Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Dooars, and neighbouring states like Assam, Bihar, and Sikkim, including Nepal and Bhutan, for the Dalai Lama’s teachings at the monastery.
Earlier in Sikkim, the Tibetan spiritual leader delivered the teaching on Gyalsey Thokme Sangpo’s 37 Practices of Bodhisattva (‘Laklen Sodunma’) and the ceremony of the generation of Bodhichitta (‘Semkye’). The 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva (‘Laklen Sodunma’) is an ancient text written in the 14th Century BCE by Tokme Sangpo, a Buddhist monk who was born in Puljung, south-west of the Sakya Monastery in Tibet.

Dalai Lama shared: “By examining always the status of one’s mind, with continuous mindfulness and alertness, to bring about the good of others–this is the practise of all the bodhisattvas. If you cultivate Bodhichitta on a daily basis, you can yield more benefits”.

The Dalai Lama also recited a prayer, invoking Avalokiteshwara, for those who lost their lives in the recent flood disaster in Sikkim and for the peace and happiness of the people of Sikkim and neighbouring regions.