With the troubling events of today’s world, people would feel nervous about their interactions and their perception of reality. Numerous philosophies and religions, like Buddhism, seek to help people cope with today’s world by not only bettering themselves mentally but also seeking a new perspective.
The Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies hosted a panel on Oct. 30 discussing the aspects of the Heart Sutra of Buddhist teachings. The panel was led by ordained Buddhist monk Gen Kelsang Tilopa. Tilopa spoke about helping people spiritually as he usually works in North Carolina to support Buddhist missions in the southern United States.
“We give authentic Buddhist teachings and it has a lot of success in helping people to find happiness,” Tilopa said.
Winthrop religious studies professor Kristin Kiblinger currently teaches RELG 335 about Buddhism. Kiblinger opened the cultural event to students outside her class to explore the concepts of Buddhism.
“We live in a multicultural, interconnected world, so for students’ general education it is good for them to learn something about this culture,” Kiblinger said. “Also, Buddhism is quite different from the Judeo-Christian culture prevalent in the U.S. and thus students can gain better perspective on and insight into Judeo-Christian culture by comparing it to a different one.”
Kiblinger had learned about the Buddhist mission in North Carolina from Kadampa Meditation Center North Carolina, which helped bring the Gen Tilopa to Winthrop University and explain more about Buddhism.
“Gen Tilopa has lectured for cultural events on campus twice previously over the years, so I had his contact information and invited him,” Kiblinger said.
Originally from Scotland, Tilopa had been searching for meaning in life, which eventually led to him to discover Buddhism and become ordained as a monk.
“It was like coming home,” Tilopa said. “One day a friend gave me a call about Buddhism and a few years later, I decided to get ordained.”
One of the concepts he mentioned during the panel is seeking Buddhist wisdom with the perceptions of our reality and how finding wisdom in living beings and their identity. The
Honorable Gen also provided the audience with copies of The Heart Sutra to read and discuss on the inner teachings of Buddhism.
“Buddhist wisdom is about how things exist. We think whenever we see something or
someone, we think they exist the way they appear,” Tilopa said.
At one point, Tilopa performed an experiment where he presented the audience with a flower. He removed the petals and stems overtime. The purpose of the experiment was to show how the appearance of the flower was a mental concept to the audience.
“The whole issue is not what exists, the real issue is how it exists dependent on how it’s caused,” Tilopa said.
Buddhism is very popular in Asian culture and is the apparent fourth largest religion. Buddhism focuses on using spiritual meditation and freedom of attachment from the material world to free oneself of suffering.
“I think the students learned more about the Buddhist concept of emptiness (Sanskrit: sunyata) and generally about the goals of Buddhism,” Kiblinger said.
One of the interactive moments was Tilopa asking the audience members to close their eyes and meditate about the emptiness of our minds and seeking perception of ourselves.
“Outer peace begins in your heart to remove jealousy from our minds,” Tilopa said. “When we are pure of mind, the world we see is of peace.”
Tilopa closed the panel by holding a quick Q&A with the audience members on how regardless of denomination, we must try to meet the problems of the world with a mind of compassion and mercy.
“If we continue to retaliate, then peace never rises,” Tilopa said. “We have to start where we are, we can practice by cherishing people around us and gradually extend that to people we don’t know or like.”
