Phelgye offers diverse thoughts

When Venerable Geshe Thupten Phelgye and his family made the two-year journey from his birthplace in Tibet to India, Phelgye never considered that he would later teach at a Jesuit university.

Phelgye was born in Tibet in 1956. When Phelgye was 3 years old, his family moved to India. He has been working as a representative of the Gelug tradition in the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile for 10 years.

In 2003, he helped pass a bill that encourages Tibetans to become vegetarians. Now, Phelgye is teaching Buddhist meditation classes at Gonzaga as a Global Scholar in Residence for the 2011-2012 school year, due to efforts by Dr. John Sheveland, associate professor in  the religious studies department.

Due to the experience in his childhood, Phelgye said he once felt much anger and hatred toward the Chinese government. He attended school in India and was planning to join the Indian military, but after he heard a speech from the Dalai Lama, he changed his mind and decided to join a monastery.

"From there on, because of Buddhist practice — meditation — we learned kindness, compassion, forgiveness. It did take some time to completely get there, but I'm happy now ... it has almost been 30 years, I'm not angry with Chinese at all. That is the peace [that comes] from Buddhism," Phelgye said.

"The Dalai Lama is everything for Tibetans. In Buddhism, you don't believe in almighty God. He is almost like almighty God for us," Phelgye said.

Phelgye founded the Universal Compassion Movement, an organization designed to encourage people to be vegetarian and be aware of the suffering of sentient beings. 

"Animals are eaten, they have no voice. So my Universal Compassion [is that] compassion should [be] universal to all sentient beings, not just man," Phelgye said.

It was difficult to execute this idea because most people eat meat. Even the Dalai Lama eats meat. Yet, Phelgye never gave up. When he got his chance to talk to the Dalai Lama, he asked him for help. The Dalai Lama was happy with what he was doing and agreed to help him. Since then, the Dalai Lama has tried to speak more about being a vegetarian.

A few years ago, the first diversity committee, which aims to present different voices on campus, was created by the president of Gonzaga. One of the proposals this committee considered was a visiting scholars program, and Phelgye was invited as a Global Scholar in Residence, the first of what is hoped will be more in the coming years, according to Sheveland.

Phelgye is currently offering free meditation classes every Tuesday in Schoenberg. In addition to this, he teaches Buddhist philosophy and leads students to meditate for compassion.

"Meditation is a key thing according to Buddhism. It is like mind [that] is the key thing, so trying to transform your mind so that you will be wiser, more kind. To train your mind is the key thing, therefore meditation," Phelgye said.

Phelgye lives in the Twohy apartments now. This allows him to be available to students, not only in the classroom, but also in the residence halls.

"This works out very nicely with the philosophy of residence life here on campus. People want these residence halls to be living-learning communities, not just [the] sort of the place where students eat and sleep, but that residence halls are places where students can learn too," Sheveland said.

Currently, Phelgye is co-teaching a course with Sheveland. They are offering a course called Religions of Asia. Next semester, they will team-teach a course called Buddhism. Sheveland said he considers him to be a warm-hearted, gentle and compassionate person.

"One of the interesting culture lessons that I've learned is that sometimes here in the West we can be very chatty. We can talk too much almost. For him, part of his Buddhist practice and part of his cultural reality is that he does a lot more listening than talking. That's a very wise thing to do," Sheveland said. "Sometimes, he and I will have conversations that do take some time because he listens to me a lot, and sometimes I just blabber."

Phelgye said he came to Gonzaga because Catholicism is a very strong religion. He has visited some Catholic churches in Montana and felt welcomed by the people there. Being a Buddhist in a Catholic school was a significant decision for Phelgye, and he accepted the challenge.

"[Gonzaga faculty and students] are really good. It is a big step, I guess. I enjoy it," Phelgye said.

"[Phelgye] talks about Buddhist philosophy, and then there is meditation. I found it to be useful, a benefit for applying to everyday living," said Lori Lindman, Phelgye's personal assistant and member of UCM.

"I like Gonzaga. Faculty, staff and students are so welcoming, really good. I'm happy because, as I said, this is a Catholic university. I see such goodness. It is good thing," Phelgye said.