Replies

They take peaceful overtures as a sign of weakness and will literally cut your throat the sooner for it.

No...you can't make "peace" with such abject killers and tyrants. We learned that in World War II well enough, and how to abjectly defeat them so that it sticks...but are now forgetting it.

IT'S TIME FOR A RETURN TO THE OLD SCHOOL

Dalai Bama meet Dalai Lama.

Can I call this a miracle?

so in other words, he believes in non-violence, except when it doesn’t work. sounds fair enough. how is that different from me? where’s my international acclaim?

Ping.

i had a chance to meet the Dalai Lama once when he toured the US back in the late 80s. I was a young journalist then. I has struck by his serenity. I am glad to read this statement by the Dalai Lama. It only reinforces the obvious. There are times for non-violence and there are times for action. A grounding in the ways of peace of the soul and mind will tell one the difference.

I was also heartened to read that he was a fan of the President. How will the "talker-elect" come off amongst world leaders?

Hey Richard Gere, are you listening?

The head of the Tibetan government-in-exile left the audience stunned when he said "I love President George W Bush."

lol...I bet. It'll give them a good subject for their meditation practice.

/mark

We need to nuke Mecca and carpet bomb Medina and then create an international occupation force to take over Islamic lands and over several generations just wipe the cult off the face of the Earth.

He said that the only way to tackle terrorism is through prevention. The head of the Tibetan government-in-exile left the audience stunned when he said "I love President George W Bush."

I loved this line. Journalists and leftists from around the world have failed their mission to convince everyone that George Bush is Satan incarnate.

First the miracle on the Hudson, and now the miracle of the Lama. Is it possible Barry will confess just before the inauguration?

“They (terrorists) are very brilliant and educated...but a strong ill feeling is bred in them. Their minds are closed,” the Dalai Lama said.
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That would be the ‘Liberal Elite’ in this country.

I’ve always been a bit worried about a deity that has to wear glassees.

LOL!

The Dalai Lama makes liberal heads explode . . . .

But Gandhi agreed -- in order for nonviolence to work, you have to have civilized opponents. If they're barbarians, all bets are off.

Read Kipling's Kim for the Lama's account of a war between monasteries in his youth . . . .

Bump. I may need to refer to this article from time to time.

He sounds too westernized. The closed mind is just the flip side of the same coin that is the open mind. It just has different rules, but it is still the mind, nonetheless.

An open minded man can be persuaded with logic and reason, but a closed minded man can be persuaded with superstition and uncertainty.

You would tell an open minded man not to cross a minefield, because it had bombs concealed beneath it that can injure or kill him. And even if he did not know what a bomb is, he might accept the idea that such a thing might exist.

But a closed minded man you would tell not to cross a minefield, for within dwells an invisible monster that will reach up from the ground with a great noise and injure or kill him. It is magical and powerful, and his faith in whatever will not protect him.

Whether his mind is open or closed does not matter. What then matters is if he is wise or foolish. But how does this relate to terrorism? In much the same way.

The Dalai Lama cannot appeal to terrorists in the same way that he would appeal to a diplomat at a cocktail party. So instead he must use the superstition and fear of the terrorists against them, for the same ends.

As a silly example, what would terrorists think if he announced that through reincarnation, terrorists who harm innocents will be denied their Muslim heaven, but instead live lives as unhappy pigs? It is not unsound in Buddhist theology, and confronts their superstitious beliefs head on.

But not so silly, for it has been observed that fanatics of all stripes are often so precisely because they doubt their own faith. As such, they can easily become deeply afraid that some other beliefs might be “right”, which means that they are in jeopardy. They fear that other beliefs are stronger than their own.

So for the Dalai Lama to announce that his faith has power over the terrorist’s destiny would strike home. But this is just one example.

He could create Buddhist amulets, chants, and charms that interfere with what the terrorists seek to do. He could use “Buddhist magic” to make the sun hot, water wet, and make the terrorists hemorrhoids throb. The proof could be seen by the terrorists themselves, that the sun was indeed hot, etc.

Not to appeal to the terrorists sense of logical and reason, but to influence their behavior nonetheless.

