When he first became a student, Tenzin Gyatso, most commonly known as His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, admits that he was a reluctant one. This admission may be surprising to most of us—to hear that a person with a sincere interest in the depths of not only Buddhist teachings, but also psychology, modern science and neuroscience, the preservation of Tibetan culture, and the proliferation of a system of secular ethics—began as a reluctant student. There is hope for all of us. Of course, to put it in context, the Dalai Lama was merely six years old when his studies began in earnest.

From a child who was mostly interested in play, something shifted for the Dalai Lama as a teenager. He says he developed a genuine interest in study, prayer, and meditation, a genuine interest in studying the texts he was first introduced to as a child, and a genuine interest in developing the analytical mind. His dedication is an inspiration for all of us. It is a dedication that has made a powerful impact on the planet as a whole. His Holiness’ personal persistence offers a luminous example. He is a role model, as he himself offers the humor, laughter, dedication to service and study—and the irrepressible hope that he asks people to share with each other.

This year His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama celebrates his 80th birthday. And he’s been invited to the kind of party that you just might expect for a world leader: A Call for Compassion. This includes a global campaign as well as a Global Compassion Summit that will take place in Orange County in July. In advance of his visit, the spiritual leader of Tibet took some time to speak to a small group of journalists via videoconference during which he spoke about how yoga teachers can cultivate compassion, his meditation and yoga practice, and the three commitments that are the guiding light in his life and actions. During the conversation, he easily and often broke into his famous laughter.

“I usually tell people I have three commitments,” the Dalai Lama said. First and foremost is the promotion of basic human values or secular ethics. It is a topic he speaks on frequently and he is careful to clarify that the use of the term secular is delicate and includes a large dose of respect for all of humanity: believers and nonbelievers, those who identify with religion and those who do not. These ethics include the practices of love, openness, affection, compassion, friendliness, and warm-heartedness. These are values that transcend religious dogma and are integral to the health, well-being, and happiness of everyone on the planet. “In all the major religions,” he said, “the main message is love. In order to seriously practice love, it is also necessary to practice forgiveness and tolerance.” The Dalai Lama is an outspoken advocate for the importance of this simple yet profound practices of compassion, love, friendliness, forgiveness, and tolerance; they benefit humanity collectively and they benefit us as individuals. He warned us that constant anger and fear, the antithesis of these values, may actually diminish the ability of our immune systems to function at peak capacity. With a more compassionate heart and mind, he said, a person’s physical health becomes better and a person’s inner beauty shines forth.

“In all the major religions, the main message is love. In order to seriously practice love, it is also necessary to practice forgiveness with tolerance.”

 

The second of his life’s commitments is the promotion of religious harmony. In his daily life, he emphasizes the importance of tolerance and open-heartedness in every conversation and every speaking engagement.

His third commitment is the preservation of Tibetan culture (including Tibetan Buddhism); he describes this culture as being a culture of peace, nonviolence, and ultimately, a culture of compassion. Part of this has manifested over the past 30 years through the Dalai Lama’s passion for bringing together scientists, psychologists, and Buddhist leaders in serious discussion to advance thought and provide what His Holiness refers to as mutual enrichment and mutual benefit. He refers to the similarities among the Buddhist concepts of emptiness and the revelations of quantum physics.

The anchor for all of the Dalai Lama’s efforts in the world—as well as his ability to be a role model, an example for all of us—is found within the strength, dedication, and consistency of his meditation practice. Since the 1970s, he said, he rises in the morning at 3am to meditate. He described his practice as one that includes prayer and the study of textbooks. He said that his meditation practice includes some analysis that is both internal and external, and a focus on inner peace as well as some time focusing on emptiness. What has his meditation taught him? One lesson he shared with us is that, “destructive emotions are based on wrong perception.” Our projections, our emotions, our grasping, influence how we perceive our experiences and our viewpoint. A great deal of negativity is mental projection, he said.

Meditation is not the Dalai Lama’s only practice. Amidst laughter, he demonstrated for us his daily practice of alternate nostril breathing and other breathing practices, to which he attributed the health of his lungs at the age of 80. He lamented, though, at 80, that his once active physical yoga practice has become more difficult. But the emphasis on breath, which many practitioners believe to be one of the more important parts of yoga, is an essential part of His Holiness’ daily routine. As he said, he practices to, “breathe for a healthy body, and through that, a healthy mind.”

The Dalai Lama shared his view of yoga, “Yoga practice brings, besides physical health, a calm mind. The calm mind is the basis of all spiritual practice if you sincerely practice.”

When I asked him how yoga teachers can cultivate compassion for themselves and their students, his answer was deceptively simple. It embraced a viewpoint that is related to the very definition of the word yoga as union. He asked us to consider ourselves to be a human being, with the same mind, emotions, problems, and potential as the other seven billion human beings. He asked us to think about how to emphasize inner peace, to utilize human intelligence, and to see in our innate compassionate nature, a perspective that comes from fully seeing and realizing our connectivity.

There is some measure of recognizing this connectivity that drives this great teacher’s passion and purpose. It is the cornerstone for his upcoming visit to California. His commitment to compassion is a shining light for all of us. And with it, he is giving us the charge to accompany our actions and intentions in our life #withcompassion.

Felicia M. Tomasko

Felicia Tomasko has spent more of her life practicing Yoga and Ayurveda than not. She first became introduced to the teachings through the writings of the Transcendentalists, through meditation, and using asana to cross-train for her practice of cross-country running. Between beginning her commitment to Yoga and Ayurveda and today, she earned degrees in environmental biology and anthropology and nursing, and certifications in the practice and teaching of yoga, yoga therapy, and Ayurveda while working in fields including cognitive neuroscience and plant biochemistry. Her commitment to writing is at least as long as her commitment to yoga. Working on everything related to the written word from newspapers to magazines to websites to books, Felicia has been writing and editing professionally since college. In order to feel like a teenager again, Felicia has pulled out her running shoes for regular interval sessions throughout Southern California. Since the very first issue of LA YOGA, Felicia has been part of the team and the growth and development of the Bliss Network.

www.blissnetwork.com

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There are few outside of mainland China who know about Tsering Dhondup, the youngest volunteer in the earthquake-hit Tibetan area of Yushu in the Kham-Amdo borderlands in the eastern part of the plateau.

Ten-year-old Tsering saw his house completely flattened by the quake. Since then, he’s been living with his family in a temporary shelter in the local stadium in Jyekundo, the town most affected in the disaster, where 85% of houses like Tsering’s were destroyed. Tsering volunteered to work as a translator for a Chinese medical team who was treating Tibetan survivors. The state-controlled national news channel CCTV, Chinese Central Television, broadcast a report about him that aired on April 17, three days after the quake.

Wearing a baseball cap set backwards on his head and a blue surgical mask, Tsering moves with a jaunty confidence around the emergency medical tent, looking perfectly at home in his new role. He speaks first with an elderly Tibetan woman.

“Where do you hurt?” he asks her in Tibetan, then turns to the Chinese doctor and explains that she has pain in her eye and chest.

He then moves to another bed to translate for a small child. Through the Chinese nurse, Tsering explains the child’s condition and treatment to the mother, who listens to him with rapt attention.

The Chinese nurse explains to the reporter that while the team was setting up the emergency supplies, Tsering had come over and asked them if they were cold. “We said that we weren’t, and then he started helping us to unpack our supplies. Then he came to help us with translation. He’s a really nice kid.” The reporter asks Tsering some questions.

Reporter: It looks like you know all the doctors here.

Tsering: Yes.

Reporter: Do you like them?

Tsering: Yes.

Reporter: Do they like you?

Tsering: Yes.

Rerporter: How do you know they like you?

Tsering: Ummm, when I’m hungry they give me instant noodles, and when I am thirsty they give me mineral water. So I know they must love me.

Reporter: Yes, I like you too. I can see there’s a red ribbon in front of your chest. What does it mean?

Tsering: It means that I’m a volunteer.

Reporter: What does being a volunteer mean to you?

Tsering: Well, it’s like when the elders are saving people who have problems, we kids can’t do much to help with that. So we pick up bits of garbage on the ground of the stadium, and we collect wood so people can boil water.

After the interview, the reporter affectionately pats the boy on the head.

Tsering is then shown handing out bottles of water to Tibetan patients, and performing his tasks as if he’s been doing this for years.

Towards the end of the news segment, the reporter asks Tsering to sing a song. The boy begins to sing a song that is known and loved by Tibetans everywhere. The words were written by the Sixth Dalai Lama 300 years ago when he was being forcibly taken away from his people to China by Mongol soldiers. He died shortly afterwards, and his reincarnation was discovered in the Tibetan region of Lithang in Kham.

“White crane! Lend me your wings
I will not fly far.
From Lithang, I shall return”

At the end of these lines, the young boy bursts into tears. The segment abruptly cuts out with the reporter rather awkwardly trying to comfort him.

With fears that the situation in the earthquake affected area might turn political, Chinese state media spared no time in using Tsering’s natural appeal to put a positive face on the Chinese/Tibetan relationship. He was a guest of honor at CCTV’s earthquake appeal concert that raised 21.75 billion Yuan (well over three billion US dollars). The host asked Tsering why he had cried when he sang the song. With his head down, he answered without a trace of his earlier buoyant innocence. “Because people of the whole nation support us,” he said stiffly. It seems more likely that the song, so culturally familiar, reminded him of what he and his family had lost and the horror of what he had experienced.

