{"id":2662,"date":"2012-10-08T14:28:48","date_gmt":"2012-10-08T18:28:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/?p=2662"},"modified":"2012-10-08T14:28:48","modified_gmt":"2012-10-08T18:28:48","slug":"his-holiness-the-dalai-lama-coming-to-middlebury-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2012\/10\/his-holiness-the-dalai-lama-coming-to-middlebury-college.html","title":{"rendered":"His Holiness the Dalai Lama Coming to Middlebury College"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Dalai Lama is coming to Vermont and giving two talks on his current tour. The one for the public is entitled, \u201cFinding Common Ground: Ethics for a Whole World.”<\/p>\n

I wasn’t planning on going, I did not wake up at 5:30 A.M. to get online to buy tickets at 6:00 A.M. Even folks who did that were not successful in gaining tickets. Yet, a ticket fell into my lap due to the generosity of one of the members of my meditation community.<\/p>\n

The theme of his visit, \u201cCultivating Hope, Wisdom, and Compassion,\u201d encompasses both of his lectures. According to Middlebury College President Ron Liebowitz, the purpose of the talks is to help people explore resources for hope, optimism, and cooperation, while challenging them to lead lives of courage and engagement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ve had some history with H.H., so I didn’t feel the need to make a big deal of his arrival. I’ll describe this history in a moment. We were both younger men then, twenty-seven years ago.<\/p>\n

So, now I am going to and I was jsut reading through the fine print that came along with the ticket. Doors close at 9:00 even though the talk is at 9:30. If you don’t make it through security by 9:00, tough luck, you are heading towards the overflow room.<\/p>\n

I’ve heard people are planning to show up hours before the event. I’ve heard rumors from other appearances where people rush in to the venue lack a mad crowd trying to get a good seat. I guess they missed the irony.<\/p>\n

I guess we could all use \u00a0little more compassion and wisdom and by hope I hope he means not despairing on the state of the world and persisting with our efforts to make it a better place.<\/p>\n

When I took the bodhisattva vows from His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1985 at the age of twenty-two, I did so as an invitation to live my life in a way that would have integrity. I was planning to pursue psychology as a profession to help others. As a bodhisattva psychologist, I could change the world. I\u2019m still working at it.\u00a0.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Back in 1985, I sat in a klatch of Western spiritual seekers, stage left of His Holiness the Dalia Lama. Along with these Westerners was a collection of about ten thousand Tibetan Buddhist monks and 250,000 Tibetans in exile and those who had received special permission from the Chinese government to be in Bodhgaya for the Kalachakra Tantra ceremony. His Holiness read and commented upon Santideva\u2019s Guide to the Bodhisattva\u2019s Way of Life. <\/em>Upon conclusion, he offered the Bodhisattva vows to everyone. I took them.<\/p>\n

The year before, I had another more intimate encounter with H. H. This occurred at the small chapel of Amherst College in 1984 for the Inner Science Conference (the precursor to the Mind and Life Meetings).\u00a0The meeting centered on the Dalai Lama who was giving lectures on Buddhist cognitive psychology, preceded and followed by lectures given by Western psychologists, other scientists, and philosophers. This introduced and turned me on to Buddhism.<\/p>\n

During the meeting, The Dalai Lama\u2019s interpreter became ill.\u00a0 Called in his place was Robert Thurman. Keep in mind that this is 1984 and Thurman was relatively new to Tibetan Buddhism. While he could translate most of what His Holiness said, he could not capture all of the nuances. What ensued was a lot of miscues followed by gut wrenching laughter from H.H. and the rest of the audience.<\/p>\n

The teachings were transmitted through the absurdity of the situation, rather than through literal understanding, which is ironic given the arcane nature of the Dalai Lama\u2019s teachings for that conference on Buddhist psychology. There was something very appealing about that.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>When I went to India after meeting His Holiness in Amherst, I figured I’d find H.H. in Dharamsala. While I was in Darjeeling, I learned he and a gargantuan entourage would be in Bodhgaya instead. So, off I went to Bodhgaya. I arrived in the middle of the night on the back of a flat bed truck. I awoke at dusk to a processional of monks. They kept coming and coming, seemingly without end. They were on their way to the great Stupa, all ten thousand or so of them.<\/p>\n

I had no idea what the Kalachakra Tantra was or that I was going to take the Bodhisattva vows. I didn’t have to know. It was the happening of my lifetime.<\/p>\n

I’ve read a bunch of his books and seen lots of talks in the years between. Stay tuned for an updated report on a live encounter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Dalai Lama is coming to Vermont and giving two talks on his current tour. The one for the public is entitled, \u201cFinding Common Ground: Ethics for a Whole World.” I wasn’t planning on going, I did not wake up at 5:30 A.M. to get online to buy tickets at 6:00 A.M. Even folks who…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,4,15,14,11],"tags":[557,553,559,555,268,558,554,556],"class_list":["post-2662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddha-101","category-buddha-beat","category-media","category-recommended","category-teachers-and-talks","tag-and-compassion","tag-bodhgaya","tag-bodhisattva-vows","tag-cultivating-hope","tag-his-holiness-the-dalai-lama","tag-kalachakra-tantra","tag-middlebury-college","tag-wisdom"],"yoast_head":"\nHis Holiness the Dalai Lama Coming to Middlebury College - Mindfulness Matters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2012\/10\/his-holiness-the-dalai-lama-coming-to-middlebury-college.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"His Holiness the Dalai Lama Coming to Middlebury College - Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Dalai Lama is coming to Vermont and giving two talks on his current tour. 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Dr. Kozak's ability to translate ancient healing traditions into pragmatic applications suitable for modern lifestyles through the use of metaphors have made him a strong voice in healthcare and business. Beginning with a journey to India in the 80\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where he took the Bodhisattva vows from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Arnie Dr. Kozak began his lifelong practice in mindfulness meditation. Intent on finding a way to bring the practical healing attributes of mindfulness he began incorporating these techniques in his private practice. In 2002 Dr. Kozak created Exquisite Mind in Burlington, Vermont as a vehicle that could expand his wisdom to larger audiences beyond individual psychotherapy to professionals and corporations, health care providers, public groups and, most recently with Exquisite Mind Golf, amateur and professional golfers. His award-winning new book, Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness (Wisdom Publications, 2009) is a thoughtful, funny, and inspiring translation of mindfulness practice through the inventive use of metaphor applicable to our daily lives. In addition to his work with Exquisite Mind, Arnie Kozak, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDoctorate has been a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Vermont and is a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry and Medicine, University of Vermont College of Medicine. He has studied and practiced clinical psychology, meditation, and yoga for more than 25 years. He has studied with several meditation masters, including S. N. Goenka, Larry Rosenberg, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After receiving his bachelors degree with honors from Tufts University, he was awarded a Presidential Fellowship to get his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University at Buffalo. He completed his training as a Psychological Fellow at the Harvard Medical School. Prior to founding the Exquisite Mind in 2002, Arnie worked ten years in the private sector for the PKC Corporation consulting on mental health content for this revolutionary software company.","sameAs":["http:\/\/exquisitemind.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/author\/akozak"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2662"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2671,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2662\/revisions\/2671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}