An indefinable quality
A talk with the Ven. Thubten Wangchen at the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates Barcelona 2015
The first time I met the Venerable Thubten Wangchen I thought: “he has charisma”.
His face and smile were able to draw the attention of me and people around him. I was sure: his message for us -students looking for a way to make the world a better place where to live- would be a message of peace.
“Nowadays people confuse inner happiness with material goods. They forget the importance of human relationships: family, society, protection of environment.”
The Ven. Wangchen was born in Tibet and at the age of sixteen he decided to enter a monastery for more in-depth study of Buddhist philosophy.
The Buddhist doctrine is his language: his aim is to spread meditation for a better daily life.
But those who talk to him may think he does not have a realistic idea of the concrete world, because of his words which mainly encourage balance and harmony. His world is so distant from Europe. That’s what I wrongly thought, until he told me about his efforts in the actualization of the Buddhist principles, beginning with Barcelona, where he founded The Tibet House.
According to his project, the world is in the hands of the youth who has to learn how to use technology properly to implement dialogue and to destroy walls of indifference and religious prejudices.
People need to involve others to pay attention to what happens on the other side of the world, regardless of whether it is good or bad because they cannot use indifference.
The secret is only one: meditation, meditation, meditation.
And it is not important if you believe in God, Buddha, Allah. What you need is to internalize the human messages of these religions or simply discover the beauty of what surrounds us. This goal may be achieved through education, meditation and taking care of the others.
After we talked about the political and social situation in Europe and China, Ven. Wangchen said goodbye and he wished me good luck with an intense handshake.
At that moment a thought woke me: he is right, the owners of the future are those who are brave enough to believe in it.
