I think people confuse "Buddhist" teachings with “human nature.” So, I’m not sure where your getting the stereotype of Buddhists? As a Buddhist and a former Christian I know all to well the carnal nature of human beings, and I for one have never presumed to be "non-violent by default." Though each person can have innate characteristics to their own nature, not related to religion.

Same with any religion, it’s not always the faith, but human nature that causes the problems. Faith if practiced can be good for some people. It’s like every one thinks that Muslims or Islam followers are terrorist, but terrorism goes against Islamic teachings. That’s my understanding.

I think I might be missing the part where “Western” media is biased toward Buddhist people. As a Buddhist, I do know that Buddhist communities have fought bloody wars for political reasons, but that’s just the point, it’s political, not the Buddhist teachings itself.

Not all Tibetans practice Tibetan Buddhism, and that is my understanding. Tibetan Buddhism also carries with it some practices of the Tibetan Bonpo practice. Buddhists around the world practice Buddhism, but they some times practice other things, and some Buddhist practices have absorbed into it the indigenous teachings of the region they are practiced in. If I go to Japan they may do some thing different than other places like Tibet, or India. Buddhist basic teaching is a pacifist teaching, whether people want to practice it or not. Only half of the Buddhist practitioners around the world actually practice vegetarianism, as they are suppose to, and in the United States that number is even less than half. This is human nature, not Buddhist teaching.

I’m not trying to glorify the Buddhist practitioner; my intent is only to clarify Buddhist teaching from human nature. In fact, if everyone was a Buddhist and actually practiced doing no harm we would be living in a better world, but that’s not the way it is. To many people are greedy, whether that is political, financial or materialistic greed.

Also, a lot of Buddhist’s don’t get involved in politics, but then a lot of them do. I think Buddhist’s should get involved in politics. Why? In American we have many other religious organizations getting involved in politics and that makes for an imbalance. I once questioned a local temple why they don’t speak up on certain political issues, and I was told because it’s against the law. This is true, but how do we account for the other faiths getting involved? Either the law should be enforced or every one should be allowed.

Anyway, my issue is the confusion of Buddhist teachings and human nature. When people commit violent acts against others, that is not a Buddhist teaching, it is human nature. Buddhism teaches me to do no harm to any sentient being, and as a human I do my best to practice that teaching.

Also, in many other countries a person can be a Buddhist practitioner and practice Christianity, Islam, Taoism or any other teaching. So, I’m confused why the Tibetan Buddhist’s would treat a Chinese Hui Muslim like you have said? [For clarification, most Hui are similar to Han Chinese, other than headwear and some dietary practices, and who are different from the Uygher Islamic's in Northwestern areas, who are Turkic people.] Though in some countries for example, in the US a Christian would disparage a Buddhist and call them devil worshipers, though not all of them would do that.

Perhaps it’s not about the Buddhism or the Muslim, but a deeper problem between the Hui Chinese and the Tibetan people, not necessarily Buddhism itself, and perhaps the cultural aspects of Tibetan culture, which also happens to be part of the Tibetan Buddhist practices and Bonpo practices, but I don’t know enough about either to warrant disputing it on it’s behalf.

None of this would change my mind about the Tibetan issue with China. It’s not just the a Tibetan issue either. The Chinese Communist Party has created all sorts of issues in the whole region and not just for Tibetan’s, but different Chinese ethnic groups as well. If the Chinese government can do that to their own Han Chinese people, how much more to the Tibetan people?

Every country has its problems. We all know that the Tibetan country before the Chinese invasion was feudal, but China was feudal as well, so the claim that Tibet was backwards doesn’t legitimize any grounds for another country to invade it.

China had its slaves too, and I say that because this seems to be the popular anti-western media point of view. What is considered “western” media? India currently has an untouchable class of people, are they the Western media? I don’t think “Western” media is the villain, sure it has problems and if they make mistakes those mistakes can be challenged. China’s media can’t be challenged because third parties are not allowed to go in and verify their claims, what the Communist Party Media say’s is golden, and any one speaking out against it will suffer.

