Aftershock Blue

Aftershock Blue

Honoris Causa, Indeed, but What is it With the Dalai Lama?

Like a recurring itch that keeps annoying me, there something about the compassionate and bubbly spiritual figurehead of Tibetan Buddhism - the one that reminds so many of the kindly, cuddly and wise grandfather they had or wish they had had – that makes me want to scratch ... below the surface.

A few months ago, in 2010, the Dalai Lama was in New York. Then His Holiness held a series of conferences in Japan and elsewhere. In February he delivered various lectures across India. April will see him in Denmark and fresh from the jaunt, here, Down Under, in June, he will speak in Washington, DC in July.

Cool, but why does this self-proclaimed Marxist attach a price-tag of at least $400 to the better seats in the house – wherever in the world the house happens to be?

The Dalai Lama will soon be back in my town. According to official website info, I could have saved roughly $100 if I had booked a seat by December 2010. But if I had done that, I would have sent Karma the wrong message because, though I am free to enter anything I wish in my social calendar, even a year in advance, I know that Karma is the Ultimate Decider on the content of each and any of my ‘next' moments – one moment at a time.

Isn't it my spiritual duty to trust that, if I am intended to attend the Dalai Lama's conference - or any other event for that matter – as long as I accept my days peacefully one moment at a time, through a synchronistic coming together of various factors, the opportunity to be wherever I am intended to be will manifest itself in time for me to attend whichever event - at the right time and in the right manner, for the right reasons – and at the right price.

Like so many others, I am well aware that our soul and karma combo has the right to shorten abruptly the long string of moments between now and then without even the courtesy of an advanced warning. There are simply too many moments, butt-to-butt, between the months of December and June to commit to a $457 seat in Reserve A,  somewhere below a $751 Platinum seat but somewhere above one in Reserve C. So, really, as much as I would like to have saved dollars on this deal by booking early, I had to pass.

Serious question: Since Buddhism underplays the importance of material wealth, why does having more dollars to spare entitle one to sit closer to the kindly holy man and to better hear his words of wisdom?

The last time the Dalai Lama was here, a free book on the art of meditations was the reward for being a little early bird with big bucks to spare. On the occasion of his visit before that, a white scarf was the reward. So far, on the website, I haven't yet spotted the sugar-coated hook to book early for the upcoming June 2011 visit, but it might yet appear closer to the time to entice laggers.

In all seriousness, though the Dalai Lama probably did not need 200 monks on stage to ‘beef up' his presentation with entertainment, why did this spiritual leader need to fill the stage like a pop star on tour, as was the case during his New York show?

And what of the bevy of bodyguards and security agents around His Holiness? Surely, the Dalai Lama would agree that he is not exempt from the law of Karma and that no number of body guards and doctors touring with him will manage to keep him alive one second longer than has been decreed by his soul. If one truly believes in Karma, walking the talk from the beginning, it can be assumed that even if he had not fled into Tibet with the help of the CIA, the Dalai Lama would still be alive today, following his destiny – albeit within a different framework.

Should an incident happen to him while on tour or back in Dharamsala, surely he will be the first to remind us that all in life is impermanent, that nothing just happens, that there is no such thing as good luck or back luck and no such thing as being in the wrong place at the wrong time, that any accident, illness or setback is a karmic event brought upon the person for specific reasons - mostly that of testing active acceptance of all that befalls us and the opportunity to take stock of our current spiritual integrity.

Anyway, if this good man were to die prematurely – knowing that folks of faith recognize this as an impossibility - it would probably be from being over-honored. If the month of October 2010 is as good a sample as any other, he received a  Harry T. Wilkes Leadership Award from the Oxford foundation by the same name, as well as a Doctor Honoris Causa from the Miami University in Oxford, U.S.A.  plus the International Freedom Award from the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, USA.

I can assume that a backward mapping of all the various forms of formal recognitions that have been bestowed upon him since the 1959, Asian-type Nobel Prize, the Ramon Magsaysay Awards, would be an painstaking exercise.

The Dalai Lama travels tirelessly and selflessly to raise funds for the Tibetan cause but when he comes here in June, he will be speaking in a country whose many urban communities as well as the agricultural section and the overall economy have recently been ravaged by floods. Australia also happens to be the close neighbor New Zealand who, a couple of weeks ago, has been brought to its knees by a devastating earthquake and a series of aftershocks. Wouldn't it be most inspiring if the most famous monk on the planet illustrated graphically that, karmically, there is no difference between one human plight or another, that there is no such thing as separation of one over or under another, that any concept of separation is an illusion and, so, give the proceeds from his Australian tour to these two local causes that made world headlines?

Still in all seriousness, why are we, in the West, so mesmerized by His Holiness when he says nothing more than what any self-respecting sangha monk would say?

Actually, don't our earnest local parish priests, our local rabbis or our local imans explain that universal responsibility is the key to our survival, as is an interfaith dialogue?

Don't these religious people tell us in their own way that devastating acts of nature are acts of nature but devastating wars are acts of men?

• That we need to see and care beyond the illusory boundaries of our bodies, of our homes, of our jobs, of our status, of our affiliations and of our country's boundaries to finally do away with the idea that we are all separate from each other?
• That the law of nature - from the bees to the dolphins - shows us how to cooperate with one another?

