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Are We REALLY Kind?

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An excerpt from a teaching called True Motivation for Kindess by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

In the Mahayana vehicle the Buddha teaches us that we should be more concerned for the welfare of sentient beings than we should for our own welfare. If we examine ourselves carefully, however, we understand that that is not a natural way for us to behave. The survival of self has always been our primary concern, and the habit or strong habitual tendency of preserving the ego is so deeply ingrained we do not actually understand how frequently we engage in it.

Now you might disagree, thinking, “Well, I was very kind to my family yesterday, and I was kind and generous to my friends last week. I even gave some things away.” If you think like that, think again. The only way that you can remember when you were kind is by comparison to other times. This means that there has to be a hefty measure of time when you were not kind, to be able to compare the two.

If we were truly bodhisattvas here solely to benefit sentient beings, the activity of kindness would be so all-pervasive and natural we wouldn’t be able to discriminate it. One would not know that one was kind. If someone were to say to you, “You’re really kind. Your whole life is kindness,” one would say, “Really?” because one wouldn’t know. There would be nothing to compare it to.

When we look at our kindness truthfully, we often find out it is all about us, and for the most part has very little to do with anyone else. This is a hard truth to face, but it must be faced in order to discover what the Buddha is talking about when he speaks of kindness toward all sentient beings.

Self-examination often leads us to the decision to be a kind person. When your decision is about being a kind person, however, there is actually very little true caring for the welfare of sentient beings. What you are really trying to do is to find yourself, or to like yourself, or to label yourself, to discriminate between self and other and to continue the continuum of egocentricity. When a person decides to be kind, they do so because they want to be a certain way or they want to present themselves a certain way, but generally it’s all about them.

The Buddha teaches us that when we wish to embody the virtue of compassion — when we actually decide to be kind — we should do so for very logical reasons. First, we should study cyclic existence, the cycle of death and rebirth well enough to see its faults. One of the main faults of cyclic existence is that everyone who is born will die. Coupled with this is that during the entire time you’re alive until you start to age or become extremely sick you forget that simple fact, and you do not act appropriately.

We’re all going to experience death. But the way you’re thinking now and the way you act the rest of the day will demonstrate that you’re not thinking like that. You will act like a person who does not remember his or her own death. Because the other thing that you learn about your death is that when you die you can’t take anything with you, not a thing — except the condition, or karma, or habitual tendency of your mind.

Knowing you can only take the habitual tendency of your mind with you when you die, are you going to act appropriately the rest of the day? No way. For the rest of the day, the rest of the week, we will try to accumulate as much approval as possible. “I’m going to make people like me; I’m going to make people proud. I’m going to get love. I’m going to do anything I can — lie, cheat, steal — I’ll put on an act, pretend. I’ll mask my true feelings and do anything just to get a little bit of approval. Who cares if that creates a habit of grasping? Who cares if I take only for me and don’t much care what happens to anyone else? I need that approval, that love.”

The other thing we’ll do is try to accumulate material goods for no good purpose other than that we want them. We forget we can’t take them with us. We don’t act like people who know that. We act like people who believe in some kind of hokey fairy tale or story that can’t possibly come true.

In cyclic existence we also suffer from the suffering of suffering. If we had a different kind of mind, we could see birth and death and our minds would be stable and spacious.  Perhaps these events wouldn’t bother us so much.

Unfortunately everything bothers us. Everything is something we react toward, because it is the nature of our mind to react toward everything with acceptance or rejection, hope and fear. What must come from that is hatred, greed and ignorance. We either hate something, or we want it, or we ignore it. Thus, we engage in the suffering of suffering. We not only experience death, we suffer because of our reaction to death. We not only experience separation, we suffer because of our reaction to separation.

So these are the faults of cyclic existence, and what else would you do other than practice a path that leads to the cessation of suffering? You could accumulate material goods, but what good will that do? Or you could continue the habit of being hateful. What good would that do? Or you could continue to grasp. What good would that do?

The Buddha teaches us that there is an end to suffering. That end is to exit cyclic existence; and in order to leave, one must achieve liberation, or enlightenment. Upon awakening to the enlightened state, one no longer revolves in cyclic existence, because one does not have the building blocks of death and rebirth which are based on the assumption of ego, or self-nature as being inherently real, and the reaction to phenomenal experiences. That is what cyclic existence actually is–that through that means one actually creates the karma of suffering and death, the endless experience or cycle we find ourselves in.

