1 00:00:14,220 --> 00:00:17,340 Everyone. Welcome. Hello. Good evening. Good day. 2 00:00:17,430 --> 00:00:20,520 Whether you are in the world, thank you for. For zooming in. 3 00:00:21,750 --> 00:00:34,290 So we revised the existing online format and I'm super happy that we have such a wonderful speaker opening this term of wonderful talks. 4 00:00:34,860 --> 00:00:44,970 And we welcome Dr. Christina Kilby, who is a associate professor of religion at the James Madison University, a specialist in Tibetan Buddhism. 5 00:00:45,450 --> 00:00:53,250 She has published several articles in Tibetan epistolary literature and on the gift of fearlessness as a political ethic. 6 00:00:54,030 --> 00:01:01,080 She's now writing a book on displacement in Buddhist tradition and consulting for the International Committee of the Red Cross Initiative. 7 00:01:01,620 --> 00:01:12,660 And so today, she's going to invite us to her journey and gives us some insights into this upcoming book in her talk called Displacement. 8 00:01:13,110 --> 00:01:17,610 Tibetan Buddhist Contributions to the International Humanitarian Field. 9 00:01:18,750 --> 00:01:22,430 Christina, welcome. Thank you so much. 10 00:01:23,300 --> 00:01:27,290 I'm the junior in the group. I can tell. So I will. 11 00:01:27,290 --> 00:01:31,580 I will eagerly look forward to comments and questions from each of you. 12 00:01:32,450 --> 00:01:41,360 But I'm thankful to be with you today. And what I'd like to share is some of my current research, but I'd also like to offer it to you as a model. 13 00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:50,750 One model for how we can bring scholarly work in very specialised fields like Tibetan studies to the humanitarian sector. 14 00:01:52,010 --> 00:01:56,060 So I thought we could open by reflecting on a question together. 15 00:01:57,630 --> 00:02:04,110 Why are you doing the research you were doing? What difference do you hope that your research will make in the world? 16 00:02:05,290 --> 00:02:10,570 If you would like to enter your answer on the chat box, I would love to see the variety of answers. 17 00:02:11,110 --> 00:02:15,160 Take a moment and think about that question. Why are you doing the research you're doing? 18 00:02:15,670 --> 00:02:42,079 What difference do you hope it could make in the world? Feel free to keep uploading your responses if you'd like and you are not tied to these. 19 00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:45,490 They may change throughout your career. Don't be afraid. 20 00:02:45,530 --> 00:02:50,810 Don't be afraid of attachment to them. So we're all going to have different answers to this question. 21 00:02:51,230 --> 00:02:54,590 I believe that we have to have some kind of answer to this question. 22 00:02:57,050 --> 00:03:04,310 I think we must believe that our pursuit or preservation or dissemination of knowledge will matter for the world. 23 00:03:04,790 --> 00:03:12,460 And so some folks will answer this question by thinking about Buddhism and its its ability to serve the world, 24 00:03:12,470 --> 00:03:15,890 you know, spreading the Dharma or spreading wisdom from Tibetan traditions. 25 00:03:16,580 --> 00:03:21,200 Some of you are talking about cultural memory, preserving knowledge and history, 26 00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:27,590 which we know is an important part of human meaning and well-being, especially for the communities who produce this knowledge. 27 00:03:29,120 --> 00:03:31,910 Decolonising and cross-cultural discussions. 28 00:03:32,240 --> 00:03:41,090 You know, some of you are thinking about bridging cultures and perhaps building some kind of global community that's peaceful and productive. 29 00:03:41,750 --> 00:03:50,090 It can be difficult in the context of graduate school with our very narrow focus on particular texts and time periods and lineages and teachings, 30 00:03:50,990 --> 00:03:56,940 sometimes to ground ourselves in a larger vision of why we're doing what we're doing and how it could make a difference. 31 00:03:56,960 --> 00:04:03,340 But I really invite you to take the privilege of thinking about this in your wonderful careers. 32 00:04:03,890 --> 00:04:09,830 They're each engaged in. So for my dissertation at the University of Virginia, I was studying letter writing practises, 33 00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:14,690 epistolary manuals, and I was deeply formed as a scholar by that, by those studies. 34 00:04:15,230 --> 00:04:19,070 So I'm seven years out of graduate school now. I just got tenure in the spring. 35 00:04:19,070 --> 00:04:25,870 So I've been sort of, I guess, graduated from being a junior scholar to someone who has no excuse if I'm not doing a good job. 36 00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:33,410 So here I am. But I was formed as a scholar by being very committed to this set of epistolary texts, 37 00:04:33,410 --> 00:04:40,520 and I learnt about translation and literary analysis and archival research and analytical bibliography. 38 00:04:40,520 --> 00:04:43,280 You know, the documentary analysis of, of a text. 39 00:04:43,910 --> 00:04:53,510 I published a few articles in this area and then, you know, a few years ago I was well, I was at my current university, James Madison University. 40 00:04:53,510 --> 00:04:58,549 In my current role, I saw an announcement for a conference that was happening in Dambulla, 41 00:04:58,550 --> 00:05:02,750 Sri Lanka, hosted by the International Committee of the Red Cross. 42 00:05:02,750 --> 00:05:07,250 And the conference was entitled Reducing Suffering during Armed Conflict. 