Samdhong Rinpoche Uncompromising Truth for a Compromised World Tibetan Buddhism and Today's Work

Abstract

I first met Venerable Professor Samdhong Rinpoche briefly during the 2003 conference of Tibet Support Groups held in Prague. Throughout the four days of that conference I observed his unassuming modesty and essential humility, qualities very rare among the accomplished, even rarer among political leaders. As Kalon Tripa, or Prime Minister, of the Tibetan Exile Government I expected to see him being served and attended by his subordinates. Instead, I noticed him quietly take his place in the buffet queue, help himself to a modest vegetarian meal, and find a seat, like everyone else, at any available table. In no way in any of the conference activities did Rinpoche seem to expect special consideration or deference to his position. Of course, in my mind this made him stand out all the more. Moving quietly about, clad in the maroon and yellow robes of a Tibetan Buddhist monk, he seemed to me to emanate, even from a distance, the energy of a wisdom that is completely at peace with itself, that has no need of being fed by submissive attention. I felt myself deeply drawn to him. In Tibetan Buddhism, as in all other religions, there is at least as much sham as there is authenticity; in Tibetan politics, as in all politics, there is duplicity. It was clear to me that Rinpoche, both as a spiritual teacher and as a politician, was completely authentic, transparent, and conformed to the truth in himself. It was only when Rinpoche delivered his speech on Satyagraha (Truth-Insistence) that I became aware of the real nature of his uncompromising views. That short speech, delivered with unshakeable self-confidence and an unexpected power, rippled through the conference more like a call to a new way of life rather than only an approach to the problem of Tibet. It brought home to me with a painful suddenness the distance between the way our world is run and the way it can be run. It infused me with hope. On the last evening of the conference I mustered up the courage to approach Rinpoche and, taking hold of his hand, to thank him for what he had given me. As I blurted out my inarticulate words of appreciation he gazed at me with a slightly surprised and amused detachment. How could he know what powerful seeds of revolution he had planted in my own thinking? From that point on I became driven by an impulse to bring Rinpoche’s total view to the attention of a much wider audience. It didn’t matter whether everyone who heard his truth became immediately influenced by it or not. Truth has its own power, its own potential to grip those who are alive to it, but also to lie like a patient seed in the deep mind of those who are not yet ready to acknowledge it. The important thing is that it be sown. At another level, I was surprised that Rinpoche’s views had not yet been gathered and disseminated to the wider world. This fact, I subsequently discovered, was again due to his modesty. Indeed, Rinpoche had been approached many times by writers who wanted to convey his story to the world, but their requests had been refused. In my own case, he agreed to many hours of interviews on the understanding that these should focus on his ideas and not on his life or his achievements. He conveyed to me his belief that it is the truth itself, and not the individual who speaks it, that has the power to work transformatively. In the end, having badgered Rinpoche relentlessly and having pulled all the strings at my disposal, I had my reward. But by what Karmic working this great reward finally came to me remains beyond my comprehension. During my 21 days in Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan Exile Government, and during the more than 20 hours of dialogue with Rinpoche, I was treated with the utmost kindness and consideration. I was accommodated at the Men Tsee Khang, the Tibetan Institute of Medicine, in an apartment adjacent to Rinpoche’s modest quarters, with a breathtaking view over the mountains of this northernmost corner of India and across the settlement of Tibetan exiles. In this environment, beautiful though it was, and surrounded by the happy, peaceful flow of Tibetan life in exile, I found myself struggling with an immense sense of sorrow and loss on behalf of a people who have been driven from their country and traditional way of life by a callous and unrepentant giant. Transcribing our recorded dialogues in the afternoons, I became dismayed by the sense that Rinpoche’s views might be too idealistic, too out of touch with the stubborn realities of our modern world order and its pragmatic orientation. Having expected something...