Every day when I open the pages of social media, I am always overjoyed by the current news of HH traveling tirelessly around the world preaching peace, compassion and loving kindness to filled stadiums, parks and auditoriums of schools and universities. Although his late travels to far off places from his home away from home in Dasa has been reduced significantly due to his gracefully aging health, but his dynamic polarizing presence nonetheless is embedded and wired into our hearts and minds.
His Holiness has touched over billion hearts with his compassionate teaching and sowed and influenced peace at the brink of many war. He transformed many conflicts and brought peace and resolution with his spherical influence on world leaders. He has helped simplified many myriad nuances of life through his insightful and poignant teaching on life. But sadly and ironically, his over half a century own fight to regain and elevate some kind of legitimacy of his lost country is ignored by the degraded world community intoxicated by insatiable greed. All his life he has given the world the spiritual strength but sadly, the many gathered promises of hope for his lost country fell on empty promises and vacant reciprocity.
A leader who spanned different centuries on fourteen reincarnation, shouldered a burden in this lifetime of his nation under attack, while just a teenager. A spiritual leader who structured his displaced, destitute people in exile, with a planned vision to preserve and lay foundation for self help and education and resurrection, upon fruition of which, three generation of Tibetans, were able to boldly face the world with intellectual flair and newly minted confidence.
Through his message of hope, like a gardener would sow seed carefully in the garden of humanity, HH all his life has been photosynthesizing the degrading stem of the moral conscience of the people that is abraded due to the elements of treacherous times, so that they are able to withstand with a firm spine the winds of corruption and flower above and transcend beyond self restricted world of realization.
With his infectious laugh, he has imprinted the importance of altruism and compassion through repetitive teachings into million hearts that would last for generations to alter many minds that were on the verge of collapse.
All his life His Holiness elevated and magnified the importance of mother and their unconditional love for their child. Spoke about the warmth inside of a mother’s womb. A message so humbly simple yet so deeply universal.
Just like Buddhism became a refuge for many who were trapped in the lower tiers of the Hindu caste system, HIs Holiness as a twenty first century spiritual leader became a moral force behind the same sex marriage and propagated their acceptance and tolerance.
Unlike other religious leader, who are not receptive to science, like a twenty first century spiritual leader, he tirelessly sought refuge in science to many questions of religion and pioneered to built a bridge between the two schools of thoughts on the foundations of empirical evidence. Unlike theological concept of life, HH delved and fascinated on the existence of a universe in a single atom.
As His Holiness climbs the 83rd year of his well meaningful life, a life with a mission not to Mars but to the inner unknown untamed world that needs liberation. Like any old age would, he bore the brunt of infirmary on his soles of his simple sandals that had put record mileage. I am but sore at heart that HH had to cut down on long trips, such as the usual flights to the west to enlighten the spiritual darkness and enrich the moral poverty in the rich capitalistic world. With just simple Buddhist robes, he trotted the globe, embraced and welcomed every beliefs and every opinion.
But thanks again to the golden age of social media and the live feeds, that even without his frequent visits around this part of the world, he is equally listened to, watched and sought after by millions of his followers. I am overjoyed every-time HH teachings is aired and seminars are telecasted live and when I see thousand of warm hearted emojis flying on my screen, a genuine sense of happiness radiates on my face. His teachings has shown us the meaning of life and often let us slow down on our pursuits of material happiness and put a brake on our futile chase.
For us to be to able to breathe the same air and soak the same light of the sun and sleep under the same starry night is a karmic fortune we all might’ve have accumulated in our past lives unbeknownst to us.
I think only if one has the heart that beats and the mind that works can realize such a happening. To forever live in self denial and constantly not able to comprehend and embrace his significance and read through the arc of the diaspora stories, where HH has appeared as the silver lining and where his impact and contribution directly or indirectly is felt the greatest, is a stain on our moral conscience that needs some serious cleansing and soul searching. Just a thought.
Every minute, every day, every month, is a blessing as long as His Holiness lives. His breath alone is the force to clear all impurities and his presence, a hope to mankind and eternal light to the hellish man made darkness! Every time, to see him embrace and clear the doubts of the million inquisitive minds and various faith leaders, to see him being visited by scientist and scholars from all over the world, and to witness that centripetal force being heavenly played out, is a blessing to us to have a spiritual leader in the form of a guiding force that stands tall like a light tower above the darkness below.
I am forever indebted to HH not because I attended a free Indian government sponsored Central School for Tibetans, not because I went to free college of a host country and that I received college scholarship stipends from the department of education of our government in exile. I am grateful not because I received political asylum here in the United States and eventually became a US citizen, not because Tibetan as a race in diaspora is respected and beloved worldwide because of his worldly positive influence. I am but forever indebted to His Holiness because apart from being an authentic Tibetan, whose oppressed race were given life of a Phoenix that rose from the ashes, i am also an ordinary human being first, who is touched and shaped by HH teachings every single day to become a better person, better part of the whole that makes this universe.
At last, I want to wish our beloved HHDL a very heartfelt happy birthday and a long life.