The Dali Lama

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I've been seeing a lot of ads for him lately - makes me wonder - does anybody think he's kind of flakey? I don't hate him, and it's not even that he's religious and I'm atheist, I can still listen to some preachers and get inspiration. It's more that he spent his childhood as royalty, then split his country when the hard times hit (not that I blame him, I probably would have too). But since then he's done nothing but live the life of a celebrity, fawned all over and told how holy he is. I know people who quote him like he's God.

I'd like to see someone who has lived a difficult life and had to pay rent and deal with humiliation and deprivation or at least some of that. Someone who has dealt with the reality of life as most of us live it to take advice from, why would anyone take advice from someone who has never had to deal with any of that? It's easy to say be kind and loving when you've lived his life.

I'd like to see a coal mining preacher, or yes an Aspie preacher or something like that.

Of course, if you really believe he is what he claims to be, then none of this matters.

I think that there's a legitimate, if limited, role for a cosseted priestly class. They can be a sort of 'best case scenario,' of what humans can be like if they don't have worries or families to take care of. In the Dalai Lama's case, though, he started out as a cosseted priesting and then fled for his life across the Himalayas and set up an exile community, while retaining his equanimity and compassion. I don't think that he's some sort of super-human, or that he's really some sort of reincarnation... he's more like a really good example of what a good upbringing can do for a person.

I'm not a Tibetan Buddhist, so I don't believe he's anything special. I listen to a Buddhist monk if I find what they teach useful or interesting. I don't really find him, or Tibetan Buddhism in general, very pertinent. Some of it is useful because it's basically stuff that comes from people who cultivate compassion, which a lot of people (not enough, perhaps) do.

He's kind of like the the Pope in that people think of him as somehow representing a figurehead in Buddhism, when in truth he represents a figurehead for one particular school of Buddhism, in the same way the Pope only really represents Catholicism. He might be a very compassionate person, but most Buddhists in the world don't regard him as their teacher. I think it's a case of secular people wanting to find powerful figureheads to represent religion for them, which is why he is such a celebrity. Religions are multi-faceted things and living figureheads provide simplification.

I think people would be better off getting a 'general' idea about Buddhism that includes what most Buddhists agree on, from reading about Siddhartha Gautama - just as Jesus is a good place to get your basic ideas about Christianity from...but both of those guys are dead.

I liked the fact that he went to Steve Irwin's funeral.He gave a short speech on how badly we treat animals in commercial farms.He has mentioned that if there is another Dalai Lama after him it could possibly be a woman.I went to see him at the university in Fayetteville,Ar,the security was unbelievable.
If you have a picture of him in Tibet you can go to jail over it.Ridiculous.

I'm not a tibetan buddhist, so he doesn't have a sacred meaning to me. But I'll try to do him justice, because I think he is a good buddhist monk.

1- If he stayed in Tibet he would be killed, eventualy. So I, nor anyone else, can blame him. There were even people, who were tibetan buddhists and had great faith in him, who begged for him to leave and be safe.

2- Regarding his privileged (in a sense) life, he himself says that it is not good for him, personaly, because it is a source of pride and ego, which he tries to work on. He often says that what he really wanted from life is to go to a cave and spend his life meditating; he doesn't do it because he thinks that he has the duty to fullfil the role he has. Anyway, would you consider yourself privileged if you didn't have sex, didn't listen to music, didn't watch entertainment, didn't use money, didn't take any drugs _ and a ton of other monk rules? That is a question that is worth reflecting upon. Plus, because of this, it doesn't seem like a life of a celebrity at all.

3- Although he claims to be the reincarnation of the previous Dalai Lama, he doesn't claim to be a manifestation of the Buddha of compassion. So, as far as I know, he doesn't claim any sort of divine status.

4- Although the Dalai Lama was not the direct subject to the horror of the chinese opression, he meets with people like this every day. Now, what's interesting is that there are monks who were tortured in chinese prisons _ for such things as having a picture of the Dalai Lama _ and live by the tibetan buddhist teachings. What's interesting about that? The fact that they are a case study of people who should have severe post traumatic-stress disorder, but don't have it. Meditation had that effect on them. They can actualy testify that the buddhist teachings, which, in particular, the Dalai Lama teaches, are effective.

