Dr. Who, Science Fiction & Vimalakirti’s House : Force For Good | 4/20/2018

Force For Good: Buddhist Sources and Practices Beyond Religion Class Series : Dr. Who, Science Fiction and Vimalakirti’s House with Robert AF Thurman Tibet House US New York City 2016

In this video Professor Robert AF Thurman discusses the classic British Science Fiction Series Dr. Who drawing parallels to the Buddhist text ‘The Vimalakirti Sutra’.

This video is an excerpt from the archive recording from the 2016 Force For Good Class Series led by Tibet House US President Robert AF Thurman using his own translation of the “The Vimalakirti Sutra“.

“The Dalai Lama has become a living proof of the Mahayana vision of Buddha’s inexhaustible compassionate presence. I think people sense that fact, each one according to their level of insight, as constrained by preconceptions, experience and understanding.

This does not mean that the Dalai Lama is a “God-king” or a “living God,” as is sometimes written in the press. For Buddha is not “God,” who, if He did exist as conceived by Western monotheists, would be absolutely unimaginable, forever trans-human. Buddha, though also inconceivable ultimately, on the relative level is a being who was thoroughly human at one time, like you or me, and then through many lives evolved into something more than human and more than any God.

He is a wise and compassionate, omnipresent but not omnipotent, universal awareness and powerful energy called “Realized One” (Tathagata), “Blissful One” (Sugata), “Teacher of Humans and Gods” (Devamanushyanam Shasta) and many other names. He/she is everywhere embodied/disembodied as reality, manifesting as seeming individuals in sensitive response to the needs of beings. Any particular manifestation of Buddha is thus a kind of living doorway to each individual’s own happiness, a mirror, to that individual, of the reality that must be understood for that individual to realize their own wisdom, freedom from suffering, immortality and supreme happiness.

Robert AF Thurman from www.lionsroar.com.

Dr. Who, Science Fiction & Vimalakirti’s House with Robert AF Thurman was recorded at the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Sources Class Seventeen of the Force for Good Series with Robert AF Thurman at Tibet House US.

To download a copy of Robert AF Thurman’s translation please visit: www.read.84000.co.

‘A Force For Good’ is a Tibet House US course to further the Dalai Lama’s contemporary world initiatives, from His Holiness’ American Institute of Buddhist Studies and Mind & Life Institutescience dialogues (Universe in a Single Atom) and His creation of Abhidharma 2.0 through the “Science for Monks” programs, his “secular ethics” (Ethics for the New Millennium and Beyond Religion), His nonviolent approach to conflict resolution, including His Nobel Peace Laureate activities to seek dialogue and a win-win reconciliation with China in the face of the ongoing ethnicidal policies in Tibet (Freedom in Exile and Man of Peace: The Illustrated Life Story of Tibet’s Dalai Lama) & along with his emphasis on positive activism (A New Reality: Charter of Universal Responsibility).

This on-going series was inspired by Daniel Goleman’s ‘A Force For Good: The Dalai Lama’s Vision for Our World‘.

To join the on-going #ForceForGood series please visit: www.tibethouse.us.

To watch more videos from past ‘Force for Good’ programs please visit the Tibet House US Member Archive, available to monthly supporters.

Full access starts at $2 a month.

? Music by Tenzin Choegyal, Used with Permission www.tenzinchoegyal.com
? Dr. Who, Science Fiction & Vimalakirti’s House : Force For Good Photo via JD Hancock