Harold Mandel, Examiner.com: There is a lot of excitement among many Americans about the visit of the Dalai Lama to the United States. Phayul.com has reported on May 6, 2013, The Dalai Lama leaves for US visit. On Sunday His Holiness the Dalai Lama left his exile hometown of Dharamshala, north India, for a visit of the United States of America. He has been invited by various universities, colleges, and organizations to interact with students and give a series of lectures, public talks, discussions, and teachings on topics which range from compassion to global environment.
The Dalai Lama is scheduled to begin his public engagements…
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Not trying to stir up a debate, but what do you think of the honorific “His Holiness”? I acknowledge that there are nuances to the word holy, but to my ear it’s always had a god connection, which I do not (or prefer not) to associate with Buddhism.
“Holy” is not an uncommon translation in Buddhism for “arya” — although a bit dated these days. You’d often seem references to the Holy Eightfold Path, for example. Like other religious words, like “worship,” we in the west have only heard “holy” in a theistic context, and the term is borrowed from Catholicism, but there’s nothing necessarily theistic about the word. Etymologically it points to “wholeness” and “that which must be preserved (whole)”. It’s also related to the word “healthy.” So generally it means something special that’s to be admired and aimed at. I’m not sure if there’s a particular term of reverence for the Dalai Lama that His Holiness is supposed to correspond to, or whether people just thought he should be up there with the Pope!
Anyway, it doesn’t bother me. I generally don’t give theism a second thought these days.
One of the commonest uses of “Holy” in Buddhism, it occurs to me, is the term “holy places” or “holy sites.”
“Holy” actually has to do with being separate. A Buddhist priest lives a “separate” life from the mainstream people. They strive to do no harm or evil. They follow a path, or way of life to achieve enlightenment and ultimately nirvana. He does not consider himself to be a god and buddhism is not a religion, but a way of life. They are very humble and simplistic.
I have always thought that to die in a plane crash was one of the most frightening experience a person could have. In addition I have always had a fear of heights. To cut a long story short, I decided to participate in the 100 days meditation challenge on my own. I am happy I did.I started about two weeks late. I am still trying to meditate and/or read each day. Well on May 7th 2013, I had a dream that my mother and I were traveling in a jet. High in the sky, were large sheets of clothes the color of Tibetian buddist monks orange robes. The jet tried to fly pass them but they wrapped around the jet. All the windows and the engines were covered by these bright orange sheets. Immediately the jet took a nose dive. I was in the window seat and my mother was in the aisle seat. There was plenty screaming by the passengers. Immediately I recalled that “even when facing death one should not be fearful”. What happened next truly amaze me. I had a flickering thought that the jet may become free from the materials, or else it would crash, but I never craved/wish that we “not crash” or “that we crash”. Instead, I placed my hands in my lap and put all the energy I had into meditation on the breath. In no time I became extremely calm. Calmer than calm. So calm, that I recall trying to hear if the passengers were still screaming. They were but I was so calm, it seemed as tho they were far away. The longest part of this dream was actually the meditation phase. I still recall experiencing a increase in calmness as the jet dropped. Rather than losing concentration and being over come by fear, the opposite happened. I do not recall how the dream ended, but I did not wake up sweating and actually didn’t recall the dream until about ten minutes after being up. I have tried to guest what this dream meant, but there are so many possibilities. In my first month of meditating some fifteen years ago, I had a similar experience. The feeling was so pleasant, I began to smile and relish it while sitting in meditation and of cause it left. I never had a similar experience since then, until now, this dream. Actually, I’m just returning to meditation after a long, long break (Years). My health is not good, and some days I feel like the end is not near but is actually here. So I am trying to put in more effort in my practice. I now need to reach that calmness in my meditation. That dream showed me and possibly gave me a fraction of the taste of what it feels like to be calm. I would love to taste that again. Is that good craving? Practice and be heedful.