In 1993, along with some friends, Link, Anni and I started the “Northeastern Connecticut Tibetan Awareness Society.” At that time, I was working at the University of Connecticut. Using my position, I was able to arrange talks and presentations about numerous topics requiring our intellectual concern. Through this medium, we arranged lectures and events with several Tibetan people, all of whom became our cherished friends. Some, the children and I were also able to get into local highschools to speak as well.

One of our Tibetan guests, was the Great Soul of Venerable Palden Gyatso. We met him in 1993. It was his first trip abroad, after his release a year earlier from 36 years in Chinese Prisons in Tibet. What was so uniquely astounding about this simple, humble, honest, direct and resolute monk, is that despite imprisonment for over ½ his life, despite the total inhumanity he experienced, the demoralization he saw human beings participating in, he harbours no ill-will. He is filled with love and invincible faith in the human spirit and human rights.

His life story is told in his gripping autobiography, Fire Under the Snow. Many of the events that he experienced which he told us in that first year out have not been included, perhaps because of their inhuman gruesomeness, which seems so incredible. But, more evidence is coming out now from nuns and monks who have escaped from Tibet. Its heart-sickening.

In 1993, on his maiden trip to the USA, he stayed in our home for 3 days. The love-power he had was such that all our housepets – a cat named Radhika-Rani, a dog named Kashi, a parakeet named Peter and a guinea pig named Kokila – all clustered around him, ignoring their instinctual tendencies towards each other. Radhika-Rani, Kashi and Kokila would put themselves right under his chair, while Peter jumped and fluttered around his head.

At that time, I inquired how he had been able to maintain an open and loving heart despite the terrible inhumanity he was faced with. He told us that after the torture sessions which were every 14-21 days, he was often unconscious due to the violence. As he came to, he would work on relaxing and dissolving the tension in his body. He said that his religion, Buddhism, taught him that inhumane behaviour comes out of ignorance. He would reflect on this until he was able to feel no hatred or animosity towards the sick individuals (very often brainwashed Tibetan guards themselves) who had violated all norms of human sanctity.

Amnesty International took interest in his case and had begun a process with the Chinese government seeking his release. By God’s Grace, he survived the last torture session which was meant to do him in. An electric cattle prod was forced into his mouth and his teeth were blown out. When he regained consciousness, he was choking on his blood and tooth remains. After he escaped, he met with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, who told him to write a book about his experiences. I have included a series of photographs here of sketches made from the descriptions of Tibetan political prisoners, men and women, who escaped. Many of these were his experience. He was also scalded with boiling water. These photos are deeply disturbing. They were hanging in the walls of the Gu-Chu-Sum building, an organization devoted to helping Tibetan political refugees in Dharamshala. Gu-Chu-Sum provides jobs, pensions, housing for these poor broken people, escaping and living only on hope for many years through unbelievable human darkness. Only look at them after your food has digested and with the inner recognition that they are the result of darkest human ignorance. They are based upon the truthful testimony of numerous monks and nuns. We really have to pray for the people who do such things. I can’t imagine more wretched creatures than those who inflict such suffering on other.  If you click on the item below, you will come to the photo album.

Ven. Palden Gyatso, Dharamshala
When we met in 1993, Ven. Palden Gyatso had only a hut in Dharamshala, no pensions or steady income. Over the years, his numerous travels abroad, have brought him international attention. He is now one of Tibet’s most famous political prisoners. In 1996, he was honoured by the US Senate. See Album.

Over the years, I have asked everyone who has told me they had gone to Dharamshala if they had met him. No one had. We had no idea if he was even still alive. Our very first hour in Dharamshala, we were sitting on the small terrace of our hotel room, which overlooked a busy footpath. Happy to meet friendly, smiling people, we were busy saying Namaste, or Tashi Delek, as the case may be, to the pedestrians that smiled our way. In a few moments, we met Tsetin, a Tibetan historian and scholar, who actually knew of Ven. Palden Gyatso. He made arrangements to meet us in the next morning, and escort us to his home. Over the years, some kind people sponsored a small house for him that is quite close to Namgyal Monastery and Temple, the area where HH Dalai Lama stays.

