Visiting monk speaks about generosity of wealth, spirit

  • Published
  • By Don Branum
  • Air Force Academy Public Affairs
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. --  A Tibetan Buddhist monk visiting from India spoke to an audience of about 75 people in Arnold Hall here Monday on an invitation by the Academy's Cadet Interfaith Council.

The presentation was part of a continuing program set up by the Cadet Interfaith Council and Academy chaplains to give cadets chances to learn and grow from regular interactions with people whose faiths they may not have previously encountered.

Khen Rinpoche Geshe Kachen Lobzang Tsetan, a native of Ladakh, India, talked about the importance of generosity to the Buddhist faith. Generosity is one of six perfections practiced by bodhisattvas, or Buddhists who wish to achieve enlightenment, Tsetan said.

The other perfections are ethics, effort, patience, passion, meditation and wisdom. The first three -- generosity, ethics and effort -- focus more on lay people, as monks generally do not have material goods to donate.

Tsetan split generosity into three categories: material and spiritual gifts as well as the gift of removing fear. Motivation is more important, he said, than the perceived value of the gift itself.

"When you give away a piece of bread, your generosity is greater if you give it with a mind of helping all living beings," said David Gardiner, the co-founder of the BodhiMind Center in Colorado Springs and a professor of religious studies at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. "That attitude gives you an amount of virtue equivalent to all those you intend to help."

In contrast, someone who expects a reward for his generosity is seen as impure, Tsetan said.

"If I give to salve my ego, what kind of generosity is that going to get me?" he asked rhetorically. "If you give with pure motivation, you will feel more calm. Anything you do with generosity, you have to do it without expectation. Give freely from your open heart. Once you give something, don't feel regret. If you feel regret, your generosity is not very good."

"The virtue is with you," he added. "What's powerful is your intention."

While material generosity seeks to help others with outer problems, the second type of generosity aims to help others with inner problems, Tsetan said. Spiritual teachings, he said, are to be found everywhere, not just in holy books.

"(Spiritual) generosity changes your mind or behavior. Improves your mind or behavior," he said.

Third, Tsetan said, is fearlessness -- that is, generosity that helps people eliminate fear and despair from their lives.

"If someone is dying from cold, you have to bring him to a warm place," he said.

A question from Cadet 3rd Class Jason David of Cadet Squadron 30 at the end of the presentation helped highlight the difference between Buddhist and Western concepts of generosity. David asked whether feeling good about helping others made a generous act selfish. Tsetan replied with the advice that people should allow their happiness from being generous to motivate them to continue their generosity.

David said Tsetan's answer clarified the dilemma for him.

"In Western culture, we're taught to believe that altruism is based on what could almost be taken to an 'everyone benefits at my expense and goodwill' paradigm," he said. "However, (Tsetan's) thought that everyone, including yourself and your feelings of goodwill, should benefit from altruism was an interesting, and I think better, way to approach the concept."

Tsetan previously visited Colorado Springs in 2009 and 2011. He founded the Siddhartha School in his hometown of Ladakh in 1995 and became head abbot of the Tashi Lhumpo Monastery in southern India in July 2005 at the request of the Dalai Lama.