The Buddha teaches us that to attain enlightenment, to awaken to the primordial wisdom state, one no longer accumulates karma. In fact all of that perceptual experience is pacified, in that one finally awakens to and truly views the primordial wisdom nature. So there is an end to suffering. So, if you become a spiritual person in order to be something, you’re still clinging to ego and you’ll actually never attain enlightenment by awakening to the primordial wisdom nature.

And the Buddha teaches us that this can be done through the systematic pacification of hatred, greed and ignorance, the pacification of desire, through meditation, prayer, contemplation, study, through the pursuance of enlightened activity.

© Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Spiritual Technology

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An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo from the Vow of Love series

You are at the beginning. You have arrived at the door to liberation. You are knocking on a door that opens to the end of suffering. You have a tremendous capacity here, and in order to utilize that capacity you have to begin to utilize the technology being offered you. That technology is very simple: you have to soften and turn your mind. Whether you are a Buddhist or not, in order to achieve any realization at all – in fact in order to continue in a steadfast way on a path without being pulled away by the craziness of your own mind – you have to develop stability. That stability has to be based on the softening and gentling of your mind. You have to free it as much as possible from discursive thought, and from the conceptualization associated with the belief in self-nature as being real. You have to free it enough to be able to get some perspective.

Through that stability and deepening we can begin to examine these essential thoughts: that all sentient beings want to be happy, that all beings are suffering, that there is a cessation to suffering, and that the cessation to suffering is called enlightenment.

We should examine these thoughts, because Westerners have a very complicated world. Maybe it is hard to understand that all beings wish to be happy here in the West, because here we listen to the news and we hear about people throwing bombs at each other. We hear about robbery, rape and murder. We think, “Wow, that person raped and murdered; he is a horrible person.” We condemn him immediately and forget the other side of that thought, which is that he is trying to be happy. Can you believe that? Is that not an awesome thought? People who are raping and murdering, people throwing bombs in each other’s windows – how can you believe that these people want to be happy? Yet, it is absolutely the case. All sentient beings want to be happy, but they are drunk with the idea that there is no cause and effect. They are drunk with the idea that they can attain happiness by manipulating their environment in some crazy way. It just doesn’t work.

For instance, a freedom fighter might believe if he destroys a thousand people by throwing a bomb into a building, he might attain some liberty for his people, and through that effort he will be happy. That might be his thinking, but he doesn’t realize he has killed a thousand people, and through his action has created the karma in his mindstream of a thousand deaths that can only be the cause of suffering. He really believes he is doing something good. Even the rapist and murderer – maybe he has an uncontrollable urge that is deep and profound. Where does that urge come from? Why don’t you have it? It is because he has the karma of that urge. Maybe it was caused when many lifetimes ago he threw a bomb in somebody’s window and killed a thousand people, and maybe that is why he has that urge in his mindstream now. So what does he do? He continues to rape and murder. At the moment of doing so, he thinks he will end the suffering of his uncontrollable urge through raping and murdering just once more.

That is how horrible it is, but these people really are trying to be happy. Think about that. Think about how they are suffering uncontrollably, revolving again and again in cyclic existence, helplessly, because of the karma that has infected their minds. They are helpless in the midst of the cause and effect that they have created — simply helpless. Even in these horrible cases it is true, all sentient beings are trying to be happy. On the other side of this law, which the Buddha declared, is that not understanding how to create happiness, they constantly create the causes of suffering through non-virtue.

These are things you absolutely must remember. You have to allow them to deepen your mind. They have to become as instinctive and natural to you as breathing. If you understand the infallibility of cause and effect to such a profound extent that it begins to change the compulsion you have to create non-virtue and therefore the causes of unhappiness, then you are a practitioner. You are practicing a technology that will lead you to realization. Whether you consider yourself a Buddhist or not, you are practicing a valid technology, a spiritual technology.

© Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Want a Taste?

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Excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo from the Vow of Love series

From the first day that I began teaching until the last day that I ever have the opportunity to teach, I will invariably speak of compassion. If compassion were ice cream, by the time you finish with me you will have tasted every flavor at least 475 times. So, now we will talk about another flavor of compassion.

Previously, we have discussed why compassion is necessary. Then we spoke about how to begin to apply that compassion. We talked about various ways in which one could be motivated by compassion, as well as thoughts that you might have found moving or encouraging and that were geared to deepen and soften your mind. These are very important. One of the greatest, most precious jewels that you will hopefully attain in traveling the Buddhist path, or any spiritual path, is to have your mind softened and deepened.

