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About Dorje Shugden => General Discussion => Topic started by: christine V on October 25, 2014, 05:44:39 PM
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The Dalai Lama Will Not Return to Lead Tibet (He Has Something Better in Mind)
Published 11:11 am Fri, Oct 24, 2014
Source: http://boingboing.net/2014/10/24/the-dalai-lama-will-not-return.html (http://boingboing.net/2014/10/24/the-dalai-lama-will-not-return.html)
Jason Louv reports on a surprising decision and what it means for Tibet's uncertain future
The Dalai Lama set off a firestorm last month by announcing that he will no longer reincarnate in a political role, effectively ending his centuries-old political lineage.
It’s the latest in a series of controversial statements about the future of his role—including a hint that his next incarnation may be born outside of Tibet, and may be a woman. And it’s another indicator of a sea change in how the Tibetan diaspora is adapting and revising its traditions for life outside of occupied Tibet. Though the Dalai Lama’s statement was hastily reported in the media as meaning that he will not reincarnate at all, what he’s saying is much more layered: he’s looking to reincarnate as a spiritual leader only, and transition the Tibetan government-in-exile from needing him as a central authority, and towards a democratically-elected committee.
"We had a Dalai Lama for almost five centuries,” the Dalai Lama told the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag in September. “The 14th Dalai Lama now is very popular. Let us then finish with a popular Dalai Lama… If a weak Dalai Lama comes along, then it will just disgrace the Dalai Lama.”
“Tibetan Buddhism is not dependent on one individual,” he added. “We have a very good organizational structure with highly trained monks and scholars.”
While the Dalai Lama officially devolved his political role in 2011 (the head of the Tibetan government-in-exile is currently Harvard-educated legal scholar Dr. Lobsang Sangay), this statement further underlines his desire to democratize the Tibetan government—which he has been pushing for since the 1960s.
“He has been very happy since 2011, when he resigned from any political role,” Dr. Robert Thurman told me (Thurman is a Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, and is one of the Dalai Lama’s primary interfaces with Western media and academia). “He also changed the constitution and made the final implementation of a change that no lama will be head of state in any future government that Tibetans approve of.”
While that change may further endear the Dalai Lama and Tibetan diaspora to broadly supportive Western governments, China is not pleased—though the People’s Republic considers Tibetan Buddhism another “opium of the people,” it quite likes the idea of central authority—especially if it controls that authority’s next incarnation.
Bodhisattvas of Compassion
As it is in many religions, reincarnation is an article of faith in Tibetan Buddhism—a process that has been studied, mapped and analyzed in detail by meditating lamas as if it were a subject akin to astrophysics, and described in texts like the Bardo Thödol. It’s also considered to work differently for different individuals, depending on their level of Buddhist practice and attainment.
The Dalai Lama is considered to be a Bodhisattva—a practitioner who has reached the highest levels of attainment, but who has delayed their own final realization, swearing instead to continue reincarnating until all sentient beings are freed from delusion and attain to enlightenment. He’s also considered to be the human incarnation of the deity Avalokite?vara, the embodiment of absolute and universal compassion. Both a sequentially incarnating human and the temporal manifestation of a divine being—not minor stuff.
His human journey began in 1391, when Gendun Drup—who would become the first Dalai Lama—was born in a cowshed in central Tibet. After becoming a monk, he studied under Tsongkhapa, the legendary founder of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism (which would become the most prominent and organized branch of Tibet’s many sects and sub-sects, somewhat akin to the Catholic Church in the West). Drup became one of the most celebrated lamas in the country, occupying a critical spiritual role in the growing Gelug sect. At Lhamo La-tso lake, he was granted a vision of the fearsome blue-skinned, red-haired, blood-drinking female guardian spirit Palden Lhamo, who promised to protect his reincarnation lineage. Since that time, Gelug lamas have meditated at Lhamo La-tso for guidance in finding each successive incarnation of the Dalai Lama.
