Author Topic: The Dalai Lama Wins 2012 Templeton Prize!  (Read 6867 times)

Positive Change

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The Dalai Lama Wins 2012 Templeton Prize!
« on: April 01, 2012, 10:37:03 AM »
NEWSFLASH!!!!
Interesting highlights in RED! I wonder what HHDL will do with the money... perhaps help the ones that are suffering because of the ban??? Hmmmm. I mean no disrespect but something is not gelling here!

Here is a link for previous winners: http://www.templetonprize.org/currentwinner.html


March 29th 2012

West Conshohocken, Pa, USA, 29 March 2012 - The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader whose long-standing engagement with multiple dimensions of science and with people far beyond his own religious traditions has made him an incomparable global voice for universal ethics, nonviolence, and harmony among world religions, has won the 2012 Templeton Prize.

For decades, Tenzin Gyatso, 76, the 14th Dalai Lama – a lineage believed by followers to be the reincarnation of an ancient Buddhist leader who epitomized compassion – has vigorously focused on the connections between the investigative traditions of science and Buddhism as a way to better understand and advance what both disciplines might offer the world.

Specifically, he encourages serious scientific investigative reviews of the power of compassion and its broad potential to address the world’s fundamental problems – a theme at the core of his teachings and a cornerstone of his immense popularity.

Within that search, the “big questions” he raises – such as “Can compassion be trained or taught?” – reflect the deep interest of the founder of the Templeton Prize, the late Sir John Templeton, in seeking to bring scientific methods to the study of spiritual claims and thus foster the spiritual progress that the Prize has recognized for the past 40 years.

The announcement was made this morning online at www.templetonprize.org, via email to journalists, and on Twitter via @TempletonPrize by the Templeton Prize office of the John Templeton Foundation in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.

The Prize will be presented to the Dalai Lama at a ceremony at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London on the afternoon of Monday, May 14. A news conference with the 2012 Prize Laureate will precede

the ceremony. Both events will be webcast live at www.templetonprize.org and to global media on a pool basis. Photography from the events will also be pooled.

Valued at £1.1 million (about $1.7 million or €1.3 million), the prize is the world's largest annual monetary award given to an individual and honors a living person who has made exceptional contributions to affirming life’s spiritual dimension.

The announcement praised the Dalai Lama for his life’s work in building bridges of trust in accord with the yearnings of countless millions of people around the globe who have been drawn by the charismatic icon’s appeal to compassion and understanding for all.

“With an increasing reliance on technological advances to solve the world’s problems, humanity also seeks the reassurance that only a spiritual quest can answer,” said Dr. John M. Templeton, Jr., president and chairman of the John Templeton Foundation and son of the late Prize founder. “The Dalai Lama offers a universal voice of compassion underpinned by a love and respect for spiritually relevant scientific research that centers on every single human being.”

He also noted that the Dalai Lama’s remarkable record of intellectual, moral and spiritual innovations is clearly recognized by the nine Prize judges, who represent a wide range of disciplines, cultures and religious traditions. The Prize judges evaluate – independently of each other – typically 15 to 20 nominated candidates each year and then individually submit separate ballots – from which a tally then determines the selection of each year’s Laureate.

The Dalai Lama responded to the prize in the humble style that has become his signature. “When I heard today your decision to give me this quite famous award, I really felt this is another sign of recognition about my little service to humanity, mainly nonviolence and unity around different religious traditions,” he said in a video available at www.templetonprize.org.

In other brief videos on the Prize website, the Dalai Lama elaborates on key issues including his call for humanity to embrace compassion as a path to peace, both personally and on a global scale. “You can develop genuine sense of concern of well-being of others, including your enemy,” he states in one video. “That kind of compassion – unbiased, unlimited – needs training, awareness.”

The Right Reverend Michael Colclough, Canon Pastor at St. Paul’s Cathedral, welcomed this event: “A non-violent voice of peace and reason in a calamitous world, the Dalai Lama represents core values cherished by many different faiths. The award of the Templeton Prize to the Dalai Lama under the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral will be a reminder that working towards peace and harmony is a practical and spiritual challenge to all faith communities.”

