Buddhist Institute of Dialectics & Drepung Loseling Monastery - Geshe Dorji Damdul

Geshe Dorji Damdul is the official translator for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as well as the Director of Tibet House in Delhi, India. Here he talks about the time he spent studying at the Buddhist Institute of Dialectics in Dharamsala, India and at Drepung Loseling Monastery in Mundgod, India.
This interview was conducted at Tibet House on June 17, 2013 by University of Arkansas student Blake Mertens as part of the TEXT Program. The TEXT Program, or "Tibetans in Exile Today," is an oral-history program designed to record the stories of Tibetans currently living in refugee settlements in India. The program focuses on the Tibetans who left their country in 1959, but still have vivid memories of traditional Tibetan culture. For more information please visit:
textprogram.uar...
Transcript:
Q: Could you describe the early years at the monastery, like the development of the monastery?
A: In fact, as for me it could be of two sections. The first one is the monastery in Dharamsala--the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics. There, the principle teacher--he was also the principal who passed away, unfortunately, very untimely--he was such an encouragement, such an inspiration and such an example for, you know, all the students there. He was not only intellectually rigorous in philosophical and psychological understanding. He himself was a great philosopher, great logician, and great epistemologist. At the same time, his life example itself was such a great example for us, inspiration for us, you know. Not only to be richly educated, richly intellectual, there must some warmth. That warmth was instilled in us directly by his very example. This is one thing that I noticed. And meanwhile, the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics was originally founded by this same teacher through the blessings and through the inspiration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. So there was many backed, financially backed by the office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. At the same time, the monks were also involved in their own ways of hardships to make some kind of living for the monastery. So we were very involved in, you know, making some tofu. You know what tofu is. It was hard work, extremely hard work. I have many experiences with that. The Institute didn't have any car. Eventually the principal bought one, you know, manual cart with two wheels to push. That was our car. So now the financial situation has improved dramatically. Then after like six years, then I moved to Drepung Loseling Monastery. Before that, I was every now and then going to Drepung Loseling Monastery. So there, I see how such a big monastery consisting of about like between 3,000 and 6,000 monks, with no financial background, and yet everything is operating so smoothly--not just smoothly financially. Everything was ok. Studies had an incredible high standard. Education is at an incredible high standard. Financially, no one had to worry. Of course, the individuals, there are areas where the monks have to take care of themselves. Other than that, food, you know is being well taken care of by the monastery and the subsections of the Monastery called the khangtsens. So there I was, I really kind of started to see how this is operating because no one is being. No one is being paid and yet everything is functioning so smoothly. So for an ordinary institution or university, western university or Indian university, if no one is paying it is naturally going to decline. But it is thriving all the way up. At the same time, such a success and no one is being paid, I was wondering what is the secret of that mechanism which makes the whole institution so smoothly and at the same time academic rigor was there. How come? Later I discovered, the hard core of the intellectual learning there is to enhance one's, what is technically known as the altruistic intention, on the basis of philosophy, not just blind kind of following but based on a very rich, rigorous, philosophical understanding. So on that basis, you know, the monks as they evolve in their studies, and those who are doing extremely good in their studies become teachers. Those who may be moderate become some kind of staff, you know, working in other capacities. Then we see without having to give any kind of incentive they were working so hard on their own. So this is the very special thing that I noticed in the Drepung Loseling Monastery. So likewise this is the case of the monastic universities as well.

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Western financial mechanism could do well to learn of the altruistic philosophy discussed here.