Onder flinke belangstelling kwam zijne heiligheid de 14de Dalai Lama vanmorgen begeleid door een motorescorte uit Rotterdam aan bij de Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam. Misschien is deze man, die de Nobel Vredesprijs toegekend kreeg, wel de bekendste mens ter wereld. De tijden zijn best veranderd. De Nieuwe Kerk werd tijdens de Alteratie van A’dam in 1578 (het overlopen naar de opstand) van alle beelden ontdaan. De gebrandschilderde afbeeldingen van heiligen en monniken werden aan de dijk gezet. Maar in moderne tijd zijn de beelden en monniken weer helemaal terug.
Tijdens de binnenkomst van zijne heiligheid in de kerk was er orgelmuziek. Deze ochtend was het thema (medische) techniek en boeddhisme. Een jonge vrouw die als kind een ernstige ziekte overleefde zat naast de Dalai Lama en toonde haar elektrisch bediende onderarm en handprotheses die ze naar believen kon aansturen. De Dalai Lama was hier zeer geïnteresseerd en positief over. Ook een kleine robot die zieke kinderen in staat stelt lessen te volgen, op schoolreisje te gaan en ook met de klasgenootjes mee te doen, als een extern presentie van jezelf als je bedlegerig bent had zijn instemming. De robot behoorde toe aan een Engelse jongedame en ze stelde de Dalai Lama een vraag en ontboezemde dat ze hem erg mooi vond zo van dichtbij. Een zelflerend mini robotje in de vorm van een dino hield hij vast. Bij het knuffelen bewoog hij koddig met zijn staart. Toen de wetenschapper suggereerde dat in de toekomst de algoritmes en zelflerende software zo zou worden dat we ons wellicht zouden moeten afvragen of ze echt leven was de Dalai Lama minder onder de indruk. Als de robot ook zou eten en drinken was hij wel bereid te overwegen of er echt leven inzat.
De Dalai Lama herhaalde een paar keer dat de techniek de vijf zintuigen wel kon helpen of versterken maar dat het zesde zintuig, het subtielere mentale bewustzijn, niet op een gelijke manier positief te beïnvloeden zou zijn.Dood en het boeddhisme
In het tweede panel dat de Dalai Lama zaterdagmorgen gezelschap kwam houden zaten een bio-ethicus, een student vergelijkende religie wetenschappen en een medisch onderzoeker. Het thema was ziekte, ouderdom en dood en het boeddhisme. De medicus vertelde van de medische ontwikkelingen. Hij zei dat het gelukt was om muizen daadwerkelijk te verjongen. Nog even en dat zou vast ook bij mensen kunnen en dan zouden we een paar honderd jaar oud worden, verwacht hij. Hij vroeg zich af hoe je het leven dan nog zin geeft. De Dalai Lama keek niet overtuigd door het betoog. Hij noemde de huidige problemen met bevolkingsaanwas. Toen hij naar India vluchtte waren er 5 miljard mensen nu 7 en aan het einde van de eeuw wellicht 10 miljard. De medicus zei dat er modellen waren die voorspelden dat de leeftijdstoename gepaard zou gaan met lagere kinderaantallen. De Dalai Lama was opnieuw niet onder de indruk.
Tijdens deze open ochtend weidde hij een paar keer uit over de mondiale opwarming, die nu al problemen oplevert: In Nederland zullen we niet snel hoogwaterproblemen hebben maar in delen van India al wel. Toen hij over Afghanistan vloog zag hij meerdere kleine meren die compleet opgedroogd waren, vertelde hij. De bijeenkomst in de kerk werd afgesloten met een orgelstuk van Philip Glass.
Na afloop was er nog een meet de pers gelegenheid in het koor, waar nu een praalgraf voor Michiel de Ruiter, of wat daar van over is, huist.
