Sunday 23 March 2008

Seven Years in Tibet

As per my friend's advice, I had the opportunity to see this movie "Seven years in Tibet" and was moved very much. Its all about the graceful character of the Tibetan people who wouldn't even harm the earthworms while ploughing the field. Of course every religion says somewhere in their holy books not to harm anyone, but these holy people from the holy land have practised until they were been forced to retaliate against the chinese dictatorship. In the picture below you could find Heinrich Harrer ( The author of the book "Seven years in Tibet") with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who presented the former with ICT's Light of Truth Award in Graz, Austria, October 15, 2002. It was unfortunate for this society to miss Mr. Harrer as he passed away on January 7, 2006 in Austria when he was 93.

However though it was not my pleasure in looking through the history where the innocent Tibetans underwent a cultural genocide where more than a million Tibetans have died and more than six thousand monasteries were destroyed, I could understand that the period of non-violence has to say a good bye to the people who do not follow the ethics.

It has happened to the Indians before at the hands of the British regime, it has happened to the Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka, it is happening to the Tamil people in Malaysia, it is happening to the people in Africa, Cuba, etc, like wise it is not only the political elements who are facing these sort of problems but also the other important and pathways to the enlightment "The Religions" are facing it. Instead of praising the purpose of the religion, each one has started its own way to dominate the others and proclaim themselves as they are the only TRUE religion. In all these cases, it was all because of the negligence of the foreigner's invasion, whether be it a nation or a religion. The visitors having enjoyed a royal treat from the host, have started to harvest the host's lands thinking or in otherwords ignoring the original ownership and are aiming at completely demolishing and rewriting the history.

But who are those who are demonstrating ( self one ) that they are the only available in this whole world. -- The people who have not known the others. Its like a frog in a well thinking that the well is alone the whole world and it is the only thing persisting in it.

When I went through the story of Tibet I also found more shocking news about a famous topic "The Lost years of Jesus", and many facts have been found from the Tibetan scriptures that Jesus possibly lived in Tibet and India where he learned about all the religions and also there was a possibility that he was practising Buddhism. As a novice, my knowledge to such topics are very much limited and I hope I would explore more and present it to my viewers.


Also it is nice to listen to few of the words during the interview with His Holiness the Dalailama, which is as follows...

The interviewer reminded him of his belief that Jesus is "a fully enlightened being" and asked, "If Jesus is fully enlightened, wouldn't he be teaching the truth about himself? Therefore, if he is teaching the truth, then he is the Son of God, and there is a God, and Jesus is the Savior. If he is fully enlightened, he should teach the truth. If he is not teaching the truth, he is not that enlightened."……..As the Dalai Lama felt the momentum of the question, he laughed more than at any other time in the interview. He obviously understood the argument, borrowed from C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity……….

"This is a very good question," he said. "This is very, very important, very important." Even in Buddha's case, he said, a distinction must always be made between teachings that "always remain valid" and others that "we have the liberty to reject."…….He argued that the Buddha knew people were not always ready for the higher truth because it "wouldn't suit, wouldn't help." Therefore, lesser truths are sometimes taught because of the person's ignorance or condition. This is known in Buddhist dharma as the doctrine of uppayah, or skillful means. The Dalai Lama then applied this to the question about Jesus……."Jesus Christ also lived previous lives," he said. "So, you see, he reached a high state, either as a Bodhisattva, or an enlightened person, through Buddhist practice or something like that. Then, at a certain period, certain era, he appeared as a new master, and then because of circumstances, he taught certain views different from Buddhism, but he also taught the same religious values as I mentioned earlier: Be patient, tolerant, compassionate. This is, you see, the real message in order to become a better human being." He said that there was absolutely no lying involved since Jesus' motivation was to help people.[9]

In this interview, the Dalai Lama was forced to either say Jesus was a liar, lord or lunatic. While saying there was “”Absolutely no lying”, the Dalai Lama called Jesus a liar, who taught false hood, according to Buddhism. According to the Dalai Lama, Jesus was enlightened but knowing told lies, Himself being the Son of God and God being personal, both which contradict Buddhist teaching. So either Jesus lied, or was a lunatic. In the last line of the quote, the Dalai Lama basically says the lying was justified because the “motivation was to help people”. Trying to fit Jesus into Buddhist doctrines does not work, because Buddhism and Christianity are not compatible.

As every soul in this world likes, "Let there be peace and harmony everywhere"

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