Celebrating Collapsing Walls

Today, leaders from all over the planet gather in Berlin to celebrate 20 years since the dismantling of the wall that separated east from west Germany.

This occasion prompts me to look deeply at the world in general to see what other walls, visible and invisible, need to come down before we can consider ourselves truly free.

In my own country, Ireland, there is one city which still has walls dividing Republican from Unionist communities. Belfast rather shamefully calls the walls 'Peace Lines'. They imagine that keeping people apart with buffer zones will eventually lead to a day when diverse communities can respectfully co-exist. I don't agree. Maybe as a short-term, temporary solution, walls may be helpful. But walls also create cultural inertia. The short-term becomes long-term and nothing much changes behind those walls. Peace remains elusive. Fear and distrust reign supreme.

There are dividing walls all over the world disguising themselves as social and economic norms. These less-visible walls are, in many cases, even longer lasting than bricks and mortar. The 'haves' and the 'have-nots' remain separate and those with all the power wish to keep it that way.


Look at China and India for example. The vast majority of the world's population live there. Their way of life illustrates my point perfectly. The economic and political reality there is based on the richer ruling class and the poorer working class remaining apart. Let's be honest, it is extremely uncomfortable to be face to face with the very people we must condemn to slave labour in order to build our own personal empire. China is building its future on this principle and India is not far behind them. And let's not forget that India still clings to the ancient caste system whose glass walls divide and stratify her enormous population into more manageable, controllable battalions of workers.

Looking at the various walls that divide us on a more global scale, we become ever-more mindful of the fakeness of borders themselves. They are man-made afterall and are usually the direct result of wars in which vast numbers of young men were forced to their deaths in the pursuit of ideals driven by fear and greed. In the early history of the human race, if life wasn't working out for you in one place, you just marched off to a better place - even as far as another continent altogether. But now, thanks to borders and confederations, human beings are nolonger free to move about and live where they need to be.


Every night on the TV news we watch Africans and Asians perish in hostile environments they cannot escape. They are not free to migrate [despite the fact their original trans-migrations first populated the entire world. We are their children!]

We don't want them or their different ways over here, dragging our struggling cocoon down the tube. We can't have people just living anywhere they want! ... Can we?
Without borders, the planet would just be reduced to utter chaos! ... Wouldn't it?

Anyway ... sorry for banging on about all this. But it's a blog ... That's what it's for!

I remember - speaking of Walls - when i was a young child my mother gave me some Wall's ice-cream on one of those scorching late summer's days we used to have in Ireland before we ruined the planet.
As i savoured the first spoonful, Mammy told me to really enjoy it because there were children all over the world who wouldn't be having any ice-cream.

Completely missing the whole point, i thought to myself -

Oh, how kind of them! Those lovely children are not having any ice-cream just so I can have some.

Yogis of Tibet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFxwaGSiNNQ


According to experts, perhaps the best thing that Tibet has to offer the world is the purity and depth of its meditation tradition. But in recent years that tradition has all but become extinct inside Tibet.

Tibetan Buddhism is undergoing a kind of flourishing in the West wherever it has taken root, thanks to certain great masters. but those masters are the last of their kind it is said.

Flourishing though it is in the West, Tibetan Buddhist meditation remains strong only at the beginner-intermediate practitioner levels. The most advanced practices have yet to emerge in the West, depending as they do on the evolution of advanced Western practitioners.
Hopefully, it is not too late and meditators in our part of the world will realise full enlightenment, thus embodying the fruition of the richest practices available within the vast tradition of Tibet.
However, inside Tibet, these particular advanced practices have all but died out due mainly to the concerted efforts of the Chinese purge of Tibet.

If the above clip whets your appetite for seeing more of that documentary, please enjoy the whole thing on googlevideo here.

I am ever mindful of the fact that these Tibetan yogis have actually broken silence about the specifics of these secret tantric practices because they are convinced that all knowledge of them may well die out with the practitioners themselves who are sharing their incredible personal stories on screen. It is a rare and precious document of a secret tradition near extinction.

4 Young Tibetans Executed by Chinese

It is with a heavy heart i write of the sad news that 4 of the young Tibetans who were arrested last year by the Chinese following the uprising in Lhasa were executed two days ago on October 20.

