There can be Two Visions of the Same Thing

  I would like to quote from the Story of Tibet by Thomas Laird. It is a part of the Interviews with the Dalai Lama regarding the History of Tibet which is what the book is about. In other words "The Story of Tibet" is the Dalai Lama's comments about Tibetan History. This following quote I found very useful.

Begin quote on page 5 of the Introduction:

"There can be two visions of the same thing, one of people who have pure insight developed through spiritual practice and one that is purely conventional. In these special cases---these cases are rare but important---both are true, both are reality. So there are two viewpoints, one common and one uncommon. The uncommon viewpoint is not considered history, because historians cannot record such things. But we cannot say that such things are just the imagination of the Buddhist faithful. They can also be true." end quote.

The following is an example of what the Dalai Lama was talking about:

Begin quote:

"For example, he described an event that took place around 1920, in which a respected Buddhist teacher, Serkhong Rinpoche, was among a group of people who had an audience with the 13th Dalai Lama. The teacher had spent 5 hours a day, or more meditating, over many years. For Tibetans, he had "purified his mind". Five of the Six who met with the Dalai Lama that day had a normal meeting with him. The sixth man, Serkhong Rinpoche, though in the same room at the same time, did not see the Thirteenth as an ordinary man at all. He saw the Buddhist Bodhisattva Chenrizi instead; rather than conversing with the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, he heard secret teachings on meditation practice. This happened while everyone else---men who had not purified their minds--just saw a man with a mustache dressed in red robes talking about the affairs of state. Which event took place?" end quote of the Dalai Lama Speaking in "The Story of Tibet" by Thomas Laird on page 5 of the introduction.

The Dalai Lama and the author Thomas Laird continue their dialog:
The Dalai Lama talks first:

begin quote bottom of page 6:

"The Dalai Lama then proceeded to describe the construction of the Potala in detail. As he talked for half an hour, it became an amazing display of his trained memory. Historic eras and temple names flew off his lips without any hesitation, from a man who had told me he didn't know that much about history.

When he was finished, he looked at me and said, "But still, for someone who has trained his mind, the Potala is still just a building. Meditation is not a philosophy, it is a technique to develop that type of attitude, detachment."

He had answered the question as I thought it should be, yet I could not let go entirely of my annoyance with his detachment.

"But you also understand that for the common man the Potala is much more than just another building?" I asked.

"Yes, as I said earlier, there are common and uncommon views of history, and of everything we see. we cannot understand the Potala or Tibet unless we understand this. We must approach Tibetan history from a holistic viewpoint. The Western academics just pick one viewpoint--say political--and then draw their conclusions from that viewpoint alone. That is a mistake." endquote on page 7 of The Story of Tibet from the introduction.