Als eerste werd de Dalai Lama gevraagd een indruk te geven van de bijeenkomst die hij als erg goed zei te ervaren. Technology brengt comfort. Maar niet direct mentaal comfort. In India wordt daarom nu een educatiesyteem ontwikkeld waarbij de oude Indiase waarden geïncorporeerd worden met yoga en ook de aloude kennis van de training van de geest. Gebruik dus technologie om mensen te informeren, daar gaat het om. De mensen van de media hebben ook een verantwoordelijkheid om een gelukkige samenleving te creëren, een niet- schadende samenleving, met een artikel of een discussie.
De NOS stelde een vraag over wat de Dalai Lama geleerd had uit het gesprek met de slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik door boeddhistische leraren. De Dalai Lama: ‘Het was niet dat ik niet wist van deze dingen, het was al bekend. Maar in 1993, 25 jaar geleden, was er al voor gewaarschuwd op een congres voor westerse boeddhistische leraren in Dharamsala. Er werden toen al beschuldigingen geuit over seksueel misbruik. Maar de Boeddha maakte indertijd al heel duidelijk dat dit verworpen dient te worden. Boeddhistische leer is zowel voor monniken als niet-monniken een leer van niet-schaden. Dus deze mensen geven niks om Boeddha’s leer. Dus nu is het enige wat rest het openbaar maken van deze dingen. Binnenkort is er een bijeenkomst van alle kopstukken van de religieuze ordes in Dharamsala. Ze zouden dan een oproep moeten doen, dat religieuze leraren meer aandacht (aan het voorkomen van seksueel misbruik AS) moeten geven.’
Menselijk geluk
De volgende vraag gaat over hoe technologie gebruikt kan worden. Technologie wordt ook door de rijkeren gebruikt als machtsmiddel. Dalai Lama: ‘Het doel is het geluk van mensen. Technologie wordt uiteindelijk door mensen gedragen. Alle programmatuur wordt in eerste instantie door mensen geschreven. Daarom zouden we moeten letten op morele training, niet alleen op het religieuze geloof of opvattingen. Als de technologie dan door een compassievollere persoon wordt gebruikt, dat is nuttig. Mensen die alleen aan geld denken zullen meer en meer wapens verkopen, verschrikkelijk.’
De oudere generatie heeft al min of meer een verwend denken spoilt mind, zegt de Dalai Lama lachend. ‘Geld, geld, geld. In India is de educatie al begonnen om meer op waarden te letten. Volgend jaar is een internationale conferentie over educatie in Delhi. Met een curriculum waarin moreel gedrag aan de orde komt. Dus voornamelijk educatie en openheid van geest, niet alleen zelfzuchtigheid.’
Ten slotte krijg ik de gelegenheid de Dalai Lama wat vragen te stellen en bedank ik hem voor zijn komst. Ik vraag hoe het komt dat ik, terwijl ik op de hoogte ben van de mondiale opwarming, toch het vliegtuig pak, en de Dalai Lama ook? Hoe zit het dat kennis en gedrag niet op een lijn zitten en hoe is dat te verhelpen?
Dalai Lama: ‘Als een grote natie zoals Amerika zich terugtrekt uit het milieuakkoord van Parijs is dat droevig. Een groot land zou de wereld moeten leiden. Ook wapenverkoop aan een land waar al problemen zijn tegengaan. Ik denk dat dit droevig is. Dus hoe kan het zijn dat je een begrip hebt maar dat je ander gedrag hebt. En hoe verandert je dat?
Voornamelijk educatie en (…) maar voornamelijk educatie. Ik voel me echt verdrietig als Amerika, de leider van de vrije wereld… Een groot land zou meer aandacht moeten schenken aan de mondiale opwarming (…) verkoop wapens. Is een gebrek aan morele principes, denk ik.
En dan de beperkte (milieu)vervuiling door te vliegen. Om dan te zeggen, ‘nu is het globale milieu zo belangrijk dat we alle vluchten stoppen’, ‘alle auto’s moeten stoppen’, dan zullen vele nuttige dingen daaronder lijden. Dus we moeten gebalanceerd en met een breder perspectief en vooruitziend te werk gaan.