Regular readers of this blog may remember that i was in studying at Gyuto monastery in Dharamsala last year when the riots and protests were happening both in India and, of course, in Tibet itself.

You can find those previous blog entries by searching the list of topics at the side of this page.

Not only was the original Chinese invasion of Tibet practically unreported, along with the Tibetan uprising at that time, but last year's uprising was also largely unreported. As it unfolded there was eventually a total news blackout.

The four young people who have recently been executed were, of course, not the rebellion's leaders. But they were tried and convicted as such and doubtlessly spent the last year in the harshest goulag being starved and tortured to near death.

You can read the brief statement of the Tibetan Government in Exile regarding the executions here. In fact there are two news stories you can read there by clicking on the headlines of each.

But i would simply like to pay tribute to the four by publishing three of the four names that are known at present... May they have found natural great peace and may their reincarnation be a happy one.



Those executed have been identified as:

Lobsang Gyaltsen, aged 27, born in Lhasa

Loyak, aged 25, of Tashi Khang, Shol Township, Lhasa and

Penkyi, aged 21, born in Sakya County.

The identity of the fourth person is still unknown.

Gay life in Tibet

I came across the following article on fridae.com - a social networking website for gay people in Asia.

The journalist seems to claim HH Dalai Lama, and Buddhism itself, is anti-gay but i don't agree there is any evidence for that at all.

That aside, i found the article really insightful and inspiring. It reminds me of the early days for gay people in Dublin, Ireland, and the many outrageous, courageous fore-runners who paved the way for the rest of us to eventually come out of the closet.

So I send a heartfelt Tashi Delek! [Blessings of Hello] and Tukjé Ché! [Thank you for your Big Hearted love and compassion] to all my gay, bi and trans brothers and sisters inside noble Tibet.

here is the article...

gay in lhasa

by Dinah Gardner

Fridae's Beijing correspondent Dinah Gardner travels to Lhasa, Tibet and speaks to young gay and lesbian Tibetans about their lives in the city's small yet flourishing queer scene.

How gay friendly is the Dalai Lama? Well, the charismatic exiled leader of Tibet says he supports gay and lesbian rights. But only for non-Buddhists. Same-sex intercourse, he says, is simply wrong for believers of his faith. In that case, he might be a tad unhappy then, to learn that Lhasa, capital of his estranged Himalayan kingdom, now has a small yet flourishing queer scene.

Lhasa's iconic Potala Palace

It's hard to find, but the city does have a gay bar. Yeshe, a 20-something gay Tibetan who is working as a bar manager for a tourist restaurant in Lhasa, says Lanse Tian Kong (Blue Sky) is quite hidden, but "there are so many gay boys who go there, especially on Friday's and Saturday's. It's packed." To protect it, its location won't be given here.

There are also popular cruising spots in the city, says Tenzin Tsetan, a gay Tibetan from India, who runs gaytibet.blogspot.com, a blog with resources on gays and lesbians in the "autonomous region" and Tibetan communities around the world.

"As for gays in Lhasa, I think the way they meet each other is mostly through cruising," he says. "There are certain public parks and toilets where they tend to go and meet."

"It seems like there is an underground gay scene in Lhasa," he adds, "but the community is not vibrant and open and nor is there a support group."

According to a local lesbian, there are no dyke bars, and girls will rarely go to Blue Sky bar. "We meet each other through friends, or normal bars, or through the Internet," says 30-year-old Lhundrop.

Lhundrop is wearing baggy jeans and a loose blue sweater. Her hair is cut short and spiky like a typical Chinese T (tomboy).

"I make myself look like a boy because I know it's easier for girls to like me and accept me like this," she says. "Occasionally I like other butch girls but usually I like feminine girls."

It's doubly difficult for gay Tibetans since not only are they living in China, which is not big on gay rights, but according to their spiritual leader, gay sex is condemned as a sexual misconduct. Even so, some scholars say that in old Tibet, gay sexual play between monks was very common.

"Some people - the younger generation accept homosexuality, but most Tibetans cannot accept it," says Lhundrop. "I have never told my parents. They are really traditional. They don't have any experience of this, but I think if I told them they wouldn't reject me."

Whereas many closeted Chinese lesbians and gays are pressured by their families to get married, Lhundrop says her parents have given up pushing her.

