A talk to the alumni members attending the Golden Jubilee Celebration of Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarnath, Varanasi

In the morning of 2 January 2018, Tuesday, at the request of the Alumni Association of Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarnath, Varanasi, His Eminence Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche gave a talk to the alumni members attending the Golden Jubilee Celebration of the Institute.

Organised by the Alumni Association, the talk was convened in the Institute’s Atisha Hall. Alumni members from 12 countries attended the talk.

Acharya Jampa Samten, of the Alumni Association Committee, gave a brief introduction to the occasion, with emphasis on the immense contribution, over 30 years of Directorship of the Institute, by His Eminence Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche, bringing this Institute to its present premier prestige and excellence from its early days.

Thereafter, His Eminence Rinpoche gave the talk:

“Prof. Geshe Ngawang Samten, the Honourable Vice-chancellor of Tibetan Institute, Sarnath; Achary Yeshe Phuntsok, the Honourable Deputy Chairperson of the Tibetan Administration; Kungo Thupten Lungrik, my colleague, the Honourable former Kalon—more so than a former Kalon, his Honourable is a former Chairperson; the present and former lecturers of this Institute; gathered here for the celebration, with a great interest, alumni members from some 12 countries, who had studied at this Institute.

“As Acharya Jampa Samten has said, the representatives of the Alumni Association came to see me thrice, asking to visit here, and repeatedly insisted with the reasoning that there would be great significances. The Vice-chancellor had earlier written to me, and also upon meeting in person told me that it would be good if I could come to the Golden Jubilee Celebration and the two-day International Conference prior to the celebration. Earlier in the past, when I was young, I was fond of celebrations, but now when aged I don’t have that much interest. Anyway, a function is like a rite and ritual; I told the Vice-chancellor that I be not required to attend.

“Prior to that, I had [already scheduled] to go to Bodhgaya, for the three-day (5 – 7 January 2018) teachings to Indians, at Bodhgaya, by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, which was already scheduled since a year ago. Along with that the Drepung Loseling Tulku Association had asked [me] for teachings to the young reincarnate tulkus, at Bodhgaya; the Association had asked for spending some days with them, to hold discussions on scriptures and other fields—that programme had been finalised. As such, I had thought that I would not have to attend here. But the Alumni Association has insisted that I must certainly come over, besides they had sent a car. I have, therefore, made it here.

“I am happy and satisfied with arriving here today. Many former students from faraway have gathered here; there are many who have come from the Northern Unpleasant-sound continent: ‘At half day the sun sets,/ And half a day, simultaneous [sun]rise;//’—according to [these lines in] Abhidharmakośa, the United States and Canada are like the Northern continent Unpleasant-sound; but those of Unpleasant-sound are described as of thousand years lifespan—I don’t know if [the alumni members from those countries] are like that!

“It is very good that you have made it to the Golden Jubilee Celebration, it is as remembering of the monastic institution and school where one had studied. From one side, perhaps you have not seen each other for many years; as such, old friends meet again—in the English language it is called ‘reunion.’ At the same time this would give inspiration to the present students at the institute, and would enhance their determination. I think that it would certainly make it meaningful and beneficial for you to see the progress and the innovations as regards the institute’s external infrastructure and the internal contents, subsequent to your graduation from this institute.

“After many years when we meet today there are some who have become senior in age and not recognisable; those who were slim in the past have now become very stoutly fat; those who were fat have now become slim; those who had black hair have now grey hair—there may be some who have dyed their hair!

“In 1959 some 80,000 Tibetans arrived in India. They had to think of both the means of sustenance and their individual life career. It is as His Holiness the Dalai Lama briefly mentioned yesterday. All the Tibetan exiles that had come through Bhutan were kept in a group at Buxa Duar in Bengal. All those that had come through Mon (Arunachal Pradesh) were kept at Missamari, in Tezpur district, in the state of Assam. Those were the two places where the exiles were kept together in collection. The plan was to send the younger ones—or those below the age of 20’s—from amongst them, to schools; the adults were sent for road-building labour, as a means of livelihood, for the settlements were not yet established then. The aged and the sick were provided Aged Homes and medical care, and so forth. It was in the thoughts of His Holiness the Dalai Lama that those engaged at monastic studies in the monastic institutions—of all denominations—and in the major monastic seats rather continue with their studies, without having to go for road-building works, etc. The scholars who had already arrived at various places in exile submitted requests [for continued studies], thus initially there were 500 scholars, later on increased to 1500, at Buxa, where those coming from Missamari were combined together; a part was relocated to Dalhousie. That was the temporary situation that took place at that time.