Dan, mijn persoonlijke inzet is gericht op het geven van een gevoel van eenheid voor 7 miljard menselijke wezens. Wij zijn eigenlijk menselijke broers en zussen. We zouden niet te veel moeten vlassen op verschillen. De media zouden mensen moeten inlichten. Veel van de problemen die we ondervinden zijn het gevolg van het plaatsen van teveel aandacht op secundaire verschillen. Dus de enige remedie is om naar een dieper vlak te gaan. We hebben te maken met 7 miljard van dezelfde broeders en zusters. Dat is heel belangrijk. En dan is er harmonie. Verschillende religies en filosofieën, dat is een noodzakelijkheid. De verschillende gelovigen van de verschillende religies hebben verschillende oplossingen. Dus dat is noodzakelijk, zo lang alle religies een boodschap van liefde uitdragen. Tolerantie, vergevingsgezindheid. Dus verschillende filosofieën, of het nu God is, of niet, maakt niet uit. Alle zouden de boodschap van liefde en vergeving uit moeten dragen. Dus, verschillende religies zijn slechts verschillende methoden. Maar met hetzelfde doel.
Dus de zes miljard mensen die deze dingen geloven (volgens Z.H. is ongeveer 1 miljard mensen niet gelovig) zijn verschillend in dingen. Voor sommigen creëerde God alles. Voor anderen is er geen creator, behalve jezelf. Dat is ook effectiever. Net als voor geneesmiddelen, we kunnen niet van mijn medicijn zeggen, dit medicijn is het beste, we kunnen het niet zeggen. Eerder kunnen we zeggen: ‘dit medicijn is goed of slecht nadat we de ziekte van de patiënt beoordeeld hebben’. En ook de leeftijd en andere omstandigheden. Dan kunnen we zeggen, in jouw geval, is dit het beste medicijn. Daarom stel ik nooit dat het boeddhisme de beste religie is, nooit. Ik zal nooit tot het boeddhisme bekeren in niet-boeddhistische landen, nooit. Harmonie. Dus de mensen van de media hebben de mogelijkheid om mensen iets te leren. Houdt u dat alstublieft voor de geest.’
Dolma zegt
Compassion for
Doctors
Ken Holmes
In Brussels, quite some years ago, a talk had been set up for Akong Rinpoche. He was to address a gathering of some 200 doctors and health-care professionals. the topic was Tibetan Medicine and he was billed as being both a Tibetan lama and a Tibetan doctor. The venue was a very magnificent one, the King’s Palace Museum if I remember correctly. As I understood Rinpoche’s English better than most, he had asked me to interpret for him. What follows is the gist of his talk. I have used one or two terms he did not use currently in English, such as “pathology”, as I did when interpreting the talk, as that was what he meant. One or two small points may have come from our conversation immediately afterwards. I translated from his English into French and he had felt free to interlace the English with Tibetan expresions. His talk did not go down well and, disgruntled, people started geting up and leaving. I think at least half left. Reading what follows, you may understand why.
“It is my belief that in the earliest times of human development, people were much wiser about their environment because they lived in direct contact with it, like the wild animals. It was a natural wisdom, an inner knowing. They were also wiser about life and death, impermanence and so forth because they were faced with it in a vivid, uncushioned way. For the environment, they would know which plants helped in cases of wounds or sickness. They also had a natural feel for what was nutritious or not. Like dogs and cats who know what grass to chew when they are unwell, the humans had this intuitive feel for the plants, minerals and animal products of their lives, as both medicines and foods. Some would know more than others and the older generation would be respected for their knowledge through experience.
However, as humans settled down and became farmers rather than hunters and nomads, they became gradually more and more disconnected from the “natural world” and, as time passed, it became just a few individuals who were guardians of the ancient wisdoms. These became the doctors, the medicine men, thesages, the elders. Because of their relative power over life and death, they became people of power: respected elders and chiefs. So, unlike the dogs and cats, who don’t have four-legged dog doctors and cat doctors, humans developed a medical profession.