The next morning, our first morning in Dharamsala, we eagerly went to his home, but he wasn’t there. Then, Tsetin told us that it was possible that he was down by the temple area, as HH Dalai Lama was returning that very morning from a trip to the Scandinavian countries. Link and I were most surprised, and hastened to the rapidly swelling ‘darshan’ line-up…much like with Amma, but, less crowded and more decorous. Tsetin recommended we wait in one area, where he felt the Dalai Lama would be travelling up the road to. Link and I did, and were standing on the less populated side of the road when HH Dalai Lama went by. To our amazement, he turned towards us in his car, and greeted us. It was a great joy in our hearts, to see our dearly Beloved Dalai Lama again after so many years, to feel that he had seen us as well.

After that we again went towards Ven. Palden Gyatso’s house with Tsetin. Again, he was not there. Once more, Tsetin fortuitously spoke, “He might be coming up the path.” And so it was. In a few moments, we beheld him once more, after so many years. He is now 79 years old. He appears to have aged very little. Tsetin introduced us, I showed him a photo of the kids when he had last seen them. He remembered Anni, and was saddened to learn she had left her form, and marveled at the huge baby boy, now Link. He took us into his humble abode, and we spent a few happy hours, talking about all kinds of things. We made arrangements to interview him later for some ideas that came to mind. On another occasion, we brought other ashram friends to see him as well.

He now lives a simple monks’ life, in quietness and peace. He told us he does his practices between 4-10 AM, sees people, or goes out, between 10-4 PM, and again does his practices and studies from 4-10 PM.

Tibetan Buddhism gave education through its monasteries and nunneries. There were some that offered fantastic education, and others that were more mediocre. What was amazing it that, through this system, the entire human culture was geared to a simple fact – education was to know Truth, and the capacity to know that Truth is inside ourselves. Skill education, which is what education is called now, was kept simple. The result of all of this was a cultured human civilization, geared towards ahimsa that lived lightly upon the earth, nurtured the environment and did not cause pollution. Tibet, the land of snows, the great snows that feed the Ganga, the Indus, the Selveen, the Brahmaputra, the Mekong, the Yangtse and the Yellow Rivers, the waters for all Asia, was under careful stewardship. Not that there weren’t problems. I don’t feel that women received their due at all. Its clear there were rich and poor. But, people generally had a high level of life contentment and social peace.

If you would like to enrich your lives and that of organizations and groups of people that you may know of, through having a Tibetan political prisoner speak, please contact:
Gu-Chu-Sum at www.guchusum.org or email them at guchusummt@yahoo.com
Let us all use our invincible human spirits to stand up for human rights and Earth rights, the rights of the creation here with us.
Loving you,
Kamala, Anni and Link

There comes a point when one wonders whether keeping silent in the face of bad behavior is no longer a virtue, when done in the hope that those perpetuating it will reflect on themselves.
Some think that many are silent because they have been intimidated.  Other times, people mistake silence as an unspoken agreement or tacit approval of their behavior.

I know that for myself and for the vast majority of people, good at heart, our silence comes from a deeper seeing – that _respects_ the potential for the ‘humane-ity’ to come out of the wrong doing person, leadership or community.  We are silently aghast at the stupidity of those being violent, cunning, and crude.  We hope that they will review their actions in their minds, and alter their considerations.

But this doesn’t happen.  And in this expectation, we the good, the vast silent majority, are fools.  We sit while Governments and Generals declare senseless wars and kill our children and other people’s children.  We shake our heads, while corporations swallow the earth’s natural riches, and pollute every molecule on the planet, and media demoralizes us and our kids.  We don’t raise our voices for our children to have a genuinely meaningful education.  We go along with one that teaches them to fit in nicely into a corrupt and sick social and economic, planetary order.

The planet is in an ethical crises of the worst magnitude, and we, the silent good, have become morally weak.  We close our eyes to the slave treatment of “workers” and the poor.  We rationalize our selfishness before starving beggars, citing incidents of lauded newspaper accounts, written by people who feel assured of eating three times a day for the rest of their lives – newspaper stories of the beggar found to be holding on to one or two lakhs of rupees somewhere.  We then disengage ourselves from our responsibility to the suffering with our new smug understanding of how really, they are quite well off.

