Dalai Lama is not a separatist: Archbishop Tutu

[Positive Change]

I came across this article from HHDL website and found it interesting yet conflicting. With no disrespect to HHDL, I wonder if Archbishop Desmond Tutu or his wife knows about the ban? Surely that in itself would constitute THE ultimate separatist act. Or is that seen as exercising one's spiritual leadership and wanting what is best for the people? Sounds rather one sided in the opinion polls doesn't it. Do have a read and of course, being in HHDL website, it is on a very positive tone! Kudos to the PR team behind it!

So much conflict, so much conflicting information, how much more confusion before we can all go our merry way to enlightenment? Sigh!


February 10th 2012

Dharamsala, HP, India, 10 February 2012 (The Hindustan Times) - He has no army, he cannot command his people with guns and he's not a separatist.

South African anti-apartheid icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu said these words to the Chinese while referring to Tibetan spiritual leader and fellow Nobel laureate the Dalai Lama here on Friday.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his wife Leah walking with His Holiness the Dalai Lama to the Main Tibetan Temple in Dharamsala, India, on February 10, 2012. Photo/Tenzin Choejor/OHHDL
"I want to say to the Chinese government that His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the most peace-loving person on this earth. I want to say to the Chinese government that the Dalai Lama has no army, he cannot command his people with guns, he's not a separatist," Tutu said at a public ceremony organised by the Tibetan government-in-exile on his visit.
Seeking more autonomy for the people of Tibet, Tutu said: "Please, you leaders in Beijing, we beg you, allow Tibet to be what the constitution of the People's Republic of China commits. The constitution allows for autonomy and that is all His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his people want."

"We beg you and at the same time remind you too that this is a moral universe. There is no way in which injustice, oppression and evil can ever have the last word," the former archbishop said in his message to the Chinese leadership.

To the Tibetan people, he said: "We will visit you in Tibet. We will enter a free Tibet."

Long-time friend of the Dalai Lama, Tutu came to Dharamsala to meet him.

Expressing a gesture of friendship, the elderly Buddhist monk specially visited the Gaggal airport, 15 km from his official palace at McLeodganj, to receive Tutu in the morning.

"I welcome a great person today. He is a great and world-renowned personality," the Dalai Lama said in his welcome address.

"He's a person who strongly advocates the importance of love, compassion and equality. Even in his own country South Africa, he along with Nelson Mandela has worked wholeheartedly through non-violence for equal rights and genuine democracy," he said.

"The most important thing is that, even after the victory of democracy and equal rights in his country, uneasy feelings of animosity and ill-will have remained within people. Archbishop Tutu has made special efforts to reconcile the people and do away with the feelings of unease and ill-will towards each other."


His Holiness the Dalai Lama thanking his good friend  Archbishop Desmond Tutu for his support during the felicitation ceremony in Dharamsala, India, on February 10, 2012.
Photo/Tenzin Choejor/OHHDL
The Dalai Lama appealed to his fellow Nobel laureate to pray for the well-being of Tibetans suffering repression in Tibet.
"Tibetans are passing through a difficult period. Our sophisticated and compassionate Tibetan culture is really facing a lot of difficulty," the elderly monk said.

"Another thing is that, he works tirelessly for truth, honesty and equality. He doesn't see any differences. Wherever there is abuse of human rights or people's freedom is being snatched away, be it Burma or Tibet, he is always the first person to speak against it," the Dalai Lama said about Tutu.

In October, the globe-trotting monk had called off his South Africa visit as it was "inconvenient" for the government there to grant him a visa as it had close ties with China.

He was invited by Tutu on the latter's 80th birthday.

The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in India since he fled Tibet during a failed uprising in 1959. He favours "greater autonomy" for Tibetans rather than complete independence.

Chinese leaders have, however, called him a separatist who wants Tibet to secede from China.

[hope rainbow]

Interesting indeed to put side by side a Dalai Lama that is not separatist, but yet that does segregate Dorje Shugden practitioners...

Again, there is more than meet the eyes here, and the ban on Dorje Shugden together with the "non-separatisme" with China, yet with greater autonomy are NOT contradictory.
It is pointing to a future in which Tibet will remain part of China while China embraces the teachings of Lama Tsongkhapa in full swing. China has embraced them for centuries, but is now time to do so on a large scale.
Tibet will be the spiritual seat of China, and honestly, I believe that this is a much better option than a Tibet administrated on its own (that is my personal opinion).

There is no turning back to how Tibet was in 1950, things change, call it impermanence.
So rather than stay glued to a long gone past and become depressed and nostalgic, let's embrace the future and spread the Dharma.

If you are Tibetan, then maybe you'll be chinese in your next life and you can practice Tibetan buddhism... That is if you create causes for that in this life... Let's think about that for a short while...

[Galen]

His Holiness the Dalai Lama thanking his good friend  Archbishop Desmond Tutu for his support during the felicitation ceremony in Dharamsala, India, on February 10, 2012.
Photo/Tenzin Choejor/OHHDL
The Dalai Lama appealed to his fellow Nobel laureate to pray for the well-being of Tibetans suffering repression in Tibet.
"Tibetans are passing through a difficult period. Our sophisticated and compassionate Tibetan culture is really facing a lot of difficulty," the elderly monk said.

[/i]

Don't you think this is a contradiction on what the Dalai Lama said. He has appealed to Tutu to pray for the well-being of Tibetans who are repressed but the Dalai Lama he himself is repressing the Tibetans who are practicing Dorje Shugden. Dorje Shugden practitioners could not have a normal life even in their existing communities. They have already lost their country, now they could not even have basic human rights.

Doesn't the Dalai Lama realises that he is the contributing factor to the Tibetan culture facing a lot of difficulty. Maybe Tutu should ask his dear friend on how he has discriminated his own people because of different practices.

[hope rainbow]

The Dalai Lama has created great difficulties for many Tibetans because of the ban, great difficulties for both lay people and monks.

Yet He has also created a terrain from which the Tibetan in Tibet proper will experience rebirth of their spiritual practice through the practice of Dorje Shugden.
And this not only for Tibetans but also for the whole Chinese nation, for the whole of South-East Asia following the growth of China and even for further countries such as in Africa where China is well established.

I pray for the ban to dissipate very soon now so that those that suffer greatly under it may not be segregated anymore.