Lama Ole Nydahl in the Baltic Times

Advertisement for Lama Ole's Baltic Tour 2010

Many of Lama Ole’s students take the opportunity to spend time together with him on a leg of his constant travelling schedule. Some friends in the UK recently returned from an exciting time travelling with Lama Ole on his teaching tour in the Baltic countries. During this time he was interviewed in Riga, Latvia by the “Baltic Times,” a few excerpts of which are reproduced below. While the transcript is a little rough and ready (which is understandable as English probably wasn’t the native language of the interviewer), there are some really interesting points:

What have you learned all these years from Buddhism?

The main thing I have learned is to really see the pure nature, the perfect qualities of everybody. I have learned to find the best qualities in people very well. People can get to know oneself, to know our real nature and I think this is the first thing I have internalized. And I have learned that everybody is looking for joy. I think this is my job. I want to show them their perfect features, their potential and the way by which they can find their joy and happiness.

What would you emphasize from Buddhism?

Buddhism doesn’t have rules. We are not talking about a good god and a bad devil. Buddhism is advice and Buddha is not our creator, he is not our punisher or our judge. He is just a friend who is trying to help us find an experience that he had in his life. There is not a paradise or a hell. Buddha is teaching us peace of mind, the clear light in our minds and how to develop compassion and be happy. Of course, we don’t allow some things, but this is common sense. Buddha would say to definitely avoid killing people, lying to cause harm, stealing… A lot of things, like Christianity, are things with common sense. What is not common sense are things like suppressing women in Islamic countries or to kill someone because of their religion.

What is the main problem in the world? How can we solve it?

People don’t like to hear it, but the main problem is overpopulation. This is one of the really big ones. It is simply that the world is overpopulated. There are people who live in ways that people shouldn’t live, like in poor countries in Asia or Africa. We are seven billion people now and it is expected that by 2050, we will be around nine billion people on the Earth. All the experts say that, if we are lucky, this world can sustain two billion people with a good living standard. The same experts are saying that in ninety years, at the end of this century, there will be just one billion people, not more than that, because we have destroyed all the resources and no more people will be able to live on Earth. A solution is give money, to pay people in the poor countries to have fewer children. If you have one child you will receive two dollars a day, if you have two children you will receive one dollar but if you have more children you are not going to be paid. They will have fewer kids. They could have one or two children and they could take care of them and educate them, instead of having seven kids doing nothing. And if there were less people in the world we could live better, the endangered animals could survive and we could stop destroying the ecological system.

How can critical people from Europe, who grew up in a culture of science, accept the principles of Buddhism, with its meditation, mantra…?

They have to know that body, speech and mind have influence between them. When you practice with mantra, when you feel it, you don’t have to think about science, you are just experiencing things in your body. When you practice with mantras, the syllables used bring energy to different centers in your body: HUNG activates one’s chest, AH leads the energy to the throat, and OM makes the head vibrate. You are feeling that, and nothing else is needed. And when you go into meditation you know that the energy flows in your body and in your mind. Our experiences are always in our mind. That kind of meditation helps us to make contact with our inherent enlightenment and accomplish the experience of our full potential. It is not about thinking, it is about understanding our nature and trying to experience all we can. This is the reason why Buddhism is coming strongly to the West, because people need to experience, and they find results with Buddhism.

What is your goal now?

I have to say what my teachers told me. I have a mission: teaching. I am not doing that because of me. I am teaching because the 16th Karmapa told me and my wife what we should do. I don’t have my own agenda. And since my wife died, while sitting in meditation in my arms, I have continued by myself. And I will continue teaching the [Diamond] Way until I can’t.