Quote:
Originally Posted by Chock
Erm, that was a joke.
But it was a joke with a point, the point being, if the guy doesn't have the answer, then why is he the Dalai Lama?
:D Chock
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Assuming that this is no joke now :), the Dalai Lama in the first is a spiritual leader. Politics only comes as part of the job. Also, their tradition let's another specialised lama, tjhe socalled Panchen Lama, search fior the incarnation of the Dlaai Lama, when the sucessor has died. Usually it is a young boy getting found somewhere, then being tested by a conference of high authorities, and asked on informations and details that only the old Dalai Lama could have known. I never attended such a meeting of course, but I assume there is room for creative interpretation concenring the boy'S answer. ;) :) But that is my personal opinion, ahnd must not meet the truth. If the boy is verified to be the incarnated old Dalai Lama, he then becomes the new one as well, and is started to receive the according training and education. You can understand now why the chinese are so eager to get this search&find process under their control. It is key to undermining the politial and spiritual leadership of tibetan's culture.
You also see now that it is revolutionary if the Dalai Lama now says to search his follow-up while he himself is still alive, and to have a vote of the people if they think the traditon is still adequate for modenr times. this and his quote "The dalai Lama is an elected institution" support my understanding that reincranation is not that linear thing as which it is sold, and that the Dalai lama knows that very well, and is more realistic on it. It is a traditon of great influence, but still: a tradition. The meaning of reincarnation and boddhisatvas coming back to man after their elnlightenment in order to help mankind, knowing they cannot have true freedom as long as a single entitity still is not as free as they themselves, is often misunderstood. If you wish to wait for your enlightenemnt until the last single-cellular life form on some planet in a godforsaken corner of the universe has evolved ionto a decent lifeform capable to reflect oin itself and cecome poure and clean a being and finds "enlightenment", then you probabaly will wait for thousand and one eternities. That understanding is nonsens. The meaning behind that is different, that is that once you move beyond dualism and polarizing the world, keeping the motor that creates forms and things and pushes them into existence - your imagined "reality" - you then nwill see that there are no differences, and no different kinds of mind/spirit, and by freeing yourself of dualism, you effectively have freed all things and being you perceive in your mind from dualsim, and have included them in "your" enlightenment. So, it is all far less miracle-like, and more both subtle and pragmatic, than even Buddhists often think. the old difference the make between mahayana and hinayana, is misleading. In hinayana they say you get enlithend, become an
arhat, and there you go, free. In Mahayana you become a bodhisattva instead, and compassion leads ypou back into the mortal world to helpt freein it and find enlightenment. But that difference by which both vehicles of Buddhism are differentiated, is somewhat misleading, from my perception. but both different defintions have solid consequences in the real world, for it influences the attitudes by which monks and monasteries in buddhist countries interact with the rest of the population.
In the end, you cannot find what never got lost, and you cannot heal what never got separated, and you cannot kill an ego that never had sustantial, real existence. But by the illusion of it - you learn to ask about it, start to overthrow it (achieving nothing ba that!), and eventually realize that you have been free and enlightened from the very beginning, and never was that any different.
Complicated, eh? :lol: reading this reminds me of why it is so totally useless to put it into words. It just adds additional twistings to your brain's surface, and keep egos on intellectual rampage. Autsch! :lol:
