Dharamshala — His Holiness the Dalai Lama begins his two-day teaching on the <<Key to the Middle Way>> for Tibetan students from Tibetan schools and Tibetan youth from universities. His Holiness said, ‘Tibetans are quite intelligent and have a natural sense of right and wrong, but you schoolchildren would do well to develop these four types of wisdom and the ability to think logically. So you must not just recite mantras, you must also learn to analyse things’.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama began his two-day teaching on the Middle Way Key (Uma Demig) to 900 Tibetan students from Tibetan Children's Village Schools, 161 young Tibetans from universities, 40 young local Tibetans and 80 members of the Introduction to Buddhism class on June 3, 2024, at the main Tibetan temple (Tsuklhang) in Dharamshala, HP, India. A crowd of around 5,500 people gathered in the temple and courtyard to listen to His Holiness' teaching.
His Holiness asked if, in addition to the ‘The Compendium of Awareness’, the children had memorized the ‘Versified Compendium of Logic and Reasoning’, both texts having be written by Akya Yongdzin, Yangchen Gawai Lodro. Their teacher told him they were working on it.
"I memorized both these texts when I was a small child. It’s part of our approach to study that we memorize the text, without necessarily understanding what it’s about, and receive comprehensive explanations of it afterwards," His Holiness declared.
The Spiritual leader of Tibet said, "We are refugees, living in exile, and we can see that in general people of the world are not very interested in studying the great treatises by masters of the past, but we Tibetans have kept this tradition alive for more than a thousand years. The Chinese and perhaps the Vietnamese studied the texts but didn’t immerse themselves in logic as we did."
"Tibetans are quite bright and have a natural sense of right and wrong, but you schoolchildren would do well to develop these four kinds of wisdom and the ability to think logically. So, you should not only recite mantras, you should also learn how to analyze things," His Holiness told the students.
"As far as keeping Buddhism alive is concerned, I have done my best and will continue to do so. Meanwhile, I feel the Buddha has taken care of me," the spiritual leader said. His Holiness then took the text of the ‘Key to the Middle Way’ and began to read it and explain its meaning to the students and those present.
