Heard a great story about how heaven and hell expressed though Buddhism is very different to how religions preach heaven and hell. The story is of a Samurai who was sick of hearing mythical descriptions of heaven and hell and wanted to understand what Buddhist monks believed…The young Samurai warrior came across a monk sitting down and asked him:
“Monk. Is there a heaven and a hell? If you know the answer, tell me. If you don’t, don’t waste my time!”.
The monk looked up at him and said “you’re too stupid to understand!”.
The samurai said “Stupid? I’m a samurai warrior!”. The monk replied “You. A samurai? don’t be silly, you’re just a country bumpkin!”.
“That’s twice you’ve insulted me monk!” he rests his hand on his katana handle and sates “one more insult and I will cut you’re head off with this sword in half a second!”.
“With that, stupid rusty blade, you couldn’t cut a slice of bread with that!”. The samurai draws his sword, incensed by the insult of his imaculate sword, squinting his eyes with rage he prepared to swipe with his blade, the monk made eye contact and said:
“Samurai! That’s hell!”.
The samuai then understood at that moment that the anger he felt was what hell was like. He was so moved that he dropped his sword and his eyes welled up and bowed to the monk saying “thank you monk.”. Then the monk said “and that is heaven.” and the samurai understood that the repect, understanding, and compassion he flet was what heaven was like…
// great thing about the story is how the monk literally risked his neck to give the smaurai a lesson on heaven and hell!! (true story, heard story from Ajahn Brahm search on itunes podcasts - great knowledge!).

Did you know that Sir Winston Churchill had a Buddha statue in his bedroom during World War 2? Did you know he was a painter? He was a pretty good painter,
left is his painting of the buddha statue. It was left to him in the will of his old friend Sir Ian Hamilton…. who it turns out, is my great uncle! (the things you can learn in a lunch break).

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An insightful, recent article on alJazeeramanages to fairly explain the background of why Tibet is so hard for China to let go of. Tibet matters to China for many reasons, most of which do not throw positive light on China itself. Tibet (in my opinion) matters dearly to the world for positive and increasingly desperate reasons. More specifically the Tibetan culture, it’s Buddhist teachings and it’s past.

Tibet was a monastic society, where 1 in 5 people were practicing monks. In our society more than 1 in 5 people have a criminal record! I’m sure you see my point. It would/ is becoming a tragedy that Tibetan values/culture/spiritual teachings/ancient knowledge are being slowely drowned out by the Chinese “integration”.
The BBC web site has put up a slide show with audio documenting his flight into exile from the Chinese.
In the 1997 film by Martin Scorcesse Kundun (Kundun was the Dali Lama’s name), the young Dali Lama leaves Tibet for India (fleeing the Chinese invasion), before he leaves he says “I see a safe passage. I see a safe return” (in below video). I have always hoped (along with almost everyone else) that he will one day return to Tibet. Now with the Dalai Lama getting old, and the Chinese remaining stubborn and paranoid, the likely hood is fading. With it is fading the benefits that the generous wisdom of the Dali Lama spreading to the wider world. Below is the moving ending from the film Kundun depicting his departure from Tibet. Loss of this knowledge and culture would be a loss for the whole world.

The Buddhas neither wash ill deeds away with water, nor remove beings’ sufferings with their hands, nor transfer their realizations to others.
Beings, are released through the teachings of the truth.
The final reality.