Geshe Thubten Dawa has been the resident teacher at Vajrayana institute in Sydney, Australia, for the last five years, during which time the center has been established as one of the main Buddhist centers in the country’s largest city. His great wisdom and gentle manner are a perfect example of how an individual can practice the Buddhist path in a large city.

Geshe Dawa says the practice of patience, trying to benefit others as much as possible and being friendly have been the most important practices to him as a monk over the last fifty years. He says these principles have enabled him to live his life happily.

He rises very early each morning to do prayers before breakfast. Geshe Dawa says it’s the best time of the day because the mind is very clean and hasn’t been disturbed by too much activity. Most Dharma students find it difficult to get up early, but Geshe-la says it’s just a matter of habit. You may have to push yourself to get up early in the beginning but eventually it becomes impossible to sleep past your normal rising time, he says. Geshe-la does prayers until breakfast and finishes his daily commitments by 10 a.m. In the afternoon he generally sees students, prepares for the evening teachings held twice a week or goes for a walk. There are also a number of activities outside the center including visiting the sick or dying at home or in hospital, going to meetings with outside groups or attending pujas and other functions at other Buddhist centers. Geshe-la also gives monthly teachings at Vajrasattva Mountain Centre, another FPMT center about two hours drive west of Sydney in the Blue Mountains.

His first experience of the West was as resident teacher at Melbourne’s Tara Institute in 1981. For the first year in Australia he missed his Tibetan friends, food and culture but quickly adapted to life in the West. He wasn’t surprised by life in Australia as he had seen Westerners in India and during a stay at Kopan Monastery. At first, he says, he spoke no English so was totally dependent on the translator to communicate with students. However, by the time he left Melbourne in 1984 he could hold conversations in English. He returned to Sera Je Monastery to teach the fifteenth reincarnation of a very high lama, Lab-Gyab Goen Rinpoche and after six years came back to Australia as the resident teacher at Vajrayana Institute.

He has built a regular group of students through the teachings, weekend courses and initiations. For relaxation he likes walking, meditating or visiting the homes of students and other Tibetans living in Sydney. He sometimes watches television, particularly the news and the station showing foreign programs, though he confesses he often falls asleep in front of the television.

When Geshe Dawa first came to Australia fifteen years ago there were few Buddhists, but since then the number has grown rapidly and it will continue to do so, Geshe-la feels, because people like Buddhism and have the ability to study and do retreat.

He says the main strength of Western students is their education and their intellects, which are well developed enabling them to study the teachings if they want to. They are keen to gain knowledge, and as they develop a deeper understanding of the teachings, become kinder and more gentle. As a result, he says, their lives become more comfortable, relationships with others improve and their interest in Buddhism develops further. In this way, he says, it’s easy to teach Westerners about Buddhism.

Geshe-la also says there are very good conditions for practicing the Dharma in the West because people have wealth and a good environment. However, whether the good conditions are beneficial to practice depends on what the practitioner makes of them; he gives the example of the famous Buddhist king in ancient India, Ashoka, who used his wealth to advance the Buddhist teachings and benefit many sentient beings. (Of course, there are people who are extremely poor who are able to practice too, he says.) Geshe Dawa mentions two types of Dharma practitioner. One uses their good material situation for the benefit of others and the other prefers to practice in solitude.

Geshe-la believes the main difficulty for Westerners is that they are so busy, often in a hurry and have active minds, which makes it more difficult to develop the calmness to sit down and meditate. The best kind of meditation for Westerners, he says, is analytical lam-rim meditation. He believes there are two ways students practice in the West: those who come to listen to teachings and try to implement them in their lives, and those who prefer to practice prayers and meditation. Either path, he says, is very beneficial.

Geshe Dawa became a monk in eastern Tibet at the age of nine because his older brother became a monk and he was very close to him. Geshe-la then went to Sera Je Monastery in Lhasa at the age of twenty-one, where he stayed for ten years before fleeing to India in 1959. At the re-established Sera Je Monastery in India, Geshe-la was granted the Lharampa Geshe degree and later sent to Gyume Tantric College for more than two years.

He is pleased that Sangha communities are being established in Australia, with a community of nuns at Chenrezig Institute in Queensland and a monastery for monks being built at Atisha Centre in Victoria. Geshe-la says the establishment of sangha communities is important for the development of Buddhism in the West; Lama Yeshe established Nalanda Monastery so the Sangha could intensively study the Dharma, he says. Sangha can either meditate alone, which he says is the most beneficial path, or live in communities and do prayers, pujas, self-initiations, study and have discussions while taking each other as an example. However, he says very few Sangha can live by themselves doing retreat and for most, living in a Sangha community is best. He is particularly impressed with the way Chenrezig Institute has helped establish the community of nuns at the center.

Finally, Geshe-la says it is very important to have compassion, which makes the person happy and useful to others. Real Buddhism, and the essence of Dharma, is to become a good-hearted person. If a person is always happy, it makes others happy and creates fewer problems. Anyone who has the qualities of loving kindness and altruism, whether they are Buddhist or not, he says, is always respected by others.