Tibet, the real, new Shangri-La!

If one wanted to know what life in a Utopian society feels and ‘tastes’ like, one would have to live there for some time and be a member of that society, and live through all their experiences, as if being one of them. Live all their hopes and fears, their anxieties and joys, and their frustrations and pains.


Tibet is a very fortunate country, indeed.
Tibetans have the Han Chinese who take care of pretty much everything for them.

The Han Chinese build roads, and railways, so that their military can be deployed at much faster rates, and be on the spot almost instantly wherever the Tibetan people need them for their protection.
These same roads also facilitate the movement of Han Chinese settlers who will charitably occupy the land which the Tibetans have so willingly and generously donated to the Han Chinese Communist Government.
In return the Tibetans enjoy the privilege of having the option of buying into nicely grey tinged, walled in housing complexes in remote areas, which are too far for any work to commute to. In these housing complexes they enjoy the protection of the PAP, People’s Armed Police, day and night, just in case some untoward event should befall the Tibetan community while herded into this walled in reservation, lacking any such awful modern distractions, as running water, electricity or a reticulated sewerage system.
Of course, if the Tibetans don’t opt into this scheme, then they will enjoy the gracious custody of the Han Chinese in a more smallish confinement.

Tibetans don’t have to bother with their ancient, awkward language, for it will not get them anywhere, anywhere at all. Mandarin is the language of this paradise and Tibetans can enjoy everything they need to know on tv, radio, or print, all in Mandarin, right there pre-digested and in simple form, so all can understand the profound truths they convey. They’re also reminded not to be so foolish to ever use their deprecated language for any purpose whatsoever in Tibet, for this might not be the most prudent thing to do.

Tibetans are also spared the bother of wasting their time queuing up for any social services, government schemes, or health care services, for more often that not they’ll always find Han Chinese in front of them, regardless how long hey wait. These services were never meant for Tibetans anyway, and they wouldn’t be able to afford any such scheme in any case. Great time saver indeed, and in reality an inverse discrimination!

The Han Chinese also take care of all the natural resources on behalf of the Tibetans, they will extract these for them, and use those very roads to ship them away from Tibet into the safe hands of Han Chinese, out east. These same Han Chinese also have already clear felled just about all the ancient forests and left the hillsides denuded and open to erosion, so that the Tibetans don’t ever again need to worry about some ‘evil spirits’ living in the woods.

The Han Chinese also have, free of charge, rendered huge tracts of land, and groundwater supplies so contaminated with nuclear and chemical waste that Tibetans don’t have to worry about cultivating this land ever again, or using the groundwater for irrigation, drinking or any purpose whatsoever, for eternity. Really a great boon to the Tibetans this, when they have so much land and so few people to take care of it.

The Tibetans also enjoy free patriotic education during their working time, when they would otherwise have to work to earn a living, that is, if they are unfortunate enough to be in employment.
This free education will really get their employment prospects up, being able to say “the Dalai Lama is a separatist and splittist”, and “the CCP is our real Buddha”, and “the Motherland will never be split by the evil DL clique”, very useful – and free of course. They can pass a test after this education programme to prove their academic prowess in being able to repeat the Han Chinese’s highly intellectual musings.
Every Han Chinese employer can check this diploma and decide how useful it is for the job applied, or already held. Though it is not the norm that Han Chinese would employ Tibetans, for the Han Chinese will rather employ other Han Chinese, so that the Tibetans don’t have to work and can enjoy a long, healthy fast.
Of course if they happen to fail that test then, being a monk for instance, they wouldn’t need to go back to arduous monastic life, or as an employee, go back to their boring jobs.

And the Tibetans don’t need to run their own government, the Han Chinese do it all happily for them.
The Han Chinese will tell them how to run every aspect of their lives, what is allowed and what is tolerated, and what will get them into First Class Han Chinese accommodation, where they will enjoy some very special massages and electric titillation, how kind and convenient of the Han Chinese.
Tibetans rarely come back to tell of this wonderful experience they’ve enjoyed while in the care of the Han Chinese. Their relatives are also spared the expense of a burial, and the sight of their love one, for this could really upset them. The Han Chinese will take care of the body for them, free of charge of course.
Most often the Han Chinese won’t upset the relatives by informing them about the untimely departure of their love ones, for this would only cause them grieve.

