By Tsering Dhundup
DHARAMSHALA, Aug. 23: The Tibetan Community of North America, along with Mongolians and Buddhist devotees from around the world gathered at the UBS Arena in Elmont, NY, USA to offer prayers for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama on August 22.
The revered Tibetan Buddhist leader addressed the crowd of 17,000 people, speaking on the unity of Tibetans from all three regions of Tibet and the global significance of Tibetan culture. He stated, “Here we have Tibetans from all three regions of Tibet demonstrating how we are united. Tibetan culture can be of benefit to the whole of humanity. The Buddha, Shakyamuni, became enlightened and gave teachings that have been preserved in Tibet and the Himalayan region. These teachings are profound and deeply valuable. I have studied them since I was very young.”
He also emphasized the value of the Buddha’s teachings, which have been preserved in Tibet and the Himalayan region, and his commitment to living beyond 100 years to continue supporting the Tibetan people. His Holiness said, “The Buddha’s teachings have influenced our way of life to the extent that the people of Tibet have been determined to keep them alive. I intend to live to be more than 100 years old and I will continue to do my best to help the Tibetan people.”
The foremost spiritual leader acknowledged the global appreciation for Tibetan culture, including interest from within China, and expressed gratitude to loyal friends worldwide. He stated, “Chinese Communists may look down on Tibetan culture, but across the world we have friends who appreciate it. In Tibet we have the most complete transmission of the Buddha’s teachings. As Tibetans have spread out across the world, other people have become more aware of our traditions. We have many loyal friends who I’d like to thank. People around the world are taking an interest in Buddhism and even in China there are many curious to learn about Tibetan Buddhism.”
He also recognized the various religious traditions in the world and noted that Buddhism has caught the interest of scientists because it is founded on logic. He said, “There are many different religious traditions in the world, and I respect them all. But it is Buddhism that has caught the interest of scientists because it’s founded on logic. Buddhism also has great potential for fostering world peace.”
At the end of the long-life prayer, His Holiness thanked Carol and Sam Nappi for their generous help in coordinating the arrangements that ensured His Holiness’s knee replacement surgery was a success and for their subsequent exceptional hospitality as he recuperated.
One Response
For the last few days, many Tibetans would have gone through an emotional roller coaster after attending long life puja for HH The Dalai Lama in New York and later in Switzerland. Spirituality is an experience that can be felt but not expressed nor easy to put in words. We are witnessing HH at an advanced age and this naturally makes us sad. We feel more sad about HH’s gradual aging condition than our own because we are not important and hence, ourselves being alive or dead will make little difference for the greater cause of Tibetan struggle. We all know that without HH’s presence in our midst, we are like a rudderless ship tossing in the ocean! As it were, it’s a time of anxiety and even melancholy to see His Holiness reaching the ripe age of 89! He is the symbol of Tibet and the symbol of Tibet’s resistance to Chinese illegal occupation of our country. He is also the unifier of the Tibetan people because except for few disgruntled people, every Tibetan respects him! This sense of unanimous endorsement of his words unifies the Tibetan people like no other.
Needlessly to say, He has been the backbone of the Tibetan People’s Struggle and the greatest worry is that in the event of his absence, how the Tibetan struggle is going to survive especially as the community is more polarised than at any time since we came into exile in the 1950s and 60s. There is the division on ideological basis such independence and U-Mey Lam and division owing to political affiliation to the past and present leaders. This is fuelled by the CCP’s United Front who have infiltrated our community. On November 16th 1958, the so called CCP Tibet Work Committee recommended Chinese officials thus: “our General policy should be to try to keep them divided. The more they strive for unity, the more we should try to divide them”. So, like all colonialists, “divide and rule” is their time tested tactic. The CCP has thousands of trolls to influence social media users and also have paid sleeper cells amidst us, who doesn’t exhibit anything amiss but are using the discord among the Tibetan community to further widen them in order to weaken the movement. The policy of befriending the CCP and end the policy of regarding the CCP as our enemy has greatly harmed the Tibetan movement by suppressing Tibetan resistance which paved the way for CCP infiltration. It simultaneously destroyed the resistance against the CCP by holding grudge and animosity for invading and illegally occupying our country. This dealt a serious blow to the Tibetan freedom movement by alienating western support by cozying up to the CCP. Two CCP spies infiltrated the Tibetan Government dragnet and met the Dalai Lama!!! It goes to show the depth of CCP spy network which the Tibetans failed to crack and gave them easy access to the Dalai Lama! It clearly compromised the security of the Dalai Lama which is an unforgivable breach of trust by the concerned officials in Dharamsala. All this confusion is caused by not having a well defined policy of animosity against the enemy that has muddled the heads of those who are themselves as confused as the general public when it comes to deal with the CCP enemy.