As towns and cities developed, along with their civilisations, the traditional knowledge lost more contact with the natural environment and that initiatory, hands-on, in-the-jungle apprenticeship became a more formalised and abstract training. Medical theory developed in the place of medical intuition. In the overall process, for many reasons, a certain arrogance appeared in the medical practitioner: “I know and you don’t.” With this lack of humility came an inflexibility and distancing from the patient. I’m sure it has been like this all over the world. Unless handled carefully, possession of knowledge can lead to pride and all the insecurity and protection-mechanisms that go with pride. A natural consequence of this is a diminishing of and sometimes even an absence of compassion. I do not mean compassion as a sentiment but compassion as a vivid and true awareness, on the doctor’s part, of the person they are treating. One is treating the entirety of a human being, in their personal situation and context—not treating just a body, a mass of flesh and bones, and certainly not just treating a specific pathology. More compassion means less ego. Compassion is a doctor’s greatest friend and lack of compassion is a weakness. I know most of you here are doctors. I am not blaming or attacking you but trying to help us all serve our patients better. Having grown up in Tibet and been a refugee in India, I arrived in the UK and worked for some years in a famous hospital in Oxford. Coming from another world, it is sometimes much easier to see the strengths and weaknesses in a system.
This particular question of arrogance and lack of compassion becomes much more shaky when the medical science is no longer dealing with the natural substances of the living world and social situations unchanged for millennia but instead is coping with a changing new world and an ever-changing “science” informing the medical view of things, not to mention new and synthetic medicines.
I came here today to tell you that, as far as I am concerned, compassion is the most important factor in a doctor’s training and practice. Influencing the patients’ illnesses are their family situation, their society, their diets, their personal history … so many things. Unless you are sensitive to that complexity of the person in front of you, with a direct impression of what is going on, how do you expect to make a good diagnosis? Your diagnosis will be based on a few technical tests, a few words from the patient and will be made hastily. You will be treating a passing condition but not the person. Compassion means the living connection between you and the patient.
After diagnosis, compassion is also a major factor in the healing in the treatment itself. However you explain it—through psychosomatic influence, placebo theory, subtle human contact—I have seen in practice how two doctors may be giving the same medicine to treat patients in similar conditions but one doctor is consistently getting better results than the other, through his or her compassion and humanity. The patient feels it, knows it and benefits from it. On the other hand, the patient also feels the distance and haughtiness of the doctor, an inability to be “heard” for what one is, for what is happening to one, and this is not helpful. The feeling of being supported by the physician is a very important factor in healing.
I can see that some of you are leaving and that you are very disappointed with my talk. You hoped I would speak of Tibetan herbs or of taking pulses and so on and you are thinking, “Who’s he to tell me to be compassionate?” I think we could all do with more compassion, a lot more compassion. Compassion is endless. Pride is always an obstacle.
However, please do leave if you do not want to hear. I am here to try and help you and I’m sure that even if I did tell you tonight about a few anecdotes from Tibetan medicine, you would never put them to use and will probably have forgotten them in two months’ time. But if you develop even a bit more compassion and humility, more open-mindedness, then that will help you day after day, year after year, and all your patients will benefit. You will be less stressed. So, I’ll carry on talking about it…… ”
Compassion for
Doctors
Ken Holmes
In Brussels, quite some years ago, a talk had been set up for Akong Rinpoche. He was to address a gathering of some 200 doctors and health-care professionals. the topic was Tibetan Medicine and he was billed as being both a Tibetan lama and a Tibetan doctor. The venue was a very magnificent one, the King’s Palace Museum if I remember correctly. As I understood Rinpoche’s English better than most, he had asked me to interpret for him. What follows is the gist of his talk. I have used one or two terms he did not use currently in English, such as “pathology”, as I did when interpreting the talk, as that was what he meant. One or two small points may have come from our conversation immediately afterwards. I translated from his English into French and he had felt free to interlace the English with Tibetan expresions. His talk did not go down well and, disgruntled, people started geting up and leaving. I think at least half left. Reading what follows, you may understand why.