There is an expression in one of our prayers, that one’s mind becomes ‘hard as horn.’ The minute I first read that particular phrase, it touched me deeply. Every time I have thought about it, it has meant more and more to me. One’s mind becomes hard as horn because of the discrimination, the conceptualization that is involved with the idea of ego, because of the pride and arrogance that arise from our belief in self-nature as being inherently real. We have established in our minds all of the clothing, the dogma, the discrimination of this idea of self as being real. These things become rigid in our minds, and our minds are no longer gentle.

The moment you decide in some subconscious way you have an ego, that you are a self, you have to start gathering the constructs of self-identity around you. You have to determine where self ends and other begins. In order to do that your mind has to be filled with conceptualization. In order to be a self you have to survive as a self.  In order to maintain this conceptualization that makes survival possible, your mind has to become rigid. So if I say to you that your mind is rigid, you shouldn’t think I have insulted you. I am talking about a condition all sentient beings have, and it is a condition that is the cause of a great deal of suffering.

When I say that all sentient beings are suffering, I don’t wish it to be a real downer for you. That is not the point. Realizing all sentient beings are suffering is meant to soften your mind, because to realize all sentient beings are suffering, you have to be willing to examine phenomena and to examine yourself in a deep way, in a way that you don’t normally do. Therefore, you have to challenge your concepts. Why is that? Because naturally, and without any teaching or any encouragement, you will try to convince yourself that you are happy.

You may do this in much the same way that a person who is hungry and unable to eat will do something to take his mind off his hunger. Let’s say its 10 o’clock. You’re on the job, you’re famished, and you know you can’t get off for lunch until 12 o’clock. You are going to try to think of something else. You’re going to try to keep your mind busy, or try not to focus on your hunger. In much the same way, if you are suffering and you don’t have the technology to remove from your mind the causes of this suffering, you are going to try to convince yourself that you are okay. You are going to put a band-aid on it, and in order for you to do so, your mind has to become more hardened.

It is useful to really look around at sentient beings and see they are suffering. It is also useful to look at yourself. This is not meant to make you depressed or sad. It is meant to give you what it takes to go to the next step, which is to try to determine for yourself the way to remove the causes of suffering.

Even though there are times when hunger is not comfortable, when you would rather not think about it, there are also times when hunger is useful in that it keeps you alive. In the same way, while it may be uncomfortable for you to think that all sentient beings are suffering, it is actually quite useful for you to realize that. It is this realization that will give you the foundation and the ability to turn your mind in such a way that you have to seek out the causes of suffering, and how you can remove them from your mind.

It is not useful in any long-term way to try to convince yourself, by putting a band-aid on an ulcer, that everything is okay, because you still have to face the same things that you’ve always had to face. Nothing has changed. You still have to face old age, sickness and death. Neither does it help you to be helpful to other sentient beings. Look at the animal realm. Go to India and see how the oxen are beaten and tied up in order to be worked. They are worked all of their lives. That is suffering. Look at all the different ways that other creatures suffer just out of ignorance, because they have no way to help themselves.

Once you have determined suffering does exist, there is no need to dwell on it in a morbid way. Rather, you should think, “This is how it is. Now I have to realize that there is, in fact, a cure, there is a way to deal with this.” It is not useful to dwell on suffering without also accepting the antidote. In other words, if you just think about hunger all the time, and you don’t eat, that is stupid. When hunger is no longer useful to you, it is simply suffering. You should use your awareness of suffering to prod you to seek and practice the antidote to suffering. Use your awareness; it is your tool.

© Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

GARUDA AVIARY: TIME TO STEP UP TO THE PLATE

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Nearly everyone considers the Garuda Aviary Parrot Rescue to be a great thing.  The Aviary cares for over 40 parrots and other large birds that have been abused, abandoned or neglected, and visitors to the temple are always impressed with the birds.  We get lots of praise for the Aviary, but how many of us actually take part in supporting this meritorious activity?

It is hard work, taking care of that many hungry mouths every day.  They eat a lot, and they have to eat every day.  It costs a lot of money just to feed them.  When the money runs out, they still have to eat.  We can’t skip a few days until we get some more money.  A generator is also needed for the Aviary to keep the temperature safe for the birds when the power goes out, which it does sometimes.  Right now there is only one person actually taking care of the parrots.  They need a lot of attention. They’re like two-year olds that live 80 years or more.  There is very little money coming in, despite the widespread interest. The plain truth is that the donations don’t match the praise.

