By Geshe Tashi Tsering

Initially I had this idea, reinforced by talking informally with other people, that although the Tibetan geshes in FPMT centers are working very hard, can we do something to make things even better, in the sense of collectively working together. I have found this myself, having been in the West as an FPMT geshe since July 1991. (Actually I’m the first Tibetan monk, and the youngest, who was brought up, ordained and educated in India to take the geshe degree and come to teach in the West in an FPMT center.)

I think many people involved with the FPMT, people who sincerely care for the FPMT as a Dharma organization and who have benefited from it, feel there is some communication gap between the Tibetan geshes and the rest of the people working for the FPMT. So I thought, how can we fill this gap?

The best thing first of all seemed to be to bring Tibetan geshes together to discuss, and then to also bring non-Tibetans together with the geshes to discuss what things we can improve as an organization and how to make our relationships easier and reduce most of the talking behind backs, which really creates lots of suspicion.

The FPMT is a good organization but still there is a lot of room to make it better. So I felt it is very helpful to have better communication between everyone involved. It was also very clear during the CPMT meetings at Jamyang in 1996 that there is quite a big communication gap between Tibetan teachers in FPMT centers and the people who work in the centers. Also during that conference it showed very clearly there is a great concern over teaching styles and skills. Lama Zopa Rinpoche works so hard and wouldn’t really have any time to organize these things, so I thought it would be good for us to organize the geshe conference.

At the same time I realized it is very difficult to bring together all the FPMT geshes from all over the world. Firstly, it is difficult financially; secondly, I am quite new in FPMT centers; there are many senior geshes who have been in the West many more years than me; and finally, culturally it is very difficult for a junior monk to tell senior monks there is something we need to discuss. However, someone has to take this role and organize it.

I decided I would try to invite all the European geshes, so in November 1997 I sent a letter to all the FPMT geshes in Europe inviting them to consecrate a newly-built Buddha statue at Jamyang. I suggested that at the same time we could have some kind of very informal meeting to talk about something useful, particularly for geshes newly coming to the West. I received some good response from them. Then I telephoned them and at the same time I asked Alison Murdoch, Jamyang’s director, to send a letter requesting centers not to commit their geshes to a teaching program during this planned conference.

I then put an agenda together and asked whether any of the geshes wanted to amend or add any points. The same proposal agenda I sent to Lama Zopa Rinpoche and International Office. At this point Alison wrote to all the centers to ask if, confidentially, they had any points to discuss during the geshe conference. We said we wouldn’t reveal them to any geshe if the points were particularly in connection with the geshes. So maybe it is a good sign that the centers didn’t send any points – or maybe they just ignored the request!

The proposal agenda was in Tibetan as well as in English and was sent to center directors as well. At the same time I asked them to send me any amendments by the end of June. I received one reply from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who sent me a very important point to add to the agenda, and another from Tubten Pende of FPMT’s education office.

Then, at the CPMT meetings at Kopan Monastery in Nepal in May last year, because I had had a discussion about this conference with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, he announced it and gave it very strong support. I feel that’s one of the big supports I’ve got – in fact I think one of the reasons this conference came together is because of Rinpoche’s support.

After that, Rinpoche suggested to Alison that it would be good to invite not just European geshes but all the FPMT geshes and also some Western practitioners and scholars. However by then the time was very short and even though we tried with the help of International Office, it was too late and no one was able to come.

Then by the middle of July I sent the final agenda to the geshes in Tibetan and all center directors in English. Eight geshes including myself were meant to come, but sadly Geshe Palden Tsering from Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa couldn’t come because he had a class during this meeting.

So, six geshes attended: Geshe Lobsang Tengye from France, Geshe Jampa Gyatso from Italy, Geshe Lobsang Tsultrim from Spain, Geshe Sonam Palden from France and Geshe Thupten Soepa from Germany, together with Harvey Horrocks who holds the portfolio of education on the executive committee of the FPMT board of directors. Olga Planken from Holland joined the conference because she is planning the FPMT’s Basic Program (see January-February 1999 Mandala). Dechen (Sue Rochard) took minutes and Claire Isitt translated from Tibetan to English. From time to time Alison Murdoch was able to join us.

When the geshes first arrived at our center I had a very strong feeling that it was really necessary to come together and that they were looking forward to this conference. That feeling really encouraged me and gave me some kind of strength that this meeting was going to be very positive and successful. (I would like to say very clearly, this is just my opinion about what happened at the conference. What we actually discussed will come later this year.)

The first point we discussed on the first day was actually raised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. We had quite a thorough discussion about the indispensable personal qualities for geshes in centers, and were able to reach very clear agreement that although there are many other qualifications needed, the main qualities needed are the personal qualities of being very sincere, very caring and the good heart. Any Tibetan geshe who would like to come to the West as a resident teacher in the future, he or she would have to have these qualifications. We felt that from the center’s side, and from the side of the person who is coming to the center, they both have to reach a very clear understanding about these qualities. All the geshes were very united on this point.

On the second day we discussed the Basic Program in our FPMT centers, the ins and outs of how to run this kind of program in all the centers. There was no disagreement as to whether or not we need it, but as for how to structure it and how to run it there were different opinions. For example, when we went through the program and what texts we would be going to use, all the geshes said they all teach these things in the centers. This brought up the question of how to introduce a new structure successfully. We spent the entire day on this subject and still didn’t agree [on] a very clear way to start this Basic Program. So I was a bit disappointed but that’s how it is and it’s really a good sign to have a very thorough discussion and some kind of disagreement with each other. That means we are sincerely putting energy into working this out.

On the second day agreement about how to implement the Basic Program wasn’t reached so I thought we would need to discuss this again at some time during the conference. However the next day there was quite an important point that I felt needed to be discussed: in Western Buddhist groups, there is some kind of misunderstanding that the Gelugpa school is just intellectual Buddhism and that they don’t have real meditation. So I thought although all the Gelugpa teachers do teach meditation, do they need more emphasis on it to clarify that misunderstanding? We had a very successful discussion on this point.

On the last day I thought it was very important to go back to the discussion on the Basic Program, which we did, and we reached a much better understanding. Although my view is still that it is not really completed, because I think that it is necessary to teach in a Western style, I can understand why the Tibetan teachers are reluctant to teach this way.

All the geshes who were at the conference agree that having this kind of conference is very helpful in the sense of sharing the difficulties and the good things with each other and also to communicate with Westerners, people who seriously, genuinely are concerned about the FPMT as a Buddhist organization to teach Buddhadharma in the West. So therefore they all agreed that it is good to have this kind of conference but to leave it to International Office to decide as to whether they are going to have another geshe conference after the next two or three years. My own experience is that it is better if the organizational responsibility is taken by International Office even though I know they are very busy and short of staff. I think that bringing the geshes and people who teach and work in the centers together to reduce the communication gap and to make things clear, to have discussion between the different cultures, to minimize cultural difficulties is one of the important issues for the FPMT.