His Holiness the Karmapa: The technology of the heart

Tyler Dewar: The way I feel right now

is that all of the other speakers

have said exactly what I wanted to say.

(Laughter)

And it seems that the only thing left for me to say

is to thank you all for your kindness.

TD: But maybe in the spirit

of appreciating the kindness of you all,

I could share with you

a little story about myself.

TD: From the time I was very young, onward,

I was given

a lot of different responsibilities,

and it always seemed to me, when I was young,

that everything was laid out before me.

All of the plans for me were already made.

I was given the clothes that I needed to wear

and told where I needed to be,

given these very precious

and holy looking robes to wear,

with the understanding

that it was something sacred or important.

TD: But before that kind of formal lifestyle happened for me,

I was living in eastern Tibet with my family.

And when I was seven years old,

all of a sudden,

a search party arrived at my home.

They were looking the next Karmapa,

and I noticed they were talking to my mom and dad,

and the news came to me that they were telling me

that I was the Karmapa.

And these days, people ask me a lot,

how did that feel.

How did that feel when they came and whisked you away,

and your lifestyle completely changed?

And what I mostly say is that,

at that time,

it was a pretty interesting idea to me.

I thought that things would be pretty fun

and there would be more things to play with.

(Laughter)

TD: But it didn't turn out to be so fun and entertaining,

as I thought it would have been.

I was placed

in a pretty strictly controlled environment.

And immediately,

a lot of different responsibilities,

in terms of my education and so forth, were heaped upon me.

I was separated, largely, from my family,

including my mother and father.

I didn't have have many personal friends

to spend time with,

but I was expected to perform

these prescribed duties.

So it turned out that my fantasy

about an entertaining life of being the Karmapa

wasn't going to come true.

It more felt to be the case to me

that I was being treated like a statue,

and I was to sit in one place

like a statue would.

TD: Nevertheless, I felt that,

even though I've been separated from my loved ones --

and, of course, now I'm even further away.

When I was 14, I escaped from Tibet

and became even further removed

from my mother and father,

my relatives, my friends

and my homeland.

But nevertheless,

there's no real sense of separation from me in my heart,

in terms of the love that I feel

for these people.

I feel, still, a very strong connection of love

for all of these people

and for the land.

TD: And I still do

get to keep in touch with my mother and father,

albeit infrequently.

I talk to my mother

once in a blue moon on the telephone.

And my experience is that,

when I'm talking to her,

with every second that passes

during our conversation,

the feeling of love that binds us

is bringing us closer and closer together.

TD: So those were just a few remarks

about my personal background.

And in terms of other things that I wanted to share with you,

in terms of ideas,

I think it's wonderful to have a situation like this,

where so many people from different backgrounds and places

can come together,

exchange their ideas

and form relationships of friendship with each other.

And I think that's symbolic

of what we're seeing in the world in general,

that the world is becoming smaller and smaller,

and that all of the peoples in the world

are enjoying more opportunities for connection.

That's wonderful,

but we should also remember

that we should have a similar process happening on the inside.

Along with outward development

and increase of opportunity,

there should be inward development

and deepening of our heart connections

as well as our outward connections.

So we spoke and we heard some

about design this week.

I think that it's important for us to remember

that we need

to keep pushing forward

on the endeavor

of the design of the heart.

We heard a lot about technology this week,

and it's important for us to remember

to invest a lot of our energy

in improving the technology of the heart.

TD: So, even though I'm somewhat happy

about the wonderful developments that are happening in the world,

still, I feel a sense of impediment,

when it comes

to the ability that we have

to connect with each other on a heart-to-heart, or a mind-to-mind, level.

I feel that there are some things

that are getting in the way.

TC: My relationship

to this concept of heart-to-heart connection, or mind-to-mind connection,

is an interesting one,

because, as a spiritual leader, I'm always attempting

to open my heart to others

and offer myself up

for heart-to-heart and mind-to-mind connections

in a genuine way with other people,

but at the same time,

I've always been advised

that I need to emphasize intelligence

over the heart-to-heart connections,

because, being someone in a position like mine,

if I don't rely primarily on intelligence,

then something dangerous may happen to me.

