Anand Krishna (an India Indonesian decent cross-belief spiritualist, nationalist, humanist, and a historian) had a meeting with His Holiness Dalai Lama in 1996. When he and his friends said they were from Indonesia, Dalai Lama immediately reacted that Tibet had very strong relations, strong ties to Indonesia. Dalai Lama then mentioned Dharmakirti
Dharmakirti was master from Sriwijaya, perhaps prince from the Sriwijayan Empire, who had chosen to be a monk.There was a monk from India, Atisha, and he went to Indonesia to learn from Indonesia master, he said. Atisha then went to Tibet and then he propagated the knowledge he received from his masters. The meditation he taught is still practiced by Tibetans, called as Tong-Len, means ‘the meditation of terima and kasih, receiving and giving’. In english, terimakasih meaning is thank you. It reflects Indonesian life view, and rooted deep in Indonesian belief. Indonesian believe in the law or gratitude and it has been there since long time ago, a grateful attitude for all we receive from the universe.
In the period of Sriwijaya, 8 centuries ago, Indian pundit visited Sumatera, or known as Svarna Dvipa to learn from Dharmakirti Suvarnadvipi, Dharmakirti of Svarna Dvipa. He learnt for 10 years from Dharmakirti and he recorded every word he heard and every lesson he was taught. No wonder if Tibetan has this record, but unfortunately, Indonesian does not have any.
Tong-Len meditation, later, used by Tibetan doctors. The first part of the meditation is terima or receiving. They imagine the patients’ pain and draw it into themselves. and the second part is they give their energy of well-being, kasih or giving. This technique replaced their herb-based anesthesia. And this occured 8 centuries ago. The beauty of this methode is that the recipient of pain can process pain and transform it into well being. Negative energy can be drawn into oneself, be processed and changed to be positive one. The method is being practiced by western neurologist, as part of transcranial magnetic stimulation therapy, to relieve the suffering of some stroke victims.
A professor at University of Sydney said that he had no clue whats going on by the method, and this phenomenon indicated that there were lots of things that they did not know about in western science. He continued that in 2020, the greatest disabling phenomenon for the health of the human race would be depression. Not cancer, not heart disease, but depression. This drug-free method from Indonesia could replace morphine-based pain killers, that is expensive and can have side effects.
Anand Krishna could never forget when Dalai Lama said “We Tibetans are always thankful to Indonesia and Indonesians, for this beautiful Tong Len teaching.”
Indonesian gratefulness after someone said terima kasih is kembali kasih which means ‘i am equally grateful to you’. Sure it is different than American ‘welcome’ and British ‘never mind’, as Indonesian return ‘gratitude with gratitude’ .
Indonesia was a center of wisdom in the past and did not import spiritual from India as even Indian pundits traveled to Indonesia to learn from indigenous Indonesian masters. Maybe not many people know about this.
Source jakartapost and wikipedia