Cultural Arts
Review of Arjia Rinpoche’s ‘Surviving the
Dragon’
By Lydia E.
Ringwald
H.H. The Dalai Lama & Arjia Rinpoche, New York,
1999
http://indianapublicmedia.org/news/tibetan-leader-promotes-book/
In the
recently released ‘Surviving the Dragon,’ Arjia
Rinpoche, Abbot of Tibet’s renowned Kumbum
monastery shares his personal account of
navigating through the danger during the
tempestuous period of Communist rule of Tibet.
The brutal humiliations of Tibetan customs and
sacred esoteric Buddhist shrines by the
Communists makes ‘finding the Middle Path’
especially challenging for this highly ranked
spiritual leader who was often a political
target.
For Arjia Rinpoche, finding the Middle Path
often entails compromises with political idiocy
and outrageous cruelty in order to survive and
endure. Yet to remain true to the Buddhist
principal of Compassion, Arjia Rinpoche embraces
the challenge of feeling empathy and compassion
for a spiritually ignorant enemy that inflict
s humiliating indignities not only on Tibetan
traditions but also on his own family and
friends.
Throughout Rinpoche’s personal account are
especially touching and poignant multiple
ironies. Communist China, determined to avenge
the poor and working classes at the expense of
ruling classes and spiritual leaders, adopts the
role of suppressor perpetrating the same evil
that it attempts to avenge. From the chaos of
pain, a constant confrontation with
contradiction and hypocrisy, a Middle Path
emerges, recognition of the ironic nature of the
universe. Arjia Rinpoche develops personal
freedom from a vicious circle of hurt and be
hurt, developing a spiritual stance of
compassionate tolerance and survival that will
eventually overcome all.
The horror story of hardship ends with an
overcoming. Rinpoche escapes and gains his
political asylum in the United States and his
book closes with the prospect of a new China
that sheds the yoke of Communism and embraces
liberty and freedom. The prospect of a free
Tibet shines on the distant horizon.
Although Arjia Rinpoche’s personal story focuses
on Communist suppression of Tibet, the story
translates on another level to all who are
oppressed by intolerant political regimes in
multi-various places and time periods.
The American Indians suffering from the invasion
of European settlers is a refracted mirror of
the image of Mexican immigrants being treated as
illegal aliens in a land they once ruled. As an
Arizona Governor signs a bill condemning illegal
aliens, one wonders if she has refreshed her
‘Visitor’s Visa’ from the American Indians.
Such is the topsy-turvy nature of the universe.
As the Karmic Wheel spins, Suppressor and
Suppressed change places and then rotate again.
Yet, with another spin of the Wheel, maybe we
can realize that we are all illegal aliens,
‘uninvited guests,’ straining the politeness of
the Planet In our plunder of her natural
resources.
It seems that the development of Karmic
character and compassion entails a realization
that we have played a variety of roles in many
lifetimes, that we have been in all positions,
of experienced all points of views.
In reflection, we may have been both innocent
and guilty, good and evil, brilliant and
mediocre and all the shades in between. From
that vast and diverse experience, we develop
Compassion, the ability to empathize and
understand and with Honesty and Compassion, we
may arrive at a moment of Enlightenment, of
inner justice and balance that releases us from
the Karmic wheel.
Reading ‘ Surviving the Dragon’ also evokes
memories of the many different political ironies
in the period of world history during the period
of time covered in the book. It is ironic that
the end of the Viet Nam war, the ill-fated U.S.
campaign to overcome Communist occupation of
Viet Nam, indirectly benefited the cause of
Tibet.
President Nixon’s bold effort to ‘Win the Peace’
in 1972 with his historic meeting with Communist
leader Mao Tse Tung, opened the door for free
enterprise and ‘freedom’ to enter China.
Ironically, the U.S. eventually benefited the
very enemy it tried to overcome. The capitalist
drive for greater profit resulted in
U.S.companies building a manufacturing
infrastructure in China. Now with such an
infrastructure, the former Communist China may
develop a capitalistic economy that could exceed
that of the United States.
The Karmic Wheel spins at a dizzying speed but
with some good spin-offs. As Communism
dissolves, Tibet is released with its sanctity
is restored.
Arjia Rinpoche’s personal account becomes part
of a vast and never ending Karmic puzzle of
multi-faceted situations from multi-various
points of view encouraging each of us to find a
personal Middle Path, navigating through danger
and political chaos as we forge and ferret out
our way to Enlightenment and Bliss.
Arjia Rinpoche recently appeared at the Bowers
Museum to lecture about Buddhism and his new
publication. Please contact the Bowers Museum
to order an autographed copy of ‘Surviving the
Dragon.’
www.bowers.org
Lydia E. Ringwald is the Laguna Journal's Cultural Arts Columnist and photo-journalist, as well as a Southern California based artist.
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