I have even heard esteemed people repeat such lies, undoubtably told to then until they were brainwashed: ‘The poor in Delhi don’t want a two rupee cup of tea if they can pay five for it.’
It is we who are to blame for the wretched condition human civilization now faces.  We have been silent in the face of injustice, cruelty, barbarianism, and perversity of all types.  We are confused, dis-united.  We the good, just want to enjoy our goodness with our own like-minded.  If at all we raise our voices – it is for a few moments only, and then we sink back into our comfortable reveries, our loving relations.

Yet in my observations, evil, the bad-behaved, has it’s root in self-aggrandizement in innumerable forms, which seeks power, fame, gain, position, which feeds itself in anger expressed, and can also act out of shame (and that one can be the worst) – this Evil never takes a break, never takes a vacation.  It is relentless.  We the good are mistaken in ever thinking that it will stop on this earth.  It is a force.

This is not to say that an evil-doing person is without good qualities.  But I think many people use the ‘grey area’ argument to avoid responsibility.  It seems that it is imperative now for the silent vast majority to get off our couches and become activists for what is righteous.  If we can’t become as relentless as evil, we can at least try.  We can start with breaks, instead of whole vacations from our vigilance.  We have been given voices, and the power of speech to stand up for righteousness.  To not exercise this precious human right and duty is where we sink into sloth.

At least, this is how I have always counselled Link and Anni, and tried to show them through my own example.  It’s not easy.  We walk alone.  A great strength comes, however, from leaning on the truth within.

Living in a community calls for a lot of compromises, and a lot of tolerance and patience.  However, there is a delicate line between the exercise of these virtues, and genuine personal sloth before unrighteousness, bad behavior, and brutality.

The nature of community life, no matter what kind, tends to flow towards gossip, conservatism, and superstition, which brings in its wake, an undercurrent of covert violence demanding conformity, which can sometimes (depending on the rigidity of the community, eg. as with cults) express itself in sudden bursts of overt violence and brutality to members and individuals who do not conform to group norms, despite their being non-violent, truthful, hardworking, helpful people.  This can include ostracisms, actual beating up of people, property destruction, and even violence and murder of innocent animals.  All this we have witnessed and experienced.  That this occurs at all demonstrates the deep level of sickness in the Community Soul that such conservatism fosters.

This has nothing to do with the _ideals_ that foster community life – ahimsa, truthfulness, selflessness, tolerance and patience.  It is the result of evil entering the minds of people through the desire of self aggrandisement – this we see in the wretched work of China’s policy towards the Tibetan people, this we see in communities, ashrams, and even families.  This is because community life in it’s conservative-mode fosters heirarchy.

An ashram, in it’s ideal, is a theocracy.  A satguru is the unquestioned leader.  They attain that position by virtue of their inner merit.  NO ONE can make anybody a SAT-GURU.  To even suggest such a thought is delusion itself.

That people then organise themselves under a Satguru into heirarchical positions in relation to each other, although they are all equal children of the Satguru, comes again from the conservative-mode operating in community life.

That this type of heirarchy did not occur in the past in the ancient gurukuls, we understand from the story of Krishna and his poor friend that brought him the parched rice who had been an equal member of the Gurukul with him in their student days.  That equality was internally felt, and externally expressed, which is why, when they finally met each other after many years, even though Krishna was a great king, and his friend an impovershed villager needing his assistance, they still met externally in acknowledgement of their internal equality.  One doesn’t read of His friend bowing, fawning, and scraping the ground in front of Him, kissing his feet, rubbing his ankles.  No.  They met as social equals as they had been in the days of the Gurukul.  True, his friend was a little shy to give his gift of parched rice to one who was now a king, but that had to do with his post-gurukul conditioning.  Just as Amma loves Channa, Krishna loved parched rice.

But those were ancient days, and this is now.  However, these stories serve as models to inspire us as to how to manifest the ideal in action.

The very second that structures of high and low, important or unimportant, somebody or nobody (I have actually heard people refer to others as ‘nobodies’ many times in community life) are accepted by the group, that second does power and its handmaidens of fear, intimidation, and their consorts – brutality and violence – come into being.

