WHAT IS PREDESTINATION?

SPIRITUALITY SCIENCE-FREE WILL vs PREDESTINATION

I am sharing the film review of Indian Movie 'Anuradha'(1960) to comment upon the concepts of 'Free Will' and 'Predestination'. In my view, the man has no 'Free Will' to define his "Essence" for his "Existence" is always conditioned by predetermined external circumstances upon which the man has no control even by changing the place of residence or place of work.

Anuradha (1960): Stalwarts Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Leela Naidu, Balraj Sahni and Pt Ravi Shankar Join Hands in Graceful Classic

Bhagyalakshmi Seshachalam  
30 August 2019  

Anuradha (1960) was produced and directed by the prolific Hrishikesh Mukherjee. The film had Balraj Sahni and Leela Naidu in lead roles, along with Nasir Hussain, Asit Sen, Mukri, Hari Shivdasani, Abhi Bhattacharya, David and Ranu Mukherjee. Leela Naidu had won the Miss India title and had been offered this eponymous role by Mukherjee.

The film’s music was composed by Pandit Ravi Shankar, who rarely composed music for Bollywood films. The film was based on a story by Sachin Bhowmick that was published in the Bengali magazine Desh. The film went on to win the National Film Award for Best Feature Film and was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 11th Berlin International Film Festival in 1961.

A noted radio singer and dancer Anuradha Roy (Leela Naidu) falls in love with an idealistic doctor, Dr. Nirmal Chowdhary (Balraj Sahni). Her father is against this relationship as he feels that there is a wide gap between his status as a wealthy man and that of the doctor of humble origins and meager means.

Dr. Nirmal was her brother Ashim’s friend. They had met in a saree store. When Anu sprains her ankle after a performance, Dr. Nirmal treats her. Her father Brijeshwar Prasad Roy (Hari Shivdasani) is biased against Dr. Nirmal but his family doctor assures him that Dr. Nirmal is competent.

So enchanted is Anu with her lover that she is willing to give up everything for him. 

Anu decides to marry Dr. Nirmal against her father’s will. Nirmal’s mother had died without adequate medical help. Since then he has this burning desire to serve the rural poor so that no one meets his mother’s fate. He decides to serve the poor in a distant village called Nandagaon. He cautions Anu about the life of hardship that she would have to endure with him. 

But Anu decides to throw caution to the winds. She marries him and follows him to the village. Her father had plans to get her married to the London-returned Deepak (Abhi Bhattacharya). Deepak is magnanimous when he comes to know of Anu’s love with Dr. Nirmal. He promises to help her in the future in case she needs any help.

After her marriage, Anu is blessed with a daughter. But soon life becomes monotonous and humdrum. Anu gets busy with the household chores and quits singing. Ten years later, Anuradha is a homebody with a life characterized by drudgery. Her husband is forever preoccupied with his patients. He has little time for his wife. He forgets to take her to the village festival she had been excitedly looking forward to.

After many years, her father visits her and requests her to relocate to the city. He is unable to see his daughter in financial distress. But Dr. Nirmal refuses the offer.

Deepak meets with an accident while traveling with his girlfriend. Dr. Nirmal successfully operates on his girlfriend and Deepak lands up in Dr. Nirmal’s home where he is tended by Anu with lots of care and affection. He realizes the hardships the once-rich girl has to endure in a remote village. He suggests that she leave Nirmal and move to the city to lead a life of luxury and comfort. Dr. Nirmal agrees to this proposal. Maybe Anu can start her singing career all over again. So what decision does Anuradha take? Does she leave her husband and go out in pursuit of a singing career that can give her name, fame, and prosperity? Or is she satisfied leading the life of a homemaker?

Lyricist Shailendra wrote the lyrics for timeless classics like “Hai Re Who Din Kyon Na Aaye”, “Bahut Din Huye”, “Kaise Din Beete, Kaise Beeti Ratiyan”, “Sanware Sanware Kahe Mose” and “Jane Kaise Sapno Mein”.

“Haye re wo din' was based on raga Janasammohini - a variant of the more common Kalawati.

 Anuradha is a film about the common man and the problems that he faces in his day-to-day life. Here the spotlight is on the housewife. The story of a young woman who gives up her dreams to be with the love of her life is not a common script in Bollywood. Similar themes resonated in films like Abhinetri (Hema Malini & Shashi Kapoor) and Anubhav (Sanjeev Kumar & Tanuja) but the treatment was completely different.

Characters like the man who falls sick thinking about his wife (Mukri) or the man on a diet who cannot resist sweets (Asit Sen) or Ram Bharose (Rashid Khan), the conductor of the bus, who engages in idle conversation with Dr. Nirmal are lovable and believable. They add sparkle to the plot that otherwise runs the risk of becoming mundane.

Balraj Sahni’s acting skills are legendary and well-documented and therefore do not need any special mention. He is one of the finest actors in Indian cinema. His restrained performance in Anurdaha is exemplary. This is Leela Naidu’s debut but she delivers her role with so much conviction that you start believing in the trials and tribulations of Anuradha. What you see on the screen is not Naidu but Anuradha Roy – melancholic and desolate, pining for her lost love and struggling to deal with the loneliness unsuspectingly bestowed on her.

Ranu Mukherjee (playback singer Hemant Kumar’s daughter) plays Anuradha’s daughter. Mukherjee has shown glimpses of domestic life that lend authenticity to the narrative (like Anuradha tucking in a mosquito net around her child’s bed) or the sound of dogs howling late at night.  

The film raises an important question. Should a woman sacrifice her career for her love? Will giving up on your dreams lead to happiness?

A complex film that manages to portray a marital relationship sensitively, Leela Naidu’s exquisite beauty and effervescent charm add immense value to the plot. Actresses like Nargis or Nutan could have enacted the role but then Anuradha would not have been the classic as it is touted to be today. Considering Nargis had done Lajwanti with Sahni and Nutan had done Sone Ki Chidiya and Seema with Sahni, the novelty value would have been lost. 

Leela Naidu was unique – an intellectual woman who strayed into Bollywood for a brief while – blithe about the name, fame, and money associated with the film industry. Surprisingly, both Naidu and Sahni share great screen chemistry despite the fact that Naidu was just 20 years old and Sahni was much older than her.

