konchog uma

Bump

Here? -- Scarecrows, crooked!

Covered in flocks of blackbirds,

Resigned to dismay.

Tibetans who refuse to fly the Chinese flag above their homes risk being beaten or shot in the latest attempt to break their spirits. But now is the best moment in ages to bring hope to Tibet's proud, but desperate people.

Chinas leaders are mounting an intense campaign to draw a veil over their rights abuses and persuade governments to vote them onto the UN Human Rights Council. So if enough of us shine a light on whats going on in Tibet -- squashing an ancient religion, banning journalists, dawn arrests -- we can get China to back away from its hard-line policy to be sure of getting the 97 votes it needs.

Lets show the Tibetan people that the world hasnt forgotten them. China is feeling the heat as 13 governments just called them out on human rights in Tibet. Sign to stand with Tibet, then share this with everyone. When one million have signed well deliver it to critical UN delegations, and make it massive in the media:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_tibet_loc/?toFOQdb

Pressure on China is mounting. In an unprecedentedly strong show of support, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, US, UK, Switzerland, Sweden, Iceland and Austria just called on China to protect freedom of assembly, religion and association in Tibet. This request arrives just days after a Spanish court indicted China's former President for genocide in Tibet!

The situation is really dire. More than 120 people have taken their own lives by setting themselves on fire to protest the suffocation of the Chinese occupation and hundreds of thousands of Tibetans have been wiped out. China's ongoing policies systematically suppress the Tibetan language, force people from their homes, and strictly control the Tibetans' movement and religion.

Chinas failed policies hurt China too, but having dug themselves in this deep, they need pressure to change course. This is the week that change can start. If enough of us speak up while China is under the global microscope, we can make sure our governments know we havent forgotten Tibet. Sign now and tell everyone -- let's build the biggest petition ever for Tibet and demand they hold China to account:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_tibet_loc/?toFOQdb

Proud Tibetans are struggling against China's brutal rule and long for change, but they cant do it alone. No one can create changes that big alone.

Thats why we've come together for Tibet before. Let's make this the moment where the whole world commits to the survival of the Tibetan people.

With hope,

Ben, Alice, Patricia, Alex, Ricken, Emily, Sayeeda and the whole Avaaz team

SOURCES

UN criticises China's rights record at Geneva meeting (BBC)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-24611657

Dalai Lama Says China Has Turned Tibet Into a Hell on Earth (New York Times)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/world/asia/11tibet.html

Spain probes Hu Jintao 'genocide' in Tibet court case (BBC)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24490004

Four Tibetans Shot Dead as Protests Spread in Driru County (Radio Free Asia)

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/shoot-10112013200735.html

China denounces Spanish court's Tibet case against ex-president (Reuters)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/14/us-china-spain-tibet-idUSBRE99D09120131014

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xehca_cky-skeletor-vs-beastman_music

the highest wisdom of skeletor

thats one of the most helpful things Malcolm has said if you ask me

i have been studying Tibetan with my lama for the last 3 months, its an awesome language, and i look forward to understanding Tibetan terminology and reading texts.

I'm sure some people are convinced that they can learn from books, and english books, without transmission or really understanding Tibetan, but what I have learned about Tibetan > English translation already has convinced me that its hard enough to grok in a dharma language like Tibetan, and the translations, even cross comparing different translations to try to get a more developed idea about what is being talked about, is next to hopeless, and won't lead to accurate understanding in almost all instances of important concepts. Most people don't really understand rigpa and sems as I have heard and read rinpoches talk about them in english, and the rest of it is even more obscure and generally mangled.

Thanks for quoting that, I was going to do it, but I didn't want to jump in to this thread (or really any other about dzogchen, the natural state, mahamudra, etc) I really appreciate it.

Just finished Dakini's Warm Breath - The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism and wish there was more to read, even though now i can read the other few books i am working on.

DWB is scholarly without being overly erudite, in other words, remaining warm and accessible at the same time as it is based mostly on classic resources, and Judith Simmer-Brown's interviews with lama's, monks, nuns, etc. Some books i have seen on Tibetan Buddhism and feminism are overly erudite, and some are by feminists with a victim complex, which, while it may be justified from a certain POV, is not the approach that Judith Simmer-Brown takes with this book. She writes about the issue honestly and openly but ultimately from an empowered perspective, citing both the positive and negative aspects of femininity within Tibetan Buddhism with equal clarity.

great book, highly recommend, inserted some very healthy energy into my view and practice

they don't go to war

my heart and mind, fast allies

laugh until i cry

to aid digestion

some birds eat bits of gravel

i like ginger though

Seems like a lot of wives...

