The Conflict between China and Tibet: the Ultimate Conflict between Materialism and Spirituality

China, with the largest population in the world, is one of the countries that suffer the most from the negative effects of materialism. People of Tibet, a small group of only 5 million people are the guardians for one of the most precious spiritual traditions of humanity. Their conflict, when stripped away the racial and political layers, is the ultimate conflict between materialism and spirituality. The Tibetan’s suffering symbolizes the suffering of the soul of the entire human race. In order to resolve the conflict between China and Tibet, we have to resolve the conflict between materialism and spirituality inside the human consciousness. I firmly believe that infinite love and compassion is the only solution to this conflict. This article attempts to explain to Western people why it is difficult for mainland China to embrace Tibetan culture and what we can do to help.

My Own Experiences
I was born and raised in China. I left the country in my early twenties and have lived in US for more than a decade. While I was a little girl growing up in China in the 70s, the things I knew about Dalai Lama was that he was a militant who wanted to separate China and he was a devil who abused the slaves he owned. Back then, people had no access to any outside information or different voices. I did not know anything about the atrocity done to the Tibetan people during the China’s invasion in the 50s. I had lived with these notions for 20 some years and never doubted the validity of it. As a result, when I first came to U.S., I felt offended by the supporters of Dalai Lama because I thought these Westerners were helping the Tibetans to separate my country! I know that majority of my Chinese friends from mainland China still think this way, even those who have lived in US for a long time. After all, it is no easy matter to reverse a notion that one believes to be true for most part of one’s life!

Fortunately, I was blessed to find out the truth for myself. First I was drawn to the precious teaching of Tibetan Buddhism. I was most moved by the tremendous efforts His Holiness has been making to bring Compassion to the world. Eventually I could detach myself from the notions I lived with for two decades and saw that anyone can edit pieces of history and make whatever stories to back up their agenda.

China is a land which has given me my flesh and blood. Tibet is a land which gives birth to the spiritual tradition that feeds my soul. Watching these two lands being engulfed in the flame of hatred and violence is like watching a war between my two most loved ones. This pain has motivated me to write this article because I could not be at peace if I did not do something about this.

China and Materialism
Majority of mainland Chinese feel indifferent or even hostile towards Tibetans and their culture. The racial issue is only the superficial problem. I think the root cause lies at that China is undergoing such a tremendous spiritual crisis and its group consciousness is simply in direct opposition with the spirituality that Tibetans embrace.

As a member who grew up with that group consciousness and who still have many families and friends in mainland China, I have first-handed experience on what it means to the 1.3 billion people who live under this huge spiritual void. Materialism rushed into China at the end of the Cultural Revolution. During Culture Revolution, millions Chinese intellectuals were prosecuted, tortured or even murdered. Anything religious and spiritual was stripped away from the Chinese culture. In my opinion, this was a reaction towards the one hundred years of colonization, war and devastation China has suffered since mid-ninetieth century when Western powers invaded China. The pride the Chinese took towards their long, spiritual-oriented culture has been ruthless crushed by the guns and canons brought in by the West. Thousands years of history with numerous spiritual achievements had only made the Chinese defenseless in the face of invading power. The whole nation was in deep humiliation and people took great shame on the spiritual components of their culture. Their rationale is that had their forefather put more energies in advancing science and technologies, they would not have suffered this much. As Communists started Culture Revolution, they conveniently rode on this group mentality and thoroughly purged the spiritualitism from the Chinese consciousness as spirituality poses as great threaten to their authorities.

Materialism came in China right after the trauma of the Culture Revolution and infected the group consciousness in no time. The way materialism was developed in the West has relatively been well balanced by the spiritual undercurrents that were never completely wiped out. Take gardening as an example; with a healthy flower bed in place, it is harder for weeds to spread. But imagine how fast the weeds can spread in a deserted yard… The negative sides of Materialism have really culminated in China and moral corruption has taken over the mainstream group consciousness.