The Tibetans don’t even have to write their own history for the Han Chinese have already kindly written it for them, a great service for the Tibetans, for they had a very contrary, and obviously erroneous account of their own history.
They foolishly thought, along with all the eminent historians and international law experts, that they were an independent and sovereign country.

Tibetan women don’t have to bear more than one child, for even though they are exempt from the one child policy, they get sterilisation on the spot from roaming Han Chinese teams catching them like some stray dogs on the road.
They don’t even have to go to a clinic, for this treatment, it is carried out on the spot by wonderfully unqualified teams of Han Chinese, who out of the goodness of their hearts, will give this service freely so that Tibetans don’t multiply beyond their own ‘good’ for their creed. It would be a shame if there would be too many recipients of such Han Chinese generosity in this paradise created by them.

Now just recently the Tibetans are the lucky beneficiaries of a Closed Circuit TV, CCTV, surveillance system, the SkyNet.
This system allows the Han Chinese to oversee the whole of Tibet, every prefecture, every town, every village, all over, everywhere where Tibetans live there are CCTV systems installed, just to ensure their safety, day and night.

In fact, Tibetans are really well taken care of, right now there are thousands in the pampering care of the Han Chinese, and almost all have enjoyed their special massages and electric titillation, some even have been treated to a special kind of water treatment.
Many, many more have already been through this treatment and have already been released again.
Many of the released Tibetans now no longer need to work, for their wonderful experience has given them a special yearning, and now they are just looking forward to their early departure from this incarnation, just as many already have departed, thanks to the special treatment by the Han Chinese.

Sadly, soon there won’t be any Tibetans left to enjoy all these benefits bestowed by the Han Chinese, for the plans the Han Chinese have for them and their land they so erroneously think of as their homeland, will see them rendered invisible, a minute forgotten minority, a creed delivered into oblivion, razed from their land and erased from the world’s conscience.


Now if this is a Utopian society, and Orwell has not, in his wildest imagination, envisaged anything like this ever being visited upon this planet, let alone in the enlightened 21st century, then how can anyone know what it would feel like to live there?


Of course this a is a very abridged account of life in this Utopian society, there are many more benefits these people, called Tibetans, are able to enjoy.

Like free Fear, real Fear, Fear down through to the bone, Fear day and night, Fear of what is going to happen next, will they be arrested for no reason at all and end up enjoying this special Han Chinese treatment they give so freely while in their tender care, and from which they most likely will never emerge again ………

Well, as enunciated before, just a Utopian Society!

Such unspeakable barbarity could never be perpetrated by one creed against another, be it out of wanton callousness, greed, and or ignorance.
Ignorance of the circularity of one’s deeds, the karmic dividends ensuing from every thought, utterance and deed!

Humans would never be capable of descending to such depraved depths, a hell below, and beyond animalistic behaviour, not in the 21^st century, not ever, surely?



FOOTNOTE:
And in case you’re wondering, of course, this is all just made up; a CIA / USA / Western Powers / Media Propaganda beat up, lies, lies and more lies to besmirch the benevolent Han Chinese Communists who are not really barbaric and racist like this at all. This is just all part of a vile Western conspiracy to vilify the wonderful Han Chinese and put them back into their place!

And yes, all the Tibetan eyewitnesses, the people with first hand experiences, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, all the Independent Researchers, all the people who fled from this Shangri-La and related their first hand accounts about life there, of course they are all in on it, they too are all unconscionable Liars ; for there is no truth like the CCP’s own sweet, palatable truth!

Just a Utopian Society, obscured and hidden from the conscience of the world by mist and clouds, behind the world's highest mountains!


Continue reading here:
Can the Olympic Spirit survive?
Fervent Chinese Nationalism?
In the spirit of the Olympics, indeed!
Letter to Hu Jintao
Of Patriotism and Motherlands.
Cultural Genocide?

The rape of Tibet

The CCP’s Propaganda machine is in overdrive telling the world what China is ‘investing’ and spending on ‘developing’ Tibet, and how much it is helping Tibetans to achieve better living standards!
Here are some sobering facts behind this propaganda drive:


By Partha Gangopadhyay

China is incurring huge expenditure in transferring and consolidating the Chinese population in Tibet. Massive investment has been made to build a network of modern highways all over Tibet. China can also boast of having laid the highest railway track in the world that connects Lhasa with Beijing. In fact, China often complains that its "civilizing" mission in Tibet is costing the government and people of China large amounts in terms of subsidies to an under-developed region. According to official Chinese statistics, the level of annual subsidies to the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) in the late 1980s was around 1 billion yuan or $270 million. However, all the infrastructure that China has built in Tibet has not made the lives of the native Tibetans any better; it has only taken the exploitative apparatuses of the Chinese government deeper.





