"Western world is glittering in Samara. The major problems for the westerners is the rampant attachment as people are born with Karmic ransack and imprint of delusion and attachment. But here in Bhutan your fourth king is the living Buddha or Bodhisattva" said the Director of World Forum for Happiness based in Australia Mrs. Renate Ogilvie. This was one of the subjects she spoke during the monthly series talk organized here in RIM this afternoon.
She spoke on the both postitive and negative impacts of westernization. she said the positive part of the westernization are enormous advancement in education, science and technology. She said besides these, it also helped to end poverty in many underdeveloped countries. She then said that the main drawback of westernization was the degradation of our planet. She said " We are particularly wasteful for the future generation".
Mrs. Renate said that Bhutan has one of the most beautiful policies in protecting the environment. But Bhutan being the part of the global climate, cannot escape from the impacts of Global Climate Change. It is already visible as most of our glaciers in the mountains are melting and moraines are drying. Water will be the major problem in Bhutan in future. she said that we fell this impact because Bhutan is receiving end of the global warming.
On democracy, Mrs. Renate warned Bhutan to be more careful. She said Corruption is the main cause of failure of democracy in Bhutan. And today, Bhutan is bordered by two giants of the world, China and India which are both challenged by corruption. In the west, Bhutan is bordered by a failed democracy, Nepal. She said that therefore, democracy needs a vibrant support and everyone should make an effort o create a vibrant support. She said that "Democracy will neither thrive nor die in presence of corruption". The only way to curb corruption is to develop pride in our integrity. "It is the question of personal pride in to prevent corruption".
She also talked on the issue of Bhutanese trying to go states. She said visiting these places are very good for the Bhutanese as many things can be learnt from them. She said that exposure from them will help in the development of the country. However, she said that we should limit ourselves. She said but never try to settle there but come back to Bhutan citing her own example as how she felt and regretted for leaving her country Germany and staying in Australia and UK inspite of all the good support she has and comfort she is getting in these country.
Besides the above issues, she also talked on other issues such as drugs and safe sex. Many participants raised questions on how Buddhism can be applied in the daily life. The participants also raised questions on how can Buddhism can help in management and developing management.
The series talk was organized by RIM. Over 200 participants including the the Secretary of Finance Ministry, Ministry of Labour and Human Resources and senior government officials, RIM Faculty members and the trainees of RIM attended the talk.
About the Speaker (Renate Ogilvie M.A.
She was born in Germany and graduated as psychotherapist.
Currently she is the Director of World Happiness Forum.
She holds a Masters Degrees of Frankfurt University and Antioch University , London and studied Western Philosophy at Birkbeck college London.
She was the founding director of Shakyamuni Buddha Hospice Sydney
She also served on the International Board of Directors of FPMT Inc. (Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition) www.fptmt.org
Following a request by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, she has been teaching Tibetan Buddhism at Vajrayana Institute www.vajrayana.com.au
She has appeared on radio and TV and has been a regular speaker and panelist at various international conferences.
She also works in Sydney and the Blue Mountains as psychotherapist in private practice.
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