As a result, a lot of those Chinese who own power, money and status, have been completely severed from the base of their souls. They simply do not have the capacity to believe anything that is good and pure. Love and compassion is a total joke. When I traveled back to China, I could literally hear the cries of all the souls that were lost in the selfish and ruthless pursuits of money, fame and ego. Under such circumstances, ordinary Chinese have grown extremely guarded and cynical, especially towards anything in the name of “love and compassion”, since they have been cheated so many times. If one were to tell them the truth about His Holiness’s teaching, they would ask, “Oh yes, we’ve heard about this before. Now, tell me, what does he really wants? What is the hidden agenda?” For those rare individuals who show genuine Love and compassion, more than often they are treated with mock and scorn; and they can count on being taken advantage of by the “smarter” people.

Take a very personal example; my parents are very ordinary Chinese. They are kind and gentle and never would hurt anyone. When they were young, they were passionate about Communism because they believed that communists strive for the common goods of the humanity (another expression of love and compassion!) When half their life was over, they came to the sad realization that they have been fooled all along and the best part of their life was ruined by a corrupted government who only cares about the benefit of a special class. How are they supposed to believe in love and compassion again? When I tried to explain to them about Dalai Lama’s teaching, they simply do not have the capacity to accept it; it is too good to be true! In fact, they grow extremely worried for me because since I am still a Chinese citizen, if the government finds out that I support the Tibetans, I could be arrested next time I go back to China.

Tibetans are not the only group of people being oppressed in mainland China. Roughly about 20% Chinese population are labor workers who struggle at the very bottom of the society. It is very common for them to work for 70 hours a week, with minimal wage which barely sustains their families, without any insurance and benefits. Many of them can only take 1 day of vacation per month and work under extremely hazardous conditions without any insurance. They have no voice and no representatives in the society. You rarely hear about these stories in West’s medial coverage either. For these labor workers, love and compassion are something only happening in fairytales, which they are too busy to read anyway.

There are 1.3 billion Chinese today. I always find it unfathomable to think that one fifth of population on earth is living under fear and suppression, without the freedom for speech and religion. What huge amount of negative energies that is generating to the earth and to us!

I’d like to point out that Materialism is not just China’s problem. We people at the West is every part of that problem because we consciously or unconsciously are feeding the materialism every day. Even if communists’ suppression on Tibetans miraculously disappeared tomorrow, Tibetan culture is still greatly endangered in the face of the global materialism. In fact, the direct conflict between China and Tibet, in some way, has helped to direct the global focus on this issue. Otherwise, Tibetan culture could have been silently butchered and packaged into consumer goods and sold to hordes of tourists just like Buddhism in Thailand.

Hope
What I just described was what happened in mainstream mentality in China, which is just an extreme version of the universal conflicts between materialism and spirituality happening globally. However, I do see glimpse of hopes in China whenever I traveled back. Inside China, slowly a small fraction of people have realized that materialism is leading them nowhere and started looking for spiritual directions, which includes Tibetan Buddhism. I personally know quite a number of Chinese people who do feel the compassion towards the Tibetans living in poverty and go out of their ways to help them. In a very small town in Southwest China that is hidden deep in the Eastern Himalaya, a small school has been built through the collaboration between Chinese volunteers and Tibetan villagers to preserve the local cultures and provide education and a better livelihood to children in poverty. In the backdrop of the stark realities, stories like these can be found all over China. It is a very small number of incidents. But imagine what it is like that you are the only one who decides to do something good and tens and thousands of people you know tell you that you are a fool… What extraordinary courage and strength it takes for those individuals to rise up and act out of their heart! It is through my interaction with these rare individuals that I see tremendous hope!

What can we do?
As the conflict between China and Tibet is escalating right now, it is a difficult time for all of us who feel compassionate towards the suffering of both Tibetan and Chinese. Some of us feel powerless and despair. But I don’t. I have infinite faith that the Truth will prevail and only the Power of Love will succeed. The recent conflict only shows to me that how much the Chinese government fears the power His Holiness carries. It is only after the darkest moment of night that lights will come!

What can we do to help? First and foremost, we have to get away from this mentality of looking for a solution that offers instant gratification (which is a direct product of Materialism). There is simply no quick and easy fix and this will for sure be an endurance test! Also we need to realize that the conflict is not us against them, but us, them against the problem!

