John's Other Blog

Tibet

It is so sad to watch the BBC reports about the protests in Tibet and the Chinese crackdown on the protesters. I'm not an Olympics follower, but if I were I think I'd seriously consider boycotting the Beijing Olympics this summer. I'd consider that because of Chinese support for the Sudanese against the people of Darfur, because of the Chinese insistence that people in Tibet can't freely voice their objections to the Chinese cultural takeover of their land, because of the Chinese refusal to relinquish Taiwan and because of Chinese interference in Thailand. I like the industrial spirit of the Chinese, but I don't like the political repression.

The Buddhists, Nancy Pelosi and the Dalai Lama are showing me a side of Buddhist life I haven't known about. I've thought of monks and Buddhists as people who were not political. I've thought of them as people who considered human political affairs some kind of secular crust that is not important to a spiritual person seeking to cultivate inner understanding. I'm thinking now this view I've had has been wrong, naive and idealistic. The Buddhists can't be like that in the real world.

If the Buddhists have monasteries, traditions, land and social institutions, they will suffer incursions like all other people with visible assets. When they do, like all other people, they will try to oppose the incursions. If their spiritual traditions do not give them the tools for this opposition, and it seems that they do not, the Buddhists will join the other oppressed and defenseless classes of this world; they will be mercilessly ground down to a state of helpless social submission. Perhaps, after a few centuries, they'll recover and flourish again.

I'm just talking about the Buddhists in Tibet. Tibetan Buddhists in Chicago, Amsterdam and New York have tiny thriving cells that are not threatened directly now. Other kinds of Buddhists, such as the ones in Burma and Vietnam, also have political issues, but they are under far less pressure at the moment since they aren't sitting where a big world stage event is about to be held.

One can visualize a Buddhist universal spirit that always survives somewhere, but I'm not sure "Buddhist" is the best word for it. I think that perennial universal spirit is not limited to or defined by Buddhism, but will always show itself in some places with visible Buddhist influences.

I remember watching a video of J. Krishnamurti talking to the late Tibetan lama Chogyam Trungpa (1939-1987), author of Born in Tibet. Krishnamurti was so fiercely opposed to following leaders to get spiritual understanding! He believed you have to find it yourself, within yourself without bosses, books or guides. At least if you do that you don't have to protect assets!

posted by johncgreen@gmail.com @ 6:33 AM