43 00:05:07,640 --> 00:05:11,660 The Interface between Buddhism and International Humanitarian Law. 44 00:05:12,440 --> 00:05:19,430 I didn't know anything about international humanitarian law, but I knew a little bit about Buddhism, 45 00:05:19,520 --> 00:05:26,839 and I knew that I had some experience with Buddhist texts and teachings that approached 46 00:05:26,840 --> 00:05:31,550 some of the same types of suffering that are addressed by humanitarian organisations. 47 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:39,020 And so that conference was my first exposure to the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross, 48 00:05:39,020 --> 00:05:43,340 the ICRC in its work I'm now deeply invested in. 49 00:05:43,820 --> 00:05:47,210 I'd like to thank you for all of your contributions to my question. 50 00:05:48,320 --> 00:05:49,350 I really appreciate that. 51 00:05:49,700 --> 00:05:57,290 And I'd like to share my screen, if that's okay and not overburden you with slides, but take a little time to look at some images together. 52 00:05:58,700 --> 00:06:02,000 Thanks to Danielle and company for the nice flyer. 53 00:06:03,920 --> 00:06:07,780 It's. If we go. 54 00:06:08,380 --> 00:06:12,040 So let me introduce you a little bit to this organisation. 55 00:06:13,480 --> 00:06:16,870 I don't know about the you know, if you all are based in the U.K., 56 00:06:16,870 --> 00:06:23,830 the British Red Cross might have certain duties that it's most commonly known for in the United States, where I'm based. 57 00:06:24,220 --> 00:06:30,370 We think of the Red Cross as being a blood donation and kind of disaster relief organisation. 58 00:06:30,370 --> 00:06:36,759 So people go do blood drives and if there's a flood or a hurricane, the Red Cross shows up with with supplies. 59 00:06:36,760 --> 00:06:43,419 People needed food. The International Committee of the Red Cross is the umbrella organisation that brings 60 00:06:43,420 --> 00:06:48,460 together all of the national societies and it has a slightly different mission and mandate, 61 00:06:49,660 --> 00:06:58,720 as you can see from the mission statement. The ICRC, if you don't mind, using an acronym here, is an impartial, neutral, independent organisation. 62 00:06:59,020 --> 00:07:06,580 What that means is the ICRC commits not to taking a side on political issues and in conflict. 63 00:07:07,510 --> 00:07:09,540 So that can actually be quite difficult. 64 00:07:09,550 --> 00:07:17,570 But but, you know, Buddhist traditions do, I think, offer some help in achieving a robust and humane kind of neutrality. 65 00:07:17,590 --> 00:07:24,250 We have concepts like equanimity and so forth, universalising concepts that can help actually implement this kind of ethic. 66 00:07:24,850 --> 00:07:29,620 And their humanitarian mission is to protect the lives and dignity of victims of armed conflict. 67 00:07:29,630 --> 00:07:33,040 So the ICRC is only operative at scope. 68 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:40,870 Its mandate is only operative in war zones or or zones of conflicts that may not be classified as war, but involve armed violence. 69 00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:48,339 So the mission of the ICRC is to protect people who are affected by armed conflict and to assist them. 70 00:07:48,340 --> 00:07:57,310 But also they have a secondary mission, which is to promote and strengthen humanitarian law and universal humanitarian principles. 71 00:07:58,030 --> 00:08:04,389 And what this part of their mission refers to is upholding the Geneva Conventions and their 72 00:08:04,390 --> 00:08:10,110 additional protocols and statutes that extended the Geneva Conventions after they were ratified. 73 00:08:10,120 --> 00:08:16,269 So if the Geneva Conventions are, I think, should be compulsory reading in our education system, 74 00:08:16,270 --> 00:08:21,900 I mean, this these documents have been universally ratified. 75 00:08:21,910 --> 00:08:25,330 They have been ratified by 192 states. 76 00:08:26,020 --> 00:08:37,450 And I cannot think of any other text or legal tradition that has been so universally accepted in our global community, 77 00:08:37,450 --> 00:08:39,400 which is itself kind of miraculous. 78 00:08:40,360 --> 00:08:49,809 But the Geneva Conventions focus on first they focussed on protecting prisoners of war and enemy combatants, treatment of enemy combatants, 79 00:08:49,810 --> 00:08:55,540 as well as soldiers and others who were shipwrecked or injured or lost, 80 00:08:57,310 --> 00:09:02,860 as well as providing for their ability to write letters and connect to their families while they're interned. 81 00:09:03,910 --> 00:09:12,280 And then later, the Geneva Conventions were extended to include protections for civilians affected by conflict, because increasingly over time, 82 00:09:12,280 --> 00:09:21,879 there's been a shift from war happening kind of out in battlefields to war happening in places where civilians live in villages. 83 00:09:21,880 --> 00:09:28,950 And now urban areas are actually major theatre for war, as we're seeing with some current conflicts happening across the world. 84 00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:35,920 So the ICRC has a really particular kind of context in which it's in which its work occurs, 85 00:09:36,610 --> 00:09:40,749 a very particular mandate and its scope is limited somewhat. 86 00:09:40,750 --> 00:09:47,020 As I mentioned, the impartiality of the ICRC means that their role is not to take a side when there's a conflict, 87 00:09:47,020 --> 00:09:53,080 even if from a human rights perspective, there might be a really obvious kind of good guy and bad guy. 88 00:09:54,040 --> 00:10:01,900 The RC is dedicated to helping victims of conflict regardless of their affiliation, as long as they fall under their mandate. 89 00:10:03,210 --> 00:10:12,780 So this mission of the organisation appealed to me a lot. The ICRC has actually been involved with work with religious groups for some time. 90 00:10:13,330 --> 00:10:21,150 You know, it was an organisation founded by Europeans long ago using kind of Christian inspiration. 