The role of the Dalai Lama was officially codified in his second incarnation, but it wasn’t until several lifetimes later that he came into his own—as Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, the Fifth Dalai Lama, one of the most critical figures in Tibetan history. Not only did the Fifth firmly establish the Dalai Lama office as a political role, he also unified Tibet, ending centuries of civil war by brutally crushing the rebel factions (with Mongolian aid) and uniting the country under himself.
The office of Dalai Lama subsequently became an embattled political role, with several incarnations likely murdered by political rivals or Chinese infiltrators. It was Thubten Gyatso, the 13th Dalai Lama, who declared Tibet politically independent from China in the early 20th century, exiled Chinese citizens from the country, and began to modernize the still-feudal nation.
Which brings us to Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th and current Dalai Lama, enthroned in 1950, in the middle of Communist China’s invasion of Tibet. Only one year later, he would be forced to accept Tibet’s formal re-incorporation into the PRC; in 1959, he would flee for his life to India, where he has ruled the Tibetan government-in-exile since.
While the 5th Dalai Lama faced the political burden of unifying Tibet, the 14th has been forced to preside over its destruction—witnessing the ongoing genocide of the Tibetan people and their cultural traditions within Tibet’s borders, all the while struggling to re-assemble and ensure the survival of those traditions in India and the West.
I saw the Dalai Lama speak in New York in 2007. Though cheerful, he was also flatly realist. He underlined that his singular goal is to ensure the survival of the Tibetan people, and chuckled at the tendency of Westerners to see him as a magically-powered, spiritual Santa Claus. When asked about the future of Tibet, and if it would survive the PRC’s mass murder, religious suppression, strip-mining and strip-malling, his answer was sobering and succinct:
“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know.”
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The Geopolitics of Reincarnation
Reincarnation isn’t just a matter of faith or history. It’s also a flashpoint in Tibetan-Chinese political relations. And only days after the Dalai Lama’s announcement that he was ending his political incarnations, China hit back.
“China follows a policy of freedom of religion and belief, and this naturally includes having to respect and protect the ways of passing on Tibetan Buddhism,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing. “The title of Dalai Lama is conferred by the central government, which has hundreds of years of history. The 14th Dalai Lama has ulterior motives, and is seeking to distort and negate history, which is damaging to the normal order of Tibetan Buddhism.”
Earlier, in 2011, the Chinese foreign ministry issued a public statement that only Beijing can appoint the next Dalai Lama, and that any attempt to do so by Tibetan-recognized reincarnation would violate Chinese law. In 2007, the PRC stated that reincarnations of lamas can only be recognized after an applications process to the State Council.
The Tibetan government-in-exile has rejected this; the Dalai Lama has ruled that “apart from the reincarnation recognized through legitimate methods, no recognition or acceptance should be given to a candidate chosen for political ends by anyone, including those in the People’s Republic of China.” By ending his political incarnations, the Dalai Lama may well be hedging against a future in which China attempts to appoint its own Dalai Lama, claiming they have found his next incarnation and using their puppet to manipulate Tibet.
It’s not like there isn’t precedent for such a move. In May 1995, the Dalai Lama recognized six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the new incarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second most powerful figure in the Gelugpa school after himself. Shortly thereafter, the Chinese government disappeared Nyima, and appointed their own Panchen Lama. Nyima has not been seen since.
“[China] passed a law in 2007 that they control all reincarnations, and it’s likely that they will go ahead and try to appoint their own Dalai Lama,” Dr. Robert Barnett, Director of the Modern Tibet Studies Program at Columbia, explained to me. “There is some indication that they’ve set up committees to handle this, and may be planning to do this, but we can’t be sure. Chinese leaders unquestionably have a vital need for a religious leader working on their behalf as an intermediary in Tibet, but they’ve obviously had problems finding a credible person to do that.”
