Osho on Dalai Lama and Issue of Tibet
Osho - My Friends, Before I discuss the sutras, a real concern to my heart is more urgent to be discussed.
India's prime minister Rajiv Gandhi has been trying his hardest to create a friendship with China, and it seems they are settling the matter. I don't blame Rajiv Gandhi. Two big countries like India and China cannot remain forever enemies -- whoever is weaker, sooner or later is going to give way.
This is the second defeat to India. The first defeat was when China invaded Indian territory in the Himalayas, thousands of miles. India was not strong enough, and particularly it was not ready to fight in the eternal snows of the Himalayas.
Rajiv Gandhi's grandfather -- Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India -- still fought, knowing perfectly well there was no possibility to be victorious. And he was defeated. The Indian armies could not stand the snows of the Himalayas. They had never thought about it; hence they were not prepared.
China conquered Tibet. One of the most significant countries in the world -- small and poor, at the highest mountains, it was called "the roof of the world," and it has for centuries been devoting itself only to meditation. A singular country in the whole world -- for centuries, continuously, it had only one desire: how to know oneself. It had no armies, it never invaded anyone; it had no desire like that, uncivilized, barbarious. It was primitive, but I will still say Tibet was the most civilized country, the most cultured.
China invaded Tibet -- Tibet had no arms, no armies. China crushed the poor Tibetans under machine guns, trampled their monasteries. Dalai Lama, the head of Tibet politically and religiously both, had no other way than to take refuge in the Indian part of Himalayas, in Dharamsala. Since then he has been living there with the thousands of Tibetans who have come with him.
It is a very sad affair to say that nobody in the whole world even protested that an innocent country, which has never invaded and had never shown any desire to invade anybody, should be simply taken over because another country has power. It seems our whole civilization is a pretension; our whole talk about freedom and independence are mere words. Not only that, nobody raised a voice against China. Just now, Rajiv Gandhi has said, "Tibet is China's internal affair."
It seems the law of the jungle still prevails. The bigger fish goes on eating the smaller fish -- no protest. Now Dalai Lama, seeing the situation that India and China are going to become friends, has started to prepare to leave the country -- because China's first demand will be that Dalai Lama should be handed over to China; other than that there is no possibility. It has been consistently China's demand that, "Unless you hand over Dalai Lama to Peking there is no possibility of friendship."
And Rajiv Gandhi has forgotten completely those thousands of miles of Indian territory. That too is China's internal affair? Then soon the whole of India will be China's internal affair!
One should not be so weak, either. I would like to say to Dalai Lama: "Don't think of going anywhere; you will not get residence anywhere in the world, because nobody wants to be antagonistic to the biggest country, China." Just two years ago, even America refused just a three-week tourist visa for Dalai Lama on the grounds that they did not want to annoy China.
I have loved Buddha, and I have loved those who have loved Buddha. I have deep love and respect for Dalai Lama. My suggestion to him is: don't leave this country; just drop the desire to be the sovereign head, the political head of Tibet. In fact, it is not right for a religious man to have such aspirations for being a political head. Just drop that idea. Be an ordinary meditator, a lover of Buddha -- then China will not ask for you. You are being asked for because of your continuous desire to be the head of Tibet again. Too much water has gone down the Ganges; it cannot happen, at least in your lifetime.
But my insistence is that fundamentally your desire is wrong. Tibet is gone, out of your hands. You should have renounced it. Your desire for power is a political desire -- it is shameful in a man who is thought to be a meditator. Just remain in the Himalayas, and nobody is going to trouble you. The trouble is arising within you because of the desire that you want Tibet to be again under your rule.
Forget all about it. It is ugly, absolutely condemnable, to have such a desire. That was the singular message of Gautam the Buddha: don't have any desire in this world; when the other world, the mysterious world, is ready to open its doors you are asking for some illusory power.
This shows that Dalai Lama himself is not a meditator. I would like him not to go anywhere. You have a beautiful place in Dharamsala -- go inwards. It is time that you prove that there is an inner world far more precious than anything the outer world can give to you. And if you cannot prove this, who do you think is going to prove it?