91 00:10:21,510 --> 00:10:32,639 But the organisation has for a long time been secular in nature that secularity has not precluded the importance of religious engagement. 92 00:10:32,640 --> 00:10:40,960 Though I wanted to point out this website, this there's a blog here for the work with religion and humanitarian principles. 93 00:10:40,980 --> 00:10:47,970 The ICRC has been collaborating with religious leaders, lay practitioners, scholars of these religious traditions, 94 00:10:49,110 --> 00:10:54,660 you know, as well as military chaplains and military personnel who were affiliated with these kinds of traditions, 95 00:10:55,050 --> 00:11:07,890 to think about how religion can help support or challenge maybe or improve the ICRC work in protecting and assisting victims of conflict, 96 00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:14,160 and also promoting the understanding and implementation of international humanitarian law. 97 00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:19,020 So I became involved with the work with Buddhist circles. 98 00:11:20,610 --> 00:11:23,759 We're having a second conference coming up soon in Chiang Mai, Thailand, 99 00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:27,390 and there'll be a whole new host of papers and publications coming out of that. 100 00:11:28,080 --> 00:11:34,700 The the first conference I was part of and Don Belo, Sri Lanka, we published our papers in contemporary Buddhism. 101 00:11:34,710 --> 00:11:37,950 They came out this past summer and I commend that. 102 00:11:37,950 --> 00:11:42,269 Those volumes to you. If you're interested in these issues, I can perhaps share a link. 103 00:11:42,270 --> 00:11:46,110 If, if if others are interested, maybe Daniel can pass it on for me. 104 00:11:47,820 --> 00:11:52,970 Why would the RC engage with religion? You know, there are a few answers to that question. 105 00:11:54,560 --> 00:12:05,930 So one is that. You know, this is supposedly a universal set of humanitarian law and, you know, a universal set of humanitarian principles. 106 00:12:06,440 --> 00:12:13,730 But that universality, which many would be sceptical of this idea of a universal human value or human principle, 107 00:12:14,630 --> 00:12:18,050 that universality actually needs to be developed and explored. 108 00:12:18,920 --> 00:12:23,299 So what does it mean for a body of law that's created and in Europe in a certain 109 00:12:23,300 --> 00:12:26,600 time in history influenced by people from a certain religious tradition? 110 00:12:27,380 --> 00:12:34,490 What is what relevance does that kind of body of law have for people of diverse cultures, religions and worldviews? 111 00:12:34,730 --> 00:12:41,990 So the project of making IHS Universal is an ongoing project, and it's about recognising that actually, 112 00:12:42,320 --> 00:12:47,440 you know, the creators of IHS didn't didn't invent these principles. 113 00:12:47,450 --> 00:12:53,810 They've been embedded in many of our traditions, religious and otherwise, for many, many hundreds of years. 114 00:12:54,380 --> 00:13:02,270 So part of this project is about helping people across the globe recognise their own values and traditions in IHS, 115 00:13:03,080 --> 00:13:10,730 and therefore to empower people to claim this as their own tradition and to have a stake in improving it and upholding it. 116 00:13:12,810 --> 00:13:19,530 Another reason that ICRC is engaging with religious actors is that it makes a difference effectively in their operations. 117 00:13:19,560 --> 00:13:26,970 Any time there's a situation of armed conflict, religious actors, religious charities or clergy. 118 00:13:27,530 --> 00:13:33,270 Right. Or local leaders are typically the first ones on the ground at the site of a disaster. 119 00:13:33,690 --> 00:13:37,410 They're usually the first ones there before the ICRC gets there. 120 00:13:38,160 --> 00:13:43,890 They're usually the last ones to leave. They stay longer than other organisations are able to stay. 121 00:13:44,520 --> 00:13:54,600 They have denser networks. They have access to places that international organisations are not given access to and they have immense influence. 122 00:13:56,320 --> 00:14:00,399 So it behoves the ICRC to to engage, you know, 123 00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:06,670 wisely and humbly with religious groups in order for them to actually be able to operate effectively and to achieve their own goals. 124 00:14:07,120 --> 00:14:09,639 And that's part of the goal of this project as well. 125 00:14:09,640 --> 00:14:17,590 And there's one third goal that I'd like to emphasise, which is that through religion, through engagement with religion, 126 00:14:17,590 --> 00:14:27,970 the ICRC can better fulfil its mandate to persuade states and non-state actor ers to uphold their duties in times of war. 127 00:14:28,660 --> 00:14:35,559 A big part of the ICRC work is communicating with military leaders and government leaders who have the capacity to 128 00:14:35,560 --> 00:14:44,170 make decisions that either can preserve the humanity of people affected by war or that can violate that humanity. 129 00:14:44,950 --> 00:14:55,510 And the power of religion is potent today and not something to be overlooked as a resource for helping influence ethical conduct of warfare. 130 00:14:57,630 --> 00:14:59,730 So that's maybe been a lot to take in. 131 00:14:59,940 --> 00:15:04,710 But I wanted to introduce this work and maybe encourage you to explore some of what's been happening in this project. 132 00:15:05,400 --> 00:15:12,570 Where my my research first intersected with the ICRC, whose work was in my study of the gift of fearlessness. 133 00:15:14,010 --> 00:15:19,240 So in my, my work on letter writing, I came across teachings on the three gifts. 