The Dalai Lama is no stranger to honors and accolades, with scores to his name. In 1989, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his advocacy of nonviolence as the path to liberation for Tibet. He becomes the second Templeton Prize Laureate to have also received the Nobel Peace Prize; Mother Teresa received the first Templeton Prize in 1973, six years before her Nobel.

In concert with his efforts to achieve peace for Tibet, the Dalai Lama’s extensive travels have promoted cross-cultural understanding with other religions and with disciplines as varied as astrophysics, quantum mechanics, neurobiology, and behavioral science.

He often notes that the rigorous commitment of Buddhists to meditative investment and reflection similarly follows the strict rules of investigation, proof and evidence required of science.

Among his most successful efforts is the Mind & Life Institute, co-founded in 1987 to create collaborative research between science and Buddhism. The Institute hosts conferences on subjects such as contemplative science, destructive and healing emotions, and consciousness and death. While initially beginning as quiet academic affairs, they have evolved into enormously popular public events.

In 2005, after a series of dialogues at Stanford University among the Dalai Lama, scientists in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and medicine, and contemplative scholars, the university became the home of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. The interdisciplinary discourse recognized that engagement between cognitive sciences and Buddhist contemplative traditions could contribute to understanding of the human mind and emotion. The center now supports and conducts rigorous scientific studies of compassion and altruistic behavior.

Many of these conferences have led to popular best sellers written or co-written by the Dalai Lama, including "The Art of Happiness" (1998), "The Universe in a Single Atom" (2005), and "The Dalai Lama at MIT" (2006). All told, he has authored or co-authored more than 70 books.

vajratruth

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Re: The Dalai Lama Wins 2012 Templeton Prize!
« Reply #1 on: April 01, 2012, 02:55:46 PM »
This is great news for Buddhism and the spread of the Buddha's teachings around the world. And yes, it is ironic that HHDL is world recognized for his compassion and harmony, and yet he has dealt with Shugden practitioners in such an unfair way. Almost out of character.

There is one extremely consoling way to look at what HHDL has been doing singlehandedly i.e (i) one the one hand, spreading Buddhism far and wide and (ii) creating a situation that draws attention to Dorje Shugden and in the process, galvanize the resolve and guru devotion of the Shugden practitioners.

Now, imagine one day when HHDL comes out in the open to say either that he has been wrong (and His Holiness would definitely have the strength of character and the compassion to do that) about Dorje Shugden or words that will have the effect of lifting the ban; or even appoint Trijang Choktrul Rinpoche as his successor, what would that do for the spread of Dorje Shugden as one of the main practices of Tibetan Buddhism? Of course I am speculating but HHDL has always invited Buddhist practitioners to think and reason instead of accepting things blindly and on the surface.

HHDL may yet be the most loyal practitioners of Dorje Shugden, working hand in hand with selected High Lamas who are also high practitioners of the Protector, to create a Push and Pull strategy. I hope so and I think that is the case.


triesa

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Re: The Dalai Lama Wins 2012 Templeton Prize!
« Reply #2 on: April 02, 2012, 06:16:49 PM »
[quote author=Positive Change link=topic=1858.msg25610#msg25610 date=1333276623


The Dalai Lama responded to the prize in the humble style that has become his signature. “When I heard today your decision to give me this quite famous award, I really felt this is another sign of recognition about my little service to humanity, mainly nonviolence and unity around different religious traditions,” he said in a video available at www.templetonprize.org.

In other brief videos on the Prize website, the Dalai Lama elaborates on key issues including his call for humanity to embrace compassion as a path to peace, both personally and on a global scale. “You can develop genuine sense of concern of well-being of others, including your enemy,” he states in one video. “That kind of compassion – unbiased, unlimited – needs training, awareness.”

[/quote]

Dalai Said the winning of this award is another sign to recognise his little service to humanity, mainly nonviolence and unity around different religions traditions............I Hope this will be applied to Shugden practitioners too.

Dalai Lama said you can develope genuine sense of concern of well-being of other, including your enemy........I Hope this will be applied to Shugden practitioners too.

