Wednesday, October 25, 2006

China takes heat after shooting Tibetan pilgrims



NEW DELHI, India -- The two teenage girls were best friends. In their tiny farming village in Tibet, they had stayed up late many nights over four years plotting their escape.

Kelsang Namtso had become a Buddhist nun just last year, at the tender age of 16. Her friend, Dolma Palkyi, 16, wanted to go to India, and meet the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, before taking her vows.

Dolma says she managed to save nearly $1,400 for the arduous journey through the Himalayas. Half would go to the smugglers. In early September, the girls loaded their backpacks with yak butter, cheese, and barley, and finally set off.

Seventeen days later, Kelsang lay dying in the snow after an attack, captured by Western tourists' cameras, that is becoming an international incident and a stain on China's human rights record.

To continue reading article, goto:
China takes heat... from The Christian Science Monitor

Sunday, October 22, 2006

follow the path to the end



A good actor is a man who represents the sediment, the unexplored and unexplained powers that have drifted down through the centuries; he takes the lessons he has gleaned and hides them deep inside him; his self-mastery is awesome; never does he bare his heart; no one may know how powerful he is until he strides onto the stage. All his life, he travels down unfamiliar roads to perform at the most out-of-the-way theaters in the most godforsaken towns, and everywhere he goes he searches for a voice that will grant him genuine freedom. If he is so fortunate as to find that voice, he must embrace it fearlessly and follow the path to the end.


Snow, Orhan Pamuk

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Video footage of Chinese police shooting Tibetan pilgrims

Pro Tv cameraman Sergiu Matei returned to Romania after climbing Himalaya and brought home with him a shocking story.

To see video footage of Chinese police shooting Tibetan pilgrims on their way to see the Dalai Lama at Dharamsala, India,
Click: Video Footage

For info on Invasion n Illegal Annexation of Tibet,
goto Tibet

respect for all faiths



"I consider myself as someone who is a devout follower of the Buddha Shakyamuni.
I can actually claim that my admiration for the Buddha is grounded in a genuine
conviction based upon understanding of the essence of his teachings. I also feel
that at least in me there is the perfect realization of taking refuge in the Buddha,
Dharma and Sangha. So this is the case of my own personal belief as a committed
practicing Buddhist.

But at the same time when I look at other faith traditions such as Judaism, Christianity,
Islam, Hinduism and other major world religions, I have a profound sense of admiration and
reverence for them. This is because each of the great spiritual traditions has served the spiritual
needs of millions of individuals in the past, they continue to do so and they will continue in the
future. They provide spiritual solace and inspiration as well as a deep sense of fulfillment of
peoples’ spiritual needs. In a sense these are very powerful and profound methods for other
sentient beings to bring about the fulfillment of their spiritual aspirations. They are in a sense
sources of profound benefit to millions of individuals.

So when I look at these other faith traditions from this angle, my admiration and reverence for
these traditions tremendously increases. One of the aspects this reflects is the diversity and
multiplicity of the mental inclinations, spiritual inclinations and mental dispositions and interests
of sentient beings."


The Dalai Lama at Illinois 1999
Picture: The Dalai Lama at the Western Wall in Jerusalem (www.guysen.com)

Thursday, October 12, 2006

CAIGENTAN 菜根谭




One who craves solitude understands the cosmos
just by looking at the white clouds and rocky crags.

One who seeks wealth and honour
finds respite in singing and dancing.

Only the self-sufficient person
is unaffected by noise or quiet,
the magnificent or the withered,
and finds any place to be just right.



CAIGENTAN by Hong Zicheng, a scholar in the Ming Dynasty
Translated by Robert Aitken with Daniel Kwok

Goto site:
CAIGENTAN 菜根谭

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

narrow road


Nowhere in this wide universe
have we a fixed abode.

Matsuo Basho
Narrow Road to the Interior

Monday, October 09, 2006

never seek to tell



Never seek to tell thy love
Love that never told can be;
For the gentle wind does move
Silently, invisibly.

I told my love, I told my love,
I told her all my heart;
Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears—
Ah, she doth depart.

Soon as she was gone from me
A traveler came by
Silently, invisibly—
Oh, was no deny.



William Blake

Sunday, October 08, 2006

eternity's sunrise



He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy.
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise.

William Blake

Thursday, October 05, 2006

non-violence



"I am prepared to die,
But there is no cause
for which I am prepared to kill."

M. Gandhi

Pic: Displaced children in Darfur, US Aid

Monday, October 02, 2006

silent space



For language to have meaning,
there must be intervals of silence somewhere,
to divide word from word, utterance from utterance.
He who retires into silence does not necessarily hate language.
Perhaps it is love and respect for the language
which impose silence upon him.
For the mercy of God is not heard in words unless it is heard,
both before and after the words are spoken,
in silence.

Thomas Merton

Sunday, October 01, 2006

not all



Not all who wander are aimless.

Especially not those who seek truth

... beyond tradition

... beyond definition

... beyond the image



Film, Mona Lisa Smile

Photo Credit: Seattle Times