Talk by Ven. Karma Lekshe Tsomo

Lulu went to a dharma talk by Ven. Karma Lekshe Tsomo. It was her first time attending an English dharma talk. The topic is on "Living and dying in Buddhist cultures'. Karma Lekshe Tsomo used to be the president of Sakyadhita and is also an associate professor in University of Sandiago. Her interests and publications can be found here.

Some slides from her talk. She started off with a brief intro on 'death' as a taboo in different cultures, then proceeded to brief intro on Buddha's life and how Buddha himself showed exemplary by also 'dying'. Thereafter, she continued with death cultures in different Buddhist communities and then how death can be meditated on.
Last part of her talk discussed around the issue of medical ethics. It was very interesting for Lulu because these have always been her queries. What are Buddhist's perspectives on these? The way she brought out each issue will lead you into pondering. On answering a question raised on 'what is the guidance' for Buddhists, she explained that there is no clear specific guidelines from the Buddha as during his time these technology were not available. We only have some broad guidelines that may serve as fundamentals of our decision making. And we need to go deeper into the sutra to seek for hints on what is right or wrong.

Ven. Karma Lekshe Tsomo answering questions from the floor