On the Dalai Lama, Non-Violence and more …

January 20, 2014 / still a dreamer

I recently rented a somewhat different video from my usual fare, (whatever exactly that is), Ten Questions for the Dalai Lama. The film was made by Rick Ray, who also did the interview of His Holiness and examined a variety of issues surrounding the Dalai Lama and his native country, Tibet.

The film covered the Dalai Lama’s childhood and how he was selected to be the 14th to occupy this position which is a combination of chief spiritual and political leader. It showed the lives of Buddhist monks and the beauty and peacefulness of the Tibetan people. It also recounted the horrific invasion and takeover of Tibet by the Chinese in 1949-1951, in which 1,200,000 Tibetans were killed, many thousands of others beaten and jailed. Even today, if a Tibetan so much as harbors an image of the Dalai Lama, he is severely beaten and imprisoned. Disguised, the Dalai Lama and his family were able to escape the country in 1959. He currently lives in political asylum in India.

Although I know China invaded and took over Tibet, I had not been aware of the details, so I am thankful to have chosen this film and learned more of this historical time. (If interested, you can learn about the event and what happened to Tibet afterwards here, which is an official website of the Dalai Lama.) But my primary interest was in the man himself.

Interior of a Buddhist temple in Tibet

As a result of watching the Dalai Lama in this film, I can say that he is a brilliant, insightful and compassionate man with a delightful kind of kookiness about him. It would be impossible not to like him as he shares his thoughts, opinions and feelings – and sometimes laughter – on a variety of subjects. His observations about the West are not surprising, how as a people we are driven by greed, never having enough. He commented on how often the less people have, the happier they are. When asked about the parallel he might make between himself and Mahatma Gandhi and their ideas about non-violence, the Dalai Lama noted that their aims were the same, that non-violence towards others is the only way to make true progress in the world, and that he and Gandhi were of the same mind in this way.

He pointed out, however, that there was a major difference between Gandhi’s experience and that of his people’s in Tibet and that was/is the endless use of violence used to punish Tibetans at the hands of the Chinese. Gandhi and those who stood with him were not beaten with guns or shot. The numerous film clips show the brutality and violence the Tibetans were/are subjected to at the hands of the Chinese military, (which today, outside of the capital of Lhasa, is largely undercover police), and how their most basic human rights are denied.

The Dalai Lama had reached out to the Chinese Communist leadership in the past, but they were not cooperative. And so this world-famous spiritual leader continues to strive for world peace and the freedom of his country. When at home, he spends a portion of his day in communication with media and the remainder in spiritual practice. But he is often making appearances around the world discussing how his life is guided by three major commitments – the promotion of basic human values, the fostering of inter-religious harmony, and the preservation of Tibet’s Buddhist culture of peace and non-violence.

Having had only occasional exposure to the Dalai Lama, I was deeply impressed, as naive as that may sound, by the beauty and genuineness of his spirit as shown through this film. I can only imagine what a joy it might be to actually sit and talk with him.

I was also reminded, as he spoke about practicing non-violence towards all living beings, that an important aspect of being vegan, as challenging as it is, is an abstention from the violence that is routinely perpetrated on all animals that provide us with meat, dairy, or other commodities, whether during their lives or in their death.

There is clearly a peace that the Dalai Lama exudes, and to the degree that it comes from non-violence, who cannot be for it?

A Small, Wonderful Movie – I Am

March 6, 2013March 7, 2013 / still a dreamer / 4 Comments

What would you want to say to the world if it became possible that you might soon die? That’s what movie director Tom Shadyac asked himself after he suffered a severe concussion in a bicycling accident. He was told the horrible after-effects could last for 2 years or for life. Or he could die. So he asked himself what he wanted to say in the event that should happen.

I’d never heard of Tom Shadyac, but recognized his movies when he discussed them in the beginning of this beautiful documentary. He directed Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Bruce Almighty, The Nutty Professor and several other similar minded films. He realized that where he’d been with humor and outrageous silliness was not where he wanted to go. He had two questions and wanted to make a documentary … What’s wrong with our world? and What can we do about it?

This short, (1 hour 17 min.), documentary moved me to tears at times, as Shadyac explored these questions through interviews with some of the greatest minds of our times – authors, scientists, religious leaders, poets, and others. He interviews or shows clips of Howard Zinn, Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, the Dalai Lama and other notables, including his own father who founded St. Jude’s Research Hospital for Children with Danny Thomas. The thread of the documentary follows how mankind has lost its way in our quest for winning and competition, but shows how we are literally wired in our DNA for cooperation and compassion. He shares how intuitively the animal world works together – birds flock, fish shoal (see photo) – for the greater good, and how less technologically developed societies work cooperatively with one another. In American Indian tribes where sharing was the norm, hoarding was seen as a sickness, and the members of the tribe set out to heal this person.

Shadyac has gathered so many amazing clips of everything you can imagine to bring us along on his journey of inquiry – history, science, spiritual thought, the natural world. Especially moving was one short clip of something I’d never before seen except in a still … a world famous black and white photo of a slender Chinese man blocking the way of army tanks in the 1989 student protest in Tiananmen Square. In this clip, you watch him move repeatedly to block the tank each time it maneuvers. Mankind has reached out endlessly to stand up for or help others in need, in tragedies such as 9/11, Katrina, Haiti, or events such as civil rights marches and so many other instances. As he explored these issues, Shadyac came to conclusions about his own life of celebrity excess and changed that, too.

