Please join us on Friday, July 6th, 2018 at 7:00 pm to celebrate the 83rd birthday of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
A documentary will be shown and we will pray for the long life of His Holiness, followed by cake and ice cream.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lamas are believed by Tibetan Buddhists to be manifestations of Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and the patron saint of Tibet. Tibetans see the Dalai Lamas as the embodiment of love, compassion, and wisdom, and as the source of their happiness and prosperity, in this and future lives.
While the 5th and the 13th Dalai Lamas have been known as the Great Dalai Lamas, the present Dalai Lama has become the greatest Dalai Lama for many reasons. Most importantly, his tireless contributions to the well-being of humanity and his efforts to save Tibetan civilization during this most tragic period in the long history of Tibet have made a global impact.
He was born on July 6, 1935, to a peasant family in Taktser, a hamlet in Amdo, in the Northeastern province of Tibet. He was recognized as the reincarnation of the Great 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso, at two years of age.
After the Communist Chinese military invasion of Tibet in 1949, Tibetans pleaded with him to assume full political power in Tibet when he was sixteen. While peacefully negotiating with Beijing, he continued his education and earned the highest-level Geshe Degree at twenty-three in 1959.
Since 1959, he has been living as a refugee in India. Under his dynamic leadership, Tibetan communities, monasteries, nunneries, cultural institutions, schools, Tibetan medical institutes and hospitals has been established. All of these are directed towards the preservation and transmission of Tibetan language, culture, religion, and traditions, both for today and for posterity.
He has widely traveled throughout the world speaking on the importance of love, compassion, kindness, peace, patience, forgiveness, insight, inter-religious harmony and understanding, universal responsibility, and nonviolence. He has authored many outstanding books on secular human values and Buddhist teachings.
His Holiness has received dozens of honorary doctorates, awards, and prizes from prestigious universities and organizations around the world, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. Despite all these acknowledgements, he sees himself as a "simple Buddhist monk".
We dedicate our collective merit for the flourishing of Dharma, the source of benefits and happiness throughout the universe. May His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and all other great holy teachers live long and be successful in fulfilling their visions to benefit sentient beings.