“The plans to send to settlements, road-building works and to schools were easy to explain to Indians, but as regards those who were to continue with their studies at the major monastic seats, there were two questions for which [we] didn’t know to give any answer. Upon being asked, ‘How long the studies are going to be?,’ when it was answered back that it would be twenty, thirty years, the Indians were so surprised, not able to conceive in their mind, rather wondering what would there be that requires so long a time to study, and that the scholars were all old and aged, that if it were children it would be reasonable to be studying for twenty, thirty years.

“Second, when it was put to us, What type of work would they get after they finish their studies?, and when responded that there would not be any work to seek, they would be doing practices subsequent to their studies, those two replies did not suit the Indians. When it was said that the studies are for the entire life, and that the studies are not for seeking jobs, the Indian administrators conjectured that the scholars would have to be cared for their entire life. As such, although the plan was to place 1500 ordained scholars at Buxa, the number had to be limited, and that other than transforming [the Buxa monastic centre] into a university—with examinations and certificates—it would not be possible to stay at school for the entire life; thus there was an opinion to make Buxa centre into a university.

“Prior to that, in 1956-1057 Gyalsay Bakula Rinpoche paid a visit to Tibet, to attend the Geshe graduation of the present His Eminence Gadhen Trisur Rinpoche. Mainly, Prime Minister Nehru had advised the visit, to know the situation in Tibet. Also, upon returning from Tibet Bakula Rinpoche had told Nehru that there was now no hope for Tibet, sooner or later the country would be destroyed.

“Owing to that, there were now some preparations in Nehru’s thoughts. Prior to our arrival into exile in India the Institute of Buddhist Studies, Ladakh had been established. Subsequent to Bakula Rinpoche’s return from Tibet there had been the plans for establishing the Institute of Buddhist Studies, Ladakh; the second plan was to establish, what was then called, Namgyal Research Institute, Sikkim; to establish in Bihar’s capital city Patna K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute, which was to preserve the text brought from Tibet by Rahul Sankritayayan; and Jagdish Kasyab’s Pali Institute; in Nehru’s thoughts these were to be as a part of the holders of the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism in future. At that time there was an acute scarcity of personnel. Nonetheless, when seeing a great change going to take place with the situation in Tibet Nehru invited His Holiness the Dalai Lama to the 2500th Anniversary of Buddha Jayanti Celebrations, in 1956-1957. Those ways of thinking of Nehru were of very long-term foresight and so profound, which we feel to be so only now.

“At that time the works which were inconvenient to undertake by the government fronting up had to be done through non-governmental organisations, a system made earlier during the British time. Mahabodhi Society was the organiser of the Buddha Jayanti Celebrations; in actuality, the Indian government provided the entire administrative and financial assistance. The president of Mahabodhi Society at that time was the late Dharma King (Choegyal) of Sikkim. The invitation letter to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, for pilgrimage to India, was sent through that organisation. Perhaps you do not know of those historical situations.

“When the invitation letter arrived it was the time of when the travels and so forth of His Holiness the Dalai Lama had to be consulted with the Chinese; when they were consulted they said that it would not be suitable with the status of His Holiness to be travelling at the invitation of such a small non-governmental organisation, if it were an invitation from the government it could be considered; if His Holiness was to travel merely at the invitation of an organisation it would be lowering the status of His Holiness, “below dignity,” in diplomatic parlance—saying so the Chinese suggested that it would be alright if His Holiness did not travel.

“When Indians were told that His Holiness would not be able to attend the celebrations it was suddenly decided that the Indian government would extend the invitation, and Apa Pant, the Dreychi Lonchen, was sent as a special envoy to Tibet—in our Tibetan language we called “Dreychi Lonchen,” (“Minister for Sikkim in General”) but the Indians called that “Political Officer” for Sikkim. At that time Sikkim was a foreign nation (a sovereign country), but did not have embassies; also, it was not a state of India and not a part of India. So it was a protectorate under India. In the past, during British time there was the system of placing a representative of the government each where there were kings, akin to ‘Residency’ and ‘Regent.’ Similarly, the representative of the Indian government stationed in Sikkim was Apa Pant. He specifically came to Tibet to invite His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He visited the monastic seats as well at that time; we were at the debate courtyard of Loseling, and it was the first time to see an Indian,…attired in chudidar pajama and a long overcoat; he had come to visit Loseling debate courtyard.

“Since the invitation had come from the government, the Chinese government could not request His Holiness to not go. Nevertheless, much mental discomfort had occurred to the communist Chinese government at that time: they were concerned what would eventuate if His Holiness went to India and met with foreign dignitaries, and so forth; they also had the suspicion that His Holiness might stay in India. But since they had already said in the beginning that His Holiness would not be visiting India if, other than invitation from the government, any organisation were to invite, so it became inconvenient for the Chinese government to say then His Holiness would not be visiting. This was as if we were fortunate. His Holiness stayed in India for some four months. At that time the Chinese Premier Chou Enlai came four times to India…had met Nehru four times, which I think was to try to persuade His Holiness to not stay in India. Finally, Nehru told His Holiness that it would be alright to return to Tibet; besides, the prophetic words from the deities were in accord with that.”