He came to realize that `What is wrong with this world?’ has an answer … I Am. But maybe I’m asking the wrong question, he thought. Perhaps I should also ask, `What is right with this world?’ Yup …. I Am.

Unless you are one of those people who believes whoever dies with the most toys wins – and I’m sure you would never have read this far if that were true – then I feel pretty confident that you will be inspired and moved by this film.

Toni Morrison’s Paradise

January 15, 2013January 15, 2013 / still a dreamer

Paradise is the first book I’ve read by Toni Morrison, and I can assure you I will read more. In fact, it’s hard for me to not go back and re-read this book right now.

Here’s a couple things I can tell you – do not read this book late at night when you’re tired; do not put it down for extended periods of time and think you will be able to easily jump right back in; and do not read it when distracted. Here’s why. Toni Morrison assumes you’re paying attention. Her characters are complex as is the storyline … there’s a lot to remember … a lot you want to remember when you’re reading Paradise. This is not light reading, but it is a truly amazing read.

Toni Morrison’s use of language is exquisite; I was thrilled repeatedly with the beauty of how she chooses and uses words. Her characters are so real I wanted to either step in the pages to be with them or have them come and sit down by me and talk; tell me about their lives and how they changed being in Ruby, OK; how they changed living in the Convent with Connie and the other women; tell me more.

The storyline of Paradise is of a group of ex-slaves freed from Louisiana and Mississippi who, rejected by their fairer skinned brethren and terrified by whites, set up their own community deep in the Oklahoma country, self-sufficient and proud. The history of their forefathers was revered and their insular lives safe. Safe except for the women who had come to live at the Convent – women whose lives had been torn apart by suffering at one time or another and who made their way, tried to heal, in this isolated home outside town. Paradise is, in part, about what happens when people come to see others the same way they once were viewed and what they do about it. And, in part, about redemption and finding one’s place in the world.

This is far, far, far too simplistic a summary of this extraordinary novel. If you want to be immersed in another time and place, in the lives of people so real it can be painful, perhaps Paradise is for you. I’m not sure what I can read right after this that will not pale beside it.

Shop Small on Small Business Saturday

November 20, 2012 / still a dreamer / 2 Comments

It’s that time – to support and celebrate the many small businesses that make our country great. Yup – this Saturday, November 24, is Small Business Saturday and you may still have time to sign up!

American Express founded this day to promote small businesses, and if you have an AmEx card, and spend $25 on your card at a participating small business – and believe me, this is growing! – they will credit the card you use with $25.00! Can’t beat that, can you? Check it out here and don’t wait – there are a limited number of registrations, and they just opened on the 18th. Want to go straight to the enrollment page? Here it is.

Small Business Saturday is the sane person’s alternative to Black Friday with its crushing crowds and bargain driven mentality. The big box stores are now opening on Thanksgiving – yes, on Thanksgiving!! – to get your business. Really? UGH! Getting your Christmas and holiday shopping started is a great idea, but it shouldn’t have to be a fight to the finish and/or on a treasured holiday that celebrates family and friends.

So check out online which shops in your area will be participating, help them thrive in this economy, and earn $25.00 back from American Express. Everybody wins. Extra bonuses – you get to reconnect with your neighbors, enjoy human scale shopping, peruse goods and services that are often tailored to your own area’s preferences, and find cool stuff that isn’t repeated a thousand times over in big box stores all over the country.

Happy Small Shopping!

Lending A Hand, Lending A Shoulder

November 5, 2012November 9, 2012 / still a dreamer / 4 Comments

One of the things I observe and which warms my heart during and in the wake of cataclysmic events such as Hurricane Sandy, is the outpouring of support for those stricken with misfortune – our neighbors, our family and friends, and for total strangers. It seems there’s a little something everyone can do, and the more we hear, the more we come to know just how worse off many have it than ourselves.

We all can lend a hand and if needed, a shoulder, to someone in need. What makes me crazy is the media – do they focus on all the good people are doing for one another? No, instead they feature the fist fight at the local gas line. I can only say, shame on them. Show us the good stuff.

This country has come together again and again – to stand with one another in the face of tragedy right here – 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and other events, making us proud to be Americans. Even in the face of an election and across party lines – really, in the face of such sadness as the destruction we’ve just witnessed and lived through – who cares? It’s then that people care most about what counts … each other.

It’s sad that it sometimes takes tragedy for so many to put aside their differences, but in the end we do. We’re at our best and most human.

Today I had to make a call as one of my bills never arrived. The first question the representative asked, seeing where I lived, is how was I doing in the wake of the hurricane. Our humanness is what binds us and makes the world so much smaller. She was from a country whose capital was almost completely underwater in August due to excessive rains and flooding. We commiserated briefly before discussing the business at hand, and the world became yet smaller.

There are so many ways to help. Are you a writer or illustrator? You can help out and be helped in your craft as many authors, editors, agents are offering their time and expertise for a fee which will be donated to help victims of Hurricane Sandy. Read more here.