Some of what you bring up sounds like a repeat of Michael Parenti’s Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth

Here is a rebuttal: A Lie Repeated – The Far Left’s Flawed History of Tibet

I have a problem trying to believe the communist party claims, when they do not allow independent parties to verify those claims, but "Western" media can have independent verifiable information, and even disputes. I also have an issue with the pro-communist party people who try to tell every one that they know what is better for the Tibetan people. Knowing the number of refugees is enough information for me to believe that something is wrong with the communist parties rule over Tibet.

As for the Tibetan people attacking the shops, that aren’t unique to Lhasa, in fact, that would happen in other parts of the world as well. Specifically marking it as unique to Tibet because of Tibetan Buddhism isn’t fare. When people have problems and those problems grow as a result of them not being resolved, then people will find some one to blame. The Chinese in Tibet are part of that un resolved issue of favoritism by the Chinese communist party who has built businesses and governments in Lhasa. To get a job in Lhasa, you have to test for it in Chinese, not the native Tibetan language, so Tibetans have a harder time getting jobs favored for Chinese speakers. The Tibetans are force to disown their own language to a foreign Chinese language in order to get a job in their own land. Imagine if England forced Hong Kong to only educate in English.

Example, in California, I have no problem with Californian’s speaking multiple languages, nor do I have a problem with the government respecting those various languages including Chinese by creating documents for them to read and test on. The problem is with a few English speakers who find an issue that isn’t even related, like the loss of jobs, who end up blaming the loss of jobs on Hispanic workers. Then call on California to be an English only state. They want to blame the Hispanic people for every little problem they have, though the Tibetan issue is different and not comparable. In Tibet, the Chinese rulling communist party favors the Chinese language over the Tibetan language. Perhaps the problem would not have escalated in March if the communist party would have tested for jobs in the Tibetan language or allowed for better education of the Tibetan language to Tibetan children, since many of the Tibetan schools have been closed to Tibetan children by the communist party.

Also, you failed to mention that the communist party instigated the riots, not to mention masquerading as Tibetans or is that another alleged "western" media bias?

I feel the issue is a larger issue than simply Buddhists attacking Muslims or the BBC alleging that Tibetan’s are mono ethnics because they know one of the Emperors married a Nepalese and a Chinese, but that was around the 7th century. Sounds like a simple educational course for the BBC or why would they perpetuate it because it doesn’t to any service to the Tibetan people.

I have a hard time believing the claims of taking out eyes and torturing some one so bad that they can’t do their work, but it’s plausible. Though, I doubt they are the teachings of Buddha, though I’m not an expert on Buddhist teachings. I do know that there are “god” images in Tibetan Buddhism, but I understand them to represent the spirit within all of us, and other symbols are only symbolic to the practice. Perhaps Shangri-La is “American” Tibetan Buddhist thinking because even in America Buddhism changed to suit the Western culture and that may be the “Shangri-la” they know, and when we visit Tibet we’re given the Chinese view.

Central Government’s Propaganda Department
http://www.studentsforafreetibet.org/article.php?id=423

History doesn’t have anything to do with today’s practices. We also have to understand that other cultures may not have viewed slavery as wrong. Some cultures today still practice things that Westerners would think disturbing, but within that culture it’s normal. Some people eat dogs and cats and use their fur on items that come to America, and I find that disturbing, but to those people it’s part of their way.

The 1.2million Tibetan’s and the statistics are taken from the “tar” region of Tibet, so the numbers from what I understand do not include the numbers from the claimed regions of U’sang, Amado and Kham where the Chinese have migrated to. Chinese statistics as I understand only counted the “tar” region There are also claims of forced abortion on the Tibetan’s.