I've heard 14 wives, but even that is about a new wife every 15 years. My gf thinks he was stealing their energy if that info is correct, and that the spirits wouldn't let him live til 500+ cause he was an incubus. Either that or he had a thing for 65 year olds (bucking the immortal trend of having a thing for 16 year olds).

btw my girlfriends opinion is completely tongue in cheek and i am only repeating it here cause i think its funny and maybe even possible, but not to garner any kind of commentary in response.

glad you noticed Brian, that detail has always stood out of his story for me. I found (on microfiche) a copy of the NYT article from the early 1900s in which that photo appears, and it says he came down to celebrate his 255th birthday. It said that nobody believed him until he started to ask their names, and then tell them stories about their ancestors who he knew 255 years ago, to their universal amazement. I think that version is the one that said he had 14 wives. Of course, we'll never know the details of his life, and masters like that often conceal the truth if they reveal anything at all about themselves, but personally i believe such longevity is quite possible for someone who dedicates their life to it.

Just wanted to take a moment to second everything that hagar said here, especially that it sounds really normal. Since he said it all so well, I will not add much except to say thank you h for the great advice. Everyone who starts meditating enough to effect these sorts of changes should read this thread. Also just to mention that some sort of "dark night of the soul" is a phenomenon that most serious meditators have to go through at some point, its healing, and its better on the other side of it.

i snatch out the flame

as noble Prometheus

once did long ago

lots more at the mall

than at the monastery

to use as practice

now we cast a spell

to fasten our hearts themselves

to the light we seek

the natural state is almost universally experienced as expansive, spacious, even blissful, without grasping or fixation, just resting in the nature of what is, as it is. so the practical application is one of peace and being without the usual illusions like that we are seperate from all else, or (building on that) somehow more important lol. even that we matter at all. on the contrary, i find it very pacifying to realize that i don't matter one bit and that when i am gone life will go on as it has gone on for eternity already. so anyway, stuff like that, happiness and peace. compassion comes with the dropping of the illusion of seperation, all the virtues and blisses of attainment that inspire us to practice at all just arise naturally when one abides in the natural state.

natural state is there before needing to define anything to look for. definitions and looking aren't the way to the natural state. its called natural because its just the state of your mind, before you elaborate on that by trying to define it, so its kind of an experiential thing for me, moreso than something i would like to share any quotes or philosophy about.

Gorgeous

For example you can use *open bracket* then IMG then *closed bracket* with no spaces before that link, and then the same with /IMG after it to embed that picture in your post

In the same format zhongyongdaoist used it would look like

([)img]http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/1291131680_two-thumbs-up.jpg[/img]

Which comes out in a post like this (when used w/out parenthesis)

I just got a copy of Clear Mirror.

I'll look into Tonglen with more intent though. There's bound to be some fuel there.

Its not actually suffering in another's stead, but its a great practice. I do it all the time and there is no suffering on my part. On the contrary it generates compassion and kindness, which feel great.

Alwayson both Buddha and Jesus Christ love you. They also love each other too. Just say "Go away!" to Satan. You are a good man.

please stop.

Btw. Red faced demons comes from the Tibetans. They would paint red spots on their cheeks before battle. Also their creation myth says they come from a red monkey and a red demoness.

 

We're both team India.

haha padmasambhava called the Tibetans "red faced demons" in Yeshe Tsogyal's account of his life.. maybe he was racist too!!

i guess team india wins

it's just a haircut

said the executioner

axe in hand, smiling

there's only one way to settle this... a cricket match!

Not the Council of Nicea in 325. Emperor Justinian in 545. And he didn't change the Bible, but enforced one particular interpretation, seeing as the Bible doesn't explicitly say one way or another. Even Sweedenborg, who had visions of Christ explaining the afterlife to him, didn't teach reincarnation. An example of a Biblical argument against reincarnation comes from Hebrews 9:27 "it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment". But all well researched Western accounts of reincarnation that I have seen state that after death there is a lengthy process of existing on the other side, beginning with a life review stage aka the judgement, before (potentially, if needed) coming back. This is consistent with the Bible as far I am concerned.

 

Anyway, regarding the original article, if the Gospel accounts are fictional it certainly was not Romans who composed them.

thanks for the clarification. After revisiting the matter more deeply, i have to say i stand corrected. much appreciated.

seems that i was under the impression of a common myth. Reincarnation is found in the books of the Kaballah and generally accepted by hasidic Jews, and there are numerous resources about gilgul / gilgulim from wikipedia to online jewish libraries. So i still think that even though i had my precise facts wrong, the point that i bring up stands. i appreciate the correction though.