“It is my belief that in the earliest times of human development, people were much wiser about their environment because they lived in direct contact with it, like the wild animals. It was a natural wisdom, an inner knowing. They were also wiser about life and death, impermanence and so forth because they were faced with it in a vivid, uncushioned way. For the environment, they would know which plants helped in cases of wounds or sickness. They also had a natural feel for what was nutritious or not. Like dogs and cats who know what grass to chew when they are unwell, the humans had this intuitive feel for the plants, minerals and animal products of their lives, as both medicines and foods. Some would know more than others and the older generation would be respected for their knowledge through experience.
However, as humans settled down and became farmers rather than hunters and nomads, they became gradually more and more disconnected from the “natural world” and, as time passed, it became just a few individuals who were guardians of the ancient wisdoms. These became the doctors, the medicine men, the sages, the elders. Because of their relative power over life and death, they became people of power: respected elders and chiefs. So, unlike the dogs and cats, who don’t have four-legged dog doctors and cat doctors, humans developed a medical profession.
As towns and cities developed, along with their civilisations, the traditional knowledge lost more contact with the natural environment and that initiatory, hands-on, in-the-jungle apprenticeship became a more formalised and abstract training. Medical theory developed in the place of medical intuition. In the overall process, for many reasons, a certain arrogance appeared in the medical practitioner: “I know and you don’t.” With this lack of humility came an inflexibility and distancing from the patient. I’m sure it has been like this all over the world. Unless handled carefully, possession of knowledge can lead to pride and all the insecurity and protection-mechanisms that go with pride. A natural consequence of this is a diminishing of and sometimes even an absence of compassion. I do not mean compassion as a sentiment but compassion as a vivid and true awareness, on the doctor’s part, of the person they are treating. One is treating the entirety of a human being, in their personal situation and context—not treating just a body, a mass of flesh and bones, and certainly not just treating a specific pathology. More compassion means less ego. Compassion is a doctor’s greatest friend and lack of compassion is a weakness. I know most of you here are doctors. I am not blaming or attacking you but trying to help us all serve our patients better. Having grown up in Tibet and been a refugee in India, I arrived in the UK and worked for some years in a famous hospital in Oxford. Coming from another world, it is sometimes much easier to see the strengths and weaknesses in a system.
This particular question of arrogance and lack of compassion becomes much more shaky when the medical science is no longer dealing with the natural substances of the living world and social situations unchanged for millennia but instead is coping with a changing new world and an ever-changing “science” informing the medical view of things, not to mention new and synthetic medicines.
I came here today to tell you that, as far as I am concerned, compassion is the most important factor in a doctor’s training and practice. Influencing the patients’ illnesses are their family situation, their society, their diets, their personal history … so many things. Unless you are sensitive to that complexity of the person in front of you, with a direct impression of what is going on, how do you expect to make a good diagnosis? Your diagnosis will be based on a few technical tests, a few words from the patient and will be made hastily. You will be treating a passing condition but not the person. Compassion means the living connection between you and the patient.
After diagnosis, compassion is also a major factor in the healing in the treatment itself. However you explain it—through psychosomatic influence, placebo theory, subtle human contact—I have seen in practice how two doctors may be giving the same medicine to treat patients in similar conditions but one doctor is consistently getting better results than the other, through his or her compassion and humanity. The patient feels it, knows it and benefits from it. On the other hand, the patient also feels the distance and haughtiness of the doctor, an inability to be “heard” for what one is, for what is happening to one, and this is not helpful. The feeling of being supported by the physician is a very important factor in healing.