Chinese policy on the Tibetan people is two child, not three.
http://www.freetibet.org/info/facts/fact6.html

He spoke about karma, and I understand karma as he mentioned, however, you can still change karma here and now. Buddhism also has the belief that if you harm others you will create bad karma on yourself, so if those monks and lamas did do harm on other’s they have created bad karma for themselves. They’ll have what’s coming to them. When Indo-Buddhism came to Tibet from India it absorbed into the indigenous belief system of Bonpo, which uses a form of black and white shamanism. The black Bonpo is the darker side, and those “gods” had to submit to Buddhism, so they tried to do away with the darker side of Bonpo. It’s plausible some of the Tibetan people still practice it, as many other cultures still practice their own systems outside of Buddhism. The Dalai Lama has also told the Tibetan people not to riot, and older monks tried to calm down the younger monks, he doesn’t condone the violence, but he’s also said that some times wars are necessary if the situation is extreme. Those are his views, and as a leader of the Tibetan people he has to be strong, otherwise the whole of Tibet, and its people can be exterminated. I don’t blame them for rioting and releasing that long held internal anger.

The citations are all after 1959, and I looked at the names of the authors with only a few having a Tibetan names, so I’m a bit uneasy about taking the torture claims verbatim because I understand that the communist government destroyed much of the Tibet’s library’s and history. They could also be isolated incidences. Stories can be created to suit the needs of the oppressors, especially after 1959, but I suppose a lot of other countries create stories as well in order to support their claims. I can’t help but wonder if some of these claims were created to help support the communist government with it’s own peoples views and to fill in the spaces of information they destroyed, much like Hitler did when he tried to create a story of German supremacy.

I know that there were other’s who have gone and lived in Tibet long before the communists invaded, and I have not heard of any story’s like these from earlier visitors to Tibet or from those who chose to live in Tibet and married Tibetan people.

Monks are human beings and they will fall into traps of egoism and greed, and those are things we all need to watch out for.

The problem is not Buddhism; the humans create these problems. Other faiths have their problems through out history because of the people, not the faith. The difference with Buddhism is that its basic practice tells us to do no harm on any sentient, and this is what I appreciate about Buddhism. Most Buddhists are vegetarian, however many of them seem to be straying from that, and I’ve read that half of Buddhist in eastern countries are not vegetarian, and in American it’s more than half that do not practice vegetarianism. So, I’m saying it’s not the problem with the teachings; it’s the problem with the people going astray from the teachings and that is the same in any other faith when humans are involved. They need to reach a higher consciousness to over come human desires as Buddha did.

What about Bell or Teichmann and other’s who have visited and lived in Tibet before the Chinese invasion in 1949, what have they said about these claims, and if they didn’t say anything, what does that mean?

Year’s ago there was a big uproar because American business opened up shop in China’s “forbidden city,” and their excuse was, this would help China open up more. I think it was more about money than anything else. Here we are coming up on the Olympics, and the government of China hasn’t even changed in the seven years they’ve had to change since the IOC agreement. The only law that was created was in 2007 which would allow foreign press greater access, but that hasn’t even been fully implemented, and they are currently banned from Tibet. http://okawa.wordpress.com/2008/04/11/rogge-says-olympics-in-crisis/

Who really hordes weapons? Who really lacks the imagination of diversity and can’t tolerate open and free dialogue? Who really is the corrupt force? Who really uses terror, lie and brutality? Who really upholds values so corrupt that they can easily kill whomever they like free of challenge and consequence? Who really is revolting?

So here is a version of the Olympics many are beginning to understand and raise their voices in a Shambhallic protest.

The tibetan gauntlet where some who protest are recyled as body parts for sale. Where the Panchen lama kidnapped in 1995 remains the youngest political and religious prisoner. Where a spiritually dead corrupted bunch of Anti Social Psychopaths tell an ancient people who is reincarnated or not for their own political agendas.

