Many thousands throughout the world, both Buddhists and non-Buddhists, respect and revere His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa as one of the most important spiritual leaders of our time. Fortunately, the organizers of Karmapa America 2015 Tour have been posting recorded webcasts of His Holiness’ teachings along the way! Here is the talk that HH the Karmapa gave at the request of Harvard Divinity School: “Caring for Life on Earth in the Twenty-first Century”:
“A lack of love can cause people to have no help when they need help, no friends when they need a friend,” he continued. “So, in a sense, the most dangerous thing in the world is apathy. We think of weapons, violence, warfare, disease as terrible dangers and indeed they are, but we can take measures to avoid them. But once our apathy takes hold of us, we can no longer avoid it.” – HH the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje
The Washington Post’s Joshua Eaton covered the event:
“Wrapped in the maroon and gold robes of a Tibetan monk, Ogyen Trinley Dorje isn’t what most people picture when they think of innovation.
To his followers, Dorje is the 17th Karmapa — the leader of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism and the latest in a line of reincarnated Tibetan teachers, or lamas, stretching back to the 12th century. He’s been training for that role since the age of 7, when other important lamas recognized him as the reincarnation of the 16th Karmapa, who died in Illinois in 1981.
But [the Karmapa] is blazing new paths for his tradition, and for the broader Buddhist world. In a public lecture and a series of meetings at Harvard Divinity School Thursday and Friday (March 26 and 27), he spoke out on issues ranging from LGBT rights and improving the status of women within Buddhism to race relations and the importance of protecting the environment.” Read the full article
