Dalai Lama: Bush Has Lack of Understanding of Reality

Dalai Lama image Courtesy of The News Journal/Suchat Pederson 

The Dalai Lama, in a lecture in Philadelphia yesterday, told a group of about 2,000,

Things are not black and white. Things are relative. Things are interdependent. When we look at a situation we have to consider all the factors.

Many world disasters, including war, including the Iraq war, are due to lack of this holistic nature (looking at all the factors). Like Saddam Hussein -- ending things for him. Reality is not that simple.

Of course, I have great respect for, in fact, I love President Bush, because he is very frank, very straightforward. His intentions are good, but some of his policy in spite of his sincere motivation and right goal, and some of his method becomes unrealistic because of lack of understanding about reality.

He went on to explain,

"You cannot look in one direction. In order to see reality, (you) have to see in three or four or seven dimensions" and that this applies in the economical field, political field and international relations."

The Philadelphia talk was sponsored by the Mongolian Kalmyk Buddhist order, which his holiness, the Dalai Lama, said was very close, teachings-wise, to Tibetan Buddhism and to the challenge of maintaining its culture, having left its homeland.

The main message the Dalai Lama presented was the idea of aiming for world peace through inner and outer disarmament. He explained that to reach a point where nations would outwardly disarm, people must first inwardly disarm, by becoming compassionate, not just with friends, but with all people, including those perceived as enemies.

About 2000 people attended the event at the Kimmel center. Upon finishing his talk, he was presented with a large birthday cake which was shared with all the attendees-- a Dalai Lama cake.

Crossposted from OpEdNews.com

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Comments

[rhx056]

I'm not sure how in touch with reality the Dalai Lama is; Bush's ONLY good intentions are only good to his crony buddies -- I don't see any evidence of any other intentions at all, and the rest of us are all screwed. Bush paying off his rich buddies does not qualify as "good intentions" in my book. The man is the worst thing that ever happened to this country.

[Mother77]

Not that it relates to this issue but an interesting note: the Dalai Lama and George W. have the same birthday.

[dutchgirl55]

They represent the best and the worst traits of that astrological sign.

[Allablaze]

The Dalai Lama now knows what most Americans have known since 2000

[Roxanna]

The real problem is that George thinks he is a king instead of a human being like the rest.
He is incapable of saying "Perhaps I made a mistake Perhaps I am wrong"... He is the puppet for the oil conglomerate dysfunction

[davism97]

I want to elect the Dalai Lama for US president. It's refreshing to hear a leader speaking wisdom instead of speaking childish cowboy bravado. I don't share his love for Bush though. I don't think he could possibly understand what the past 8 years have been like since he hasn't lived here.

[cheshirecat831]

Not only does B not think realistically, he behaves like a willful child.

Panel # 3

http://sfbaysailingpix.com/pez2008p1.htm

[hemnebob]

ya...no surprise here. bush might have 'some' good intentions, i have to be fair. i do not have to be fair to the people he tends to surround himself with...it is like the emperor's new clothes...they all tell him
what he 'needs' to know rather than what is reality and how is can be considerably harsher than
what he selects to see or believe.

peace to all...

OBAMA '08

[eden4barack08]

I guess some leaders still have to be diplomatic until Bush is totally out of the WH, before they can let it rip.

It's like Nancy Pelosi on Late Edition: '...he's the President, gotta love him, God bless his heart,..TOTAL FAILURE...'-
I'm paraphrasing, can't remember exact words, but it was funny.

[davism97]

We could say the same thing about her and Congress too though...

[eden4barack08]

True, but with a man like this, there wasn't really too much they could get done.

[dutchgirl55]

The truth is they haven't had enough of a majority to get done what they, and the people, want done. The republicans still vote in mindless, childish lockstep with their leaders. Things will really change for the better after the next election.

It will finally be, "We the people..." instead of "we the bought and paid for underlings of corporate greed."

[AceInTheHole]

With all due respect to the Dali Lama, it appears that the main lesson that he has failed to learn as of yet, is that one can not reason with the UNREASONABLE. He made a good try though and what he had to say was not lost on most of us who are reasonable.