Mukherjee had the knack of making extraordinary films about ordinary people and Anuradha is symbolic of his directorial ability and editorial panache. Dialogues are simple and devoid of any cinematic touches.

The ending may appear trite but if a woman really loves a man, she may just leave everything and follow him. The argument about home or career after a woman’s marriage is still considered relevant but there are so many illustrious personalities who have given up their flourishing career to make peace at home. Anuradha could have still continued her singing at home with a little encouragement from Dr. Nirmal who ought not to have taken his wife for granted. A woman’s marriage must not lead to the end of her career aspirations but then how many women are lucky to sail both the boats at the same time?  

(After working in the corporate world for close to two decades, Bhagyalakshmi started her second career innings as a head-hunter. She is passionate about Hindi movies and loves retro music. When her family shifted to Chennai in the ’80s, Bhagya had a taste of Tamil cinema too. In the long term, she plans a book on two of her favorite directors – Guru Dutt and K Balachander. She travels across the country on work and is based in Mysore.) 

Doom Dooma Doomsayer

Thanks for sharing this film review. I was in School in 1960 and had no time to spend watching movies. 

I like the title of the movie for it relates to my belief in Hindu Astrology that names 27 stars or "Nakshatras". The name "Anuradha" refers to 'the disciple of divine spark'. Indian traditions attach personalities to various celestial objects including the Sun and Moon.
I have chosen the name Doom Dooma for I got married while serving in Doom Dooma, Tinsukia District, Assam. The marriage has predicted the "doom" of my medical career, the career that I rejected in July 1986.
I made the decision to leave my doctor's career to keep the marriage that has given me two children named Ashwini, and Anuradha. I believe in the principle of predestination, a principle that does not sanction freewill to the man. People may think that I am making my own choice and have given up my options to pursue my doctor's career. The predestination acts in a mystical manner. It alters the external circumstances forcing the man to choose a predetermined course of action.
Anuradha gave up her singing career to seek marital bliss in the company of a doctor. I gave up my doctor's career to maintain a marital relationship. The choices are similar. But, I reconcile to the choice for I have no ability to change the external circumstances that compel me to change the direction of my life's journey.

BLESSINGS OF PEACE UPON THE TIBETAN NATION

TIBETAN IDENTITY. THE CELEBRATION OF YOGURT BANQUET FESTIVAL

The Living Tibetan Spirits offer their prayers for the Blessings of Peace and Happiness as the Tibetans celebrate the Shoton, Yogurt Banquet Festival in Lhasa from August 30 to September 05.

Yogurt Festival celebrated in Tibet

By Palden Nyima in Lhasa, Tibet. chinadaily.com.cn 

 

People visit a giant thangka exhibition to mark the start of the annual Shoton Yogurt Festival on Friday in Lhasa. [Photo by Palden Nyima/chinadaily.com.cn]

Thousands of Tibetans braved the rain to pay homage to giant thangka -religious images embroidered in silk -to mark the start of the annual Shoton, or Yogurt Festival, on Friday in Lhasa, capital of Tibet.

Continuous rain early in the morning and hot sun afterward did not stop people from finishing the pilgrimage.

A devout Tibetan Buddhist prays in front of the exhibition of giant thangka on the annual Shoton Yogurt Festival on Friday in Lhasa. [Photo by Palden Nyima/chinadaily.com.cn

Accompanied by the sound of long bronze horns and religious chanting reverberating through the valley, Buddhist monks slowly unrolled the thangka on a hill slope aside the region's Drepung Monastery.

The thangka was unrolled at the Drepung and Sera monasteries at 8 am.

According to an anonymous monk at the Drepung monastery, different from last year when the image of Buddha Shakyamuni was displayed, this year the image of the Future Buddha, known as Gyalwa Champa in the Tibetan language, was exhibited.

As it rained from time to time in the morning, monks covered the embroidery with thin plastic sheeting.

Tibetan Buddhists present money and khadaks, a white piece of silk, to Buddha and guests on Friday in Lhasa. [Photo by Palden Nyima/chinadaily.com.cn]

This year's event will feature the traditional "sunning of the Buddha" ceremonies, as well as Tibetan opera performances, picnics in the Norbu Lingka Park, trekking, equestrian events, traditional music and dance, and an ethnic costume show.

"I got up at 3 am and started my pilgrimage trip in the rain from my home. It took me hours to pay the visit to the Buddha," said Dorje Tashi, a 29-year-old resident of the region's Doilungdechen district.

Tibetan Buddhists present money and khadaks, a white piece of silk, to Buddha and guests on Friday in Lhasa. [Photo by Palden Nyima/chinadaily.com.cn]

"This year, it is unusual – I had to pay my visit in the rain, however, I am very pleased that I could make it. I will all living beings peace and happiness," said Dorje, adding that he also wishes the Buddha will bless him to bring good luck to him so that he can pass the entrance exam at Tibet University.

The festival will last for one week from Aug 30 to Sep 5.

Shoton, which literally means "yogurt banquet festival," is one of the most important festivals for Tibetans in Lhasa, and it dates back to the 17th century when it began as a religious ceremony for local residents to offer yogurt to the fifth Dalai Lama and monks in the Drepung Monastery after finishing their meditation retreats in the summer.

Shoton festival starts on the 29th day of the 6th Tibetan month. Tibetans use Lunar calendar. The festival date usually falls in August.

 

 

 

 

 

Achyutam Keshavam 2019 | Bal vihaar vikas | Kids bhajan | Krishna | Mant...

DEFENDING DHARMA, THE RULE OF LAW IN TIBET

WAITING FOR THE REIGN OF DHARMA. JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL IN OCCUPIED TIBET

PALDEN LHAMO: BRIEF INTRODUCTION 


Palden Lhamo, Shri Devi (Sanskrit), is a protecting Dharmapala of the teachings of Gautama Buddha in the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. She is also called Remati. She is the wrathful deity considered to be the principal Protectress of Tibet.

Palden Lhamo is the consort of Mahakala and has been described as "the tutelary deity of Tibet and its government", and as "celebrated all over Tibet and Mongolia, and the potent protector of the Dalai and Panchen Lamas and Lhasa."


