WELLNESS: Mind-altering sustenance

Photo: Richard Avedon

It won’t be a walk in the park to see the Dalai Lama this year, as it was in 2003. Instead, those who attend a three-day training at the -Beacon Theatre will hear the -Tibetan -Buddhist leader’s interpretation of a 1,000-year-old text by the Indian Mahayanist master -Dharmarakshita, written after the destruction of Buddhist culture in India.

Ganden -Thurman, executive director of Tibet House, which is hosting the sold-out event, believes the subject of the text couldn’t be more timely. Thurman says the lojong (mind training) is about “taking responsi-bility for the problems you face, turning them around and using them to your advantage—and not in some cheap, Machiavellian, sleazebag manner, but inter-nally, toward some greater diligence. The idea is that instead of murdering the people next door, which seems to be the current behavior, you can -refuse to be terrorized into doing the exact same terrifying thing as your evil, awful, horrible enemies.”

If you think that’s a mouthful, consider the name of the text at hand: The Blade Wheel of Mind Transformation. (Thurman says the wheel probably refers to an ancient discus-type -weapon.) “The teaching is relevant to the choice we have between extremists on various sides of various disputes, and people who are looking for rational solutions—and actually go to work and try to make some decent decisions instead of going back to their ranch after deciding to have started a couple of wars,” Thurman says. “With this teaching, the -U.S. might not have responded the way we did to 9/11, but used it to reinvigorate our values -instead of competing downward with the terrorists to see who can be the worst.”

People who can’t get a seat for the Dalai Lama’s visit can still have an encounter with Tibetan Buddhism by seeing John Bush’s latest documentary, Vajra Sky Over Tibet.

He traveled the region filming Vajrayana Buddhist communities, but didn’t interview people on camera for fear of Chinese authorities’ reprisals against them. (The director shot without permission.) Tenzin Choegyal, the Dalai -Lama’s nephew, is one of the film’s narrators. His descrip-tion of the “slow and delib-erate asphyxiation of the Buddhist faith within its own home” under Chinese rule could soften the most brittle heart. Or so you’d think.

The Dalai Lama teaches at the Beacon Theatre September 23–25; visit tibethouse.org for more information. Vajra Sky Over Tibet opens September 15 at Cinema Village.

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