Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Don't Dilly Dalai
I haven't always been a big fan of the Dalai Lama, but I'm getting to be more and more of a fan every day.
I used to have a couple of beefs with the guy. First, there's that $20 he owes me (jk).
I have never much cared for Tibetan Buddhism's very literal approach to reincarnation and it's other superstitious aspects. Buddhism is supposed to be the anti-religion, the religion that avoids superstitious notions, yet throughout Asia and especially in Tibet it has gotten bogged down by all sorts of kooky local customs.
However, I recently read an interview with the Dalai Lama in which he subtly, diplomatically acknowledges this. Apparently, whenever he describes the various signs and portents that surrounded his alleged "rebirth", he always attributes them to other people e.g. "People say this happened" or "It is said that this occurred", rather than stating them as facts. In this way he keeps faith both with Tibetan culture and authentic Buddhist philosophy.
In the past, I've also been uneasy about the whole "Free Tibet" business. Buddhism is supposed to be about non-attachment, so it always struck me as unseemly for monks to get involved in nationalist movements.
But again the Dalai Lama has shown that he knows this. Despite the claims of the Chinese (or even, for that matter, Tibet's Western supporters), the Dalai Lama isn't calling for Tibetan independence, only for more political, religious and civil liberties within China.
I have been especially impressed by the Dalai Lama's response to the pro-Tibetan riots in China. He isn't calling for the world to come to the aid of freedom fighters or anything like that. He's called for an inquiry into the causes of the violence and has opened himself up to investigation as well, to prove that he had no role in provoking the riots. His consistency to the Buddhist faith is above reproach and truly inspiring.
Today's announcement, that the Dalai Lama has threatened to step down unless the rioting stops, is an act that can only be called Gandhi-like.
The impatience of the rioters is obviously understandable. But what neither they nor the Chinese see is that it is precisely at this moment that the Dalai Lama's ethical tactics - his good karma - will have the greatest effect.
So here's to the Dalai Lama, a great man of peace and well-deserving recipient of the Nobel Prize.
posted by Mentok @ 9:38 a.m.,
4 Comments:
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At 6:58 a.m.,
thevitaminkid said...
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According to an article I read -- I think it was in the New Yorker -- about China's installation of an alternate Lama to their own liking, the Dalai Lama did practice various sorts of divination, tea leaf reading, and so on, to advise his actions and reactions to this problem. Maybe he is being diplomatic so as to respect his own kooky beliefs/customs, or however you might refer to them. This is something you usually don't hear about. But I would infer from reading this that the Dalai Lama is fully in harmony with traditional Tibetan Buddhism.
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At 9:35 a.m.,
Mentok said...
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If you think that's weird, I hear there's this other religion that has a ceremony in which believers ritualistically drink the blood and eat the flesh of its founder. Creepy!
Seriously, I don't doubt that the Dalai Lama is a product of his culture, but everything he has said and done publicly has been in keeping with the best tenets of the religion. Plus, by seizing the moral high ground and leaving Chinese propaganda without a leg to stand on, his moves have been strategically sound too.
(Thanks for the visit and comment, VK. I was wondering if you'd stop by sometime.) -
At 1:42 p.m.,
thevitaminkid said...
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Yes, the Christian religion has its rituals, and miracles. Drinking the blood and eating the flesh (symbolically)? I highly recommend it. Um, after one has been convinced of the truth of it, of course. The Jewish (actually Israelite, not just Jews) method of divination was by casting lots, or something the Levitical high priests used called the Urim and Thummim. Don't ask me what they were.
I looked up the New Yorker article to refresh my memory, and it was about the death/reincarnation of the Tenth Panchen Lama. In it the Dalai Lama said he consulted the oracles (what are these?) and learned the child had been born. He "immediately did a divination," using a list of possible candidates. "It pointed to one boy, a boy of six." He did a second divination, "in which slips of paper bearing the names of the candidates were introduced into identical balls of kneaded tsampa--roasted barley meal. The balls were placed in a bowl, and the bowl was rotated as the Dalai Lama prayed, until one of them jumped out. The process was repeated to confirm the result."
The Police sang "we are spirits in the material world." Lots of strange stuff going on.
Haha, I saw your comments on Adzuki's blog, and you know they say curiosity killed the cat. I had to click on your name and peek at the blog. :) -
At 2:53 p.m.,
Mentok said...
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Yes, what you're talking about is the Tibetan "system" of divining reincarnations of particular people, a notion that most other types of Buddhists would find, um, odd, to put it nicely. To be sure, it is the single most unsettling aspect of Tibetan Buddhism.
I suppose the easy comparison would be the differing Christian attitudes towards the Host. As I understand it, Catholics believe the bread and wine are actually, magically transformed into the blood and flesh of Christ, while other denominations regard communion as merely symbolic.
I have never taken communion myself, but Thich Nat Hanh has almost talked me into it. The exiled Vietnamese monk, perhaps the greatest Buddhist sage of our time, sort of recommends Buddhists adopt communion as a ceremony of spiritual mindfulness. I always had the sense that Christ's original notion of communion had much more of an ongoing mindfulness aspect i.e. "Remember me whenever you eat and drink" rather than just at some high-falutin' ceremony.
For his part, Thich Nat Hanh back in the '60s once received communion from his old buddy... Martin Luther King!