She is said to reside in a lake within Tibet, called Lhamo Latso. The lake is charged with spiritual energy and is said to bestow visions of the future. One of the methods to search for a new incarnation of the Dalai Lama, the search party will meditate and propitiate Palden Lhamo by this lake.

I will live to be 110 years: Dalai Lama assures followers

Aug 28, 2019, | IANS

 

Dharamshala, Aug 27: Brushing aside concerns about his health, the Dalai Lama, 84, has assured his followers, especially Tibetans, that he is in the best of health and will live to be 110 years old. 

A video of his address to members of the Minnesota Tibetan Association at the Von Ngari Monastery on August 18 has been widely circulated on social media and was received with joy and relief by his followers around the world.

Concerns about his health were voiced following news that he had been admitted to a private hospital in Delhi due to a chest infection in April.

In his address, while consoling his followers, some of who could be heard weeping occasionally, the Dalai Lama recalled a dream in which the goddess of glory, one of the eight Dharma protectors and the protector deity of Tibet, Palden Lhamo riding on the back of the Dalai Lama proclaims that he will live for 110 years. 

The Dalai Lama also said that the other divinations carried similar foretelling, a statement from the Central Tibetan Administration said.

Holding a letter presented by the representative of Tibetans in Minnesota, the Dalai Lama reassured them again about his health while humorously remarking about the good functioning of his digestive tract. 

He also mentioned about the attention, support and best of medical services that were being provided to him by the Indian government.

Many among the six million Tibetans watched the video with tearful eyes and shared it with friends, parents, families, and colleagues.

"Tibetans have not forgotten me, and I will not forget you," said the Dalai Lama, as he patted one of the followers on the back while recounting a moment when thoughts of the Tibetan people flashed through his mind.

The Dalai Lama has lived in self-imposed exile in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959. 

I will live to be 110 years: Dalai Lama assures followers

 

 

COMPASSION AND HEALTH CARE. WHO IS THE FATHER OF COMPASSION?

SPIRITUALITY SCIENCE. COMPASSION CANNOT BE RECRUITED

 

Spirituality Science. Compassion cannot be recruited. Love, Compassion, and Forgiveness demand the God Connection, the connection to the original source of Love, Compassion, and Forgiveness.

There are two basic problems with the current medical education and health care policy that formulates the delivery of medical services to people. Medical Science has not yet defined the meaning of the term called man. "What is Man?" Without answering that question, we will not be able to answer the question, "What is Health?"

Unlike His Holiness the Dalai Lama, I recognize the man as a created being. I speak about compassion after identifying the source of the behavioral response identified as compassionate care.

The natural healing mechanism called Repair and Inflammation is a divine gift and it guides me to reflect upon Providence or Divine Mercy, Grace, and Compassion that formulates human existence both in good health as well as ill-health.

 

Spirituality Science. Compassion cannot be recruited. Dr. William James, Father of Psychology defines 'True Ideas'.

I cannot validate, I cannot verify, I cannot corroborate, and I cannot assimilate the ideas shared by Gyatso Tenzin, the 14th Dalai Lama, and Dr. Ralph Snyderman, the "Father of Personalized Medicine" on compassion and its role in health care. Their basic assumptions about compassion are fundamentally flawed for the following reasons:

1. Compassion is neither a desire nor an emotion. The acts or behavioral response called compassion does not involve thoughts or thinking process.

 

Spirituality Science. Compassion cannot be recruited. Compassion is neither Acquired nor Learned Behavior.

2. Compassion cannot be recruited and it cannot be imparted or acquired through the learning process or educational experience. 

3. The existence of man as well as that of all living things at all stages of their existence at any given time or place is dependent upon the Divine Providence which is the original source of compassion. The experience called compassion is dependent upon 'God Connection' for the man's Existence always precedes his Essence.

4. The primary role of a Physician is that of promoting good and positive health. The medical interventions are of secondary importance.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

Bhavanajagat.org

https://bhavanajagat.com/2010/05/20/philosophy-of-medicine/

Recruiting The Dalai Lama To Bring Compassion Back Into Medicine

By DANA TERRY & FRANK STASIO • AUG 9, 2019

The State of Things

•  
• Spirituality Science. Compassion cannot be recruited. Compassion is neither acquired nor learned behavior.
• • Ralph Snyderman spoke with the Dalai Lama at the leader's residence in India last year.

    COURTESY OF RALPH SNYDERMAN

    Ralph Snyderman is known as “The Father of Personalized Medicine.” He used to oversee the selection of medical students at Duke University in his role as chancellor for health affairs at Duke University and Dean of the Duke School of Medicine. He focused on admitting students who showed a clear desire for empathy and to serve the needs of others.

    Host Frank Stasio talks with Ralph Snyderman, Dean of the Duke School of Medicine, about the importance of empathy in medicine and the insight he gained from his meeting with the Dalai Lama.

    But he realized compassionate care is difficult to achieve in the current health system in the United States because of a variety of factors. Snyderman now directs the Duke Center for Personalized Health Care. His mission is to create more personalized and compassionate ways of delivering medicine. Earlier this year he published a conversation he had with the 14th Dalai Lama about how to foster that change. The revelations from that conversation became a manuscript entitled "Compassion and Health Care: A Conversation with the Dalai Lama" recently published in the medical journal "Academic Medicine."

    Host Frank Stasio talks to Snyderman about the importance of empathy in medicine, what the Dalai Lama had to say on the subject and what changes he hopes to see in medical care.

    Compassion and Health Care

    A Discussion With the Dalai Lama

    Snyderman, Ralph MD; Gyatso, Tenzin the 14th Dalai Lama

    Academic Medicine: August 2019 - Volume 94 - Issue 8 - p 1068–1070

    doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000002709

     

     

    The calling to be a physician has historically been driven by compassion—that is, the desire to relieve the suffering of others. However, the current health care delivery system in the United States has increasingly limited the ability of physicians to express compassion as they are afforded little time for meaningful interaction with their patients. One of the authors (R.S.) draws on his current focus on developing personalized, proactive, and patient-driven models of care to argue that patient engagement plays a critical role in achieving favorable outcomes. Believing that compassion is key for establishing the physician-patient relationship needed to foster patient engagement, R.S. sought the advice of one of the world’s most recognized thought leaders on this topic, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. This Invited Commentary describes the meeting between the two authors, the Dalai Lama’s thoughts about compassion, and his challenge to bring attention to the importance of compassion in medical education, practice, and research.

