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To
be able to walk through a busy shopping centre wearing maroon and
yellow Buddhist robes takes a bit of nerve.
"Some
people come up to me and say 'Oh you're a Buddhist monk' and they're
nice to me - some people laugh and some people just stand there
with their mouths open", said Palgye Kelsang - the resident
Buddhist teacher at the Thekchen Centre in Southampton.
Five
years ago Palgye lived an unremarkable life in Basingstoke
- living,
working and
trying to find fulfilment in all the usual everyday distractions.
"I
was very dissatisfied with my life" he said. "I had the
house, the car, the job and the money - in fact everything that
is supposed to make you successful and to have a good life.
"But
I just found the more of this that I had the more I found it wasn't
fulfilling. So I started turning inwards and asking myself what
I really wanted from life."
Pelgye
began his search for happiness in the self help section of his local
bookshop, and found Buddha's message cropping up again and again.
"I
realised that everything I experience in life is dependent on my mind
- all my happiness and all my problems are dependent on my mind -
which is basically what Buddha teaches."
Turning
his back on the socially accepted path to happiness, Pelgye began
to concentrate his energies into greater understanding of Buddha's
teachings.
"The
more peaceful your mind the more content you are. I still have a
life - I still mix with people and enjoy things - it's not like
I can't have this or I can't have that - it's just the need isn't
there - and it's nice."
Pelgye
has just become the resident teacher at the Thekchen Buddhist Centre
in Southampton. The centre is a part of the New Kadampa Tradition
(NKT) - a lineage that originates in Nepal, and is led by the Venerable
Geshe Kelsang Gyatso.
"I'm
not trying to learn how to be Indian or to be Tibetan, I'm trying
to learn how to have a peaceful mind", added Palgye.
"As
you gain a deeper understanding of your own mind you also gain deeper
understanding of other peoples' minds. We're not that different
- we all want to be happy."
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