China's Ministry of Land and Resources has announced monumental new resource discoveries all across Tibet. The findings are the culmination of a secret seven-year, $44 million survey project, which began in 1999. More than 1,000 researchers were divided into 24 separate groups and fanned out across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to geologically map the entire Tibetan region. Their findings have lead to a discovery of 16 major new deposits of copper, iron, lead, zinc and other minerals worth an estimated $128 billion. These discoveries add to Tibet's proven deposits of 126 minerals, with a significant share of the world's reserves in lithium, chromite, copper, borax, and iron. "Lack of resources has been a bottleneck for the economy," Meng Xianlai, director of the China Geological Survey, had once complained in his statements. The discoveries in Tibet "will alleviate the mounting resources pressure China is facing."





Tibet is now said to hold as much as 40 million tons of copper - one third of China's total, 40 million tons of lead and zinc, and more than a billion tons of high-grade iron. Among the Tibet discoveries is China's first substantial rich-iron supply. A seam called Nyixung, is alone expected to contain as much as 500 million tons. That's enough to reduce Chinese iron import by 20 per cent. The new copper reserves are no less substantial. A 250-mile seam of the metal has been found along Tibet's environmentally sensitive Yarlung Tsangpo Gorge. One mine there, called Yulong, already described as the second-largest reserve in China, is now estimated to hold as much as 18 million tons, according to the government news site Xinhua and could soon become the largest copper mine in the country, helping to feed China's increasing demand of the metal used for electrical wiring and power generation. China, which until now has imported much of its copper from Chile, is estimated to hold 5.6 per cent of the world's copper and is its seventh largest producer.





The riches that China expects to extract from Tibet in the near future, perhaps better explains the money that China annually spends on Tibet than the empty claims of modernizing Tibet.





In fact, an official web site of China has itself disclosed that "Once-quiet, northern Tibet has become a scene of bustle and excitement since a number of inland enterprise marched into the region in response to the government call for speeding up the development of western China. Northern Tibet has more than 200 mining areas with 28 kinds of mineral ores, and is rich in oil and hot springs."



The China National Star Petroleum Corporation and the China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Corporation have recently dug up the first oil well in the Lunpola Basin, which has a proven oil reserve of three million tons. This reserve is in addition to the over one million tons of crude oil that Amdo's oil fields produce per year. Further, the Chinese have opened two alluvial gold mines in Nagqu and built a gem processing plant in Lhasa. Soinam Dorje, an official of the Nagqu Prefecture, has welcomed inland and foreign investors to exploit the gold, oil and antimony resources on the plateau of northern Tibet. This also goes far to explain the need to invest in infrastructure all over Tibet. Apart from its rich mineral wealth, Tibet has many other resources that may provide China the edge in its race to emerge as the world's richest economy.



The volume of timber that China has taken away from Tibet itself far exceeds the amount that it has spent to build the infrastructural facilities in Tibet. In 1949, Tibet's ancient forests covered 221,800 sq km. By 1985 they stood at 134,000 sq km - almost half. Most forests grow on steep, isolated slopes in the river valleys of Tibet's low-lying south-eastern region. The principal types are tropical montane and subtropical montane coniferous forest, with spruce, fir, pine, larch, cypress, birch, and oak among the main species. The tree line varies from 3,800 mt in the region's moist south to 4,300 mt in the semi-dry north. Tibet's forests were primarily old growth, with trees over 200 years old predominating. The average stock density is 272 cubic mt/ha, but U-Tsang's old growth areas reach 2,300 cubic mt/ha - the world's highest stock density for conifers. Once pristine forests are reached, the most common method of cutting is clear felling, which has led to the denudation of vast hill sides. Timber extraction until 1985 totaled 2,442 million cubic mt, or 40 per cent of the 1949 forest stock, worth $54 billion.



Deforestation is a major source of employment in Tibet: in the Kongpo area of the TAR alone, over 20,000 Chinese soldiers and Tibetan prisoners are involved in tree felling and transportation of timber. In 1949, Ngapa, in Amdo, had 2.20 million hectares of land under forest cover. Its timber reserve then stood at 340 million cubic mt. In the 1980s, it was reduced to 1.17 million hectares, with a timber reserve of only 180 million cubic mt. Similarly, during 30 years, till 1985 China exploited 6.44 million cubic mt of timber from Kanlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. As new roads increasingly penetrate remote areas of Tibet, China is finding new excuses to increase the rate of deforestation in the region.



