10th January, 2008: The Gyalwang Karmapa visited Alice Project Universal Education School (www.aliceproject.info) situated close to the Vajra Vidya Institute Saranath, where His Holiness is currently residing. The founder and director of the school, Mr. Valentino Giacomin, requested His Holiness to consecrate the New Tara Temple and ten Juniper seeds from Nenang Monastery, Tibet.
The Gyalwang Karmapa’s Address to Students at the Alice Project Universal Education School
“This is my third visit to this school, and I am very happy to be welcomed by all of you students and teachers. I am very happy that you have built this temple where people of all different religions can come and pray to their own god. I am someone who practices Dharma, and I think that it is extremely fortunate to have such a good fortune.
“I think this period that you are young is very important. You have a wonderful opportunity that you might not ever get again. Using this time when you are young to develop good intentions for yourself and to think about peace and happiness in this world will make your human life into something necessary and desirable. If you develop a good heart now, such thoughts will accompany you throughout your whole life, and you will naturally help to bring about world peace.
“There are two main things that make us improve our human lives. One is to improve our lives because we are afraid of something terrible, and the other is to improve ourselves because we see that it will help us. These days it is like these two things are competing with each other. The world is now in a technological age, and this brings huge changes to the world. When we look at the news, we can clearly see how this brings a lot of violence and suffering to people. This can be terrifying. At the same time, the world has had a lot of economic development, but our minds become fixated upon money, and we pointlessly lose our happiness and independence. So it is very important to see the benefits of developing mental peace and happiness and of getting an education, and then because of that to improve ourselves.
“I have a hope and prayer in my heart that all of you in this school will study well, and that you all will help each other in your studies and in becoming good people. I hope that you all experience such good fortune. I also pray that you have good health while you are studying, and that each of you will be protected by the god in whom you have faith.
“I am very happy that whenever I come to Saranath, I can visit this school and meet so many students. This is because we are about the same age, and we all have modern ways of thinking. We speak different languages and come from different countries, so when we look at each other it might seem like we are far apart, but I hope that we can see how we are the same in our age and in having modern ways of thinking. That is why I pray that for my part, I will always be able to support you and have affection for you.”
