December 2009
December 04, 2009MORE EXCITING DEVELOPMENTS
News about the English program at Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö Institute, the scholarship programs, the new Khyentse Awards, and an new education exchange initiative.
The English program at Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö Institute (DKCLI) in India, where KF supports approximately 500 students, is now offering both full- and part-time courses, as well as classes for monks to study at an advanced level. The objective is to train qualified Buddhist teachers for the English-speaking world.
In addition to our existing scholarship programs, the scholarships committee is working with our advisor, Professor Peter Skilling, to implement his idea for Khyentse Awards. These awards are intended to encourage and support the study of Buddhism as well as increase awareness of the Foundation. The awards will be made through selected universities to students chosen by their faculty for excellence in Buddhist studies. We expect to start with one or two centers of excellence and to expand the program in the future.
A new education initiative involves exchange programs to bring Tibetan scholars and khenpos to have teaching, study, and living experiences at universities in the West. In 2010, two DKCLI scholars will take up residence at the Sakya Centre in Washington, D.C. and spend four months as visiting scholars at George Washington University. Another DKCLI khenpo will begin a similar program at UC Berkeley.
The Khyentse Foundation 2009-2010 Budgets and Activities (a PowerPoint presentation), presented and approved during the board meeting, is available upon request. To receive the presentation, send an e-mail to info@khyentsefoundation.org.
December 03, 2009
KF GLOBAL UNIVERSITY STUDY IDENTIFIES PRELIMINARY FINDINGS
Special Board Meeting Report on University Study by Sydney Jay, Research Director.
The Global University Study research project is a Khyentse Foundation initiative to identify the best ways to support the academic study of Buddhism worldwide. Just one third of the way through the study, our advisory committee and research team have already identified four preliminary findings.
In the first of our four findings, we categorized universities into three “buckets”: centers of excellence, resource universities, and corresponding universities. This “three buckets” structure is the result of discussions with our advisors, Gene Smith and Professor Peter Skilling. This is a very useful structure for identifying critical leverage points and for generating insightful recommendations for support.
Our second finding suggests that KF can have a high impact by focusing on strategic actions that are smaller in scope and cost and that can be accomplished relatively soon. For example, we could partner with institutions to host a workshop or symposium for foundations on making informed decisions about funding academic chairs or institutes. We could also provide funding and organizational support for scholars from monasteries in India and Tibet to visit universities in the West and for professors from Western universities to visit Asian and Himalayan Buddhist universities and institutes.
In our third finding, we have discovered that there are centers of excellence that are in danger of losing crucial positions due to lack of funding; one such example is the University of Sydney. This appears to be an urgent matter, and both Gene Smith and Peter Skilling recommend that it should be addressed by the general Buddhist academic community. They also strongly advise that we add to our criteria for funding the need to protect what is already in place before funding new positions or programs.
Our fourth finding indicates that when this study is complete, we will have in one document a picture of the depth and variety of Buddhist scholarship throughout the world. We will know what is and is not being studied, and we will be able to identify the gaps and overlaps. We will also be able to identify what is most urgently needed to support and broaden Buddhist scholarship in the world.
We have accomplished a great deal during this past year. Most importantly, the data collection from the universities was completed by a volunteer research team under the leadership of Lynn Hoberg and project coordinator Isaiah Seret. Data analysis has begun, and information from about 20% of the universities has been summarized and synthesized. The analysis and report will be complete by June of 2010. In addition, at two advisory meetings, one in January and one in June, we refined the scope of the study to focus on universities with the most potential to benefit from KF and other support. Our original methodology was to rank order 104 top universities around the world, based on the answers to a set of research questions. However, as we redefined the scope and focus of the project, the study now focuses on 43 universities, reflecting a refined set of criteria for analysis that was proposed by our advisory committee.
A SPECIAL THANK YOU
The KF Global University Study would not have been possible without the valuable contribution of the following volunteer data collectors from more than 20 countries:
Julie Adler, Dr. Tamas Agocs, Venerable Aggacitta, Ani Dianne Cadwallader, John Koon-Chung Chan, Tenzin Chosang, Christine Conlon, Marie Crivelli, Andreas Doctor, Abbie Duchon, Paloma Fataar, Greg Forgues, Tom Gwinn, Rosalina Ho, Amy Holmes, Huang Jing Rui, Nisheeta Jagtiani, Craig Kaufman, Nikki Leger, Ana Christina Lopes, Laura Lopez, Jill Robinson, Louise Rodd, Kimberly Post Rowe, Matthew Schojan, Linda Smith, Antonio Terrone, Jean Thies, Doris Wolter, Rosemary Wong, Jun Xie, Siew Chin Yong
REPORT FROM THE INVESTMENT COMMITTEE
A report on the financial health and habits of Khyentse Foundation
In order to achieve its goals, Khyentse Foundation relies on sound, professional investment of its funds. To this end, Rinpoche has appointed a five-member Investment Committee, all of whom have extensive knowledge and experience in investments, accounting and portfolio management.
