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![Why the Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet, and the World by [Robert Thurman]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51dZp4lY1SL._SY346_.jpg)
Why the Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet, and the World Kindle Edition
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His Holiness the Dalai Lama is an extraordinary example of a life dedicated to peace, communication, and unity. What he represents, and what he has accomplished, heals and transcends the current tensions between Tibet and China. Why the Dalai Lama Matters explores just why he has earned the world's love and respect, and how restoring Tibet's autonomy within China is not only possible, but highly reasonable, and absolutely necessary for all of us together to have a peaceful future as a global community.
In the few decades since the illegal Chinese invasion of Tibet, Tibetans have seen their ecosystem destroyed, their religion, language, and culture repressed, and systematic oppression and violence against anyone who dares acknowledge Tibetan sovereignty. Yet, above it all, the Dalai Lama has been a consistent voice for peace, sharing a "Middle-Way" approach that has gathered accolades from the Nobel Peace Prize to the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal.
Modeling this peaceful resistance shows the world that nobody is free unless everybody is free -- and that a solution exists that can benefi t all parties, not just one. And more than just his nation have taken notice. His inter-religious dialogues, honest, humble demeanor, and sense of compassionate justice sets him apart in a world at war with itself. When China changes policy and lets Tibetans be who they are, Tibet can, in turn, join with China in peaceful coexistence.
Why the Dalai Lama Matters is not merely a book about Tibet or the Dalai Lama. It is a revealing, provocative solution for a world in confl ict, dealing with the very fundamentals of human rights and freedoms. By showing the work that the Dalai Lama has done on behalf of his people, Thurman illuminates a worldwide call to action, showing that power gained by might means nothing in the face of a determined act of truth.
In the few decades since the illegal Chinese invasion of Tibet, Tibetans have seen their ecosystem destroyed, their religion, language, and culture repressed, and systematic oppression and violence against anyone who dares acknowledge Tibetan sovereignty. Yet, above it all, the Dalai Lama has been a consistent voice for peace, sharing a "Middle-Way" approach that has gathered accolades from the Nobel Peace Prize to the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal.
Modeling this peaceful resistance shows the world that nobody is free unless everybody is free -- and that a solution exists that can benefi t all parties, not just one. And more than just his nation have taken notice. His inter-religious dialogues, honest, humble demeanor, and sense of compassionate justice sets him apart in a world at war with itself. When China changes policy and lets Tibetans be who they are, Tibet can, in turn, join with China in peaceful coexistence.
Why the Dalai Lama Matters is not merely a book about Tibet or the Dalai Lama. It is a revealing, provocative solution for a world in confl ict, dealing with the very fundamentals of human rights and freedoms. By showing the work that the Dalai Lama has done on behalf of his people, Thurman illuminates a worldwide call to action, showing that power gained by might means nothing in the face of a determined act of truth.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherAtria Books/Beyond Words
- Publication date3 June 2008
- File size4630 KB
Product description
Review
"Dr. Thurman clearly describes how the 14th Dalai Lama can forge a path to a far better world in our time. As Albert Einstein urged, we must engage a different level of thinking to help solve the signifi cant problems we face, problems often caused by our ordinary assumptions. The Dalai Lama is a unique exemplar of a different, vital, inclusive, and powerfully effective way of thinking. This wonderfully written, compelling book invites us to freedom."
―Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness
"No one has worked harder to bring Tibet, Tibetan Buddhism, and the special power of the Dalai Lama to American audiences than Robert Thurman. Long may he write and, as in this latest work, bring learning and spirit, great vigor, and close knowledge together."
―Pico Iyer, author of The Open Road and Sun After Dark
"I could not put this book down. I found it powerfully inspiriting to imagine a positive alternative to the sixty-yearlong tragedy wrought by China in Tibet. As Robert Thurman shows us, by reversing its colonialist cultural genocide in Tibet (and so inspiring a reversal of the murderous policies of the regimes in Myanmar and Sudan), China could truly emerge as a responsible world power and take its place within the moral community of nations."