This is why I believe that a new political and social conciousness in all types of community life needs to replace these worn out patterns that enculture confusion or moral sloth on the part of good people, and the rise of the brute in the evil minded.  This heirarchal type of thinking is from Kali yuga, or feudal mindsets, and does not belong in practice if we are to usher in a better day for humanity and Nature.  If genuine democratic change does not start in institutions meant to foster an ethical life, where will it start?  And how will it influence the people?  It seems to me futile (if not downright hypocritical) for institutions or communities, living in countries bound by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 to spout about the equality of man, while following non democratic conservative mode patterns of political social structure.  In order for the Universal Declaration of Human rights to become the Norm, we need new political and social structures in all types of communities and institutions.  The Universal Declaration of Human rights does not leave religious groups out of its purview.  We should rise to its noble call. It is the Shastra for our time.

An ashram should be a pure theocracy while the Satguru is in form. In that, there is only one ‘Theos’.  More than one person in that position harms the role of the Satguru.  In order for the community to fulfill the loving family wishes of the Satguru, directly under his or her theocracy,  it is necessary for communities with larger than family size populations to embrace participatory democracy, everyone on socially equal footing as in the Gurukul that Lord Krishna was in.  Anything else brings the rise of powerful kings and petty tyrants as well as sickens the mind of the community as a whole.  That mind, is the community Soul.  If we truly love our communities, we will seek to ethically serve its Soul, for in doing so, we serve all.
These are just my observations, born of our experiences.  I share them because I want to raise my voice.  I for one, am getting very fed up with the violence and brutality, the harming and killing of innocent animals brought about by the conservative-mode in community life.  I seek it’s cessation.  God help me to go further, if need be.

Seeking your prayers for our safety and well being,
Loving you,
Kamala, Anni, and Link

In our recent travels in India, we have come across a cultural phenomenon that is, I think, unique to India.  The Rich Indian Family on Holiday.

Disclaimer: Realize that I speak by way of stereotypical generalization.

Rich Indians are tourists in their own country.  Carefully educated towards the echelons of corporate life, self-considered to have supremo status, used to the pampering of servile people around them who readily tolearate their obnoxious behaviours to see these people interacting with others is like watching a circus: when the stupid, foolish, and boorish clowns come in.

If these people represent educated and priviledged people in India, then India is in BIG TROUBLE.

They certainly exhibit a lack of personal culture.  The behavior one sees is so obnoxious as to be unbelievably absurd.

In my youth, I heard people decring the Rich fat Indians paddeling their boats, so to speak, in Indian contexts outside their normal circles.  Engrossed as I was with other things besides the ‘bazaar scene,’ like hiking in the himalayan countryside, I didn’t observe this much in my youth.

In college I saw it more, and was a little chilled in heart to observe how the rich stabilize their position in relation to others.  Then I was young, a single woman, foreigner, and I suppose attractive (although I prefer the reality-check that an Ashram Sister gave me: even a donkey is beautiful in it’s youth.) I had easy access to rich and poor alike.  The rich considered me one of their own, and when I was with them, included me in their conciousness of social positions, aspirations, etc.

Their lack of equal respect towards those they considered beneath them made my heart shrink inside.  I always felt as though I was choking around them.  Their circle of love was terribly conditioned and limited.  My being felt constricted.  Nature was my only respite.
Now, I am old.  I think I must look very old.  One person in his mid-forties, less than a decade younger than me, asked if I was around 75!  What to say.  My life has been very tough.  My heart and humane expectations of others have been broken again and again, ad nauseum.  What to do?  We have to go on, digging deeper, striving for some light of wisdom and understanding, inspite of it all.

Since Anni left her form, It is my wish to wear always the same style sari that she was cremated in.  I never want to forget for one second, the utter impermanence of this world in every aspect.  So, outwardly, the Rich foreigner is gone.  This removes me securely from the fold of the rich.  Appearing to be without funds, without much family, without possible influence, without personal decoration, I am now invisible to the rich on holiday.  It’s dryly amusing.

I watch, as some seek to teach me my position — I mean, one puts up with this to a sickening degree in the ashram, where many of Amma’s sons and daughters jockey for position over one another.  One even witnesses people putting themselves “under” others in gratuitous ways.  It’s all high drama; we observe with amazement.

But I had somehow hoped that such stupidity was the special purview of Amma’s work with these individuals in the Ashram and at her programs during the tours, which is all we have really seen of India in the last 10 years.

