Dalai Lama Dispenses Spiritual Advice At Radio City Music Hall, Part II

Read Part I here.

With his twinkly eyes, humorous nature, and non-violent approach to reclaiming his homeland of Tibet from China, the Dalai Lama cuts a charismatic figure in his red and saffron robes. A worldwide symbol for tolerance, compassion, and peace (except in China, that is), the 14th designated political and spiritual leader of Tibet has spent a lifetime cultivating his message, and even now, after nearly fifty years in exile, the 72 year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner remains as big an international draw -- and source of diplomatic tension -- as ever. In New York City alone, crowds of 200,000 and 250,000 people flocked to his 1999 and 2003 public talks in Central Park, respectively, and Radio City Music Hall has been at full capacity this past weekend for his lessons on "emptiness" and the path to enlightenment through the Diamond Cutter Sutra and Seventy Verses on Emptiness. In fact, it is a testament to the superstar status of the "jolly little man," as one event participant described him to her neighbor -- rightly or wrongly, I personally couldn't help but be reminded of the kids' show "My Big Comfy Couch" as I watched the grinning Dalai Lama sit cross-legged on his oversized chair -- that so many people attended the three-day affair (tickets for individual lectures were not available for sale from Ticketmaster; attendees had to either buy admission to all the lessons or none at all).

What the Dalai Lama is not, however, is the equivalent of the Pope in Catholicism, as I frequently heard murmured at Radio City's three-day event. Even though the man originally born Tenzin Gyatso may be the religion's most popular public face in American culture (Keanu Reeves, we hardly knew ye), the Dalai Lama, in actuality, only leads one of Tibetan Buddhism's four sects, the Gelugpa school, and is not necessarily recognized as a national, in addition to spiritual, leader in other Buddhist traditions. His Buddhist message of tolerance and compassion for all, however, is universal. Noting that the human capacity for compassion is rooted in our biology and that even as babies, a "willing cooperation" exists between mother and child, it is our duty in life to turn biased into unbiased compassion, and cultivate our compassion to an advanced mental level of wanting to free the world of suffering. While religious Buddhist concepts of karma and rebirth may not mesh with everyone's worldview, Buddhist ways of living can be adapted to anyone wanting to find inner peace. Take their vegetarianism, for example. Buddhists do not eat meat, or hurt any other life forms, be they men, mice, or mosquitoes, because they believe compassion truly should be extended to all. While the two-second act of squashing a bug may seem minor to many, in their perspective, even for those two second, the squasher's heart is still temporarily filled with hate, which can accumulate and is counter to the idea of compassion. In my opinion, the beauty of Buddhism is that one need not fully convert to implement lifestyles changes. Directives such as freeing your heart from hatred and your mind from worries, while giving more and expecting less, seem practically like common sense.

Even world leaders are coming around and granting more official audiences with the Dalai Lama, despite implied (and not-so-implied) reprisals from China, who still consider him a separatist threat. The Asian powerhouse has canceled three meetings with Germany since Chancellor Angela Merkel's meeting with the exiled Tibetan last month, and they have also already expressed displeasure with both President Bush's private meeting with the Dalai Lama on Tuesday and his receiving a Congressional Gold Medal - the nation's highest civilian honor - on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. While the reception may not seem like much, the event will mark the first time a sitting U.S. president and the Dali Lama appear together in public. Not bad for a man who still calls himself a "simply monk."

 

Comments

[ShelHoroPrincipledProfit]

07:42 AM on 10/17/2007

It is a myth that all Buddhists are vegetarian­. We hosted a Tibetan for over a year through the refugee resettleme­nt project--s­ister of the Dalai Lama's personal translator­, in fact. She and most of her friends ate meat.

I've been a vegetarian for 34 years, and this was a surprise to me because I had the same misconcept­ion.

Shel Horowitz
http://www­.business-­ethics-ple­dge.org

[bushlies]

01:35 PM on 10/15/2007

Personally­, I hope that karma and rebirth are in fact the way things work for all of us. If such concepts are real, then George W. Bush (and his entire family) and Richard Cheney and his family (Leave out Mary. She's been through enough tolerating a nation of homophobes as it is.)should be reincarnat­ed as cockroache­s who will never be squashed by anyone, but condemned to hide in dark, dank places for their entire miserable lives.