China's primary objective of constructing roads in Tibet is to deploy occupying forces like the People's Liberation Army, along with defence materials, and immigration of Chinese, as well as to exploit the natural resources of Tibet, which are transported primarily to China. Roads may run through most Tibetan villages, but a public transport system is almost non-existent in the majority of rural Tibet. The Chinese modern means of transport do not benefit the majority of Tibetans. Tibetans in most places continue to use horses, mules, yaks, donkeys and sheep as modes of transportation. Thus, the Chinese claim of investing heavily in "civilizing" the Tibetans is one of the most shameless lies that one can perpetuate.



The Tibetan plateau gives birth to some of the longest rivers of the world; The Machu (Huang Ho, or Yellow River), the Tsangpo (Brahmaputra), the Drichu (Yangtze), and the Senge Khabab (Indus). Tibet also has over 2,000 natural lakes spread over a combined area of more than 35,000 sq km, some of which are sacred and play a special role in local culture. Steep slopes and the abundant water of these rivers and lakes make them extremely valuable as sources of hydroelectric power. Tibet has an exploitable hydropower potential of 250,000 megawatts, the highest of any country in the world and the TAR alone has a potential of 200,000 megawatts. China has built some large hydroelectricity projects all over Tibet. These projects are designed to tap Tibet's hydro potential to provide power and other benefits to the Chinese population and industries both in Tibet and China.



While the Tibetans are displaced from their homes and lands, tens of thousands of Chinese workers are brought up from China to construct and maintain these dams. Take the case of the Yamdrok Yutso hydropower project. The Chinese claim that this project will greatly benefit the Tibetans. The Tibetan people in general, particularly the late Panchen Lama and Ngapo Ngawang Jigme, opposed and effectively delayed its construction for several years. The Chinese, nevertheless, went ahead with the construction and with the help of more than 1,500-strong PLA troops are guarding the construction area and no civilians are allowed near it. But the environmental, human and cultural toll of these hydroelectricity projects will have to be borne by the Tibetans. Tibet also possesses high solar energy potential per unit only after the Sahara, an estimated annual average of 200 kilocalorie/cm, as well as significant geothermal resources. Despite such abundant potential from small, environmentally-benign sources, the Chinese have built huge dams, such as Longyang Xia, and are continuing to do so, such as the hydropower station at Yamdrok Yutso. Tibet is made to play a pivotal role in fulfilling the huge demand for power in China at the cost of its own helpless, poor natives.



Furthermore, Tibet has been made a hub of nuclear facilities. This reduces the radioactive risks that China could suffer if an accident takes place in such installations. Again, since such facilities are located in a colonized region, the Chinese authorities do not take the necessary precautions that are mandatory for such facilities. Official Chinese pronouncements have confirmed the existence in Tibet of the biggest uranium reserves in the world. Apart from Amdo, since 1976 uranium has been mined and processed in the Thewo and Zorge regions of Kham also. According to reports, the uranium mining and processing in Tibet is done with unforgivable callousness. The Ninth Academy, China's Northwest Nuclear Weapons Research and Design Academy in Tibet's north-eastern area of Amdo, is reported to have dumped an unknown quantity of radioactive waste on the Tibetan plateau, according to a report released by International Campaign for Tibet, a Washington, D.C.-based organization:





"Waste disposal methods were reported to be casual in the extreme. Initially, waste was put in shallow, unlined landfills... The nature and quantity of radioactive waste generated by the Ninth Academy is still unknown... During the 1960s and 1970s, nuclear waste from the facility was disposed of in a roughshod and haphazard manner. Nuclear waste from the academy would have taken a variety of forms - liquid slurry, as well as solid and gaseous waste. Liquid or solid waste would have been in adjacent land or water sites."



Given the fact that underground water supplies in Amdo have been diminishing at a rapid rate and usable underground water is very limited, the radioactive contamination of groundwater is of great concern in the region. Many local Tibetans have died after drinking contaminated water near a uranium mine in Ngapa, Amdo. They have also reported deformed birth of humans and animals.





