07-19-2010, 12:04 AM
Hawkeye Crow wrote:Ah, the current Dali Lama. One whose life story is ubiquitous and worthy, even though, thanks to China, he's between a rock and a hard place.
My respect is given to him.Its important to see the history, I think. I know the Dali Lama does not bear any resentment for his situation, in fact the test is worthy of him. And it gives him an opportunity to truly model compassion and understanding that he would not have a chance to do if things were otherwise. I'm sure he looks at it this way.
Some history...During the Qing dynasty the Mongolians had rule and they formed alliances with Tibet and brought Tibet culture more prominently into China and Buddhism become the main practice in China. The Han Chinese, which had lived here before Mongolian rule saw their country change. IMO it was change for the better due to Buddhism flourishing. But they became a minority at that time, their beliefs and religion minorities. Now that Han are back in rule, maybe they keep this history in mind too.
China really has a beautiful history. Looking at these temples in Beijing, its easy to see how their devotion of spiritual understanding was central, and their appreciation of nature. China gets alot of criticism today for environmental issues, but if you look at China over 100 years ago, they were very different at that time, a true appreciation for harmony with nature. Their inventions were usually aimed at elevating spiritual understanding and philosophical development. Such as, they believed in the power of loud noises to jolt out negative energies, so they invented gun powder to make fireworks to use in ceremonies and even today when a new building is completed they set off fireworks, loud booming noises to clean the air of evil energy. So they invented gun powder to support a very spiritual understanding of energetic influences, and the Europeans used that gun powder to make guns to fire bullets and the Chinese only knew of arrows and swords so were no match for the Europeans who came to their shores and began to set up shop to get silk and other luxuries. One can say the Chinese were outsmarted. I say they just had their focus on different aims--gun powder to clear away evil vs. gun powder to use guns to enable colonization of other countries. So yes, the Chinese were outmatched in the zeal for material progress (because they were more interested in spiritual progress) and European influence sort of snuffed many of their old ways out in a hurry, and now today they are entering into that arena with the major world powers to try and be on par...but they will bring some surprising innovations, they still retain understanding of old ways. And they know their history very well, many Chinese I think.
My respect is given to him.Its important to see the history, I think. I know the Dali Lama does not bear any resentment for his situation, in fact the test is worthy of him. And it gives him an opportunity to truly model compassion and understanding that he would not have a chance to do if things were otherwise. I'm sure he looks at it this way.
Some history...During the Qing dynasty the Mongolians had rule and they formed alliances with Tibet and brought Tibet culture more prominently into China and Buddhism become the main practice in China. The Han Chinese, which had lived here before Mongolian rule saw their country change. IMO it was change for the better due to Buddhism flourishing. But they became a minority at that time, their beliefs and religion minorities. Now that Han are back in rule, maybe they keep this history in mind too.
China really has a beautiful history. Looking at these temples in Beijing, its easy to see how their devotion of spiritual understanding was central, and their appreciation of nature. China gets alot of criticism today for environmental issues, but if you look at China over 100 years ago, they were very different at that time, a true appreciation for harmony with nature. Their inventions were usually aimed at elevating spiritual understanding and philosophical development. Such as, they believed in the power of loud noises to jolt out negative energies, so they invented gun powder to make fireworks to use in ceremonies and even today when a new building is completed they set off fireworks, loud booming noises to clean the air of evil energy. So they invented gun powder to support a very spiritual understanding of energetic influences, and the Europeans used that gun powder to make guns to fire bullets and the Chinese only knew of arrows and swords so were no match for the Europeans who came to their shores and began to set up shop to get silk and other luxuries. One can say the Chinese were outsmarted. I say they just had their focus on different aims--gun powder to clear away evil vs. gun powder to use guns to enable colonization of other countries. So yes, the Chinese were outmatched in the zeal for material progress (because they were more interested in spiritual progress) and European influence sort of snuffed many of their old ways out in a hurry, and now today they are entering into that arena with the major world powers to try and be on par...but they will bring some surprising innovations, they still retain understanding of old ways. And they know their history very well, many Chinese I think.