In the popular hill stations – Dalhousie, Simla, Mussorie, Almora, Dharamsala, Darjeeling, Jammu – the pre-monsoon summer brings out the rich Indian tourist in droves.  Tibetan people throng the hill stations where the climate is a little more bearable for them (now there’s a guest worthy of reverence: the spirituality of the Tibetan presence in Dharamsala, with it’s numerous monasteries and nunneries is palpable).  Link and I were in the middle of a Momo (Steamed tibetan vegtable dumpling) Transaction – 4 or 5 for Rs 10, when one late-twenties Rich Indian Tourist interrupted our quiet and orderly proceedings.  The momo lady, being poor and culturally acclimatised, gave way to the rich Indian.  I was also “poor,” so, I could wait while she attended to the demanding needs of the big-baby rich boy.  The Poor expect each other to have understanding, as they grapple with the self-centeredness of the rich.

First he demanded his plate of momos.  It was quickly delivered.

Next he said, “What am I to eat it with?”

Chilli sauce was added.  It was explained that he could eat it like that.

Then the lady said “Ten Rupees.”

Suddenly, Big-boy was quiet, and she was given time to finish with us.

These people are amazing.  They cruise the streets like they think they are movie stars, their big abdomens clearing the way before them; their eyes rotating in their sockets, as they scroll the scenes around them, looking to see who they think is who, who they think they should see and be seen by.  It’s pretty pathetic.  Add to this the fact that most Indians coming to the ashram and staying are from the upper stratas of society.  They can’t quite do the Rich-Tourist thing, as the ashram is an uncertain place, a new territory in which many are not sure who is who.  Some figure they know who’s who, and act accordingly.  Many of the very poor have told us that they are not welcome in my home-Amritapuri.  We have seen what happens to some of them.  It breaks our hearts.

Since all our answers are inside us, I have asked myself a few questions about the rich, Indian tourist – a shade above the bully.

I see that this gross, self-centered, uncultured display comes from the embrace of false and short-sighted ideals.  Their education, family life, and the appetites that money can create and temporarily satisfy, have geared them towards societies of physical enjoyments and their conceptions of lifestyles there: US, EU, AU, SA, etc…

This is combined with cultural ideals that they have picked up from movies 鈥?one outstanding ideal for men is the “Bachelor hero.” For women, it seems to be the “Wilting sexy sop.” Add to the filmy ideals extended family, generational influence, and numerous other factors, including the ideal of the “Big Man” (which I have yet to discuss).  Put it all together, and we have a fairly immature human being who is prone to short uprisings as the “Hero” ideal indicates, but in whom, generally, kindness, consideration, and Love exist only as paying policies.  And so many aspire to be like this.

Of course, I can be just as harsh on people from my own background of rich, majority-white countries.  And I am aghast at the behaviour of many.  Many western people mistake the patient and tolerant attitude of Indians towards their cultural ignorance, and the respectful attitude given to foreigners for being the Guest, to be an indication of some sort of recognition of their own personal superiority.  As we are neither/nor, all these attitudes we find silly and irksome.

In High School, I rebelled against my western peers, who placed Indians outside of themselves.  In the ashram, this is extreme.  Predominantly white people from rich countries have built their own enclave, the “Western Cafe”  Parents bring their children to India, and the children eat pizza, drink coke, and learn very little about India.  Fortunately, because it is the Ashram, they atleast can experience the joy of selfless service through their work at the western cafe.  However it’s beyond my understanding how parents don’t seek to utilize every moment of their children’s precious childhood for positive and ethical ends, but leave them to theirselves.  Anyhow.  There is a palpable antagonism between Indians and westerners in the ashram which doesn’t exist outside of it.  I have always ascribed this to Amma’s attempt to help Indians stop treating white skinned people in servile ways.  So, the pendulum hasn’t swung to the center of the simple “Human being” yet, and people have huge brainwashings towards each other, which have replaced other huge brainwashings and conditionings.
We only have one real duty outside of ourselves: to treat each other with kindness and respect.  Spirituality, I think, is really the art of unbrainwashing ourselves from all the false conditionings we have gotten and given to each other.

May we all strive to live, learn, and be, in the truth of our inescapable oneness.
Loving you, Kamala Aunty.