“He found the peace of mind and the ultimate happiness of loving kindness after a long search caused by not being satisfied with the routine and mental struggles of ordinary life. Sitting under the Bodhi tree he achieved his aim.” This is an extremely short account of the life of the Enlightened One, The Buddha.

His life story is an inspiring one – that of a journey to find lasting solution to the struggles of ordinary life, the struggles that he witnessed around him. He went in search of truth, to gain mastery over the techniques to eliminate suffering from this world. He undertook a journey of investigation into the nature of our existence, the nature of our suffering and happiness. He developed insight that led him to complete awakening, a state of perfection of wisdom, loving kindness and compassionate action.

We can use many of his teachings in daily life to gain great benefit. It is the same struggle that we all are going through. We aspire to experience lasting happiness. We want to be free from struggles ourselves at least, if not aspiring to free others from such struggles. Most of us know that the happiness we like to experience in our daily life does not come from possessions like money, house, car, etc. Although we need these in our mundane life, they do not by themselves result in a peaceful satisfied mind. They can sometimes even lead to more distress. So, there is some other cause behind happiness, the mundane objects of desire are not the direct cause. While we work for our mundane needs, we also need to know the direct cause for happiness.

Only the mind itself can give us satisfaction in life. “Why is this so?” one might ask. Well, to experience peace of mind or distress is a feeling, a component of our consciousness. Our present moment of consciousness is conditioned by that of a previous moment. How is that? Our thought pattern is such that one thought leads to another and every thought comes up conditioned by prior thought. We can check this during our daily life. How do different moments of mind come into being? It seems like a rise and fall of different states of mind. We get happiness only if the mind arises with the right causes and conditions. Otherwise, we remain in distress no matter what external objects we possess.

One of the qualities of our mind is that it is changeable because it is by nature impermanent. The attitudes we cultivate affect the way the mind changes. Take two states of mind as an example: anger and patience. The more we analyze the negative sides of anger the more we realize that it does not solve any problem. It only makes things worse, harming oneself and others by creating more distress, sleepless nights, loss of appetite, loss of friends etc. The more we analyze patience, the antidote to anger, the more we can see that it brings peace of mind to oneself and others. People with patience have more friends and better relationships with their family and co-workers. Patience is a quality of mind that brings more benefit while anger brings only harm. The more we habituate our mind with these kinds of reasonings we find it easier to generate patience. The mind can be trained in this way. Thus, we can generate more of these positive states of mind. As we see, it is the mind that puts us in distress or gives us happiness. It is the changeability of the mind that enables us to work towards greater happiness.

All of us have the same wish, wanting peace and happiness and not wanting distress or a disturbed and unhappy mind. We can find this wish in all living beings. We all strive to achieve this goal. When we are in some state of difficulty, we would like to be separated from it as soon as possible. When we experience peace and happiness, we would very much like for it to last. Even animals have this behavior. A dog or a cat goes in the sun when it is too cold and if the sun gets too hot it likes to go back to the shade. Knowing this, we should try to generate compassion for and wish to help others. We are just one among innumerable living beings, all working for the same goal, all engaged in one and the same basic struggle to get away from difficulties and move toward greater happiness. Wouldn’t it be nice to be a cause for the happiness of others since we share this basic wish, this basic goal? Acting as a cause for the happiness of others by itself will also result in more happiness for oneself. Looking at our own experience in life, don’t we usually get a feeling of satisfaction when we are able to help someone? Don’t we see that it leads to widespread happiness and welfare? The more positive qualities of mind we gain ourselves the more we can be of benefit to others.

How do we work towards that happiness for ourselves and others? Is there a way to make this happiness everlasting? Is there a way to get to a stage where we can actually help our fellow beings in overcoming their struggles? Many religions have something to offer in this regard. We are so fortunate to be in a land (India) where many of these philosophies and beliefs originated. The driving force behind the origination of these philosophies was the quest for ultimate truth and aspiration to discover the means for achieving lasting happiness. Various systems of philosophies in India shared their knowledge and means with others, learned from each other without inhibitions. The Buddha had trained in the then prevalent systems of spiritual practice before his own enlightenment. When he realized the limitations of the available teachings, he explored beyond them and succeeded in finding the way to ultimate happiness.

Even though the Buddha’s teaching is a complete path in itself, he never made it mandatory to accept it that way. We are left with the freedom to study it and decide for ourselves whether it is suitable and useful for us. After careful scrutiny, we can either assimilate some of the teachings and insight into our practice of other religions or accept the complete teaching as a path in itself. The Buddha himself told his disciples not to accept his teaching out of mere respect and veneration to him. He urged them to examine his teaching in terms of its validity before accepting it. If we do not see any benefit in certain teachings, then we can leave them aside. Gaining inspiration from this, many great Indian masters examined the teachings of the Buddha. Many systems of Buddhist tenets arose with differing levels of subtlety.

This led to the thriving of a highly intellectual and spiritual culture in India with universities like Nalanda, Vikramasila, Takshasila and Odantapuri at its epicenter. The Prajna Paramita teachings of the Buddha formed its heart essence, hence this tradition is widely known as the Prajna Paramita tradition. For centuries, Nalanda remained a place where teachings were scrutinized, understood and elaborated upon. It remained the intellectual and spiritual capital of India where philosophical views flourished in general with clear commentaries and greater insight. In its heydays, Nalanda had around 10,000 students coming from all over Asia. Studies were interactive with daily debate sessions to hone and clarify the students’ understanding of the serious topics under discussion. The destruction of these universities during foreign invasions in the twelfth century put a final seal on the already waning presence of Buddhism in India. The land of India forgot its great scholars like Nagarjuna, Asanga and Candrakirti.

From the seventh century onwards, Indian thinkers and Maha-siddhas with great foresight took this precious teaching to the Land of Snows, Tibet. Scholars of India and Tibet worked together precisely translating hundreds of volumes of Buddhist scriptures into the Tibetan language. Inaccessible to the rest of the world, hidden behind the heights of the Himalayan Mountains, Tibetans preserved and enriched the Prajna Paramita tradition in its pure form. The Buddhist masters of Tibet, like their spiritual leader His Holiness Dalai Lama, through their loving compassion and wisdom epitomize the enlightenment ideal in this tradition. The time was ripe for the flourishing of this sacred knowledge and practices throughout the world when thousands of Tibetan refugees fled to the plains of India during the Chinese invasion. The Tibetans re-established many of their monasteries and monastic universities in various settlements in India to study Buddhist philosophy and meditation systems. These have become living examples of the forgotten Prajna Paramita tradition. Today, around the world there is a revived interest in Buddhism and the Prajna Paramita tradition. Furthermore, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama’s dialogues with scientists have been instrumental in identifying the meeting ground between science and Buddhism and in building bridges between them, thus leading Buddhism again to the forefront of human development.

Thanks to the kindness of His Holiness Dalai Lama, the aspiration of Indians to have a Buddhist learning center was fulfilled in November 2003. His Holiness requested Lama Zopa Rinpoche to take the initiative in establishing a Dharma center in Bangalore where teachings are made available to interested laity. His Holiness named it “Choe Khor Sum Ling” (CKSL), translated as “a sanctuary for the three turnings of the wheel of Dharma”. Today, CKSL represents the aspiration to learn and assimilate from the lost tradition of Prajna Paramita, a tradition where scholarship and spirituality are equally important, a tradition where healthy dialogue enriches various systems of thought and practice, a tradition where the quest for happiness of every sentient being occupies the center stage. The Buddha’s teachings showing how to generate peace of mind for oneself and loving kindness and compassion for others, is thus returning back to the land of their origin.