The existence of Chinese nuclear bases and nuclear weapon manufacturing centres in Tibet has been reported from time to time. China is reported to have stationed approximately 90 nuclear warheads in Tibet. (The Northwest Nuclear Weapons Research and Design Academy or the Ninth Academy, the most secret organization in China's entire nuclear programme and an important and high security military weapons plant, is based at Dhashu (Chinese: Haiyan), which is in the Haibei Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. It was responsible for designing all of China's nuclear bombs through the mid-70s. It served as a research centre for detonation development, radiochemistry and many other nuclear weapons related activities. It also assembled components of nuclear weapons. Several missile bases are located to the south of Lake Kokonor in Amdo, and Nagchukha. Another nuclear missile site in Tibet is located at Delingha, about 200 km south-east of Larger Tsaidam. It also houses DF-4s, and is the missile regimental headquarters for Amdo, containing four associated launch sites. It has been reported a number of times that China has carried out chemical defence manoeuvres in the high altitude zones of Tibet. There are also reports that China has been conducting nuclear tests in several areas of Tibet in order to determine radiation levels on the human population.



Not only is its economy, China's military might too is growing because of its colonization of Tibet.



China is exploiting far more from Tibet than what it is giving back. While China is proudly hosting the Olympics with its spectacular stadia and dazzling shows, the future of Tibet is turning gloomier.




http://woodsmoke.wordpress.com/2008/08/22/how-china-is-plundering-the-natural-resources-of-tibet/


- Partha Gangopadhyay

Buddhism an anti religion Religion?

Religion is a belief system based on faith in a supernatural being, power or entity, or the plurals thereof, which is usually regarded as omniscient, omnipotent and the creator or originator of all that we perceive.

These attributes imply that everything, our every thoughts and deeds, are under the scrutiny of this supernatural agency.
This leads to a prescribed set of conduct for the faithful to follow, and to the ceremonial worship of this deity, to please and appease it through rituals and practices.

Through the supernatural properties attributed to them, these deities acquire the exalted status of being considered divine, infallible, sacred and sacrosanct.

All this formalizes and institutionalizes the belief system into a religion, where followers have a prescribed framework of spiritual practices, beliefs, set of answers, and a code of conduct to lead their lives by.

Followers of religions usually find that their practise provides a measure of solace, succour, belonging, direction and meaning to their lives. And this is probably the core essence most followers would derive and behold of religion, though this may not necessarily concur with the intended function by the originator(s) of the religion.

Inherent in any belief system is the implicitly assumed quality of intrinsic wisdom, truth or knowledge it contains and provides.
Though some religions go beyond the simple prescription of dogma and explicitly claim exclusive rights to such ‘truths’, and also concurrently create demarcations for their followers from ‘non believers’, brandishing the latter as “infidels, heretics, judases, godless, agnostics, or any such label designed to denigrate non followers and to elevate their own flock.

One of the definitions of a meme/cult is the explicit insistence of exclusive tenure to the truth; in whatever guise this truth may manifest itself with the religion in question.
This is manifested in circulatory self attestation; a train of reasoning reliant on acceptance, at blind faith, of any one of the arguments in the circle.
One other defining notion for a cult is the portrayal of their dogma as being the true, primary essence of the core religion it derives its canon from; i.e. fundamentalism.
A third element employed by cults is fear; if a member does not wholly acquiesce and dedicate his life to, and faithfully follows the dogma, wrathful vengeance will be incurred.

Most religions contain elements of circulatory reasoning, fundamentalism and fear, so there is a fine borderline between a religion and a cult.

Belief systems and religions per se, and cults in particular, have a tendency for their followers to acquire traits of self righteousness, exclusivity, condescension and derision.
Their religion/belief becomes an all consuming aspect, point of reference, and the meaning of life itself.

Nothing has any meaning until we, us sentient beings, attach any such meaning to it.

And this really is the essence.
To make sense of, or understand anything with our ordinary mind, meaning thereof can only be derived through reference to past experiences, acquired knowledge, or accepted truths at faith.

As per the last point, belief in any religion or dogma literally is a leap of faith; for to believe is to subordinate logic, reason and analytical thinking to faith in the veracity of prescribed answers and meaning. Answers which are readily provided and enshrined in organized religions.


Now what if there were a framework which dispensed with prescribed dogma, would negate the existence of intrinsic truth, and would not even tender prescribed tenets unless they could be verified as bona fide by the practitioner itself?

A framework where the practitioner is the discoverer, judge and verifier of truths him, or herself all in one, and progress on the ‘spiritual path’ is not advanced unless such verification has been accomplished at each step along the way.

