Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Pope and Dalai Lama
techie
India Veteran
The Pope washed the feet of refugees and insisted that rich nations accept them and treat them with respect. The dalai lama, himself an exile in India, made a rather insensitive comment that Europe should not become Arabia (or something to that effect).
I am not posting this to discuss dalai lama's comment. This is to stress that one can be buddhist and still admire good things from other religions. Also it shows the danger of identity politics - as buddhists, we tend to (at least subconsciously) defend other buddhists, especially celebrity buddhists no matter what they say or do. This betrays our attachment to worldly things, which the buddha condemned.
Both these points are important to consider, IMO.
0
Comments
I quite like this Pope in many things he does. I think he is the most enlightened leader of Catholicism in a very long time.
I wouldn't call His Holiness Dalai Lama a celebrity Buddhist though. Politics has been tied to His Holiness since before his incarnation. Tibet sees its Dalai Lamas as their spiritual AND political leaders. And before 1950 I doubt it would be raising eyebrows.
You say you're not posting this to discuss His Holiness' comment, but you know it will be discussed. I could point out that this may strike a chord with you as His Holiness resides in your country (India), but I'm sure you will assert it does not influence your opinion.
I like your statement This is to stress that one can be buddhist and still admire good things from other religions I think this is something that we all lose sight of at different points of time. We need to remember this point more often.
_ /\ _
Excellent Pope Dude. How many washed feet will be staying in Vatican Nation Church accommodation? Maybe it is all about the loudest most sanctimonious cymbals? Too harsh?
Oh for goodness sake Tenzin Gyatso (Dalai Dude Lama), get a grip. Have you been at the kalachakras again? Big future war between king of dharma and naughty Islam (yep that is the sponsored Lame Lama story ... really ...)
http://www.dalailama.com/teachings/kalachakra-initiations
Indeed. When the Dalai Lama gets to wash my feet - I got loads incidentally, he will be more than a celebrated clean skin.
Always look deeper than 'Buddhist', nice pope, lobster in the naughty corner, terrorist refugee, Hinayanist, Trump the wall builder etc.
Look to their ignorance BUT more importantly look to our own ... our reflections ... and own them.
Iz plan ... and now back to the affiliated and sponsored ...
"My religion is simple - my religion is ice-cream."
The Dairy Lama
His Hairiness the Dairy Lama is spiritual director of Tescos freezer section and has provoked controversy by arguing for the purity of vanilla ice-cream, and against the "heady mix" of flavours in Neapolitan ice-cream. Asked whether he thought that an attachment to Neapolitan kept beings trapped and shivering in the great cosmic freezer chest, the Dairy Lama retorted: "Is the Pope a Catholic?"
The Pope has been unavailable for comment but Vatican sources suggest he has "more than a passing acquaintance" with the Holy Trinity of Neapolitan.
Very good @SpinyNorman
Thanks for sharing ... though I have a feeling ice cream is a solitary indulgence.
I find most of us prefer to support wisdom from our dharma tribe but I would suggest as @techie mentions that the Noble efforts of other traditions are worth celebrating and learning from.
For example the jakata tales do not compete with celtic, shamanistic, Hindu tales. We can perhaps make use of them. Humility I would suggest is very well developed in Christian mysticism. The spiritual nature of work and life is very well developed in Islamic and Judaic traditions, in contrast to the householder avoidance scheme set up in the Sangha.
Wisdom first. Affiliated and party line dharmaism second.
The Chinese government has settled Han Chinese in Tibet and has forcibly altered the demographic profile of the Tibetan homeland. HHDL might have had that in mind when he made that comment. May be what he meant was "Help those in distress, but not at the price of losing your identity".
If I might be so bold ...
sometimes the way to help the distressed involves losing identification ... B
To put it another way, much of the distress in the world is because we grasp at land, gender, culture, religion and other forms of identity.
The empty and unborn is increasingly dead to such partial attachments. Hopefully my cheque from China is on its way ...
Compassion is one thing. Naivete is another thing altogether.
Any time someone is put in the position of choosing the lesser of two evils, nobody wins.
Maybe we should just ask His Holiness what he actually meant...........
I think he was VERY clear. Please see this link:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jun/1/dalai-lama-too-many-refugees-in-germany-nation-can/
If the headline had not mentioned Dalai lama, I would've thought Trump (or some right-wing politician) had made that remark.
I don't see this as a "right-wing" comment. We have the same tendency in the UK, anyone who expresses concern about the level of immigration is accused of being a "racist".
^^^ Tee Hee. The Dalai Lama is a right wing politician. It is one of the legacies of being head of a deposed theocracy ... Did anyone guess?
http://opcoa.st/0sp6x
Perhaps. Perhaps not ...
OM MANI PEME HUM
as the Lama said to the Unholy ...
... and now back to the Popes foot fetish ...
It was also reported "The Dali (sic) Lama added that despite the need to empathize with refugees, the ultimate goal “should be that they return and help rebuild their countries.”
Which is actually correct. Many Syrian refugees have stated their desire to return to Syria once peace is restored. So to help fulfill this wish, we should be focusing on helping restore peace to Syria so they can return and rebuild their lives. Of course,in a perfect world this would be a doddle, on Planet Earth however, it's a bit more complicated than that.
I think you have a biais about His Holiness for some reason, whatever it is I don't really care in the scheme of things. His Holiness is well known as not speaking English as a first language and has been misinterpreted when asked about homosexuality in the past. I don't share your view of him being akin to Trump, I think you're reaching in this case.
_ /\ _
Even Angela Merkel the most refugee friendly European politician, has said many times that refugees must go back when normalcy is restored in their homeland. Does that mean she is a right wing hot head too @techie?
The Swiss have even voted to limit immigration quite severely, in a binding referendum. So there is a possibility that Switzerland will have to leave the Schengen area agreements on free movement of goods and services, which may cost them considerably on an economic level.
So does that make them a nation of racists? I don't think so.
HHDL's quotes are so often taken out of context. It's quite amazing how often this happens. And yes, language is a barrier as is our frequency to look for offense in everything we read and hear these days.
HHDL was not being un-compassionate in his comments. He was not suggesting "Arabs" are not welcome in Europe or Germany. He was, it seems, suggesting that yes, those more fortunate should help the suffering of refugees but that it should not be with the vision that Europe should become anything other than Europe helping refugees. That it should not turn into the countries that the people had to leave. That Europe should be a temporary refuge. I see nothing wrong with that comment. Germany should be a country that is helping people. It should not turn into a replacement for Syria. That HHDL laughed when he said Germany cannot be an Arab country should say a lot about his intent/context for the comment. Germany, of course, cannot be anything other than Germany. That is how I read it anyhow. I try to choose not to be offended by everything I read and instead read for context.