What then is the agenda of these sort of people who practise as their law criminality in a world where democracy condemns such personalities while happily doing business with them. China not so much it’s individual people but it’s collective is now the biggest carbon polluter. Do we not pollute simply because inside we are polluted by fundamentalism which now is the greatest error and source of our collective problems.

Business as usual in the name of Business.

Here are some of the characteristics of these disordered folks in charge throughout so many countries in this current world climate: Traits of the Authoritarian/Fascist Personality Disorder, Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswick, Levinson and Sanford(1950):
1.Rigid unthinking adherence to conventional ideas of right and wrong.( Black and White thinking). Important values for these people are obedience, cleanliness, success (materially), inhibitions of feelings, emotions and frequently humanity. Firm discipline, honouring parents and leaders and abhoring all immoral sexual feelings. ( Deep emotional repressions)
2. Respect for and submission to authority- parents, teachers, religion, government, business etc in fact anyone perceived as being in charge. A desire for a strong leadership that is usually historically brutal. Emphasis is in following rules, regulations, law an order. Roles must be followed ( Mindlessness)
3.They take their anger out on someone weaker. Anger is displaced it can’t be expressed against authority. They use scapegoats. ( Passive-aggressive loveless displacement)
4. They can’t trust people. People who are different are no good. ( Fearful schizoid paranoia)
5. They are weak and need to belong to the strength of the status quo. ( Collective and co dependent impotences)
6. They exhibit oversimplified thinking( rife with cognitive irrationalities)
7.They guard against dangerous ideas. They know the truth. original thinkers are threatening and with power they should be removed. ( Closed minds and closed hearts)
8.They are pure and righteous. God is always on their side( Bigoted lovelessness)
9. They are ethnocentric- my country, my religion, my politics, my people, my family and I alone are best. ( retarded dullards and the People of the Lie).

Take a look at many of the world’s leaders and you will find these obvious traits.

My post; Stuff this white person doesn’t like, explores all of this and I have written it in my first book. What if God were my Analyst? Book 1.

Keep up the torch of another Olympic struggle We the People.

Regards,
Stephen T.

“a small group that does not wish for the development of
Sino-Japanese friendship may have taken extreme measures”

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/JB08Dh01.html

Watch out for companies that merge with companies related to the pesticide poisoning. I think some companies have relations with China food companies, so a purchase from one of those companies may get packaged in a Japanese food product. One company is not merging because of the relationship of the other company.

It’s like our US pet foods, even though they are made somewhere else, the product inside may be from China. Hundreds of our Pets where killed in the US. Even though their are problems with animal rights, we still have a strong connection to our pets, here. Some country’s may not give damn about animals and treat them like trash, and that says a lot about the country.

http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/5/16/190641.shtml

Yes, there are lobbyists that help oppression in the name of capitalism.

“On July 5, 1995, Motorola CEO Tooker wrote Brown a letter. Clinton had personally approved the export of Motorola secure radios and cell phones directly to the Chinese government.”

It’s not related to this subject matter. You are more than welcome to post, but please comment in the appropriate sections. There are “human rights” and “genocide” issues regarding the IOC issues of China, Darfur and Tibet, and China had 7 years to work on it.

This issue is not the same as Palestine or Israel’s issue. Those are separate issues that have nothing to do with the issue of Genocide in Darfur or Tibet.

You posted this link four times, but you didn’t show anything of the Israeli Children that are being killed as well, both sides are killing each other, and it’s been going on for hundreds of years.

Your link say’s that “American” taxpayers are killing them, but you also fail to include China? Isn’t China funding some of that money?

I think you need to learn to focus on issues separately and look at both of their issues separately, then post in the topic regarding Palestine and Israel.

It’s obvious you did not read any of my previous comments regarding your link. Your posting of that link in none related posts are not appropriate to this issue.

My hands are very clean, but what does that have to do with your argument? Who is Caesar? Yes, I’m serious about human rights, and I’m not one sided as you appear to be.

Focus on the issue, not your emotions.