By Phuntsok Yangchen
DHARAMSHALA, June 1: Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama began his four-day teachings on Shantideva’s A Guide to the Boddhisattva’s Way of Life (chodjug) at the Tsug-la Khang, main temple near his exile residence in Dharamshala earlier today.
The teachings have been requested by a group of Indian sanghas and will go on till June 4.
According to the Department of Security under the Central Tibetan Administration, over 6000 disciples from 69 countries are attending the teachings. These include, 1200 from Nalanda, 1900 foreigners, 13 Chinese, and 371 disciples from the Himalayan region, DoS officials said.
Speaking at the beginning of the teachings, the 77-year old Tibetan leader expressed his happiness with the opportunity to teach Indian Buddhists.
The Dalai Lama said that he is pleased to give teachings to Indians as “these teachings originated from India.”
“Giving teachings on Buddhism back to Indians is like returning their ancestral Buddhism to a new generation of Indians,” the Tibetan leader, who has been living in exile in India for more than 50 years, said.
Among those attending the teachings, Avi, a disciple from England was overwhelmed upon seeing the Dalai Lama for the first time.
“His Holiness’ always speaks about respecting other cultures and religions which everybody can relate to even if you are not a Buddhist,” she said. “For some reason, I am feeling very emotional today.”
Live webcasts of the teachings from June 1-4, 2013 is available at dalailama.com/liveweb. His Holiness will be speaking in Tibetan with English, Hindi, Chinese and Russian language translations available.
