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Issue 5
For Tibet with Love
Emma Hiwaizi meets Isabel Losada, author of For Tibet with Love
When I arrive at Isabel's flat on the Battersea Park Road, she is full of angst about the proposed cover for the United States edition of her book. It is too girly. And one thing Isabel is not is girly - Bright, articulate and passionate - yes. Girly - no! I wonder what North American readers will make of Isabel?
Isabel became a writer almost by accident, although she had kept a journal since the age of twelve. A self-confessed, "horrible stagecoach child who couldn't do maths," she went into the theatre when she left school, then worked as an actress for ten years before she got married and her daughter was born. When her daughter was young, she decided on a change and took a ridiculous degree in communication studies, which she claims taught her one or two things that were useful (more of that later).
Isabel's second book, The Battersea Park Road to Enlightenment was about happiness, and how she took just about every weird and wonderful course to see what she could learn about becoming a happier and better-adjusted person. She tried everything from re-birthing to angel workshops and from tai chi to colonics. The result is a humorous and honest look at personal development. The book was a best seller, but was slated by some critics, one of whom accused her of nothing more than navel gazing. Recognising a certain amount of truth in this, Isabel decided to change her gaze. Having worked on herself for twenty years she decided it was time to accept herself, warts and all, look outwards and ask herself what she could do to change the world.
Inspired, by Freedom in Exile, the autobiography of the Dalai Lama, Isabel chose the Tibetan cause as her challenge. Those personal development courses were not wasted, for Isabel came up with the mantra think globally, act joyfully and set out to examine a serious issue from a joyful perspective. Bridget Jones meets Michael Moore!
And so Isabel's adventures, which took her from the Battersea Park Road to the mountains of Tibet, began...
What was Tibet like?
"Awe-inspiring, majestic, scary, cold, beautiful, moving, depressing, horrifying, warming, full of extraordinary contrasts, and not for the faint hearted! The Tibetan people are heart-warming, and wonderful - they all smile at the tourists. It was very shocking to see one culture dominate another and people who are not able to express their thoughts freely, nor practise their religion. Nomads, many of whom are illiterate, are able to maintain a level of superstitious practice. For example they are allowed to do their prostrations in the temple, but the Chinese clamp down on anyone of any real learning or spiritual significance. Terrible things continue to happen today.
Everybody said, if you go to Tibet, you will probably get altitude sickness and die, and I thought "silly negative people - of course it won't happen to me - I have a positive attitude!" Then I discovered that a positive attitude does not protect you from altitude sickness. It is an interesting experience, like drowning in air, you breathe - but nothing happens.
The only thing is that, as a writer, when you think you are about to die, you know, "this is good material". I was in bed one night and it could have gone either way, I couldn't speak or walk properly, it felt like an all-over migraine. I had all the signs of severe altitude sickness which is often fatal. I was lucky."
Isabel believes that she has a solution to the international war on terror
"What international governments fail to see is that the best hope for the international war on terror lies in China. Does nobody see the connection between Russian and Chinese separatists and which ones we are paying attention to? I think that recognising the Dalai Lama's fifty year long peaceful campaign for independence would give a message to terrorists around the world to come to the negotiating table - because the Dalai Lama's insistence on non-violent negotiation would have been shown to work. But, so far, English diplomats have been too frightened to say anything that might make a Chinese diplomat sigh."
Thanks to Isabel, the Dalai Lama makes the front page
"The best moment was seeing a fifteen metre banner of the Dalai Lama lowered down Nelson's column. And there he was, the Dalai Lama, a symbol of peace and non-violence, dominating Trafalgar Square, just five minutes from Westminster - it was majestic. Then two minutes later we had a man risking his life to bring the press in. But even more than the courage of that man doing a dangerous stunt, was seeing the portrait there and knowing that I had somehow done that. The pictures went all around the world - so that was wonderful, and the actions that people have taken, partly as a result of reading the book, have been awe inspiring. Only yesterday a mother e-mailed me saying that, along with her own children, she would like to sponsor the education of a Tibetan child. It is wonderful."
What can we do?
"Read For Tibet with Love. Unlike other books on Tibet it is both funny and readable. I hope people will read it because it is a good book and that by the end they are also something of an expert on the Tibetan issue.