―Mia Farrow, actor, activist, and humanitarian
"This book kindles hope for Tibet, for China, and for peace. It listens deeply to the Dalai Lama, making clear what he offers and can accomplish. It vividly envisions the freedom the Tibetan people urgently need and the respect China desires from the entire world."
―Uma Karuna Thurman, actor, and activist --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
―Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness
"No one has worked harder to bring Tibet, Tibetan Buddhism, and the special power of the Dalai Lama to American audiences than Robert Thurman. Long may he write and, as in this latest work, bring learning and spirit, great vigor, and close knowledge together."
―Pico Iyer, author of The Open Road and Sun After Dark
"I could not put this book down. I found it powerfully inspiriting to imagine a positive alternative to the sixty-yearlong tragedy wrought by China in Tibet. As Robert Thurman shows us, by reversing its colonialist cultural genocide in Tibet (and so inspiring a reversal of the murderous policies of the regimes in Myanmar and Sudan), China could truly emerge as a responsible world power and take its place within the moral community of nations."
―Mia Farrow, actor, activist, and humanitarian
"This book kindles hope for Tibet, for China, and for peace. It listens deeply to the Dalai Lama, making clear what he offers and can accomplish. It vividly envisions the freedom the Tibetan people urgently need and the respect China desires from the entire world."
―Uma Karuna Thurman, actor, and activist --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Robert Thurman is the author of the critically acclaimed, popular original books Inner Revolution and Infinite Life and a translator of sacred Tibetan texts, including The Essence of True Eloquence and The Tibetan Book of the Dead. He teaches at Columbia University and holds the first endowed chair in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in America. Cofounder of Tibet House US and Menla Mountain Retreat Center, he lives in New York City and Woodstock, New York. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product details
- ASIN : B0018QSNW2
- Publisher : Atria Books/Beyond Words; Reprint edition (3 June 2008)
- Language : English
- File size : 4630 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 256 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: 1,180,947 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 194 in History of Tibet
- 336 in Dalai Lama
- 470 in International Diplomacy (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
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Robert A.F. Thurman is the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in the Department of Religion at Columbia University, President of the Tibet House U.S., a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Tibetan civilization, and President of the American Institute of Buddhist Studies, a non-profit affiliated with the Center for Buddhist Studies at Columbia University and dedicated to the publication of translations of important artistic and scientific treatises from the Tibetan Tengyur.
Time chose Professor Thurman as one of its 25 most influential Americans in 1997, describing him as a “larger than life scholar-activist destined to convey the Dharma, the precious teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha, from Asia to America.” The New York Times recently said Thurman “is considered the leading American expert on Tibetan Buddhism.”
Thurman is known as a talented popularizer of the Buddha’s teachings. He is a riveting speaker and an author of many books on Tibet, Buddhism, art, politics and culture, including The Central Philosophy of Tibet, Circling the Sacred Mountain, Essential Tibetan Buddhism, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet, Worlds of Transformation, Inner Revolution, Infinite Life, the Jewel Tree of Tibet, Why The Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet, and the World, and, most recently, with Sharon Salzberg, Love Your Enemies.
His own search for enlightenment began while he was a student at Harvard. After an accident in which he lost the use of an eye, Thurman left school on a spiritual quest throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He found his way to India, where he first saw H.H. the Dalai Lama in 1962. After learning Tibetan and studying Buddhism he decided to become a Tibetan Buddhist monk and was the first Westerner to be ordained by the Dalai Lama. However, some years later, he offered up his robes when “he discovered he could be more effective in the American equivalent of the monastery: the university”. He returned to Harvard to finish his PhD. A very popular professor, students call his classes “life-changing”.
As part of his long-term commitment to the Tibetan cause, at the request of H.H. the Dalai Lama, Thurman co-founded Tibet House US in 1987 with Tenzin Tethong, Richard Gere, and Philip Glass. Since then Uma Thurman, Melissa Mathison Ford, Natalie Merchant, Leila Hadley Luce and many others served on the board. Tibet House US is a non profit organization in New York City dedicated to the preservation and renaissance of Tibetan civilization. It maintains a lively museum and cultural center, and offers programs in all aspects of the Tibetan arts and sciences. It recently founded the Menla Mountain Retreat Center in the Catskill Mountains to advance the healing arts and wisdom of Tibetan and Asian medicine traditions and offer their resources to the growing demand for alternative and complementary health practices.