Once he drops the desire and the claim, and he becomes an ordinary, simple human being, China has no interest in him. He can live in the Himalayas -- he is accustomed to living in the Himalayas.
And I say again: nobody is going to behave in a friendly way with you. What can you offer? China offers a tremendous power. You will not get shelter anywhere in the world.
The world is not so civilized as you think. It cares only for those who have power. To be powerful is to be right, and to be powerless... nobody cares about you, whether you are right or wrong.
This has been a tremendous weight on me. In the first place, Tibet is not China's internal affair, and Rajiv Gandhi has forgotten those thousands of miles of Himalayan territory. It is not even mentioned.
And what is to be remembered by Dalai Lama especially: don't get deluded by the so-called talk of democracy, independence, freedom. These things don't exist; the powerful only talk about them. The whole world is still centuries back, living in the same barbarious mind. Only its houses have become better, the roads are better, technology is better, but the man? -- it has never been worse than it is now! Because the primitive, barbarian man, howsoever violent, had no missiles, nuclear weapons, atom bombs.
This is the same barbarian man -- with modern clothes, but the mind is as animalistic as you can imagine. And in the hands of these barbarious chimpanzees are nuclear weapons which can destroy this whole earth within ten minutes, with all its living beings. The barbarious man, the chimpanzee, has come to the terminal point where it is going to commit suicide.
I have heard that Ronald Reagan had a great friend, a chimpanzee. He could not find another human being to have a friendship with. The first day of his presidency in America he had gone for a morning walk on the beach with his great friend the chimpanzee.
An old drunkard stumbled around, looking very carefully, and finally he could not resist: he came to these two friends and he said, "President, sir, it does not feel right to have a chimpanzee as your friend."
As Ronald Reagan was going to say something, that old drunkard said, "You shut up! I am talking to Mr. President."
That chimpanzee is hidden in so-called politicians. Wherever there is a desire to dominate there is a chimpanzee hidden within.
I want to repeat again: Dalai Lama has not to go anywhere. It is time to drop the outer desire for domination. Go inwards, you are getting older but you are not growing up. Go inwards to find the kingdom which is not of this world.
Source - Osho Book "No Mind: The Flowers of Eternity
Osho - My Friends, Before I discuss the sutras, a real concern to my heart is more urgent to be discussed.
India's prime minister Rajiv Gandhi has been trying his hardest to create a friendship with China, and it seems they are settling the matter. I don't blame Rajiv Gandhi. Two big countries like India and China cannot remain forever enemies -- whoever is weaker, sooner or later is going to give way.
This is the second defeat to India. The first defeat was when China invaded Indian territory in the Himalayas, thousands of miles. India was not strong enough, and particularly it was not ready to fight in the eternal snows of the Himalayas.
Rajiv Gandhi's grandfather -- Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India -- still fought, knowing perfectly well there was no possibility to be victorious. And he was defeated. The Indian armies could not stand the snows of the Himalayas. They had never thought about it; hence they were not prepared.
China conquered Tibet. One of the most significant countries in the world -- small and poor, at the highest mountains, it was called "the roof of the world," and it has for centuries been devoting itself only to meditation. A singular country in the whole world -- for centuries, continuously, it had only one desire: how to know oneself. It had no armies, it never invaded anyone; it had no desire like that, uncivilized, barbarious. It was primitive, but I will still say Tibet was the most civilized country, the most cultured.
China invaded Tibet -- Tibet had no arms, no armies. China crushed the poor Tibetans under machine guns, trampled their monasteries. Dalai Lama, the head of Tibet politically and religiously both, had no other way than to take refuge in the Indian part of Himalayas, in Dharamsala. Since then he has been living there with the thousands of Tibetans who have come with him.
It is a very sad affair to say that nobody in the whole world even protested that an innocent country, which has never invaded and had never shown any desire to invade anybody, should be simply taken over because another country has power. It seems our whole civilization is a pretension; our whole talk about freedom and independence are mere words. Not only that, nobody raised a voice against China. Just now, Rajiv Gandhi has said, "Tibet is China's internal affair."