134 00:15:19,260 --> 00:15:29,850 So in a in a Buddhist context, you know, there are three types of gifts that one can give in order to protect this gift, this parameter of generosity. 135 00:15:30,390 --> 00:15:35,970 There are material gifts. There are gifts of Dharma, and there's the gift of fearlessness. 136 00:15:36,960 --> 00:15:41,850 So letter writing is really about the first two gifts. It's about giving the gift of Dharma. 137 00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:49,200 Letters were often used as a way for religious conversations to happen, and this idea of instruction or blessing, 138 00:15:49,830 --> 00:15:56,640 which I think falls under the gift of Dharma and genuine shapers epistolary manual framed letter writing in that way. 139 00:15:57,540 --> 00:16:05,370 Letter writing is also about material gifts. I was, you know, part of my studies looking at gift registers are always an important part of letters. 140 00:16:05,640 --> 00:16:07,140 What gifts are you enclosing? 141 00:16:07,320 --> 00:16:16,980 And you can really see a whole gift economy happening in Tibet historically based around letters, exchanges of ideas and exchanges of materials. 142 00:16:17,190 --> 00:16:25,620 So tea or mandalas or silks, if you're really, you know, a high ranking kind of letter recipient. 143 00:16:27,470 --> 00:16:30,860 But the gift of fearlessness was something I wanted to learn more about. 144 00:16:31,490 --> 00:16:35,570 And surprisingly, there's not a lot of commentary, all literature about it. 145 00:16:36,440 --> 00:16:41,420 But this is an idea that's that's slightly better developed, perhaps, than the other Buddhist traditions. 146 00:16:41,990 --> 00:16:48,860 The gift of fearlessness is the gift of safety or protection for those who are in fear for their life. 147 00:16:50,730 --> 00:16:54,180 In Sanskrit. This is a by a donner gift of fearlessness. 148 00:16:54,900 --> 00:17:01,380 So the fear, the fear that is relieved by the gift of fearlessness is specifically fear for one's life. 149 00:17:02,310 --> 00:17:08,760 Extending protection to refugees and extending mercy to animals who are destined for slaughter are 150 00:17:08,760 --> 00:17:15,540 common examples of a by Adonai that that not only Buddhism but also Hinduism and Jainism invoke. 151 00:17:16,600 --> 00:17:21,400 So this gift of fearlessness can be translated also as the gift of protection. 152 00:17:21,940 --> 00:17:29,799 The gift of security or the gift of assurance. Different ways to think about about this gift. 153 00:17:29,800 --> 00:17:37,000 And you will see that here we have green Tara holding her right hand in this gesture of abaya fearlessness like this. 154 00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:46,280 And there are many images of the Buddha also extending this gesture. So I saw a strong connexion between the gift of fearlessness. 155 00:17:47,470 --> 00:17:52,190 And what in ISIL or sorry, international humanitarian law is called the principle of protection. 156 00:17:52,210 --> 00:18:00,460 So this is the idea that those without power, those sorry those with power states and other other stakeholders should provide 157 00:18:00,460 --> 00:18:05,020 protection to those who are vulnerable to violence and who lack political protection. 158 00:18:06,370 --> 00:18:11,259 So, you know, I've got a quote again, there's not a lot of literature on this and Tibetan tradition, 159 00:18:11,260 --> 00:18:19,180 but there's enough to work with and to do something. I think a very important partial report has as a gloss on the gift of fearlessness. 160 00:18:19,180 --> 00:18:24,759 In his words. At my perfect teacher, he says, The gift of fearlessness is. 161 00:18:24,760 --> 00:18:27,940 And this is. Yes. This is my translation. 162 00:18:27,940 --> 00:18:32,200 I think actually doing whatever you can to help others in difficulty. 163 00:18:33,220 --> 00:18:37,480 So this includes providing a refuge for those without a place of safety. 164 00:18:38,480 --> 00:18:44,000 Giving protection to those without a protector and being with those who have no other companion. 165 00:18:45,050 --> 00:18:50,450 And he extends the humanitarian aspects of this gift to include animals, 166 00:18:50,450 --> 00:18:55,910 which is maybe how some of us in this group are more familiar with this gift in Tibetan context today. 167 00:18:56,810 --> 00:19:03,170 Speaking about actions such as forbidding hunting and fishing, buying back sheep that are on the way to slaughter, 168 00:19:03,500 --> 00:19:08,090 and saving the lives of fish, worms, flies and other creatures. 169 00:19:10,120 --> 00:19:14,150 So the gift of fearlessness is actually a two fold gift. 170 00:19:14,170 --> 00:19:24,470 It is the gift of being released from fear. But it's also the gift of the material and social political circumstances that are causing the fear. 171 00:19:25,160 --> 00:19:30,350 Sorry, the gift of the circumstances that will relieve the actual fear, the cause of the fear itself. 172 00:19:30,800 --> 00:19:37,250 So in other words, the gift of fearlessness is not merely kind of a psychological gift that can be given through through teaching or comfort, 173 00:19:37,520 --> 00:19:41,360 but it's also the gift of material things that can relieve the person from danger. 174 00:19:41,660 --> 00:19:45,860 So if we look at Hindu, if we look back to the Hindu tradition, which I had to do, 175 00:19:45,860 --> 00:19:49,460 because the Buddhist commentary literature was so sparse on this idea. 176 00:19:50,900 --> 00:20:01,220 So Hindu Digest's list, you know, different types of gifts that are material in nature food curds, honey. 177 00:20:01,640 --> 00:20:06,380 Fearlessness, cows, land, gold, horses and elephants. 