There are many ways that each of us can help with the Aviary.  If you don’t know how you can help, ask.  Call Claire Waggoner at 928-713-3522 or email garudaaviary@earthlink.net if you want to find out how you can help or to volunteer.  You can also make a cash donation here: http://www.garudaaviary.org/financial_donations.html.  Even just taking a donation can home to put your spare change in helps.

Perhaps we should ask ourselves if we still have the ability to love.  These sentient beings need us.  Their very lives depend on us.  We have the power and the means to give them what they need.  Can we look inside ourselves and find the love that can accomplish that?  Because that’s the only way it’ll happen.

Astrology Tuesday

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Early in the day you dither around, unsure of what to do. As the day picks up speed, you move into a sensitive and reflective mood. You are still working hard, and humility is the order of the day. Bounce your ideas off others, and take criticism and suggestions seriously. Make no attempt to conceal your mistakes, and you have made some, but fess up and move on. No shifting blame. Thomas Merton said “Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.” Keep swallowing your pride, and you will have an opportunity to shift the issues of your world onto a more stable foundation.

The daily astrology post affects everyone. Because individual charts vary, the circumstances outlined in the post will affect people differently. Some will feel this energy in the personal arena, some in finances, some with children or family, some in work and so forth. There are many departments of life. Look to see where the dynamic affects you!

Astrology

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You’re still working to accomodate a friend’s wishes and you feel somewhat overwhelmed.  At the same time you’re enjoying your work as well as the people you meet.  This is a good day to spend time shopping, banking, preparing food.  Take time to relax frequently during the day and you’ll re-charge rapidly.  A financial decision is successful and brings good results, and you choose quality items while shopping. If you follow a fantasy or illusion today you will be disappointed, but if you do something you are both good at and love doing, you will succeed.  John Ruskin said  “When love and skill work together expect a masterpiece.”  Nice.

The daily astrology post affects everyone.  Because individual charts vary, the circumstances outlined in the post will affect people differently.  Some will feel this energy in the personal arena, some in finances, some with children or family, some in work and so forth.  There are many departments of life.  Look to see where the dynamic affects you!

Calling His Holiness Penor Rinpoche

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When will I see my Guru in the flesh again? He will be young; I am getting old. He will be beautiful to my eyes as he is to my heart.

When will my heart leap and my spirit be refreshed? OM AH HUNG BENZAR GURU PEDMA NORBU SIDDHI HUNG!

Why must I be alone without His gift of protection and grace? He is gone from the earth but resides in my heart. Beloved!

See the butter lamp I have offered to guide you home. See the refreshment and comfort I arrange for you! Your favorite roses I tend…

Grant me the blessing of touching my head to your lotus feet; I crave your scent. Here is all my life & work. Will you accept this harvest?

When your human mother sees your eyes for the first time, will she know she has carried BUDDHA? Will she drown in their depth as I have?

When she kisses your sweet head will she feel your Vajra Crown? Will her lips curve in secret Bliss? Will she give the milk of Bodhicitta?

How long will I walk in loneliness without the comfort of your Nirmanakaya form? Each day is a suffering… I need you.

When I stayed in India with you, I was brought amazing gifts, nourishing, pure, and was honored by you- I wish I could offer to you- bliss.

I remember going shopping for brocade with you. Lobsang said “wake up! (5:00am) HH is taking you shopping!” No coffee?

You stopped, first thing, for coffee and “iddley” (sp?) – I know you heard me. When you drove your car you talked non-stop! So happy-

You would spit when you spoke excitedly… I swore I would never wash my face, for you had spit on it when talking. Shower of Blessings.

You tested me hard. I did not know what to do but love you.

Today in my practice I knew you were there-here-everywhere. And my mind? Why do I wait when you are never gone? I adore you.

AAHh, Beloved. I long for you. Grieve and rejoice in you. If all Samsara conspires to take YOU from me- it is not possible. I am yours.

You are my delight, my reward, my family, my LOVE. No one can take you from me.

Just as Lamchen Mandarava held to a stone mountain to stay in your presence, I will fight the very demons of hell to remain your servant.

Because I know you. I know you, Beloved; wherever you appear. My heart is your home. My crown YOUR seat. Beloved; return!

