What should sentient beings and Buddhas and bodhisattvas do to the ignorant beings who constantly engage in actions motivated by the three poisonous delusions? One very simple way of saying it is that you should name names.
For example Ness, who do you know that behaves in such a shocking way?

Now, to avoid engaging in negative actions of body, speech and mind myself, I am writing this post to inform the public of where danger lies. I am also going to say that unless we ourselves protect our body, speech and mind by engaging in virtue and always practicing dharma correctly, we are really ourselves no different from these guilty offenders.

So without beating around the bush I am going to say the Gelugpa school of Buddhism is well known for its ability to emphasise the need and importance of engaging in proper dharma study, and also discusses pathways or methodology for constantly accumulating merit and wisdom.

The reason we practice compassion is to wish for, cut and even cessate from the mind the actual delusions that cause suffering and the cycle of suffering. When you learn with renunciation and the aspirational wish and engaging deed to accumulate the causes for higher rebirth, liberation from throwing karma and even the greatest of goals and meaning, the exalted state of Buddhahood, you realise the need to practice the wisdom realising emptiness. To meditate on the emptiness of a self of persons and of phenomena is the key to overcoming the causes of samsara, however you won’t get very far without a thorough understanding of the small, medium and even great scope stages of the path to Buddhahood.

In my experience, as a Buddhist who at a young age took on the role of managing a popular Mahayana Buddhist Centre I have learnt that many people do not focus upon keeping their commitments and protecting their Buddhist vows. Without pure moral conduct, you cannot build a proper foundation for training the mind. To cut the causes of suffering from the mind and from your internal experience, you need to engage in and understand the small scope practices and pathways. Following that, the medium scope stages of the path, which endeavours to understand the law of cause and effect and the three higher trainings of pure moral discipline, mental quiescence, calm abiding and then special insight.

From a small acorn a large oak tree can grow

Isn’t Garfield just gorgeous!

https://youtu.be/oG6fayQBm9w

Copyright © Vanessa Anne Walsh 2023

The Elephant in the Room

This is why I am bankrupt.

A while ago I listened to an advertisement 60 Minutes was running for one of their shows. In this advertisement, the journalist from 60 Minutes discussed the issue surrounding Australia, as a nation, being at war with China. You would have to be more than half asleep if you didn’t realize China is already at war with us. Just look at the way the Chinese Government encourages it’s people to bribe immigration officials and flood brainwashed and poorly educated Chinese citizens into the most prosperous and democratic nations around the world. When China invaded Tibet and massacred its people, destroying and bombing its educational institutions and oppressing the freedoms of this peace loving, gentle nation, the Communist Governments view at the time was that once they gained control over the Roof of the World (Tibet), power around the rest of the world would rapidly fall into their hands.

I guess if doing business with a regime of dull-minded, uncreative people who were happy to force young Tibetan children to shoot their parents and thought nothing of burying Tibetan people alive in coffins doesn’t faze you (as reported by Amnesty International in the early 1990’s), then perhaps you might conclude I am over-reacting, but I hold onto the virtuous and freedom loving idea we do in fact have a responsibility to respect human rights, especially when a greedy power like China marches into a foreign country and invades for the purposes of stealing another nations precious natural resources in order to strengthen it’s own power and oppress the freedoms and liberties of others.

Make no mistake; it is the deep intention of China to dominate the world’s economic and political sphere, whilst using their brutal military might to create a stranglehold on the freedom of all sentient beings. As a brilliant Buddhist master once told me, “China first takes control by getting people addicted to its money.” It is very clear now to see how we as a nation have become hopelessly addicted to the short term economic benefits we derive from giving away too easily, our precious and limited resources to China.  This master then went on to say that “once China knows a nation has become addicted to the income they earn from doing business with China, China then seizes the opportunity at hand to take control over every other aspect of the lives of citizens living in such a nation.”

Do we as a country even recognize anymore what it means to be Australian? As you walk down any suburban or city street, it is clear to see we are effectively already living in China. The Chinese have long had the habit of buying up the most highly sought after and valuable properties and moving into the most prosperous regions of any country, once they develop pockets deep enough to steal away our freedom. It is a well known fact that businessmen working in real estate actively seek to sell off the best houses and properties we have in our country to the Chinese. Just look at who owns most of the Golden Mile now down in Brighton. Go and visit Box Hill, Doncaster, Toorak or watch more carefully who is filling the streets of Melbourne or any other major Australian city, and see if you can figure out where we are really living.