178 00:20:07,800 --> 00:20:14,850 So fearlessness and those contexts is really understood as something tangible and material, not merely something psychological. 179 00:20:15,840 --> 00:20:18,570 So the circumstances of safety, 180 00:20:19,350 --> 00:20:28,050 the tangible conditions for safety and this is important because it's not always possible to change someone else's feelings. 181 00:20:28,410 --> 00:20:33,830 We probably have very little power to actually do that as individuals, much less states. 182 00:20:34,320 --> 00:20:42,330 But we do have more power to actually change someone else's material conditions that then might have an effect on their psychological state. 183 00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:45,720 So both aspects of the gift of fearlessness are important. 184 00:20:47,820 --> 00:20:52,590 And I want to offer another quotation from Super Campus autobiography. 185 00:20:52,590 --> 00:21:01,680 So he, you know, an 18th century Gaelic llama looking back on his life and, you know, he was displaced. 186 00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:09,870 You know, actually, so many of the biographies we look back and read in Tibetan history have displacement as part of those biographies. 187 00:21:09,870 --> 00:21:13,409 There's a conflict or there's kind of food insecurity. 188 00:21:13,410 --> 00:21:19,300 And so people move from one monastery to a different monastery to escape these insecure conditions. 189 00:21:20,100 --> 00:21:25,690 But simper, Ocampo reflects. In any and every world system. 190 00:21:26,530 --> 00:21:34,330 The good and evil that befall people, both collectively and individually, is indeed the fruition of their karma that is shared or un shared. 191 00:21:35,110 --> 00:21:38,830 But conventionally speaking, in any place, 192 00:21:39,100 --> 00:21:45,460 the waxing and waning of the Buddha's teachings and the respective happiness or misery of beings 193 00:21:45,700 --> 00:21:51,460 all follow as a consequence of the words and actions of the Kings and Ministers of that land. 194 00:21:52,300 --> 00:22:01,360 Therefore, merit and non merit, happiness and misery, whatever befalls the people, follows as a consequence of the powerful rulers of that place. 195 00:22:01,810 --> 00:22:05,110 And there is no place where that isn't the case. 196 00:22:07,260 --> 00:22:14,790 So here's super cambogia something useful I think challenging the idea of karma a little bit and saying, 197 00:22:14,790 --> 00:22:18,220 well, ultimately karma is the explanation for what happens to us. 198 00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:25,890 But conventionally speaking, it is the influence of states and of governance that really makes a difference. 199 00:22:26,070 --> 00:22:29,850 And whether people experience well-being or suffering and this is important, 200 00:22:30,180 --> 00:22:35,620 this is an important part of the gift of fearlessness and holding states accountable for their role. 201 00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:38,880 And, of course, in Buddhist tradition, we're thinking of kings as states, 202 00:22:39,120 --> 00:22:44,580 because that was the primary form of government available right for the imagination of these writers. 203 00:22:44,820 --> 00:22:52,590 But the imperative of kings or states to provide protection for those who depend on them for protection. 204 00:22:53,430 --> 00:23:00,540 In fact, the the monarch's murti goes even farther if we go back to Hinduism and says that giving the gift of fearlessness. 205 00:23:01,830 --> 00:23:04,410 Returns to the giver. Sovereignty. 206 00:23:06,360 --> 00:23:15,000 This is an important political idea that sort of buried it, you know, in the Tibetan tradition here, as well as shared across across traditions. 207 00:23:15,330 --> 00:23:20,220 The idea that a state's legitimacy or sovereignty should derive in proportional 208 00:23:20,940 --> 00:23:25,680 relationship to its ability to give protection to those who need protection. 209 00:23:27,850 --> 00:23:38,410 So I think this is an important point that can really improve, you know, buddhism's push to hold states accountable for upholding humanitarian ideals. 210 00:23:39,010 --> 00:23:42,190 One reason I think it's so important is that I was really enjoying reading this. 211 00:23:42,190 --> 00:23:46,390 This Matthew Moore's book on Buddhism and Political Theory came out a few years ago. 212 00:23:46,930 --> 00:23:55,360 I was interested in this, you know, this juncture between transcendental values of Buddhism and ideas of social justice or political action. 213 00:23:56,050 --> 00:24:04,960 But actually, you know, through no fault of his own, More's analysis actually came up with a pretty bleak, I would say uninspiring, 214 00:24:05,110 --> 00:24:11,440 you know, picture of how of of of the importance of states and governance and human life according to Buddhism. 215 00:24:12,520 --> 00:24:18,430 You know, he deals with several kinds of theories that emerge in a variety of Buddhist texts, 216 00:24:18,790 --> 00:24:24,400 but overall concludes that governance just really isn't that important in Buddhist tradition. 217 00:24:26,020 --> 00:24:34,200 I'm I'm generalising. So read it for yourself. He says a lot of wonderful things, but that's the unfortunate conclusion of the work he did. 218 00:24:34,210 --> 00:24:40,900 And so I think it's important to find if we you know, if you're doing work that intersects with humanitarian principles, 219 00:24:41,590 --> 00:24:50,290 I'm looking for divergent voices within these traditions to find out why and how governance can matter and therefore, 220 00:24:50,290 --> 00:24:57,009 what kind of legitimate pressure Buddhists across the world can can rightfully place on their 221 00:24:57,010 --> 00:25:01,990 leaders to uphold these kinds of principles in order to relieve suffering in the world. 