Universal Responsibility and the Climate Crisis with
Venerable Geshe Lhakdor
“It’s quite right that students and today’s younger generation should have serious concerns about the climate crisis and its effect on the environment. They are being very realistic about the future. They see we need to listen to scientists. We should encourage them.”
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
The ecological crisis depleting our soil, water, forests and quality of life has many complex causes such as technological innovations, economic policy, political laws, disregard of the consequences of our actions for future generations, and unchecked human greed and materialism.
With his experience facilitating the Science for Monks program and his own expertise as a scholar of science and philosophy, the wonderful Geshe Lhakdor elaborates on the Buddhist concept of universal responsibility, how it relates to the climate crisis, and how these teachings will help us and the world to flourish.
Short Videos
Short video: Geshe Lhakdor, Director of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala, India, talks about reasons why studying Buddhism is so beneficial.
Short video: Geshe Lhakdor looks at what the difference is between knowledge and wisdom in the Buddhist context.
Short video: Geshe Lhakdor talks about the best things to start off with, when we begin to study Buddhism.
Recording
About the Teacher
Geshe Lhakdor, the director of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala, is renowned not only for his knowledge and warmth, but also for his very practical and humorous teaching style.
Geshe Lhakdor was born in Yakra, Western Tibet in 1956 and left Tibet in 1962 following the communist Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959. Geshe received his novice monk ordination in 1964, attended the Central School for Tibetans, in Dalhousie, India from 1972 to 1976 and studied specialized Buddhist Philosophy in the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala, India until 1986.
From December, 1986 to May, 1989 he served as translator and research assistant in Tibet House, the Cultural Centre of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in New Delhi. In August 1989, Geshe joined the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama where he has served as Religious Assistant and Translator and has accompanied His Holiness the Dalai Lama to over thirty countries in the Americas, Europe, Australia, Africa and Asia.
Beside the Master of Prajnaparamita in 1982, he also received the Master of Madhyamika in 1989 and the Master of Philosophy (MPhil) from the University of Delhi. In 1995 he received the Geshe Degree from Drepung Loseling Monastic University in South India. In 2008, he was also conferred Honorary Professorship by the University of Delhi, Department of Psychology.
Since 2005 he has been the director of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala, after serving as His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s official translator for 16 years (still occasionally travels with H.H. as translator).
Geshe Lhakdor has also co-translated and co-produced several books by His Holiness, including The Way to Freedom, The Joy of Living and Dying in Peace, Awakening the Mind and Lightening the Heart, and Stages of Meditation, among others.
Geshe Lhakdor is a trustee of the Foundation for Universal Responsibility, established by His Holiness, Director of the Central Archive of His Holiness, a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Tibetan Classics in Montreal, Canada, and Honorary Professor at the University of British Columbia, Canada.