Inspired by his good friend the Dalai Lama, Thurman stands on Buddhism’s open reality, and thence takes us along with him into an expanded vision of the world, whether the sweep of history, the subtleties of the inner science of the psyche, or the wonders of the life of the heart. He always shares the sense of refuge in the Dharma, which unfailingly helps us clear away the shrouds of fear and confusion, sustains us with the cheerfulness of an enriched present, and opens a door to a path of realistic hope for a peaceful future.
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Top reviews from other countries
D.Inman
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful read
Reviewed in the United States on 13 May 2017Verified Purchase
Amazing book! A must read for anyone interested in the Dalai Lama, the politic of China and Tibet, and how we are going to possibly lose the greatest source of kindness.
2 people found this helpful
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Art Vandelay
1.0 out of 5 stars
Unequivocally The Worst Book about Tibet I've come across in 10 years of research.
Reviewed in the United States on 20 February 2016Verified Purchase
This book is only valuable insofar as it provides a counterweight to much of the absurd 'literature' produced by the CCP that makes outrageous and blatantly untrue claims about the status of "China's Tibet." This book is a disingenuous attempt to dupe those unwilling to do any historical digging of their own into believing that Thurman is both an unproblematic interlocutor for the Dalai Lama and that he is someone who has worthwhile suggestions for the Premiers of China. I do not know how anyone could take him or this book remotely seriously.
Not only are there numerous blatant errors easily fact checked (e.g. He gets the Tibetan Prefectures of Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan wrong, and repeatedly refers to Honk Kong as an "autonomous region" rather than its proper title, an "administrative region"), he glosses of Tibetan history as so insanely superficial and apologetic that any reader is hindered in actually descrying the horrendously destructive and unjust history that actually took place here and in a number of other places. But it goes beyond basic facts and history: Thurman attempts downright deception through bait-and-switch and a number of other methods. For example, he first uses the term genocide. Then later qualifies it as 'cultural genocide.' Then cultural genocide through population transfer. And on. No one here is saying that everything is A-OK, but clearly there is a meaning that belongs to genocides like the Holocaust of European Jews that is different than a genocide through population transfer. Many other lines of reason in the book are equally as suspect.
An example might show how dense and arrogant he must truly be: the beginning of the book is, as mentioned, littered with uses of the term "genocide" - and repeatedly claims that Tibet was always internationally recognized as independent and unified (both highly doubted claims). But he then goes on to outline a plan of action for the (former) Chinese Premier, Hu Jintao. How could anyone with a working brain think that a CCP member, never mind the premier, could take Thurman seriously after the highly polemical history laid out in the beginning of the book? Jeese, I am about a big a fan of Tibet as there is and EVEN I can't take him seriously. Never mind someone actually approaching it from the CCP side. What a joke.
Here's a final example of just how deceptive Thurman is throughout the book: on the COVER OF THE BOOK is a Tibetan independence flag. And throughout the book he voices his support of the Dalai Lama. Yet, since 1988, the Dalai Lama hasn't even argued for independence? So why is this flag on the cover? Because he's simply trying to sell books and not judiciously inform his readers. That dalailamamatters.com is a DOT COM and not a DOT ORG also speaks volumes.
There is no doubt that Thurman was once a top-notch scholar of Tibetan Buddhism. The guy's language and philosophical abilities in this respect are nearly unmatched. But he uses his renown in that field to deceptively posture credibility as a historian and/or social scientist. But this book is at best pop-culture reading and, more likely, fantasy. It's not by an academic press and, as I mentioned, it's not even generally accurate in many respects. He has done much for Tibetology in the US over the last 4 decades but, clearly it's a looooong way down from the top.
