Dalai Lama's talk in Dunedin, NZ

I was lucky to attend to Dalai Lama's public talk today, in the town hall in Dunedin.

Really nice talk in general, full of wisdom, deep thoughts and a sense of humour. However I was expecting for more addressing on religious, specifically about Tibetan Buddhism - the central concept of Tibetan Buddhism is based on the same Buddhist doctrine shared with other Buddhisms, but the practical system of Tibetan Buddhism is then so different from the others. How exactly Tibetan Buddhism interpret the Buddhist doctrine is something that can really trigger my interests. Too shame there were not much about this part today.

But still it is a good talk and I really enjoyed his holy wisdom. Here are some notes I took over the talk:

• All religious serves the same purpose - to bring love, compassion, peace and happiness for human beings (the world?). Since all religious serves the same purpose, religious should be to improve harmonious in the world, instead of becoming the cause of conflicts.   
• All people are born to be the same. When looking at other people, or talking about ourselves, trying talking about the similarity. Once a person address on the difference, suddenly there will be distance between this person the the rest of the world.
• Some one asked how should we maintain our inner peace when there are outer disturbance from the others? Dalai Lama said, when things like this happen, we can analyse the situation - while the focal person is disturbing you, this person is in a negative emotion, which is not this person's normal phase. Once you are aware of this fact, do you want to response to the no-normal phase of this person? The response can be divided into two parts: the actor and the action. As the actor you want to stop the disturbance and the negative emotion, and the action is forgiveness. 
• Widen the horizon of your vision! When you look at the world or the problem through a narrow hole, it is very likely you will take it too seriously, which can bring stress, competition,conflicts and all sorts of negative emotions. However, if you are aware of that the world is huge, you will then realize the problem is tiny, and there is always a way to solve it (with peace and harmonious).

I totally agree with all four of them!! The first two are very similar to my personal point of view. However I am also aware that people from different communities have different traditions, values, and that the same behaviour or wording can mean very differently in different societies. Therefore, to practice the first two is very difficult. The third point, is probably the most traditional Buddhist concept over today's talk. It shares the similar point of view with Zen Buddhism. I highly recommend the books written by Master Sheng-yen* if any one is interested in this concept. 

There are other notes I took, but I couldn't recall them now without the paper-based note in hand. May add-on in the future.

To sum up, it was great to see Dalai Lama in person. It was really difficult to get the ticket, but fortunately I got one the night before. Lucky me!! :)

*Master Sheng-yen is the single most holy Master I have ever known. His words are full of wisdom, compassion, happiness and humour. Too shame that the Western World doesn't know much about the Master. But if there are any chance, and that you are interested in Buddhism or Zen, please please do read his books!! :)

今天超幸運地，在但尼丁的市政大廳聆聽達賴喇嘛的演講。

整體而言是個很棒的演講，充滿睿智、深思卻又不乏幽默感。然而，我一開始是期待達賴喇嘛的演講內容會多著重於宗教，尤其是藏傳佛教。畢竟藏傳佛教和佛教的其他宗派根植於相同的幾部經典，但在實行上藏傳佛教又和其他宗派有著根本的差異。讓我感興趣的是，究竟藏傳佛教是如何解讀佛教經典的？可惜今天的演講對此並沒有著墨太多。

然而這仍是場好演講，而我也相當享受達賴喇嘛的神聖智慧。底下是演講過程中我記下的幾點筆記。

• 所有的宗教都有相同的目的：為人類(世界？)帶來愛、慈悲、和平和愉悅。既然所有的宗教都有相同的目的，宗教應該能用以增進世界的和諧，而非作為衝突的來源。
• 所有人生來都是相同的。當看著其它人，或描述自己的時候，應該要多著重在相同之處。一但一個人著墨於自己和他人之間的相異處，突然間這個人和其他人之間就會產生許多的距離。
• 有個人問說，當有外界的干擾，我們該如何保持內心的平靜？達賴喇嘛說，當這類事情發生時，我們應該要分析一下情況。當有個人試圖干擾你，這個人很有可能處於負面情緒中，而並不在他平常的狀態。一旦你理解這層道理，你就能決定自己是否要回應這個人的負面情緒。而回應又能分成兩個部分，角色和行為。角色上你要去停止這個負面情況和干擾，而行為上你能夠選擇原諒。
• 擴展你的視野！當你從一個小縫去窺探這個世界或問題的時候，你很容易會過度放大問題，而引發壓力、競爭、衝突以及種種負面情緒。然而，若是你能察覺這個世界很寬廣，從一個比較寬廣的角度來看同一件事情，你就會發現這問題其實很小，而你總能找到個 (和平的) 方法去解決它。

我完全贊成這四點！前兩點和我個人的觀點很相近。旦我也知道，來自於不同社群的人們有著不同的傳統、不同的價值觀，而同一個行為或辭彙，在不同社群中可能代表非常不一樣的意義。因此，要去實踐這兩點是很困難的。第三點可能是整場演講中最接近佛教教義的觀點，和禪宗的觀念相近。若是有人對於這類觀點有興趣，我大力推薦去閱讀聖嚴法師的書籍！

我還有記錄其他筆記，但紙本筆記不在手上，所以一時裡想不起來。或許之後有機會再補上吧。

總而言之，能親眼見到達賴喇嘛讓我相當開心。他在但尼丁的演講場場一票難求，而我很幸運能夠在最後一刻獲得一張票！:)