Table Of ContentKindness, Clarity, and Insight
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Kindness, Clarity, & Insight
....
Snow Lion Publications
ithaca, new york • boulder, colorado
Revised and Updated
Edited and translated by Jeffrey Hopkins
Co-edited by Elizabeth Napper
The Fourteenth Dalai Lama
His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso
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Snow Lion Publications
P. O. Box 6483
Ithaca, NY 14851 USA
(607) 273-8519
www.snowlionpub.com
Copyright © 2006 His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without
prior written permission from the publisher.
Copyright in the photographs is held by the respective photographers
with the following exceptions:
Brian Beresford’s photographs © Brian Beresford/Nomad Pictures
Alison Wright’s photographs © Alison Wright Photography
Jacqui Walker’s photograph © Dalai Lama Trust New Zealand
Mitchell Layton’s photograph © The Mind and Life Institute
Printed in USA on acid-free recycled paper.
ISBN-10 1-55939-251-7
ISBN-13 978-1-55939-251-8
The Library of Congress catalogued the previous edition
of this book as follows:
Bstan-’dzin-rgya-mtsho, Dalai Lama XIV, 1935-
Kindness, clarity, and insight / the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, his Holiness
Tenzin Gyatso ; translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins ; co-edited by
Elizabeth Napper.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-937938-18-1 (pbk.)
1. Buddhism—Doctrines. 2. Buddhism—China—Tibet.
I. Hopkins, Jeffrey. II. Napper, Elizabeth.
BQ7935.B774K56 1984
294.3’4—dc19
84-51198
Designed and typeset by Gopa & Ted2, Inc
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. . .
CONTENTS
Preface
7
Editors’ Note
13
Religious Values and Human Society
15
The Luminous Nature of the Mind
25
Four Noble Truths
29
Karma
35
Medicine of Wisdom and Compassion
39
Altruism and the Six Perfections
43
Religious Harmony
57
Treasures of Tibetan Buddhism
63
Compassion in Global Politics
71
Meditation
79
Buddhism East to West
99
Deities
111
Eight Verses for Training the Mind
117
O˙ Ma˚i Padme HÒ˙
135
The Path to Enlightenment
137
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Self and Selflessness
179
Tibetan Views on Dying
191
Transforming the Mind
through Meditation
207
The Two Truths
217
Union of the Old
and New Translation Schools
227
Notes
255
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. . .
PREFACE
S
now Lion Publications, now celebrating its twenty-
fifth year as the preeminent publisher of books exclu-
sively on Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism, grew out of
the wish to make available to the general public the profoundly
appealing series of lectures that His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave
in the United States in 1979 and 1981, and in Canada in 1980.
Although the Dalai Lama had escaped from Tibet to India during
a public demonstration against the Chinese Communist occupa-
tion in 1959, the U.S. government repeatedly had caved in to Chi-
nese pressure and did not allow him to visit this country until the
Carter Administration in 1979.
Prodded by Joel McCleary, deputy assistant to President Carter,
and myself at a meeting in the White House with key staff from
the National Security Council, the Carter Administration (which
from its inception was concerned with human rights) undoubt-
edly saw the human rights issues involved, and agreed to permit
the Dalai Lama’s visit. Although they requested a six-month delay
before the visit, this fit right in with our wishes, since extensive
preparations had to be made by the Office of Tibet in New York
under the leadership of Tenzin Tethong (later to become Prime
Minister of the exiled Tibetan government headquartered in
Dharamsala, India) for what became a forty-nine day, twenty-four
city lecture tour with sixty-seven talks. The first planning meet-
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ing between McCleary, Tenzin Tethong, and myself began in
McCleary’s office in the Executive Office Building several days
after the meeting at which approval was given for the trip, and
continued through lunch in the restaurant under the Oval Office
in the White House. McCleary and Deputy Assistant to the Pres-
ident Tom Beard were particularly effective in overcoming many
bureaucratic obstacles to the Dalai Lama’s final visa approval, mak-
ing Washington contacts with future friends and allies of His Holi-
ness such as Congressman Charlie �ose, and arranging for security
throughout the trip for the then relatively unknown Dalai Lama.
