Rev. Danny Fisher

This from the Associated Press:

Representatives of the Dalai Lama headed to Beijing on Monday for the first formal talks with Chinese officials in a year, the Tibetan government-in-exile said, a move that comes less than four months after anti-government riots swept through Tibet.

Envoys Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen will hold two days of talks beginning Tuesday in China’s capital, said Samdhong Rinpoche, the prime minister of the self-declared government in exile.

“This will be the continuation of the formal dialogue which started in 2002,” Rinpoche said in Dharmsala, the north Indian city which is home to the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader and the government-in-exile.

The meetings follow closed-door, informal talks May 4 in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. The talks ended with an offer from Beijing for future discussions, but yielded scant other concrete results.

The Dalai Lama’s envoys have attended several rounds of talks with China since 2002. Specific details of those discussions have not been released, but they are believed to have focused on the Dalai Lama’s demands for more autonomy.

China has been blamed for using excessive force in quelling anti-government riots and protests in Tibet that began in March. Some experts believe Beijing is agreeing to a fresh round of discussions to ease international pressure and criticism ahead of the Olympic Games that begin Aug. 8 in China.

“Many Tibetans put a great weight on news of these talks and there’s some evidence that people inside Tibet will be generally reluctant to stage protests when there is still hope in this process,” said Robbie Barnett, an expert in modern Tibet at Columbia University.

The Dalai Lama’s office issued a news release welcoming the talks.

“His Holiness the Dalai Lama has instructed the envoys to make every effort to bring about tangible progress to alleviate the difficult situation for Tibetans in their homeland,” the statement said.

Pressure has been growing on both sides to improve relations in the wake of the riots and protests that hit the Tibetan capital of Lhasa and other areas of China with Tibetan populations.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who ended two days of talks in China on Monday, urged China to sincerely engage the Dalai Lama.

Rice said she was encouraged by the new round of talks seeking a long-term resolution of problems in the Himalayan territory, which has been ruled by Beijing with an iron fist since communist troops invaded more than half a century ago.

“We think he’s a very positive figure in dealing with the very difficult issue of Tibet,” Rice said.

The Dalai Lama hoped the talks “will contribute in resolving the long simmering issue through dialogue in the interest of stability, unity and harmony of all nationalities in the People’s Republic of China,” the statement said.

The University of South Carolina Press has just published my dad’s new book Understanding Tony Kushner. It’s his third book on the subject of the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter, though he’s written much, much more about him in the form of articles, reviews, and so on.

Tony’s work, which includes Angels in America and Homebody/Kabul, has meant a lot to my whole family. My father’s production of Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches at Wabash College more than ten years ago was an important moment in our family’s history, I think–though it certainly affected him the most. (Dad wrote about his struggles during the production for The NEA Higher Education Journal.) And on top of being an out-of-control genius, Tony is an extraordinarily kind and caring guy. He’s been a good friend to my dad, as well as my mother, my sister, and me. (In fact, Tony was the first person I told about my acceptance to Naropa University some years ago.)

I think about Tony and his work often. One of my very first posts at this blog was about my reaction to Steven Spielberg’s startlingly brilliant film Munich, which earned Tony an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. And just yesterday I quoted him in my post for Gay Pride Week.

I’ve read a chunk of my dad’s new book and hope to finish the rest in the next day or two. It’s a terrific, accessible read. If you’re interested in Tony and his work, this is the book for you. Check it out.

I was delighted to find that Deborah Solomon had interviewed Bob Thurman for the latest issue of the New York Times Magazine. Here’s their conversation:

As a professor of Buddhist studies at Columbia University and the first American to be ordained as a Tibetan monk, you don’t need to be reminded that the people of Tibet want to reclaim their country from China. Why won’t the Chinese give it back?

The Chinese have been brainwashing their people into thinking that Tibet is an inalienable part of their territory. No Chinese people lived in Tibet before 1950. Zero. It’s absurd they claim that they were there.

We should point out that you’re a friend of the Dalai Lama and your new book is called “Why the Dalai Lama Matters.” Does he ever visit you at your apartment in Manhattan?

He used to come to my house in the old days, but nowadays the State Department is all over him, so he stays in a high-security hotel. I get a handshake and a hug in the hall.

Why do you think President Hu of China keeps denouncing the Dalai Lama and has not met with him?

Fear. The only reason I see is fear.

Do they actually need to meet? Can’t they just talk on the phone?

They haven’t given the Dalai Lama the number. The Dalai Lama would definitely call.

What do you say to Tibetan dissidents who feel that the Dalai Lama needs to be more aggressive with Beijing?

I think he’s been a bit too appeasement-oriented myself.

Yet, like him, you recommend autonomy for Tibet as opposed to complete independence, which would leave the country within Chinese borders.

The Tibetans have been oppressed for almost 60 years. It’s not practical to demand independence at this time.

In a recent article Slavoj Zizek argued that the Tibetans are not necessarily a spiritual people — that we’ve created that myth out of a need to imagine an alternative to our crazy Western consumerism.

Zizek is simply misinformed. It’s leftist propaganda meant to legitimize China’s aggression in Tibet.

As a Buddhist, how do you reconcile your pacifism with the roles your daughter Uma has played in films like Quentin Tarantino’s bloody “Kill Bill”?

Quentin is kind of obsessed, he’s a wild guy. But he is very brilliant. We trust that his motive is to show people the foolishness of violence rather than to glorify it. I hope that’s true.

You initially discovered Buddhism after leaving your first wife, Christophe de Menil, of the art-collecting clan, and running off to India.

Actually, she divorced me. She didn’t want to go with me to India to seek enlightenment.

Has Buddhism become more accepted in America since the early ’60s, when you first embraced it?

People still think the Buddha was some weirdo who said, “Life is suffering.”

What do you think about when you meditate?

Usually, some form of trying to excavate any kind of negative thing cycling in the mind and turn it toward the positive. For example, when I am annoyed with Dick Cheney, I meditate on how Dick Cheney was my mother in a previous life and nursed me at his breast.

You mean you fantasize about being breast-fed by Dick Cheney?

It’s a fantasy of releasing fear and developing affection. It’s a way of coming back to feeling grateful toward him and seeing his positive side, finding the mother in Dick Cheney.

What would Freud say about that?

Freud would freak out. He would say, “Well, you are seeking the oceanic feeling of the baby in the womb.” Infantile regression — that’s what he thought the quest for enlightenment was.

When I want to feel compassion for an unlikable person, I imagine him as someone’s adored son. Some lamas do that. They say that that’s easier for Americans, because often Americans have personality problems with their moms.

Do you consider yourself enlightened?

Someone who goes around saying, “I’m enlightened,” is almost categorically not.

Incidentally, “Buddha Bob” has something to celebrate today: the engagement of his daughter. Mazel Tov, sir!

As you probably know, Gay Pride events are happening across America this month. In celebration of these events, I would like to reiterate here that I’m a GLBTQI ally and a supporter of same-sex marriage.

I’ve written before at this blog about my feeling that a ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. As I said in a post from a year ago, I am not a lawyer, but it certainly seems obvious to me that legislation such as the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act violates the Full Faith and Credit Clause and probably other crucial parts of the Constitution. Indeed, such legislation sets a very dangerous precedent: Who else might we deny equal protection under the law based on gross prejudice? To refuse gay couples the right to marry is dehumanizing, and it threatens all of our civil rights.

I urge you to attend Gay Pride events in your nearest city, as well as show your support for the legalization of same-sex marriage here.

“The world only spins forward. We will be citizens. The time has come. Bye now. You are fabulous creatures, each and every one, and I bless you. More life, the great work begins.” – the last lines of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika