Change starts within - Dalai Lama

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Change starts within, Dalai Lama stresses

Spiritual leader counsels 'inner disarmament' as key to peace

Andrew Thomson and Kate Jaimet
CanWest News Service

Monday, October 29, 2007


CREDIT: Chris Wattie, ReutersThe Dalai Lama speaks at an event hosted by the Canada Tibet Committee in Ottawa.

OTTAWA ( Canada )-- An "inner disarmament" of the human soul that replaces jealousy and hatred with compassion and a holistic world view is the first step towards peaceful coexistence, the Dalai Lama told an arena full of spellbound listeners Sunday.

No better option exists for an interconnected world facing man-made threats that range from terrorism and dictatorships to climate change and nuclear weapons, the leader of Tibet's exiled community and Nobel laureate told about 9,000 people gathered inside Ottawa's Civic Centre during a relaxed, humour-filled talk.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/spiritual-articles/17763-change-starts-within-dalai-lama.html

"The problems which we are facing, including Tibet, ultimately they are here," he said, pointing at his heart. "First inner disarmament, than outer disarmament."

The Dalai Lama will meet Monday with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Parliament Hill as his three-day visit to Ottawa continues. Their conference will mark the first time a Canadian prime minister has publicly hosted the controversial Buddhist monk in an official venue. Former prime minister Paul Martin met him in 2004, but it was at a private function at the home of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Ottawa.

The public got their turn to hear the Dalai Lama Sunday, as the 72-year-old spent nearly two hours talking about the day's theme: Global Citizenship through Universal Responsibility. Included was a call for young Canadians to serve in the developing world.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=17763

Countries, even continents, could exist in relative isolation during previous centuries, he said. But globalization means "destruction of another part of the world is (the) destruction of yourself," and "the concept of war is out of date."

Dialogue and compromise is the answer, the Dalai Lama argued. "We all come from our mother's womb," he said. "Therefore we all have the same potential for compassion."

The Dalai Lama's speech had concrete political elements as well. He pointed to the European Union as a successful anti-war device on a traditionally blood-soaked continent. But nationalists in the crowd were no doubt flustered by his assertion that the EU's integration model should one day spread to Africa, Latin America -- and between Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

He also pledged support for pro-democracy monks under attack by Burma's military regime, urged the West to show patience towards Russia, and promoted closer contact with Iran.

Aside from emphasizing the need for better health and education for Tibetans, the Dalai Lama spent little time discussing his homeland. That will likely change at Monday's meeting with Harper, causing concern on both sides of the Pacific.

While foreign heads of state, such as U.S. President George Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, have greeted the Dalai Lama as a revered foreign dignitary, the Chinese government views him as an agitator calling for the independence of a region integral to their country.

Last week, spokesmen from the Chinese Embassy denounced Harper's decision to host the Dalai Lama. "On one hand they say they recognize Tibet is a part of China, and on the other hand he is receiving him in an official venue in an official capacity," said Sun Lushan, a counsellor with the embassy. "This will give people a wrong signal."

The Canada Tibet Committee responded by issuing a statement urging the federal government to adopt six priorities regarding Tibetan autonomy, including a negotiated settlement with the Chinese government, residency for exiles, and raising environmental concerns with the Chinese authorities.

Conservative Senator Consiglio Di Nino further provoked the Chinese Embassy recently by saying China would "huff and puff" but predicted the visit would have little consequence to Canada's strong economic relationship with its second-largest trading partner.

The diplomatic abrasion comes at a time when ties between Canada and China, had shown signs of healing after a rocky start under Harper's Conservative government. In recent months, there have been ministerial-level meetings between both sides and a meeting between Harper and Chinese President Hu Jintao at the G8 summit in June.

 
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With the Divine Love & Blessings of WAHEGURU Ji, I wish you peace, love, light (enlightenment), health & happiness in life!

Hu Jintao killed some common people(of the Han ethnic group ) to attest "the Dalai Lama's barbarism"!
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=17763

董正伟 Veer ji

I must confess my inexcusable ignorance of internal affairs in China and Tibet. I know a little but not enough to understand the significance of the picture you have posted and what you wrote beneath.

Would you take a few minutes to explain this for us? I have since childhood admired the Dalai Lama -- enormously - one of perhaps 3 or 4 people alive today who has ever been able to influence me in a upbeat way. There may be other members who would also appreciate some additional information.

Thank you for your help.

Does your comment have anything to do with articles at this link?
India News, Latest Indian Headlines, TOP Breaking News on India, Daily Local News Stories by Sify.com

YouTube - Sikh Leads Monks Protests For Freedom In Burma

Harjas ji


Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=17763
Thank you for this link. Sikhnet has covered the persecution of monks in Burma from the beginning. You are making me think that perhaps we on SPN should be doing that too. Veer Soul Jyot ji has always been helpful in keeping us aware of the inhumanity that is in the world. More can be done.

Officially, China all but ignores Olympics protest - Yahoo! News

Tibet's peace is the peace of the graveyard

It is horrible, yes! So many in the US don't even know what is happening or how it started. Keep on posting your information so when a few read it they will pass it on to others.

I was just a little girl when the Dalai Lama became Dalai Lama -- and can still remember seeing him on TV new coverage in black and white back then. No one had color TV. And also at the cinema when at that time they always had a movie of recent news just before the main feature. Again, that doesn't happen any longer.

