Tibetan Monks Hold Q&A Event
Mary Blanchard
Students take a selfie with one of the monks.
A group of Tibetan monks visited on Wednesday. The monks, who came from Gaden Shartse Phukhang Monaster, are visiting Austin– on a tour that includes various events– until April 18. They came to look at the school and answer students questions about where they come from and what it’s like to be a monk.
“They seemed very kind. They were, like, holding open the doors for people in the hallways and stuff,” senior Shayna Nowicki said. “They seemed very happy to be here.”
The monks traveled to Austin four years prior and are returning in the midst of a new tour. According to their website, “The purpose of the Phukhang tour is to share with all people the monks’ culture, as well as practices and paths to inner peace and compassion.”
The tours generate profit for their monastery. According to their website, “donations raised by past tours support much needed building improvements, medical needs, teachers’ salaries and the day to day expenses of supporting the khangtsen. The tour’s success is due to the help and generosity of those who support the tours.”
For the monks, however, the monetary support they receive is only an added benefit; their travel to other countries represents something much closer to their hearts.
“For my personal experience, traveling around the world and experiencing the real situation of every environment I encountered with, that really helped me to enhance my own practice; it really helped me to focus, because at the monastery, everyone is practicing same, everyone has less issues, so we take it for granted,” one of the monks said during a Q&A in the PAC. “When I travel around the world…we meet so many people who have nothing but a complaint, even the rich has a complaint, poor has a complaint, everyone has a problem in their life…there are many who have regrets, because many have difficulties about that, but they finally know being monk is the best life.”
The monks discussed their Buddhist philosophy with the crowd, answering questions about Buddhism, their daily lifestyle and their own personal opinions.
“They had long answers to simple questions,” freshman Kaylan Berry said. “It made me think of how deep their thought process was. The thing [they said] that most stood out to me was that our desire makes us turn into mean and greedy people.”
On the subject of desire, the monk said “[people] have so many good opportunities to do good things, but the moment you give into desire of your soul and focus into yourself, then you cannot focus on others but only on yourself. And to maintain yourself you live your whole live, and we will die for nothing. But [traveling and seeing the world] has been a good experience for me.”
The monks also discussed the details of their rituals, including prayers and how to honor those who have died.
The monks will be doing various events around Austin, to which everyone is welcome. If you are interested in meeting them more personally or seeing them present more on their culture, there is a schedule of events and tour details at autxmonktour.org. To learn more about the monks and the monastery they come from, visit sacredartsoftibettour.org.
