The 12-Step Buddhist: The Dalai Lama is my Higher Power
In Step 2 of the 12 Steps of addiction recovery, we're asked to come to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. What 12-Steppers tell you in the beginning is that you can choose your own concept of what that Higher Power is, as long as you choose something. That said, one big criticism of 12-Step programs is that even though they say you can choose your own HP, they really mean God.
The book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions from AA says, "The minute I stopped arguing, I began to see and feel." We call this "becoming teachable," which is a necessary part of accepting help. But it doesn't mean that we should become some kind of blind-idiot-conformist-follower. That's why I like Buddhism: it's based more on method than blind faith. More>>
China Increases Security in Tibet to Prevent Protests
BEIJING — For a second straight year, the Chinese government has increased security across parts of the vast Tibetan plateau to dissuade any Tibetans from holding protests this week to mark the anniversaries of ethnic uprisings.
Witnesses who have spent time recently in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, and other Tibetan areas of western China say there are more police and paramilitary forces on the streets, some of them bearing automatic weapons.
On Tuesday, Ma Jun, the deputy chief of the Lhasa police force, said at a news conference that the police had begun a “crackdown storm” on March 2. He said 2,800 security officers had been deployed around the city and had examined thousands of people and nearly 150 businesses for signs of criminal activity, according to Xinhua, the state news agency.
A year ago, the Chinese government also blanketed the Tibetan region with security forces for fear that Tibetans would take to the streets as they did in March 2008.
- Tibetan Culture Week planned before Dalai Lama visit
OXFORD, Ohio — Miami University is holding a Tibetan Culture Week March 22-26 in preparation of the Dalai Lama’s visit in October. The week will offer a series of lectures, meditation sessions and a prayer flag ceremony that are free and open to the public. Tibetan monk Geshe Kalsang Damdul, assistant director of the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics under the direct administration of the Dalai Lama, will lead the events. The programs come ahead of the Dalai Lama’s visit to Miami University on Oct. 20-22 to recognize a program that takes students to Dharamsala, India for an entire semester. - Dalai Lama issues environmental plea on Facebook
The 291-word message, which ends “We must act before it is too late,” tells us less about...the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, than it tells us about the last quarter century of environmental progress. - Dalai Lama documentary wins Havel award at film festival
PRAGUE (AP) — A documentary by two Tibetan filmmakers tracing a year in the life of the Dalai Lama has won the Vaclav Havel Award for its contribution to the protection of human rights. "The Sun Behind the Clouds" won the award at the 12th annual One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival yesterday. - Rare Tibetan Buddhist shrine goes on display in Washington
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AFP)— A complete Tibetan Buddhist shrine room including a silver Buddha, gem-encrusted adornments, and silk scroll paintings goes on display for the first time in Washington on today. It has been set up in a religiously accurate manner with ritual implements, including some blessed by the Dalai Lama... "The experience of entering the room is really quite profound and moving," said Debra Diamond, curator of South and Southeast Asian Art at the Freer and Sackler galleries in the US capital.
