The Dalai Lama Piece

Take a look at this link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29841454/?gt1=43001

Is this what our world has really become? A competition of money vs. everything else..??
The Dalai Lama is an advocate of peace and follows the buddhist path. And HE was barred from a peace conference? Are you serious? I don't know whether to shake my head or laugh at the irony..

I don't care much for politics, and do not wish to get involved in any political matters, but you bring in something pure and innocent and turn it into a hypocrite action - I object! Hypocricy has definitely taken precedence as my biggest problem with the world we live in and our society. A man who is well known for his peace related talks and his simple advice is being told not to attend an event because of the country who doesn't accept his views. Dalai Lama had to leave China because his views didn't go with the norm.. now that country still won't leave him alone. A peace conference is being held in South Africa, and just to save the economic tie with China, South Africa has said the Dalai Lama cannot attend.

Why is it money dictates everything? Why can't an individual, an idea, a concept take prevalence? The whole point of a peace conference is "peace".. and yet that has propelled South Africa to stop a peaceful man. Somehow this doesn't make sense to me. Human value, what we stand for, the things we try to talk about and celebrate (like peace) are all depreciated when all of a sudden money or the economy is involved!

I wonder sometimes, is that what everything really comes down to for people? The economy - how much money is circulating, which country is trading with which other, if someone doesn't like someone they will get their "friends" to not like them - I mean come on, did the world never leave high school?! Whatever has happened to the spirit of people.. have they forgotten that we created the economy. Economics and business is a man-made, technically hypothetical, entity. We made it, and now we are being consumed by it.

Somehow I feel that the followers, believers, or simply good-wishers of the Dalai Lama will be in an uproar. But the Dalai Lama will probably accept it quietly as is the way of a truly peaceful buddhist. The path he follows is a difficult one, and in the world we live in - an almost impossible one. If one man can adhere to his path, why have the rest of us forgotten it? Yes we all have different goals, yes it is entirely foolish to never think about finances in this world, but no our lives cannot revolve around money - no matter what our goal, no matter what our path. Money is superficial - it will come and it will go. I think most of us want something more permanent in our lives. Don't we?

I certainly do. Peace is permanent in one's mind. We may feel that there might be outside factors that drag us back from our peace - or things that prevent us from feeling it. Some of us start out to find peace, claim we do, and the minute something goes wrong, fall right back to where we were before "peace" found us.. that is not really peace - that is a manifestation. I read somewhere once that it is very easy to be a peaceful person amongst a group of monks in a secluded forest.. but the true test is being a peaceful person amongst the bustling world all around us. That is the task the Dalai Lama is being put to.. that is the test we are all put through. Obtaining and maintaining a peaceful mind, a pure heart.. in a world run by the "economy." I wonder.. how many will pull through?