Master of awakening, holder of all that is meaningfull, I beg you to return and preserve the Purity of mother Palyul! KYE HO!

The Suffering of Yushu

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For some remarkable pictures of the earthquake damage in Yushu and recovery efforts, go to http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/yushu_earthquake_12_days_later.html.
Caution: some very graphic content. Also, be sure to read the comments.

To get some idea of the situation in Yushu County, Tibetans make up 97.25% of the population while Han Chinese only 2.56%. Other nationalities only make up less than 1%. This does not include some 50-60,000 nomads who do not live permanently in Yushu.

From Collective Responsibility:

As news of the Yushu earthquake disappears from the world’s front pages, survivors’ needs increase. Those in Yushu still lack blankets and tents. Temperatures are dropping and there is insufficient fuel for cooking and heating. Yushu has no electricity and is still in darkness. People have only meager food supplies and are drinking water from unsafe sources.

* A jacket costs 2 USD.
* A blanket costs 2.40 USD.
* A toothbrush costs 0.15 USD.
* One ton of coal costs 51 USD.
* 20 * 500ml bottled water 2.20 USD.
* Flashlight: 2.90 USD.

If you can make even a small donation, please visit: www.yushuearthquakeresponse.org

Apart from the needs of those in Yushu, patients and their families in Xining are also suffering.

Below are the number of patients in Qinghai hospitals:

* Qinghai Province People’s Hospital: 186 patients
* Armed Police Number Four Hospital: 83 patients
* Qinghai Province Red Cross Hospital: 69 patients
* Qinghai University Hospital: 172 patients
* Qinghai Province People’s Second Hospital: 127 patients
* Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Hospital: 18 patients

This total of 655 people does not include accompanying family members.

Below are accounts written by Xining students describing the situation here and in Yushu.

Tashi:
I received information about the earthquake from my brother who is a teacher in Yushu. At about 5:00 a.m on the fourteenth of April a low magnitude quake woke people up, but many people then went back to sleep. Later that morning the big earthquake came. At that time many students were reciting lessons outside, by the walls of the school buildings. They were crushed when the walls fell on them. Some female students were going to the cafeteria to collect boiling water to make instant noodles, and the cafeteria collapsed and killed them. Despite all these terrible things, many people survived. They did not have any food for three days. After three days, instant noodles arrived and the people, almost starving, happily ate them. Now people are cold; they don’t have enough clothes, or blankets, or anywhere to stay.

Rinchen
I went to the hospital to help earthquake victims. Although I am Tibetan I couldn’t communicate very well with the patients because we speak different dialects. Nonetheless we could understand each other. People are just bringing them bread to eat and water to drink. They need some good food. The clerks at the hospital told me that many people are volunteering, but they still need qualified, professional, helpers.

Drolma
I went to the hospital to volunteer with my classmates – we spent one night there. There were many patients in the hospital. Some of the patients could not move, eat, drink, or go to the toilet by themselves. When people were awake they were nervous and when they were asleep they had nightmares. One man I helped had bruises all over his face and he couldn’t move his legs. The patients in the hospital still don’t have any clean clothes and what they are wearing has already become dirty and caked with blood.
Tsomo
Three of my female classmates are from Yushu. After the terrible earthquake they lost many relatives and friends, not to mention property. Luckily their parents are still alive. Now those three women are working busily in the hospital, day and night. They have been staying up all night to help the patients from their hometown and cannot attend classes as usual. When they come back to school from the hospital they just fall on the bed and sleep. Patients in the hospital have nothing now. I hope many warm-hearted people will stretch out their hands to help them.

Lumo
There is a girl from Yushu in the dorm room next to mine. She lost her mother in the earthquake. Since then she often calls out her mother’s name and cries. Sometimes she stays silent for a long time. We don’t know how to comfort her. Sometimes we want to talk about it with her, but maybe that will only make it worse. That girl is still going to classes, but she just sits there and we don’t know if she really knows what is going on her around her.

Tsering and Tsemdo
We talked to one earthquake survivor who helped us to distribute supplies we took to Yushu from Xining. He told us, “I woke up when the earthquake occurred at around 5 a.m. I knew that an earthquake was occurring and wanted to get up but I felt very sleepy and stayed in bed. My wife also felt very sleepy and stayed in bed. We were never so sleepy in our whole life – it was very strange. When an earthquake occurred again at 7:49 a.m., our house shook and I woke up. The house continued to shake and I grabbed hold of my grandson and wife, jumped up from bed, and ran outside. Our house collapsed just as I stepped out of the door. Something heavy hit my head and I passed out. When I woke up I could barely see because my vision was blurry. As my sight came back I could only see dust. I heard the sound of houses collapsing. After the earthquake, my daughter and son-in-law were trapped in the rubble and died but the rest of the family was OK. Many other people have died.”

