Soul's Code

Dalai Lama: Tibet has become “Hell on Earth”

Speaking yesterday in Dharamsala, India, on the 50th anniversary of Tibet’s foiled uprising against Chinese rule, the Dalai Lama warned that Tibetan culture faces extinction and that authoritarian rule has made life in the Himalayan nation “hell on earth.”

It’s one of the boldest announcements that the Peace prize winning leader has yet uttered against the government that claims its policies are designed to do just the opposite – create a post-faith, materialist heaven on earth.

More on the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism

Whatthe Dalai Lama had to say on March 10
China mocks the Dalai Lama’s “gibbering”
A primer on Tibetan Buddhism
Blogger Precious Metal asks if the next Dalai Lama could be female
Smackdown: Barbie vs. the Dalai Lama

Percy Fawcett (and Brad Pitt): Explorers of the world, explorers of the soul

Not all transformational experience comes exclusively from within.

Explorers and travelers have often found wisdom outside their own traditions.

It happened to Heinrich Harrer, author of Seven Years in Tibet, and to Richard F. Burton, who brought back the Kama Sutra.

Now, a new book explores the life and psyche of explorer Percy Fawcett who, while an officer on Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) at the turn of the last century, became entranced with Buddhist tradition and took the Pansil.

His experience on Ceylon remained with him, and he became an ardent explorer of the inner world as well as the outer. He perished searching the Amazon for the Lost City of Z sometime after 1925. If we rated books we’d give this one four chakras. Brad Pitt, who starred in Seven Years in Tibet, is slated to play Fawcett in an upcoming film.

Dr. Phil sued over product placement

Dr. and Mrs. Phil have been named in a $4 million lawsuit by the Miracle Hydrate skin products company. The suit, filed in L.A. County Superior Court, alleges that Mrs. Phil promised the company that she had enough juice to get Miracle Hydrate’s products featured on the “The Dr. Phil Show.”

The company claims that it spent $650,000 prepping for the enhanced sales they expected from the product placement. Well, if nothing else, Dr. Phil does have good skin.

(Dali Lama image courtesy Elton Melo via Flicker, CC 2.0)

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• No. 1: Kundun
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• Protestors in the most secular city in the United States join in an outpouring of support for Tibetan Buddhism
• Tibet and the 2008 Summer Olympics: It’s not just politics