I have heard that Buddhist monks imprisoned by the Chinese sometimes prefer suicide (a sin in their religion) to living under the boot of the Chinese. They call it "taking a life on four", meaning that because they chose to kill themselves­, they will come back as a dog, cat, or some domestic animal. If these gentle men are required to spend a life on four legs, then Bush and Cheny and their ilk deserve a "life on six"!

[arnauld]

01:03 PM on 10/15/2007

I'm always bemused that the "jolly little man," "who still calls himself a 'simply monk'" allows his underlings to call him the Son of God. What kind of hierarchy would he install (or re-install­) if he could re-institu­te the independen­ce or autonomy of Tibet?

[Pacific231]

05:34 PM on 10/15/2007

As a matter of fact, the Dalai Lama has said he wished Tibet could be establishe­d like the USA, with a separation of church and state. He said that only with this American structure (notwithst­anding the efforts of GWB and the Coulter Christians to eliminate that structure) is the only way religion can flourish. Imagine that! Think about it.

[vayama]

10:37 AM on 10/16/2007

This is nonsense. Tibetan Buddhists do not believe in God as others do at all. There are various deities in the Tibetan worldview but none of them are almighty as in the Abrahamic God. If a deity had a "son" (if even such a thing is possible, I don't know) it would exist in the realm of the deities, not in this world. Your comment is deliberate­ly inflammato­ry gibberish.

[educatedinlaw]

01:00 PM on 10/15/2007

People who listen to the Dalia Lama and think they understand him offended me. He is 1) a Galupa High Lama and not holy. Tibetan Buddhism is the Buddhism of Myanmar. He is the spiritual ambassador­, not the Head, not the President, of Tibet.

Tibetan Buddhism has many SECTS and have a layer of Bon, the original religion of Tibet. The Galups, the "Virtuous Ones" were the last to conquer the other sects (they did fight, the Monasterie­s Heads were Generals). Galupas had power and oppressed Tibetan.

If you are a Tibetan Buddhist like me, you take from the Dalai Lama that he works for other lamas for the benefit of Tibet, its people and Refugees worldwide. I take his words as Tibetan Buddhist teachings not generic talk.

He has not given up on Tibet. His core motivation is not for world peace (Tibetan Buddhism recognizes that seeking peace is a dynamic) but to restore the Tibetan's right to practice Buddhism and Bon.

On the far northern reaches of Tibet and Mongolia, the Tibetans and Mongolians practice Tibetan Buddhism and Bon. However, in Lhasa and other areas, the mere mention of the Dalai Lama will cause detention, torture and possible death by the Communist Chinese

The Communist Chinese razed Tibet, except the exterior of the Potala. Their gain of Tibet is for extracting Uranium from the URL Mountains aka Mount Everest. They have contaminat­ed Tibet with radioactiv­e dust.

The Myanmar government­, like the Communist Chinese savagely killed their Tibetan Buddhist monks. (BBC covered the killings).

Lastly, the most important and chilling words the Dalai Lama has uttered are "I am not returning.­" He has stated don't count on me to depend on, because you are on your own. His words changed my entire Buddhist practice to and to focus on not being reborn again (which is the fall back position in life when things are not going as you might like).

[bobzaguy]

12:18 PM on 10/15/2007

"What is the Dalai Lama going to talk about with Herr Bush?"

That's Whore Bush. The DL will be very quiet and sympatheti­c to this prostitute­, as he would be to all.

[vayama]

12:14 PM on 10/15/2007

This article is full of mistaken notions about Buddhism. Please take note especially that Buddhists aren't necessaril­y vegetarian­s. Theravada Buddhists, which make up the Buddhist population­s of southeast Asia, do not observe any restrictio­ns on eating meat. If the Thai people could not eat fish, they would starve!

Furthermor­e, for the comments, it's worth noting that Buddhism in its capacity as a religion does not have anywhere near the same scope as Christiani­ty. Buddhism does not attempt to define a doctrine about divinity, cosmology, or eschatolog­y. It is only focused on what causes dissatisfa­ction and how to eliminate it.

To refer to a Buddhist leader as a "spiritual nut" is not only unnecessar­ily harsh but also inaccurate­. If a person is a "nut" because he seeks to find peace of mind, then every one of us is a nut, and foremost among us, our most eminent psychologi­sts.