There is indeed much irony between what he stands for, compassion and nonviolence, and what is done to shugden practitioners as a result of the ban initiated by Dalai Lama, even the blind can see the hypocrisy behind all these, Dalai Lama is not so stupid to jeopadise his name for nothing, again....this goes back to the "BIG PICTURE' theory, which I can totally agree with.


pgdharma

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Re: The Dalai Lama Wins 2012 Templeton Prize!
« Reply #3 on: April 04, 2012, 03:24:03 PM »
“The Dalai Lama offers a universal voice of compassion underpinned by a love and respect for spiritually relevant scientific research that centers on every single human being.” If HHDL is the universal voice of compassion that centered on every single human being why is it not applied to  Dorje Shugden practitioners. Are DS practitioners not human beings?

“When I heard today your decision to give me this quite famous award, I really felt this is another sign of recognition about my little service to humanity, mainly nonviolence and unity around different religious traditions,” If nonviolence and unity can be applied around different religious traditions, why is Dorje Shugden practice not tolerated, instead it has created so much disharmony and sufferings.

“You can develop genuine sense of concern of well-being of others, including your enemy," Did HHDL showed a genuine sense of concern of well beings towards Dorje Shugden practitioners?  I am not at the level to understand and judge what HHDL is trying to do but knowing that he has full of compassion, I believed yes he did because “That kind of compassion – unbiased, unlimited – needs training, awareness.” and I believed he has that kind of compassion.

May we see the true picture when the ban is lifted.

WisdomBeing

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Re: The Dalai Lama Wins 2012 Templeton Prize!
« Reply #4 on: April 05, 2012, 02:52:34 AM »
I rejoice that the Dalai Lama has received this prestigious (and financially generous) Templeton award for “incomparable global voice for universal ethics, nonviolence, and harmony among world religions”. However, what I find very ironic over this award is that nobody appears to have brought up the point that the Dalai Lama has implemented a ban to Dorje Shugden practitioners which contradict the very qualities which this award claims to champion. There is no news article which even mentions this controversy. Is it because people are no longer aware of the ban? I know that the ban is not as newsworthy now than it used to be when there were protests by the WSS etc but as it is still happening, I think it is our responsibility to remind the world of this archaic injustice. There are many letters already drafted for our adaptation here (dorjeshugden.com/wp/?p=10541)

These are the current judges for the Templeton Award, perhaps we can drop them a line. The motivation should be NOT to put the Dalai Lama down, but to highlight the Dorje Shugden ban:

Durre Sameen Ahmed is Chairperson of the Department of Academic Studies and Professor of Psychology and Communication at the National College of Arts in Pakistan and director of the graduate program in communication and cultural studies.

Prof. Russell Cowburn FRS is the Director of Research of the Thin Film Magnetism group in the Department of Physics at Cambridge University.

Gurcharan Das is an author, columnist and management consultant, and the former CEO of Procter & Gamble India.

Esther Sternberg is Chief of Neuroendocrine Immunology and Behavior at the National Institute of Mental Health, part of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

Tu Weiming is Lifetime Professor of Philosophy and Dean of the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Peking University, and Research Professor and Senior Fellow of the Asia Center at Harvard University. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Faraneh Vargha-Khadem is Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London Institute of Child Health and Director of the UCL Centre for Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience.

Prince Heinrich Von und zu Liechtenstein is a professor at the IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. He is co-leading The Family Office Research Project, a cross-continental effort within the Wharton Global Family Alliance.

Miroslav Volf is the Director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture and Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at Yale University Divinity School.
 
Gayle Woloschak is a molecular biologist and professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. She is director of the Zygon Center for Religion and Science.

