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[The Bobster]

[bucheon bum]

[On the other hand]

[The Bobster]

I think I see ...

Regardless of the merits of the particulars, what has always struck me about the person of the Dalai Lama is that he creates a focal point for liberals and others in the West - merely symbolic perhaps, but still vital for all of that - who wish fervently for an alternative to realpolitik and the horrors such pragmatism has brought about. Some among us would like to think there is another way besides endless strife among nations.

Unfortunately, one other thing his example shows is that nonviolent struggle doesn't really work. Turns out that Mao was probably right about revolution comingout of the barrel of a gun. Tibet is gone, and not likely to return.

However, Hichens ... despite yes, being more entertaining, makes some rather stupid blunders of incomplete information. He doesn't provide any clear connection between the Dalai Lama and Stephen Seagall, though he implies it with an anecdote about seating arrangements at some public appearance (when and where is not specified directly). He mentions Asahara's Aum cult and some money donated, yet fails to indicate at what point in that religious movement's arc such donations occurred, and fails also to mention that at one early point in its career that cult was rather well-respected, at least in Japan - he also does not address whether accepting money from corrupt organizations amd officials constitutes evidence of corruption or support for same, though again this is implied. (Is it wrong to accept gold that comes from the Devil in order to do the work of Heaven? A question for scholars and philosophers, but Hichens takes it as some kind of given that a moral taint accrues and he expects us to do so as well.)

The talk of physical acts of violence among different adherents of buddhism also ought to amuse, of course. I once had a rather fanciful notion myself about such things, but on a few occasions while visiting Insadong in Seoul I've seen busloads of police ready to quell disturbances - fighting monks, I was told by my Korean friends ... say, what? I said. Yeah, sure Buddhists fight sometimes, duh. Most of the martial arts that are taught around the world that originate in Asia started as religious practices. Someone didn't know that?

Doesn't it strike one, though, that Hichens' dwelling on the Lama comments about sexuality are a bit beside the point, and in fact mark a descent into tabloid journalism? It does to me, anyway. And it makrks Hichens as not only ignorant about the teachings of Buddhism, but also willing to both play on Puritan sensibilities (the stuff about prostitution) and also appeal to those of us who reject the demonization of sexuality that much of Western Christianity includes ("Touching yourself is wrong!")

Trying to walk both sides of the street like that is a little courageoous - heck you could get hit by a bus.

Buddhism as I've learned of it does not see sexuality as inherently evil or as a chaotic force that can disrupt society if not channeled and controlled by the marraige contract, the way Christianity does - in fact, many branches of of it (tantra, e.g.) teach that it can rpovide one among many routes to self-knowledge and enlightenment. It ought not to be surprising that buddhism doesn't see prostitution as a sin - I don't think the concept of sin exists for them - and so it's also not surprising to find that he's not so unreservedly opposed to it as Christian churches are - for buddhists, it's not recommended for those who have chosen a path of spiritual ascendency but it's not condemned for those who have decided not to pursue such a path in this lifetime.

Again, though, a very quiet subtext Hichens wants people to take away from his comments is that the Dalai Lama might possibly even support sexual slavery and trafficking ... no, he doesn't SAY that, but it's the next (il)logical leap, innit?

Say, didn't this guy have a lot of catty things to say about Mother Theresa as well ... ?

[igotthisguitar]

>. Uhhhhhhh ... sorry bout that last link

For some strange reason the wrong one got posted.

This here should do the trick

Gunga-galoonga ...

http://www.ifilm.com/viralvideo?ifilmid=2400500

[igotthisguitar]

The Dalai Lama on the BBC

Dalai Lama b1935

9 July 1984 BBC TV
The Dalai Lama talks to Colin Morris about being the fourteenth Dalai Lama and how he was discovered 2 min 48
- how he describes himself 1 min 37

24 April 1988 BBC TV
The Dalai Lama talks to Bernard Levin about the Chinese occupation of Tibet 2 min 25
- whether there are any circumstances in which violence is acceptable 4 min 22

28 August 1982 Radio 4
The Dalai Lama talks to Jocelyn Ryder Smith about there being no creator in Buddhist belief 1 min 16
- the importance of compassion 1 min 28
- the different levels of consciousness 1 min 40

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/lamad1.shtml

[igotthisguitar]

Audio: What Buddhism is All About
By Tenzin Choegyal Nyari Rinpoche,
Brother of H.H. the Dalai Lama

In addition to being the youngest brother of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Choegyal was himself recognized at a young age as a "tulku," or reincarnated lama, and was given the title Nyari Rinpoche.