However the propagandists might like to spin the story of Tsering Dhondup, there remains at the heart of it all a genuine exchange that is neither essentially Chinese nor Tibetan but simply – human.

The comments beneath the YouTube link reach beyond the jingoistic and vitriolic messages that so often plague postings about Tibet. One of them simply says, “He will become a great person.” Some would say that he already is.

To view the YouTube story, check out the LA YOGA Magazine YouTube channel.

Rebecca Novick is the founding producer of The Tibet Connection radio program, online at: thetibetconnection.org Translation provided by Tenzin Losel.

By Rebecca Novick

Brian Chance

The post The Youngest Hero Of The Yushu Quake appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Dalai Lama & President Obama

After snubbing him during his Washington DC visit last October, President Obama finally met with the Dalai Lama on February 18th this year. Predictably, China’s leaders had warned of damage to Sino-US relations if the administration went ahead with the meeting (while making the rather bizarre claim that by doing so the U.S. side would be violating international rules). But even though the meeting was held in the face of China’s objections, the details were a delicately choreographed display of tiptoe diplomacy – no public appearance with the president, the ultra low-key backdrop of the White House map room, and only one official photographer allowed. The photograph that was released to the press, with the President appearing as if he’s lecturing the spiritual leader sets a markedly different tone compared with the photo of the two men in smiling camaraderie taken when Obama was a mere Senator. Clearly, everything was being done not to press the buttons of China’s leadership any harder than necessary. After the meeting, the Dalai Lama met with the press and was repeatedly asked by one persistent reporter what practical assistance he had been offered. All he could answer was that the president had been “sympathetic” and “supportive”.

Obama encouraged the Dalai Lama to continue his efforts to find a resolution through negotiations. His words came only weeks after the Dalai Lama’s envoys and China’s Communist leaders, in the 9th round of talks between the two parties, failed yet again to find any common ground on which to even begin a meaningful dialogue. Beijing, as usual, used the occasion to reinforce to its citizens a negative view of the Dalai Lama and his proposal of “genuine autonomy” for Tibet as independence in disguise. From the perspective of its international image, the talks also offer China proof that it is engaging with the Tibet issue. By contrast, the Tibetan envoys, unversed in international diplomacy and completely outmatched by the sophistication of China’s politicians, came away with nothing to show for their conciliatory stand. Zhu Weiqun, the executive vice minister of the United Front Work Department, the sector of the Communist Party that oversees these talks, even refused to accept that the Dalai Lama had any right to negotiate on behalf of the Tibetan people.

Dalai Lama & President Obama

“The Chinese government and the government of Tibet Autonomous Region under its leadership are the only representatives of Tibetans,” he said in a statement to media at a press conference after the talks. The private representatives “have no legal status to discuss with us the affairs about Tibet Autonomous Region.”

In such an environment, it’s hard to imagine how any real progress could be made. However, if the Obama administration is serious about wanting the dialogue between the Tibetans and Chinese to achieve any degree of success, then offering to provide an experienced third party mediator to monitor the talks would be a practical gesture of sincerity.

In standing firm on his meeting with the Dalai Lama, President Obama may appear to be standing for human rights. But the absence of any action that could in any way contribute to their improvement suggests that when it comes to Sino-US relations the US administration is as mired in gestures of form without substance as their Beijing counterparts.

The White House statement gave a nod to human rights while reassuring the PRC that the United States views Tibet as an integral part of its territory. Said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, “The president stated his strong support for the preservation of Tibet’s unique religious, cultural and linguistic identity and the protection of human rights for Tibetans in the People’s Republic of China.”

With the Chinese government holding nearly $800 billion of federal U.S. debt, and being a key player in sensitive negotiations with Iran and North Korea, the United States is naturally reluctant, in the words of Elie Wiesel, to ‘speak truth to power’. But the citizens of totalitarian regimes continue to look to America to do just that. During Obama’s first official visit to China in November 2009, one Chinese blogger asked the president’s media staff the following question, comparing China’s Draconian control of the internet to the Berlin Wall: “Will President Obama together with us demolish the firewall that Chinese citizens are suffering under right now? We do hope that when President Obama meets with President Hu Jintao, he will ask would you please close down the firewall, please.”

While even the most idealistic observer would have to concede that Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama was more symbolic of the US’s belief in the idea of freedom rather than a commitment to its realization, for Tibetans inside Tibet it was an altogether different story. In one of the world’s most information-deprived societies, Tibetans there received the news stripped of all political nuance.

The meeting between their beloved leader and the leader of the free world was a cause for celebration and a collective expression of hope that this time some change might come. Under the threatening gaze of a fresh influx of armed personnel, they turned out in their thousands to mark the occasion with prayers, flowers, incense and fireworks.

Their world sits in poignant contrast with the pragmatic and far more cynical world of Realpolitik. The meeting between President Obama and the Dalai Lama was not a game-changing event and it was never intended to be.

But perhaps false hope is better than no hope at all.

Rebecca Novick is the founding producer of The Tibet Connection radio program online at thetibetconnection.org.

This article was originally published in The Huffington Post.

By Rebecca Novick

Brian Chance

The post Spotlight On Tibet: A Tale Of Two Meetings appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

There is a special section where most of the foreigners sit and receive English translation through FM radio, but the reception works anywhere in the vicinity, and I find myself preferring to sit in the Tibetan area with a group of monks, elders and a young Tibetan family with their two-year-old daughter. Around us prayer flags flutter in the mountain breeze and the mountains themselves offer a spectacular backdrop. The lively chatter dies down as the Dalai Lama is spotted emerging from his private residence which is a stone’s throw from the main temple (tsuglakhang) where the teachings take place. Indian police holding ancient-looking rifles snap to attention as he enters the temple.

Exiled Tibetan monks serve tea while their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama delivers teachings to thousands of devotees inside the Tsunglakhang temple complex in the northern I Indian hill town of Dharamsala September 15, 2008

The foreigners look on as the Dalai Lama takes his seat, their face full of admiration and appreciation. But the old Tibetan man next to me, with his texts laid carefully on his lap and his three-foot high prayer wheel turning so naturally in his hand, has a deeper expression – for him and the other Tibetans around me, the Dalai Lama is the axis mundi, the center of their world, around which revolve all their hopes and aspirations both in and beyond this earthly existence. For us, the Dalai Lama is an ambassador for world peace, who preaches religious tolerance and makes us feel united with humanity in a way that we rarely get to feel. But for them he is so much more. The relationship between the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people feels ancient. Genetic. Immeasurable.

By the second day we are deep into the text, Commentary on the Awakening Mind by the second-century Indian master, Nagarjuna, that presents a complex analysis of our experience of inner and outer reality, said to all be ultimately dependent upon our own perception. These teachings have been sponsored by a community of Korean Buddhists, and the English translator occasionally struggles to fit in all the points before the Korean translator has finished. Profound and seriously intellectually demanding, the teachings require undivided concentration even from experienced Buddhist practitioners, and when a small army of monks arrive to distribute buckets of round Tibetan bread and pour sweet tea from giant tin kettles, there is a palpable sense of relief. An exhausted monk has nodded off, and to everyone’s amusement, his friends balance a mug of tea on top of his head.

The Dalai Lama speaks about humility and compassion. How we don’t connect these qualities to our own personal happiness, but think of them instead as just “good qualities.” After breast-feeding her daughter, the young Tibetan mother wraps her in a sweater and places a set of prayer beads on top. The child’s face is a picture of security. By the end of the day, we are all part of her family, catching her when she falls, feeding her, playing with her, monitoring her explorations.

A cold mist rolls in and the man next to me pulls a blanket around my back. The translator’s words struggle through the static of the radio. “Although none of us desire suffering, we chase after the things that cause us suffering. And even though we all want happiness, we treat the causes of happiness like our enemies.”

The Dalai Lama will be participating in the Mind and Life Dialogues, October 8 – 9 in Washington DC: Educating World Citizens for the 21st Century: mindandlife.org.

Rebecca Novick is the founding producer of The Tibet Connection radio program online at: thetibetconnection.org

By Rebecca Novick

Brian Chance

The post The Dalai Lama: Tibet’s Axis Mundi appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Tsewang Dhondup

One Man’s Amazing Escape From Tibet

As a child growing up in a remote village in the mountainous region of Kham, Tibet, Tsewang Dhondup loved to listen to the heroic fables recounted by the local elders. Now Tsewang’s own story is the stuff of legend and may end up marveled at by generations to come.

Tsewang’s name means ‘longevity,’ yet from his own account, it is incredible he is still alive. In March, 2008, he had just returned home to celebrate Tibetan New Year with his family, when protests erupted in the capital. The reaction in his village was electric. “The feeling was that this was the time – that Tibetans can’t live like this anymore and we have to do something. We might lose our lives, but at least our death will have meaning.”

On March 24, Tsewang was one of a hundred volunteers working laying a water pipeline to Jogri Monastery. Around four in the afternoon, they heard shouting and gunfire coming from the nearby town of Trehor. Everyone rushed to their parked motorbikes and rode in the direction of the town.

Tsewang slipped into a crowd of about 300 protesters. The Chinese police were beating people indiscriminately. “I was close to a couple of Chinese soldiers. It would have been easy for me to kill them.” His devotion to the Dalai Lama held him back. “He is like the sun for us. We can’t disobey him no matter how badly the Chinese treat us. It’s not because we Tibetans are weak that we don’t resort to violence.”