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Tibet’s Uncertain Future
Leading a diaspora both politically and spiritually while its home country is being destroyed is an unimaginable burden. Add to that the pressures of celebrity and the Western media, and dealing with the projected Orientalist fantasies of a West that has come to see the Dalai Lama as a kind of New Age Pope, without much actual understanding of Tibetan Buddhism, and it’s no wonder that the Dalai Lama—now 79—is urging democratized rule.
While the decision not to return as a political leader is final, the Dalai Lama has publicly stated that he will not make the ultimate decision on whether he will return as a spiritual leader until he is 90 (in 2025). According to Dr. Barnett, reincarnation is not determined by individual lamas, but is urged by religious adherents through petition and prayer, making it highly unlikely that the Dalai Lama will not declare that he will return in a spiritual capacity. Because of this, according to Dr. Barnett, the Dalai Lama’s comments to Welt am Sonntag are “not a categorical statement that there will not be a Dalai Lama in the future.”
The uncertainty about both the future of the Dalai Lama role and the remaining lifespan of the Dalai Lama himself may be contributing to anxiety in Tibet, where a wave of self-immolations has accelerated since 2009 in response to the brutality of the Chinese occupation.
“If people did feel that he was he was expecting to die or definitely not coming back, that would have an effect,” said Barnett. “People inside Tibet are becoming apprehensive of the potential loss of a leader and spokesman. There are signs that this has made people in Tibet tense about the future. Some people think that [the immolations were] related to insecurities as a result of his decision to retire, but we don’t know that for sure. There’s very little doubt that there’s huge support for him in Tibet and that people would be dramatically affected if they felt he was about to die.”
Dr. Thurman feels otherwise:
“[The Dalai Lama] doesn’t consider that his decision has caused turmoil,” he stated. “The immolation activity stems from the time of the Beijing Olympics, when the Tibetans had a plateau-wide nonviolent revolution, and the Chinese made an incredible crackdown, putting armored police and vehicles everywhere. Thousands of people were arrested and tortured, monks were not left to peacefully pursue their activities, and were forced to pledge allegiance to the PRC, just like in the Cultural Revolution. Monks and laypeople had no room to breathe, and probably felt like carrying out some sort of attack against the Chinese, but instead they immolated themselves to maintain non-violence. This was also found by a Chinese human rights commission, who reported that the immolations were caused by the hardline activities of the secret police and not the Dalai Lama; the report was then rejected by the top people in China, and the lawyers have been put away.”
Despite the grim outlook in Tibet, the next generation of Tibetan political leaders remains hopeful about the future of the Tibetan people and resistance movement:
“The fact that the Dalai Lama devolved his leadership shows the incredible trust that he has placed in our people in regards to leading our movement and struggle, especially today, when there is an ongoing crisis with self-immolations,” Tenzin Dolkar, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet told me. “His Holiness is our spiritual leader and will continue to be. We have faith and deep trust in His Holiness and his advisors to make the best decisions in regards to the next phase.”
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So, this lying Dalai needs to understand this negates the "Karmapa" puppet he China and the lesser regent (not in charge, like asking the King's brother and doing a coup in a monarchy).... should not stand.
The Tibetan government-in-exile has rejected this; the Dalai Lama has ruled that “apart from the reincarnation recognized through legitimate methods, no recognition or acceptance should be given to a candidate chosen for political ends by anyone, including those in the People’s Republic of China.”
I wish he's just understand only Buddhas reincarnate, so we won't be seeing this Dalai right away....
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So, this lying Dalai needs to understand this negates the "Karmapa" puppet he China and the lesser regent (not in charge, like asking the King's brother and doing a coup in a monarchy).... should not stand.
The Tibetan government-in-exile has rejected this; the Dalai Lama has ruled that “apart from the reincarnation recognized through legitimate methods, no recognition or acceptance should be given to a candidate chosen for political ends by anyone, including those in the People’s Republic of China.”
Thank you for pointing that out Blueupali. The Dalai Lama's contradictions grow day by day. A religious leader he is already not.