Anyway, if you find these teachings interesting, but would like a person with a less privileged life to talk about them, you can hear the teachings of the thai forest tradition monks. These are monks who practice what they preach diligently. They spend a lot of time dwelling in the forest meditating (remember that in the forest they encounter all kinds of dangerous/poisonous animals). I always find interesting a religion/philosophy which is both preached and practiced, as long as it's good natured.

I agree with him on certain things and disagree with him on other things. The fact that he is the Dali Lama does not influence me.
For example I find many of his philosophical (Buddhism is not a religion. One can be an atheist Buddhist or a theist Buddhist. Buddhism is not pro or con God. Similarly, one can be an atheist car mechanic or a theist car mechanic ) points valid ( his views are more sophisticated than the common sense,"be compassionate "). For example, that reality is ephemeral. However, I disagreed when he said that if you were rich and greedy you were reborn poor. That would mean that his Tibetan followers must have all been very greedy in their last incarnation. I also have a hard time reconciling the central point of Buddhism (no self) with reincarnation.

The Buddha clearly stated, several times, that there was no supreme god. However, it's true that the doctrine and meditation path are, for the most part, independent of the existence or absence of a god.

Buddhism is a religion, in the sense that it proposes a part of reality that is not falsifiable (at least at the moment), such as rebirth, different realms and psychic powers. However, again, these are not absolutely necessary to walk the path. There is only provisional faith in buddhism. There is nothing that the Buddha taught that cannot be verified individualy.

I don't even know if the Buddha himself said that. What the Buddha said is that stealing leads to poverty in the next life. He encouraged his lay followers to aquire wealth, as long as it was aquired ethicaly. One can be greedy and ethical at the same time.

The no self point is very subtle. It is not that there is no self. What is being said is that our mental construction of "I" does not correspond to reality, so this construction doesn't exist. Our mind works with concepts, which are abstractions of the concrete real world. The problem is that we attribute to our concepts three characteristics that their real counterparts don't have: permanence, individual essence and, additionaly, one of the labels: good, bad, indifferent. This is what ignorance in buddhism is. Once you completely realise that the real "I", represented by a concept of "I", has none of these characteristics, that is, it is impermanent, not essencialy unique and not inherently good, bad or indifferent, you attain nirvana. So what doesn't exist in the real world is our concept of "I".

What happens with rebirth is that this ever transforming process, which we call "I", changes drasticaly in this transition. It is a consequence of the affirmation of no self that there is no soul. But that doesn't mean that it is necessary to rebirth.

This is my interpretation, anyway.

I think one of the most telling things about him is his call for the religious to work with science. In many of his written works, he points out that many traditional buddhist writings are obviously mistaken, as proven by science, and that no ancient religious texts should be strictly interpreted as literal without intense scrutiny. He has also several times expressed moments of doubt as to whether he is the reincarnation of the previous Dalai Lama.

If you are really rich and greedy you come back as a hungry ghost.Who knows.Won't be pleasant for people like Donald Trump if it is true.
The Universe in a Single Atom is a good read.

The Dali Lama is probably full of sh*t, as are the free Tibet people.

Tibet had a horrible system of feudalism, where the monastic class ruled over 90% of the population.

Punishments for crimes included torture and mutilation such as eye gouging.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom_i ... ontroversy

The Dalai Lama in the public seems to have a lot of positive messages. However, I've heard strange accusations of the Dalai Lama in the past being linked to Tibetan Slavery before the Chinese took over and pushed him out.

I wondered if more knowledgable people on this subject could comment on this.

Tibet before the PRC took over hardly seems like the Shangri-la that the Free Tibet people would like you to believe.

Maybe it was not perfect,most places have had a history of bad things,but China has committed and still is committing lots of atrocities.Such as telling the children in school that there parents will be jailed if they speak their native tongue.This reminds me of what the US did in the schools with Native children,and the English with the Irish speaking Gaelic.
Now the Chinese do the eye gouging and worse.

This is all based on reports from the Chinese government, which makes them suspect at best. I have trouble with their assertion of human rights violations.