The board heard reports and updates from the investment committee which was essentially reassuring. Although the Foundation lost 10% of its assets during the worldwide financial downturn of 2008-2009, our loss was significantly less than that of the S&P 500 or of our synthetic benchmark, which were down 28% and 19% respectively. And, since July of this year, there has been substantial recovery. It is also important to know that although our loss reduced our previous investments gains, we did not lose any money ever donated to Khyentse Foundation.
Another encouraging development is that in spite of the financial turmoil, we received close to our target of $1million in donations in fiscal year 2008-09. Because of this unyielding and continued support from our monthly and one-time donors, we are able to significantly expand our 2009-10 budget. For the first time in the Foundation’s nine-year history, our budget for project funding will exceed $US1 million in the coming year.
The lessons learned from the financial turmoil of last year have made the Investment Committee even more responsive to market situations, more prudent in their investment decisions, and more active in the overall management of the Foundation’s assets.
RINPOCHE’S ADDRESS TO THE 2009 KHYENTSE FOUNDATION BOARD MEETING
What Our Founder Has To Say
In September the Khyentse Foundation board of directors and advisors met in California to discuss the progress of the past year as well the directions we are heading in the future. Here is a transcript of Rinpoche’s address to the board of directors.
--------------------- Thank you so much for coming. As I’m getting old, I really don’t like traveling, so I know what it means for some of you. I really appreciate this.
I really believe that what we have achieved, what Khyentse Foundation has achieved, is all because of you, the people, the human resources that we have. Without you I don’t think we could even have come close to what we have achieved.
Of course, I don’t have to mention that Shakyamuni Buddha is so special for us. It’s only with his kindness and compassion that people like us have some kind of direction in our life. Also, I don’t have to mention that only the Buddhadharma is the cause for temporal happiness, and for liberation eventually. So, as someone who is a follower of Shakyamuni Buddha, I think the best thing that we can do is what we in Tibetan call dzin-kyong, to protect and uphold and keep the teaching alive. For us, the followers, that’s our job. And not only one or two teachings of the Buddha, but every one of them, every single one of them. The past masters and scholars and saints and monks and patrons and kings and Brahmins, they have really traded their lives and their wealth and sometimes even their thrones for the sake of one word of the dharma, and it would be so sad or unfortunate to actually lose any of this, even one word.
I have had the opportunity to meet many masters, and some of them have had a very strong influence in my life. I was thinking about it the other day. I think two who had the most influence are those lamas who really have this concern for the dharma like Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and Deshung Rinpoche. I think I wouldn’t be lying if I said that these people used to lose sleep because they were so concerned and worried basically, almost to the extent of paranoia, about one word, one page. Sometimes of course I’m still very lazy and very much distracted here and there. But what really makes me feel guilty, scared, or uneasy is when I remember these lamas, like Deshung Rinpoche and Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, when I remember the accounts of the moments when they expressed their concerns about the lineage, the teachings of Buddha. So it’s almost as if there’s no choice—we also have to be concerned, because of them. And also, I think it is really important to be concerned with each different aspect of the teachings and the traditions.
For example, when we talk about the environment, of course, it’s good to protect your own trees in your own backyard. But as a citizen of this world, one can’t really forget the Amazon. So not to be concerned, as a Tibetan Buddhist myself, not to be concerned with the decline or degeneration of let’s say Theravadin Buddhism in Burma, is not wise. If we lose one tradition such as Theravada, everything will collapse: Mahayana will collapse, Vajrayana will collapse. It’s so interdependent.
We human beings, we have this habit of being concerned with things that are immediate, things that are connected with us personally, and we tend to forget the general, the big picture. I think this also happens within dharma circles. Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö used to say that there are a few lamas who are concerned with their lineage, but nobody seems to really worry about Shakyamuni. This is so true.
Some lamas feel that this is the age of degeneration, so in fact, the effect of the dharma is no more, so to speak; so there is almost no point, it’s like the show is over. This is how I think some traditional lamas think. But I personally think that’s not true. Because still we have people who really are interested in concepts such as emptiness, bodhicitta, compassion, interdependent arising; not only just curiosity—we still do have people who actually put some effort in it, at least intellectually, and a few even try to put it into practice. So I don’t really believe that the Buddhadharma has completely come to a stop.
