Tibetans

My experience in Meeting Tibetans started in 1980 with a Tibetan Lama I met in Ashland, Oregon. As I walked into the Tibetan Buddhist empowerment I was suddenly two places at once. Since this is extraordinary I realized that there really was something to this Tibetan Buddhism thing after all. In one reality I was myself, a then 32 year old father and husband who was interested in experiencing Tibetan Buddhism by receiving an empowerment called, "The Sword Which Pierces all Defilement" which is a Thousand Buddhas Empowerment. I found this extremely powerful and profound in the actual effects on my life and others.

I didn't have my next Tibetan Buddhist Empowerment for 3 years. However, by 1985 my father had passed away and life gave me the opportunity to go to India and Nepal and Thailand with my wife and son and two stepchildren. The first place we stayed after about 25 hours of flying and layovers(11 hours to Tokyo, then 5 or 7 hours to Bangkok, Thailand). So, at about 1 am local time we landed in Bangkok and about 25 cab drivers fought over us to take us to our destination. We wanted to go to Sweety's Guest House there in Bangkok because our Lonely Planet Guide Book said they spoke English there and had western food available. So, we were driven across Bangkok at about 1:30 am at around 90 mph by our cab drivers that only spoke a little English in our two taxis of luggage and family. When we reached Sweety's Guest house we noticed that it was so incredibly humid and hot that there was only sheets on the beds of our room and a moving fan above the bed that slowly spun to keep the air moving. On the porch was a miniature Thai Pagoda that the owner prayed at daily and we also found ourselves praying for our well being there too when we woke up the next morning in Bangkok. It was then the loudest city we had ever been to because it appeared not only were there no smog devices on the cars there were also no mufflers required. So, the next morning the air was brown outside and the sounds of vehicles was deafening to listen to. What was amazing was how many motocycles (mostly Vespa like vehicles) were carrying boxes with just about one shoe box hole available for the rider so see through as he or she delivered their goods across town. This was amazing to us. However, we also saw one or more motorcycles run over per day and often wondered what had happened to the riders of the motorcycles.

When we finally flew out to Katmandu we experienced something completely different. Instead of hot and humid it was cold and dry at that time (late December almost Christmas). We began in Nepal to meet Sherpas who practiced Tibetan Buddhism and stayed with a Sherpa Family's Snow Lion Hotel next to the large Boudhanath Stupa there in Katmandu, Nepal. Later, there son who was about 19 was our guide through the Helambu region of Nepal and we stayed with his relatives in Sherpa villages between 8000 and 10,000 feet in Altitude in the Himalayas nearby. We hiked (where there were no roads at all) about 50 miles and up about 10,000 feet in altitude at that time with my family and a guide while we all carried our backbacks. My wife and I then were 37 and the children were 14, 12, and 10.

As I met more and more Tibetans and Tibetan Buddhists I found them to be "precious". When I use the word precious it means to me, "An innocent and yet strong nobility of character". So, you might find someone like this in the U.S. who lives way out in the country but hasn't had a full high school education or ever watched TV much. So, as I met more and more Tibetans generally I found I loved these people as I met more and more of them. But at the same time I feared for their safety in a very cynical and sophisticated world that we must all survive and live in.

There is a difference when people grow up as we do in the United States while constantly being exposed to all sorts of things, being forced to go to public education for 12 or more years and being sophisticated whether we want to be or not. Such a background doesn't necessarily make one precious and often the opposite result is found in abject cynicism and anger at life.

So, when I met all these precious people of the Himalayas, though I worried about their future there was no doubt that I loved them for their preciousness and idealism and natural strength as a people and as a religious and political culture that has existed for thousands of years and is distinctly different from any Chinese culture or variation. And I worried about how quickly this culture was going to go extinct. When I returned to the U.S. I went back to college with the idea of becoming a Cultural anthropologist who would help preserve Tibetan Culture and Religion so it wouldn't completely go extinct in the next 50 years or so. Because I found Tibetan and Tibetan Buddhist culture one of the most important cultures for the world to preserve on into the future because of its naturally ecological and efficient nature on so many fronts including compassion towards all beings.

However, by 1987 my marriage was starting to fray and by 1994 my wife and I separated and divorced and with this new chaos in my life my dreams of becoming a cultural Anthropologist helping preserve Tibetan culture and religious culture I had to give up on to protect my children and help them into their futures ongoing.

But, I think what I'm trying to say here is that in Tibetan Culture I found what I had been looking for: a culture that ecologically and spiritually fits into a useful nich for the ongoing survival of the human race here on earth.

Many cultures are good regarding one or more things but then as one delves deeper there is something just so self destructive about that culture as it moves into the future. However, the more I studied about Tibetan Culture the more I knew it had so very much to teach the rest of the world. So, I encourage all of you that can to learn all you can about Tibetan Culture and Tibetan Buddhism before it is completely gone. Even now that Tibetan Buddhism has spread all around the world just like the previous Dalai Lama predicted, it is having to morph into something new to stay alive ongoing. So, hopefully, enough of what is good and precious about Tibetans and Tibetan Buddhism can be preserved on into the future so the human race doesn't commit suicide(accidentally or on purpose) within the next 500 to 1000 years.