The Dalai Lama - Kindness, Clarity, and Insight: The Fundamentals of Buddhist Thought and Practice

S NOW L ION P UBLICATIONS , now an imprint of Shambhala Publications, grew out of the wish to make available to the general public the profoundly appealing series of lectures that His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave in the United States in 1979 and 1981, and in Canada in 1980. Although the Dalai Lama had escaped from Tibet to India during a public demonstration against the Chinese Communist occupation in 1959, the US government repeatedly had caved in to Chinese pressure and did not allow him to visit this country until the Carter Administration in 1979.

Prodded by Joel McCleary, deputy assistant to President Carter, and myself at a meeting in the White House with key staff from the National Security Council, the Carter Administration (which from its inception was concerned with human rights) undoubtedly saw the human rights issues involved, and agreed to permit the Dalai Lamas visit. Although they requested a six-month delay before the visit, this fit right in with our wishes, since extensive preparations had to be made by the Office of Tibet in New York under the leadership of Tenzin Tethong (later to become Prime Minister of the exiled Tibetan government headquartered in Dharamsala, India) for what became a forty-nine day, twenty-four city lecture tour with sixty-seven talks. The first planning meeting between McCleary, Tenzin Tethong, and myself began in McClearys office in the Executive Office Building several days after the meeting at which approval was given for the trip, and continued through lunch in the restaurant under the Oval Office in the White House. McCleary and Deputy Assistant to the President Tom Beard were particularly effective in overcoming many bureaucratic obstacles to the Dalai Lamas final visa approval, making Washington contacts with future friends and allies of His Holiness such as Congressman Charlie Rose, and arranging for security throughout the trip for the then relatively unknown Dalai Lama.

Tenzin Tethong formed a committee to arrange the details of the visit, which focused on the content of the lectures and avoided any media hype. This meant that His Holinesss introduction to the US was on the basis of his message of compassion, meditative concentration, and examination of reality, leading to the title of the collection of his talks in this book, Kindness, Clarity, and Insight.

Broad in scope and revealing the depths of his knowledge, the lectures moved from the East Coast to the South, the Midwest, the West Coast, the Upper Midwest, and again the East Coast. These teachings introduced the range of the Dalai Lama and his message in a dynamic and concise way to the English-speaking world, covering a plethora of topicsthe need for compassion in society and the world, the cause and effect of karma, the four noble truths, the luminous nature of the mind, the common goals of the worlds religions, meditative concentration, emptiness and selflessness, the two truths, and the fundamental innate mind of clear light that all the various schools of Tibetan Buddhism aim at manifesting. Although others in Tibet have mentioned that all orders of Tibetan Buddhism have the same basic outlook, His Holiness has been the first to explain in detail how this is so, his brilliant syncretic exposition being the final chapter in this book.

In 1979 the only books by the Dalai Lama in English, or any other language except Tibetan, were his autobiography, My Land and My People, and The Buddhism of Tibet and the Key to the Middle Way. In Ithaca, New York, and later in Toronto, the young, idealistic, compassionately motivated but nearly penniless founders of Snow Lion Publications approached His Holiness for counsel on how to communicate the breadth and depth of Tibetan Buddhism to the English-speaking world. The Dalai Lama quickly expressed his enthusiasm for a publishing house that could serve two audiences. In his own words (recorded during that audience):

Basically, two main types of books are needed: one chiefly for study by scholars and academically minded practitioners and another primarily for practitioners without much concern for deeper philosophy. These two basic types are essentially the same, but have slightly different approaches. One is more detailed, while the other is more condensed. If you can make both of these available, that would be excellent.

Snow Lion brilliantly succeeded in both of these avenues, providing a massive, diverse body of texts for an ever-growing audience throughout the world where interest in Tibetan Buddhism has spread. For many years, Snow Lion remained the only company publishing exclusively on Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. Thus, the apparent leap of confidence in permitting this unknown, underfunded, inexperienced company to publish this important first book of his teachings in the West has borne rich fruit. The owners of Snow Lion retired in 2012 and entrusted their extensive back-list to Shambhala Publications because they shared a similar mission to make available important Buddhist works. Shambhala, a highly respected trade publisher with a strong list of books from all schools of Buddhism, proudly carries on the Snow Lion imprint.

In addition, His Holiness counseled the founders of Snow Lion to be nonsectarian and unbiased in their efforts and to publish what is of value from all schools of Tibetan Buddhism and from Bn, the pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet. Following His Holinesss advice, Snow Lion was remarkably successful in becoming a platform for all of Tibets great spiritual traditions.

It all began with this book,