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The Dalai Lama in Aspen (After McCain Left)

The Dalai Lama gave a keynote speech yesterday in Aspen, a day after John McCain visited him there.

In Saturday's speech, he didn't mention McCain. Anita Thompson was there, and writing in HuffPo today, recaps the Dalai Lama's talk.

She begins:

My late husband, Hunter S. Thompson, said that he was a teenage girl trapped in the body of an elderly dope fiend. I realized something as I watched the highest ranking monk of Tibetan Buddhism: His Holiness is a teenage girl trapped in the body of a Dalai Lama! It was all very familiar, indeed spectacular, as I observed his demeanor during the keynote address he gave at the Aspen Institute Saturday. I have studied the Dalai Lama's teachings, practiced another form of Buddhism, and am even more curious now because Hunter was so often compared to him.

Here's what the Dalai Lama had to say on war in the 21st century: [More...]

The concept of war is outdated. Why? In the past, in some cases, it worked. In some cases the interest of one group and the interest of the other group were different, so the destruction of one group helped the other. But now, with the new global reality, the destruction of your neighbor means the destruction of yourself.

Hence, using force to destroy your "enemy" is now outdated. Therefore, out of respect and a genuine sense of their well-being, we have to find ways of reducing conflict. What is the best? Dialogue.

The 20th century was a century of bloodshed. The 21st century will have to be a century of dialogue.

The military establishment is very connected to the last century. It was necessary then. One day we will not need a foreign ministry or a defense ministry, because we will realize we are connected.

He acknowledged it won't happen overnight:

Of course we can't create this demilitarized world overnight. But if people and governments keep this vision in their minds, it will happen one day.

Don't think one election at a time, but think long-term.

World peace begins with each of us:

First one must find peace with oneself, then with our family, then our neighbor, and finally, with our "enemy."

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  • Display: Sort:
    Hardly. The concept of war is outdated? (5.00 / 1) (#10)
    by bridget on Sun Jul 27, 2008 at 09:27:25 PM EST
    That is what I thought, too, esp. in the Western world ...
    .... but then it came roaring back in the beginning of the 21 C. - although everything started with the Golf war 91

    the admiration of "war heros," army, military leaders, soldiers who kill the enemy and are thanked for it by the tweeties, etc. is baaaaaaack with a vengeance

    but war and suffering is not enough (of course citizens don't see the dead and wounded coming home). They don't see the destruction of Iraq etc. ...

    So the film industry is busy producing more war movies than ever, TV is packed with war documentaries and war series. Violence ueber alles.

    It is the Dalai Lama's business to talk this way but it is not reality. It's hoping.

    John Lennon's Imagine was also hoping. Sounds more impossible now than in 1980.

    reminds me... (5.00 / 1) (#12)
    by weltec2 on Sun Jul 27, 2008 at 10:55:13 PM EST
    I heard part of the CSNY CD on line so I bought it. I couldn't get the DVD because it isn't available in Japan. But the CD sounds like I've got gravel in my CD player. It is depressingly terrible.

    Parent
    thanks for reminding me .... (none / 0) (#13)
    by bridget on Mon Jul 28, 2008 at 01:56:27 AM EST
    I just checked Netflix and "Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Déjà Vu 2008" is now available on Watch Instantly. What great news. And it is now next in my   WI queue. I wish you could see it, too.

    Greetings!

    Parent

    Reality? (none / 0) (#18)
    by Natal on Mon Jul 28, 2008 at 11:50:42 AM EST
    "but it's not reality"

    I'm always baffled when people talk about "the reality" -- Is it my reality, your reality, their reality, nobody's reality, everybody's reality? Somebody please set me right on this! I'm confused.

    Parent

    Can't help you (none / 0) (#20)
    by bridget on Mon Jul 28, 2008 at 03:02:42 PM EST
    since you insist on playing around with semantics.

    Sorry.

    Parent

    I thought (none / 0) (#21)
    by Natal on Mon Jul 28, 2008 at 03:38:22 PM EST
    it was a legitimate question. Fortunate are those who have cognized it IMHO.

    Parent
    So, I'm in Santa Fe, w/no blogs (none / 0) (#1)
    by oculus on Sun Jul 27, 2008 at 07:41:16 PM EST
    and no NYT.  Cold turkey.  But the hotel distributes USA Today to each room each morning and I learn 200,000 attended Obama's speech in Berlin AND McCain is getting together with the Dalai Lama. The world is most definitely upside down.

    I know... (none / 0) (#6)
    by Thanin on Sun Jul 27, 2008 at 09:14:32 PM EST
    the Dalai Lama should have been with Obama.  Makes no sense for him to be with McSame.