Outside the police station gate, policemen were firing live ammunition into the crowd. A twenty-one-year-old monk named Kunga was caught in the open, immediately shot and slumped to the ground. Tsewang rushed to help him. “There is a Tibetan saying, when a rabbit is picked up by a vulture it’s useless for the rabbit to petition the sky. But like the rabbit, I found myself calling out in my mind for the blessing of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.” Tsewang was trying to carry the monk away when he felt a searing pain in his left side. Only two steps later he was hit by another bullet in his left elbow.

At this point, Tsewang’s friend, Lobsang, appeared on his motorbike, pulled Tsewang onto the seat between himself and another protester and sped out of town. They stopped at another village and hid Tsewang in a prayer room. Someone bandaged his wounds while others constructed a makeshift gurney with bamboo poles and a blanket. Four men volunteered to carry him to the mountains.

For the next fourteen months, the group hid in mountain caves, moving their camp monthly as a security measure while living on only barley flour and tea. Without proper medical attention, Tsewang’s wounds began to rot and became infested with maggots. Lobsang used a razor to cut off the dead skin. The process was sheer agony for Tsewang. “I took a stick and put it in my mouth and just bit down as hard as I could.”

For the first six months, Tsewang sat in an upright position and couldn’t move a single part of his body. Only after a year was he able to walk unassisted. He decided to try to get to India so he could tell his story. Tsewang’s photo was on a most wanted list posted at every checkpoint between them and Lhasa, and there was a generous bounty on his head. But somehow he and Lobsang beat the odds again; in May, 2009, they made it safely across the Tibetan border into Nepal where he received proper medical treatment.

“Sometimes it’s hard for me to believe that I lived through it all,” says Tsewang. “I survived through sheer willpower and the collective courage and determination of those who cared for me.”

Rebecca Novick is the founding producer of The Tibet Connection radio program found online at: thetibetconnection.org.

By Rebecca Novick

Brian Chance

The post Spotlight On Tibet: The Will To Survive appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

This knowledge has given Stanley the look of a man who has been told he only has a short time to live. “If you stop denying it, then you’re in this very vulnerable state.” Stanley, who has been a practicing Buddhist for thirty years, points to “a disconnect between what scientists are saying and what the general public is able to process. This is very strongly repressed in the culture. But if you’re a meditator, you’re going to be made more and more uncomfortable, and eventually you will have to face the elephant in the living room.”

Tibet

Tibet has been described as the world’s “third pole” because it contains the largest ice elds outside of the Arctic and Antarctic. Studies show that the effects of global warm-ng are more pronounced at higher elevations, nd in Tibet, the rate of climate warming has been found to be three times the global rate. his is causing Tibet’s giant glaciers to melt t an alarming seven percent a year.

The Dalai Lama told Stanley that members of the older generation in Tibet are reporting that there is much less snow than in years past – to them this is a sign of the end of the world. Tibetan pilgrims are noticing a retreat f the snowline at the sacred mountain of Kailash, and are concerned that the protective deities are disturbed. Without any knowledge of science, these people are more n touch with the danger than most.

Stanley calls Tibet a “tipping point” when it comes to climate change. “The whole of the Tibetan Plateau has a critical regulatory effect on the rest of the planetary climate.” This is because snow and ice reflect solar radiation back into space. As the glaciers melt, this reflective capacity is lost and so more sunlight – and therefore more heat – is absorbed, further speeding up the cycling of glacial melt. Tibet’s glaciers also provide a major component of the flow of the six great rivers of Asia. One-and-a-half billion people depend on these rivers for their water. If things continue to go the way they’re heading, these glaciers are destined to disappear as early as 2035.

One of the rivers that flow from Tibet is the Yellow River which provides water for nine provinces across northern China. Currently, the whole of China is officially in a state of drought and is looking at the very real danger of famine. Through its continued reliance on coal-powered electrical plants, China is pushing global warming “farther and faster than anything else,” says Stanley. “China is the principal driver of the meltdown of the Tibetan plateau which is supplying its own water. If China calculates its own self-interest correctly, then it will see that Tibet is its own reservoir in the sky.” And with Tibet proving to be a global player in the climate crisis, it seems fitting that it was the Dalai Lama who was the first to sign.

Stanley is the author of the book A Buddhist Response to the Climate Emergency. He feels that of all the world’s religions, Buddhism could be a leading voice for the environment because Buddhism is not opposed to science. He has launched an online initiative for concerned Buddhists to voice their concern. You can view this initiative at the website he founded at: ecobuddhism.org.

Rebecca Novick is the founding producer of The Tibet Connection radio program online at thetibetconnection.org where you can hear more from biologist John Stanley and others. 

By Rebecca Novick 

Brian Chance

The post Spotlight On Tibet: A Global Emergency Tipping Point appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Woeser

One voice that is determined not to be washed away with the downpour is Woeser, a 42-year-old Tibetan woman who lives in Beijing. Woeser (her name literally translates to ray of light) is becoming known as one of China’s greatest woman writers. Over the past five years, in relative obscurity but not anonymously, through her poems, essays and blog, she has managed to eloquently illuminate what it feels like to be Tibetan under Chinese occupation. Even though it is banned in China, her work is read worldwide. She unflinchingly tackles the subject of injustice and imprisonment of her people and openly criticizes her tormentors. She seems to be beyond fear, even of the Chinese government: In July, 2008, she sued the Chinese government for not granting her a passport after three years of requests. In August, she traveled to Lhasa for what she planned to be a one-month trip; after six days there, she was arrested and flown back to Beijing for questioning on a trumped-up charge of photographing military police. Today, she remains in her apartment in Beijing, unemployed, under constant police surveillance. Her blog was officially shut down but her writing continues.

With the help of A.E. Clark, a new collection of Woeser’s poems has been translated into English. To find out more, visit:
raggedbanner.com. To find out the latest news on Woeser, visit: chinadigitaltimes.net/tag/Woeser.
Julie Adler is a producer of the radio show The Tibet Connection. For more info, broadcast times and updates: thetibetconnection.org.

A Selection of Woeser’s Poetry:

The Fear in Lhasa (August 23, 2008)

A hurried farewell to Lhasa,
Now a city of fear.

A hurried farewell to Lhasa,
Where the fear is greater than all the fear
after ’59, ’69, and ’89 put together.

A hurried farewell to Lhasa,
Where the fear is in your breathing,
in the beating of your heart,
In the silence when you want to speak
but don’t,
In the catch in your throat.
A hurried farewell to Lhasa,
Where constant fear has been wrought
by legions with their guns,
By countless police with their guns,
By plainclothesmen beyond counting,
And still more by the colossal machinery
of the State that stands behind them
night and day;
But you mustn’t point a camera at them
or you’ll get a gun pointed at you,
maybe hauled off into some corner
and no one will know.

A hurried farewell to Lhasa,
Where the fear starts at the Potala and
strengthens as you go east, through the
Tibetans’ quarter.
Dreadful footsteps reverberate all round,
but in daylight you won’t glimpse even their shadow;
They are like demons invisible by day,
but the horror is worse, it could drive you mad.
A few times I have passed them and the
cold weapons in their hands.

A hurried farewell to Lhasa,
Where the fear is now minutely scanned by
the cameras that stud avenues and alleys
and offices,
and every monastery and temple hall;
All those cameras,
Taking it all in,
Swiveling from the outer world to peer
inside your mind.
“Zap zap jé!” They’re watching us —
among Tibetans this has become a byword,
furtively whispered.

A hurried farewell to Lhasa:
The fear in Lhasa breaks my heart.
Got to write it down.

The Past (September 2002 Yunnan, in sight of Mt. Khawa Karpo)

This snow-clad mountain, melting,
is not my snow mountain.
My snow mountains are the
mountains of the past,
Far at the sky’s edge, holy and pure:
Many a lotus, eight petals opening,
Oh, many a lotus, eight petals opening.

This lotus, withering,
cannot be my lotus.
My lotus is the lotus of the past,
Enfolding the snow mountains, lovely,
Many a prayer flag, five colors fluttering,
Oh, many prayer flags,
five colors fluttering.

The past, the past…such a past!
A host of divinities sheltered
our homeland
As a lama keeps watch over souls,
As a mastiff stands guard by the tent.
But the host of divinities is
long gone, now,
The host of divinities is long gone.

By Julie Adler

Brian Chance

The post Spotlight On Tibet: A Tibetan Voice, A Ray of Light appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

It was a drizzly morning as I walked up to Thunderdome, the basketball stadium at University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) to attend a day of teachings with the His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Once inside, I looked around to see that not all 3,000 of us gathered were Dalai Lama groupies. Among the scholars, VIPs and dharma practitioners, hundreds of students filled the bleachers for His Holiness’ fourth visit to UCSB. It was initiated by Professor Jose Cabezon, the XIV Dalai Lama Endowed Chair in Tibetan Buddhism and Cultural Studies.

The feeling was celebratory, even with the hanging clouds outside. The Dalai Lama sat perched on a plush sofa, and despite a head cold, launched into a morning talk on the nature of reality and the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism, which often needed translation from Thupten Jinpa and perhaps espressos for the rest of us. Luckily for most, the afternoon talk on ethics was not lost in translation but addressed topics ranging from seeking one’s own internal truth to dealing with the current economic meltdown. His Holiness also answered personal questions including how he tends to his own garden, if he eats tsampa (Tibetan barley), if it’s possible to see one’s own deceased mother in the next life and what to do if your partner isn’t practicing mindfulness like you? For me, the kicker was: “How does one stop the internal struggle, and keep the peace in the face of stress such as financial worries, relationship problems and physical pain? In other words, when life becomes such hard work, how do you maintain a peaceful and happy heart?

