High School Students Visit Rinpoche as Part of World Religions Class

On the twenty-fifth day of the fourth month, 4/25/2024, I gave a brief discourse about Buddhism to about nineteen high school students at the York School, a high school in the vicinity of Monterey, at the request of the Dharma Center.  (video available here)

 The students were very patient, nice, and appreciative. They even brought me a very cute gift of a mug, a teddy bear, and a pencil. I was very happy to do this and thought it was very appropriate, because the future of the world depends on the good or bad behavior of the young people of today. It is very important that the young people now learn and practice the high ethical teachings such as those exhorted in Buddhism. My intention has never been that everyone should become Buddhist; in my experience, though, for me, the Dharma path is the best way to transform the mind. I think it is a little wrong, especially in high schools, to give young people the wrong kind of advice about how to make money, how to be famous, how to be rich and prosperous in this life, etc.

 I think it is very important that teachers teach students how to be polite, how to be peaceful, and how to be more mature than they are now. If teachers give students the wrong kind of advice about how to compete with others and how to be self-sufficient and defeat others, they could be leading thousands of students down the wrong path. I hope that teachers can plant the seeds of peace in their minds now so that later on, even if they do not become a millionaire, they will have peace of mind and a natural, bright smile on their faces. Tashi Delek!

What I am aiming for with these experiential learning opportunities is to help students really grasp how people practice their respective traditions, rather than simply inundating them with academic approaches…