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Is the Dalai Lama purposely creating all these contradictions and controversies so that he will not reincarnate? Chances of a free Tibet is absolutely slim. The CTA is ineffective so far to lure the Chinese government to the negotiation table even with the hint of settling for the rule as in Hong Kong – autonomous region. Looking at Hong Kong, it seems that China can change the game plan anytime it wants.
With the Dalai Lama out of the way, the Tibetans outside of Tibet may be forced to reconsider a life out of Tibet instead of concentrating on getting back to Tibet and ignoring other aspects of their life. Is this his way of making sure that the last remaining Tibetan gene pool will not be controlled by China. Is this the way the Dalai Lama is kicking ass to get them to move forward and not get mired in unobtainable or unrealistic objectives? Seeing as how some of the Dalai Lama’s supporters behave, the Dalai Lama has some serious ass-kicking to do.
But then again, I am nowhere near a Boddhisattva, so this is pure speculation by a lazy, ignorant aspiring Buddhist.
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Would HH Dalai Lama plan to step down after so many contradictions he has been showing?
I was always puzzled by why HHDL is always contradicting on what he has been teaching? Why would he allowing CTA to harm the Dorje Shugden practitioners? Is it for a higher reason?
Maybe he is trying to step down so that once the ban is lifted, HH Trijang Rinpoche will take over him as the spiritual guide?
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It is impossible for China to return back Tibet to the Tibetans. Dalai Lama is China's enemy. How is it possible for China to allow Dalai Lama to lead Tibet? How can Dalai Lama's return to Tibet benefit the Tibetans? It is not the case of whether Dalai Lama will not return to lead Tibet or otherwise; it is more of whether Dalai Lama truly care for the welfare of the Tibetans in exile and the Tibetans in the Tibetan Autonomous Region!
As of today, we see nothing but great disharmony and unhappiness amongst the Tibetans! These disharmonies and unhapiness are due to the ban on Dorje Shugden! Dalai Lama and Central Tibetan Administration had refused to lift the ban as of today. The ban had already taken its toll on the Tibetans especially on the Tibetan Dorje Shugden followers. So many Tibetans Dorje Shugden followers had suffered from discrimination, ostracization, mistreatment, harm, attack, threats on their life, and so on since the implementation of the ban. Similarly the Tibetans who had opposed the practice of Dorje Shugden had created so much negativities such as disparaging Buddha Dorje Shugden, creating wrong views about Dorje Shugden, creating schisms and so on. Is Dalai Lama going to leave a legacy of sufferings by not lifting the ban on Dorje Shugden that all Tibetans wish that they never had? Please lift the ban now!
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Well, in my opinion, this is all just speculation ! When the Dalai Lama reaches 90 years old, conditions may differ broadly from current.
This is also proven by the controversial statements made by the HHDL and CTA over the past few years. First the Ban was imposed on DS practice, claiming that propagation of this practice will shorten HHDL's life. The truth is- it has not. Plus "While the decision not to return as a political leader is final, the Dalai Lama has publicly stated that he will not make the ultimate decision on whether he will return as a spiritual leader until he is 90 (in 2025)." 90 years old is pretty long life. So looks like he will live a long life despite DS practice is GROWING ! And I am not wishing anything otherwise too.
HHDL and the CTA has also made controversial statements re the DS practice. Some statements are grossly against the practice, and some statements say they never issued a Ban. Bizarre !
When complains of discrimination is brought up to the CTA, they claim no such situations, and yet there are photographic evidence to prove that DS practitioners are not allowed medical help, higher education, teachings etc.
So to sum it up, consistently, there has been discrepancies in most of the statements issued. Hence, hard to believe this one on HHDL not taking rebirth !
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Yes, my view is that the Dalai Lama will not return. HH Dalai Lama himself has said before that the institution of the Dalai Lama is man-made. Hence, it can also be done away with.
