The Future of Buddhism

and Other Essays

Sogyal Rinpoche

Introduction

The four teachings that comprise this book spring from Sogyal Rinpoche’s twenty-five years’ experience of teaching Buddhism in the West. The two conference addresses and two articles presented here cover a wide range of topics. These include the issues facing Buddhism as it takes root in the modern world, an exploration of the healing power of the mind and guidance for anyone trying to follow a spiritual path today.

We begin with ‘The Future of Buddhism’, a keynote address that Rinpoche was invited to give for the audience of Buddhist practitioners, teachers and scholars at the ‘Buddhism in America’ conference in San Diego, California in May 1998. In November of the same year, the first International Congress for Tibetan Medicine was held in Washington DC. Opened by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, this unique gathering brought together Tibetan physicians, Lamas, doctors and medical specialists from many countries. On its first morning, Sogyal Rinpoche addressed the conference on ‘The Spiritual Heart of Tibetan Medicine: Its Contribution to the Modern World’.

The two articles that follow were written specially by Rinpoche for View magazine. In the first of these, ‘View and Wrong View’, he offers advice on how to see through doubt and suspicion, and how to recognise wrong views for what they are. Finally, in ‘Misunderstandings’, Rinpoche reflects on how important it is to see through the mind and its delusions, while on the spiritual path, and to find confidence and strength in our own true nature.

About the Author

Sogyal Rinpoche was born in Tibet and entered a monastery when he was four months old. He fled the country with the Dalai Lama in 1959 and was educated in India and Cambridge, England. Since then, he has taught throughout the world. He is the spiritual director of Rigpa, an organisation devoted to introducing the teachings of the Buddha and to offering advice on spiritual care for the dying.

1 The Future of Buddhism

Speaking on the future of Buddhism, all I can do today is to offer some thoughts and aspirations based on my own experience and observations while teaching in the West over the past twenty-five years. What I say will inevitably have much to do with the Buddhist tradition of Tibet, and yet I hope that it will hold some interest or meaning for practitioners of any tradition.

I hasten to point out, to begin with, that I am just a practitioner, doing my best to practise, simply a student of the Dharma, who is trying, by working with myself, with the help of the teachings and my masters, to become a better human being. Let me say how honoured I am to be invited to address this conference on Buddhism in America.

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Thinking about the Buddhadharma and its future, my mind turns to my master Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, who was a master of all the lineages of Tibetan Buddhism and who passed away in exile in Sikkim in 1959. He was truly a leader, regarded by many as one of the greatest Tibetan masters of the twentieth century, the embodiment of Tibetan Buddhism and living proof of what someone who had realised the teachings would be. He was a master of masters, the teacher of many of the great Lamas who were to teach in the West, such as Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Kalu Rinpoche and Dezhung Rinpoche, yet he treated everyone equally, rich or poor, high or low.

I often wonder whether the whole future of Tibetan Buddhism might not have been different had he lived longer, to inspire its growth in exile and in the West with the same authority and infinite respect for all traditions that had made him so beloved in Tibet.

Jamyang Khyentse had a vision. He was, in fact, the heir to the non-sectarian Rimé movement which had swept through the eastern part of Tibet during the nineteenth century. This was a kind of spiritual renaissance which rejected all forms of sectarian, partisan bias and encouraged each tradition to master completely the authentic teachings and practice of its own lineage, while at the same time maintaining a spirit of openness, harmony and co-operation with other Buddhist schools. There was no blurring or synthesis of one tradition with another – the purity of each was ensured – but they co-existed and often drew inspiration from one another.

I see an intriguing parallel between the extraordinary richness of the spiritual culture of Tibet at the time of the great pioneers of this Rimé movement, such as Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and Jamgön Kongbrul, and the great variety of lineages we find in the West today. In some ways the Rimé vision offers a model of how the Dharma must continue in the West and in America: with total respect for our separate authentic traditions and yet with an eye to the creativity and resourcefulness of different branches of Buddhadharma as they have settled into the American landscape. We can all inspire, help and network with one another, yet without confusion or inappropriate mixing of our traditions.

Jamyang Khyentse also saw that the Dharma would come to the West. In Tibet there had been many prophecies, from the time of Padmasambhava onwards, that this would occur, and Jamyang Khyentse spoke of it a number of times. He told the Tibetan master Tulku Urgyen in Sikkim not long before he passed away: ‘From now on, the Buddhadharma will spread further, in the West.’

Looking now at the sheer impact that the Dharma has already had on the mainstream of Western life, one can only marvel at the number of different areas of American culture which have been touched by Buddhist influence, and which are very familiar now to us all:

serving the dying and hospice care; a field very close to my own heart;

mind/body medicine and healing;

the world of psychology and therapy;

the arts and education – we only have to think of the Naropa Institute;

interfaith dialogue and ecumenical exchange;

the life sciences;

movements for peace and non-violence;

right livelihood and ethics in business;

ecology and green issues

and, not to forget, in the case of Tibetan Buddhism, Hollywood and the movie industry!

The various Buddhist lineages have established themselves in one way or another in America, and many wonderful expressions of Buddhist-inspired action have emerged under the banner of Engaged Buddhism. I think of Glassman Roshi’s Greyston Mandala, the Zen Hospice Project, the various initiatives in prisons, the work of Thich Nhat Hanh, and the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. I would like to celebrate them all, and I know how much Jamyang Khyentse – and all the masters of the Rimé tradition, if they were here – would have appreciated and applauded them.

Two Ways to Present the Dharma

In recent times His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been pointing out that there are two ways to present the Dharma today. One is to offer the teachings, in the spirit of Buddhism, without any notion of exclusivity or conversion, but as openly and as widely as possible, to be of service to people everywhere, of any background or faith. Since the heart of the Buddhadharma, the essential View, is so very practical, simple and yet profound, it can enrich and deepen anyone’s understanding, regardless of what spiritual path he or she might follow.

The second way is to present the teachings for those who have a serious wish to follow the Dharma so that they can pursue a complete and thorough path, in whichever tradition.

What is the relationship between these two ways of teaching? The first cannot happen without the second. We must never forget that the uniqueness and great strength of the Dharma is that it is a complete spiritual path, with a pure, living lineage, unbroken to this day, and if we lose that, we have lost everything.

I see the Dalai Lama’s statement as a blueprint for us all in the twenty-first century, and crucial for the survival of authentic Buddhism.

Some Concerns

How will Buddhism in the future find the way to make its fullest contribution towards the transformation of society? And yet how can we avoid it being absorbed and neutralised by its encounter with the contemporary world, so that it is reduced to yet another tool with which to numb us, conscripted and ‘integrated’ into Western society, to become simply an interesting offshoot of psychology, a branch of the New Age or part of the alternative health movement? Many of the Tibetan masters I know today have the same concerns and are asking themselves the same questions as Western Buddhists as we pass through this period of transition together. They also have concerns of their own. They see a number of warning signs for the future.

When we see Buddhist images on advertising hoardings, in Hollywood films and as icons of the chic, it is