Here’s the Dalai Lama’s response:

“Mind like matter has many components; even tiny flowers have many aspects. Similarly, mind is not just a single, absolute thing. For a healthy mind, compassion and wisdom are important. Training in compassion and awareness take time, like the growth of a flower. Mental and emotional changes take time. Some Tibetan masters say, ‘If while observing your own mental states, you recognize grasping things as permanent, you need to apply the antidote of reflecting on impermanence. If you have a tendency to not take your time seriously, reaffirm the preciousness of human existence. If you have the tendency to grasp at your ego, reduce the strong grip on your self.’

With physical health, if the immune system is good, then viruses may not disturb it much but if it is weak, even tiny germs can create problems. With mental health, if your basic attitude is sound, then when unfortunate things happen, it may not be disturbed much. If it is weak, even tiny problems will bring a lot of ups and downs.

According to Buddhism, all things are karmic, under the domination of ignorance. So when we face problems, it simply indicates their ultimate nature. The body will have problems because its basic nature is of suffering. There are three levels of suffering: suffering of suffering, suffering of conditioning and suffering of change. If you understand these things, it’s no surprise.

When faced with problems, I always look at them from different angles. We lost our country, but in the last fifty years, I have learned from others’ experience and traditions. If I were still in Lhasa, I wouldn’t have had these experiences. The suffering in Tibet is very sad but I personally feel very fortunate. Sometimes I really feel grateful to Chinese communists for creating this opportunity for me. You must also look at problems from a distance, more wholistically – then they become smaller. With six billion people on the Earth, each one has problems. Humanity’s problems are endless. That is the nature of life; so accepting this, your mind opens up.”

This is excerpted from The Tibet Connection radio program’s OPEN MIND series. To hear the entire segment by producer Julie Adler and to find out more about the show and the Dalai Lama and his teachings, please visit: thetibetconnection.org.

By Julie Adler

Brian Chance

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Zhu Rui

As a writer, I feel that Tibet is my home. I miss Tibet all the time.” These words come from an unlikely source, a Chinese journalist who has gone from being an ardent critic of Tibetan society to one of its most passionate defenders. As a young girl growing up in Northeast China, forty-eight-year-old Zhu Rui (pronounced Joo Ree) used to go to meetings called recalling the bitterness and thinking about the sweetness. “In the meetings, we used to criticize the Dalai Lama as the symbol of serfdom and we had to eat a kind of food that we were told was eaten by the serfs in old Tibet. It tasted awfully bitter. I used to really pity those poor Tibetans.” Zhu Rui laughs at the memory. In the late 1980s she read some books that inspired her curiosity, such as Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer. She found herself desperately wanting to visit Tibet and to see what it was like for herself.

In 1997, she traveled there as a tourist. On her way east, she arrived at Kumbum Monastery. There, she saw pilgrims performing full-body prostrations on big flat wooden boards. “I was really amazed that there were still people with such devotion in this world,” she recalls, “because there are no longer such things in China.”

Up until that time, Zhu Rui had never even seen a photo of the Dalai Lama. “When I saw his picture for the first time, I couldn’t believe my eyes – that this was the man who we’d criticized for the last fifty years, the man who in my imagination was a monster. It was astonishing for me to see his face, so full of kindness.” She has since had three meetings with the Dalai Lama times. “His Holiness has such simplicity,” she says, “which is why many Chinese leaders don’t understand him. They are much too complicated.”

She accepted an offer to work with the Tibet Literature Association in Lhasa, and began to meet Tibetans from different backgrounds, especially the older generation. “It was such a great opportunity for me to listen to their stories; those Tibetans who in earlier times were criticized for being serf-owners. I had been taught that they were the exploiting class, but their stories were totally different from what I’d learned.”

Zhu Rui talks openly about the debilitating effect that the repressive policies of the Chinese government have had in Tibet. “Being Chinese, I feel very guilty about all of this. I used to think, ‘What can I do to make amends?’” When the March, 2008, uprising erupted in Tibet, Zhu Rui was not a bit surprised. “I understood what it was all about – the pain in the hearts of the Tibetans. I found it so absurd when the Communist Party accused the Dalai Lama of inciting the protests.”

Although she’s not a practicing Buddhist, Zhu Rui wonders if she has a karmic connection with Tibet from a previous life. “I have been through such a transformation,” she says, “I want to tell everyone what I saw and what I heard, even if it’s just to a single Chinese person. Whenever I hold a pen, it is all about Tibet. I won’t write about anything else but Tibet until the end of my life.”

Rebecca Novick is the founding producer of The Tibet Connection radio program found online at: thetibetconnection.org.

By Rebecca Novick

Brian Chance

The post Spotlight On Tibet: Tibet’s Unlikely Defender appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Tibetan Prayer Flags

The fear is well-founded. In April, 2008, Radio Free Asia reported that a popular singer and writer, Jamyang Kyi, was detained and tortured for sending text messages to her friends about the protests. In November, the International Campaign for Tibet reported that a Tibetan woman named Norzin Wangmo was sentenced to five years in prison for trying to get information about the situation in Tibet by phone and internet to the outside world.

Your call might abruptly end in mid-sentence, say exiled Tibetans, especially if you mention anything “sensitive.” One man I spoke with recently asked his aunt about the prison sentence of his brother who had been arrested for joining the Spring protests. Click! The line went dead.

Already cut off from friends and relatives through the reality of exile, exiled Tibetans are having to sacrifice their last form of contact with those they love. Even if they manage to get the call through, they try to keep to the most mundane topics like food and the weather. “No matter what is going on, my family in Tibet will say, ‘I’m fine,’” a young NGO worker explains. “We know it’s not true, but no one dares dig any deeper.”

It’s the self-censorship that muzzles the most. If you don’t know where the line is, you will most likely stop short of crossing it. Just in case. Everyone in Tibet knows that phone calls are monitored, and cell phones have proved to be no safer than landlines.

But as concerned as China’s leaders may claim to be about popular dissent being fostered from outside influences, it is the homegrown freedom lobby that must be keeping them awake at night. The following comments were made during a Radio Free Asia call-in program by a Tibetan student named Losang who is studying in mainland China.

“Right now, a lot of us younger Tibetans inside Tibet feel that we need to do something to stand up…the Chinese are deceiving not only the world, but their own people with pictures of a peaceful Tibet…we need to work not only for the Tibetan people but for democracy for the whole of China.”

In spite of Olympian efforts to the contrary, freedom is fast becoming a hot topic in China. And with 200,000 new cell phone accounts opening daily there, its surveillance industry will need to work overtime to keep up with the conversation.

A longer version of this article was originally published in The Huffington Post. Rebecca Novick is a writer and the Executive Producer of The Tibet Connection radio program. She is currently based in Dharamsala, India. Thetibetconnection.com.

By Rebecca Novick

Brian Chance

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Olympic Games

During the Beijing Olympic Games, Tibetans and supporters around the world staged prayer vigils, hunger strikes, and protest marches to focus on China’s inhumane treatment of Tibetans. In Beijing, despite the government’s establishment of so-called free protest zones, there were at least 53 pro-Tibet activists detained, 77 rejected protest applications, approximately 15 Chinese citizens arrested for seeking to protest as well as about 10 dissidents jailed and at least 30 blocked websites reported. While exact numbers are unavailable, hundreds of Chinese and ethnic minorities were detained without cause, placed under house arrest, harassed or forced to leave Beijing during the games. Activists in Beijing who hung banners and displayed the banned Tibetan national flag were arrested by police and promptly deported back to their home countries.

According to recent reports, the heavy security stepped up during the Olympics remains in place across the Tibetan plateau with tight restrictions on foreign tourism and monasteries on lockdown. Tibetans inside Tibet are expressing fears that the crackdowns could continue to worsen after the Olympics, as the global focus on China fades after the nightly television coverage.

In Nepal, the government has ordered police to crack down on Tibetans living illegally in the country and will deport those who are found without proper papers. On September 9, 10 and 11, 137 Tibetan protesters were taken into custody by Nepalese authorities in Kathmandu. Those without valid papers will be sent to India. Since the 1980s, Tibetans who register with local authorities and are recognized as refugees have been given documents by the government allowing them to live in Nepal. In Kathmandu, often near the Chinese Embassy, thousands of Tibetans have participated in months of protests against China’s crackdown in Tibet that followed a tidal wave of demonstrations across the Tibetan plateau this spring and summer. The Nepali government suspects that many of those involved in the protests do not have documents.

Nearly six months after the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule, authorities are now finally releasing a group of Tibetan Buddhist monks from detention in Golmud.

In late August, the Dalai Lama was admitted to a hospital to undergo medical tests due to exhaustion. Representatives insist that there is no need for concern, although the exiled spiritual leader cancelled travel engagements through October.

The Dalai Lama’s brother, Taktser Rinpoche, a Buddhist monk-turned-CIA translator who helped train Tibetan resistance fighters in a guerrilla war against Chinese rule, died at his Indiana home on September 5 at the age of 86. Dr. Robert Barnett, founder and director of the Modern Tibetan Studies Program at Columbia University in New York, said, “His death is likely to add a much-needed sense of urgency and seriousness to the dialogue process between China and the exiles.”

Christal Smith is the senior producer of the radio show and website The Tibet Connection. For more information, broadcast times and updates, visit: thetibetconnection.org

By Christal Smith

Brian Chance

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Twists put pressure on the stomach, the small intestine and the large intestine, also called the colon. This stimulation can be beneficial. In Light on Yoga, BKS Iyengar states that jathara parivartanasana (described as churning the stomach winds, or revolving twist), “Tones and eradicates sluggishness…cures gastritis and strengthens the intestines.”