He visited DFF in September 1998.

In his own no-nonsense way, Nyari Rinpoche explains clearly what he sees as the point of Buddhism: overcoming "afflictive emotions." Without looking at them, analyzing them and dealing with them, he says, we are almost "drunk" -- carried away by our emotions. " He also talks about what Buddhism is not: "praying to a statue," sitting without thought, or following someone blindly.

http://dharmafriendship.org/audio/index.html

[joe_doufu]

The Dali Llama was a slave-owner, chosen by a very non democratic process. Under his "leadership" Tibetans were starving, illiterate, defenseless, and had a life expectancy of about 30. China is not a perfect country but they've cured smallpox and polio, educated the people, and given them houses to live in and food to eat. I can't believe anybody would take the side of the Dali Llama, a man who's never worked a day in his life, and support his claim to get his slaves back.

[Gwangjuboy]

[igotthisguitar]

[igotthisguitar]

For the Dalai Lama, a Meeting of Brain and Mind

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 9, 2005; Page C01

The Dalai Lama, believed by millions to be the 74th manifestation of Avalokiteshvara, the enlightened Buddha of compassion, made his way across the stage of DAR Constitution Hall yesterday more as the peasant he was born than the international icon he has become.

He walked slowly and half-bowed, smiling broadly and with a playful glint in his eye. And why not: The audience of several thousand -- scientists, meditators, spiritual seekers and monks in scarlet robes -- had gathered for a tutorial that has been going on for him since he was a young boy. Tibetan religious teachers began the process, but for almost 20 years the Dalai Lama has actively sought to expand his knowledge of several disciplines of science by attracting top researchers from around the world to his Indian mountain home to discuss their latest work.



Yesterday's gathering was the second time his sessions with scientists have gone public -- a kind of living-room gathering for thousands to watch and listen. The 70-year-old Dalai Lama, aka His Holiness, perched at the lectern, spoke briefly about his boyhood love of technology and science in faraway and then-closed Lhasa, and hinted at the high-minded and sometimes complex scientific and philosophical discussions to come.

"After these sessions, sometimes I cannot really remember what has been said," he said, a humility that his writings tend to dispute. "But I think it leaves an imprint in my brain."

How much of an imprint has become a surprisingly controversial issue on the Dalai Lama's 10-day visit to Washington. The Dalai Lama already is a major religious, political and literary figure, but his emerging role as a scientific leader has for the first time encountered some significant pushback.

Not at the Constitution Hall gathering, sponsored by the Mind and Life Institute, a group that he helped found. (The official topic for the three days of discussion will be meditation, and how cutting-edge science is beginning to understand more about its highly active nature and how it can enhance and heal the human mind and body.)

But trouble looms this weekend at the Washington Convention Center, where the Dalai Lama is scheduled to give an hour-long keynote address Saturday to the annual convention of the Society for Neuroscience.

A petition drive, begun primarily by Chinese American researchers, seeks to have the Dalai Lama's appearance canceled. The protesters, who argue that a religious leader should not be given such a prominent role at an important scientific conference, say they have gathered at least 600 signatures. There have also been competing letters and an editorial in the journal Nature.

"The presentation of a religious symbol with a controversial political agenda may cause unnecessary controversies, unwanted press, and significant divisions among SFN members from multiple geographic locations, and with conflicting religious beliefs and political leanings," reads the petition, which was signed by several hundred non-Chinese researchers and academics as well.