222 00:25:02,530 --> 00:25:08,200 Of course, the ICRC is focussed on context of of conflict, but beyond conflict. 223 00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:13,510 Right. The goal of states. The duties of states to protect those who need protection. 224 00:25:15,790 --> 00:25:20,020 So I wanted to spend a little time together, I mindful of the time, 225 00:25:20,290 --> 00:25:23,739 but I wanted to spend a little bit of time looking at some beautiful images because, 226 00:25:23,740 --> 00:25:31,299 you know, the commentary, literature and and Tibetan tradition on the gift of fearlessness is relatively scarce. 227 00:25:31,300 --> 00:25:34,600 But we have a beautiful set of tanks that are in the Rubin Museum. 228 00:25:35,050 --> 00:25:40,780 And I'm borrowing the images here from from the Himalayan art resources with item number in the corner. 229 00:25:41,770 --> 00:25:45,790 There's a beautiful set of images and of course, that the chief the central image is this green, 230 00:25:45,790 --> 00:25:50,080 Tara, who is granting relief from the eight great fears. 231 00:25:50,770 --> 00:25:56,860 And I think we can also learn from some of these images, which are not only images, but are ritual objects. 232 00:25:56,860 --> 00:26:03,130 You know, they're meant to be engaged with veneration and an attitude of worship and merit making. 233 00:26:03,910 --> 00:26:09,790 We can learn something from these images, too, about humanitarian principles, especially here. 234 00:26:09,790 --> 00:26:13,240 I'm going to focus on displacement as a particular outcome of conflict. 235 00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:24,130 So the set of tankers kind of walks us through very detailed images of Tara protecting from the eight great fears. 236 00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:37,540 And these are the fear of water, lions, fire, snakes, elephants, thieves, false imprisonment and ghosts. 237 00:26:38,110 --> 00:26:43,480 And so they're really interesting ways that each of these can actually reveal some humanitarian dimensions. 238 00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:54,819 Let's look at a couple of these together. So this is a detail from a larger the larger Tonga image, which is executed with great detail of Tara Green. 239 00:26:54,820 --> 00:27:03,940 Tara protecting from the fear of water. And Tara is above on the kind of raised platform temple that you can see out of the picture. 240 00:27:05,460 --> 00:27:06,840 You can notice here. 241 00:27:08,990 --> 00:27:17,000 When I look at this image now, I see a lot of news images that we've come across over the past couple of decades of people fleeing in boats, 242 00:27:17,450 --> 00:27:22,100 trying to escape war and violence and trying to find a place of safety. 243 00:27:24,050 --> 00:27:27,830 For me, a humanitarian lens made these images come to life in a new way. 244 00:27:28,430 --> 00:27:32,590 But we can I don't know if my is my arrow visible if I point. 245 00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:37,220 Yeah. Okay. So here we have some merchants, I think travelling. 246 00:27:37,410 --> 00:27:44,990 They have a bunch of jewels that they've collected for trade and they're supplicating Tara for help. 247 00:27:45,500 --> 00:27:49,280 We have stormy clouds surrounding them. 248 00:27:49,730 --> 00:27:53,660 The idea of wind and storm. And we even have, you know, our. 249 00:27:54,870 --> 00:27:59,760 I want to say Dragon because it doesn't quite look like a Naga to me, but threatening in the water. 250 00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:12,700 So we have a few different dangers visually represented here, the danger of of capsizing and drowning, the danger of the unknown underwater creatures. 251 00:28:12,720 --> 00:28:15,420 We have also the danger of losing one's property. 252 00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:22,020 And what I think is happening on the right hand side of this detail is I think often in these paintings, 253 00:28:22,650 --> 00:28:27,930 skin colour is used as a differentiation between the protagonist and the villain. 254 00:28:28,620 --> 00:28:34,070 So I think what might be happening here is we might have a pirate who's threatening them also with their jewels. 255 00:28:34,080 --> 00:28:43,940 But I'm not 100% sure. You'll notice if if you're a little chat box isn't in the way here, that the sails had changed direction. 256 00:28:43,950 --> 00:28:45,930 So the boat here is a boat in trouble. 257 00:28:46,410 --> 00:28:54,930 The sails are blowing this way because the wind, which we can see right pushing, is trying to push the boat away from Tara from safety. 258 00:28:55,140 --> 00:28:58,530 But here, the wind has changed directions and has brought them to safety. 259 00:28:58,770 --> 00:29:08,960 And so they're able to climb here and offer a jewel to Tara. So what do images like these do for us from a humanitarian perspective? 260 00:29:09,800 --> 00:29:18,260 I think we can see the multiple kinds of risks and hazards that accompany journeys across water. 261 00:29:19,640 --> 00:29:27,230 So exploitation, a vulnerability to theft and loss of property as well as, you know, vulnerability to loss of life. 262 00:29:28,530 --> 00:29:32,520 And one element of this painting that I think is really fruitful and that could actually help. 263 00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:37,889 Part it's part of a larger kind of set of evidence that can help humanitarian organisations think 264 00:29:37,890 --> 00:29:43,620 about assistance to displaced people as we have when when these sailors reach their place of safety, 265 00:29:43,620 --> 00:29:45,360 they're offering their jewels to Tara. 266 00:29:46,620 --> 00:29:58,320 What this means to me is that we we kind of the larger humanitarian field need to take seriously the moral agency of displaced people. 