    Compassion is an emotion and a commitment to engage with, understand, and mitigate another’s suffering.¹ The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has articulated 15 core competencies expected of entering medical students, the first of which—Service Orientation—is defined as follows: “Demonstrates a desire to help others and sensitivity to others’ needs and feelings; demonstrates a desire to alleviate others’ distress; recognizes and acts on his/her responsibilities in society….”² As a former medical school dean, I (R.S.) can attest that each student entering Duke University School of Medicine not only possesses outstanding academic credentials but also demonstrates compassion to serve the needs of others. “To cure when possible, to care always” is an adage that virtually all physicians learn while training. Yet, as students become physicians, equipped with the knowledge and tools to understand and treat human disease, their desire and ability to deliver care with compassion become increasingly challenged by a bureaucratic delivery system focused on volume, leaving little time for meaningful engagement with patients. Such engagement is essential, especially for effective care of complex chronic diseases where physicians must understand their patients’ capabilities and needs. Equally important, patients must be engaged to embrace difficult behavioral changes best nurtured by their trusted providers.³ In my view, the lack of compassionate engagement between physicians and patients not only limits the satisfaction of both, but it also fosters in the effective treatment of complex chronic diseases. Restoring the historic caring bond between physician and patient in our increasingly technical and fragmented health care system should be amongst the highest priorities for a more effective, fulfilling, and cost-effective practice of medicine.

    I believe health care approaches designed to foster compassion will be more cost-effective, especially for treating chronic diseases, many of which are preventable, and for which patient engagement is a critical component of success.^4,5 As director of the Duke Center for Personalized Health Care, I have witnessed that patients are more motivated and committed when they experience a close relationship with a caring provider. Understanding this, the center is developing cost-effective care models that engage patients with their physicians to identify their health risks, develop shared goals and strategies to meet their goals, coordinate care, and track progress. In addition to the best available therapeutics, this model emphasizes the need for a compassionate setting to help patients realize why their health is so important to them and what they are willing to do to enhance it. Mindfulness meditation and group interactions with other patients help to achieve this awareness. This approach is currently being piloted in different clinical settings including the Veterans Health Administration and federally qualified health center.⁵

     An Audience With the Dalai Lama

    Believing in the intrinsic well of compassion within physicians, the value it plays in their sense of satisfaction, and the effectiveness it can bring to care, I sought to learn more about this emotion and how to facilitate it from perhaps the world’s deepest thinker in this field, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. While the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists is amongst the world’s most respected and revered religious figures, His Holiness is also highly pragmatic and believes that good science can inform and potentially outweigh religious beliefs. He has encouraged the engagement of Buddhist leaders and Western scientists to better understand consciousness and compassion. With this objective, the Mind & Life Institute (https://www.mindandlife.org) was established in the United States in 1987 to foster such dialogues. I first met the Dalai Lama in Washington, D.C., at the 2005 Mind & Life XIII meeting titled “Investigating the Mind: The Science and Clinical Applications of Meditation.” At that time, I had the opportunity to engage in a conversation with His Holiness in front of an audience of over 5,000 people where we discussed evolving concepts of personalized health care.

    To reengage in a discussion of compassion and health care, I reached out to Tenzin Taklha, Secretary to His Holiness, who graciously granted an audience with the Dalai Lama for me and my wife, Renée. On April 30, 2018, we had the honor of spending an hour with His Holiness at his offices in Dharamshala, India. This visit provided a great practical understanding of the power of compassion to enhance one’s happiness and effectiveness and the need for the emotion to be strengthened through education and practice. Importantly, it identified opportunities to improve health care through a greater focus on compassion as a self-reinforcing driver of physician-patient engagement.

    Much of our early conversation centered on the Dalai Lama’s insights regarding the importance of compassion for individuals and the world. He indicated that while his foundational belief about compassion comes from his religious learning, he grew to understand that compassion transcends the realm of religion and is a pragmatic, secular concept. Compassion, His Holiness stated, is a deep inborn emotion and the source of true happiness.⁶ By leading a compassionate life, the Dalai Lama means that one naturally becomes deeply engaged and committed to being involved with and care about other people. Compassion is an inherent trait, but it does not necessarily maintain its focus and intensity in a world with so many factors suppressing it. His Holiness indicated that compassion can be enhanced by attention to it but requires mental discipline to sustain it. In other words, it requires commitment and works to make it a way of life.

    While His Holiness indicated that science has proven that people are born with a tendency toward compassion, he observed that their surroundings and their education influence whether they move toward a compassionate life or one dominated by aggression and hostility. He advocated for the concepts and practice of compassion to be taught early in life but indicated that they can be embraced at any age. He explained that when education was provided by religious entities, the concepts of compassion could be a primary focus. As education became secular, the attention to teaching compassion largely disappeared. The Dalai Lama thought it ironic that so little attention is focused on compassion in our educational systems given its importance for the well-being of the individual, of communities, and indeed of the world. To make his point, he noted that conflict, previously a localized experience, is now a worldwide reality. As such, humankind is quite literally capable of destroying the planet. Thus, in our global existence of more than seven billion people, he indicated, the concepts of compassion are now essential for human survival.

    With a smile, he said that many people consider the Dalai Lama to be a god. He said that if he accepted this notion, he would be one alone, above his believers. If, however, he did not accept this premise but rather connected to all others as a compassionate person, he would be part of seven billion people. “Which would you prefer?” he asked. Upon reflection, I arrived at a profoundly pragmatic insight. An essential component of compassion is the feeling of interconnectedness with others, which naturally leads to engagement—a critical component of effective health care. Rather than a vague concept to strive for in the abstract, compassion is an active driver of feeling interconnected and engaged. In turn, being engaged leads to feelings of interconnectedness, compassion, and satisfaction. Compassion and engagement are interrelated and self-reinforcing. Since compassion is nurtured through awareness, education, and mental discipline, the strengthening of this emotion should be a focus for enhancing the practice of medicine. His Holiness firmly believes that compassion, while an innate emotion, can be enhanced and maintained by focused attention through mindfulness and the awareness of the need to control one’s anger and hostility. This pursuit takes training and commitment as do other skills needed for the practice of medicine. This being the case, the Dalai Lama and I discussed the importance of making compassion a serious focus of medical education to foster the benefit of this emotion for the deep satisfaction of all physicians and the quality of care they deliver.

