Venerable
Nechung Kuten, Thupten Ngodrup
Medium of the State Oracle of Tibet
(Excerpt
from notes)
There are seven billion people in the
world and many other creatures. Compared with the other creatures,
the human population is a minority. In Buddhist teaching, we make a
great effort to appreciate the human birth and also the Ten Endowments and the Eight Conditions. So we all know how precious our
birth is and if we look at the teachings, how rare to have this kind
of birth and then from a scientific standpoint, we can investigate.
So all sentient beings want happiness
and don't want suffering. That is a very essential issue we have to
understand. And so if we look at the human capacity and at our
intelligence and capacity for learning and knowledge, our position is
very unique.
Lions and tigers have bigger bodies.
Human intelligence makes us unique creatures. We should really
appreciate this fact. And so, if we appreciate this unique
intelligence that we possess and appreciate that we all strive for
happiness and that we are all striving for that, then we can really
appreciate this human birth. We look at the causes... And if you look
at the qualities of the Buddha, only a human birth can attain these
qualites, so then the human birth becomes really rare and precious.
And so we know we live in a world rich
in diversity of religious traditions and rich in philosophical
traditions. Each offers unique contributions for our [diverse
spiritual needs].
We cannot say this tradition is better
than the other tradition. Spiritual traditions are there to help
different beings. They offer different sets of methods for the
different beings. So, it's very important to respect these different
traditions.
So, 1. Appreciate the unique qualities
of a human birth, 2. Appreciate the unique qualities of these
different traditions. As His Holiness always mentions, we should
always respect and really get inspired by the different traditions,
because they all offer different things, so I really enjoy the other
traditions.
You may have noticed various Shugden
protests in New York City. So, from my end, we really respect the
different traditions. So, for Christians, Hindus, Muslims, each from
their end has their own rules and disciplines. Shugden are claiming a
new Gelukpa sect, more important than Buddha Shakyamuni, and that
Shugden is Manjushri. So it is really difficult for us to accept
that this is a Buddhist tradition. Buddha Shakyamuni is the most
important in the Buddhist tradition, and we could not consider anyone
else above that, so I'm just letting you know about this.
More info on the Shugden protests http://shugdeninfo.com/
More info on the Shugden protests http://shugdeninfo.com/
May all beings be happy and have the causes of happiness.
May all beings be free of suffering and the causes of suffering.
