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Gyalwang Karmapa
Launches Website for Environmental Protection
[Thursday, 24 December 2009, 3:58 p.m.]
www.khoryug.com - a bilingual website in Tibetan and English,
offers educational resources on importance of forest protection,
water conservation, wildlife preservation, climate change adaptation
and waste management, and a forum for people interested in the
environment.
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Gyalwang
Karmapa speaks during the launch of khoryug.com, in Bodhgaya,
India, on
22 December 2009
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Dharamshala: His
Eminence the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje launched the
new website dedicated to environmental protection in the Himalayan
region initiated by a network of thirty-six Buddhist monasteries
across India, Nepal and Bhutan.
Launching the website at Tergar Monastery in Bodhgaya on Tuesday (22
December), Gyalwang Karmapa underlined the need to work for the
environment as a logical extension of our Dharma practice,
connecting it to our Mahayana commitment to benefit others, and to
live in a way that is consistent with the basic fact of
interdependence.
Gyalwang Karmapa urged the audience to ask themselves whether the
beautiful aspirations and prayers they make in the morning are
carried out in their actions throughout the day. Often when
opportunities arise to work to benefit others, we do not seize them,
and if we ask ourselves why this is so, it is usually because we are
simply working for our own egocentric concerns. Too often we behave
as if others existed for us, and as if the Earth was ours alone to
use as we wish," he added. "Our actions based on such attitudes have
had cumulative effects that are devastating for the Earth itself, he
said.
We, nevertheless, dominate the planet as if it were ours alone, and
we are responsible for virtually all the damage done to it. This
attitude is inappropriate as well as damaging given our total
dependence on others, and especially on the earth itself, for our
well-being and for our very survival. Without the plants that yield
oxygen, we would not even be able to draw a single breath, Gyalwang
Karmapa said.
Using a powerpoint presentation to underscore his points with images,
Gyalwang Karmapa took the audience on a dazzling tour of the galaxy,
pointing out along the way that we humans have nowhere else to go if
we destroy the earth’s natural environment.
"Yet unlike humans, the earth is endlessly forgiving," he noted.
"When someone commits heinous crimes, such as murder, he is shunned
and expelled from human society. Yet however much harm we do to her,
the Earth never banishes us. Despite all the damage we have done
thus far, she has never given up on us, but continues to yield her
resources to us with great generosity. We, therefore, all have a
responsibility to consider what practical steps we can do to respond
in kind to this great kindness that we receive from the Earth,"
Gyalwang Karmapa said.
Dekila Chungyalpa, Director of the Greater Mekong area for the World
Wildlife Foundation (WWF) and Khenpo Kelsang Nyima from Rumtek spoke
on the significance of environmental protection.
The event concluded with a moving rendition of the song 'Aspiration
for the World', composed by Gyalwang Karmapa himself and sung by a
chorus of students from the Tibetan Children’s Village School.
In addition to a large number of Tibetan monks and nuns, translators
were on hand to deliver the message to the international audience in
nine different languages. Many devotees, including foreign students
who are in Bodhgaya to attend the upcoming Kagyu Monlam and
the annual winter teachings, attended the event. |
