XPost: alt.buddha.short.fat.guy, alt.philosophy.zen, alt.politics.religion   
   XPost: alt.religion.buddhism.tibetan, alt.zen   
   From: allendotelldotbarker@gmail.com   
      
   On 02/09/2012 01:41 PM, liaM wrote:   
   > Le 09/02/2012 16:44, Peter Terpstra a écrit :   
   >> Commentary: A Cry for Freedom   
   >> Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 4:27PM   
   >>   
   >> by Robert Thurman   
   >> Oh my heart! Oh, my life! How can this happen! What can I do? I’m   
   overwhelmed as I watch a video   
   >> of the brave and passionate Tibetan   
   >> Buddhist nun Palden Choetso standing in the street, burning herself as a   
   human torch. I want to   
   >> respond, to douse her flames. It’s   
   >> impossible. So too is it to salute her for her bravery, for her faith in   
   love, for her   
   >> determination, and her belief that peace is possible.   
   >> Did she cry out for freedom? For herself? Her people? Her land? Her nation?   
   For her beloved lama,   
   >> teacher, and savior?   
   >>   
   >> I watch as an elegant laywoman, a passerby startled and gripped with   
   horror, manages to quickly   
   >> take a white khata greeting scarf out   
   >> of her bag, a traditional offering of goodwill and respect. She waves the   
   scarf toward the   
   >> stock-still flaming nun and then offers it into   
   >> the fire as Palden Choetso passes out, dying in agony, her body crumpling   
   to the ground. I also   
   >> offer a khata from my heart.   
   >>   
   >> In a gathering we held at Roosevelt House in New York, in a hall adorned   
   with the words of   
   >> Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms and a   
   >> picture of FDR, Churchill, and Stalin at Yalta (where once again they   
   ignored the fate of Tibet),   
   >> Kirti Rinpoche, exiled abbot of one of   
   >> the monasteries where some of these brave monks and nuns who have   
   selfimmolated came from,   
   >> declares: “This is an ultimate act of   
   >> nonviolence!” I am not sure at first, and surprised, as all evening he   
   had been deploring that   
   >> this is happening, as we all do. If any young   
   >> monk or nun were to ask their abbot or their lama, His Holiness the Dalai   
   Lama, “Should I offer   
   >> myself for freedom?”— the answer   
   >> would be an emphatic “No! Absolutely not! Endure the oppression and turn   
   your mind toward practice   
   >> to attain the ultimate freedom of   
   >> nirvana and buddhahood for the sake of all beings!” But once they do   
   commit such sacrifice, one   
   >> cannot help but respect their courage.   
   >>   
   >> When you destroy your body, you violate your own life, the lives of what   
   Buddhists call “the   
   >> 84,000 cells” that constitute it. This does   
   >> seem violent. Yet in this case, the individual sacrifices herself to appeal   
   to her enemy, to   
   >> convey the perhaps all-too-subliminal message   
   >> that they have nothing to fear from her, that she will resist their   
   relationship of fear and harm   
   >> by removing herself from being the   
   >> target of their ultimately self-destructive, evil behavior. That is true   
   non-harming—perfect   
   >> resistance by complete surrender. If your   
   >> victim prevents you from harming her by harming herself and taking herself   
   out of your reach, then   
   >> why were you afraid of her and   
   >> wanting to harm her in the first place? Since she won’t harm you, she   
   must love you. She wants you   
   >> to stop fearing and hating; she   
   >> wants you to be happy! Indeed, she cries out to you with her very life to   
   wake up and behold the   
   >> power of love—how it does not fear   
   >> death, how it gives itself away to reality, how it overwhelms hatred.   
   >>   
   >> His Holiness the Dalai Lama is being blamed by the Chinese Communist Party   
   government for these   
   >> dread-inspiring demonstrations of   
   >> their illegitimacy in the eyes of the Tibetan people, if not in the eyes of   
   the hypocritical world   
   >> of diplomacy and commerce that favors   
   >> the rich and powerful winner of whatever illegal action, even the theft of   
   a country. Such blame   
   >> is totally unfair. I still remember His   
   >> Holiness’ reaction to the selfsacrifice of Thubten Ngodup in Delhi, whom   
   he was able to visit in   
   >> the hospital before he died. His Holiness   
   >> was very upset by it, and Thubten Ngodup was elderly, not young and   
   brilliant with a whole life of   
   >> study and achievement ahead of him.   
   >> His Holiness said, “This is violence, even if it is self-inflicted. The   
   same energy that can cause   
   >> someone to do this to himself is very close   
   >> to the energy that enables someone to kill others in fury and outrage.”   
   His Holiness was also   
   >> worried about this powerful gesture. But he   
   >> was pleased that at least he was able to whisper into the ear of the   
   totally bandaged victim, “Do   
   >> not pass over with hatred for the   
   >> Chinese in your heart. You are brave and you made your statement, but let   
   not your motive be   
   >> hatred.” Thubten Ngodup somehow   
   >> signalled that he understood, to His Holiness’ great relief.   
   >>   
   >> One of the brave monks who set himself on fire did so in the close presence   
   of Chinese military   
   >> police, who were so confused by this   
   >> astonishing gesture, they shot him and then proceded to beat him as he was   
   dying, as if to punish   
   >> him for freeing himself from their   
   >> punishments! It was a sign of their utter confusion. They could not   
   understand the power of his   
   >> act to completely cancel the conflict of   
   >> oppressor and victim, nor his wish to take control of his own life by   
   giving it away.   
   >>   
   >> Buddha said that hate will never put an end to hate—only love can. Hate   
   wants to destroy its   
   >> object, a person seen as obstructing the   
   >> hater’s happiness; but love wants even a hating person to be happy, not   
   to be any sort of   
   >> obstruction—that’s how it can overcome the   
   >> hate.   
   >>   
   >> The numbers of young monks and nuns burning themselves in a final appeal   
   for a change in the iron   
   >> hearts of their oppressors strikes   
   >> straight to the heart of our whole world.   
   >>   
   >> I think of the Buddha Dipamkara, Buddha the Lamp-maker, who offered his   
   body as a lamp for the   
   >> wise and loving enlightened beings   
   >> who strive ceaselessly to bring beings out of the fires of hell and other   
   nether realms, and   
   >> humans out of the tragedies of death,   
   >> famine, plague, and war. Oh please Father Chenrezig and Mother Drolma,   
   reach out to these young   
   >> souls as they leave their bodies   
   >> behind in writhing agony and guide them to havens of healing and a further   
   life of ideal   
   >> circumstances for spiritual advancement! Oh all   
   >> you savior deities and protecting angels, go to the cruel despots in their   
   dreams if necessary,   
   >> and help them face reality, heed the power   
   >> of truth, let go of their paranoid fantasies of making eternal their deadly   
   suppression of freedom   
   >> everywhere!   
   >>   
   >> From the Spring 2012 issue of Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly,   
   available on newsstands   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)