A talk by Lopen Lungtaen Gyatsho, President of College of Language and Culture Studies

The President of College of Language and Culture Studies, Lopen Lungtaen Gyatsho gave a talk titled ‘Inclusivity and loving kindness: The only educational technology to drive the engine of wellbeing’ to the students and staff of Samtse College of Education on 8^th November, 2019. Lopen started off with a very inspiring and practical statement where he said “If you are sensible, conscious and inclusive, you will always be loving, both within yourself as well as for the people around you.” He highlighted that wellbeing is not an idea but it means a life, being well to its fullest level in mind, emotion, love and compassion. Unless that is an experience, wellbeing will remain only as an idea, added the President. Grounded on the holistic preaching of Buddhism supported by modern concepts and realistic examples, Lopen said that humans have the choice to be miserable with unlimited desire or to be good since humans are gifted with the ability to think at higher dimension.

Lopen explained that pain and suffering are not caused by life but by the inability to manage the body and mind, which is called self-centred problem. He said that the suffering is not about survival but is about the mind that poison the system with non-virtuous anxiety, anger, agitation and grudge. “When people suffer we are the first victim. Every thought and emotion generated in the mind is constantly changing the chemical composition of our body,” said the president. The President stated that the primordial state of mind is pure consciousness and state of bliss. Human body is programmed for health and designed for a lifetime but people create disharmony and create poison within the system.

Lopen remarked that happiness is not because of one individual self but dependent on external factors. He added that if one trains his or her mind to be inclusive and loving kindness, both health and happiness is ensured. However, the understanding of ‘love’ is limited by the idea of exclusivity. He also reminded that the society today is built on exclusivity be it economy or religion. “Inclusivity is not about enhancing good or morality in people; it is about stirring up humanity and bringing sense and consciousness,” said Lopen. He further commented that without inclusivity, love is limited, selective and exclusive, which is called ‘attachment’ or ‘don’t care’ attitude.

Lopen reminded the gathering of the basics of humanity and importance of being inclusive and making inclusiveness an integral part of life. The talk session was closed with the following remark “If we are inclusive, we will be able to handle everything lovingly and focus to do only what is necessary and what is important to ourselves, for everybody and everything around us. This is not morality, it is sensibility.”

Covered by Manisha Rai