Rev. Danny Fisher

This courtesy of Tibet Will Be Free: Elie Wiesel and twenty-five other Nobel laureates have spoken out about Tibet, condemning the Chinese govement’s violent crackdown on Tibetan protestors.

“We protest the unwarranted campaign waged by the Chinese government against our fellow Nobel laureate, His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” the group said in a statement released by Wiesel.

Wiesel told The Associated Press that the group wanted renewed negotiations between China and the Dalai Lama, who won the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize.

“The latest events are dramatic and the main thing is to stop the present oppression, persecution and violence,” Wiesel said.
“I don’t understand the Chinese hierarchy there,” he added. “Why are they afraid of Tibet?”

[...]

Wiesel, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, said he is close friends with the Dalai Lama and that the Tibetan leader has repeatedly said he is not asking for a sovereign independent Tibet. “All he wants is religious and cultural autonomy,” Wiesel said.

That autonomy, the statement said, “is fundamental to the preservation of the ancient Tibetan heritage.”

When asked what he would do if the Chinese did not agree to talks, Wiesel said: “If they don’t agree and the violence goes on we will have to ask for more, maybe the reconsideration of the Olympics … but we are not there yet.”

Wiesel said it was not the time for the international community to take actions such as boycotts. But he said pressure for peace and dialogue is needed until we “hear reports from the Tibetan themselves that all has been restored and the prisons are opened.”

This courtesy of Phil Ryan over at the Tricycle Editors’ Blog: In his blog for the New York Times, Nicholas D. Kristof writes that the Save Darfur Coalition has been experiencing “sophisticated Internet attacks” originating in China. In addition, Eric Reeves’ website and Dream for Darfur have reported similar attacks.

The Darfur advocacy community has tried to shame China into suspending arms transfers to Sudan and taking other steps to get Sudan to stop slaughtering its citizens. This has enraged the Chinese authorities, and that may explain these web attacks. The Chinese government has put resources into high-tech Internet warfare, and thus the government is suspect, but it’s also plausible that the hackers are ordinary Chinese citizens who feel patriotic and are indignant at foreigners besmirching the reputation of the Beijing Olympics. When I wrote recently about “The Genocide Olympics,” I had tons of indignant comments from ordinary Chinese.

Kristof also includes this excerpt from a recent Save Darfur Coalition press statement:

The Save Darfur Coalition met this week with special agents from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations to report increasing I.T. attacks on coalition systems – attacks which appear to originate in China and primarily target and probe the coalition’s aggressive China advocacy efforts to bring peace and security to Darfur. As the coalition’s China advocacy campaign has intensified, officials have noticed increasingly sophisticated and subversive attempts to intercept emails and infect computers with malicious programs. During the meeting with FBI officials, the coalition provided technical information and offered a detailed account of the recent attacks.

“This year has not been a good one for Beijing,” said coalition president Jerry Fowler. “The closer we are to the Olympics, the more scrutiny is applied to China’s obstructive role on Darfur and their overactive attempts to deflect pressure. By attacking our computer systems, someone in Beijing is clearly trying to send us a message. But they’re mistaken if they think these attacks will end efforts to bring peace and security to Darfur. This is our message to them: stop the violence and suffering in Darfur by ending Khartoum’s defiance.”

The intrusions were first documented when Save Darfur staff members noticed e-mail messages that appeared to have been read by a third party. Further inspection revealed several other sophisticated attacks, which appeared to originate in China and seemed intent on subversively monitoring, probing and disrupting coalition activities. Officials have conducted a full review of their I.T. networks and have also implemented new security measures. These efforts are intended to maximize the security mechanisms in place and thereby protect the coalition’s advocacy campaigns.

All this comes on the heels of news about the “Tibet blackout” in China following the violence in the region and demonstrations that have sprung up in response.

At this difficult moment for the Tibetan people, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama gave forty-five minutes to Newsweek interviewers Melinda Liu and Sudip Mazumdar at the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India. You can read excerpts from the interview here. These are some of the highlights:

NEWSWEEK: Do you think Chinese officials still hope their problems in Tibet will disappear after you pass away?

