84000 recently started an official Wechat account (Translate84000), and it received 8,000 new subscriptions within a few days. Encouraged by the response, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Founding Chair of 84000, sent a video message to all our supporters:
More videos available on our Youtube and Vimeo channels.
Message from Rinpoche: Support by Spreading the Word
So it is like this… First I really want to say this. I am so happy, moved, and encouraged that within a few days there has been such an amazing response to our Wechat account.
I don't know whether people know this, but it is believed that when Buddhism was at its height flourishing in India, at that time India politically, financially, culturally, India did the best… Much, much better than Rome, much, much better than many places that we know of. And a lot of this is [attributed] to the buddhadharma.I am not even talking about some sort of spiritual blessing and all of that, which of course has to be. But you know the Buddhist appreciation of reasoning, the Buddhist appreciation of not taking things at face value, and Buddhist philosophy of cause, condition, and effect. In other words, the Buddhist philosophy that everything is dependent arising. These are not… these cannot get outdated. In fact these messages are more potent and more important now than ever.
Not just the Buddhist philosophy, even the Buddhist methods such as contemplation, the need to have at least control over our insatiable, blind, and so short-sighted greed, which is basically destroying our world, we all know that.
And I think there are many religions that talk about how greed is bad and so and so forth. But a systematic technique to really control, tame, uproot, and at the least just acknowledge and be aware of greed, and dependent arising… just that. Even these methods are not at all sort of outdated.So Buddhism…it should not be categorized into some sort of anthropological kind of study. Buddhism is so relevant, today more than ever, I think. And I am so happy that people are interested.
And I am even more touched, because at this point, we are translating the Buddha’s words into one particular language, English. Of course we have the aspiration to translate it into many different languages in the future.Chinese have great illuminators in the past. I mean, the works of Hsuan Tsang alone is so heroic. He is one of the greatest heroes of the east I would say. What I want to say is that I am particularly so touched, because many of these people know that the language that we are translating is not necessarily Chinese but in English. First of all, I think for the Chinese probably is not even necessary, because there is really amazingly beautifully translated Chinese version of the Kangyur sutras existing. But I think, to have this sort of wish to support the activity of translating the message of the Buddha or the wisdom of the Buddha into another language, that is so…I consider this as very philanthropic and…it shows that you really care about someone else’s happiness and someone else’s awareness and someone else’s increase of knowledge. That is so generous.
And yes of course, there are so many different ways to help. And I think many of you are helping, for which I would like to offer my appreciation and gratitude. I am very sure that you will keep on supporting us.And the support can come in many different forms. It doesn't have to be always financial. Just the mere fact that you are talking about it really helps us.Please talk about it. Please share our existence. Please share the information.I think actually more than anything, people knowing about this, people talking about this, people sharing news, sharing the fact that there is some sort of translation of the Buddha’s words to a different language – that is going to be one of the really fundamental support.I mean, if you think of this, how much benefit the Chinese civilization have reaped from all the translation work that has been done by the great Chinese translators in the past. Of course now we live in this kind of very materialistic, fast-paced, kind of very uncertain world… And today we are now translating the same words of the Buddha in other different languages.
You know Indians, Chinese, and many Himalayan countries, and probably places like Japan, we are fortunate that we have that proximity, and we have that sort of access to the words of the Buddha for centuries. So now I think it is like, now we should really think in terms of broadening our limit of compassion and kind and care and also the vision, and create the joy, and have the joy for being able to share the same words to a lot of other countries where Buddha is not even heard of.
You know when I read that our Reading Room got, there is an interest in our Reading Room, from places like Pakistan and Afghanistan… It’s so amazing, because these countries they used to be Buddhist countries, and they should know their ancestor’s culture, their treasure. We Tibetans, Himalayans, we venerate so many of Pakistanis of the past. And I am sure a lot of Pakistanis now don’t even know the existence of such sutras. So I am really happy.
And then there are other countries such as Angola, where probably the name of the Buddha is not even heard of, even historically.
So as I said, please just generate the mere fact that such activity exists – the translating of the words of the Buddha by 84000. Please know that, and please have the intention of letting more people know this. And that alone, and that I think is actually is one of the biggest support. That’s it.