The Dalai Lama was a young man. He had a big, open face -- and a smile that was so enormous and bright. Imagine a little old girl just falling in love with him. My mother would explain what it was all about. Tibet, the Dalai Lamas, the new one, and so forth.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=17763

Then when I was older he fled into India. I remember that also. Pictures of long, long lines of people traveling by foot from Tibet into Nepal and into India. At that time there was no dialog between the US and China, no trade, no diplomacy. And the story of Tibetan refugees coming into India was sorrowful. So we knew about the supression of a people, their language, their religion. But no one here in the US did anything about it. If they did it was not made public.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=17763

Those are my memories. Today, I have the Dalai Lama's web site bookmarked -- with all of his speeches. Today even more ludicrous things are being said and done -- for example, the next Dali Lama must be born in China according to a recent law. This is laughable..

You are in my prayers.

Invasion of Tibet (1950& - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)


The Simla Convention of 1914

In 1913-14, conference was held in Simla between Britain, Tibet, and the Republic of China. The British suggested dividing Tibetan-inhabited areas into an Outer and an Inner Tibet (on the model of an earlier agreement between China and Russia over Mongolia). Outer Tibet, approximately the same area as the modern Tibet Autonomous Region, would be autonomous under Chinese suzerainty. In this area, China would refrain from "interference in the administration." In Inner Tibet, consisting of eastern Kham and Amdo, Lhasa would retain control of religious matters only.[103] In 1908-18, there was a Chinese garrison in Kham and the local princes were subordinate to its commander.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=17763

In a session attended by Tibetan representatives, British chief negotiator Henry McMahon drew a line on a map to delineate the Tibet-Indian border. Later Chinese governments claimed this McMahon Line illegitimately transferred a vast amount of territory to India. The disputed territory is called Arunachal Pradesh by India and South Tibet by China. The British had already concluded agreements with local tribal leaders and set up the Northeast Frontier Tract to administer the area 1912. The Simla Convention was initialed by all three delegations, but was immediately rejected by Beijing because of dissatisfaction with the way the boundary between Outer and Inner Tibet was drawn. McMahon and the Tibetans then signed the document as a bilateral accord with a note attached denying China any of the rights it specified unless it signed. The British-run Government of India initially rejected McMahon's bilateral accord as incompatible with the 1907 Anglo-Russian Convention.[104][105]

By 1918, Lhasa had regained control of Chamdo and western Kham. A truce set the Yangtze River the border. At this time, the government of Tibet controlled all of Ü-Tsang as well as Kham west of the Yangtze River, roughly the same borders as the Tibet Autonomous Region has today.[citation needed] Eastern Kham was governed by local Tibetan princes of varying allegiances. In Amdo (Qinghai), ethnic Hui and pro-Kuomintang warlord Ma Bufang controlled the Xining area. The rest of the province were under local control.[citation needed]
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=17763

During the 1920s and 1930s, China was divided by civil war and then distracted by the anti-Japanese war, but never renounced its claim to sovereignty over Tibet, and made occasional attempts to assert it. During the reign of the 13th Dalai Lama, Beijing had no representatives in his territories. However, in 1934, following the Dalai Lama's death, China sent a "condolence mission" to Lhasa headed by General Huang Musong.[106] Since 1912 Tibet had been de facto independent of Chinese control, but on other occasions it had indicated its willingness to accept subordinate status as a part of China provided that Tibetan internal systems were left untouched and provided China relinquished control over a number of important ethnic Tibetan areas in Kham and Amdo.[107]

In 1938, the British finally published the Simla Convention as a bilateral accord and demanded that the Tawang monastery, located south of the McMahon Line, cease paying taxes to Lhasa. In an attempt to revise history, the relevant volume of C.U. Aitchison's A Collection of Treaties, which had originally been published with a note stating that no binding agreement had been reached at Simla, was recalled from libraries.[108] It was replaced with a new volume that has a false 1929 publication date and includes Simla together with an editor's note stating that Tibet and Britain, but not China, accepted the agreement as binding.[9] The 1907 Anglo-Russian Treaty, which had earlier caused the British to question the validity of Simla, had been renounced by the Russians in 1917 and by the Russians and British jointly in 1921.[109] Tibet, however, altered its position on the McMahon Line in the 1940s. In late 1947, the Tibetan government wrote a note presented to the newly independent Indian Ministry of External Affairs laying claims to Tibetan districts south of the McMahon Line.[110] Furthermore, by refusing to sign the Simla documents, the Chinese Government had escaped according any recognition to the validity of the McMahon Line.[111]

Tibet established a Foreign Office in 1942, and in 1946 it sent congratulatory missions to China and India (related to the end of World War II). The mission to China was given a letter addressed to Chinese President Chiang Kai-sek which states that, "We shall continue to maintain the independence of Tibet as a nation ruled by the successive Dalai Lamas through an authentic religious-political rule." The mission agreed to attend a Chinese constitutional assembly in Nanjing as observers.[112]

In 1947-49, Lhasa sent a "Trade Mission" led by the Tsepon (Finance Minister) W.D. Shakabpa to India, Hong Kong, Nanjing (then the capital of China), the U.S., and Britain. The visited countries were careful not to express support for the claim that Tibet was independent of China and did not discuss political questions with the mission.[113] These Trade Mission officials entered China via Hong Kong with their newly issued Chinese passports that they applied at the Chinese Consulate in India and stayed in China for three months. Other countries did, however, allow the mission to travel using passports issued by the Tibetan government. The U.S. unofficially received the Trade Mission.

The mission met with British Prime Minister Clement Attlee in London in 1948.[114]

[edit]
Rule of the People's Republic of China

The Chinese Communist government led by Mao Zedong which came to power in October lost little time in asserting its claim to Tibet. In 1950, the People's Liberation Army entered the Tibetan area of Chamdo, crushing resistance from the ill-equipped Tibetan army - see Invasion of Tibet (1950–1951). In 1951, Chinese representatives in Beijing presented Tibetan representatives with a Seventeen Point Agreement which affirms China's sovereignty over Tibet. The agreement was ratified in Lhasa a few months later.[115]

History of Tibet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia