Seeking nirvana at BCC: Asceticism, denial, death enliven vocational studies
When they're not in his class on the history and culture of Tibet, Nawang Dorjee's students are studying computer programming, business fundamentals and other skills they hope will land them lucrative jobs in a hyper-competitive market.
So when he tells them to mimic Tibetan Buddhists and think about death when they wake up in the morning and before they go to bed at night, they sit in stunned, awkward silence.
"Quite a culture I come from, eh?" he quipped during a recent class, a slow wave of laughter washing over the room.
Dorjee, who is Bellevue Community College's first visiting scholar-in-residence, is sharing with the students a culture and history exotic to them but also a state of consciousness — an ascetic denial of worldly possessions, pleasures and attachments.
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"People are hungering for more and looking for more than the immediate hit of getting rich. They're looking for the meaning and values that ought to underpin everything," center director Diane Douglas said.
The center's goals fit perfectly with Dorjee's, for whom the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom is intertwined. "In our culture, you learn something to better yourself as a person. You need to go beyond cognitive flexibility, to wisdom," he said.
Dorjee is the director of Tibetan Children's Villages, a group of 19 schools for exiled Tibetan children, based in Dharamsala, India. A generation of Tibetans was exiled to India, Nepal and other neighboring countries after the Chinese government invaded in 1950 and then repressed a rebellion in 1959, when Dorjee was 4 years old. (The Dalai Lama, the political and religious leader of the Tibetans, also is based in India.)
The Tibetan struggle is what drew Heather Feysa to the class. A few years back she won a trip to a Tibetan-freedom concert in Washington, D.C., headlined by the Beastie Boys, and from there took up the Tibetan cause. "I was disgusted that I never learned anything in high school or from the media" about Tibet or its subjugation, she said.
When the subject of his country's liberation arises, Dorjee's eyes betray his optimism.
"We still cherish our hope that something positive will happen out of this tragedy. Our biggest weapon is that we have the truth on our side," he said. The world's leading regional powers must stop being so cautious in the face of the Chinese regime, he said.
The promise of nirvana — rather than political activism — motivates many of the students, however. Meg Paulsen is a practicing Buddhist. The class is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, she said.
In his lecture — which he describes as a reverse Socratic method, with students asking him questions — Dorjee patiently explains the rudiments of Tibetan Buddhism in a witty banter.
"When a child is born, of course it is a happy occasion. But we do not celebrate birthdays because every birth is a rebirth, which is due to the delusions and afflictions of life. The purpose is to get out of this cycle, to escape another life of toil," he said of reincarnation.
That's why death is such an important rite of passage for Buddhists, and why they think about it so much, he said. For the students, living in a Judeo-Christian culture that sanctifies life, this may seem foreign and hard to accept, but Dorjee explains its benefits. "It gives you a sense of freedom. So your sandwich is not properly mayonnaised? When you contemplate death, you see the mayonnaising is not so important," he said to laughter.
One student said she remembers her past lives. "I don't want to sound crazy, though," she confessed.
"In this, we're allowed to sound crazy," Dorjee said to more laughter.
Most people cannot remember their past lives because, "Our minds are so cluttered and conditioned that it is deadened. Understand your greed and jealousy and transcend them," he advised.
After a question about purification of the mind, Dorjee described the average human predicament. "Your mind just goes and goes in its own directions, so you must find balance, mindfulness. Now, what was I talking about?"
Readers interested in taking a class with Dorjee can contact the admissions office of Bellevue Community College at 425-564-2222, or admissions@bcc.ctc.edu. The next academic quarter begins Jan. 6.
J. Patrick Coolican: 206-464-3315 or jcoolican@seattletimes.com.