Tenzin Tethong formed a committee to arrange the details of
the visit, which focused on the content of the lectures and avoided
any media hype. This meant that His Holiness’ introduction to the
U.S. was on the basis of his message of compassion, meditative
concentration, and examination of reality, leading to the title of
the collection of his talks in this book, Kindness, Clarity, and
Insight.
Broad in scope and revealing the depths of his knowledge, the
lectures moved from the East Coast to the South, the Midwest, the
West Coast, the Upper Midwest, and again the East Coast. These
teachings introduced the range of the Dalai Lama and his mes-
sage in a dynamic and concise way to the English-speaking world,
covering a plethora of topics—the need for compassion in soci-
ety and the world, the cause and effect of karma, the four noble
truths, the luminous nature of the mind, the common goals of the
world’s religions, meditative concentration, emptiness and selfless-
ness, the two truths, and the fundamental innate mind of clear
light that all the various schools of Tibetan Buddhism aim at man-
ifesting. Although others in Tibet have mentioned that all orders
of Tibetan Buddhism have the same basic outlook, His Holiness
has been the first to explain in detail how this is so, his brilliant
syncretic exposition being the final chapter in this book.
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In 1979 the only books by the Dalai Lama in English, or any
other language except Tibetan, were his autobiography, My Land
and My People, and The Buddhism of Tibet and the Key to the Mid-
dle Way. In Ithaca, New York, and later in Toronto, the young, ide-
alistic, compassionately motivated but nearly penniless founders of
Snow Lion Publication approached His Holiness for counsel on
how to communicate the breadth and depth of Tibetan Buddhism
to the English-speaking world. The Dalai Lama quickly expressed
his enthusiasm for a publishing house that could serve two audi-
ences. In his own words (recorded during that audience):
Basically, two main types of books are needed: one chiefly for
study by scholars and academically minded practitioners and
another primarily for practitioners without much concern
for deeper philosophy. These two basic types are essentially
the same, but have slightly different approaches. One is more
detailed, while the other is more condensed. If you can make
both of these available, that would be excellent.
Snow Lion has brilliantly succeeded in both of these avenues,
providing a massive, diverse body of texts for an ever-growing
audience throughout the world where interest in Tibetan Bud-
dhism has spread. Although many publishing houses have pro-
duced books on Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism, Snow Lion has
remained, through thick and thin, the only one publishing exclu-
sively in this area, keeping almost all of its back list of over two
hundred titles in print throughout these twenty-five years. Thus,
the apparent leap of confidence in permitting this unknown,
underfunded, inexperienced company to publish this important
first book of his teachings in the West has borne rich fruit.
In addition, His Holiness counseled the founders of Snow Lion
to be nonsectarian and unbiased in their efforts and to publish
preface
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what is of value from all schools of Tibetan Buddhism and from
Bön, the pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet. Following His Holiness’
advice, Snow Lion has been remarkably successful in becoming a
platform for all of Tibet’s great spiritual traditions.
It all began with this book, Kindness, Clarity, and Insight, the
first book of teachings by the Dalai Lama in the English-speaking
world. Foundational to His Holiness’ message, it is now reissued in
this celebratory twenty-fifth year. With this book serving as a
model, scores of writers have been inspired to turn his oral teach-
ings into books; it is likely that the Dalai Lama has inspired more
writers to work with him on publications than any other person
in the world, these mutual efforts now totaling more than sixty
books.
Kindness, Clarity, and Insight draws on his lecture tours in the
United States in 1979 and 1981, and in Canada in 1980. The Dalai
Lama spoke at scores of universities, colleges, ecumenical gather-
ings, Buddhist centers, and public meetings, gradually explaining
his message of the need for kindness, compassion, concentration,
and penetrative insight in the world. Serving as interpreter, I was
continually amazed and moved at the personal relevance of his
message, its practicality and applicability, for as he says, human
society begins with people and specifically our capacity to recog-
nize in others our common aspirations to happiness. The appeal
is to the heart by way of the mind, using reason and sense to curb
selfishness and to generate deeply felt altruism based on wisdom.
