Different Views, Different Responses

7 Pages 1673 Words

Different Views, Different Responses
A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.
--Mohandas Gandhi

The Dalai Lama feels sadness caused by the things that are brought onto his people. He sees that his people have been neglected, they were being starved to death. “I was losing control of my own people…they were being driven into barbarism…growing more determined to resort to violence…I opposed the people’s violent instincts” (108). “I could not help my people anymore; I could not control their wish to resort to violence; all my peaceful efforts so far had been failures” (118). After more and more people leave to fight with the guerillas, the Chinese were angry and complained a lot. “I was unhappy too at this turn of events” (130). “I must admit I was very near despair” (133). This was said after he had sent a mission to the guerillas and they never came back, they joined. The majority of the guerillas would not return to their homes. The people of Tibet surrounded the Norbulingka and he knew that the Chinese would fight with artillery and the Tibetans had simple weapons. The Dalai Lama was very upset when he learned that his people threw stones at a minister and an official was stoned to death because they thought he was Chinese. “This outbreak of violence gave me great distress” (143). “I felt as if I were standing between two volcanoes, each likely to erupt at any moment” (143). When his people say that they were not leaving the Palace, he knew if was going to be disastrous. “This development distressed me very much. I felt it was one step more toward disaster” (151). When speaking of his country he said, “I saw it in a daze of sickness and weariness and unhappiness deeper than I can express” (178).
Dalai Lama keeps an optimistic view on everything and tries to maintain hope for his people an...