"Inviting the Dalai Lama to lecture on 'Neuroscience of Meditation' is of poor scientific taste, because it will highlight a subject with largely unsubstantiated claims and compromised scientific rigor and objectivity at a prestigious meeting attended by more than 20,000 neuroscientists."

That anti-Dalai Lama effort quickly gave birth to a counter-petition in favor of his address, as well as speculation about the motives of the original group of petition writers. Relations between China and once-independent Tibet have been badly strained for half a century, and the Dalai Lama is at the center of the dispute.

"Chinese protests against high-profile visits of the Dalai Lama are routine wherever he travels," said John Ackerly, president of the International Campaign for Tibet and one of the sponsors of the Dalai Lama's Washington visit. Ackerly said that the speech is part of a series called "Dialogues Between Neuroscience and Society" and that architect Frank Gehry is scheduled to be next year's speaker.

"The Dalai Lama has had a long interest in science and has maintained an ongoing dialogue with leading neuroscientists for more than 15 years," said Carol Barnes, the society's president. "Which is the reason he was invited to speak."

Speaking to reporters before the Mind and Life conference sessions began yesterday, the Dalai Lama said he understood the controversy: "When people heard that I would be speaking, that meant that the Dalai Lama -- from a 500-year institution that symbolizes Tibetan Buddhism -- would be meeting with scientists," he said. "Yes, it's a little bit strange. But on the other hand, when scientists come into our Tibetan monastic institutions, that also looks a little strange."

During yesterday's sessions, the Dalai Lama sat cross-legged in a chair onstage as he listened with other presenters. Each presenter wore a headset microphone. (The Dalai Lama blew his nose constantly, sometimes into his own mike.)

The Dalai Lama can't simply attend a convention. He requires no Hello-My-Name-Is badge. He is religious leader, student, attendee, celebrity, exile.

Adam Engle, the president of the Mind and Life Institute, announced that today's afternoon session would start late, as the Dalai Lama has back-to-back meetings with President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. This pleased audience members, who cheered -- it's always a good thing for the Tibetan cause when the Dalai Lama gets into the White House.

His recent book, "The Universe in an Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality," tries to make the case that modern science and Buddhist thought have surprisingly similar aims, methods and sometimes conclusions -- though he resists efforts to see the world in purely material terms. (Some of his thoughts about limits to the theory of evolution when it comes to how life and consciousness began earned him a rather harsh book review in the New York Times, including a suggestion that he was proposing a Buddhist version of intelligent design.)

During yesterday's session, some of those parallels between Buddhist thought and cutting-edge science were on display.

Wolf Singer, director of the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, explained how his research has found that neuronal coordination within the brain is key to human understanding and performance -- a conclusion that Buddhist thought intuited long ago.

Richard Davidson, a research psychologist at the University of Wisconsin whose pioneering (and peer-reviewed) work on meditation was also criticized by the petition writers, described research into how "plastic" the brain actually is and how meditation has been found to change the nature and intensity of brain waves. Stanford's Robert Sapolsky explained research into the harmful physical and mental effects of stress, and how lab rats given constructive outlets to relieve their stress suffered fewer problems.

By day's end, it was more clear why the Dalai Lama finds his scientific explorations to be so compelling. What the scientists were discussing -- and with the help of the Mind and Life Institute are increasingly researching -- is the most current biological, chemical and psychological findings about how certain kinds of human suffering can be understood and alleviated. Precisely what might appeal to the man known as the present-day Buddha of compassion.

While politics and religion are always important to the Dalai Lama, aides say, his involvement with science is especially significant to him. Given the frequent hostility between religious and scientific thought in the United States, many find the Dalai Lama's explorations into such subjects as quantum physics, or the neuroscience of consciousness, or evolution and the physical nature of emotions to be remarkable.

And he has been known to back that up: He often says -- and affirmed again in front of yesterday's audience -- that when science proves that Buddhist scriptures are incorrect, then the scriptures should be rejected.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/08/AR2005110801949.html

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[Leslie Cheswyck]

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