Kate Walker - a wannabe wisdom Being

bambi

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Re: The Dalai Lama Wins 2012 Templeton Prize!
« Reply #5 on: April 06, 2012, 05:49:34 AM »
I salute and _/\_ to HHDL. He truly is the Bodhisatva of Compassion for all He does is let the world recognize Him. Yes I dislike the fact that He banned Dorje Shugden but He is still well known throughout the world for other reasons. He promotes peace, compassion and love all the time. Its not straight in you face religion but other means of planting the seeds into our deluded and ignorant minds. With the ban, it's even better as people talk about him day in and day out, making it hard not to know 'Tibetan Buddhism' for people who are new.  :o
'Killing' 2 birds with 1 stone!  ::)

DharmaSpace

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Re: The Dalai Lama Wins 2012 Templeton Prize!
« Reply #6 on: April 07, 2012, 12:51:30 PM »
The more famous the Dalai Lama the more people would want to know more about the Dalai Lama. The more people who wants to know about the Dalai Lama inadvertently they will come to know of Dorje Shugden. IN this day age controversy creates a lot more hype and the Dalai Lama just used skillful means to spread Dorje Shugden quickly in this age. Nothing like a gossip to get things moving. Despite the ban has been going on since the 80's the movement, lamas and Dorje Shugden is just getting stronger by the day. We have seen how the Fifth Dalai Lama suppressed the Jonang school, he wiped it off the map in Tibet at least. So if the Dalai Lama was so insistent in destroying Dorje Shugden practice he would have found a quicker way to have done that. A person who has so much influence in the world like the Dalai Lama if destroying the Dorje Shugden practice was his real goal, he would have destroyed it much faster.

Klein

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Re: The Dalai Lama Wins 2012 Templeton Prize!
« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2012, 11:02:34 AM »
I rejoice that the Dalai Lama has received this prestigious (and financially generous) Templeton award for “incomparable global voice for universal ethics, nonviolence, and harmony among world religions”. However, what I find very ironic over this award is that nobody appears to have brought up the point that the Dalai Lama has implemented a ban to Dorje Shugden practitioners which contradict the very qualities which this award claims to champion. There is no news article which even mentions this controversy. Is it because people are no longer aware of the ban? I know that the ban is not as newsworthy now than it used to be when there were protests by the WSS etc but as it is still happening, I think it is our responsibility to remind the world of this archaic injustice. There are many letters already drafted for our adaptation here (dorjeshugden.com/wp/?p=10541)

These are the current judges for the Templeton Award, perhaps we can drop them a line. The motivation should be NOT to put the Dalai Lama down, but to highlight the Dorje Shugden ban:

Durre Sameen Ahmed is Chairperson of the Department of Academic Studies and Professor of Psychology and Communication at the National College of Arts in Pakistan and director of the graduate program in communication and cultural studies.

Prof. Russell Cowburn FRS is the Director of Research of the Thin Film Magnetism group in the Department of Physics at Cambridge University.

Gurcharan Das is an author, columnist and management consultant, and the former CEO of Procter & Gamble India.

Esther Sternberg is Chief of Neuroendocrine Immunology and Behavior at the National Institute of Mental Health, part of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

Tu Weiming is Lifetime Professor of Philosophy and Dean of the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Peking University, and Research Professor and Senior Fellow of the Asia Center at Harvard University. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Faraneh Vargha-Khadem is Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London Institute of Child Health and Director of the UCL Centre for Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience.

Prince Heinrich Von und zu Liechtenstein is a professor at the IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. He is co-leading The Family Office Research Project, a cross-continental effort within the Wharton Global Family Alliance.

Miroslav Volf is the Director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture and Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at Yale University Divinity School.
 
Gayle Woloschak is a molecular biologist and professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. She is director of the Zygon Center for Religion and Science.

Dear WisdomBeing,

I agree with you 100%. This is one of the best opportunities to write in to the panel of judges for the Templeton Award, highlighting the Dorje Shugden ban. We should not condemn HHDL as it is very negative karma to do that to the sangha.

Since it states that "The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader whose long-standing engagement with multiple dimensions of science and with people far beyond his own religious traditions has made him an incomparable global voice for universal ethics, nonviolence, and harmony among world religions, has won the 2012 Templeton Prize.", it doesn't make sense for HHDL to ban the practice of Dorje Shugden. What happened to harmony among world religions?

Perhaps with enough pressure from all of us, the panel of judges would request HHDL to clarify on the situation. Can you imagine if HHDL says there is no ban and the people are free to practice? WOW!