Where referential thinking quintessentially is anathema, and deemed an encumbrance, and contrary to arriving at the truth.

Where in fact the conquest, and escape from the tyranny of the genes and memes is the prime, and quintessential focus of the practice.

Now, such a framework would in fact have to liberate the mind, allow unconditioned, analytical investigation and examination of any issue concerning mankind.
It would facilitate unprecedented personal growth, for humanity to achieve a new level of comprehension, interaction and approach to dealing with hitherto intractable problems besetting humanity.
If practised universally, this framework could even lead to mankind achieving a harmonious existence; humanity living in peace with itself, and in harmony with nature!


Buddhism is fundamentally at variance with the accepted definitions of religions.
It is indeed all of the above, and more.

Buddhism is:

• Non theistic; there is no supernatural, almighty being commonly referred to as God, Allah etc.

• Unquestioning faith is anathema to Buddhism. (see above)

• One’s fate is the result of one’s own actions: karma. There is no fate in the sense of punishment or reward dished out by a benevolent or vengeful deity.

• There is no surrender to any god, dogma or practice. It is in fact unconditioned, single pointed, mindful practice which is required.

• There is no dogma, word of god, or holy scripture transmitted through any agency, such as a prophet. The Dharma exists independent of any framework, it may be discovered by any sentient being.

• It is not enough to just do good with reward in mind. Compassionate deeds require true altruistic motivation for merit to arise. Attachment to good deeds defiles the actions and their karmic dividends.

• Buddhist compassion and considerations extend to all sentient beings; animals are part of our ambit of compassionate responsibility.

• Buddhism has neither heaven nor hell. The various realms described in Buddhism are the result of karmic effects. Just as this incarnation is a mind attached to a biological body, the mind can undergo experiences in different realms, hellish or heavenly, according to one’s karma. (dreams are but an indication of these realms the mind can undergo)

• Buddhism is not prescribed as a doctrine or dogma one needs to follow for ‘salvation’, and if a practitioner strays from the path there is no revenge or retribution.

• No almighty god is enacting upon, or interfering in our lives, or the universe. Dependent Origination, or Conditioned Arising explains all physical and psychological phenomena in scientific terms.

• No concept of blasphemy, desecration, sin, or infidel, for there is no sacrosanct dogma, relic or sacred deity.

Taking all the main points of difference into account, Buddhism in essence is diametrically opposed to religion.

Buddhist practices explicitly involve:

• The abandonment of all referential thinking. No truth to be accepted unless it is personally experienced and verified.

• The training of the mind to conquer the tyranny of the memes and genes; to be one’s own master; be in control of one’s destiny.

• Take responsibility for one’s own actions, for karmic effects will ensue from every thought, pronouncement and deed. There is no escape from karma. No vengeful god, fate or bad luck.

• The training of the mind to abandon all attachments and aversions, and pursue compassion with indiscriminate detachment. The four Immeasurables: Love, Compassion, Equanimity, Joy are a practice to clear the mind of preconditioned and ingrained desires and disdains arising from conditioned and referential thinking.



Buddhism in essence is the anti religion ‘Religion’ (or ‘Framework’, for want of a better expression), the Science of the Mind, and the tool for the liberation of one’s mind.

Alas, it seems that humanity is not ready to have that comfort soother religion pulled out just yet.
And the practice of Buddhism is, by any measure, but iron discipline & self control, and extremely diligent, arduous practice!


Footnotes:
Buddhism is self deprecating in the sense that it lays no specific claim to any truth or knowledge. In fact it describes itself as merely being the finger pointing at the moon, and once the moon is spotted the finger becomes redundant.

The appearance of Buddhism as a religion with ritualized worship, ceremonies and offerings by the masses is merely superficially valid.
Buddhas are the liberated minds of Buddhist practitioners having attained enlightenment; the objective of Buddhism. They chose to remain in this realm to assist and guide other sentient beings through their endless cycle of incarnations.
The reverence paid to the Buddhas is an expression of gratitude, as in the case of Buddha Sakyamuni for the discovery and dissemination of the Dharma, and Buddhas generally are revered for their guidance and compassion. Of course there are many variances in the many different traditions, but on the whole all the above points are applicable to Buddhist traditions in general.


It is apparent that Reincarnation, and the realm of Becoming, the state in between incarnations, has amply been validated through scientific research. Jim Tucker is but one such exponent, and has made his research available in his book ‘Life before Life’.