And likewise he should not fear those terrorists who are educated, because “science does not dispel the fear of the gods.” While such men may be educated, it does not mean that they are wise.

I decided to see how other media sources are reporting the Dalai Lama's trip to India.

Via Yahoo News, I came across this article in a different Indian news site (New Kerela). It seems more devoted to entertainment and news regarding the Tamil minority. This article says completely the opposite of what the Times of India states the Dalai Lama saying.

I suspect the Dalai Lama said both things during the talk; namely, you can not deal with terrorism with non-violence and also saying that we should engage in dialogue and non-violence with the terrorists. This is what I don't like about the Dalai Lama. It's very easy to catch him speaking out of two sides of his mouth so everyone goes home happy and reporters get to report whatever they want to report him saying.

At least they quoted him about President Bush.

I should note there is nothing in the American media that I could find quoting the Dalai Lama and his affection for President Bush.

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Dalai Lama advocates dialogue to end terrorism

New Delhi, Jan.18 : Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, on Saturday urged a path of non-violence and dialogue to confront terrorism.

"We must show non-violent ways to deal with these conflicts so that is dialogue. I think the text books should include the education of morals without touching religion, education of non-violence and peace and the concept of compromise," the Dalai Lama told a gathering here.

The Tibetan spiritual leader's comments come at a time when tensions have been simmering in India and Pakistan over last November's terror attacks in western Mumbai, blamed on Pakistan-based terror outfits.

The Buddhist leader said he loved the outgoing US president George Bush though he did not agree with some of his policies.

"I love him (US president George Bush) but some of his policies...one time I told him I love you but some of your policies ...I expressed that way so he knows I am opposed to some of his policies," the Dalai Lama said.

The Dalai Lama earlier in the day inaugurated a forum named 'Global Congress on World's religions after September 11 - An Asian Perspective' in New Delhi.

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And of course, the "Indian Muslim" slant on the Dalai Lama's talk offers no surprises:

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Associating Islam with terrorism wrong: Dalai Lama

Submitted by Mudassir Rizwan on Sun, 01/18/2009 - 11:24.

Indian Muslim

By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,

New Delhi: The perception created by media that Islam is associated with violence and terrorism is totally wrong, said Buddhist spiritual leader Dalai Lama at world religions congress that began at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi on January 17.

In his keynote address at the three-day global congress on World’s Religions after September 11: An Asian Perspective, Dalai Lama said that people irrespective of their faiths are doing irreligious things as soon as they are out of their places of worship. They try to show themselves as sincere followers of their religion when they are in temple, church, mosque or synagogue, he said.

The three-day congress has been organized by the Centre for the Study of Comparative Religions and Civilisations, Jamia Millia Islmia and the Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University, Canada.

Earlier welcoming the guests JMI VC Prof. Mushirul Hasan said Jamia has been committed to harmony of faith and civilization and nationalism and it is evident from the presence of Study of Comparative Religions and Civilisations and Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution at its campus.

“We have gathered here at this Congress in the shadow of two sad happenings in recent months – the outrage and killings of innocents in Mumbai on 26/11 and unprovoked murder of innocent Palestinians in Gaza,” he said adding that the two cannot be overlooked.

In our own country we have seen practitioners of hate who were hell bent to undermine the secular foundations of the society in the 1990s which led to demolition of Babri Masjid, the VC said.

Over 150 Delegates from 14 countries are expected to take part in the global congress. They will be exploring the interface between Religions and other disciplines such as Religion and Civilizational Dialogue, Religion, Conflict and Peace, Religion, Science and Technology, Religion and Human Rights, Religion, Art and Morality.

Is there an Asian Way of Resolving Religious Conflict? and Can Interfaith Dialogue Make a Difference? are two important topics to be discussed during the congress.

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The head of the Tibetan government-in-exile left the audience stunned when he said "I love President George W Bush.

*snort!*

I've admired the Dalai Lama for a long time. He is a man of peace, but also smart and practical. This is an example of that practicality. Buddhism is called "The Middle Way" for a reason -- it is not meant to be philosophy of extremes.

I just wish I could have seen their faces when he said he loved President Bush!

Thanks for posting. Interesting article and thread.