In a rare emotional moment yesterday the Dalai Lama, Tibet's visiting leader, broke down and cried during the last session of a three day discussion of Buddhism's core book of scripture, the Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra.
When discussing the concept of compassion, the Dalai Lama bowed down in mid-session for nearly two minutes to wipe away his tears, before he resumed his teachings yesterday morning.
"I don't have the Bodicitta [(
The Dalai Lama said that Buddhism would not be what it is now without the selfless work of the early Indian adepts of the religion, such as Nagarjuna and Asanga.
Yesterday's talk held his followers in rapt attention, many of them moved to tears by the spiritual leader's talk.
Indeed, the Dalai Lama said yesterday that his teachings are his present for his followers in Taiwan and urged them not to reward him with monetary gifts.
"If you trust me, you don't have to give me red envelopes," he told nearly 10,000 followers which attended his teachings. "I hope you will practice Bodicitta, because it will make you happier."
Asked about the legitimacy of the Falun Gong's teachings, the Dalai Lama said that since he has not studied the teachings in detail, he is in no position to comment. But he expressed his regret over the brutal crackdown on Falun Gong practitioners by the Beijing government.
The Dalai Lama, however, urged his followers to stick to one religion to avoid confusion. He made the statement when asked about allegations by some Falun Gong members that Buddhism is "no longer capable of helping other sentient beings" and reports by some members that the head of Falun Gong, Lee Hongzhi (
At the end of the day's teachings on Buddhist philosophy, the Dalai Lama reserved an hour to answer questions from his followers on a wide range of issues.
On the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan by Afghanistan's fundamentalist Taliban regime, the Dalai Lama said that such behavior is not conducive to his efforts to promote inter-faith harmony.
Last month, the Taliban destroyed the gigantic 2nd century Buddhas carved into the mountains along the famed Silk Road after a state edict was issued which claimed the statues were against the teachings of Islam.
"Since it is a precious historical artifact, it is also not good for their tourism industry," he said.
But the Nobel Peace Laureate urged his followers not to condemn or hate the Taliban for their act.
The Dalai Lama, on the last leg of his teachings on his second trip to Taiwan, will perform a two-day initiation of Avalokiteshvara, or Kuanyin, beginning today.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
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