There are several reasons for my view. One is the Dalai Lama's contradictory and very controversial behavior over the practice of Shugden. He, an emanation, of the Buddha Avalokiteshvara of Great Compassion, was once so devoted to Protector Shugden that he wrote a prayer to Him, entitled "Melody of the Unceasing Vajra". If, to his enlightened mind(as an emanation of Avalokiteshvara),Shugden's energy and power were once as indestructible as an "unceasing vajra", how come all of a sudden, he (the Dalai Lama)changed his mind later and decided that Shugden was a spirit and practicing him would harm his life and the cause of Tibet's freedom?
A second reason is as follows.His imposition of the ban on Shugden practice has led to his being seen as a high profile religious leader, who is full of contradictions. On the one hand he has caused all Shugden practitioners, who practice Shugden out of pure Guru devotion, to be ostracized and to be deprived overnight of all basic rights, and to be hunted dwon and treated like criminals and dissidents. Very recently, he has been demonized , with all the protests of the ISC and social media coverage of protests, as a man, who has used his power as a leader respected by his people as a 'god-king', to cause disharmony, friction and conflict within the Tibetan community, over ostracizing Shugden practitioners and labelling Shugden as a Gyalpo. Then he goes and recognizes Bon as a religion, and accepts Bon worshippers as part of the big spiritual Tibetan community! he is vritually assasinating his own image and character!
Having seen Samdhong Rinpoche, upon stepping down as the Kalon Tripa, declare that all the atrocities he had committed and actions he had taken against Shugden practitioners, as coming from him as a direct result of his "following his Guru, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche's instructions", I am now more and more inclined to believe that, like Samdhong Rinpoche, the Dalai Lama has done what he has done(including imposing the ban on Shugden practice) as a direct result of his "following his Guru, Trijang Rinpoche's instructions".
If that were truly the case, what is there left to be done, but to see how he will play out the rest of his role?
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There was a historical time during which a "dalai Lama" was a needed political figure.
Such time has passed, and such a role has or will become irrelevant
It is, therefore, logical that there will be no 15th Dalai Lama.
We move forward.
I think that how we move forward is more important than the not-to-be 15th Dalai Lama.
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This post is slightly more than one year old. In 2015, there are quite a lot of happening, and from what I see, China is getting stronger, and many countries are now getting onto China's side because of economic reason. One of the most significant event is the UK's Prime Minister meeting with China's president.
Things are not looking good for CTA to have HH Dalai Lama to return and lead Tibet. What is CTA going to do next? Many of the newer generations of Tibetan in Exile has left the refugee settlement in India and gotten used to the democracy practice of western world. How is this going to shape CTA for the future?
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Many of the newer generations of Tibetan in Exile has left the refugee settlement in India and gotten used to the democracy practice of western world.
The Western big-money fake “democracy” is precisely what is behind every single brutal dictatorship in the world, from Saudi Arabia to Qatar to Kuwait to Ukraine to “CTA” and so forth. Therefore lose your hopes about the newer generations of Tibetans gone to the Western world; they will not fare any better than the Harvard-educated current “prime minister” of the puppet “CTA”, and will become just new puppets under the service of their Western puppet-masters -- just like their colleagues the US-educated Saudi bloody “princes”, or the South-American or Eastern European neoliberal dandies, supporting any brutal dictatorship as long at they make money for their sponsors and puppet-masters.
How is this going to shape CTA for the future?
This is going to shape “CTA's” future exactly as what it already is: as a nest of mercenary puppets and traitors eager to sell Tibet to the same Western-Abrahamic big money which has already purchased them.
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In one of Tenzin Palmo's audience with The Dalai Lama:
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His Holiness agrees and expresses his disappointment and his desire for equality, but says it is difficult to make changes happen.
Tenzin Palmo responded: "I know. Buddhas always talk about impermanence and change. But it seems that, like everybody else, they don’t like to change at all."