How You Can Help Earthquake Victims in Tibet

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The Khenpo brothers, Khenpo Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche, old friends of KPC, have organized a relief fund to aid victims of the earthquake in Qinghai Province.

Donation page is at http://www.padmasambhava.org/misc/kyegu.html or mail donations directly to:

Padma Samye Ling
ATTN: Kyegu Earthquake Relief Fund
618 Buddha Highway
Sidney Center, NY 13839

from the LA Times, April 26, 2010

A Tibetan writer who had signed an open letter critical of the Chinese government’s quake relief efforts in western Qinghai province has been detained by police, according to a family friend.

The writer, who publishes under the name Zhogs Dung but whose real name is Tagyal, was among eight authors and intellectuals who signed a letter dated April 17 that expressed sorrow for the disaster that left more than 2,000 people dead — most of them Tibetan — but also urged wariness of Chinese government relief efforts.

Last Friday, a half dozen police officers showed up at the Qinghai Nationalities Publishing House in the regional capital of Xining, where he worked, and escorted him away, according to a blog post written by a friend. They searched his home and library, confiscating his computers.

Afterward, they showed his arrest warrant to his wife, and asked her to bring bedding for him. When his two daughters went to the police station they were not allowed to meet with him, the posting said.

There was no way to independently confirm the account. On Monday, the Xining Police Department refused to answer questions regarding his whereabouts, saying it had no comment. The police referred questions to the Ministry of Public Security.

The letter urged people to help victims by offering food, clothes and medicine but warned them not to donate funds to relief organizations, warning of possible corruption.

“Better to send (money) to the disaster zone with people you trust, because nobody can say there is no corruption,” said the letter, which was posted on several websites, including the overseas Boxun.com, which is critical of the Chinese government.

“Just as the news from the mouthpiece for the (communist) party organizations cannot be believed, we dare not believe in the party organization, which issued the order stopping people from going to the disaster zone for political reasons,” it said.

It’s unclear whether the open letter was directly connected to his detention. The Chinese government has been at pains to quash any criticism of its relief efforts in the Tibetan region, where a total of 2,220 people were killed, according to the latest government figures.

Beijing has sought to take credit for much of the rescue work, portraying relief efforts as a government undertaking in this remote Tibetan region where residents have frequently chafed under Chinese rule. Tibetan resentment over political and religious restrictions and economic exploitation by majority Han Chinese have sometimes erupted in violence.

State media largely played down the role of thousands of Tibetan Buddhist monks who worked alongside soldiers to rescue survivors and dig out the dead.

On April 19, the Qinghai provincial government had issued a ban against pornography and what it called “illegal publications.” According to state media, Zhang Chengwei, head of the anti-pornography and illegal publications office, said that pressure must be used to “prevent unlawful elements from using illegal publications to disturb social stability and to disturb and sabotage disaster relief.”

Zhogs Dung, 45, is considered a leading intellectual and thinker who in the past has written books that largely aligned with the Chinese government’s views on modernization, religion and culture in Tibet. However, he published a book this year that was far more critical of the government in the wake of anti-government riots in Tibet in 2008.

Robbie Barnett, director of the modern Tibetan studies program at Columbia University, said the book may have been another reason for the government to target him.

Zhogs Dung was seen by fellow Tibetans as an “official intellectual” who took the Communist Party’s view, for which he was widely criticized. But a few months ago, he quietly published a book called “Distinguishing Sky from Earth,” in which he said the March 2008 riots, the largest anti-government protests in Tibet in decades, were a turning point for Tibetans and their national spirit.

In the book, he advocated “non-violent resistance” to obtain greater rights for Tibetans, Barnett said. He seemed to sense he was crossing a dangerous line, saying he expected to be arrested for his views.

“Here was someone who had supported the government. Now he himself is being detained by the state. This will be understood as China losing even those it could have allied with,” Barnett said.

China is hugely sensitive to issues regarding ethnic rights. A Mongolian rights activist who had been invited to speak before the United Nations in New York was arrested on April 18 at the Beijing airport, according to a U.S.-based rights group.

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