Religious Scholar

The Dalai Lama, one of the great spiritual leaders of our time, probably would not have the influence and widespread respect he has earned without the help of his public relations staff. I am sure that millions of people who subscribe to his tweets and Facebook posts think he just wakes up every morning with these gems of wisdom pouring from his tongue. As a former speechwriter and public relations person for various leaders myself, I assure you this is not the case.

So today, I wish to celebrate not only the teachings of the Dalai Lama but also the wisdom of his public relations staff, who craft his basic ideas (culled from Vajrayana Buddhism) into memorable soundbites which inspire and motivate us to be better, kinder people. Here is a wonderful example from today's Twitter feed. And remember: do not underestimate the value of good PR and writing staff!

"We need to strengthen such inner values as contentment, patience and tolerance, as well as compassion for others."

It's not surprising that some religious leaders specialize in intolerance. They actively discriminate against women, gays, and other marginalized peoples within their tradition, preserving and protecting a strong exclusionary power base .

Just as patriotism can be the refuge of a scoundrel, these leaders have a positive facade to hide behind. It's called helping the poor. Helping the poor is a key principle of any great religion worth its salt. But it also makes a convenient smokescreen for bigoted leaders to hide behind.

When a new religious leader proclaims, "I am here to help the poor!" we all cheer and are less likely to pay attention to the backward-looking bigotry that will characterize his reign.

What we need are religious leaders who will aver energetic commitment to all people: the poor, women, the LGBT community, to the environment which sustains us, and to the living creatures with whom we share this planet. We do not need leaders who hide behind the poor so they can continue to discriminate against the majority of humankind.

When religious leaders start talking about the poor, be sure to check the backstory: they are usually talking less about the poor than they are about the agendas they wish to pursue without public notice.

Eastern and Western religious traditions use different words for a similar concept.  Eastern traditions such as Buddhism admonish followers to develop “compassion” for all beings. Western traditions, such as Christianity, emphasize the need for “love.”

Love is a warmer word, rich with feeling. Compassion is more cerebral, less focused on emotion.

In fact, it’s more complex than that: Christianity, for example, recognizes four types of love. They are:

• ·         love between family members (storge),
• ·         erotic or romantic love (eros),
• ·         affection without erotic overtones (philos), and
• ·         ideal love (agape).

Because love in most of its forms is tangled up with human emotions, it is not always a reliable foundation for reasonable behavior. On the other hand, Eastern compassion can strike some people as cold or detached. To put it another way, love by itself can be too personal, while compassion may be too abstract.

Recently, I’ve noticed that the Dalai Lama (the leader of Tibetan Buddhism) has been using a different term that seems to supplement love and compassion. That term is “warm-heartedness.”  This term adds a personal warmth to compassion, and a calm, softening quality to love. When used together, the three terms create a trinity of heart-felt caring, compassion, and deep feeling.

What could be better than to live and act with love, compassion, and warm-heartedness? Surely this is a recipe for peace and harmony among all people of good will.

Many wisdom and religious traditions tell of a door that needs to be opened. Behind this door, they say, is the pathway to enlightenment, or perhaps Enlightenment itself.

But seekers do not need to fly to the Himalayas or the Ganges river bank to find this important door. There is a reason why so many traditions point to the center of the forehead, between the eyebrows, when speaking of this door. For the door to Enlightenment is our own understanding, centered deep within our own minds. When the cobwebs of delusion and misinformation are swept away, we have the power to open this door and enter into our own understanding. That is the inevitability and ease of Enlightenment.

The sixth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita deals with balance. Dr. Vijayendra Pratap, founder of the Yoga Research Society based in Philadelphia, Pa., tells us that the Sanskrit word, "yukta," used in this chapter means "proper." In all things, we need to ask ourselves, what is proper in this context, in my life? As verse 16 states, Yoga is not for one who eats too much or too little--nor...for one who sleeps too much or too little (Swami Swarupananda, ed.). As Dr. Pratap states, what is a proper diet for an ant is not proper for an elephant. Some people need eight or nine hours of sleep to be healthy and productive, others may need four or five. Clearly, one size does not fit all.

"To (the person) who is temperate in eating...recreation...work effort...sleep and wakefulness, Yoga becomes the destroyer of misery," the Gita observes in 6:17.  We should be sensitive, observant, and still our busy minds so we can truly understand our own needs and the needs of others. In this context of silent alertness, we come to know what is proper.