Visit your MP! There are six hundred and fifty nine of them in the UK. Inspired by Gandhi's philosophy of relationship building and implementing a radical policy, which no-one seems to have thought of, called being nice to your MP. Go and visit and ask them what you can do to support the Dalai Lama and Tibet. More information on this is on www.actfortibet.org."
What advice do you have for others who want to take action for their own cause?
Here Isabel distils three years of study into one simple message (so take note):
"You have to start by thinking about the audience rather than about the message you want to communicate. There is a world of difference between action and effective action and you need to consider what the practical, emotional and political consequences of your action are likely to be. Often annoying people isn't effective.
For example, say you want to save a local school from closing down. Walking outside the school waving banners is one approach, but working out what decisions need to be taken, where and by whom in order for that school to stay open, and then targeting the decision-makers (and speaking politely) is likely to be more effective. Find out what the issues behind the plan to close the school are, and what it would take to reverse that decision.
I recommend going out of the comfort zone in life in every area. Anything that you are scared of doing, do, because life gets exciting when you do that. I was not bored the morning I woke up and knew I was jumping out of a plane that day. Terrified? Yes. Bored? No."
Do you have any advice for parents?
"Get rid of the television set! Or if you can't get rid of it, put it in the cupboard, so it is a real effort to get it out each time you want to watch a programme. Watching television is a passive activity. If you want kids who are clever, conversational, socially adjusted, proactive self-starters then get rid of the telly.
Then, as they get older, just be very positive all the time. Don't be critical. Look at what they are doing not at what you would like them to be doing. Then, try to enjoy the challenge of having a teenager.
When my daughter was a teenager, I was a single parent, and I wanted to be the first single parent ever that didn't row with my teenage daughter, and I wanted to maintain a good relationship with her all the way through. It did not happen. It was as if she had been out and bought a book on how to be the stereotypical teenager and was applying it 100%. It was a difficult time. And everyone promised me that she would emerge like a butterfly into a wonderful human being when she was eighteen. She would suddenly wake up one morning and be lovely again, and I didn't believe them and then it happened! She is absolutely wonderful and she thinks I am wonderful, she is hugely proud of my books, and hugely proud of me."
What has your daughter taught you?
"She has demonstrated to me that the Dalai Lama's path works. If you go on and on and on being nice and loving to someone who is being horrible to you - not in a doormat kind of way, but in a persistent and loving kind of way, they eventually stop being horrible - they have no choice. When she was a stroppy teenager, a cat moved into the house, it adopted us. It was a grumpy, bad-tempered, dysfunctional cat given to biting and scratching for no apparent reason. One day my daughter looked at me being scratched by the cat which I had just been attempting to stroke and she said, "I don't know why you are so nice to that cat, it is horrible to you." And I said, "Darling, that is the only way I know how to do it." She looked at me, and suddenly she saw the connection between her being horrible to me as a teenager, and me being nice back and me being nice to the cat and I think she understood what my cunning plan was. I am not saying I didn't shout or lose my temper, but I was consistently nice and she is now nicer to me than anything. So she has showed me that goodness, compassion and love work - even though when you are a teenager you obviously need to rebel against your mother and assert that you are not the same person she is. You need to go through all that. And much as I did not want to go through that process, because it is not nice to have your teenage child shout "I hate you" and want to reject everything that you have ever stood for, I see that it is a necessary part of the process. And now she jokes that she is turning into me and she doesn't mind."
Finally, what book changed your life?
"Possibly The Sermon on the Mount in The Gospel of St. Matthew has some life changing challenges in it: "love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you". I love it! I was in a school last week talking about unconditional loving, about being nice to people who are not being nice to you, and I think I first came across those bizarre and wonderful ideas in the Gospel of St. Matthew."
The campaign continues:
For more information visit: www.actfortibet.org or www.isabellosada.com or email isabel@isabellosada.com (Isabel responds to all e-mails)
For Tibet with Love is published by Bloomsbury, £7.99
The Battersea Park Road to Enlightenment is also published by Bloomsbury, £6.99
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© Juno Magazine 2007 |
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