Twist with Caution

While twists can have a beneficial effect on digestion, it is important to practice them with care. When I ask someone who has given up yoga, “Why?” they often grimace and describing their experience of ongoing pain from a twist. If we strain for range of motion at the expense of softness, space, breath and elongation, it is just a matter of time before an undetected disc problem gets exacerbated, which can lead to nerve pain.
The intervertebral discs, located between the spinal vertebrae, are meant to absorb impact. Discs may vary in thickness due to genetics, use, misuse, posture or sudden impact from falls or crashes. My own bulging discs happened many years ago when I trusted a yoga teacher who laid their body weight on my back while I was bending forward in paschimottanasana (seated forward fold); I felt something “open” and since then I have recurring episodes of pain radiating into both hip joints when I practice a rounded forward bend. Because of the great benefits to the internal organs of twisting I re-learned how to twist without placing pressure on the discs or aggravating my old injury.

When we twist the torso, we change the shape of the ribcage and abdomen. We contract muscles in one spiraling direction. We hold this contraction, strengthening the rotation muscles. Imagine a slinky toy with smooth coils. In your mind’s eye, stretch the slinky long and then increase the tension on the twist.

Revolving Twists

In a revolving twist you stabilize the upper body and twist the lower spine by rotating the pelvis and legs to one side (photo). This gently massages the intestines without increasing pressure on the discs.Lay on your back. Outstretch your arms on the floor below shoulder height. Bend your knees in toward your abdomen. Exhale fully and pull your abdominal muscles toward your spine. In the pause after the exhalation, while your muscles are engaged, lower both bent knees toward your right elbow and return them to center. This pause after the exhalation is important. When you practice twisting and returning to center during that pause, it trains your abdominal muscles to support your spine.

Relax. Take a few normal breaths and begin the same sequence on the other side. Coordinating the movement with the breath helps to protect the spine.

cirtorsiones de giro / revolving twist

Seated Twists

In a seated twist, the pelvis and legs remain stationary. Gently revolving the torso massages the stomach. An open variation of a seated twist (photo) is appropriate for people with spinal injuries, women who are pregnant and people who are overweight. An added benefit of an open seated twist is that it trains the spinal muscles to elongate as they rotate without the help of arm strength.

Lunging Twists

Of the three twist variations, lunging twists (photo) allow for the most movement in the spine. The pelvis and shoulders rotate in opposite directions. If the arms are not forcefully creating oppositional pressure, there is minimal risk to the spine. Continue training yourself to twist during the pause after exhalation so your abdominal muscles are called into action.

torsiones de pie / lunging twist

Squeeze out Stress

Active digestion happens after twisting has ceased. When resting in savasana (final relaxation) or seated in a meditation practice the nerves in the tongue, esophagus and gut relax. Only when the perception (or misperception) of danger has passed does the blood concentrate around the internal organs of digestion and elimination. That is how yoga, meditation, stress reduction and breathing support digestion. According to Dr. Hazan Steinberg, yoga calms us by training our nervous system to transition from a flight, fight, freeze response (the sympathetic nervous system) to a restorative and healing response (parasympathetic nervous system). When stressed by political debates around the table with extended family, blood is directed toward the outer limbs in case you need to flee or fight. If we approach holiday meals with compassion, breath and enough self-awareness to chew our food no matter how stressful the conversation, we can reduce incidences of suffering from post-holiday belly blues.

Julie Carmen, MA, LMFT, ERYT-500 is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in private practice in Malibu and a certified yoga therapist on the faculty of LMU Yoga Therapy Rx. She’s been teaching at Exhale Center for Sacred Movement since 2001 and has been Suzanne Somers private yoga teacher since 2003. Julie Carmen’s YOGA SLOW FLOW DVD and YOGA FOR HORMONES CD are available at www.yogatalks.com

Staff Writer Lakshmi

The post Twisting Safely to Stimulate Digestion appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

When a Tibetan nun named Ani Pachen was placed in solitary confinement for a nine month stretch during her 21-year imprisonment, she decided to use the time to perform a spiritual retreat. When the guards opened the door to let her out, she asked them to kindly close it, explaining that she hadn’t finished. “If they can’t break the spirit of one old woman,” she told me, “how can they break the spirit of the Tibetan people?” It is this spirit that is Tibet’s secret weapon. It rallies against despair, provokes extraordinary acts of defiance, and values moral principle above external authority.

Ani Pachen’s strength, though remarkable, is not unique. Beijing’s ongoing crackdown in Tibet has brought about a grassroots movement of solidarity among Tibetans, and with it, a seemingly limitless number of men and women willing to risk imprisonment and even death for a single gesture of freedom.

Very few have heard of them or about what they have done. Each one knew that their actions meant certain arrest; beatings and forture, and to be sentenced to a Chinese gulag by a justice system that is always stacked against them.

A young nun, Tsering Tsomo, stood on a street corner by herself handing out leaflets calling for the return of the Dalai Lama. Police pummeled her with iron rods before hauling her off to a detention center. Nineteen-year old Yoten Tso staged a lone protest outside the county police station in Kardze, an area of Tibet so tightly controlled by security forces that it was described as a war zone by a recent visitor. Rigden Lhamo, a twenty-one-year-old student, walked over to her county government headquarters, unfurled the banned Tibetan flag, and shouted for freedom.

For most Chinese people, such acts are incomprehensible. What on earth is up with these Tibetans? We gave them discos and nice roads and this is how they repay us? As one bemused Chinese shopkeeper in Lhasa put it, “They’re a very strange people. They don’t care about material things. They only care about things of the spirit.” All over Tibet, enthusiastic communists are trying to change the way Tibetans think; in a nutshell, to love the Party and not to love the Dalai Lama. But even when they can get Tibetans to say it, they can’t get them to mean it. Word from the streets of Tibet is that these so-called Patriotic Re-Education campaigns are actually having the opposite effect to the one intended, and are generating even more devotion to the Dalai Lama. Tibetans seem to be willing to suffer rather than to act against their conscience, to refuse to pay more than lip service to communist ideology, and to love freedom more than good plumbing. The response by the authorities is dictated by a policy that scholar John Powers sums up as “the beatings will continue until morale improves.” But what if someone would rather be beaten than to live a life he doesn’t believe in?

China controls Tibet’s infrastructure as well as its economy, culture and religion. China has flooded the streets with police and military, and built a system of surveillance and social monitoring to rival anything in Orwell’s imagination. But the thing it wants most will always elude it – the hearts and minds of the Tibetan people.

Rebecca Novick is a writer and the Executive Producer of The Tibet Connection radio program.

To read a longer version of this article, visit: thetibetconnection.com. For airtimes or to listen to podcasts, visit: thetibetconnection.com

By Rebecca Novick

Brian Chance

The post Spotlight On Tibet: Tibet’s Secret Weapon appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

In July, police and security personnel conducted a pre-Olympic sweep of Tibet’s main monasteries, with The Times U.K. reporting the arrest of over 1,000 monks. A Tibetan youth testified to barbaric conditions in the prisons, with monks receiving the harshest treatment. “I can’t believe we’re in the 21st century,” he said. Tibetans in exile say they are unable to contact friends and families in their homeland. Intimidation by authorities prevent Tibetans from feeling safe receiving calls from friends or family overseas. There are many cases of police turning up on the doorsteps of Tibetans who have been calling and receiving calls from overseas, particularly from India. Tibetans say they often hear Chinese voices on the line, and their calls are cut off whenever anyone says anything considered sensitive.

Small-scale protests were reported in regions of Eastern Tibet as recently as July 17 (as of press date). In the past few months, China has flooded these areas with armed forces to ensure they stay quiet during the Olympics. While TAR (the Tibetan Autonomous Region) has re-opened to foreign tourism, many Tibetan areas in the East remain off-limits. A Taiwanese-American traveling through Western Sichuan province in the Tibetan area of Kham, in early August reported that the area resembled a war zone.

A new round of draconian measures has focused on purging monks from monasteries and heavily restricting Buddhist practice. Such dramatic attacks on Tibetan Buddhism have not been seen since the Cultural Revolution. Additionally, monks are not allowed to speak with foreigners and their movements are severely restricted. In certain cases, monks have been told they must seek permits to leave the monastic grounds.

Even under these circumstances, not all Tibetans are cooperating with the authorities. Many continue to display portraits of the Dalai Lama, despite threats by police, while Tibetans in Kham within the Qinghai province refused to participate in a summer festival organized by the Chinese government to celebrate the Olympics.

In Beijing, protests in support of Tibet continued around the Olympic Games. One of the most audacious took place the day before
the opening ceremonies when members of Students for a Free Tibet climbed a post outside the Olympic Village and hung a ONE WORLD, ONE DREAM, FREE TIBET banner. Since then, a number of pro-Tibet demonstrations have occurred, although the protestors were swiftly removed by Chinese security and subsequently deported to their home countries.

A group of 127 international athletes, including more than 40 competing in the Beijing Games, wrote an open letter to China’s President Hu Jintao expressing sympathy for the people of Tibet and calling for a peaceful solution and respect for human rights in China.

According to the International Campaign for Tibet, Tibetans in Tibet have expressed concern that repression will tighten after the Olympics. One monk from the Kumbum Monastery told a reporter from the global news network Agence France-Presse (AFP), “People say things will get better after the Olympics, but I’m not so sure. I think things might get worse.”

