It's a long process but I think it really got started when my father and I read together "My Life in Tibet" by Ding le may or J Edwin Dingle published in 1952:
The author travelled across China from Shanghai, where he was a journalist, to the hidden temple, where he meets his Tibetan spiritual master.
People also ask
Is the movie 7 Years in Tibet based on a true story?
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Reading this book with my father and visiting his Dingle's Church in Joshua Tree, California and seeing it was built by Frank Lloyd Wright a very famous architect began my path towards Tibetan Buddhism more than anything else.
I think I was inspired by the passage in the book about the Tibetan Lama who put an orange seed in his hand and then grew an orange tree out of his hand more than anything else at the time.
I inherently knew that doing something like this was possible but likely wouldn't happen here in America simply because we are just so very materialistic as a nation that that would prevent this type of thing from happening here I believed at the time.
However, now I see that other things were true I never would have imagined also in regard to Tibetan Buddhism that I never would have believed then in the 1970s.
So, when I actually went to India and Nepal and met Tibetan Lamas who were Tibetan Refugees in Bodhgaya, India with the Dalai Lama and the Kalachakra (which means "wheel of Time") all this began to change a lot.
I began to see Tibetan Buddhism as something basically scientific that Americans mostly would have a hard time understanding because of our very materialistic mind set.
So, the reality was more like the following true story:
There is something called the "kata Cloth" which is a blessing cloth that Lamas wear around their necks that are blessing scarfs from other Teacher High Lamas as they bless those arising in spiritual power and blessings.
Well, the Chinese Soldiers invading Tibet took a High Lama's kata cloth and stuffed it down his throat so he couldn't breathe and was dying. So, he turned a cup on the table inside out with his mind before he died to demonstrate to the soldiers that they were killing a true holy man who could have killed them with his mind if he had wanted to but instead chose to die because of his "Ahimsa Vows" of harmlessness to all living things in the universe.
This was much closer to reality than the orange seed growing in the High Tibetan Lamas hand I realized while there in India and Nepal. Though I wanted to go to Tibet then I didn't want my family dying on the way there because the only way in at that time was by bus to Lhasa from Kathmandu, Nepal over a 20,000 foot high pass and my friend, Vincent Cooper had taken this bus to Lhasa, Tibet but also saw a busload of Dead people at the top of the pass whose bus had broken down and they all died there and were left mummified by the altitude in that bus broken down. I didn't want this to happen to my children then so I didn't ever get to Lhasa or Tibet then when I was 37 and in Kathmandu, Nepal at that time.
The point is that most of Tibetan Buddhism is very scientific.
This is basically it right here. You CAN experience unlimited power as a spiritual being.
However, if you do this without having deep compassion for all life in the Universe you will soon die.
This is the main thing I learned while in India and Nepal around Tibetan Lamas and Tibetan Buddhists.
Its' all real very real but unless you learn compassion for all life in the universe first BEFORE you embark on this path you will soon die!
So, it's all very scientific and powerful like a Passenger Jet full of Tibetan Buddhists Traveling across the skies from one continent to another instead of rowing in a boat alone all the way across the Pacific Ocean back to the U.S.
So, Tashi Delek!
(which means Good Luck in Tibetan)
Yes, Seven Years in Tibet is based on the true story and autobiography of Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer,
detailing his escape from a British POW camp in India during WWII and
his time in Tibet, including his friendship with the young Dalai Lama,
though the film takes creative liberties for dramatic effect, such as
embellishing relationships and depicting certain events.
Key Truths:
- Real Person: The story centers on Heinrich Harrer (Brad Pitt in the film).