    Training physicians to be aware of the exponentially increasing amount of information underlying the basis of health and disease grows more challenging each year. Nonetheless, medical education needs to be reexamined from the perspective of what it will take to train physicians to understand and practice compassion, a necessary component to enhance the value, effectiveness, and joy of being a physician. Although the AAMC’s definition of Service Orientation is well aligned with the concept of compassion,² there is little direct attention or standardization in most medical school curricula for teaching, supporting, and measuring compassion. Also troublesome is the lack of attention on compassion as a competency during postgraduate training and in practice. The Dalai Lama and I agreed that teaching and evaluating compassion should be given the same status in medical school curricula as the teaching of other core competencies. Equally important, clinical care must be designed to allow physicians the time to engage compassionately with their patients. I suggested that leaders of medicine, perhaps through the auspices of the AAMC, convene to explore how better to instill compassion into medical education and practice, and His Holiness enthusiastically agreed. Furthermore, the Dalai Lama emphasized that compassion is a product of the human brain. Given his interest in the scientific basis of emotions ranging from compassion to anger and hatred, he believes that understanding the development and maintenance of compassion should be a critical area of research to define its neurological basis and how it can be enhanced as human emotion.

    As we were coming to the close of our meeting, my wife, Renée, said, “I have an important idea.” The Dalai Lama’s gaze immediately moved from me to Renée, who suggested that the Dalai Lama and I should write a thought piece for an influential journal. “This is our obligation, Madame!” was his instantaneous reply. And thus, we have summarized the initial thoughts of our conversation with the hope of beginning a meaningful dialogue about the importance of compassion as a part of medical education, health care, and research.

    Summary

    The practice of medicine has historically been driven by the desire of physicians to reduce the suffering of others—the very definition of compassion. This inborn emotion fosters interconnectedness and, as a result, brings deep satisfaction to both the giver and the recipient. Current health care delivery models limit the development of compassionate engagement between the physician and patient, resulting in a lack of the very relationships needed for physicians, not only to understand their patient’s disease but also to know their patient’s capabilities and willingness to make the behavioral changes needed to improve their health. The lack of meaningful physician-patient relationships has not only reduced the joy of the practice of medicine, but it has also contributed to the epidemic of chronic diseases. To abate this epidemic requires the engagement of the physician and the patient to develop effective treatment plans that will be followed. We must focus not only on developing the best scientifically driven care but also on creating delivery models that facilitate compassion, making them more personalized to the needs and capabilities of the patient and, hence, more cost-effective and humane than our current fragmented approach to care. Given its importance to health care, teaching compassion and how to foster and maintain it should be an integral part of medical education and a core competency expected of physicians. As the concept of compassion is so important for all aspects of society, research to understand the factors governing this emotion should be a high priority. Most critical is the need of the medical community to recognize the importance of compassion as a fundamental tenet of the practice of medicine and to spur initiatives to unleash its power to improve health and well-being.

    Acknowledgments:

    Ralph Snyderman gratefully acknowledges Tenzin Taklha, Carol Weingarten, Susan Bauer-Wu, and Jon Kabat-Zinn for their assistance in facilitating the audience with the Dalai Lama; Renée Snyderman for her advice and guidance; and Cindy Mitchell and Renée Snyderman for their outstanding editorial assistance.

    References

    1. Gyatso T. Compassion and the individual. https://www.dalailama.com/messages/compassion-and-human-values/compassion. Accessed February 27, 2019.

    2. Association of American Medical Colleges. Core competencies for entering medical students. https://www.aamc.org/admissions/admissionslifecycle/409090/competencies.html. Accessed February 27, 2019.
    

    3. Simmons LA, Wolever RQ, Bechard EM, Snyderman R. Patient engagement as a risk factor in personalized health care: A systematic review of the literature on chronic disease. Genome Med. 2014;6:16.

     

    4. Snyderman R, Meade C, Drake C. To adopt precision medicine, redesign clinical care. NEJM Catalyst. February 5, 2017. https://catalyst.nejm.org/adopt-precision-medicine-personalized-health. Accessed February 27, 2019.
    

     5. Drake C, Meade C, Hull SK, Price A, Snyderman R. Integration of personalized health planning and shared medical appointments for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. South Med J. 2018;111:674–682.

     

    6. Gyatso T. The Compassionate Life. 2001.Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications, Inc. 

     

    This article in PubMed

    Acad Med. 2019 Aug;94(8):1068-1070. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000002709.

    Compassion and Health Care: A Discussion With the Dalai Lama.

    Snyderman R¹, Gyatso T  the 14th Dalai Lama.

    Author information

    1

    R. Snyderman is chancellor emeritus, Duke University, and James B. Duke Professor of Medicine and Director, Center for Personalized Health Care, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina. T. Gyatso is the 14th Dalai Lama, Dharamshala, India.

    Abstract

    The calling to be a physician has historically been driven by compassion-that is, the desire to relieve the suffering of others. However, the current health care delivery system in the United States has increasingly limited the ability of physicians to express compassion as they are afforded little time for meaningful interaction with their patients. One of the authors (R.S.) draws on his current focus on developing personalized, proactive, and patient-driven models of care to argue that patient engagement plays a critical role in achieving favorable outcomes. Believing that compassion is key for establishing the physician-patient relationship needed to foster patient engagement, R.S. sought the advice of one of the world's most recognized thought leaders on this topic, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. This Invited Commentary describes the meeting between the two authors, the Dalai Lama's thoughts about compassion, and his challenge to bring attention to the importance of compassion in medical education, practice, and research.