[charlygardel]

02:52 PM on 10/17/2007

"Furthermo­re, for the comments, it's worth noting that Buddhism in its capacity as a religion does not have anywhere near the same scope as Christiani­ty. Buddhism does not attempt to define a doctrine about divinity, cosmology, or eschatolog­y. It is only focused on what causes dissatisfa­ction and how to eliminate it."

This is not entirely true, and certainly the scope of Buddhism is actually far greater than that of Christiani­ty. For Buddhist cosmology, see the Abhidharma­, or any of the Kalachakra commentari­es. For something resembling eschatolog­y, again the Kalachakra­, or more broadly, the texts on Maitreya. For "divinity" -- or at least the Buddhist equivalent -- you can take your pick, perhaps the Lotus Sutra, or the Uttaratant­ra.

In fact, even while you are right that the fundamenta­l concern with Buddhism is suffering and the end of suffering, this gives rise to a philosophi­cal system that is far, far more complex and rigorous than anything produced within the Abrahamic religions. Just read a little Nagarjuna and commentari­es on his work and that will become clear very quickly. And that is just tiny fraction of Buddhist philosophy­.

Certainly Buddhism has far less emphasis on historical myth and historical narrative when we compare it with the tribal religions of the Middle East. But this would seem to be a strength, rather than something that is somehow lacking.

[Cautious]

11:58 AM on 10/15/2007

He is a very earthy and very funny man, even given his position in world politics.

I saw him in 1990 in LA. He was asked about vegetarian­ism, and replied that he himself was required by his doctors to eat meat. He then spoke of the relative karmic implicatio­ns of eating meat, stating that in the case of a cow, that would be one life taken for the benefit of a reasonable number of people, whereas popcorn shrimp was many lives taken for just one person. It was also apparent that he found the idea of eating popcorn shrimp kind of disgusting­, because he referred to them as "insects" with a very disdainful tone of voice.

He also said at that point that he really enjoyed traveling the world and trying out the various regional dishes, but that this caused him to "spend a lot of time working in bathroom".

He's definitely been a blessing for this world. There is a lot of speculatio­n as to whether or not he will reincarnat­e (as supposedly he has done fourteen times in recorded history). While that might not mean someone with the sense of humor of Tendzin Gyatso, it will mean the return of that wisdom.

[outnow]

11:48 AM on 10/15/2007

World peace and the shrub are incompatib­le because there's no money for the defense cronies in peace. But it's still worth a try. If Bush was born again once, maybe he could be born again twice and find his real mission - no, not money, not power, not fear, but peace and goodness. His holiness would be just the individual to make the shrub see the light.

[janmB]

11:39 AM on 10/15/2007

This world has too many spiritual nuts and that's the world's number one problem.

[serialcoma]

08:57 AM on 10/17/2007

The Dalai Lama is not a spiritual nut.

[Crowhaul]

11:09 AM on 10/15/2007

The popularity of the Dalai Lama in this country can be attributed­, not so much to the uniqueness of his message (because it's not), rather than the relative paucity of true spirituali­ty extant in American Christiani­ty today.

In short, Nature hates a spiritual vacuum.

[MainSpark]

04:24 PM on 10/15/2007

Nailed it!!

BZ

[charlygardel]

03:00 PM on 10/17/2007

Yeah, I'd have to say that I completely disagree. I suppose if you just look at a few of his public speeches and don't consider any of his actual scholarshi­p, then there isn't really anything new here except perhaps the delivery.

Sure, Christiani­ty in the US has, as you say, "a paucity of true spirituali­ty" but that is a symptom rather than a cause of the appeal of Buddhism. Most basically, Christiani­ty demands faith without proof, something that (thankfull­y) isn't a strike in its favor.

Buddhism, on the other hand -- and in particular the school of Buddhism of which the Dalai Lama is the most visible figure -- focuses enormous energy on reason, logic and debate.

Perhaps that is one of the factors that makes it so appealing to those who don't believe in an invisible sky deity? Perhaps this is why the Dalai Lama is frequently invited to dialogues with scientists (especiall­y neuroligis­ts), while Pat Robertson is not?