267 00:29:59,310 --> 00:30:07,110 You know, displaced people are often seen either as vulnerable and victimised or as even as a parasite and a burden, 268 00:30:08,520 --> 00:30:11,820 you know, that that people desire to shift to someone else. 269 00:30:12,930 --> 00:30:21,960 What a great reminder here that actually displaced people have the desire and capacity to give back or give forward, to make offerings, 270 00:30:22,230 --> 00:30:30,750 to actually improve the merit or the outcomes of the communities where they find themselves to be agents for good and contributors. 271 00:30:31,020 --> 00:30:34,650 And of course, we have lots of newly emerging literature on how important this is. 272 00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:41,400 And merit making is a big part, actually, of that kind of moral agency for for Buddhists who are displaced. 273 00:30:41,970 --> 00:30:49,410 The ability to come before a monk or a holy site and to make an offering is important 274 00:30:49,410 --> 00:30:52,740 for the psychological well-being of people who are displaced from their homes. 275 00:30:53,340 --> 00:31:02,820 And so the more that humanitarian organisations can help facilitate kind of moral contributions for people who are in vulnerable situations, 276 00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:12,510 the more we can actually help them flourish, not only because we enable them to plant good karma and to kind of build, build a future. 277 00:31:12,510 --> 00:31:18,690 That way we build an existential orientation to a future. The role of hope is not to be underestimated. 278 00:31:19,500 --> 00:31:23,550 And for displaced people, but also. 279 00:31:24,670 --> 00:31:28,900 Well, let's see. I just. Yes. Also creating a sense of time. 280 00:31:29,740 --> 00:31:37,180 There's a lot of research now about the importance of displaced people having an integrated sense of connexion to their past and their future. 281 00:31:38,080 --> 00:31:42,550 And that means actually help them create and envision future for themselves. 282 00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:46,450 And one of these ideas that I've come across lately is called time mindedness. 283 00:31:46,660 --> 00:31:53,560 Like when that sense of time is integral and people don't feel disconnected from from a given past and a possible future. 284 00:31:54,430 --> 00:32:01,510 So enabling gift giving and merit making for displaced people actually can be a very powerful form of assistance. 285 00:32:03,860 --> 00:32:07,550 Let me put a couple more images up and maybe I can ask for your thoughts on this one. 286 00:32:08,330 --> 00:32:12,530 So this is a detail from the image protecting from the fear of thieves. 287 00:32:13,190 --> 00:32:22,040 And I don't know if you can see. Well, so Tara again, is up on this platform, but I've zoomed in so we can see the detail. 288 00:32:22,460 --> 00:32:27,410 So we again, have have some people with some some wares that they're carrying from trade. 289 00:32:27,830 --> 00:32:31,640 We've got a bandit with a sword who has bloodied someone. 290 00:32:32,570 --> 00:32:39,360 And then we have these, like, saviours coming from Tara. They're actually connected to Tara's hands by these golden threads. 291 00:32:39,380 --> 00:32:46,610 So these are like puppet ninjas that are coming to to battle the bad guys and actually looks like somebody got impaled over here. 292 00:32:47,240 --> 00:32:51,500 So it's it's not a light kind of live painting. 293 00:32:54,190 --> 00:33:00,540 You know, one thought that came to my mind and I feel free to chime in if you if you have something you'd like to share. 294 00:33:00,550 --> 00:33:05,650 One thought that came to my mind is, you know, that here Tara is really fulfilling the role of the state. 295 00:33:06,460 --> 00:33:14,650 You know, it's the state's role to uphold law and order and to, you know, to create conditions where where robbery doesn't happen is often. 296 00:33:15,220 --> 00:33:24,910 And so when Tara has to send this little, you know, I call them puppet ninjas right into sort of save save the day, she's stepping into a gap. 297 00:33:24,910 --> 00:33:28,870 That is that is the gap of governance not being fulfilled properly. 298 00:33:29,620 --> 00:33:34,080 This has made me think more about questions of, you know. Why? 299 00:33:34,110 --> 00:33:37,710 Why should these why should people have to perpetuate, Tara? 300 00:33:37,850 --> 00:33:43,890 Right. Why can't they rely on good governance to take care of this kind of kind of justice for them? 301 00:33:44,250 --> 00:33:52,470 Right. Why why must someone rely on the hope of a miracle rather than relying on a state, a functioning state, in order to protect them from robbery? 302 00:33:53,640 --> 00:34:04,540 You know, displaced people are very vulnerable to loss of property, not only the property that they left behind, sometimes at a moment's notice. 303 00:34:04,680 --> 00:34:09,180 You know, sometimes you get a two minute warning before a bomb is going to drop and you have to run. 304 00:34:10,680 --> 00:34:16,140 So there's the vulnerability of losing property that you have to flee from, but also being exploited on the road. 305 00:34:16,830 --> 00:34:26,160 It's hard to safeguard your property when you are just travelling, perhaps carrying your jewellery, you know, whatever kind of assets you have. 306 00:34:28,780 --> 00:34:33,910 Maybe I can throw one more image before you, before we wind down and we open up for more questions. 307 00:34:34,870 --> 00:34:38,500 So this is this is the fear of wrongful imprisonment. 308 00:34:40,230 --> 00:34:46,110 It's an interesting contrast maybe or flipside of the the problem of thievery. 309 00:34:46,110 --> 00:34:50,250 You know, with the problem of thieves, the reach of the government is not strong enough. 