Letters to the Editor
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missing the boat
"with all due apologies for my Western bias -- this is horseshit."
No, your interpretation of Buddhism following a Western idea of morality and ethics is bullshit. It's paper thin, it's taking the finger pointing at the moon for being the moon, etc, etc.
Sophomoric, immature and out of your league.
Not that I care to defend the Dali Lama, I could care less. It's the arrogance of the western ideal of judeo-christian ethics being taken as some supreme 'truth'.
Oh, Salon isn't worth this, it's just more noise, I'm noise, this article is noise, this world is noise.
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So Louis
Given that you're calling for war, where is your army? You criticize but you don't offer much in the way of alternatives. As you would put it: With all due respect.
I'd love to see things move and things change. I support those protesters. I want something done about the killings. I don't see that you are any better than the Dalai Lama, though, if there isn't a way to do it. Didn't you see how fast the Chinese moved the Te Jing people in?
If you have a plan, let us know, we might support it. But don't be too quick to offer someone else's head to the truncheon. And take note: since people began waving their flags at the Chinese embassy last week, calls have grown among world leaders and press for that investigation the Dalai Lama wants.
It's more than you've done, cynic.
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Not seduced by the Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama
For an alternative view of the Dalai Lama, see:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8426
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"What a burden to place on a child: to be a god."
The Dalai Lama is a buddha, not a god, I think.
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It's not the first time.
It's not the first time that a religious leader has faced an occupation by an imperial army.
Jesus lived under a brutal Roman occupation, and the best he could come up with was "turn the other cheek," even as the occupying power killed him. The gospels and the rest of the New Testament contain scarcely a word of criticism of Rome.
But really, what do we want from our spiritual beings? What we want is spiritual transcendence, a window into an ideal world, an idea that the defective material world is not all there is.
In other words we want them to articulate an inspirational vision of an alternative world in which love and forgiveness prevail, something very different from the world in which we live.
The Dalai Lama has been forced to assume the role of "politician." In that role he is a fish out of water. It's a role forced him by circumstances, but it's a role that doesn't play to his strengths. I say we cut him some slack.
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Actually John
He's a bodhisattva. Avalokitashvara to be exact.
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God forbid
that a global icon of goodness would be in charge of anything.
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ondelette
thanks.
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pacifism
"Would he have dared offer this counsel to the 1 million Tibetans who were directly or indirectly killed by invading Chinese?" He did, and continues to do so.
If you die in combat, or if you die peacefully resisting, aren't you just as dead? Why do we value dying in an attempt to wage war over dying in an attempt to wage peace?
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Express your feelings on the web-Viral marketing can help Tibet!
Webmasters, bloggers, blog posters and BBS posters, please use the following code on your website, blogs, and posts, substituting 'v' brackets for "L" brackets. [a href="http://www.freetibet.org/"] "I support the Tibetan people in their struggle for religious freedom and human rights [/A]
Viral marketing for Tibetan rights can help! Let China and the world hear your voice-The Chinese government knows that if enough people get upset enough, it can affect their Olympics and their trade.
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Angle-seek requires roadside assistance
Looks like you were searching for that counter-intuitive angle in writing about the Dalai Lama and tried this piece as an accomodation when you couldn't find a good one.
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Troubles with it all
I stumbled on a vigil being held for Tibet yesterday in Harvard Square. As I looked at the people, I suddenly realized they were all Tibetan, and singing, I think, Tibetan hymns. There was no media there--odd, to me. Whenever I was involved in that kind of thing, that was very important. I was this white guy, standing on the periphery, and wound up really moved.
I'm glad you're writing this. Similar questions dawned on me as I read up on the situation afterwards. Wasn't MLK's non-violence about achieving definite ends? But I wish you could have moved beyond your critical pose, and told me about the alternates in Tibet, the missed opportunities, the different paths.
I'm in the habit of reading a lot of news online. It makes me want answers very badly, but rarely gives them to me. I think I ought to read other stuff. Any ideas?
I know it annoys grizzled older types, but I'm the classic helpless liberal. I've never figured out what to do with my bedraggled good impulses, and watch something like this, far away but suddenly real to me, at a loss.
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lose footing ?
Louis,
Someday you may see using your judeo-christian glasses the vision Mr Iyer was attempting to paint.
While it's possible Iyer missed the mark, that is no reason to paint over it using the tire tracks of a tank for your brush.
Even if it is the contemporary spirit of our days, what works for you should best be kept to yourself.
And not inflicted on the rest of us; leaving the emptiness of your words for us wade through. While wondering in that journey about Mr Iyer's too.
I hope you manage to find a deeper voice before you exit the stage in the dark.
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Like, Om, Man
"Hell, the Dalai Lama has forgiven China, so why shouldn't we?"
Haven't we? Is there any meaningful American or global censure against China? Isn't the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, of all places? Have YOU demanded that your elected representatives do everything in their power to 'stick it' to China? It's business as usual with this tyrannical superpower as far as I am aware.
"Would he have dared offer this counsel to the 1 million Tibetans who were directly or indirectly killed by invading Chinese? ... Tibetan parents who were forced to applaud while their children were executed? Would they be expected to believe their sufferings were merely illusory and passing?"
If they ask him, yes he does dare, and most are glad to hear what he has to say. The belief that their sufferings are illusory and passing in no way exculpates the perpetrators of violence. It requires learning, study, devotion, and yes, faith to understand these two seemingly contradictory tenets.
"If what the Dalai Lama professes is truly Buddhism"
Do you believe there's something about Buddhism you can teach the Dalai Lama? He would probably say yes, there is something you can teach him about Buddhism, while you decry him and imply there is nothing about Buddhism he can teach YOU. Hmmmm...