    Parent
    McCain Needs More Work Than Obama (5.00 / 0) (#11)
    by squeaky on Sun Jul 27, 2008 at 10:01:06 PM EST
    That is why his holiness is spending time with McSame. BushCo is happy to accommodate because it is against China right before the Olympics.
    The Dalai Lama praised McCain for his concern -- while emphasizing he wasn't endorsing McCain's presidential bid.


    Parent
    Exactly. (5.00 / 1) (#16)
    by scribe on Mon Jul 28, 2008 at 09:26:57 AM EST
    McCain embodies so many of the angry, hatefilled responses which were of and defined the 20th century.  Which is why the Dalai probably just sat with McCain and let him expound, or ask silly questions or whatever, all the while either being non-responsive or posing McCain a koan or two.

    "All the better to fry those overaged circuits with", one might think, but in reality it'd be far more helpful to McCain to actually have to work through a couple and recognize the errors of his ways.

    I'm just waiting for the whole disaster capitalism movement to get hit with the rebound that a realization of interconnectedness will cause....

    Parent

    What happened to the Lama while hew as in (none / 0) (#9)
    by Salo on Sun Jul 27, 2008 at 09:19:35 PM EST
    Tibet? At who's hands did he suffer?

    Parent
    I imagine (none / 0) (#14)
    by Grace on Mon Jul 28, 2008 at 02:49:24 AM EST
    Obama was probably too busy to meet with the Dalai Lama.  He's been to busy to meet with most groups that McCain meets with.  

    Parent
    I liked what he said and agree with (none / 0) (#2)
    by zfran on Sun Jul 27, 2008 at 07:41:23 PM EST
    him. My guess is he's always felt this way. I have. I hope he and Sen. McCain talked about this and maybe they agreed. Who knows?

    does that make the reincarnation... (none / 0) (#3)
    by Salo on Sun Jul 27, 2008 at 08:51:11 PM EST
    ...a frustrating process or what?  Wouldn't it be easier if the spirit reentered a girl for instance?

    Or is this the Hasidic story that Kafka loved and Benjamin recounted in illuminations?

    There's a princess trapped in a village where she can't understand a word people say. She gets a note from her long lost fiance that he'll be there saturday...so she's so overjoyed she makes a meal for him friday night. Village body, princess soul, fiance messiah.

    At least in CA, (none / 0) (#4)
    by oculus on Sun Jul 27, 2008 at 08:54:12 PM EST
    chose whichever public restroom.  

    Parent
    He's a wild dude... (none / 0) (#5)
    by kdog on Sun Jul 27, 2008 at 09:01:53 PM EST
    that Lama...I was digging what he was saying about social distinctions.  People are People.

    Dialog (none / 0) (#7)
    by Alien Abductee on Sun Jul 27, 2008 at 09:16:44 PM EST
    I saw this special on BBC World yesterday about Queen Rania of Jordan who has started a channel on Youtube to encourage a dialog between Muslims and non-Muslims. She kicked it off by asking people to post comments and videos with stereotypes of Muslims - noting off limits. She's working her way through them with a series of video responses, and encouraging Muslims to post their own videos showing something of their own lives. It was a wonderful program, and sounds like a terrific idea. I haven't watched any of the videos there yet but her channel is here.

    It's a grand hope... (none / 0) (#8)
    by Salo on Sun Jul 27, 2008 at 09:18:08 PM EST
    ...yet military Establishments are associated with civilization itself.  Costa Rica is one of the exceptions.  Of course every account of civilization is also  an account of that civilization's barbarity.

    If you want a good read , I recommend his own (none / 0) (#15)
    by suzieg on Mon Jul 28, 2008 at 08:38:34 AM EST
    biography "The Third Eye" which I read back in 1973 when it was a best seller. I was living/studying in Montreal then, so read it in French. The title is a rough translation. It's an absolutely riveting, cannot put down, kind of book.

    Hello Dalai. So your a celeb now. (none / 0) (#17)
    by WillBFair on Mon Jul 28, 2008 at 11:28:47 AM EST
    Can I still kiss your ring?
    But seriously. It's easy as toast to jet set around the globe talking nonsense. Destroying your nieghbor means destroying yourself? Please.
    Who knows what will happen in the 21rst century? Maybe the atmosphere itself will turn against us. Or maybe we'll wise up and start to clean up the damage we've done.
    But thinking that the seething hatred in people's hearts that causes war will magically disappear might be a tad optimistic.

    Did You Feel The Same Way About MLK? (none / 0) (#19)
    by squeaky on Mon Jul 28, 2008 at 11:52:55 AM EST
    Or did you hate him more because he was a domestic peacenik?

    Parent