     

     
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  • Spirituality Science. Compassion cannot be recruited. Dr. William Osler, the Father of Modern Medicine emphasized the first duties of the physician in promoting good, and positive Health.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

Ann Arbor, MI 48104-4162 USA

SPECIAL FRONTIER FORCE

CHINA AND PAKISTAN. THE EVIL AXIS POWERS TORMENTING INDIA-TIBET RELATIONS

THE TWO EVIL DOCTRINES TORMENTING INDIA-TIBET RELATIONS FROM THE VERY BEGINNING

India gained full independence in 1947 but is besieged with two evil doctrines tormenting her from the very beginning. On one hand, India faces an insurmountable problem due to the evil doctrine of the 'Divide and Rule' policy of the British Empire to systematically weaken India using Pakistan as a hostile force. On the other hand, India faces a very serious threat to her security by the evil doctrine of 'Expansionism', the State policy of Communist China which replaced the Imperialist China in 1949. Apart from Pakistan's invasion and occupation of Kashmir, India faces the difficult challenge to defend the entire Himalayan Frontier which basically existed for several centuries with no troops guarding the border.

I entirely agree with Indian Prime Minister Nehru's assessment made in 1953. India lacks the military capabilities to intervene in Tibet to counter Communist China's Expansionist Policy.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

Special Frontier Force

Review: Will Tibet Ever Find Her Soul Again? by Claude Arpi

Claude Arpi’s new book is particularly relevant as China rolls out the Belt and Road Initiative

BOOKS Updated: Apr 05, 2019 17:59 IST

Thubten Samphel

Hindustan Times

A view of Lhasa, Tibet, on March 27, 2019.(VCG via Getty Images)

578pp, Rs 1550; Vij Books

 

The brilliance of new China’s leaders in pursuing their hard-nosed strategic objectives in Tibet was to weave a plausible narrative of ‘liberation’ around what was an outright invasion of the country. The other twist in the narrative was to force Lhasa to sign the 17-Point Agreement in 1951 in which Tibet promised to “return voluntarily to the lap of the motherland.” Half the world, largely the socialist camp, bought China’s story on Tibet.

The process of dealing with China’s fait accompli on the Roof of the World was particularly painful in the corridors of power in New Delhi. Should close cultural, commercial bonds and an open, unguarded border between India and Tibet blindside New Delhi to the changed new geopolitical reality in which the balance of power between independent India and new China had shifted in Beijing’s favor?

In dealing with the issue of Tibet, the two Asian giants brought two different mindsets. India had hoped, as articulated by Nehru, de-colonizing Asia and Africa would come together as one big family to work for common prosperity and peace. China on the other hand was there for itself, in whatever form that enduring Chinese imperial impulse was dressed up in the reigning ideology of the day.

The clash of views of men on the ground who figured out China’s true intentions in Tibet and beyond and those who took Beijing’s comforting words at their face value are put together in Will Tibet Ever Find Her Soul Again? The value of Claude Arpi’s contribution to scholarship on the subject is that it is based on the Nehru papers housed in the Nehru Memorial Library and Museum and the National Archives of India. “It is the first time such documents have been used (or even seen),” says Arpi.

At the time these events unfolded in Tibet, New Delhi’s man in Lhasa was Sumul Sinha. In his briefing to New Delhi about Chinese intentions, he wrote: “It seems to me that we are not facing fairly and squarely the realities of the situation here, inclined as we are to gloss over Chinese dislike and distrust for insignificant aliens like us, for no better reason than to keep Delhi in good humour and to keep alive the illusions of our policy-makers who still believe that much maligned Chinese are just as good today as they were in the past.”

Author Claude Arpi ( Courtesy the author )

 

In his briefing note to Major SM Krishnatry, the Indian Trade Agent in Gyantse, Sinha was brutally honest. He accused the People’s Liberation Army of doing a Robert Clive act on Tibet. “I hardly think that Chinese officials in Tibet can help being adventurous nor do I blame them for dreaming of conquest far beyond the confines of Tibet. They are physically placed at the outskirt of an empire and has happened in so much of history, think and behave like modern Clives and Hastings, always anxious to out-do their own achievements.”

The critique to this assessment came from Nehru himself. In 1953, India’s first prime minister wrote that Sinha “looks with certain nostalgia to the past when the British exercised a good deal of control over Tibet and he would like India to take the place of the British of those days. As a matter of fact, the weakness of our position in Tibet has been that we are successors, to some extent, of an imperial power which has pushed its way into Tibet. When that imperial power has ceased to have any strength to function in the old way, it is patent that we cannot do so, even if we so wished.”

In this Great Game played out between independent India and re-united China, Arpi’s ability to piece together all the confidential memos and exchange of notes in high places serve as a fly on the wall. His contribution on the subject will serve as a guide for new players not to repeat the mistakes of the past. With China rolling out the almost globe-girdling Belt and Road Initiative to improve sea and land connectivity to purportedly facilitate international trade but also to assert its political influence on the countries strung along the new Silk Road, the Great Game is being played with new vigour. Arpi’s contribution constitutes a playbook for the participants in the new Great Game, now rebranded and re-sold as the Belt and Road Initiative.

 

 

 

 

TIBET IS NEVER A PART OF CHINA

TIBET IS NEVER A PART OF CHINA

In my analysis, the Tibetan Identity, the Identity of the Land and all of its denizens is predetermined, predestined, and is defined by Nature; by Natural Causes, Natural Forces, Natural Conditions, Natural Mechanisms, and Natural Factors.

Tibet is never a part of China. It may be correct to claim that China is inside Tibet due to the unjust, unfair, and illegal occupation using brute military force which is trying to mask the Natural Reality called Tibet.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

SPECIAL FRONTIER FORCE

A REFLECTION

A trip to Tibet: Whose country is it anyway?

By Peter Fabricius• 16 August 2019

 Tibetan performers dance the Tibetan traditional Guozhuang dance during the opening ceremony of Naqu Horse Racing Festival in Naqu country, Tibet, China, 10 August 2013. The Naqu Horse Racing Festival is held during August 10 to 14 attracting local Tibetan horse riders to compete in traditional equestrianism and display their horse riding skills. It also as a opportunity for Tibetan families to gather enjoying their leisure time. EPA/WU HONG  Less

 

China has been trying for decades to convince the world that it is the true custodian – and liberator – of a magical, spiritual land high in the Himalaya mountains. The government recently took a group of South African opinion-makers to Tibet to show them what it’s been doing there since its army invaded in 1951.