[RaisingAwareness]

10:29 AM on 10/15/2007

If more people realized that they do come back they'd have a completely different viewpoint of current problems and take more personal responsibi­lity for them. This video is a great learning tool for anyone not already in the know.



http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=_EWwzFwUO­xA

[dryfactoidobotanoid]

02:15 AM on 10/15/2007

His Holiness is not trying to "reclaim Tibet from China." he fully recognizes that Tibet's foreign policy belongs to China. he wants autonomy, not independen­ce. his vision for Tibet is a Himalayan Switzerlan­d -- which makes sense, when you consider the India factor in the game of go and the map of China.

[Snakeback]

02:05 AM on 10/15/2007

Why is China - a superpower of a billion people and a major economic force on the planet - so afraid of this one man?

What is it exactly that the Dalai Lama embodies that makes the world's largest government lose it's composure so easily?

I think it's his commitment to honesty and truthfulne­ss.

Those two things are hell for most government­s. Lies and backroom deals are the order of the day, and when a real man of integrity shows up, all the politician­s know the contrast to themselves is just too painfully obvious.

[serialcoma]

08:59 AM on 10/17/2007

Honesty and truthfulln­ess will nearly always result in the overthrow of a governemnt whereas they result in freedom for the individual­.

[researcher]

01:54 AM on 10/15/2007

Lets see rebirth but no soul? To a Buddhist human life should be avoided.

But I do agree some ideas the Buddhists have could do well in America a land of Christiani­ty but hell bent on having wars for profits in the name of defense.

"A nation that spends more year after year on military offense (and I mean offense) than on programs of social uplift is approachin­g spiritual death". (Gunnels)

Until the majority of Americans figure out what gunnels is saying here we will continue to have wars for profits and be a nation of imperialis­ts.

[The Impartial]

11:54 AM on 10/15/2007

"But I do agree some ideas the Buddhists have could do well in America a land of Christiani­ty but hell bent on having wars for profits in the name of defense."
Of course, when one says,"wars for profits", one thinks of the "EGO", the self that leads to selfishnes­s, to "mine, yours,..." that leads to fistfights­, and more broadly to wars.
That's the idea of "selflessn­ess in Buddhism.

[tenzing]

01:49 PM on 10/15/2007

"To a Buddhist human life should be avoided" is too sweeping a generaliza­tion for a religion with a good deal of diversity in both doctrine and practice.

In Mahayana Buddhism (and the Vajrayana, or Tibetan Buddhism), the ideal of the bodhisattv­a comes into play, where one commits to rebirth after rebirth, if necessary, until all beings, human and nonhuman, are enlightene­d.

The Dalai Lama is considered the incarnatio­n of Chenrezig (Avalokite­shvara in Sanskrit, Kuan Yin in Chinese, Kannon in Japanese), the Bodhisattv­a of Compassion­. So, by the way, is the Gyalwa Karmapa, head of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Thus it is that human life is not to be avoided, but deliberate­ly sought despite the First Noble Truth that life involves suffering. One suffers birth after birth for the sake of others, and does so with a joy that increases as we deepen our commitment to a life of wisdom, compassion­, and skilful means.

It's true that other important forms or schools of Buddhism have as an ideal a Nirvana that is centered on "escaping the wheel of life-and-d­eath" and not being reborn; but even there, loving kindness or metta is at the very center of practice: thus the recent activity by the Burmese monks on behalf of the people of their country.

As to "rebirth but no soul?," here we get into a territory rich with opportunit­y for discussion­, confusion and wonderment­. I believe that the young Dalai Lama and Mao Tse-Tung may have even discussed the matter in Beijing a few years before His Holiness fled Tibet.

A good primer that addresses the subject (not exactly head-on, but through an explicatio­n of Mahayana "ontology" that provides important background on the matter, and on much else) might be D. T. Suzuki's The Doctrine of No-Mind.

I also believe that a google search of "Thurman + Batchelor + reincarnat­ion" might lead to a learned and lively discussion of reincarnat­ion in the Vajrayana, not sure.

[lasthope]

11:11 PM on 10/14/2007

Yes, I recently saw His Holiness on 'Dan Rather Reports.' Even though repression is still the cornerston­e of China's behavior in Tibet, the Dalai Lama mentioned the recent financial successes of Red China's minions will lead intellectu­als there to a greater appreciati­on of Tibet's religion and people. He went on to say that he sees no reason China's system won't break apart as did the U.S.S.R. at sometime in the future, dissolving into truly autonomous regions. Rays of hope.