Fight the ban !
http://www.petitiononline.com/eyedeede/petition.html
Stop the world's longest ban
To: Believers in human rights the world over
This petition's goal is to stop the world's longest ban.
The petition's object is the Jonang Buddhist school, as well it's famous
author
Taranatha.
It's goal is to lift this school's ban.
It's method is to bring the ban to the notice of main world humanitarian
organisations (International Tribunal in The Hague, Nobel Committee,
Amnesty
International, the U.N. etc.) by a worldwide drive to gather
petition-signatures. The goal will only really have been reached once
Tibetan
Buddhism has officially ended the ban by giving Jonang teachings again,
after
they have been banned for 400 years.
The Jonang sect of Tibetan Buddhism was banned in the 17th century,it's
monasteries razed and the presses of the school destroyed.
It has been banned for 400 years now.
Links about this and to other scholarly works on Tibet, can be found here
:
http://people.freenet.de/gruschke.andreas/Jonang_paper_E.htm
http://tibetpage.topcities.com/Bibliography.htm
The Jonang were banned for being what was called "heretical"; Hinduist.
In today's respect and tolerance for others' beliefs, such a ban is
archaic and
has no reason to be. It is totally anachronistic in this day and age, a
simple
carry-over from the darkest Middle Ages.
But it still exists. The Jonang teachings are not taught by any Tibetan
Buddhists and are forbidden to be so.
Buddhism teaches to carefully examine for oneself whether a thing is true
or
not, without relying blindly on someone else's words. If it is banned,
that is
not possible and one is forced to accept another's banning of the subject
and
no longer able to judge freely for oneself. One is forced by another and
thus
without choice but to rely on the other. A ban is thus the essential
opposite
of Buddhist thought which is to be free of dependancy.
Buddhism being the world's largest body of literature, and Taranatha being
the
recognized foremost Buddhist historian, modern knowledge of Buddhism
relies on
this ban being lifted to progress in it's study of Buddhism. This ban is
therefore a loss for the whole world whose heritage relies on Buddhism for
it's
diversity and richness. That heritage is cursed by this ban just as the
treasures of Egypt are cursed.
Such a ban is archaic and anachronistic in our 21st century where
tolerance and
eucumenism is widespread.
The tradegy of this ban is unbearable, causing suffering to the millions
that
it has affected over the centuries. Tibet's leading role in Buddhism also
makes
the loss of it's foremost historian, Taranatha, greatly detrimental to
Buddhist
studies over the last centuries and thus to the preservation of the world
religious heritage.
Thus now, by garnering the signatures of those who believe in the values
of
human rights and of modern values of freedom of speech, the ban can be
lifted.
This is indispensable because, being a 400 year ban, it is certainly one
of the
world's longest lasting bans that has ever existed; as such this campaign
must
be an example of the modern world's intolerance towards ignorance and
extremism.
The argument that the ban is no longer existant because Taranatha has been
published in English is not a valid as the Jonang are still not taught by
any
Tibetans today. His ban is very much still in place.
It is also important to know that the Jonang who are at the centre of all
this,
are precisely the most tolerant of all the sects. They are real scholars
of
Tibet : they are the great encyclopedists who indeed, studied not only
Buddhism, but all other trends of thought and freely wrote about them.
Thus,
the famous Kalachakra, that synthetises many, even non-Buddhist currents,
was
their main teaching.
There is great misunderstanding about Tibetan culture. It has been thought
to
be totally free of any afterthoughts and to be a pure, pacific philosophy.
This
is wrong. Buddhism is, but not Tibetan culture, which is a completely
distinct
thing from Buddhism : Tibetan culture follows, as for it, the bends and
curves
of the politics of Central Asia. Thus, it's politics were rarely, if ever,
based upon purely Buddhist considerations. Thus, for many starry-eyed
Westerners, to discover that there is a hidden 400 year-old curse (this
ban on
the Jonang) within Tibetan culture, must be a major shock; it is a
beneficial
awakening from their slumber in fact.
On the other hand, this delusion of a Tibet floating about on
mountain-clouds,
which illusion permeated the early years of Buddhist studies, but only
existed
in dream-form, nevertheless brought many people to Asian studies, perhaps
seeking the dream dimension that religion had lost in the West. But as
there
must be a growing-up process in all studies, one progresses from
kindergarten
to university. The present ban-lifting here, will explain a lot about what
Tibet really is. Many people can thus through it bring many corrections to
their misunderstandings about Tibet.
It would be senseless for modern man, in this day and age, to condone the
Jonang ban, on the grounds that it was just a "part of Tibetan culture".
That
would be the same as saying f.ex. that wife-beating was a part of culture.
That
would be giving a place to barbarity. The ban is still in place and
continues
to this day. It thus has to be dealt with whether one wants to or not.
Otherwise one is compromising and the future will not be guaranteed
against
barbarity.
One cannot let signs of human rights abuses seep into society and turn a
blind
eye.
Such immorality in our modern age, which banning is, cannot be accepted.
One can consult the list of endorsements to this petition here :
http://pageperso.aol.fr/geirsmith/mapage/histoiregeographie.html
Those who wish to have their endorsements published should send them to :
geirsmith@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Send in your signatures to the present petition. Also please send the
petition to your friends as well as to those in human rights groups. Send
it
also to
anyone believing both in freedom of speech and that banning anyone
from free speech is a serious mistake, that cannot be tolerated,
especially in the modern democratic age that we live in.
It is indeed a question of upholding the values of our modern society that
ancient traditions from other past periods often trample underfoot because
they
are simply unfamiliar with them.
Whereas many cases of human rights are brought before the
International Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, likewise, this case must
also
be considered in the gravest respect in memory of the innumerable
collective
victims of this ban throughout Tibet's history over this long period. It
is
thus a crime against human rights that has affected more people over 400
years
than any other misdeamour, of
shorter duration, in the world's history.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
View Current Signatures
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The Stop the world's longest ban Petition to Believers in human rights the
world over was created by and written by Geir Smith. This petition is
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