Dalai Lama and the Pueblo Revolt

By on February 18, 2010 in Healthy Living, Peace, Relationships, Spirituality, Success

About schoolforwonder

Jesse White is the founder of the School for Wonder, Authentic Voicework Records and Retreats for Cultivating Courage at Casa del Oso in Santa Fe. Her intent to promote harmony and equality has blossomed into CD recordings of original music and poetry, publications, and worldwide encouragement for aligning inner strengths with outward abilities. Her sessions bring disenfranchised aspects of the self back into the light of awareness. She has taught meditation and creative expression since 1993, when she founded the School for Wonder. Jesse has performed as a singer/songwriter, published two books, and organized poetry for peace readings, radio broadcasts, and
View all posts by schoolforwonder →

One Response to Dalai Lama and the Pueblo Revolt

  1. schoolforwonder February 18, 2010 at 8:51 am #

    Last night my new housemate Kaiguang Zhao said he noticed the photograph of the Dalai Lama on my wall. Zhao is from a small village in China with a thousand year history. His family still uses cows and carts for transportation. Zhao is the first person in his village to ever attend college. He just completed his PhD with a long list of honors, including "Who's Who Among Students in American Universities" in the field of ecosystem science and management.

    Our conversation about the Dalai Lama was amazing. What makes Kai different from other 30-year-old Chinese men is his desire to learn not only academically, but his hunger to embrace personal development. Without my own skills in personal development, I would have failed at navigating gracefully through a conversation about what he referred to as "China's number one enemy."

    I began by listening carefully to what Zhao was saying, empathizing with his perspective. Chinese history books told him the Dalai Lama was responsible for the deaths of many people. I watched as he described his understanding of the history of Tibet and China.

    Without my own personal development history intact, I would have felt threatened by Zhao's initial comments. I might have feared living with someone who understood the Chinese perspective. The Dalai Lama is one of my most revered spiritual teachers, who has appeared to me in dreams and helped me in countless ways since I saw him in Santa Fe, New Mexico years ago.

    Recently when considering a new housemate here at the School for Wonder, I turned many people away, until Zhao applied to live with me. I chose him for his sweet nature, but also because I recognized my own slight mistrust of the Chinese people, as a consequence of how the Dalai Lama has been treated. I am already being rewarded by his kindness in my home, and dissolving the fear only a few days after meeting him.

    I listened carefully to his point of view on how "understandable" the Chinese position is toward the Dalai Lama. I realized why he would have the perspective he has, from having read the history books in China. Then I asked his permission to share my own perspective.

    Drawing on my own understanding of how American history books are grossly inaccurate in many instances, I was able to engage his interest and win his trust in the conversation. He opened to me warmly, excited by learning and recognizing how his thinking had been programmed by inaccurate Chinese interpretations of history.

    To open the door of understanding, I used an example of the Pueblo revolt, and how it was grossly misrepresented in American history books, depicting Columbus discovering America. I used a personal example of how I obtained the accurate information about the Pueblo revolt.

    My friend Diane Reyna from Taos Pueblo created a documentary film called "Surviving Columbus." The film was outstanding and won awards for revealing the truth of what actually happened to Native American people. It changed my perspective forever. The tone of the conversation with Zhao after sharing this went from somber and austere to open curiosity and free sharing of personal experience. The results were an immediate bonding in our friendship.

    Zhao then shared his observation that the Dalai Lama is also a great spiritual leader. He softened in his body, began to smile and thank me for helping him see that perhaps he did not know what had actually transpired, and exactly why Tibet wants to be free of Chinese rule. He said that he chose to live in my home, instead of with a Chinese family, so he can stretch his ways of thinking and be challenged to develop personally. He is excited about telling his foreign friends about my personal development mentoring and the School for Wonder. Such a great gift, to feel the momentum of this kind of inner growth for both of us.

    This conversation happened on the eve of President Obama's first meeting with the Dalai Lama. Zhao and I agreed to see the photograph on my wall of the Dalai Lama as a reminder, to smile at each other and love each other more deeply.

    http://www.schoolforwonder.com What Will I Learn? page