His Holiness’s fifth day on this Japanese tour found him traveling immediately after breakfast to a hall in Matsuyama, around the corner from his hotel, to address 400 members of the Japanese Buddhist sangha. He began with a short explanation of Buddhism and its different schools, while highlighting its system of reasoning, which distinguishes it from those other spiritual traditions that stress only faith and compassion. Ignorance, after all, cannot be eliminated by just faith and compassion; the only cure for it comes through wisdom.

Some say that Mahayana Buddhism does not reflect the real words of the Buddha, he continued, but Nagarjuna offered very strong arguments to the contrary. Opening the event up very quickly to discussion and dialogue, after these preliminary remarks, His Holiness was visibly gratified at the searching and philosophical questions that came forth. He explained the different forms of meditation and, again, stressed that the Buddha and Buddhism place an emphasis on logic and reasoning unique to their tradition. Embodying the very rigor and scholarly precision he was speaking for, he concluded, “So you should study more and do more research.”

In the early 20th century, he went on, mind was treated almost as if it were a part of the brain. But in the past two or three decades, scientific research has shown that meditation can actually increase gamma rays. Scientists are therefore concluding that there is something that can influence the brain, which is called Mind. And Mind has different levels - when we sleep, when we dream, when we’re awake, when we faint, when we die.

Asked again about suicide, so common in modern Japan, His Holiness spoke with unusual force. “It is a sign of a lack of patience,” he said. “Of short-sightedness. There is a Tibetan saying, `If you fail nine times, you must try nine times more.’ You have to think about things in a broader perspective. There are six billion human beings and there is not a single one who does not have difficulties.” Finally, referring back to an earlier question, he stressed that the “Tibetan political issue” is not just political and does not just concern Tibet. It is a matter of an ancient culture and a rich ancient spiritual tradition dying, and if it does die, it affects not just Tibetans but 1 billion Chinese brothers and sisters who may learn and gain from it. The same is true with the environment. Clearly delighted by the vigor and engagement of the session, His Holiness expressed the wish that even more such discussions could be held, and even longer.

After a quick lunch with his hosts at the Funaya inn, His Holiness flew to the southern island of Okinawa for his first visit there, and was greeted at the airport by a group of local dignitaries. He immediately drove off to the Konpaku Stupa, a memorial to the 35,000 people Okinawan citizens and military personnel who died during the war and were buried in the area. Joined by a Catholic priest and a Japanese Buddhist priest, His Holiness led prayers before the memorial, while a large crowd of Okinawans gathered behind him, beside the fields of high sugar cane, many of them sobbing and wiping away tears as the three religious leaders offered their prayers for world peace.

Across the road, under the 80-degree tropical skies, is a sapling of the Holy Maha Bodhi tree, under which the Buddha attained enlightenment, the rare seed to be sent overseas, to the southern fields of the Battle of Okinawa, as a token of peace, in 2003. His Holiness and his monks prayed there, too, and then he planted a tree in what is called Bodaiju-en, or Bodhi Tree Park. He also wrote out a message expressing his hope and prayer that world peace would continue through the growth of holistic wisdom and compassion.

Asked to offer some words to the public, His Holiness began by pointing out that his first stop on his first hour on the island was the memorial, and that those who died had a life as dear as any of ours, and friends and family left bereft by their deaths. “To hope for a world without problems is unrealistic,” he went on. “There will always be problems. So the real prayer of peace is to promote the solution of peace through dialogue.” As he was praying, he had heard a bird singing in a tree that he was used to hearing in India, too, and in Lhasa. This made him think of Lhasa. “So,” he concluded, “we all have common birds as well as a common spiritual practice!”

Sometimes, he went on, taking questions from the media clustered round, “suffering can have a good effect, if it leads to greater determination.” Peace will not come if we just lie around. “We must make an effort. Praying or wishing alone will not help. And we must continue our effort even though there is no guarantee of peace.”

After the Catholic priest offered a welcome in the Okinawan dialect - expressing the hope that His Holiness lives to 120 - His Holiness traveled to a nearby hotel to spend the night.

Tibet House in Japan
4 November 2009

“War is senseless,” says Dalai Lama in Okinawa

The Dalai Lama in Japan - Day 4