Dali Lama as global leader

Discussion Open Forum
1

This is Taiwan related somewhere. Since we love the DL here. I just read this in the papers in New York today, and it makes me think, if 65,000 people went to see him at Central Park on Sunday, he is more popular then Jesus, more popular the Beatles, more popular than BritneyJolinMadonnaTEnsionEnergy5566 and the Kinki Kids put together, and maybe, just maybe, this guy is the real thing. For our times.

65,000 people. ANd his humor is special. I myself love the guy. I herebyu nominate the Dali Lama (special spelling allowed) as President of the Universe for all Times. What’s your take on this darma bum?

Eff

I feel better now just reading about him. Blah blah blah. His spirituality is quietly convincing.

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the newspapers said:

over 65,000 Truth seekers, loyal subjects, peace lovers and the merely curious blanketed the East Meadow in Central Park yesterday to receive the Dalai Lama’s persistent message of compassion and nonviolence.Under a brilliant sun, the Tibetan leader and Buddhist holy man spoke with the usual self-deprecation, gentle humor and stingless tone that he reserves for Western audiences. His talk was general, informal and relatively free of deep Buddhist dogma, in keeping with the broad range of listeners.

“I have nothing to offer, no special thing,” he said with a chuckle. “Just some blah, blah, blah.”

Nevertheless, he turned to serious topics, including the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and his campaign to promote nonviolence throughout the world. “More compassion automatically opens our inner self,” he said. “Too much self-centered attitude closes our inner door.” “The very concept of war is out of date,” he said to applause. “Destruction of your neighbor as an enemy is essentially a destruction of yourself.”

2

If you want to find out more about H.H. Dalai Lama I strongly recommend his autobiography; “Freedom in Exile”. Of course it is very sad in parts but also hopeful. It also clears up things for people who think that Buddhist lamas are, or are supposed to be, god-like perfect beings who never make mistakes and never have second thoughts. The important thing is that in some way they embody the dharma teachings.

There are other threads that mention him. You can read on them what other Forumosans have thought - both negative and positive.

3

I like him a lot. He seems to be an honestly good man. I would dearly love to see him get what he wants.

Make no mistake–he is a politician. Often a rather inept one (read Patrick French’s “Tibet, Tibet”), but then, he IS up against an enemy which has so far been completely inflexible and is vastly more powerful. At least he’s kept the Tibetans in the news, and getting almost exclusively good press at that.

If the Palestinians had adopted nonviolence, they might (or might not, who knows?) be closer to their own state, AND their country wouldn’t be such an armpit.

He’s written, or is claimed as having written, a bunch of books. Most of them seem to be transcripts of talks or conversations. My favorite is “The Key to Madhyamika” which he wrote when he was fairly young. (If you don’t know what that word means, you don’t understand the DL.)

He’s also written forwards to a bunch of other books, most of which I seriously doubt he read himself. He did surely read “The Secret Visions of the Fifth Dalai Lama,” though, since his preface essentially warns the reader not to read this highly esoteric material!

He’s done as much as anybody else to promote interreligious harmony, starting with Buddhist / Bon rapproachment in the 1970’s (he accepted Bonpo initiation) and helping Tibetan Muslim exiles settle in Kashmir.

More popular than Jesus? Well, if Jesus announced his intention to appear in Central Park, then we could compare the numbers! Generally speaking, there seem to be about a hundred times as many Christians (and oh yeah, we should also throw in Muslims, because they accept the J-man as a prophet) as Tibeto-Mongolian-Himalayana Buddhists and their hangers-on.

4

Post deleted due to blasphemous remarks regarding His Holiness Dalai Lama.
Coroner, Watch yourself. This is a warning!

5

Religious leaders who double as world leaders scare me.

6

I thought that book hadn’t been published yet.

7

Hello.

8

swans.com/library/art9/mparen01.html

Enlightened?

9

In His Holiness’s autobiography, there are more examples that pre-1950s Tibet, like every other country in the world, was not perfect. He writes that the attempts of the previous Dalai Lama to modernise things were obstructed at the time by others in powerful positions, and that to a large extent nothing came of them after his death.

As those who follow his political views will know, he fully accepts that China has done a lot to modernise Tibet, and his aspiration is not, as some over-enthusiastic western supporters would have it, a ‘free Tibet’, but one where Tibetan cultural and religious freedom is protected.

Regarding the mixing of temporal power with religion, I would rather have someone in power who followed or attempted to follow some moral framework, such as His Holiness, than someone who had no perceptible moral code whatsoever, like so many politicians.

As regards Coroner’s input, even His Holiness has heard many worse things about himself, and there is no need for any moderators’ action as this is freedom of expression.

10

Well, I don’t know if he is enlightened or what, i just like his demeanor in public, and his sense of humor, his giffles, i mean giggles, and he is like a rock star. i like that. we need a rock star like this now. sure he is just a man, not really enlightened, no one is. even jesus was just a man and was not really enlightened. but just as Jesus served as a lightning rod for his times, maybe the D Lama could do the same for us now. But yes of course, he just a human being who shits and pisses. there is no Buddha. there is just us, in our many guises and disguises…

11

And it looks like I am no longer a Presidential Advisor. So much for giving away my guanxi…

It’s okay, give and ye shall receive. dats what my mum tolded me long agoish…

12

[quote=“joesax”]

As regards Coroner’s input, even His Holiness has heard many worse things about himself, and there is no need for any moderators’ action as this is freedom of expression.[/quote]

Coroner was not expressing himself. He was being provocative for no good reason. :x

13

We cannot allow our own beliefs to cloud the myriads being expressed on this forum.

14

o yes WE can!