"Karmapa - Two Ways of Divinity" (film)

KarmapaIssue; Tibet.net; Karmapa.org; Wisdom Quarterly

 

Om mani padme hum mantra (Tashi Mannox)

"Karmapa -- Two Ways of Divinity" is a unique, award-winning documentary on the current Karmapa and how China has used this Tibetan institution as a springboard for its politics leading to a peoples' violation of religious rights. The 17th Karmapa is not without controversy in Tibetan Buddhism also known as Lamaism, Esotericism, Tantrayana, Mantrayana, Bon, and even "Tibetanism" as distinct from Tibetan-Buddhism.

• Rights Groups: 5 Tibetans Self-Immolate in 2 Days (ABC)
• Six Tibetans set selves alight in China: exile government
• More Tibetans self-immolate as China's Party Congress opens

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Yoga: "Looking for Ancient Tibet" (video)

YOGIFILM Productions (yogifilm.de); Tibet Archive; Wisdom Quarterly
German with English subtitles

A documentary team expands into isolated power places in eastern Tibet to find the last living holders of a thousand-year-old yoga tradition. This footage, which was recorded in the picturesque Himalayan mountains, brings the Western understanding of reality into question.

  

Monks for modern Tibet continue to protest in China and US (phayul.com)

 
Can American Men Do Yoga, Too?   

Yoga is secretly one of the most Mansome of all sports. And believe it when we say that ladies love the Downward Facing Dog. Host Johnathan Fernandez demonstrates a few poses to get men in touch with their chakras without leaving their living rooms. More

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Tibet: "Unmistaken Child" (full movie)

48adidaphat; Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddhist concept of rebirth -- often poorly translated as "reincarnation" -- while both mysterious and enchanting, is hard for most Westerners to grasp.

UNMISTAKEN CHILD follows the four-year search for the reincarnation of Lama Konchog, a world-renowned Tibetan master who passed away in 2001 at the age of 84.

The 14th Dalai Lama, who himself is believed to be the same being reborn on Earth life after life to save or protect the people of Tibet, charges the deceased monk's devoted disciple, Tenzin Zopa (who had been in his service since the age of seven), to search for his master's reincarnation.

Tenzin sets off on this unforgettable quest on foot, mule, and even helicopter, through breathtaking landscapes and remote traditional Tibetan villages. Along the way Tenzin listens to stories about young children with special characteristics and performs rarely seen ritualistic tests designed to determine the likelihood of reincarnation.

He eventually presents the child he believes to be his reincarnated master to the Dalai Lama so he can make the final decision.

Stunningly shot, UNMISTAKEN CHILD is a beguiling, surprising, touching, and humorous experience.

• Download DVD ISO (mediafire.com)
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President Obama on Tibet (video)

FreeTibet.org

The CIA got what it wanted from Tibet and its pope-king, gave little back, and has now moved on to newer war projects and clandestine operations around the world.

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"Yogis of Tibet" (film)

Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Jeffrey Pill (video); Ayya Khema (book)

The fabled land of Tibet, with Lhasa its capital and Potala Palace its heart (nekorpa.org)

  

(IAmHanuMan)For the first time, the reclusive and secretive Tibetan Buddhist monks (yogis and lamas) agree to discuss aspects of their philosophy and allow themselves to be filmed while performing their ancient practices. They do this to preserve an extraordinary culture being eradicated. Directed by Jeffrey M. Pill.

   

Himalayan Buddhist flags (Bhakti Omwoods)

Once upon a time in Tibet, when people followed the ancient Indian ascetic practices (of the Buddha and the Brahmins) prevalent on the subcontinent below, there were real-life mystics and magicians. Magic and Mystery in Tibet was an early western title by Alexandra David-Neel, embroidered and exaggerated to boost sales. But it hinted at the perplexity of what was possible in the Himalayan wilds, in the isolated home of seers (rishis), Bon wizards, partial shamans, and Buddhist wanderers. It is famously said, "Not all who wander are lost." While the austerities and mortifications once prevalent in Tibet may have reached extremes beyond the Buddha's "sane asceticism" (dhutanga), it produced and kept alive many of the feats that set Indian spirituality apart. This eventuality of taking secrets out into the world beyond the Himalayas did not come entirely as a surprise.
  

