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Authors: John Burdett
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consent …”
“Whoever does not support his father or mother, who are old and infirm, being himself in a prosperous position …”
“Whoever strikes or abuses by words either father, mother, brother, sister, or mother-in-law …”
“Whoever being asked for good advice teaches what is misleading or speaks in obscure terms …”
“Whoever having committed an offense wishes to conceal it from others and is a hypocrite …”
“Whoever having gone to another’s house and taken advantage of the hospitality there does not reciprocate in like manner …”
“Whoever deceives a priest, monk, or any other spiritual preceptor …”
“Whoever abuses by words and does not serve a priest or monk coming for a meal …”
“Whoever, being enmeshed in ignorance, makes untrue predictions for paltry gain …”
“Whoever exalts himself and despises others, smug in his self-conceit …”
“Whoever is a provoker of quarrels or is avaricious, has malicious desires, is envious, shameless, and has no qualms in committing evil …”
“Whoever insults the Buddha or his disciples, whether renounced ones or laymen …”
“Whoever not being an
arhat
pretends to be one, he is indeed the greatest rogue in the whole world, the lowest outcast of all …”
“Thus have I exposed those who are outcasts …”
“One does not become an outcast by birth, one does not become a Brahmin by birth. It is by deed that one becomes an outcast, it is by deed that one becomes a Brahmin.”
The celebrated sutra had taken us one half turn of the stupa. We had started in the west, I suppose because Tietsin wanted to finish in the east. He was silent for the whole of the second turn of the stupa, then he said, as he spun the wheels with particular vigor, “I guess we have a deal.”
“I guess. How much can you ship?”
“Our movement needs forty million dollars. Whatever will get us that sum, we’ll ship.”
“Your movement? Is it political?”
“Sure. We’re going to invade China.”
“What with?”
He stopped short, as if the question surprised him. “With the inexorable power of Tantra, of course.”
I assumed this was some kind of macabre Tibetan joke; we were talking, after all, about a Communist republic which suppressed religionwherever it could, so I focused on the practical issue. “How can you do what no one else can do and export so much at one time?”
“Contacts and know-how. The stuff is shipped raw from Afghanistan into Waziristan, that is to say tribal Pakistan, where it is processed. From there it is moved to Ladakh, which used to be known as Greater Tibet, all under our supervision. People forget, Buddhists were active in that part of the world for a thousand years before Mohammed. Our contacts predate Islam. From Ladakh we ship it directly into Chinese-occupied Tibet. That’s the key. Tibet is mostly pure emptiness, and anyway our people are the only ones who can tolerate the climate—the Chinese all get very frail at that altitude, especially when stationed outside of Lhasa, where there are no hospitals and no oxygen bottles. We have total free rein. No one can stop us.”
“Does the Dalai Lama know?”
Here Tietsin stopped. It was the first time he had frowned at me. “Of course not. His Holiness is the greatest living Tibetan. Actually, he is the greatest living human being, he is the incarnation of Avalokiteshvara, but his mission is not to save Tibet. He has invaded the world instead. Anyway, he has said he will not reincarnate, or if he does it will not be in Tibet. Do you understand what that means?”
“You and your movement are left to defend it on your own?”
“No, we’ve already lost it. I and my movement are going to take it back on our own. From under the noses of two billion Chinese.”
“How many lifetimes will it take?”
“That is the only unknown in the whole equation. It is also irrelevant.”
My next question, obviously, involved the sensitive issue of morality.
“Whoever does not support his father or mother, who are old and infirm, being himself in a prosperous position …”
“Whoever strikes or abuses by words either father, mother, brother, sister, or mother-in-law …”
“Whoever being asked for good advice teaches what is misleading or speaks in obscure terms …”
“Whoever having committed an offense wishes to conceal it from others and is a hypocrite …”
“Whoever having gone to another’s house and taken advantage of the hospitality there does not reciprocate in like manner …”
“Whoever deceives a priest, monk, or any other spiritual preceptor …”
“Whoever abuses by words and does not serve a priest or monk coming for a meal …”
“Whoever, being enmeshed in ignorance, makes untrue predictions for paltry gain …”
“Whoever exalts himself and despises others, smug in his self-conceit …”
“Whoever is a provoker of quarrels or is avaricious, has malicious desires, is envious, shameless, and has no qualms in committing evil …”
“Whoever insults the Buddha or his disciples, whether renounced ones or laymen …”
“Whoever not being an
arhat
pretends to be one, he is indeed the greatest rogue in the whole world, the lowest outcast of all …”
“Thus have I exposed those who are outcasts …”
“One does not become an outcast by birth, one does not become a Brahmin by birth. It is by deed that one becomes an outcast, it is by deed that one becomes a Brahmin.”
The celebrated sutra had taken us one half turn of the stupa. We had started in the west, I suppose because Tietsin wanted to finish in the east. He was silent for the whole of the second turn of the stupa, then he said, as he spun the wheels with particular vigor, “I guess we have a deal.”
“I guess. How much can you ship?”
“Our movement needs forty million dollars. Whatever will get us that sum, we’ll ship.”
“Your movement? Is it political?”
“Sure. We’re going to invade China.”
“What with?”
He stopped short, as if the question surprised him. “With the inexorable power of Tantra, of course.”
I assumed this was some kind of macabre Tibetan joke; we were talking, after all, about a Communist republic which suppressed religionwherever it could, so I focused on the practical issue. “How can you do what no one else can do and export so much at one time?”
“Contacts and know-how. The stuff is shipped raw from Afghanistan into Waziristan, that is to say tribal Pakistan, where it is processed. From there it is moved to Ladakh, which used to be known as Greater Tibet, all under our supervision. People forget, Buddhists were active in that part of the world for a thousand years before Mohammed. Our contacts predate Islam. From Ladakh we ship it directly into Chinese-occupied Tibet. That’s the key. Tibet is mostly pure emptiness, and anyway our people are the only ones who can tolerate the climate—the Chinese all get very frail at that altitude, especially when stationed outside of Lhasa, where there are no hospitals and no oxygen bottles. We have total free rein. No one can stop us.”
“Does the Dalai Lama know?”
Here Tietsin stopped. It was the first time he had frowned at me. “Of course not. His Holiness is the greatest living Tibetan. Actually, he is the greatest living human being, he is the incarnation of Avalokiteshvara, but his mission is not to save Tibet. He has invaded the world instead. Anyway, he has said he will not reincarnate, or if he does it will not be in Tibet. Do you understand what that means?”
“You and your movement are left to defend it on your own?”
“No, we’ve already lost it. I and my movement are going to take it back on our own. From under the noses of two billion Chinese.”
“How many lifetimes will it take?”
“That is the only unknown in the whole equation. It is also irrelevant.”
My next question, obviously, involved the sensitive issue of morality.
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