So it's an interesting paradox at play there.

But I had a really striking experience once,

when a group from Afghanistan

came to visit me,

and we had a really interesting conversation.

TD: So we ended up talking about the Bamiyan Buddhas,

which, as you know,

were destroyed some years ago in Afghanistan.

But the basis of our conversation

was the different approach to spirituality

on the part of the Muslim

and Buddhist traditions.

Of course, in Muslim,

because of the teachings around the concept of idolatry,

you don't find as many

physical representations of divinity

or of spiritual liberation

as you do in the Buddhist tradition,

where, of course, there are many statues of the Buddha

that are highly revered.

So, we were talking about the differences

between the traditions

and what many people perceived

as the tragedy of the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas,

but I offered the suggestion

that perhaps we could look at this in a positive way.

What we saw in the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas

was the depletion of matter,

some solid substance

falling down and disintegrating.

Maybe we could look at that to be more similar

to the falling of the Berlin Wall,

where a divide

that had kept two types of people apart

had collapsed and opened up a door

for further communication.

So I think that, in this way,

it's always possible for us

to derive something positive

that can help us understand one another better.

TD: So, with regard to the development

that we've been talking about

here at this conference,

I really feel

that the development that we make

shouldn't create a further burden

for us as human beings,

but should be used

to improve

our fundamental lifestyle

of how we live in the world.

TD: Of course, I rejoice

in the development and the growth and the rise

of the noble land of India, the great country of India,

but at the same time, I think,

as some of us have acknowledged,

we need to be aware

that some aspects of this rise

are coming at the cost

of the very ground

on which we stand.

So, as we are climbing the tree,

some of the things that we're doing

in order to climb the tree

are actually undermining

the tree's very root.

And so,

what I think it comes down to

is a question of, not only having information of what's going on,

but paying attention to that

and letting that shift our motivation

to become more sincere

and genuinely positive.

We have hear, this week,

about the horrible sufferings, for example,

that so many women of the world

are enduring day-to-day.

We have that information,

but what often happens to us

is that we don't really choose to pay attention to it.

We don't really choose to allow that

to cause there to be a shift in our hearts.

So I think the way forward for the world --

one that will bring the path of outer development

in harmony

with the real root of happiness --

is that we allow

the information that we have

to really make a change in our heart.

TD: So I think that sincere motivation

is very important for our future well-being,

or deep sense of well-being as humans,

and I think that means sinking in

to whatever it is you're doing now.

Whatever work you're trying to do now to benefit the world,

sink into that,

get a full taste of that.

TD: So, since we've been here this week,

we've taken millions of breaths, collectively,

and perhaps we haven't witnessed

any course changes

happening in our lives,

but we often miss the very subtle changes.

And I think

that sometimes we develop

grand concepts

of what happiness

might look like for us,

but that, if we pay attention,

we can see that there are little symbols of happiness

in every breath that we take.

TD: So, every one of you who has come here

is so talented,

and you have so much to offer to the world,

I think it would be a good note to conclude on then

to just take a moment

to appreciate how fortunate we are

to have come together in this way and exchanged ideas

and really form a strong aspiration

and energy within ourselves

that we will take the good

that has come from this conference,

the momentum, the positivity,

and we will spread that and plant it

in all of the corners of the world.

His Holiness the Karmapa: Tomorrow is my Talk.

TD: Lakshmi has worked incredibly hard,

even in inviting me,

let alone everything else that she has done

to make this happen,

and I was somewhat resistant at times,

and I was also very nervous throughout this week.

I was feeling under the weather and dizzy and so forth,

and people would ask me, why.

I would tell them, "It's because I have to talk tomorrow."

And so Lakshmi had to put up with me through all of that,

but I very much appreciate

the opportunity she's given me

to be here.

And to you, everyone, thank you very much.

(Applause)

HH: Thank you very much.

(Applause)