By BETSY ARIZU

You’ve probably heard our teacher Fred tell this extraordinary story before.  Here it is as written in the Ph.D. dissertation of medical anthropologist, Sara Lewis, Spacious Minds, Empty Selves: Coping and Resilience in the Tibetan Exile Community (p.2).

In 1959, a Tibetan monk named Palden Gyatso was imprisoned

at the outset of the Chinese occupation of Tibet. Upon his release 33 years later, Gyatso said that his greatest fear during his captivity was not torture or death, but that he might lose compassion for his torturers. Gyatso’s story and others like it are often recounted by Tibetan refugees as examples of how this community has remained resilient in the face of collective trauma. These sentiments raise important questions about suffering, resilience, and the role of cultural beliefs and practices in the study of political violence.

In her dissertation Lewis describes the extensive interviews she conducted with Tibetan refugees in Dharmsala, India. Most intriguing was that she found none of the symptomatology of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) that one might expect given the events of displacement, incarceration, and torture. She noticed that her interviewees downplayed their personal experiences. They often spoke about impermanence and were well accepting of the fact that suffering is part of living life. Encountering such resilience, open mindedness and compassion in the Tibetan refugees Lewis concluded that the Buddhist "view" was influencing the way people responded to traumatic events. 

In a recent talk Fred shared with us how his observations when he visited and lived in Tibetan refugee camps decades ago were confirmed by what Lewis found in her field work.  He did not see the bitter, raging refugees that he had seen in other parts of the world.  He saw among the Tibetans compassionate, equanimous, healthy minded people making efforts to rebuild their communities and way of life. They did not see themselves as victims: they were seeing the "big picture in life."

So what is the big picture?  What is the big picture view taught by the Buddha that allows for great resiliency even under adverse conditions?  Fred emphasized four aspects of the Buddhist View:

• Impermanence - Things change. When we really get this, we are not shocked or thrown off base when things happen that we don't like or expect.
• Suffering – Accepting that there is suffering in life. That is reality, even though within our American culture, we might feel entitled to a perfect life, free of suffering.
• Cause and Effect (karma) – Whatever happens isn’t personal. It’s due to complex causes and conditions.
• Emptiness - We are not solid, separate entities. We don’t necessarily need to have a profound meditative experience of emptiness to understand and live with the freedom that this understanding implies.

For more on the big picture from Fred and Sara Lewis’ work: 

Fred’s talk: Trauma, Resilience and the Buddha's Path of Understanding and Compassion  

Sara Lewis’ book (available on Amazon and other places), Spacious Minds: Trauma and Resilience in Tibetan Buddhism (2019).

Betsy Arizu has been practicing the Dharma since becoming a student of Fred and a member of FCM in 2011. She is an artist and former high school teacher and counselor.