Rebecca Novick is currently reporting from Dharamsala, India. She is the Executive Producer of The Tibet Connection radio program found online at: thetibetconnection.org

By Rebecca Novick

Brian Chance

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Robert Thurman was named by Time as one of the 25 most influential Americans. A 45-year colleague of the Dalai Lama, Thurman was the first American ordained as a Buddhist monk. He cofounded the Tibet House with Richard Gere and is professor at Columbia University. Professor Thurman is an articulate writer and speaker passionately committed to human rights. LA YOGA sat down with Professor Thurman after the release of his latest book, Why the Dalai Lama Matters, an invaluable resource and rallying
call for activists everywhere.

FMT: In your book: Why the Dalai Lama Matters, you outline different steps that the Chinese and the Tibetans can take that provide
hope for a peaceful solution.

RT: We have to realize that it can happen. Maybe they won’t do it, but it can happen, easily. It would benefit them. Like we could just walk out of Iraq and leave them alone.

After all, we are sitting here only a few years after the Soviet Union just walked out of Eastern Europe and the apartheid government
gave up and turned South Africa over the African National Congress. Both miracles we accomplished with the help of economic
sanctions after years of pressure, since the people involved were bored with the violent oppression. But we didn’t apply that effective policy to China. China didn’t transform, yet still we gave them everything they wanted. That was a turning time 1988-92: the end of the Cold War. China could have made a different turn then. But Bush and his corporate people instead used the Chinese to postpone facing the music about our own unsustainable, consumerist ways of living. Dumping off labor there, ruining our labor force, wrecking our country’s economy; using China to do this, but wrecking China in the process.

If you’re a Chinese leader, you really don’t know the real facts about Tibet. Hu Jintao was in charge of Tibet in the late 80s, but he ran it from Beijing. He went for two days and couldn’t handle the altitude. It’s 14,000 ft. outsiders coming from low altitude regions
can’t live there long-term. Yet the Chinese now are trying to colonize. It’s unrealistic. If millions of Chinese could live in Tibet, they would have been there hundreds of years ago; it’s a huge country. A million square miles. The fact is, they don’t have to colonize in order to own Tibet, to mine it, to invest in it. Tibetans will happily develop various industries and sell them their resources, as long as they keep it green and clean. It will remain environmentally secure as long as the Dalai Lama is watching the Tibetan Parliament
to make sure they don’t start selling out.

FMT: In The Open Road, Pico Iyer made the point that since the Tibetan government is in exile and the current Dalai Lama is a great er public figure than ever, there is more unity among Tibetans.

RT: Yes, there still are factions, but they’re more united. The Dalai Lama used to joke, “I’m the most popular Dalai Lama in all of
history because of Mao. If I had been living in Tibet this whole time with my government giving orders, I would have been more unpopular. If my government was telling Tibetans to do this, pay this tax, they’d be grumbling about the Dalai Lama this whole time.
But because I’m a symbol of liberty, they love me.”

FMT: Are people really going to stay committed to their spiritual tradition without His Holiness? Will they preserve Tibet as an environmental reserve?

RT: The Dalai Lama is not going to be able to retire. They’re not going to say, “Oh yeah, you can retire.” “Why does the Dalai Lama matter”? In that title my point is: he is the solution for the Chinese. Unless the Dalai Lama is there to tell them, “It’s in our interest to vote for China, if they really give us internal liberty, stop trying to colonize us, get the troops off our back, give us our own Tibetan police and our own parliament in a ‘one country two systems’ arrangement,” the Tibetans are unlikely to want to get along with China – they have taken too much abuse. If the Chinese don’t take advantage of the Dalai Lama’s help now, if they don’t let the Dalai
Lama make the deal in the next few years, then all bets are off. It’s absolutely in the Chinese interest to recognize the friendship of
the Dalai Lama right now, and go to work taking the steps needed to accept his offer.

FMT: You state that the Dalai Lama could be great PR for the Chinese.

RT: Yep. He would be if the Tibetan people were okay. He’s not for sale at any price, but if the Chinese would accept the autonomous freedom of the Tibetan people, then he’ll be their friend.

FMT: Food production and grain in China is a current problem.

RT: That’s one issue I didn’t get into in my book. Chinese families used to eat pork once a month, now they’re eating it every day, maybe twice a day. They’re feeding a lot of grain to the pigs, and it’s doubling and tripling their grain consumption. So, get the Dalai Lama to revive Buddhism in China. The Chinese, when they practice Buddhism, are the best practitioners of vegetarianism. That would then turn hundreds of millions of Chinese back to vegetarianism and save on their grain budget. The Dalai Lama did say there is one good thing the Chinese can help the Tibetans with: building greenhouses and helping them to cultivate vegetables at that high altitude.

FMT: What is the current political situation doing to Tibetan families in exile?

RT: It’s a cultural genocide that’s going on in Tibet. We can’t deny it. Eighty to ninety percent of children in Tibet are malnourished.
[The Chinese] are moving Tibetan nomads into city ghettos, under the claims that the Tibetans are the ones ruining the lands. But this isn’t the case. How could the Tibetans ruin the land they’ve thrived on for millennia? The Chinese are moving Tibetans into slums, confiscating their two thousand dollar yaks, then what? Then the Chinese themselves put horses and cattle and sheep and goats onto the land, ruining everything, because unlike yaks those animals uproot the grasses. Then, as they did once before, creating the famines of the 50s and 60s, they’re forcing the nomads to live in little adobe shacks. It’s genocidal.

Actually, the whole Chinese attempt at colonization of the area is self-destructive. They’re ruining their own water towers, the headwaters of their own rivers.

FMT: In China right now, and all over the world, the water table is dropping.

RT: Yeah, but that’s the crazy Western disease of uncontrolled industrialization. I don’t blame the Chinese. Russia was using the Chinese through Marxism: destroying their family system, their gardening, their sense of basic trust in their own families, their spirituality, so the Russians wrecked them ideologically for a while. Then we came along and wrecked them again with self-destructive industrialization. They still haven’t found their own indigenous sort of balance again, as distinctively Chinese.

FMT: The Dalai Lama wanted you to write a political book.

RT: He might have been happy if I had written an analysis of the history about the legal status of Tibet, the evidence is out there, but nobody really says anything. The Chinese have no case at all. They want the Dalai Lama to say Tibet has always been part of China, but he can’t. That’s a lie. That wouldn’t be the act of truth that he lives by. His principle, his Buddhist ethic, compels him to stand up for the truth, no matter what the pressure. That’s where Gandhi’s satyagraha comes from; it means “holding to truth.” I thought that speaking up for his integrity on this was the key thing, because almost everyone has given up. When a genocide is going on, you have to really speak out in order to save the people and their culture.

FMT: Do you think President Hu [of China] will read the book? Do you hope that he does?

RT: There are some people who know him, and know the gist of the book, they could tell him about it. I imagine him getting some memo that there is this idea, and even then some people might say he may be able to get a Nobel Peace Prize if he reverses the present course and takes the right steps to solve the problem and make peace and harmony.

FMT: That would be a strong motivator, especially considering all of the criticism aimed at China over the last years.

RT: It’s the carrot. Someone said, “Oh, he wouldn’t care about having a peace prize.” I said, “Really? How come they’re spending billions and billions and going all out all over the place, pumping up international PR for the Olympics, if they really don’t want people to admire and honor them?”

FMT: They’re making money too (with the Olympics).

RT: They want R-E-S-P-E-C-T. They’re used to rewriting history with propaganda.

FMT: It seems like Tibet isn’t the only reason they’re getting criticized.

RT: North Korea; that’s a buried one. They could’ve taken out Kim II just like that. They have kept him in power as their useful puppet.
The Chinese have really destroyed the people of North Korea. North Korean refugees flow over that border into China. South Koreans beg and try to let them take those refugees and pay every cent of it, let them have freedom. China won’t do it. They push them back into North Korea where it’s punishable by death to try to escape. Then there’s Burma, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Darfur, and so on – they support every oppressive dictator they can find.

FMT: Tibet has a very prominent, charismatic spokesperson. If the situation in Tibet changed, do you think it would create the opportunity for change in places like Sudan or Burma?

RT: In 1989, the Dalai Lama receives the Nobel Peace Prize. Russia leaves Eastern Europe. Apartheid goes down. Tiananmen Square happens. Marcos had gone down before that. South Korean Democracy arose. A Huge Sweep. But what happened? Where does the wave break and turn back? In Tiananmen Square. Then the Burmese junta arrests Aung San Suu Kyi and ignores the election that brought her to power.

FMT: Does the Dalai Lama offer an opportunity for the wave to move in the other direction?

RT: What has the Dalai Lama stood for? He wrote a letter to Bush after 9/11. “Violence won’t help. I’m sure you’ll make a wise decision.” He admitted once that some advisors tried to get him to take that sentence out. “Violence won’t help.” But he didn’t. He gave a talk right after that to the European Parliament, talking about how horrendous 9/11 was, but that the twenty-first century must not be a century of war like the twentieth century. War no longer works. You don’t win, war just creates terrorism. The Dalai Lama didn’t give the reasoning in detail, but Jonathan Schell does in The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People.

One hundred years ago, war was a means to conquer other countries, because the conquered people would then have to give you their tax money. You can’t do that now, because now, 90% of the victims of war are civilians, not soldiers. You destroy the trust of the country. You create terrorism because you kill entire families, dislodging them from life, then they become desperate. Then you get terrorist blowbacks; they have high-powered weapons and you have magnified people’s vindictiveness. You cannot dominate them for long, it will no longer work.

