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hummalumma
05-22-2006, 06:07 PM
If you seek happiness, try reducing the suffering of others.

If you feel that you can not do anything to help Tibet, than support someone around you.

The problems facing Tibet and it's future is more than any one person can solve. Right now, our world is faced with so many crises. Even Richard Gere who is a huge proponent of Tibet is championing other causes.

There is a new railway that goes into Tibet and many mining companies setting up there.

As it stands, the youth are succumbing to cheap alcohol and cigarettes.

The Tibetan youth need to speak Chinese if they are to work or get an education. They are losing their heritage and culture slowly but surely.
In Lhasa, their capital, the Han Chinese outnumber the indigenous Tibetans, 8 to 1.

IT IS CULTURAL GENOCIDE.

However, on the scale of human atrocities around the world right now, it is lower on the totem pole. The UN has found it difficult to support a land of Buddhists. They don't know what to do. All they know about is conflict when both sides are armed. In the history of civilization, only 10% of it was spent not fighting...and Tibet was the only nation to not fight at all.

It is not about hating the chinese as a people. It is about a handful of snapperheads that enforce a certain regiment, an authoritarian, fascist rule that seems so archaic but it is about enormous, bombastic power. The chinese government is a brute. A bully. Maybe one day someone will take on the bully. It will take a person of economic power and great conviction. One who understands the word 'compassion' and 'empathy'.

It may happen after the Dalai Lama dies, when people realize that it is too late and a great leader has been lost. When people realize that they have taken this gentle man among them for granted. That all he ever wanted was peace for all, not just for his people. Tibet will become a symbol of what could have been and not what it should have been. Maybe people will one day realize that the PRC are cruel and that humanity is more important than economics.

enree erzweglle
05-23-2006, 06:04 AM
Welcome back! I am glad to see you here--it's nice to read your words again.

drizl
06-21-2006, 08:53 AM
good thoughts...the situation in tibet is so sad. tibet truly had one of the most peaceful and beautiful cultures. of course it wasnt perfect, but it a culture which valued wisdom and meditation, peacefulness and compassion. it is really unfair and unfortunate what has happened. the chinese have tried to destroy the people and their entire culture so that they can exploit their land and use it for no good reason. i pray that some day these people will be free. that the chinese and tibetans can live side by side and that tibetan buddhism will be allowed to re-emerge in tibet and that they will have sovereign rule of their own destinies.

enree erzweglle
06-21-2006, 09:46 AM
Not to underestimate the impact of the rest of the opening post, but its first line ("If you seek happiness, try reducing the suffering of others.") resonates with me. When I volunteer, some people ask why I do it and when they say those things, I realize that they don't do [much of] that sort of work or they'd have their answer.

drizl
06-21-2006, 10:03 AM
i need to volunteer again, its been so long. i used to study tibetan buddhism, and run around all shiny and happy, handing out fliers i had made about the situation in tibet, about leonard peltier, and mumia. i was so energetic back then, and yes, maybe a little high on myself because i was fresh out of highschool in college and had a cause. but when i look back at it, i was at peace. i was all about spreadin the love. i guess thats what i am trying to do now, to get back on track...
i read all the dalai lama books i could get my hands on a few years back...and they all resonated deeply with me, as they really should for anyone. they make perfect sense.
the idea that we can find happiness by reducing the suffering of others is a powerful one. sometimes i feel so bound up in myself, and my own life that i have to come back and realise that this is a huge beautiful amazing planet, in a mind blowing universe, full of life, of possibility and of beautiful things. once beyond my own self i am more able to see other people, to be empathetic and compassionate towards the life and attitudes of others. i need to break the bonds of my own ego and become one with all that is:)