I do not see someone who is at peace, free, happy, or calm–some of the fruitional marks of the ordained who have understood and practiced well the Buddha’s teachings. This interviewed monk’s body language is disturbed with twitching stress. This is not a person in charge of his faculties and for that I am deeply sad and deeply sorry. He is my child and I his mother in some life. My heart aches for him.

May all beings and all sides be free of all suffering. The Buddha Dharma belongs to the world, not to one culture or another. If the culture through which it has been well preserved and transmitted to the tiniest segment of the Tibetan population can no longer bear the responsibility of carrying it with integrity, realization (most critically), actual bodhicitta, and the ability to dialogue with those outside of their given clans, it will be carried otherwise, by others in this global arena, because the Buddhas have vowed to come in exactly the forms most needed for our times and in our places, not just in those that were useful or necessary centuries ago, or only those labeled “Buddhist.”

It would be good if those of us who call ourselves Buddhist could apply the Buddhist teachings to this crisis, instead of adding to the growing mountain of hatred and ignorance and misunderstanding. And if we can not do that, maybe we should start more simply, more universally, with the golden rule: Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You.

There are representatives on both sides of this controversy that are guilty of not bringing the highest within human beings to bear on it: heartfelt empathy, respect, love, kindness, listening. Interviews like this are naturally polarizing, and incite more afflictions and boundless delusions.

What we have so much of and which the great Jowo Je Atisha himself fought against nearly a thousand years ago in dealing with the Tibetan people is superstition. So much superstition. And yet the Buddha himself admonished his followers to investigate the Teachings and not accept them out of faith in him, but on the basis of our experience.
I pray that all beings everywhere have access to useful education.

Since no one is willing to listen deeply to the other, we have a continuing crisis evidencing that the practice of the Buddha Dharma is not being carried out.

You are surprised? Outraged? The problem is not the Dharma. The problem is us and our having forgotten ourselves, our choices, our capacity for rational thought, measured behavior, and respect for cause and effect.

I have had to ask myself: Does it increase my virtue to watch these videos, read the words on this site? Does my mind improve by engaging here instead of in study, practice, or service? Am I watching my mind? What is my moment to moment experience in proliferating thoughts about this issue? What is my motivation for coming to this site? Does this site help me cultivate virtuous attitudes and actions?

I could die today having this site be the last thing I saw. Can you imagine? What imprints would I leave this world with and bring to the next?

If Buddha or Je Tsongkhapa were among us today do you seriously think that they would approve of what we are doing in response to this crisis? Would he feel that we were exercising our rights, our leisure and fortune, in the best way?

It is ironic that discussions about protectors and protecting the Dharma have come to this utter chaos. A good way to protect the Dharma might be to study it, practice it well, and to manifest by one’s behavior of body, speech and mind its benefit for ourselves and others.

Think carefully. Lest we all make a mockery of the sacred Dharma. Perhaps it’s too late.