by Deirdre Collings

His Holiness, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, made his fourth visit to Australia for eight days during 19-26 May. The theme for the tour was 'Happiness in a Material World,' and included teachings in Melbourne, Geelong, Canberra and Sydney. The tour was instigated back in September 1999, when Tibetan Buddhist monk and teacher, Geshe Sonam Thargye, issued a personal invitation to His Holiness to visit Australia. The visit was planned and organised by a group of Australian Buddhists - the Dalai Lama in Australia Ltd. - during the two-and-a-half years that followed His Holiness' initial acceptance of that invitation.

His Holiness first visited Australia in 1982, when he gave teachings in Melbourne and Perth. He again visited Perth and Melbourne for public talks in 1992, participating in events such as a Mind Science Symposium in Perth and the establishment of a Peace Garden in Melbourne's Exhibition Gardens. In 1996, His Holiness made a sixteen-day visit, where his main activity was a Kalachakra initiation and teaching in Sydney, along with public talks in Canberra and Melbourne and a Pan Buddhist event in Sunshine.

Regarded by many as an incarnation of Chenrezig, the Dalai Lama is the head of state and spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. He received the Nobel Peace Prize for his peaceful struggle for the liberation of Tibet in 1989. While the formal head of the Gelugpas is actually the Ganden Tripa, the abbot of Ganden monastery, it is His Holiness Dalai Lama who is the best-known figure in the Gelugpa order. The first Dalai Lama, Gendun Drub (1391-1475), was one of the three great disciples of Tsongkapa, the founder of the Gaden monastery near Lhasa and the instigator of the Gelugpa order. It was the third incarnation of His Holiness, Sonam Gyatso (1543-1588), who was the first to take the title of Dalai Lama, a title given to him by the Mongol chieftain Altan Khan meaning 'Ocean of Wisdom.' It was not until the fifth incarnation, Ngawang Losang Gyatso (1617-1682) however, that the Dalai Lama's achieved their current position of authority. The 'Great Fifth' was installed in the palace of Shigatse as the temporal and spiritual leader of Tibet by the Mongol overlords of the era and has retained that position in Tibet - and the hearts and minds of the Tibetan people - ever since that time.

This issue of Ordinary Mind features reviews of His Holiness' teachings in Australia, along with interviews with the principle organisers of the tour. There are reviews of His Holiness' public talks, his lecture series on Atisha's Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment in Melbourne, the White Tara initiation in Geelong, the Mind and Science forum in Canberra and the teaching on the Four Noble Truths in Sydney. There are also interviews with Geshe Sonam Thargye (the initiator of His Holiness' visit), Dr Thubten Jinpa, (His Holiness' translator), Dr Allan Molloy, (Chairman of His Holiness in Australia Ltd.), Dr John Powers (organiser of the Canberra forum) and Jack Heath (organiser of the Sydney events). Our regular features include a forum on the Buddhist concept of selflessness, Straight Talk interviews on religious fundamentalism, a book review of Paul Williams' Indian Philosophy and the usual book reviews by local Buddhist readers.

Ordinary Mind wishes to celebrate His Holiness Dalai Lama's extraordinary personal presence in Australia, his erudite presentations of the Buddhist teachings and his universal message of peaceful and non-violent resolution to the worlds enduring problems.