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We are all deeply moved now days.
and even those who who claim not to be moved in china
are subconsciously - subliminally moved
by the heroic activities of many young tibetans
and old Tibetans
who have immolated themselves.
Given their body. Offered their bodies as sacrifice
to the fire,
to flames
without hurting anybody else
in order to show
the intollerableness
of their - of the chinese cultural genocide
that is being practiced in Tibet.
They want to show the world
how serious and determined they are
not to suffer a loss of their culture,
a loss of their spirituality,
a loss of their religion,
a loss of their beloved teacher His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and other
teachers who are friends of His Holiness the Dalai Lama
who are also great lamas and great teachers.
They want to have these people in their lives.
They do not -
they will not tolerate
living without them any longer, and to show that they are really offering their
bodies to the flames in the most extraordinary act
of heroism.
Kind of like a
military warrior hero,
but yet a hero of non-violence
who only harms themself, and doesn't harm any other person.
Now
this doesn't mean that we are encouraging people to do this.
We would never ask any Tibetan,
and if any Tibetan
asked - either a high lama,
or a simple layperson
"oh can i - would it help if I immolated myself? Would that really
turn people on to the struggle of Tibet?" we would say "well it might,
but we don't ask me to do that.
it's much better you suffer whatever you're suffering and you develop your
mind of love and compassion for people and stay here in your precious human
body for the long haul, and develop your - you know extraordinary enlightenment
with your precious human life"
that's the important purpose of human life.
This is - because of this kind of view
of the nature of life
Tibetan culture does not have -
as Chinese Buddhist, and Vietnamese Buddhist culture more does have
the sort of self immolation act of heroism as a featured event so to
speak.
The Tibetans feel that you immolate your anger. You immolate
your suffering. You immolate your egotism
in the fire of your wisdom and thereby you become an enlightened being.
And it takes time, it takes learning, it takes meditation,
and you use your human life to do that preferable to giving the body away to the flame
giving away that ought to the flame.
However, so we would never encourage this. Neither does the Dalai Lama. Neither
does any Tibetan lama or person, encourage anybody else to do
this. The chinese are making false propaganda when they claim that somehow
we're putting people up to this. Or anybody in the Tibetan movement is putting them
up to it.
However,
once they do it
one has to honor their sacrifice.
One has to praise
their heroism.
One has to perhaps regret that they
gave of themselves so completely in such a short compass.
And one has to pray for them to be reborn human
again,
Tibetan if possible, to have access to the precious teaching, to be able to
cultivate their enlightenment,
and to live a long and peaceful and prosperous life
after Tibet is free again, which we are confident it will be.
There's no doubt in our minds. There is no doubt in the mind of His Holiness the Dalai
Lama that it will be free again. Any one with real vision will admit - will acknowledge
this.
Only those who are depressed
and who are cynical, and who feel that nothing good can ever happen,
and the evil people will always have the power,
and the good people will always suffer. Only those people - and therefore they don't really have to
make an effort to do anything about it.
Those people are the ones who feel Tibet will never be free.
And so in a way they are
dooming Tibet in their own minds and hearts actually, not to mention
dooming themselves to a life of what Thoreau called
"lives of quiet desperation",
quiet despair.
What Henry David Thoreau called.
So our official statement if you will - of Tibet House US -
although in a way we don't have an official statement
in the sense that everyone even in Tibet House US is an individual.
We believe that people are free and equal.
But in a way representing as the head of it I want to give this more
complicated picture.
That we are proud of those people and we honor their sacrifice. We do not urge
anyone to do that,
and we urge them not to do it in fact
as much as possible.
But yet afterwards we have to honor them,
and that's what we do, and
of course the greater way of honoring them is not just saying that we honor them,
but it is living up to
their example, and sacrificing a little bit of our egotism
to help the Tibetan people, and to help the starving people in Africa, or in New
York City
or in Los Angeles, or in Mexico, or wherever they are, starving.
or children, grownups, anyone.
So helping
others is also helping Tibet.
So this is our statement about the immolations.
It is calling us to action
not only for Tibet, but for everyone
who is oppressed, and who is suffering, and who is enslaved
everywhere in the world.
This - that people would burn
so much as to offer their body in that kind of cause
should inspire us to offer and sacrifice a little bit
of maybe our money, or maybe our time, or maybe our effort, or maybe our attention
to these
nodes of suffering.
Thank you very much.
And by the way, finally
in the spirit of Tibetan culture
this doesn't mean we should be angry with the Chinese.
It would be very bad if any one of those persons
died
with anger in their hearts for the Chinese.
I was with His Holiness the Dalai Lama shortly after one of the early
immolations, a decade ago
when he...
more than a decade ago
what he happened to get - He was in India, so he got to the hospital where the
bandaged
person was
who eventually died in that hospital,
but, so he didn't survive, but he did survive for a day or two
and he managed to whisper into the bandages
"Okay you made your statement.
I'm sorry you lost your life,
but what i want to tell you of greatest importance is please
please do not die with hatred or anger for the Chinese in your heart.
Only feel compassion for them,
as well as for those they are tormenting - your own fellow Tibetans who are
suffering.
And absolutely do not die with anger or hatred in your heart."
And he told me - His Holiness, that he was very happy
that the gentleman -
somehow the bandages - he couldn't even see the face, he was so totally burned.
But the bandages kind of moved up and down in an acknowledging nodding
gesture.
And the Dalai Lama was extremely happy
that he was able to give that message to the man.
And so
I don't suggest that any of those people who died
of self-immolation did so with hatred or anger for the Chinese.
If they did they were definitely
not ready for that sacrifice,
and it would simply doesn't work
in that way.
And we so deeply regret if they did that.
Or if they were angry at the beginning or before hand maybe,
once they were already in the between state they realized
they have a higher version
from the sacrifice, and they felt
only love
for those who
uh... were manifesting enmity and oppression toward them.
Because the Buddha's teaching is that we must love our enemies
just like Jesus said.
And it provides a method for enlightened people, or people on the path of enlightenment
to learn to love their enemies
because in a way it's not that easy to
follow that precept
which we all aspire to do.
And actually of course it makes practical sense. It isn't just an impractical thing
that Jesus taught,
and Buddha taught the same thing.
It's practical because love, to love someone to love someone means you want them to be happy.
If your enemy was truly happy
they definitely would not wear themselves out being your enemy.
They would cheer up,
and be friendly, and that is what you want.
So in a way there is an enlightened self-interest component
in loving your enemy,
and not feeling the misery of giving your mind and your life over to anger.
That's chapter and verse in Tibetan
Buddhist teachings.
So thank you very much,
this is our statement
about the immolations.
uh... being a professor i probably made it a little too long,
but because it's on youtube you can turn it off any time.
All the best!