You can go around exterminating people 100%, but to do that you need nuclear weapons, and then you pollute yourself. Nobody will win. Like in Vietnam, we’re not facing reality in Iraq. And the Israelis are not getting durable security through overwhelming force.

FMT: People are trying to perpetuate security with more violence.

RT: The Dalai Lama is the one leader in the whole world who goes against that. If his non-violence in liberating Tibet does not succeed, then something else will happen.

FMT: What do you suggest that people do?

RT: I suggest that people read my book, also read Schell, and the Dalai Lama himself. The thing that I love in a review I had in Booklist was, they said my plan is “highly commonsensical and wildly improbable.” Which I like! It means that when we recognize the most sensible thing, we want to be accepting of what makes common sense; but we’re reduced to feeling completely unable to do anything about it because insane leaders won’t do the commonsensical thing. They’re not realistic, not practical. They put their ego whichever way, they don’t look at the reality of the situation. They don’t face it. So we’re used to that. And me too. Emotionally. If Reagan came back as a ghost and ran for president, I would be like, “Okay. Another one.”

The thing is…read that book, then visualize what it could be like in every situation. Get a little bit of the “Yes we can!” spirit into everything we do. Make sure that with whatever it is we find important, — it doesn’t have to be Tibet — we see a way through. We don’t have to live in despair and fear.

My favorite slogan now is: “Our duty therefore, is to live in such a way that we are through and through feeling we’re going in a good direction and we’re really happy. In fact, we insist on being so happy, that if even if they kill us, we’ll die happy.”

FMT: There’s this idea in yoga, pradipakshabhavana.

RT: Meaning “realize the remedy, the antidote.” Realize it. Make it real.

FMT: It goes back to what you were saying earlier, that you are an optimist. That a lot of other people have given up.

RT: I’m not only an optimist. I’m also a realist. But then, as a realist, and logically, I see it has to go a certain way. Emotionally, I’m conditioned to expect it not to go the right way. To expect misery. If I feel good, the way I’m set by my culture, then I feel frightened that something may go bad. In fact, then I’ll stub my toe or something. Then I’ll feel safe. I can focus on that. We all have that conditioning. We do.

For example, I just met Michael Beckwith. He really touched me. I was in tears at one point. I was feeling a little insecure, because I’m nervous about churches. I always was, as a little kid. My mother said, when I became a Buddhist, “We should’ve known. When you were baptized, you kicked the font and drenched the priest. You made such a fuss. He just took his drenched cassock and wrung it out over your toes.”

But Beckwith is “trans-denominational,” at his church [Agape International Spiritual Center] there are pictures of the Dalai Lama and Gandhi. Reverend Michael sees God as the loving force of the universe. It isn’t just some guy referred to as a capital “He.” Buddhists totally agree with the vision of “God” as the force of love in the universe.

FMT: What can individual people do to have a political voice?

If people want to do political activism, they should, they should raise their voices. But always be mindful of their own feelings. Never get angry with the bad guys. Never be angry with the Hu Jintaos, the Cheneys, Bushes and McCains. You can’t be angry if your mother got demented and was attacking you with a kitchen knife. You would try to stop her energetically, but you wouldn’t be angry and hateful, yelling at her. You would try to calm her down and disarm her, or else get away quickly.

FMT: It seems that hate and anger is a form of violence itself.

RT: Exactly. The only thing you can hate is hate. If you hate hate, you can’t be hateful. So the new activism has to be joyful. Isabel Losada had this great slogan in her book [A Beginner’s Guide to Changing the World: For Tibet With Love]: “Think globally, act joyfully.” I’d like to see people join and help the Tibetan culture.

I’d like to see a Tibet House in LA, Tucson, Chicago, San Francisco, et cetera. A destination, a little teeny museum, some talks, some lamas coming through – but not some religious center you have to come and sign up. Not a political place to protest. Just a place to meet the Tibetan culture. The Chinese will see those little cultural embassies everywhere. This would show that you can’t just smother and assimilate a culture, or sweep it under the rug. There are other kinds of activism, like through Art. We’re talking about an information age liberation struggle. We’re not talking about riots in the street with guns. No. We’re talking about moving the hearts of the Chinese people and government through nonviolent creativity and action.

We really don’t want any kind of anger. Now, today, they’ve gotten a little carried away in China and India.

How would a Free Tibet movement in America really help with their success? We have the freedom to educate others, including
the Chinese, about Tibetan culture without being oppressed, arrested or imprisoned. We can reach out to the powerful Chinese American community. They should be able to recognize the bad behavior of their “old country.” They’re not communists here. They wouldn’t enjoy a dictatorship. They’re successful capitalists in a democratic situation.

I’m not saying all Tibetans are innocent, but the Chinese government’s whole approach is to frighten everyone by provoking a few of them into riots. But the Dalai Lama is peaceful. We don’t want any anger. The only way we’ll succeed on this planet is if we’re happy enough.

FMT: It’s a way to break the cycle of violence.

RT: It’s the best way. Happy people are naturally friendly with others, they naturally don’t want violence. Of course, I don’t pretend to be that happy myself! Not quite yet! My kids call me Bob “Get-a-Life” Thurman. My wife says I’m a “Buddhaholic.” I don’t have a life. I’m just working to help people imagine their way to freedom.

For more information about the Robert Thurman’s latest book, The Dalai Lama Matters and his joyous activism on behalf of Tibet, visit dalailamamatters.com.

Robert Thurman is interviewed in the newly released documentary The Voice that investigates the relationship between science and spirituality. For more information, visit:thevoicedvd.com

By Felicia M. Tomasko, RN

Felicia M. Tomasko

Felicia Tomasko has spent more of her life practicing Yoga and Ayurveda than not. She first became introduced to the teachings through the writings of the Transcendentalists, through meditation, and using asana to cross-train for her practice of cross-country running. Between beginning her commitment to Yoga and Ayurveda and today, she earned degrees in environmental biology and anthropology and nursing, and certifications in the practice and teaching of yoga, yoga therapy, and Ayurveda while working in fields including cognitive neuroscience and plant biochemistry. Her commitment to writing is at least as long as her commitment to yoga. Working on everything related to the written word from newspapers to magazines to websites to books, Felicia has been writing and editing professionally since college. In order to feel like a teenager again, Felicia has pulled out her running shoes for regular interval sessions throughout Southern California. Since the very first issue of LA YOGA, Felicia has been part of the team and the growth and development of the Bliss Network.

www.blissnetwork.com

The post Sitting Down With: Robert Thurman appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Additionally, Radio Free Asia reports that 14 nuns in Sichuan province were detained for protesting “despite a massive security presence,” demonstrating the people’s resolve to maintain their stance and their visibility. The Tibetans are still responding en masse. An estimated 5,000 Chinese soldiers descended upon Labrang Monastery on May 7 in a surprise raid, arresting 140 monks. The next day, even more monks protested and as a response, the Chinese authorities released nearly all of those arrested. A source from ICT states, “these hardline policies by China in Tibet have achieved the opposite of what they were aiming for – they have united Tibetans
across the plateau in their loyalty to the Dalai Lama and in preserving the integrity of their cultural identity. This has not happened before in two centuries of Tibetan history. The question now is how the Tibetans will take this forward and how it will play out politically.”

Special Envoy to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lodi Gyari, recently traveled to China to engage in talks with the Chinese that could possibly open the way for further dialogue and even a meeting between the Dalai Lama and President Hu Jintao. Gyari welcomed President Hu Jintao’s comment at a recent press conference in Tokyo with the Japanese Prime Minister where Jintao said, “our attitude towards contacts and consultation with the Dalai Lama is serious.”

Meanwhile, Lhasa and Central Tibet itself still remain sealed off to the outside world and the now infamous Olympic torch which was forced up to the top of Mt. Everest last month despite blizzard conditions, is dotting the landscape of China, and is still due to pass through Tibet and arrive at the Potala Palace (former home of the Dalai Lama) in mid-June, even in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake to hit this region on May 12. (The epicenter was located in Lungu County (Ch: Wenchuan), Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (Ch: Aba) in Sichuan Province (the Tibetan area of Kham).

For more news and information on the current situation in Tibet, or to support newsgathering efforts, please visit: www.thetibetconnection.org.

Julie Adler is a producer of The Tibet Connection and a yoga teacher in Los Angeles.

By Julie Adler

Brian Chance

The post Tibet Remains Unsettled appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Tibetans Inside Tibet

In March, 2008, thousands of monks, nuns, and lay Tibetans put their lives on the line by protesting against Chinese rule in Tibet. Hundreds have reportedly been killed. Despite knowing the grim outcome, the protest spread widely into different parts of Tibet, including universities and major monasteries.

As the world’s eyes turn to the upcoming Olympic Games to be held in Beijing in August, it’s time to do everything in our power to oppose China’s ongoing repression.

Please take immediate action by sending a letter to your congressional representative urging him/her to speak out in support of Tibetans inside Tibet. Visit Students for a Free Tibet at: www.studentsforafreetibet.org for information on sending out letters to your congresspeople and to presidential candidates.

Nightly candlelight vigils will be held in L.A. in front of the Federal Building (cross street Wilshire Blvd./Veterans Ave.) beginning at 5 P.M. every day. Please join the local Tibetan community to recite prayers for the souls of all those who have lost their lives in the recent crackdown and to ensure that their efforts were not in vain.

