Dalai Lama provokes China; addresses thousands in Taiwan and 'hopes to visit one day'

The Dalai Lama on June 5 addressed a video event held in Taiwan wherein he delivered his teachings on "Eight Verses for Training the Mind". According to reports, the event was witnessed by thousands of people that were in attendance as well as 300 volunteers that were helping out. The event was scheduled a day before the Dalai Lamas’ 85th birthday, and this address to what China believes to be its sovereign territory comes at a time that China is under global pressure over its expansionism.

Dalai Lama addresses a massive gathering

During the event, the Dalai Lama said: "Since I first visited Taiwan, you have all been close to my heart. I think of many of you as old friends and you remain constantly in my mind. Today, I'll explain Geshe Langri Tangpa's 'Eight Verses for Training the Mind',". During his address, the Dalai Lama also expressed his wish to visit Taiwan once again and then claimed that once the political climate improves he may be able to visit Taiwan.

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During the event, the Dalai Lama stated that emptiness enables a person to understand that they can put an end to afflictive emotions. He also added that everyone has the Buddha-nature and that mental afflictions can be completely overcome.

The Dalai Lama also stated that one must examine their afflictive emotions, and their destructive emotions as well, once they do that they will come to the realization that they have no sound basis. After the event, the organisers of the event, as well as the thousands of people in attendance, thanked the Dalai Lama.

China considers Taiwan to be a part of mainland China, even though the island has been independent since a brutal civil war in 1949. China also annexed Tibet decades earlier, and this had forced the current Dalai Lama to flee Tibet in exile and settle in India since 1959. The Tibetan spiritual leader in an earlier tweet had stated that on June 6, his 85th birthday there would be a movie screening of the renowned physicist David Bohn.

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(With agency input/Image Credit ANI)