But there are solutions, which all boil down to spreading Love and Compassion as fast as we can, to as many people as we can, and as long as we can. There are several points specific to the situation in China. First, we have to start from where we are, right here and right now, in our communities and the West. China is still struggling from the wound of humiliation in the last 100 years. It is desperately hungry for acceptance by the rest of the world. As a result, Chinese always look upon the West for directions in cultural, economical and social movement. If the Western nations establish examples of love and true compassion, China will naturally follow. If at the West we allow our politicians wage wars to invade other countries, how can we expect the Chinese government will listen to our advice and stop violence?

Also we have to help the Chinese realize the tremendous practical value of love and compassion. We can’t, on one hand, demand cheap consumer goods to fill in the shelves of our XXX-marts, on the other hand, ask them show love and compassion at their own costs. We need to use economic leverages to encourage their action of love.

Second is to build bridges between the China and the West and reach out to the people and the poor. In my opinion, it is good to engage the government in dialogue; but I wouldn’t count on that as a resolution. The Chinese government officials are a group of people who are greatly separated from the fundamental aspects of humanity. Their minds are taken over by the hunger of power and the fear of truth. There is little point trying to reason with them. You can try overpowering and intimidating them; but where does that lead us to?

We have to build channels and bridges to empower the Chinese people so that the government can be changed from inside out and bottom up. A central rule in the non-violence approach to conflict is to look for common grounds between the two parties in conflict. We do not agree with Chinese government’s policy, but we all want to improve the lives for the people who are struggling with poverty, even the Chinese government (for the sake of their political future)! We need to build more channels for that to happen. After all, love and compassion is what His Holiness stands for. If we spread love and compassion to the Chinese, we are essentially spreading the lights of His Holiness, right? When spirituality comes back to mainland China, when the faith in goodness and love is restored in people’s heart, Chinese will naturally accept and embrace the beauty of Tibetan culture and people.

Third, I suggest that we think beyond this three-dimensional reality and start adopting new working paradigms that directly involves energies at higher dimensions. The Newtonian mechanical view of world and reality is too inadequate in serving us in today’s age. There are a wealth of scientific research out there to prove this in the fields of physics, psychology, sociology and medicine. We need to enter the quantum ages and embrace the ultimate merging between Science and Spirituality and celebrate the marriage between materialism and spirituality!

If we want to bring peace to the earth that is engulfed in the war between Materialism and Spirituality, we have to learn to use the tools provided by Spirituality. We know very well how to use modern technologies to serve our goals. What about actively developing and engaging “spiritual technologies” in order to transform people and the societies at a much deeper level and in more powerful ways? Let’s starts meditation and prayers. Start a disciplined spiritual practice. Transform ourselves into energy centers that emit lots and lots of lights; so that we can transform our families; so that our families can go on and transform other people in the city, in the States, in the country and eventually the 1.3 billion Chinese. Find the healer inside of us and send healing energies to our surroundings, to those who are suffering, to the Chinese, the government officials (whose souls are burning with selfish desires and desperately need healing), and to the Mother Earth. Don’t be afraid to develop our intuitive skills and use them. Let our heart direct our brain; but not the other way around. In this regards, the Tibetans are the experts and the Tibetan traditions host a wealth of information. Again I can attest from my own experience. Professionally, I am a Scientist with a very strong analytical background. Recent years, I learned a great deal about my own intuition and healing power and I was constantly amazed by the power and potential locked inside our very own consciousness. As a result, my life has been totally transformed. It is also because of this I remain infinitely optimistic about human’s future on earth.

One may say, even if these work, this is several life times’ work and we will never live long enough to see the results. Yes, that is right; we have to see beyond just our generation and we are here to plant the seeds. We may not be able to witness the seeds break out the soil in this lifetime; but we have to let go our attachment for outcome manifested in one lifetime and learn to thoroughly enjoy the work itself and every moment of our lives. The work can not be done in this life time? No problem, I know I want to be born again to continue this work; this is what reincarnation is meant for.


Blessings from The Skylark