Although the teachings in this book are the result of just the
first three trips of the Dalai Lama in North America, they com-
prehend and encapsulate in a concise and crisp manner all of the
topics to which he has returned repeatedly, and eloquently, in his
subsequent speaking tours—the core subject matter of Tibetan
Buddhism. �eaders of this single volume, undaunting in size, will
be well prepared for understanding all of the Dalai Lama’s subse-
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quent books. Translated into twelve languages, including Tibetan,
the book remains the heart-message of this great world leader.
The book contains presentations of basic Buddhist doctrines—
how to develop clarity of mind useful in all walks of life and how
to penetrate beyond appearances to the profound nature of both
persons and other phenomena, thereby negotiating the conflict
between appearance and reality. His is a message of hope, both in
terms of the potential for individual and social transformation and
in terms of the potential of the human spirit.
Centering around fundamental Buddhist attitudes that are at
the core of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s outlook, the twenty
chapters are deliberately arranged in a developmental sequence so
as to allow the reader to acquire the necessary background to ap -
p re ciate the more complex, later topics.1 Thus, the teachings in this
book, taken as a whole, provide a map of Tibetan spiritual culture.
The Political Situation
The Dalai Lama has directed the rebuilding of Tibetan cultural
institutions outside of Tibet in India and Nepal. Also, asking reli-
gious and political leaders of the world to look beyond narrow
interests to the greater good, he has advocated attention to the
fundamental need of society regardless of religion or politics—
kindness. But when the Chinese Communist government in Bei-
jing hears that the Dalai Lama has been invited to visit a country,
it immediately objects to that government, which sometimes then
finds his visit to be inconvenient, or downscales the visit, or makes
it “personal.” What do they fear? The Dalai Lama has no army, no
economic pressure, no political cards to play. He advocates nonvi-
olence and compassion.
In 1978, the Chinese Communist government in Beijing
offered to negotiate anywhere at anytime if the Dalai Lama would
preface
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not bring up the topic of independence. He agreed to this condi-
tion, but the response for now almost three decades has been to
refuse to engage in substantive talks. What do they fear?
His power comes from a life of ethics, the force of truth. In
Tibetan, he speaks with a range, depth, inspiration, humor, and sin-
cerity that inspire insight and motivate dedication to others’ wel-
fare. I have often wished that all the world could hear this marvel
in his own tongue.
His full name is rJe btsun ’jam dpal ngag dbang blo bzang ye shes
bstan ’dzin rgya mtsho srid gsum dbang bsgyur mtshungs pa med pa’i
sde dpal bzang po, which in English, syllable-by-syllable, is “Leader-
Holiness-Gentleness-�enown-Speech-Dominion-Mind-Good-
ness-Primordial-Wisdom-Teaching-Hold-Vastness-Ocean-Being
-Triad-Controlling-Unparalleled-Glory-Integrity.” Many years
ago, I wrote a poem around his name which I would like to share
with you:
Leader of the world recognized for true holiness,
Gentleness personified in persuasive renown,
Speech of compassion pervading the planet in its dominion,
Mind of altruistic endeavor reaching all in its goodness,
Primordial in the depth and range of profound wisdom,
Teaching encompassing all phenomena in its hold,
Vastness of love’s deeds rippling throughout life’s ocean,
Being so merciful displayed in suffering’s triad,
Controlling the unruly through kindness unparalleled,
Glory in forms of endeavor sealed in total integrity,
May the teacher of the world, bearing compassion
And wisdom indissoluble, see all obstacles dissolve.
Jeffrey Hopkins
Professor Emeritus of Tibetan Studies
University of Virginia
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. . .
EDITORS’ NOTE
O
ccasional footnotes have been provided by the
editors giving brief explanations, references to
supplementary material, and references for quota-
tions, the latter kindly located in the Tibetan by Kensur Yeshe
Thupten. In rendering Sanskrit words in the body of the text, ch,
sh, and ˝h are used in place of c, Ÿ, and ˝ for the sake of easy pro-
nunciation. Transliteration of Tibetan is done in accordance with
a system devised by Turrell Wylie (see “A Standard System of
Tibetan Transcription,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 22
(1959):261-267).
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