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This paper explores some of the work of Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo (hereafter Rongzom) and attempts to situate his pedagogical influence within the "Old School" or Nyingma (rnying ma) tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. A survey of Rongzom's extant writings indicates that he was a seminal exegete and a particularly important philosopher and interpreter of Buddhism in Tibet. He was an influential intellectual flourishing in a period of cultural rebirth, when there was immense skepticism about Tibetan compositions. His work is thereby a source of insight into the indigenous Tibetan response to the transformations of a renaissance-era in which Indian provenance became the sine qua none of religious authority. Rongzom's "charter" (bca' yig), the primary focus of the essay, is an important document for our understanding of Old School communities of learning. While we know very little of the social realities of Old School communities in Rongzom's time, we do know that they were a source of concern for the emerging political and religious authorities in Western Tibet. As such, the review below argues that the production of the charter should be seen, inter alia, as an effort at maintaining autonomy in the face of a rising political power. The analysis also provides insights into the nature of the social obligations operant within Rongzom's community--constituted as it was by a combination of ritually embodied and discursive philosophical modes of learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Dalai Lama is apolitical and spiritual leader who, like Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr before him, has voiced strong opposition to violence and oppression while also calling for resistance to injustice. Unlike Gandhi and King, the Dalai Lama has not been on site with his people to protest oppression. In a unique move necessitated by exile from Tibet, he has taken to the world stage to expose the suffering of the Tibetan people while advocating justice, for preservation of Tibetan culture, and for a peaceful solution to the Tibet-China conflict. This paper analyzes the Dalai Lama's understanding of violence as grounded in afflictive emotions that create suffering both in the spiritual as well as in the political realm. The Dalai Lama `s analysis of "anger-hatred" as a destructive afflictive emotion requiring spiritual attention underwrites his moral argument for nonviolent resistance. This paper argues that the Dalai Lama not merely examines violence as a problem of spiritual affliction but that he addresses peace and nonviolence as an ethic. Rather than seeking public validation in terms of religious particulars, the Dalai Lama presents an ethic that can be universalized, that is benevolent and other-regarding, and that employs the language of normative action guides and rational principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious pluralism characterized Tibetan Buddhism by the eleventh or twelfth century, allowing for the development of many schools and sects with little differentiation in religious products. The early Ming dynasty (1368-1424) saw a significant shift in policy on Tibetan affairs compared to the Mongolian Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). Relative disengagement from Tibet translated into a liberalization of local politics, resulting in a shift from secular politics and clan wealth to ecclesiastical monastic institutions. The Geluk sect formed during this period, introducing superior technology in its organizational characteristics—celibacy, ordained abbots, casuistical adherence, scholastic training, and doctrinal orthodoxy—that distinguished it from other schools and sects. With the loss of its major Tibetan patron, the Gelukpa faced a serious challenge from its fiercest competitor, the Karmapa, and raised the stakes by introducing the incarnate position of the Dalai Lama and his labrang (financial estate). This allowed the Gelukpa to directly compete with the Karmapa for wealthy patrons. By forming an alliance with the Mongols, the Gelukpa were willing to counter violence with violence to become the monopoly religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Reports on the details of the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in the U.S. Citation on the relationship between mediation and physiological changes in the brain; Invitation of spiritual leader Dalai Lama as keynote speaker; Participation of neurologists and scientist in the event.

Many forms of contemporary morality treat the individual as the fundamental unit of moral importance. Perhaps the most striking example of this moral vision of the individual is the contemporary global human rights regime, which treats the individual as, for all intents and purposes, sacrosanct. This essay attempts to explore one feature of this contemporary understanding of the moral status of the individual, namely the moral significance of a subject's actual affective states, and in particular her cares and commitments. I argue that in virtue of the moral significance of actual individuals, we should take actual cares and values very seriously-even if those cares and values are not expressions of the person's autonomy-as partially constituting that individual as a concrete subject who is the proper object of our moral attention. In particular, I argue that a person's actual cares and values have non-derivative moral significance. Simply because someone cares about something, that care is morally significant. In virtue of this non-derivative moral significance of cares, we ought to adopt of a commitment to accommodate others' cares and a commitment not to frustrate their cares. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On February 12, 1910, a Chinese expeditionary army marched into Lhasa and fired on unarmed civilians, overturned the Tibetan government, and forced the thirteenth Dalai Lama to flee to India. Many have condemned the invasion as a breaking point in Sino-Tibetan relations, but its origins remain murky. If it was not the handiwork of"Butcher" Zhao Erfeng, as many have supposed, then what happened on that fateful winter day, and why? This article examines late-Qing forward policy in Tibet through four key officials: Zhang Yintang, the diplomat who called for reforms and a Tibetan standing army; Zhao Erfeng, the ruthless frontier commissioner in Kham; Lianyu, the last amban of Tibet; and Zhong Ying, the neophyte who led the 1910 Lhasa expedition. Their stories reveal not a monolithic Qing policy but a contest of policy and personality that exploded into bloody strife, with aftershocks that are felt to this day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the Dalai Lama's active encouragement of people to celebrate their own faith rather than convert to Buddhism. Belief in ultimate liberation as practice of Buddhist teachings; Notions of emptiness, skillful means, karma and rebirth.