On a similar vein, aren't there enough Planet Earth programs to convince us beyond doubt that animal mothers in the wild have such a loving heart for their babies that, while healthy, these mothers remain single-mindedly devoted to the mission of rearing their little ones, that they lovingly teach them the many skills they need to survive in their unstable environment? There are no post natal blues – no angry moments – no violent outbursts – no nannies for the ‘animal mothers'.

We are as hypnotized by the Dalai Lama as if he were the only one who can remind us that an honest and ongoing acceptance of the karmic tests, as they present themselves in many of our days, is essential to a healthy spiritual, emotional and physical life. But how well does he embody this belief?

In the early 60s, the Dalai Lama came to the west as a simple, humble monk with a big agenda. His appeal to the United Nations brought on the resolutions that demanded that China respect the human rights of Tibetans. That was a huge achievement. Yet, in spite of a lifetime of hand shaking with a myriad of presidents and CEOs and crisscrossing the globe to fundraise for the Tibetan cause, what has this charismatic old gentle man achieved besides inspire a few millions of devoted [?] converts in the West, and receive100s of honorary conferments and major awards?

Reality check: China and its economy have moved from strength to strength over the past decades. In a twist of fate, it has become America's biggest creditor. However, sadly, the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people find themselves in the same gridlock as they were 50 years ago.

Tibet and its adjoining section of India still amount to not much more than ragtag communities of refugees, albeit replete with buddhas, stupas and gompas, gongs, prayer flags, prayers wheels and robed lama aplenty – a tourist's delight, for sure, but not much more.

The Tibetans have kept themselves separate from the hub of Indian society and culture. Interfaith marriages are a rarity and this active separation within the host country seems to demonstrate a non-acceptance of a situation that cannot but be karmically engineered. Tibetans have not yet been able to create the modicum of an independent economy.

They are highly dependent on the foreign aid generated by the Dalai Lama's relentless drive. In fact they appear to be much less ready for any sort of auto-determination than even the Palestinians. And after His Holiness is no longer of this earth, then what?

Serious questions: Are the run-of-the-mill monks and Tibetan villagers in the Kangra valley, aroundDharamshala, more genuinely deep down caring for the sake of caring, deep down accepting of their karma and able to tap the fount of inner peace? Are they deep down in the moment, deep down forgiving of the Chinese, deep down more altruistic than any other people on their side of the globe?

If not, then shouldn't the Dalai Lama spend more quality, introspective time at home to educate and enlighten the people for whom he has been the Good Shepherd for fifty years? When abroad for the odd conference, he could then cut the price tags off all seats in the house.

Bottom line: In spite of 50 years of constant criss-crossing of the globe and of myriad accolades from the power brokers of the world, the tireless spiritual representative of the Tibetans has not yet been able to change Tibet's destiny. They are still stateless and status-less. Nor does it seem likely that he will leave, as legacy to the world, a new doctrine to follow.

If, as the saying goes, it is true that charity begins at home, I believe so does genuine enlightenment.

About the Author

Naked Spirituality - A Soul's Quest

By day, a teacher, by night, an explorer - I began to search for life's meaning, initially through writing fiction and more recently through learning, practicing, and writing about spiritual philosophy.

A couple of years after my last set of back-to-back novels, "Far From Maddy" and "Morgan in the Mirror", my writing took an entirely different tack.

Home, Sweet Home

Inspired by the teachings of my Spiritual Guide – and pushed along by my soul's whispers - in 2009, I embarked on Late But *IN Time*, a collection of spiritual articles inspired by my inner-most thoughts on all Matters of the Heart and Soul.

The series began with twelve articles complete with illustrations. It deals with what I consider uncompromising, hardcore spirituality and is an ongoing *live* project.

My next creative endeavour lead me to making my own podcasts. Each of the

These clips are conveniently set out on Magnify.net - from last to first, so work your way up from page 3 to page 1

That was followed by blogs as series - some 5 to 10 blogs per topic - plenty of space and enough words through which to properly unpack each topic from a spiritual perspective.

Together and separately, these articles, blogs and podcasts amount to a *free* guide to what I have  decided to call Naked Spirituality, the only approach to spirituality that, I believe, if practised with an open heart and diligently, can truly set us on The Path of spiritual evolution.

FYI, I am not selling anything; no workshops; no massages; no seminars; no retreats; no crystals and no books on the Law of Attraction.

There is nothing here, there or anywhere that I have written on the topic of Spiritual Philosophy that seeks to be marketed, but there is plenty that can/should be/ought to be practiced ... daily

trying to find a type of liquer to get and I dont know what to get?

So my friend is having a birthday party and i wanna get 2 bottles but idk what to get! I have already got aftershock before and UV blue, so I wanna get something that i havent had before that you can find at any liquer store that I will love and so will everyone else but it will still get you wasted loL! HELP!!

kahlua. you have to get half and half creamer though.

kahlua and cream.(white russians add 1/2 jigger of vodka)
1 jigger of kahlua ontop of ice
pout cream over top serve yum

7.4 Earthquake Aftershock in Miyagi Japan with Strange Blue Flash