"I just told them that marriages between men and women in Tibet aren't really stable these days, there is so much divorce," she smiles. "Even my parents got divorced, although they are back together now. So I use this as an excuse, I say I don't want to get married because it will only end in divorce and they accept this and don't pressure me any more."

She says she is serious about finding a "wife" later and adopting a child.

"I definitely want to settle down later with a girl." The table of her friends - a lesbian couple and a gay boy - erupts into laughter. She explains that she's a bit of a player. "I have had a lot of girlfriends - usually they last about a week."

Despite a lack of Tibetan gay role models - Tibetan-born crooner Han Hong, is rumoured to be a lesbian but has never publicly come out - Lhundrop says she knew she was a lesbian from the beginning.

"I have never had any feelings for boys, and so I've always known I'm a lesbian. I had my first girlfriend when I was 15 years old."

Tenzin says the gay community is mixed between Chinese and Tibetans, which raises another problem. The relationship between locals and Han migrants is tense. Many Tibetans resent their presence in their city.

This sour relationship is clear at the table. Yeshe says that all the money boys at the Blue Sky bar are Chinese, while Lhundrop says she's dated Chinese girls but much prefers Tibetans. "I'll never settle down with a Chinese girl," she says.

But, Dawa, a flamboyant, 25-year-old Tibetan gay man, dressed in a white pleather suit jacket and union jack loafers, says he loves his Chinese boyfriend.

One of the main problems, says Tenzin, is that there is so little visibility for gay Tibetans.

"Among the Tibetan communities both inside and outside Tibet, there is zero visibility of homosexuals although we do exist. On 9 December, two members of the Tibetan gay community, Tenzin and Jampa, both Tibetan expats living in the US went on air on a Tibetan webcasting forum and spoke openly about their lives as gays. This was the first time any Tibetan came out publicly."

In that case, what a great move it would be for Tibet's new generation of lesbians if Han, provided she really is gay of course, had the balls to come out to her public.

Related Links

• gaytibet.blogspot.com

Viet Nam update

Dear friends

A difficult, immediate situation in Vietnam, has arisen. Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Thich Nhat Hanh's Vietnam-based Bat Nha monastery is under severe economic, violent, and governmental pressure to abandon the monastery by September 2. The cause: Two statements supporting religious freedom, a core principle of democracy. ---- see more in the links below:

Help Thich Nhat Hanh and Bat Nha

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/tell-a-friend/5355771

It would be very helpful if as many of us as possible signed the petition to help keep this beacon of hope alive, in the troubled homeland of Thich Nhat Hanh.

With loving kindness

Mindfulness Ireland

Vietnamese Buddhist Monastery Under Siege

In the early 90s, I experienced a kind of spiritual blossoming while reading The Miracle of Mindfulness by Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. It was the beginning of a life-long affair of the heart-mind with Thay, as he is known to his students. He became one of my main teachers and inspirations as the powerful beauty and transformative simplicity of the Buddha's teachings opened up to me.


Thay had been forced into exile from his beloved Viet Nam in the 60s for being a peace activist during the war. In fact he pioneered a form of Engaged Buddhism that showed how true Buddhism must always manifest as peace, compassion and wisdom ... even you are living in a war zone.

In exile, Thay lived and taught the path of peace in the United State [during the Viet Nam War] where he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King. Eventually, he settled in France where he established a community for mindful living called Plum Village.

After 40 years in exile, in 2005, the Vietnamese government invited Thich Nhat Hanh to return to his native land for the first time. It was an incredible blessing to have been able to accompany him on that trip.
By then Thay was considered to be the senior-most Buddhist teacher in the Vietnamese Zen tradition and his home coming was seen as a chance to re-introduce the living teachings of the Buddha into a country whose Communist Government was beginning to acknowledge its failings - especially in relation to its young people.

While we were there, though already quite elderly, Thay worked very hard day and night. He taught many times all over the country and I personally witnessed teachings in fields in the middle of nowhere which were attended by thousands and thousands of people.

Buddhism, it transpired, had fallen into obscurity and decay during those 40 years thanks to the Communist clampdown on religion and the emergence of a secular society consumed by its ever-increasing poverty. Although most monasteries were allowed to remain, they were government-controlled and the senior monks and nuns nolonger fulfilled their spiritual duty to their fellow monastics and to the lay people in general.

