India bars Tai Situ from attending World Buddhist Conference in Malaysia

[Ensapa]

Might be interesting to note here...Tai Situpa was one of the main people involved in the Karmapa controversy...and now for some reason, India barred him from travelling. He is also one of the highest ranking lamas in the Karma Kagyu order by the way....

India bars Tai Situ from attending World Buddhist Conference in Malaysia
The Buddhist Channel, Nov 4, 2012

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -- India has denied H.E. The 12th Tai Situ Rinpoche Pema Tönyö Nyinje a travel visa to attend the World Buddhist Conference (WBC), currently held in Kuala Lumpur. The Tai Situpa was scheduled to give a keynote address at the conference.  No reasons were given by Indian immigration why the visa was rejected.


<< H.E. The 12th Tai Situ Rinpoche, Pema Tönyö Nyinje, in his pre-recorded video address at the World Buddhist Conference in Kuala Lumpur

The theme for the conference is “Trancending Negative Emotions”, and speakers as well as participants are expected to exchange ideas and experiences in issues and ways to create happiness and well being in our lives.

In his pre-recorded video address, the Tai Situpa expressed his bewilderment why he was denied physical presence in Kuala Lumpur, as he said “I myself cannot understand why this is happening.”


 The presence of Tai Situpa was the key highlight of this edition of the WBC, which was last held in 2010. In that edition, Ven. Thich Nhat Hahn gave the keynote address.
In Tibetan Buddhism the Tai Situpa is one of the oldest lineages of tulkus (said to be reincarnated lamas) in the Kagyu school. The Tai Situpa is considered to be one of the highest ranking lamas of the Karma Kagyu lineage.

Expectations for the 2nd WBC were heightened as the present  12th Kenting Tai Situpa, H.E. Rinpoche Pema Tönyö Nyinje is a renowned Buddhist master. On a more personal level the present 12th Tai Situpa is a scholar, poet, calligrapher, artist, author, architect and geomancer.

The 12th Tai Situpa was instrumental in recognizing H.H. the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, one of the two candidates claimed to be the 17th Karmapa, whom he coronated at Tsurphu Monastery outside Lhasa in August 1992. He is the main Guru of Orgyen Trinlay in Mahamudra and training in turn the next generation of Buddhist masters.

In his video address, the Tai Situ advised the audience to learn "how to balance emotions, as negative emotions are the cause of suffering". He said that "if we cannot improve ourselves and find a balance to counter negative emotions, the world can only get worse”.

The Tai Situpa outlined the vast changes the world have undergone in the last 50 years and concluded that much is not good. The advent of overt greed, environmental degradation and unsustainable development are the result of mindsets grounded on being too selfish, greedy and overly aggressive in wealth accumulation.

He cautioned that hope for a better future in the next 50 years can only happen if we persist to make positive changes to our current mindsets and to take steps to improve existing difficulties.

This would include the development of different levels of awareness and values, driven by a change in simple personal attitude, which includes making the following as living principles in our lives, that is, to embed compassion, love, wisdom and care in the way we function day to day, moment to moment.

The Tai Situpa said that as human beings we have to keep faith in the ultimate goodness of human nature, and that our primordial essence has always been to do good.

The WBC has attracted speakers from Australia, the USA, Nepal, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and India. 500 participants are attending the two days conference from Nov 3-4, 2012.

Held bi-annually, the conference attracts renowned Dharma teachers from all over the world. It is co-organised by the Young Buddhist Association of Malaysia, The Buddhist Gem Fellowship and The Buddhist Missionary Society of Malaysia. The conference is also supported by eight others Buddhist organizations.


More information on The 12th Tai Situpa
http://www.palpung.org/english/taisitupa/brief_brief.htm

The World Buddhist Conference on the web: www.wbc.my

[Big Uncle]

You know, the Karma Kagyu school has had its fair share of controversies particularly in relations to the Karmapa with 3 conflicting contenders to the Karmapa title. It is amazing that the Dalai Lama even got embroiled in the controversy. The Dalai Lama's choice of the Karmapa receives the upper hand although hardline Karma Kagyus beg to differ. Traditionally, it was the Sharmapa that recognizes the Karmapa and in this case, the Dalai Lama's choice seemed to side Tai Situ Rinpoche's choice.

Whatever it is, parallels can be drawn between the Karmapa controversy and the Dorje Shugden ban because the Dalai Lama is only seen to associate with one of the Karmapas. So the other Karmapa receives no support and may be considered renegade Lama by the Dalai Lama. However, this 'renegade' Lama on his own receives tremendous support for his monasteries and practitioners of his previous lives.

This renegade Lama is just like Dorje Shugden but the similarity stops with the fact that the Dalai Lama outrightly bans Dorje Shugden. Although the Dalai Lama is not the head of the Gelug School, he still exercises his authority to implement this ban. On the other hand, he has not done the same thing to the Kagyu School in relations to the renegade Karmapa. There ends the similarity and where the inconsistency of the Dalai Lama's stance becomes blatantly obvious. 

[vajratruth]

India views the Tai Situpa and the 17th Karmapa Urgyen Trinley with considerable suspicion because of their close connections with China. Short of publicly referring to them as "spies" or "agents" of the Chinese, the government has kept a very close watch on both and have restricted their every movement where possible, within India and outside the country. I am quite surprised that the Tai Situpa has allowed himself to be "denied" entry into Malaysia because he is know to have a Bhutanese diplomatic passport with exempts him from having to seek permission from India to travel. Perhaps, Tai Situpa did not deem the  WBC to be critical enough an event to aggravate his already delicate standing with the Indian government.

Politics aside, I think that the Tai Situpa's actions of having procured the endorsement of both the Chinese Government and the Dalai Lama for the enthronement of his candidate in Urgeyn Trinley as the 17th Karmapa, may very well have provided the platform to bridge the great divide between the Chinese and the CTA who represents the exiled Tibetans. On all other points, both sides have not seen eye to eye and as a result, that has not given rise to even a remote opportunity for the tibetan refugees to return to their homeland.

Although we cannot be sure, it would appear that Urgyen Trinley is the Dalai Lama's choice to succeed him as the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism and that being the case, we will have a new Dalai Lama that the Chinese approve of as well. This is perhaps where meaningful dialogue can take place leading to reconciliation with the opposing groups.

Since the 1980's Tai Situpa had enough foresight to see that Western powers will not be able to negotiate Tibet's freedom with China. Around that time, although China desperately needed Western assistance, it still refused to budge on the Tibetan issue at any costs. The Tai Situpa commenced building relations with China, and to me, it should have been the strategy for the Dalai Lama to have adopted. Why? Well, see how well that has worked.

The Tai Situpa is not alone in his belief that a moderate stance would receive tremendous support from the Chinese. There is quite a large number of high lamas who have successfully dealt successfully with China purely on spiritual grounds and leaving politics aside. The 101st Gaden Tripa have also in recent years visited the Panchen Lama in China without any problems. All these augur well for the growth of Tibetan Buddhism in China is to me is more important that politics. But I acknowledge that I do not carry the bitter burden of having lost my motherland to an aggressive foreign power.

My point is that CTA has taken the wrong approach and stance all these decades and they have produced no tangible result. The Tai Situpa's approach has clearly worked and it is a pity that the CTA did not take the hint from that.