Posted on 05/30/2004 6:00:12 PM PDT by O.C. - Old Cracker
LONDON (Reuters) - The Dalai Lama said on Monday he had been shocked by U.S. soldiers abusing prisoners in Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison, according to Britain's Guardian newspaper.
"America generally we consider a champion of liberty, justice -- these things -- so then for something such as this to happen, we regard as shocking," said the exiled leader of Tibet's Buddhists.
The aging monk is on a week-long visit to Britain, drawing large crowds to his lectures, but he will not meet Prime Minister Tony Blair.
He said Tibetans had much experience of abuse at the hands of their Chinese occupiers: "A lot of torture, a lot of abuse, sexual abuse."
Chinese troops imposed Communist rule on Tibet in 1950 and the Dalai Lama fled nine years later after a failed uprising. China claims Tibet as part of its territory and accuses the Buddhist monk of separatist activities.
Photographs and videotapes of the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison have battered President Bush's election-year approval ratings, alienated public sentiment in the Arab world and even sparking protests from allies in the U.S.-led coalition.
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05/30/2004 20:20
He travels over here a lot; he's a big name on the liberal guest lists and a regular in Hollywood. I guess he likes the free meals.
He likes to laugh a lot too.
I'm sure it's just because he's constantly in mourning over his repressed people back home.
You need to do a little more reading. Buddhism is not a "new age" religion. The concept of right behavior is pretty close to Christian values in such things as "Love your Neighbor", value of chastity in monks, prohibitions on alcohol, theft, envy, adultry, murder, honesty, equality, etc.
Whereas, since we generally consider Arabs and Muslims to be barbarians and savages, we are never shocked to hear of any new atrocity committed by Arabs or Muslims, so we don't need to mention it. Of course the fact that speaking out against Arab atrocities could possibly be dangerous, it is far safer to mouth off about the one country in the world that had the courage or will to do something.
I wonder if His Holiness knows how racist he sounds when he says something like that.
The Dalai Lama and Richard Gere no doubt do not object to these practices!
Your statement shows a great deal of ignorance. Try reading something about the history of Tibet and the Dalai Lama. Read some of the writings of the Dalai Lama and judge for yourself. Many people who would never accept Tibetan Buddhism as their personal religion nevettheless find him a very impressive person. I recommend the Dalai Lama's autobiography where he tells what it was like to be selected at the age of four, to be trained and raised in a series of palaces in a remote country, to negotiate with Mao at the age of 19 and subsequently to barely escape with his life from the invading Chinese.
I had understood that they were "Red Hat" or Mahayani.
......Did he condemn Saddam.....
My thought exactly. It's amazing to me how these religious leaders, including the Pope, criticized the war and now the abuse by a few soliers but I can't recall that they spoke out against Saddam killing and maiming his own people...including innocent men, women and children.
I have found Dali Lama's secret to life...which everyone knows is a great putting stroke.
Dalai, like Fidel, is a day late and a dollar short. Old news. Makes these jerkoffs johnnie come latelys.
Yeah..its open season on the Yanks. F' 'em all.
I had understood that they were "Red Hat" or Mahayani.
I stand corrected, they are Geluk.
Tibetan Buddhism has five main schools (the suffix pa means sect):
Nyingma(pa), The Ancient Ones, the oldest and original school founded by Padmasambhava himself
Kadam(pa) (no longer existent although efforts to revitalize it are present in the Buddhist community)
Kagyu(pa), Oral Lineage, headed by the Karmapa
Sakya(pa), Grey Earth
Geluk(pa), Way of Virtue, also known as Yellow Hats, whose spiritual head is the Ganden Tripa and whose temporal head is the Dalai Lama, who was ruler of Tibet from the mid-17th to mid-20th centuries.
See Post #26
Me too. Only sometimes Dolly Parton sneaks into my thoughts,
and my imagination runs rampant......
Then he needs to share his secret, I've been cursed for years
Well, not everyone reads FR. They just don't have the information necessary to make wise decisions.
RICCOLAAAAAAA!
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