There was a prophecy that said, "When the Iron Bird Flies," the title of Western Theravada nun and meditation master Ayya Khema's book, "the Dharma [Buddhism] would reach the West." Like many Native American prophecies, we do not realize that they have come true until we look back on them. The "iron birds" were planes in the Age of Flight a time when we also re-entered the secret Space Age. The ages are cyclical. This is not the first time earthlings have flown in metal "birds." The long-lived devas remind us, and we can develop the capacity to look back to verify it. The bigger question is, What will we do with the liberating Dharma?

• David-Neel: On Tibetan Buddhist Hermits

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Suicide and Self-Immolation in Tibet (video)

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

(ITN News)  Disturbing video from the Free Tibet group allegedly shows a Tibetan Buddhist monk after he committed self-immolation in Ngaba (Aba). Report by Mark Morris.

Suicide is never advisable. Running from suffering (dukkha) by running toward more suffering is no way to end suffering.
   
Self-martyrdom is no way to garner attention of a cause. The world knows Tibet is suffering. Decades ago when the CIA entered the Himalayas to thwart China, India, and Central Asian states and assert strategic control of the Himalayan region, it brokered a deal with the Dalai Lama and Tibet's church-and-state government. 
  
The result has been part of fallout of that devil's bargain.
  

Chinese police beat burn survivors to death and courts imprison others.

    

The Dalai Lama, technically speaking, by accepting such aid and advice from US imperial forces (the West's multinational Military-Industrial Complex) became a CIA operative. When did he ever renounce his membership? What did that lesser-of-two-evils choice do for Tibet?

   

It may have kept Tibet on the map. But the US can neither control China nor defeat it. In its attempt to subvert the world's biggest country, it has made Tibet a pawn.

   

As Tibet is seen to align with Western military forces and India, who hosts its government-in-exile in Dharamsala to spite China, China applies medieval police state special weapons and tactics (SWAT) on it. Those weapons and tactics are American exports.

   

Self-immolation only causes China humiliation, and it uses the loss of face to justify becoming more and more draconian

   

What do the US, MIC, NATO, or any other Western nation do? They secretly fund and train paramilitary forces around the world on how to use these exact same tactics against civilian populations.

  

In the meantime, Buddhism is misrepresented as applauding this form of suicide and self-directed violence.

  

(SVS) Stratfor's Rodger Baker, Vice President of Strategic Intelligence, examines the tactic of self-immolation as a way to galvanize protest movements.

   

Self-immolators are exhibiting nationalist tendencies far more than exemplifying any Buddhist teaching. 

   

A selfless act in line with anatta ("not-self," the impersonal nature of ego, the physical-and-psychological phenomena we feel closest to) or shunyata (the "emptiness" of all conditioned phenomena) would exhibit qualities the Buddha was famous for: 

• equanimity (non-bias), compassion, kindness, wisdom...

In desperation, to heat up a cold war with the Chinese Empire, guerrilla tactics are no way to win. We burn ourselves, we burn the other, and we both are the worse for it.

   

Of course, as humans, as Buddhists, as Americans, we side with Tibet. Of course, we side with the 14th Dalai Lama (a benevolent king/pope, who fortunately retired from his role as head of state). But we do not side with the forces of war.

  

It is not clear that the CIA is any better than the Chinese Communist regime putting into effect its own dreams of empire. 

  

Will the CIA/MIC win and deliver semi-autonomous Tibetan, Uygur, and Taiwanese regions to freedom? Not a chance. It is only exchanging one dictator for another. "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss" (The Who). Look what CAI/MIC plotted using Japan to ransack China's gold during the time of the pre-Communist government.

• PHOTOS: Magic pictures of Buddha(s)

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