A Lama Comes of Age

In November, Lama Osel will give his first inititiation of this life, a highly auspicious event, as Ven. Marcel Bertels points out, "as our kind Lama is re-starting his teaching career. Lama Osel has come of age and is manifesting his great compassion by granting the sublime Dharma."

The most important thing is to give them advice. Here in the Tibetan culture, small monks who have a teacher end up being very nice, but those who don't have any teachers often end up being very naughty. I think advice is the most important thing.

At the beginning just try to explain to them as best you can. You cannot just be a machine; actually try to explain the best way you think they will understand. It's very personal.

In the West we're really independent and don't want to listen to advice.

I'm not very experienced with teen-agers in the West, but I'm not sure they respect teachers very much. I know that here the teacher is the most important thing for most of them, and they do whatever they tell them to do.

What if your teachers are doing negative things themselves?

Here there are teachers who have problems also, but the students imagine that the teachers are Buddha, so they don't find so many problems. Whatever the teacher does is something they are doing for all sentient beings. I think this kind of attitude [of seeing the teacher as Buddha] would be difficult in the West.

I've heard one story about the Buddha in one of his past lives. He was the captain of a ship and learned that one of the crew members planned to kill everyone on the ship. When he learned this, the only way he could prevent the deaths of so many people was to kill that man. We think the Buddha was bad for killing him, but he actually did it for everyone else. It also stopped the killer from having to experience the heavy negative karma for having killed so many people.

One day we will die; what will you get? Playing, watching TV – we think we're happy but when we die we won't get anything from it.

You cannot force them to come; it's their choice. We only have to make it as nice as possible.

A lot of people in the West use drugs. Some of the drugs make you feel your heart is opening and you can feel more relaxed. What's wrong with that?

It's harmful to your body, isn't it? And then you become addicted and you have to use a lot of money, and then you start to steal to get the money. I know one drug addict in Spain who used to be a millionaire. He's been taking drugs for twenty years, and now he doesn't have much money. He's trying to stop now, but it's very difficult for him. Aren't drugs illegal?

It is, but some are so easy to get.

The police don't do anything?

Sometimes, but they go more for big drug busts. You can do it from a young age, too. I started some drugs when I was 14, and I know others who've experimented by the time they're 11.

Didn't you get addicted?

A little. I was addicted to cigarettes.

If life is very difficult in our minds, how can we counteract low self-esteem?

Just think about it. I've never had that experience; I don't know what it's like. Here everyone is very happy, always laughing. In the West there are so many things, so many problems. Take for example hair. Everyone has this problem about their hair: Oh my hair looks like this, I wish I had this type of hair. Or even their clothes; some people say, "I don't know what clothes to put on, I need new clothes." Here there are no problems with hair, no problems with clothes. It's the same with bullies at school – they're worse in the West.