310 00:34:51,120 --> 00:34:54,840 The government is just not present where it should be to prevent crime. 311 00:34:55,110 --> 00:35:00,150 But in this scene, we have a very powerful government that's actually wrongfully using its power. 312 00:35:00,780 --> 00:35:08,730 And, you know, when I see this image here, we have someone imprisoned at the bottom of the screen with my little dialogue box. 313 00:35:10,740 --> 00:35:14,940 We have, I think, a family member here lamenting that their loved one is imprisoned. 314 00:35:15,540 --> 00:35:19,979 And maybe we have the ruler upstairs with a kind of an edict or ruling coming 315 00:35:19,980 --> 00:35:24,360 down about the fate of the person who is chained and shackled in the prison. 316 00:35:25,830 --> 00:35:28,530 Here we can think about all kinds of oppression action, 317 00:35:28,530 --> 00:35:36,419 but we can also we can also think about the treatment of enemy prisoners and the kind of pain and trauma that they experience. 318 00:35:36,420 --> 00:35:43,530 And perhaps Tara's intervention here symbolised by this beautiful bird, also attached to Tara by a golden thread. 319 00:35:45,090 --> 00:35:50,490 Perhaps we can think about Tara's interventions as being meant for enemy prisoners, as well as for those wrongfully imprisoned. 320 00:35:52,490 --> 00:35:52,879 In fact, 321 00:35:52,880 --> 00:36:03,350 one of the main roles the ICRC plays for in detention centres is providing visits and letter writing materials for for people who are imprisoned. 322 00:36:03,350 --> 00:36:11,620 Enemies of war. Prisoners of war. Maybe I can make a couple of final comments on these on these tankers. 323 00:36:11,640 --> 00:36:16,320 I spent a lot of time with all of them and more than we have the capacity to reflect on today. 324 00:36:17,850 --> 00:36:22,260 You know, these are visual manifestations of what the gift of fearlessness can look like. 325 00:36:22,980 --> 00:36:31,530 I think there is a a healing dimension to being able to see one's fears visually portrayed. 326 00:36:32,810 --> 00:36:36,020 And also visually recognised by a bodhisattva. 327 00:36:37,150 --> 00:36:43,900 Or a female Buddha, however, you call Tara. So I think there is a healing dimension here in making those great fears, 328 00:36:43,900 --> 00:36:51,100 which are relatively universal fears visible, and knowing that not only do we as humans see our own fears, 329 00:36:51,400 --> 00:37:00,760 recognise them, but also that divine beings see them and have the capacity and the intention to to intervene and to relieve those fears. 330 00:37:02,230 --> 00:37:08,590 I think the the fact that these tankers are not only visual artefacts, but ritual artefacts, again, 331 00:37:08,590 --> 00:37:15,129 also reminds us of the importance of ritual engagement for the healing of trauma and whether 332 00:37:15,130 --> 00:37:21,430 that means access to monastics to give guidance and to and to give ritual forms of protection, 333 00:37:21,880 --> 00:37:28,330 or whether that means ability to make merit in order to kind of build one's own future and 334 00:37:28,330 --> 00:37:34,300 provide that karmic pathway forward through an intractable kind of existential condition. 335 00:37:35,890 --> 00:37:40,120 I think the role of ritual is something that that Tibetan Buddhist tradition in particular can 336 00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:45,160 offer for humanitarians thinking about how to protect and support people who are displaced. 337 00:37:46,150 --> 00:37:54,309 And, you know, one of the joys of my work with the Red Cross so far has been getting to reach out beyond the Tibetan context, 338 00:37:54,310 --> 00:37:58,060 where I have my linguistic and kind of historical training has been, 339 00:37:58,390 --> 00:38:04,240 but also to think about, you know, the polyglot because, you know, 340 00:38:04,790 --> 00:38:09,360 I have been doing a little bit of the thinking about Vasantha as a displacement narrative. 341 00:38:09,370 --> 00:38:18,370 You know, this is a story shared across Buddhist traditions. What does it mean that the Santa only was kind of in a position to give up his 342 00:38:18,370 --> 00:38:22,450 property and his wife and his children after he was exiled from his kingdom? 343 00:38:23,560 --> 00:38:30,280 You know, how did that loss of political protection influence the conditions that then. 344 00:38:30,820 --> 00:38:35,020 Right. Made him want to give things away, which, of course, into Santa. 345 00:38:35,020 --> 00:38:43,990 His case, he chose out of his great store of merit to give away his children, his chariot, his horses, his wife. 346 00:38:45,070 --> 00:38:46,660 But what if he didn't have a choice? 347 00:38:46,660 --> 00:38:53,860 What if we read this narrative differently and think about the vulnerability of exile and what that could mean for people? 348 00:38:54,220 --> 00:39:00,280 But it's been really enriching for me to collaborate with colleagues and hear about his studies and other other Mahayana worlds, 349 00:39:00,910 --> 00:39:06,430 to think about some of these narratives and teachings that are that are shared outside of the Tibetan context. 350 00:39:06,700 --> 00:39:15,490 So maybe I'll leave that as a final kind of possibility to think about if you're interested in contributing to humanitarian work in some way, 351 00:39:16,570 --> 00:39:21,400 maybe giving ourselves permission to step outside Tibetan studies also, 352 00:39:21,580 --> 00:39:28,780 and to think about collaborating and building constructive work with, with scholars in other areas. 353 00:39:30,120 --> 00:39:36,299 I've enjoyed so much this time with you. I'm going to cede the floor for the Q&A time. 354 00:39:36,300 --> 00:39:38,880 But I appreciate you being here and I look forward to learning from you.