Dalai Lama In Pennsylvania

Dalai Lama Defends Islam, Looks Toward 'Complete' Retirement

BETHLEHEM, Pennsylvania — The Dalai Lama said that "it's totally wrong, unfair" to call Islam a violent religion.

The Tibetan spiritual leader, appearing Sunday at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, offered a defense of Islam in response to a question about the rise of violent religious fundamentalism. He added that he has made a point of reaching out to Muslims since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The Dalai Lama arrived at Lehigh on Thursday for a series of talks on a 600-year-old Buddhist text. He took a break Sunday to lecture on "Generating a Good Heart," and afterward took questions from Lehigh President Alice P. Gast that had been submitted in advance by the public.

Asked why so many Americans are depressed and anxious, he joked: "I'm the wrong person to ask. You should ask Americans." Then he answered that U.S. society is too competitive and that people always want "something more, something more, something more."

The Dalai Lama, who attracted a capacity crowd of about 5,000, did not mention next month's Beijing Olympics. The Chinese government has demanded that the Dalai Lama express support for the Olympics and repudiate efforts to disrupt them as a condition for continued talks.

China has ruled Tibet since the 1950s. The Dalai Lama, who fled to India amid a failed uprising in 1959, has said he wants some form of autonomy that would allow Tibetans to freely practice their culture, language and religion.

The Dalai Lama, who turned 73 on July 6, said Sunday that he's looking forward to "complete retirement." He joked that he's now considered a "senior most respected adviser" to Tibet's government in exile.

He is scheduled to speak at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia on Wednesday.

Long and peacefully may the Dalai Lama live. What a great soul!

Namaste,

Bobby Sharpe Bobby Sharpe's " Opyn Mindz": "NEW" Volcanic Activity Globally Bobby Sharpe's "Indigo Spiritz": Kim O'Neill, Reincarnation, Newsletter & YOU

Dalai Lama Visits Canada

Dalai Lama begins visit to Canada

The Dalai Lama, the exiled leader of Tibet's Buddhists, arrived in Ottawa on Sunday at the start of a visit to Canada that will include a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Tenzin Gyatso, a 72-year-old Buddhist monk who is the 14th Dalai Lama, addressed a sold-out crowd of 5,000 people at the Ottawa Civic Centre for two hours on Sunday afternoon.

The Dalai Lama spoke about his meeting last week with U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington. He said he found Bush to be a likable man but that he has some "reservations" about his policies, particularly on the war in Iraq.

Some observers have speculated that the spiritual leader's meeting on Monday with Harper on Parliament Hill could hurt relations between Canada and China. Chinese authorities have said they see any public meeting between the Dalai Lama and political leaders as interfering in China's affairs.

The country invaded Tibet shortly after the 1949 Chinese Revolution. It considers the Dalai Lama an agitator with secessionist ambitions for Tibet. The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in India since staging a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.

During the Dalai Lama's last visit to Canada, in 2006, Chinese officials protested when Parliament decided to grant him honorary Canadian citizenship.

"Since the late 1980s, the Dalai Lama has clearly expressed his view that all Tibetans want is cultural and religious autonomy under Chinese sovereignty," said Jacob Kovalio, a professor of Asian history at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Foreign leaders have shown they are increasingly willing to risk discord with Beijing to underscore concerns for human rights in Tibet, he told CBC Newsworld on Sunday.

"Canada is saying to China, like many other nations — for example, India — that human rights [and] religious freedom are important, and that there is such a field for which China has to adjust itself to the international community instead of imposing the kind of approaches which simply don't fit the times," Kovalio said.

Paul Martin was the first Canadian prime minister to meet with the Dalai Lama in 2004 in what was described as a politically neutral setting, the home of the Roman Catholic archbishop of Ottawa.

The spiritual leader's latest visit to Canada caps a multi-country tour that has taken him to the United States, Europe and Australia.

Last week, Bush met with him privately in the White House and before Congress, when the monk received Congress's highest civilian honour, the Congressional Gold Medal.

The Dalai Lama is scheduled to travel to Toronto on Tuesday, where he will hold a public talk Wednesday night on "The Art of Happiness" at Rogers Centre.

It's always great to see the Dalai Lama out and about spreading all the goodness that he represents. Canada should have a very good week with his prescence.

Peace, Love, Namaste,

Bobby Sharpe www.myspace.com/akuasharpe reggae8@aol.com

Dalai Lama & Tibet vs China

New Chinese rules on Dalai Lama
By Michael Bristow BBC News, Beijing

Communist China has introduced new rules that appear aimed at controlling the selection of the next Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's spiritual head.

Most Tibetans believe that eminent monks, such as the Dalai Lama, are reincarnated after death.

China, which governs Tibet, will now have the final say over who can be selected as a reincarnated monk.

The current Dalai Lama is a thorn in China's side, which is probably why it is keen to select his reincarnation.

Seal of approval

Although the new regulations do not mention the Dalai Lama by name, they effectively prevent his followers in exile from choosing his reincarnation.

"No outside organisation or individual will influence or control the reincarnation of living Buddhas [eminent monks]," states one article of the new regulations.

They also say that any reincarnation has to be approved by various levels of government.

In the case of the most pre-eminent monks, who would include the Dalai Lama, China's cabinet has to give its seal of approval.

Officials at China's State Administration for Religious Affairs declined to be interviewed by the BBC about who these new rules are directed against.

But it appears China wants to control the selection of the next Dalai Lama. The current, 14th Dalai Lama, is now 72.

Tibetans defiant

Since he fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, he has travelled the world.

He promotes the idea that Tibetans deserve real autonomy from Beijing.

This annoys China, which claims Tibet has been part of the motherland for eight centuries.

Chinese officials routinely refer to the Dalai Lama as a "splittist" intent on separating Tibet from China, which reasserted its control of the region in 1951.

Tibetans outside China say the new regulations will not affect the selection of next Dalai Lama.

"We believe this ruling by the Chinese government will not go down well with Tibetan monks," says Thubten Samphel, spokesman for the Tibetan government in exile.

He says choosing the child who is a reincarnation of an eminent monk can only be done by an organisation with spiritual authority, and that does not include China's Communist government.

Also, the spokesman, based in Dharamsala, India, says that the Dalai Lama has already said he will be born outside Tibet if he is not allowed to return there during his lifetime.

The new regulations raise the prospect of two Dalai Lamas in the future, a situation that already has a precedent.

When the Dalai Lama selected the 11th Panchen Lama - Tibetan Buddhism's second-most important monk - in 1995, China followed suit by naming its own and placing the Dalai Lama's choice under detention.

The only thing I will state to this story is, "the right and proper course will be followed and addressed when it is time". This story does bear following and I will try to keep YOU updated as possible.

"The more YOU know, the more YOU grow,

The more YOU grow, the further YOU go"

Bobby SharpeBobby Sharpe's "Animalz" www.myspace.com/akuasharpe