[LarBear]

AceInTheHole...

WOW... So you think the Spiritual Leader of Tibet, has NOT learned, one can NOT REASON with the UNREASONABLE??? *Walks away shaking his spinning head*

[jhoughton1]

Bush has no facility when it comes to complex ideas. Great quality in a U.S. Preznit. Yessir, Mr. Lama, you gotta love a guy like that.

[berrycooda]

In the Bible I read it is stated that there will always be wars and rumors of wars....
In the KJV Mark 13:7 - 8, it states
And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, be not troubled: for such things must be, but the end shall not be yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginning
of sorrows.
Matthew 24:6 and Luke 21:9 state the same thing.

I know many people have different holy words that they read and some don't read any, but even tho we all long for a peaceful world, it will never happen....maybe for a time...then something will start again.
I heard a few years ago that in the Middle East a lasting peace agreement is never signed.
Just maybe 10 years or for a certain number of years. So we aren't promised a "rose garden"

[GuiltyByStander]

So now we fight because the Bible says we will? That's a useful.

[youknowwhat]

So destruction and death of innocent people is okay because the bible says it's okay. I don't get it.

[bungle]

"we all long for a peaceful world, it will never happen"

reading the bible kills hope, just say no to the bible..

[metogamekun]

Sounds like religion may be the problem, not the answer?

[wmholt]

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God" (Matthew 5:9).

[whatsthatsound]

All he is saying is Give Peace a Chance.

[saltysea]

The Dalai Lama offers us a worthy goal.

[carlgt1]

Sounds nice, but we've seen that Muslims would happily wipe out all vestiges of Buddhism or indeed any other religion. So what the Dalai Lama preaches would only work if your enemies have enlightenment, honor, and understanding.

[curocat]

Well, thats what he was talking about.. Also, I believe that the Muslims find it against their religeon to have any images of God, or in the case in Afghanistan (Buddha)... Yeah, it was a shame to destroy such a artifact of the silk road, but it was just an image.. The belief is how you live your life..

[mamacat]

Muslims coexisted with the Buddha statues in Afghanistan for over a thousand years. Today there has risen in that part of the world an extremist sect that has as much hate and intolerance in its teachings as any sect in history. It would be interesting to research in detail the sect's history and philosophy, but for now we are witness to its results in the Sudan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

Fortuneately, there is unlikely to be a lasting wahabi problem in Iraq, as the foreign fighter problem there was only in response to the U.S. invasion and occupation.

[Tommygun264]

Unlike the Christians - the Crusades were just our ancestor's way of saying "hey there" to the rest of the planet.

[Ibackobama]

I think its wrong to generalize and say all Muslims are like that. There is extremism in all religions and the assumption that all Muslims are terrorists is just plain wrong. All religions advocate for the good of mankind then its left to human interpretation or should I say some misinterpretation? People should agree to disagree on religous topics and move on...

[carlgt1]

I'm not saying all Muslims are terrorists, but it is all over their holy Quran about proseletyzing by the sword, dictating the rights (if any) of infidels & slaves etc. I have never seen a Buddhist text preaching anything so violent. So I think approaching them both as "co-equal religions" is not true; as Islam has shown great willingness to conquer and ignore other religions, unlike Buddhism.

[mbjesq]

Look, there's no doubt that Mr. Bush has been an unmitigated disaster -- for America and for the world. And there's not doubt the Dalai Lama is a profoundly great man. But his political acumen has not proven to be his strong suit, notwithstanding that he gets this easy call right.

His holiness should spend as much time considering his own gross mishandling of the perpetual crisis in his own country and asking himself "What would Gandhi-ji do? (http://memestreamblog.wordpress.com/2008/05/18/doing-peace-wrong/ ) as taking on a loser like Mr. Bush.

[carlgt1]

Gandhi's techniques only worked as well as the British allowed -- meaning that the British ultimately had some sense of decency & decorum & a notion of "shame" & honor. Even Gandhi himself said his tactics would not have worked against the Nazis (or by extension, the Sudanese, Taliban, Hussein, China etc). Gandhi would have been the first in a mass grave, that's all...