We should all know by now, China has an absolutely horrific human rights record. As a nation, and oppressive communist power, they simply cannot be trusted to act in a way that protects the integrity and freedom of any living being. Despite this catastrophic flaw in the Chinese character, we must rely upon diplomacy and a peace strategy that focuses first upon saving rather than needlessly and heartlessly destroying precious lives.

I would be remiss for not mentioning a story recently televised by Four Corners on the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) network, which exposed China’s attempts to hack into a number of major western corporations’ computer systems. On this program, Four Corners revealed not only had China been caught hacking into His Holiness The Dalai Lama’s website and other Tibetan Government in Exile computer systems, but China has also hacked into the computer systems of companies such as BHP, Fortescue Metals, Rio Tinto, just to name a few. One can see from the ruthless way China conducts its affairs that they already assume they are at war with everyone. Just remember, the Chinese Government pride themselves on educating their people into the Art of War. The Tibetan Nation, on the other hand, excelled in it’s ability to prosper a country based on a philosophy of peace, love, liberation and freedom from suffering. Which cause would any rationally minded being choose to support, listen to and follow?

Following is just a brief profile of the methods used by China to destabilize already prosperous nations, which they view as an ideological threat to their own oppressive and freedom hating regime.

The whole global financial downturn can be attributed to the fact that Australia, Europe and other once well developed nations like America can no longer manufacture their own goods, due to the incredible difficulty that has arisen and stems from the Chinese government’s refusal to stop artificially lowering the levels of its currency. Countries like Australia have become virtually incapable of competing with China, due to the fact that the Chinese rely upon slave labor to manufacture all their goods. This has created such a huge economic and moral imbalance, that the entire world is now paying an enormous price for the fact that our politicians refuse address the critical causes for the downfalls in our economies and ability to produce quality goods which will allow us to trade on a more even playing field.

In western countries, we do our best to maintain relatively good working conditions for our citizens, but China has no such concern or philosophy. As a young country, we take too much for granted our liberties and current level of freedom, to the point that we have become blinded by the huge changes and shifts in global power that are rapidly taking place around us. Our major media stations and publications refuse to address these issues, creating a false illusion in the minds of all our people that our freedom and health is not degenerating to the degree and levels to which they currently are.

Look at how when the Burmese Government attacked its own people in order to suppress their rights of free speech and democracy, China funded and supported the ruthless dictatorial Burmese regime while this was going on.

Look at how the problem with plagiarism and pirating have enabled China to steal original designs, intellectual property and products from all other nations around the globe, so that they are then able to infiltrate business and political systems around the world, mass producing cheap fakes, which further impedes our ability to trade and work fairly on a world scale.

As long as the Communist Chinese Government continues to peg it’s currency against the US dollar at a level that is artificially low, Chinese goods and services appear cheaper than they really are when compared to products and services produced in Western nations.

One could go on forever about all the evil that resides in China, taking the form of the Chinese Government’s abuse of the rights and conditions of humans and animals, and the wanton and blatant corruption of its officials.

One could argue the reason the talks in Copenhagen failed was because of Chinese Diplomats blocking and strategically planning for methods and means to cause the whole process to fail.

We all need to become more aware of how the actions of a corrupt, ruthless and oppressive Chinese regime is causing degradation and decline on a world scale, and understand more clearly how we are all now paying a massive price for the corruption and degradation to the planet that is stemming from the actions of the Chinese Government and it’s brainwashed citizens.

China educates its own people into a philosophy and way of thinking and acting that has no respect for the law, for human rights, for freedom, for freedom of speech or for the truth and justice.

I urge everyone to take a deeper look into what is going on in the rapidly changing world around us and look for ways to think about how to protect ourselves and the freedoms and way of life we currently enjoy. Many sacrifices have been made by others in the past to protect the democratic rights of a people. We must never lose sight of this fact or think that just because our economy is currently quite strong, that our way of life and ability to achieve lasting happiness is not at stake. Never think ignorance is bliss and that not knowing the truth somehow makes life a little easier to bear. Lacking awareness of the true causes of suffering is always a recipe for disaster.

Copyright © Vanessa Anne Walsh 2011