Monasteries had become relics of an ancient past, only frequented by old ladies who still wished to make offerings and light incense at the temple as a kind of ritual to make positive merit for their loved-ones. Meanwhile, meditation and the living teachings of the Buddha were rarely taught and senior monks notoriously broke their vows. When we arrived in Viet Nam they were discovered to be openly having lovers, expensive cars, alcohol and so on.

Thay's back-to-basics approach was gentle but firm. The senior monks were all invited to renew their vows - which they did. How could they refuse such a public invitation with its implied admonishment. At the same time, without exception, they offered their monasteries and temples to Thich Nhat Hanh who would continue to be their guide.

On the evening TV News, senior communist politicians declared themselves to be Buddhist and how Thay would be their inspiration for future policy-making. It was a glorious, if surprising, moment in Viet Nams's history to be part of. But, it seems, it was to be short-lived.


On June 29 this year, one of Thay's monasteries came under siege by protesters. It is impossible at present to clearly understand what it was all about, but it seems the protesters included lay people and monks affiliated to those 'established state monasteries' who do not wish to reform afterall.
Thay's senior monks have been attacked and the monastery in question - Bat Nha - is surrounded and without water or electricity. What little food the locals can spare is all the monastics have received for a month now.

You can read a fuller account of the episode here.

Although the article portrays the incident as a new form of Buddhism being ousted by the older 'etablished' form, it is really not that at all. Quite the opposite in fact. It is more like a backlash against the more mainstream, authentic teachings of the Buddha because they challenge the corrupt behaviour of the minority.

Truly Engaged Buddhism is by its very nature political. It will radically and inevitably be a great challenge to the status quo. And that is what we are seeing now.
Furthermore, the current government seems to have changed its stance on Buddhism in Viet Nam and are keeping out of the situation. Some claim they are actually behind the protest. Either way, police have not protected the monks of Bat Nha from attack and the ongoing siege.

A senior spokesperson for Thich Nhat Hanh has said that the country's young people are flocking to Thay's reformed monasteries and dharma centres in favour of the established ones [which appear to be taking too long to change their ways], and that this is the root of the current discord.

On top of that, the government [by definition] dislikes whatever they cannot control. And this is certainly the case here. Perhaps they fear they have created a situation, however positive, that is running away from them altogether and they simply cannot allow that to continue.

The teachings of the Buddha invite us to go beyond all isms and established structures whatsoever.
Ultimately it is about the boundlessness of human potential.
Unfettered people-power was never going to sit well with the government and religious establishment of Viet Nam. And this is the latest evidence ... 'too fast, too soon'.

I suppose it was to be expected afterall.
A quiet revolution of the heart and mind is a revolution nonetheless.

Champ Passes Away...

Most people live their public life behind a mask. We project a picture of ourselves that we want the world to see.

'Champ' was a boy from a little town in the Thai countryside who ended up, like so many, on the streets of Bangkok.

But unlike so many others, Champ found his way in life by impersonating his idol Whitney Houston.

He dedicated his short life to bringing joy to thousands of locals and tourists alike - most famously on stage at DJ Station in Bangkok's Silom Soi 2.

Like his idol, Champ's life had many highs and lows but his incredible show usually went on regardless. Very rarely did things get so difficult for him that he couldn't perform.

Although he worked as a female artiste, he lived his ordinary life as a gay man. He was living for the immanent release of Whitney's new come back album. It would have given his life and career a new energy and direction ... songs to learn... videos, outfits and hairstyles to imitate ... a whole new show to put together for his adoring fans.
I swear, some people liked Champ more than Whitney. He has fans all around the world.

But death is real. It comes without warning. Champ suddenly went blind and deaf. He had an infection that went straight to his brain and he passed away on Saturday night, 25 July.

As I write this blog, I am imagining the many many drag-queens, lady-boys and friends who are making their way up country to Champ's faraway village to attend his funeral... they will have bought bus and train tickets they can barely afford... they will be carrying suitcases and bags filled with hats and wigs, make-up and dignified frocks.
They will descend on Champ's unsuspecting village - triumphant and unashamed of themselves, in memory of him and on his behalf.

I am also mindful that most of them - myself included - know almost nothing of the real person behind the mask: his proper name, his story, his dreams...