“Seeing is believing,” China’s ambassador to South Africa Lin Songtian said before we left for Tibet. His idea was that the visit would dispel the Western-propagated, anti-Chinese myths about this controversial – what to call it, country? – for many Tibetans. For the Chinese government, it is the “Tibet Autonomous Region” (TAR) of China.

There is much to see and marvel at in Tibet, though believing is inevitably a little more complicated. Certainly, it’s easy to see why Tibetans love their country and why some (who knows how many?) would like it to be just Tibet.

The majestic backdrop of the soaring misty snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas and its foothills, disgorging countless churning rivers and streams to rush through grassy uplands dotted with shaggy yaks to the distant sea, the monumental Potala Palace and the Jokhang Temple with its golden roofs in Lhasa … all these and more give this place its unique character as “The Roof of the World” – in the words of tourist brochures.

The night lit Potala Palace as it towers over the city of Lhasa, one of the highest cities in the world and the capital of Tibet, 18 October 2011. TEPA/BARBARA WALTON

The South African journalists and academics on this trip can attest to the loftiness of Tibet. Lhasa perches at 3,600 metres (twice as high as Johannesburg) in the Himalayan foothills. One day we climbed to 5,200 metres (just shy of the summit of Kilimanjaro, for comparative purposes) to reach the shimmering iridescent blue lake of Namtso. Our hosts considerately provided a large cylinder of oxygen in our bus at all times so we could gulp high-octane air when altitude sickness threatened.

There were also oxygen canisters in our hotel rooms in the aptly named Shangri-La Hotel, which also boasted an “oxygen lounge” where one could breathe oxygenated air.

Like their landscape, the Tibetan people are quite distinct, ethnically and culturally, with their own language; their own, often fervent, a brand of Buddhism; their physical appearance, with coppery-bronze skin color; and their unique clothing and customs.

Does this distinct identity not justify the demand for self-determination – or at least a greater measure of it – by the Dalai Lama and his government-in-exile in India, I asked at the China Tibetology Research Center in Beijing.

Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama (C) attends a Long Life offering prayer, at the main Buddhist temple of Tsuglagkhang, near the town of Dharamsala, India, 17 May 2019.  EPA-EFE/SANJAY BAID

Yao Maochen, the curator of the museum of Tibetan culture at the center, acknowledged that, according to original Marxist doctrine, different ethnic groups do have to the right to seek independence and said the Communist Party of China (CPC) explored this possibility before it came to power in 1949.

“But, for the country and society, stability comes first,” Yao added. “On the one hand, we have to respect the identity of ethnic groups. But, on the other hand, we have to maintain national stability because only with national stability can peace, happiness and development become possible.”

To discuss ethnic independence theoretically was meaningless, he said, without putting it in the context of not only of China’s national stability but also its national law – which makes splitting up the country illegal. Independence for any part of China would also be contrary to the will of the majority of the Chinese as it would violate the Chinese tradition of different ethnic groups working together against foreign aggression and coexisting “like the seeds of a pomegranate”.

According to Sam van Schaik in his “Tibet; A History”, Mao Zedong himself argued in the 1930s that Tibetan, Mongol and Muslim minorities should be allowed independence, but by the 1940s his view had hardened to offering them just autonomy within China. Van Schaik thought Mao came to believe China would be much safer defending its southwestern flank behind the towering Himalayas than it would be doing so on the exposed banks of the Yangzi and other rivers.

These arguments, however, put China’s interests before Tibet’s, one might counter. What about the Tibetans? China does have one big argument for why it was also in the interest of Tibet’s people that China entered Tibet in 1951 and began a process of “peaceful democratic reform”.

It says it did so to emancipate most Tibetan people from serfdom under what it calls the feudal theocracy of the 14thDalai Lama (the same man the world now knows simply as “the Dalai Lama”, though he is the latest in a long line of Dalai Lamas who governed Tibet with lesser or greater success from 1543 – until he fled into exile in 1959).

The Exhibition Hall on the Emancipation of Tibet from Serfdom in Lhasa’s Tibet Museum of Natural Science tells horrific illustrated stories of atrocities allegedly conducted by the feudal masters – the landlords, senior government officials and high lamas (or religious leaders) – against the serfs. These include photographs of manacled and shackled people sweating in the fields, living in animal pens and “suffering savage punishments, including cutting off hands or feet and even peeling off skins”.

The photographs show instruments that were allegedly “used to gouge out eyes of the serfs”’, along with a “scorpion cave to torture serfs”.

The museum avers that 5% of the ruling class owned 95% of the wealth of society.

The exhibition suffers from inattention to chronological detail. For instance, our guide was unable to say when the photographs were taken. Were conditions still so atrocious when China entered in 1951 or had they improved by then?

What is not in dispute is that Tibet was a feudal society under the Dalai Lamas (and before them), with most citizens bonded to landlords and unable to sell their labor on an open market; i.e. virtual slaves.

The Chinese did indeed emancipate the population, seizing the land of theocrats and handing it to workers. Several senior officials we met proudly told us “my father was a serf”.

“The serfs are now masters of their own destiny” was a slogan we heard from many officials.

The government in Beijing has also brought broader development to Tibet, including several new towns, 90,000kms of roads, several new railways – including extending the mainline from Beijing to reach Lhasa – five modern airports, an electric power grid that reaches 2.19 million people or 70% of the population. And so on. The scale of infrastructural development is typically Chinese: monumental.

Ambassador Lin is particularly proud of the fact that the national government has made a special effort to elevate much of the road and railway networks to allow animals such as yak and Tibetan antelope, to move freely beneath them across their ranges.

Tibetan Buddhist monks debate Buddhism in the courtyard of the Sera monastery in Lhasa, one of the highest cities in the world and the capital of Tibet, 18 October 2011.  EPA/BARBARA WALTON

Beijing and the government of the Tibet Autonomous Region have also focussed on education, raising primary school enrolment to 99.64% and decreasing illiteracy from 95% in the early 1950s to less than 0.57% today, according to government statistics.

Nine years of compulsory education are provided in all counties and 15 years of free education in agricultural and pastoral areas and to the disadvantaged.

Officials like to say life expectancy has doubled under Chinese rule, from 35.5 years in 59 to 70.6 today. Medical treatment is cheap for all and free for the needy.

