Nina (Yeshe Khandro)

What enables/ed HE Garchen Rinpoche and Adhe Tapontsang (Ama Adhe) to lead lives of loving kindness, spreading their message of resilience and the Buddhist doctrine of wisdom and compassion after having been imprisoned, starved, and tortured for decades in Chinese prison camps? Is there a common basis with what enabled Sophie Scholl and Franz Jägerstätter, both deeply rooted in Christian faith, to give their lives to oppose the monstrous cruelty of the Nazi regime? And can examples like these inspire us to overcome our deeply ingrained habit of „me first“ to lead deeply meaningful lives in service of the world we live in?

Having been troubled by myself and by the immense suffering we have to witness in our world, I tried many ways to escape, including some unskillful ones that led to even more suffering, for others as well as for myself. Caring for others, as a mother and as a social worker, brought me some relief. Nurturing these activities with socially engaged (Zen-) Buddhism helped even more, and I experienced first-hand how spiritual practice can not only uplift oneself but how, inevitably, one`s social environment is affected too. Years later I got to taste a more contemplative way of Buddhist practice, and I was hooked. Still practicing under Zen-related guidance I was kindly introduced to teachings given by Lama Alan Wallace. Soon I followed wholeheartedly, deep inside I knew I had finally come home, to Tibetan Buddhism, and more specifically to the Dudjom lineage.

Through spiritual quest my respect towards other religious traditions has increased, and the question of a common ground is of lingering interest.

The vision the Buddhist path offers is grand, a vision of revealing and manifesting our core of perfect sanity and of so becoming a force for the good. A thorough investigation of the mind and its potential is the way to go. Buddhist contemplatives have been scientifically exploring the mind in its depth over centuries, and they have laid out a map. Lama Alan has built a much-needed bridge between Contemplative and Western Science; he has translated Tibetan Buddhist wisdom into a language we people of modern times can understand; and he has generously and extensively taught it.

But can an ordinary middle-aged Western woman, a mother of two adult sons, looking back on a life full of ups and downs, and a rather modest career in the social field, follow this vision, utilize these invaluable teachings, and transmute her life into a path of awakening? Even in the virtually perfect conditions created here at Miyo Samten Ling, together with like-minded, like-hearted companions, how far, how deep can we go? I am humbled and inexpressibly grateful for having been given the precious opportunity to practice in this sacred and so beautiful environment to pursue this question, and I am willing to give myself completely to it. There`s nothing else I´d rather do.