It seems the law of the jungle still prevails. The bigger fish goes on eating the smaller fish -- no protest. Now Dalai Lama, seeing the situation that India and China are going to become friends, has started to prepare to leave the country -- because China's first demand will be that Dalai Lama should be handed over to China; other than that there is no possibility. It has been consistently China's demand that, "Unless you hand over Dalai Lama to Peking there is no possibility of friendship."
And Rajiv Gandhi has forgotten completely those thousands of miles of Indian territory. That too is China's internal affair? Then soon the whole of India will be China's internal affair!
One should not be so weak, either. I would like to say to Dalai Lama: "Don't think of going anywhere; you will not get residence anywhere in the world, because nobody wants to be antagonistic to the biggest country, China." Just two years ago, even America refused just a three-week tourist visa for Dalai Lama on the grounds that they did not want to annoy China.
I have loved Buddha, and I have loved those who have loved Buddha. I have deep love and respect for Dalai Lama. My suggestion to him is: don't leave this country; just drop the desire to be the sovereign head, the political head of Tibet. In fact, it is not right for a religious man to have such aspirations for being a political head. Just drop that idea. Be an ordinary meditator, a lover of Buddha -- then China will not ask for you. You are being asked for because of your continuous desire to be the head of Tibet again. Too much water has gone down the Ganges; it cannot happen, at least in your lifetime.
But my insistence is that fundamentally your desire is wrong. Tibet is gone, out of your hands. You should have renounced it. Your desire for power is a political desire -- it is shameful in a man who is thought to be a meditator. Just remain in the Himalayas, and nobody is going to trouble you. The trouble is arising within you because of the desire that you want Tibet to be again under your rule.
Forget all about it. It is ugly, absolutely condemnable, to have such a desire. That was the singular message of Gautam the Buddha: don't have any desire in this world; when the other world, the mysterious world, is ready to open its doors you are asking for some illusory power.
This shows that Dalai Lama himself is not a meditator. I would like him not to go anywhere. You have a beautiful place in Dharamsala -- go inwards. It is time that you prove that there is an inner world far more precious than anything the outer world can give to you. And if you cannot prove this, who do you think is going to prove it?
Once he drops the desire and the claim, and he becomes an ordinary, simple human being, China has no interest in him. He can live in the Himalayas -- he is accustomed to living in the Himalayas.
And I say again: nobody is going to behave in a friendly way with you. What can you offer? China offers a tremendous power. You will not get shelter anywhere in the world.
The world is not so civilized as you think. It cares only for those who have power. To be powerful is to be right, and to be powerless... nobody cares about you, whether you are right or wrong.
This has been a tremendous weight on me. In the first place, Tibet is not China's internal affair, and Rajiv Gandhi has forgotten those thousands of miles of Himalayan territory. It is not even mentioned.
And what is to be remembered by Dalai Lama especially: don't get deluded by the so-called talk of democracy, independence, freedom. These things don't exist; the powerful only talk about them. The whole world is still centuries back, living in the same barbarious mind. Only its houses have become better, the roads are better, technology is better, but the man? -- it has never been worse than it is now! Because the primitive, barbarian man, howsoever violent, had no missiles, nuclear weapons, atom bombs.
This is the same barbarian man -- with modern clothes, but the mind is as animalistic as you can imagine. And in the hands of these barbarious chimpanzees are nuclear weapons which can destroy this whole earth within ten minutes, with all its living beings. The barbarious man, the chimpanzee, has come to the terminal point where it is going to commit suicide.
I have heard that Ronald Reagan had a great friend, a chimpanzee. He could not find another human being to have a friendship with. The first day of his presidency in America he had gone for a morning walk on the beach with his great friend the chimpanzee.
An old drunkard stumbled around, looking very carefully, and finally he could not resist: he came to these two friends and he said, "President, sir, it does not feel right to have a chimpanzee as your friend."
As Ronald Reagan was going to say something, that old drunkard said, "You shut up! I am talking to Mr. President."
That chimpanzee is hidden in so-called politicians. Wherever there is a desire to dominate there is a chimpanzee hidden within.
I want to repeat again: Dalai Lama has not to go anywhere. It is time to drop the outer desire for domination. Go inwards, you are getting older but you are not growing up. Go inwards to find the kingdom which is not of this world.
Source - Osho Book "No Mind: The Flowers of Eternity
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