His Eminence Rinpoche continued extemporaneously, narrating the way how the Institute had come about on its path of 50 years, starting with the details that the Buxa monastic centre had become as a prelude to the establishment of the Institute; the early days of the Institute as a “constituent wing” of Sampuranand Sanskrit University, Varanasi; the three years of assessment state in that situation, and then the setting up and recommendation of Chandramani Review Committee, of the Central government; then, D. P. Yadav Committee; during each critical stage of the Institute’s progress the perfect guidance by His Holiness the Dalai Lama; the contribution by Dr. Kapila ji; UGC Committee’s assessment visit and the approval of deemed-to-be-university status.

Continuing on, His Eminence Rinpoche said: The unique feature of this Institute has been that within the same Institute the entire lineages of Tibetan Buddhism, including that of Bon, can be studied, and mutually consulted and so on, which had not happened in the past even in Tibet; anywhere at present an institute such as this would not be found; also, it is an institute where the traditional Buddhist ways of studying are being maintained to some extent; the four great goals of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in establishing this Institute: 1. To preserve Tibetan knowledge heritage; 2. To restore into Sanskrit (Indian language) the texts no more extant in Indian language; 3. To be a place for those of Himalayan regions to study Buddhist teachings, for they are no more able to go to Tibet to study as used to be in the past; 4. To place the traditional Tibetan studies with the framework of a modern university.

His Eminence Rinpoche reminded that it is important to be aware of the kindness of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in the beginning, with the visionary thinking of establishing the Institute; in the middle, of taking decisions when implementing the plans; and at the end, in reaping of the results.

In the context of the contemporary direction of modern education institutions, His Eminence Rinpoche pointed out: The modern education system is geared towards producing products for the market, as “human resources,” as commodity raw materials, which are refined at schools and universities, for multinational companies; the attitude is to make servants, not masters, not given the intellect to decide for oneself what is or is not worthy of oneself. Although this Institute’s direction is not of treating humans as commodity raw materials, at the insistence of a former chairperson of this Institute, an internal informal survey of alumni—with some representative classes—was carried out and it was found that there was almost nobody that is unemployed; even the few percentages apparently not into “employment” was found staying in monasteries or had become lifetime meditational hermits. …Many are graduates from this Institute who are engaged in outstanding works beneficial to spirituality (Dharma), society and culture—one needs not to be arrogant of that, rather it shows that the Institute has not lagged behind.

As a guidance to the alumni members at the talk, His Eminence advised: Those who graduate from here, after studying such a profound field of knowledge, have to be distinct from those studying merely modern subjects, with regards to accomplishing benefits of oneself, the society and the world—this is something one has to realise to be so by oneself experientially.

By ‘modern subjects,’ they mean studying solely external things, not of the mind; Gandhi described it as “knowledge of letters.” Gandhi said that the modern education is not a shiksa (spiritual training), it is a knowledge of letters, aksar gyan, merely knowing how to write and read. The actual education, to Gandhi, is that which improves the thoughts, that which leads the thoughts towards truth, which in essence is to eschew the thought of violence and to be with the thought of non-violence.

As such, our education system here is where the realities of the external things and that of the mind are viewed as equally important; in terms of science, between the science of the mind and that of matters (physics), ours have slightly more of the mind. Sourced from ours, these days in the West ‘social emotional studies’ have become very prevalent. The word ‘social’ is used in place of our ‘all sentient beings’; they do not say ‘all sentient beings,’ rather, excluding animals and the natural elements, they use it (‘social’) as limited to just the human society. When the importance of the dependent-arising reality of all things, the relationship path, is recognised experientially as precious, the study of ‘social emotions’ becomes indispensable; in not recognising so, they understand that there would not be social stability and security, and if there is no social stability and security, there would be hindrances to material progress. Going thus in circle, it becomes recognised that it is indispensably important to take interest in the mind, which is what we profess so.

Those who graduate from this Institute need to be in their behaviour, ways of thinking and in guiding others, concordant with a person who has an understanding of the science of the mind—I think that to be greatly important. Some years ago, we met here, and at that time I had mentioned few things, of which one of the things I remember is, those who graduate from here need to be able to become leaders of thoughts. ….The deeds of speech and body are determined by the mind.

His Eminence Rinpoche thereafter advised on the need to accomplish one’s responsibilities as a race; the need to have an unbiased mind and intellect, two important things to acquire through education; and so forth.

(The Audio-visual recording of the talk is at this site: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=achgDVc55Xg)