Tibet’s gross domestic product was 147,76 yuan (or RMB) last year, which, in a population of some 3.4 million and with a current exchange rate of about seven yuan to the US dollar, gives a GDP per capita per annum of about $6,154.

Wang Daiyuan, Head & Research Fellow, Institute of Economic Studies of the Academy of Social Science in Lhasa, described this as being “just under” China’s overall GDP per capita.

Most statistics put the latter at about $9,770, so Tibet has some way to go. Wang’s explanation is that Tibet is still catching up after a slow start and, helped by Beijing’s emphasis on developing its outlying areas, its GDP is growing faster than that of any other region and it will match the national average in a two to three years.

His colleague Duoqing, head of the academy’s Institute of Rural Economic Studies, notes that the number of Tibetans still living in poverty has been brought down from 850,000 a few years ago to 150,000.

The government intends to reduce that number to zero by the end of this year, through its targeted poverty alleviation strategy. “Targeted”, as he underscores, means the authorities have to know the reasons for the poverty of each of those 150,000 people.

The strategy includes industrial development (though avoiding damage to the pristine environment); resettlement of farmers in more fertile areas; better education, including scholarships; ecological stewardship – in the form of government-paid jobs to take care of grasslands and rivers; providing for the basic needs of elderly; and skills training.

We saw varied examples of Beijing’s developmental interventions, including a free home in Lhasa for elderly people who have no family to care for them; a yak-meat agro-business where the hydroponic growth of barley feed for the animals is controlled remotely from Beijing, and a barley-beer brewery where the young entrepreneur gets 100,000 yuan a year from the central government to train college graduates to run pubs he is establishing to sell his product.

But if Beijing has brought impressive general development to Tibet, has it also preserved and nurtured the unique Tibetan culture? This includes the Buddhist religion, which arrived there 1,400 years ago and was inextricably intertwined with its politics – until the Peoples’ Republic moved in in 1951?

During the early years, peaking with Mao’s disastrous Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution in the late 1950s and early 1960s, many monasteries, and Buddhist artifacts were destroyed in the orgy of iconoclastic pillaging that ravaged China, Van Schaik notes.

China came to realize that to compete with the Dalai Lama on the world stage, and in Tibet itself, it had to reinvent itself as a custodian of Tibetan culture, including Buddhism.

Now it boasts of spending large amounts of money on preserving and maintaining Tibetan cultural relics – including more than two billion yuan from 2001 to 2015, with another 1,8 billion-plus earmarked for 2016 to 2020.

It says it has allocated funds and gold and silver to maintain and protect some of Tibet’s fabulous temples and monasteries such as Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple, the ornate former Dalai Lama’s summer residence Norbulingka and the equally historic Sakya monastery.

Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama greets a child as he meets with supporters after his arrival at the Bilderberg Parkhotel in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 14 September 2018, EPA-EFE/ROBIN UTRECHT

More than 40 million yuan has gone on a 20-year project to revise and publish the ancient Tibetan Buddhist canons, Kangyur and Tengyur.

Critics complain that China is in reality “Sinofying” Tibet. They point out that, despite notable achievements in education, teaching in the Tibet language does not continue until the end of schooling, so pupils must go to the Chinese mainland to complete their education.

It is also claimed that China is diluting Tibetan ethnicity by bringing in large numbers of settlers from the ethnic Han group, which is dominant in China.

Zhang Yun, director of the Institute of Tibetan History Studies at the China Tibetology Research Center, denies the latter charge, insisting that 3.13 million (or 92%) of the total 3.43 million population of the Tibet Autonomous Region’s remains ethnic Tibetan. Han number only 30,000, with other ethnic minorities making up the rest. He says the ethnic ratio has remained largely unchanged since the 1950s.

Deciding who owns, or ought to own, a particular territory is usually a fraught exercise. China’s assertion is that Tibet has been part of China since the Yuan dynasty conquered Tibet in 1290. But Van Shaik points out that the “Yuan dynasty” is more accurately described as a Mongol invasion of both China and Tibet under Kubilai Khan and that when the Ming dynasty overthrew the Mongols – in China itself – in 1368, the Chinese regarded this as a return to Chinese rule.

It is true that in 1720 the Manchu dynasty entered Tibet with a force comprising Manchus, Chinese, Tibetan and Mongol troops to oust the brutal Junghar Mongol faction. Ironically, their purpose was to restore the seventh Dalai Lama to his throne.

The Manchus maintained a presence in Tibet for decades after that, but ruled, if that is the word, mostly by proxy through Tibetan proconsuls. So, the relationship between Tibet and China has always been hard to define.

How would Tibet have fared if the Chinese had stayed out in 1951 and the Dalai Lama had remained in charge? He was just 16 when the People’s Liberation Army crossed the border, having been enthroned aged five in 1940. Photographs show an understandably bewildered-looking boy on the throne of power.

China now portrays him as a grasping politician, not the spiritual leader portrayed by him and the West. It’s true that Dalai Lamas have always been political as well as religious leaders. The “Great Fifth” Dalai Lama, as he is called, was not above enlisting Mongol warriors to slaughter adherents of rival Buddhist sects and put him in charge in the 17th century.

Van Schaik paints the current Dalai Lama as a moderate figure who, despite his tender years, in 1951 felt that Marxism was closer to his Buddhist humanitarian ideals than was traditional Tibetan society.

He and then-moderate Mao got on well at first, trying to reform Tibet, before a combination of Mao’s sudden about-turn into the excesses of the Great Leap Forward and violent resistance to land reform by some Tibetan monks and other landowners sparked an uprising that forced the Dalai Lama to flee to India.

Now, aged 84, he is reportedly very ill. The Dalai Lama succession is a complex and mystical process, involving a search for the young boy who is believed to have received the reincarnated soul of the previous incumbent.

The names of a few likely candidates are inscribed in ivory, placed in a golden urn and drawn at random to identify the new Dalai Lama. But this choice, many of our official interlocutors insisted, has to be approved by Beijing.

The message seemed to be that Beijing will have the final say in choosing the 15thDalai Lama. How that will go down in Lhasa, is hard to say. DM

Peter Fabricius traveled to Tibet with a group of South African journalists and academics as a guest of the Chinese government