I can see that some of you are leaving and that you are very disappointed with my talk. You hoped I would speak of Tibetan herbs or of taking pulses and so on and you are thinking, “Who’s he to tell me to be compassionate?” I think we could all do with more compassion, a lot more compassion. Compassion is endless. Pride is always an obstacle.
However, please do leave if you do not want to hear. I am here to try and help you and I’m sure that even if I did tell you tonight about a few anecdotes from Tibetan medicine, you would never put them to use and will probably have forgotten them in two months’ time. But if you develop even a bit more compassion and humility, more open-mindedness, then that will help you day after day, year after year, and all your patients will benefit. You will be less stressed. So, I’ll carry on talking about it…… ”
CALLING THE GURU FROM AFAR
“Lama Jangbö”, the original words of Jamgön Kongtrül Rinpoche
reworked in modern form by Hannah Huendorf
Melody: Hannah Huendorf
Backing keyboard & voice: Ken Holmes
O lord! lama dear me, o lama please hear me,
like a lost child I cry, with longing, oh my!
With compassionate heart, you are never apart
from the Buddhas of old and just as you foretold
you’ve been born once again in the guise of a man
O Karmapa, the whole world calls your name
Your blessing’s sweet rain has not begun to wane
but gripped by affliction, evil ways and addiction,
we commit many a crime and go down all the time
O Karmapa please hold us with your loving care
All I’ve done before makes no sense no more
When I thought I practised dharma I just collected worldly karma
Not a single realisation, without you there’s no salvation
O Karmapa please hold me with your loving care
I am chased from the rear by Yama’s henchmen of fear
While before me all I see is every day’s monotony
In between, I go astray, I notice time just slips away,
O Karmapa please hold me with your loving care
When I was young and able my mind was unstable.
My body was strong but I was drifting along.
Now the dharma comes to mind but I am old, toothless and blind,
O Karmapa please hold me with your loving care
When my time comes to go, I will want to stay, oh no!
I want to take my possessions, all my little obsessions.
Companions, friends, lovers all, but all alone I will fall,
O Karmapa please hold me with your loving care
Down bardo’s peril I fall with no power at allbut
Propelled by the forces of this life’s ripened causes.
Just like in last night’s dream, all I can do is scream.
O Karmapa please hold me with your loving care
Everything I can see is just like a fantasy
And this body I hold onto will not last as I want to.
Like a rainbow’s display, it will all fade away.
O Karmapa please hold me with your loving care
With no faith in my guides, no compassion besides,
The robes in which I dress are just show biz, I know.
I shave like an ascetic but that’s just pathetic,
O Karmapa please hold me with your loving care.
I can brag how much I know but there’s nothing to show.
In the mountains I roam yet I long for a home.
Like a yogi I gaze, though I’ve never had a taste,
O Karmapa please hold me with your loving care.
I am all too aware of others’ dirty affairs,
While oblivious of my own, though I’m rotten to the bone.
With such obvious deceit, don’t I just cause my own defeat,
O Karmapa please hold me with your loving care
Buddha’s teachings so kind are all meant to tame my mind
Yet when I study or reflect for an income and respect,
How could that ever be part of the way to set me free?
O Karmapa please hold me with your loving care
With a practitioner’s airs, I secure my affairs,
Lead my sponsors astray, fritter my whole life away,
Oh how will I mourn when my last rasping breath is drawn,
O Karmapa please hold me with your loving care
My heart full of regret, I feel very upset
When I think of my plight, oh please buddhas with your might
Help all beings gone astray and us practitioners on the way
O Karmapa please hold us with your loving care
Child I am, what to do, I have no hope but you
Only you alone know this beggar’s pleasure and woe
Lord, I’m feeling so blue, may I be one with you
In the palace of bliss in the expanse of what is.
(some years ago, Akong rinpoché had a big conversation with doctors. They left the meeting. I suppose he said the same as the dalai lama now. And i dare thinking, china may invent all kinds of robots etc, but that will give no spirituel evolution of a person. ….