The Dalai Lama: I don’t know. I totally disagree with the view that the Tibet struggle will die, and there will be no hope for Tibet, after the Dalai Lama passes away. Both inside and outside [Tibet], the older generation may go away, but the newer generations carry the same spirit. Sometimes it’s even stronger. So after my death a younger generation will come up.

[...]

NEWSWEEK: What’s the difference between what’s happening now and the turmoil of the late ’80s in Lhasa?

The Dalai Lama: At that time it was mainly in Lhasa areas. And, yes, it is a factor that images can be seen elsewhere. But it is mainly the [extent of Tibetan] grievances. Today even Tibetan monks in Chinese areas carry Tibetan flags. I am quite surprised [by the prevalence of Tibetan dissatisfaction in areas far from Lhasa]. Now the entire Tibetan people have strong feelings. If [Chinese authorities] truly treated the Tibetans as brothers and sisters and as equals, giving them trust, then this would not happen.

NEWSWEEK: Even privileged Tibetans who are in elite minority universities in Chinese cities such as Beijing and Lanzhou have organized vigils and peaceful protests. Why?

The Dalai Lama: Yes, yes—if they’re not satisfied you can imagine how nomads feel. I occasionally meet affluent Tibetans who are economically sound, who have good housing. I met one such person who first told me he had no worries. Then he confessed [he felt] mental anguish, and then he began to cry. As Tibetans they feel some kind of subtle discrimination by the Chinese.

NEWSWEEK: Are you worried about the possibility of greater violence after you pass away?

The Dalai Lama: Yes, I worry about that. As long as I am alive, I am fully committed to amity between Tibetans and Chinese. Otherwise there’s no use. More importantly, the Tibetan Buddhist cultural heritage can eventually help bring some deeper values to the millions of Chinese youth who are lost in a [moral] vacuum. After all, China is traditionally a Buddhist country.

[...]

NEWSWEEK: Some images of the recent casualties have been graphic and disturbing. Have you seen them? What was your reaction? We heard you wept.

The Dalai Lama: Yes, I cried once. One advantage of belonging to the Tibetan Buddhist culture is that at the intellectual level there is a lot of turmoil, a lot of anxiety and worries, but at the deeper, emotional level there is calm. Every night in my Buddhist practice I give and take. I take in Chinese suspicion. I give back trust and compassion. I take their negative feeling and give them positive feeling. I do that every day. This practice helps tremendously in keeping the emotional level stable and steady. So during the last few days, despite a lot of worries and anxiety, there is no disturbance in my sleep. [Laughs]

This courtesy of The Buddhist Scholars Information Network (H-Buddhism): Access to Insight has added a new translation of the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta by Peter Harvey. As you might know, Harvey is a professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Sunderland. He is also the author of Introduction to Buddhism: History, Teachings and Practices and Introduction to Buddhist Ethics: Foundations, Values and Issues–two must-reads.

The new translation includes a glossary and commentary, as well as a translator’s note from Harvey:

The setting: seven weeks after the Buddha’s enlightenment/awakening, he goes to five former companions that he had previously practiced extreme asceticism with (Vin i 8-10). After trying asceticism, he had given this up for a more moderate approach based on a healthy body and jhāna (mindful, calm and joyful altered states of consciousness based on samādhi (mental unification)). The following is seen as the first teaching he gave to anyone. In other contexts, the Buddha taught the Four Realities for the Noble One(s) to people after first giving them a preparatory discourse to ensure they were in the right frame of mind be able to fully benefit from the teaching:
Then the Blessed One gave the householder Upāli a step-by-step discourse, that is, talk on giving, talk on moral virtue, talk on the heaven worlds; he made known the danger, the inferior nature of and tendency to defilement in sense-pleasures, and the advantage of renouncing them. When the Blessed One knew that the householder Upāli’s mind was ready, open, without hindrances, inspired and confident, then he expounded to him the elevated Dhamma-teaching of the buddhas: dukkha, its origination, its cessation, the path. [M i 379-80]

The four realities taught by the Buddha are not as such things to “believe” but to be open to, see and contemplate, and respond to appropriately: by fully understanding dukkha/pain, abandoning that which originates it, personally experiencing its cessation, and cultivating the path that leads to this.

Do take a look at this insightful new translation of the Buddha’s first and perhaps most important discourse.