A Fearless Heart
By
Dorjee Damdul
“You are your own enemy, and you
are your own savior” (p81).
INTRODUCTION:
Nothing
is more powerful than an idea whose time has come. The idea here is the
cultivation and practice of compassion for others, for self and for the entire
humanity in this interconnected world.
PREVIEW:
When
we discuss and share our thoughts on reading a book, I feel it is more like a
review of the book. So the question is how to do a book review? I have no answer to this myself, but I am
interested to share with you what inspires, and strikes me and any Ah Ha moment
I have felt from reading the book: A Fearless Heart.
Of
all the things that the book touched on, I would focus on the fascinating story
of the author, who we all know is the principal English translator for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, but little
did I know about his other facet of life, until I read the book. I would try to
encapsulate the central idea of the book and finally the learning that occurred
to me.
I.
Thupten Jingpa went against his
parents’ wishes to be the breadwinner of the family and choose to be a monk at
the tender age of 11. But two decades later, he gave up his celibacy vow to
become the breadwinner of his own family. The reason he gave for why he chooses
to leave the monastery is for his longing to have a family of own, which he
feels he was deprived at his young age. There is some mention of his difficult
decision on this issue. I thought it
would be very interesting stuff for western readers, if he could share a little
more details of his romance with a westerner. How it started, what was the
trigger point for his aberration. I wonder if he ever feel remorse today? Even
though the author said that his disrobing is not a sign of disillusion of
monastic life, but I feel people may not perceive that decision as a sign of
strength. In fact, as intellectually stalwart as he is today, could he have
achieved more by remaining a monk than being a lay person.
 |
| D.C Tibetan Book Club meeting at Office of Tibet. Aug.03.2015 |
What
is interesting is that the author has not attended any formal school, and he is
self-taught. He learnt English by listening to VOA, and BBC world service and
through the help of another Germany lady, while staying at the monastery. No
doubt he was a veracious reader. He wrote the evocative power of the English language deeply
impressed him and thanks to his mastery of the language, landed him the job of
interpreting for His Holiness the Dalai Lama since 1985. His Holiness sensing
his acute intellect told Thupten Jingpa to lead an independent life dedicated
to scholarship. His attendance at o Cambridge University to further his studies
on religion might have been a turning- point in his life. Dr. Jinpa is one of
the rarest cream of the crop in our exile society, who has a combination of deep
knowledge on Buddhism philosophy and western thoughts.