Not only are there numerous blatant errors easily fact checked (e.g. He gets the Tibetan Prefectures of Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan wrong, and repeatedly refers to Honk Kong as an "autonomous region" rather than its proper title, an "administrative region"), he glosses of Tibetan history as so insanely superficial and apologetic that any reader is hindered in actually descrying the horrendously destructive and unjust history that actually took place here and in a number of other places. But it goes beyond basic facts and history: Thurman attempts downright deception through bait-and-switch and a number of other methods. For example, he first uses the term genocide. Then later qualifies it as 'cultural genocide.' Then cultural genocide through population transfer. And on. No one here is saying that everything is A-OK, but clearly there is a meaning that belongs to genocides like the Holocaust of European Jews that is different than a genocide through population transfer. Many other lines of reason in the book are equally as suspect.
An example might show how dense and arrogant he must truly be: the beginning of the book is, as mentioned, littered with uses of the term "genocide" - and repeatedly claims that Tibet was always internationally recognized as independent and unified (both highly doubted claims). But he then goes on to outline a plan of action for the (former) Chinese Premier, Hu Jintao. How could anyone with a working brain think that a CCP member, never mind the premier, could take Thurman seriously after the highly polemical history laid out in the beginning of the book? Jeese, I am about a big a fan of Tibet as there is and EVEN I can't take him seriously. Never mind someone actually approaching it from the CCP side. What a joke.
Here's a final example of just how deceptive Thurman is throughout the book: on the COVER OF THE BOOK is a Tibetan independence flag. And throughout the book he voices his support of the Dalai Lama. Yet, since 1988, the Dalai Lama hasn't even argued for independence? So why is this flag on the cover? Because he's simply trying to sell books and not judiciously inform his readers. That dalailamamatters.com is a DOT COM and not a DOT ORG also speaks volumes.
There is no doubt that Thurman was once a top-notch scholar of Tibetan Buddhism. The guy's language and philosophical abilities in this respect are nearly unmatched. But he uses his renown in that field to deceptively posture credibility as a historian and/or social scientist. But this book is at best pop-culture reading and, more likely, fantasy. It's not by an academic press and, as I mentioned, it's not even generally accurate in many respects. He has done much for Tibetology in the US over the last 4 decades but, clearly it's a looooong way down from the top.
One person found this helpful
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Mind
5.0 out of 5 stars
Important Book
Reviewed in the United States on 6 June 2008Verified Purchase
Although the Dalai Lama is almost a household name in the United States, few people have a clear picture of who he is. Robert Thurman has championed the potential of this simple monk to teach the planet how to survive in peace. The ways of war are no longer practical (if they ever were...), and our creative ability to evolve will require a peaceful world. China would be well served to open a dialoge with the Dalai Lama before he dies, if for no other reason than to show it truly is a Great China, not just another despotic communist state.
This book should be read widely, especially by the Chinese audience in the United States. Although this book is sometimes critical of China, it is often hopeful that China will soon open its arms in friendship. "No matter what part of the world we come from, we are all basically the same human beings. We all seek happiness and try to avoid suffering. We have the same basic needs and concerns. All human beings want freedom and the right to determine our own destiny as individuals and peoples. That is human nature." from the Dalai Lama's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, December 10, 1989.
This book should be read widely, especially by the Chinese audience in the United States. Although this book is sometimes critical of China, it is often hopeful that China will soon open its arms in friendship. "No matter what part of the world we come from, we are all basically the same human beings. We all seek happiness and try to avoid suffering. We have the same basic needs and concerns. All human beings want freedom and the right to determine our own destiny as individuals and peoples. That is human nature." from the Dalai Lama's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, December 10, 1989.
18 people found this helpful
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RJ
5.0 out of 5 stars
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on 11 January 2015Verified Purchase
This book is a valuable one!
Virginia Lohner
5.0 out of 5 stars
Why the Dalai Lama Matters to Everyone
Reviewed in the United States on 20 January 2016Verified Purchase
Well argued. Wonder if the Chinese have even looked at it?