Visit www.latibet.org for the latest updates and information.

www.tibetconnection.org 

By Christal Smith

Brian Chance

The post Take Action For Tibet appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

David Crow, author of In Search of the Medicine Buddha, is an acupuncturist and herbalist who travels the world supporting a vision of grassroots healthcare, sustainable use of botanical medicine and restoration of global ecology through indigenous systems of healing including Chinese medicine and Ayurveda. In order to learn more about the present – and future of botanical medicines and youth involvement in health and wellness – YAP staffers sat down with David Crow. (Pictured, below at the Learning Garden)

Frank C. Prater: What is the mission of Floracoepia?

David Chow

David Crow: Our mission is to increase the health consciousness of society, provide high-quality plant-based medicines, alleviate the suffering of poverty, restore and protect the environment and biodiversity and to replant the global garden.

Radha Ruiz: What are the hidden gems in the overall purpose of Floracoepia that we fail to see?

DC: Every herb and essential oil contains an entire history of use and a wide variety of medicinal functions that humanity is rapidly forgetting. Every medicinal plant offers the potential for alleviating poverty. Every plant is useful for purifying the environment.

RR: In what way do you involve youth in your work?

DC: I am the cofounder of The Learning Garden at Venice High School in Los Angeles. This is a school garden that offers opportunities of education in the organic cultivation of foods and medicinal plants, and the opportunity to study outside in a healthy environment. I also give lectures to many groups of people about the benefits of natural medicine, including students of all ages and grades.

FCP: Is there a dramatic difference between working with adults and youth?

DC: People of all ages are very similar: some are open-minded and progressive and interested in health consciousness, and some are not. However, when it comes to healing the body, younger people have more vitality and can regenerate from illness and injuries faster than the elderly. However, many young people are more easily influenced by peer pressure in areas such as dietary habits.

RR: How may your practices and herbs be applied towards the field of sports medicine?

DC: Acupuncture, massage, essential oils, herbs, nutrition and diet can all be used beneficially for enhancing performance, preventing injuries and treating injuries. Each of these is used differently, both preventively and therapeutically.

FCP: In what ways can an athlete benefit from these remedies?

DC: The various types of natural medicines work in a variety of ways, which could be summed up as enhanced circulation, improved muscle tone, strength and flexibility, improved nutritional status, increased coordination, stronger functioning of the nervous system, improved concentration, relaxation and so forth.

FCP: Is this limited to only certain sports? If so which ones?

DC: All athletes practicing all forms of sports are benefited in various ways from the proper application of the various therapies offered by natural medicine.

FCP: What remedy is effective for athletes who experience knee, hip, back and joint pain?

DC: In general, the combination of sports massage, acupuncture, herbal oils and liniments work well for this problem. These treatments can be enhanced with the internal use of anti-inflammatory herbs and nutritional supplements. Understanding the cause of the problem from the structural and mechanical viewpoint is crucial, as well as rest. Excessive use of ice should be avoided, and alternated with warming anti-inflammatory liniments.

RR: How fast and how effective are herbal remedies?

DC: There are different types of herbal remedies for different purposes or problems. Some herbs are used for long-term enhancement of strength, endurance and concentration; these herbs have a more gradual effect. Others are used for immediate treatment of injuries, such as liniments, plasters and poultices; these can have an immediate effect. There is a vast body of scientific research and thousands of years of empirical evidence validating the effectiveness of herbal remedies.

RR: How can one go about accessing herbal medicines?

DC: One should consult with qualified practitioners of natural medicine. If one is self-medicating using herbal remedies, [a person] should be highly educated about the specific products and the potential side effects.

FCP: Talk about the common flu what types of herbal remedies are beneficial?

DC: The most important and famous herb for the common cold is Echinacea [Echinaea purpurea or E. angustifolia]. Goldenseal [Hydrastis canadensis] is an important natural antibiotic for the flu. The best treatment and prevention of both are to use essential oils such as eucalyptus, pine, spruce and other trees in diffusers in the home, and to breathe their vapors in steam.

RR: Do you believe that natural medicines are fairly put in the public eye? Why or why not?

DC: There are many negative, misleading and inaccurate medical reports that are the result of the pharmaceutical industry attempting to discredit natural medicine. At the same time, the natural medicine industry also makes misleading and false claims about their products. The consumer has a right to know what natural medicines do and do not do; unfortunately, this often requires a lot of independent research for patients to find out. A good practitioner of holistic medicine should give patients truthful information without trying to sell them unnecessary products and allopathic doctors should know when to recommend natural alternatives.

FCP: What do you think it takes to place natural medicine as the “top” preferred choice for consumers?

The Learning Garden

DC: Natural medicine is already the preferred choice for people who are well-educated and health conscious [about natural medicine]. As more people become more educated about the benefits of natural therapies, this trend will increase.

RR: How would/do you go about convincing young people about the importance and value of natural medicine?

DC: Most young people are not exposed to the benefits of natural medicine, because that information is not part of the educational system. Every school should offer education about the benefits of healthy eating, natural lifestyle and holistic medicine; every school cafeteria should serve healthy food and junk food and sodas should not be sold on campuses. When young people are exposed to this information they will be more interested in using these therapies for themselves, and if they are not, that is their choice.

FCP: Would you say that the future of natural medicine is a bright one?

DC: It is bright in the sense that more and more people will be using natural medicine. Unfortunately, the reason that more people will be using this medicine is because of increasing diseases in our society and lack of effective and nontoxic treatments by modern medicine. The ultimate goal of natural medicine is to educate people about how to prevent illness, and that means that we must have a complete revolution at the medical, educational, economic and ecological levels before we will become a healthy culture.

For more information on Floracoepia or David Crow: www.floracoepia.com.

For more information on the Venice High School Learning Garden: www.thelearninggarden.org.

View the LA YOGA magazine profile of the Learning Garden in the May 2004 issue online at: www.layogamagazine.com.

To read more articles by YAP youth, stay connected with youth on the move, or read back issues, visit www.yapwitus.com.

By Franke C. Prater (21) and Radha Ruiz (17)

Brian Chance

The post Yapping with Herbal Medicine Leader David Crow appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Tibet and its people have withstood almost 50 years of repression, religious intolerance, the criminalization of reverence to their leader, a Chinese population boom and the appropriation by the Chinese government of their most sacred rite of identifying the next reincarnation of a Tibetan Lama. This began when the Chinese invaded Tibet in 1959, beginning the brutal occupation which has claimed up to one million lives and led to the destruction of over 1,000 monasteries.

With the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the world’s attention is drawn to China’s human rights abuses and oppressive policies. On March 10, 2008, in Lhasa, the Tibet Autonomous Region, the outlying Tibetan provinces and across the globe people protested in solidarity. What was supposed to be peaceful turned violent: shops were burned, facilities damaged, and communications were cut as tanks rolled in and sealed off Lhasa and locked down the largest monasteries in the region. “[The protests are] the biggest thing to happen to Tibetan history in 40 years,” according to Columbia University scholar Robbie Barnett.

The protests so far have only led to more repression. According to the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), as many as 5,000 Tibetans are missing and at least 150 have died. This stands in contrast to official Chinese news of only 20 dead. Even Chinese reports are contradictory: Qiangba Puncog, Chairman of the Chinese government of the Tibet Autonomous Region, admitted that 953 people have been rounded up for questioning, and hundreds more have warrants against them.

The ICT reports: “there is a growing humanitarian crisis in Lhasa’s monasteries as food and water supplies are running low and monks are prevented from leaving.” Eyewitness reports from cell phones within Tibet describe severe beatings, distraught, starving people and even suicide attempts by monks. Cell phones are the only way to get news from Tibet (other than official Chinese broadcasts) as the border is closed. Only a handful of select journalists were allowed into Lhasa after the lockdown in a tightly controlled visit. Tourism is currently on hold and may continue to be so until well after the Olympics. The only people hiking Mt. Everest in May will be Olympic torchbearers and their minders.

Photo: Ken Lee

This year’s Olympic torch has become a symbol of protest rather than peace. In London, it was put out repeatedly; in Paris the torch had to be removed altogether. In its only U.S. stop in San Francisco on April 9, none of those who gathered in the thousands caught a glimpse; the route was secretly changed for safety reasons.

At a vigil at the United Nations Plaza in San Francisco, Chairman of the ICT Board Richard Gere stated, “The harmonious society Chinese president Hu Jintao talks about is a fraud. There can be no harmony without freedom of religion and culture.” Yet the Dalai Lama, who has been demonized in the Chinese press, says China deserves these Games and we should respect the torch relay. Despite the Dalai Lama’s insistence that he seeks autonomy not independence, the Chinese are unwilling to negotiate with the person they see as responsible for creating disharmony in China.

As Richard Gere reflected in San Francisco: “You know I have this thought every once in a while, and it’s absurd, I know, but I think it’s going to happen one day – one day this Chinese leadership wakes up and they blink their eyes as if coming out of an enchantment and they look at each other and they go ‘Oh my God, what have we done?’ And they look at each other and say at the same time, ‘let’s go talk to the Dalai Lama. He will know what to do’.”

Julie Adler is the producer of The Tibet Connection which provides a radio connection to Tibet, on air and on the web. Get the news and support this vital resource at:http://www.thetibetconnection.org.

For more info: http://www.thetibetconnection.org; http://www.savetibet.org; http://www.studentsforafreetibet.org; http://www.tchrd.org (Tibetan Centre for Human Rights & Democracy)

By Julie Adler

Brian Chance

The post Spotlight On: Tibet appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.