Definitely, from the dharma point of view, you can say that we are experiencing a degenerated time. But the fact that it is a degenerated time is actually one of the reasons why we should work even harder.
If you read sutras such as the Fortunate Eon Sutra, the life accounts of the thousand Buddhas, their previous lives, and you read these beautiful stories about the bodhisattvas, around the dark age when there was no Buddha, no dharma, and very few living masters, what they did was they offered a bell to a stupa. The bell would ring, the sound of the bell would be heard by people walking by, and then people would notice the stupa and through that create some kind of a karmic connection to the dharma. And because of having done such a virtuous deed, these bodhisattva later achieved enlightenment and became one of the thousand Buddhas. We hear many of these accounts, so actually it tells us that as the degenerated time becomes deeper, I think we have even more reason to really gather all our courage and put this into practice.
Earlier this year when we had the conference, toward the end, Jigme Khyentse Rinpoche gave such an inspiring concluding talk. He said, “Buddhas and bodhisattvas have so much merit, all we have to do is tap into this merit.” And that’s what we have to do. I think we have to do everything we can. At least, we should have good aspiration.
If we, as followers of the Buddha, cannot put the dharma into practice, at least we can protect the dharma, maintain it, preserve it, multiply it, and make it available so that other people who have time and energy and wish to practice the dharma, so that they can have it. I don’t think there is anything that is less important, anything that we can disregard. Everything, every lineage, every activity that is related to preserving the dharma is so important.
During the Translators’ Conference, Khyentse Foundation and I sort of stumbled into becoming the office for translating the Kangyur and Tengyur. Of course, it’s a very, very big project, it’s a daunting task, but it’s very important. And Khyentse Foundation and I have offered our services as much as we can, we have pledged ourselves to this. But this does not mean that the other things that Khyentse Foundation has been supporting, like scholarship programs, publications, and monastic education, have suddenly become less important. They are equally important, I think. Just like the universities, there is so much interest from the younger generations these days. And we can’t afford to tell ourselves ‘Well, we need to translate the Kangyur, so maybe the universities can wait 5 years, 25 years, 100 years.’ This is something that we cannot afford to do. So we cannot let go of any of these projects.
In other words, I guess I’m saying that we have to do much more. I know all of you, consciously or unconsciously, share this view. And this is why I have a very good feeling about what we can do. Because I think we all have this feeling of really not wanting to let go of some things because we are doing something else that is really special. And I’m very happy about this, so thank you so much. Please, keep in mind that I think we have just upgraded our workload much more.
LETTER FROM AN ANONYMOUS DONOR
An anonymous donor makes a substantial donation to Khyentse Foundation earmarked for the Buddhist Literary Heritage Project and sends an encouraging letter to the board of directors.
The letter was read during the board meeting. The donor talked about the practice of ultimate generosity and the responsible use of donation dollars, and urged Khyentse Foundation to have the Bodhisattva’s courage to “…seize the opportunity and provide with urgency.”
To the Khyentse Foundation board members,
Compared to all the noble members of Khyentse Foundation, I do not consider myself to be of much worth. I am only someone who has been inspired by the kindness and compassion of the many great lamas and Rinpoches and want to learn how to practice the Dharma. I know very little about the teachings and would like to only focus my practice on generosity. As everyone knows, the act of generosity arises interdependently. There is no ultimate giver, no ultimate receiver, and no ultimate gift. Therefore, the greatest lesson for me is to see that all the donation funds accumulated through my calculating efforts are to be offered as a mandala and at the end be dissolved into emptiness. With this in mind, I assume the only thing to focus on are my own intentions and that everything else should take care itself.
However, these days I have developed a different perspective. There are two points I would like to present:
1. The Dharma is all about karma—cause and effect. Donations given to the foundation are all hard-earned money and should never be wasted. Every penny is meant to be used to benefit beings and cannot be used for oneself. On this note, I would like to applaud everyone on having perfected this particular conduct.
2. Buddha teaches us impermanence. If there are sentient beings that require immediate financial support, then a charitable organization such as this foundation must seize the opportunity and provide with urgency. Of course, money that is donated has to be used with careful consideration. However, the foundation should have a Bodhisattva's courage to use the money when opportunity arises and not worry if there will be enough saved for future use. A true Bodhisattva should only be concerned for the welfare of beings and not worry about where tomorrow's income should come from.
These are some thoughts I hope everyone takes into consideration. I sincerely wish everyone on the path become fearless Bodhisattvas.
Sincerely,
Anonymous
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