Nobel Peace Laureate and Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has arrived in Australia ahead of a planned 12 day tour, in which he will deliver public talks and teachings in Sydney, Perth, and Brisbane. His Holiness touched down at Sydney airport earlier today, with a crowd of around 300 people gathering – along with a media throng – to welcome the nearly 80 year-old 14th incarnation of the high Tibetan Buddhist monk.
“It’s a very rare teaching, very experiential. [It’s] something extraordinary, so it’s worth coming this far.”
So… Y’know… There that is.
“This inner value is the source of our calm mind. Calm mind, very important for healthy body.”
After landing, the Dalai Lama – and, presumably, also Richard Gere – headed for the Blue Mountains ahead of a planned retreat and public talk. But upon arrival he was met by a group of Shugden Buddhists, who had set up in protest of the spiritual leader’s arrival.
“We’ve been calling for dialogue and he refuses to engage in dialogue with us, he refuses to compromise. So even though he travels the world on this platform, this agenda, of promoting peace and harmony and tolerance and dialogue, he’s not doing it himself.”
“Even within families people, like parents, aunts have to make public declarations they won’t talk to their children, children saying they won’t talk to their parents. He’s divided families and communities, and he’s created this atmosphere of religious hatred and segregation.”
And it wasn’t just the Shugden Buddhists who weren’t too jazzed on the Dalai Lama’s visit. Footage has emerged of one lone man in Sydney Airport displaying precisely the absolute zero of fucks he gives by literally pushing Richard Gere out of the way to get by.