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Even the lineage of His Holiness The Dalai Lama is impermanent. The sovereignty of Tibet was impermanent. Incarnations of highly attained beings to my knowledge are to benefit, how they return to benefit and by what means changes.
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What hope can they achieve when Tibetans can still discriminate against its own people who practice Dorje Shugden? Discrimination means to separate. As long as discrimination exist unity is impossible. Without unity no greater could be accomplished.
Dalai Lama is no longer the political leader. Why still follow through the discrimination against Dorje Shugden believer?
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There are a few possibilities and one of those is that China appoints a Dalai Lama of their own choice similar to what happened to the Panchen Lama. That being said, for such an important position of an Enlightened incarnation it doesn't mean that Dalai Lama is not a real incarnation and I believe China will follow the tradition when appointing the new Dalai Lama. If all the procedures are done correctly then there is no doubt that the Dalai Lama is genuine.
Also, it would likely that the new Dalai Lama appointed by China will conform to the policies of China and it will create doubts for people outside China. For that we will wait for the results of what the new Dalai Lama's actions. For it is said that the action doesn't always tells us the real motivation but it is the results the counts.
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I think it is a sticky issue. If China is the one deciding then is Dalai Lama being controlled by China?
People outside of China, such US or India, can interpret it as not the real Dalai Lama. Who to believe in when it comes to the new Dalai Lama?
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Reading this what comes to my mind is the controversy of the Karmapa. There are 2 recognised Karmapas, one by the Dalai Lama and the other by the late Sharmapa. Who then is real?
Logically the choice of Sharmapa, who by traditional seeks and finds the incarnate Karmapa, is the real one. And the one chosen by or endorsed by the Dalai Lama is questionable?
Is this same story to be replayed of the Karmapa, Panchen Lama to be for the 15th Dalai Lama.
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I agree with bonfire's stance that the institution of the Dalai Lama that wielded political power could be at its end. It was out of necessity that the Dalai Lama assumed the head of the spiritual and political head of the Tibet.
Had the 5th Dalai Lama been worldly ruler or conqueror, he would have purged all the other Tibetan Sects that had lost the conflict, but he did not go that far being a spiritual leader. The war that erupted during the Great 5th's time was threatening the survival of the Gelug order and that had to be answered. Then Je tsongkhapa's tradition was still confined to a geographical location within tibet and surrounding nations, if Lama tsongkhapa's tradition was snuffed out in Tibet, where else could Je Tsongkhapa's tradition take root until the modern times? Unlike today Je Tsongkhapa's tradition could be found across the globe in this day and age.
Mahasattvas have full control of where they go and I think the Dalai Lama even though he gives up the mantle of being the protector of Tibet, will go where he can go where he can do even much more benefit.
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China would think otherwise. They have made 'plans' that the next Dalai Lama will be coming from China. Tibet is already part of China. The next Dalai Lama could come from the Tibet. It wouldn't surprise me if it such is the case.
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It is always easier to criticize and give opinions when it cost us nothing than just opening our mouths or type on a keyboard. Mother Teresa, Dalai Lama, Martin Luther, Gandhi, any great leaders of the world received numerous criticisms one way or another.
Abraham Lincoln supposedly quoted "You can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but you can't please all of the people all of the time."
What the 14th Dalai Lama has done in handling the invasion of Tibet by the Chinese, in leading the exile of Tibetans, in rebuilding the Tibetans monasteries in India, in bringing Tibetan Buddhism to its popularity in the West and rest of the world, these are incomparable and more than any Tibetan or single monk has done.
The incarnations of high lama have always been about what work they can carry out to benefit sentient beings. If returning to lead Tibet is no longer deem beneficial then it should be no surprise that the incarnation line will stop. One of the most basic teachings of Buddhism is impermanence, as such incarnation lineage is no exception. I believe no matter who and where the Dalai Lama chooses to incarnate in his next life, it will be to benefit countless sentient beings just as all his past lives have done.