Letters to the Editor
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Dalai Shmalai
This man makes me angry.
He represents an old and exploitive theocracy which lived off of the poorest, dominated them, and exploited the belief system of a relatively primitive people. That the poor ad ignorant did not rebel (as far as the rest of us know) is not of relevance
Supported by romantics, new agers, and rich meat eaters who fall in love with con men, India's Wisdom, Feng Shiu, and ancient religious figures (religious is not an opprobium, by the way) the DL has flourished while the poor of Tibet have had a rising standard of living.
One man's romanticism is often another man's pain.
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re: the 'Japanese Zen-fascism'
ondelette,
What about Soto Zen master Harada Daiun Sogaku (1870-1961), who called for ten years of "fascist politics" in Japan while maintaining that "the Japanese people are a chosen people whose mission is to control the world," and "it is necessary for all one hundred million subjects (of the emperor) to be prepared to die with honour."
He also said: " [If ordered to] march: tramp, tramp, or shoot: bang, bang. This is the manifestation of the highest Wisdom [of enlightenment]. The unity of Zen and war of which I speak extends to the farthest reaches of the holy war [now under way]."
The better-known Yasutani Roshi (interviews with whom are featured in the book Three Pillars of Zen by Philip Kapleau), disciple of Harada, has been referred to as "no less a militarist and anti-communist than his master."
Read Zen at War for the gory details!
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let the truth be told about Tibet
I am Chinese and I am condemning any attempt by any western bias to deny the very fact that Tibet has always been and is an integral part of China. Go take a look at Wikipedia and pick up a little history if your obesseion with Tibet falls short of any objective understanding of the facts. Below is an excerpt:
Quote
While the ancient Sino-Tibetan relationships are complex, there can be no question regarding the subordination of Tibet to Manchu-ruled China following the chaotic era of the 6th and 7th Dalai Lamas in the first decades of the 18th century.[33] In 1751, the Manchu (Qing) Emperor Qianlong established the Dalai Lama as both the spiritual leader and political leader of Tibet who lead a government (Kashag) with four Kalöns in it.[34]
End of quote
Many Western powers have always descended onto Tibet for their territorial ambition such as Great Britain by way of India and Tsarist Russia from the north. The intricate and geographical relationship between China and Tibet have grown inseparable over the last millenium and this is an indisputable fact. Only those, including the author of this article, who out of a misplaced and misguided "sympathy" for the Tibetans and their outsized reverence towards the current Dalai Lama, are erroneously seeing China as the occupier. Your disdain of China will not alter the fact that Tibet is a part of China. The current Dalai Lama, in all due respect, has done a good hell of public relation work in keeping the issue on world stage while the media are happy to go along.
To provoke any further secessionist sentiments among the restless Tibetans will not only exacerbate the tension between the two peoples but will also jeopardise the livelihood of millions of Tibetans and Chinese in the regions. The bottomline is that China is a unified country composed of five major ethnic groups---the Han, Manchu, Mongols, Muslims and Tibetans after the overthrow of the Manchu Dynasty in 1911 and a republic was established. This is a fact no nation on earth has denied.