Chapter 7

The Dalai Lama

  1. Myth Vs. History:

Myth is a distortion that cannot be supported by evidence, whereas history is an account of the past that is based on a careful interpretation of evidence. In relation to questions of ultimate meaning – such as those concerning death and the reasons why people suffer – people often look to myths for answers. We might, then, see myth not as a distortion of evidence, but as an explanation for things that seem to be beyond rational

thought or experience.

  1. Religion:

A system of practices, institutions and beliefs that provides meaning to life and death. Religions attempt to answer the really big questions, and they often do that through myths which, no matter whether they are ‘true’ or ‘false’ in a historical or scientific sense, are nonetheless powerful. Religious Studies is concerned with history and with claims about truth, but also with the nature and power of the myths that shape cultures.

  1. ‘Who is the Dalai Lama?’

According to where you look, the Dalai Lama is:

  1. A Tibetan Buddhist monk. This is the way he prefers to describehimself and the reason why we always see him dressed in maroon and yellow robes (see Figure7.1). He has been a monk all his life.
  2. The spiritual and political leader of the Tibetan people. This may have been true before the 1950s when the Chinese encroached on – or, alternatively, liberated – the areas where the majority of Tibetans live but, as we shall see, the Dalai Lama’s role has been forced to change.
  3. A living Buddha. The Buddha of India, who started the religion we call Buddhism, lived in the fifth century BCE. A Buddha is someone who is enlightened. According to Buddhism, enlightenedbeings understand the way things really are, and are not subject to the suffering, greed and hatred that characterise the lives of nonenlightened beings. The Dalai Lama recognises that he issometimes given this status and we will consider what it means in due course.
  4. A Nobel Peace Prize winner. The Dalai Lama, an admirer of the pacifist policies of Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948), received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
  5. An ecological activist. The Dalai Lama has been outspoken on the degradation of the natural environment (which is not directly addressed in traditional Buddhist texts, all of which predate the ecological problems that the world now faces).
  6. An enemy of the People’s Republic of China. Accused by the Chinese of hypocrisy and a lack of wisdom, the Dalai Lama, though loved by the great majority of his own people and respected across much of the western world, is regarded by the Chinese in a much more negative way.
  1. Two Views of the Dalai Lama:
  1. In the West: he is usually presented in largely positive terms, often as a wise follower of peaceful resistance.
  2. The regime of the People’s Republic of China(PRC) sees him as an enemy and accuses him of hypocrisy.
  1. The Dalai Lama and the West

Known for embracing Gandhi’s pacifist policies in relation to the Chinese invasion of Tibet and for his pronouncements on human rights and ecological preservation, the Dalai Lama provokes a response from diverse western institutions and political and business concerns.

  1. He holds numerous honorary degrees from western universities.
  2. He has held talks with world leaders from the realms of politics and religion, and is much in demand from western converts to, or sympathisers with, Buddhism.
  3. He is the author of well over a hundred books available in English and other European languages.
  4. He also makes appearances on BBC travel programmes, has been used in the USA to advertise Apple computers (see Figure 7.2), and been profiled in Hello magazine.

Activity (p. 202):

In 1989 the Dalai Lama was the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Read the citation and his acceptance speech in the Resources section (Readings 7.1 and 7.2). The Dalai Lama’s opposition to violence – for which he was awarded the prize – relates specifically to the activities of the PRC in Tibetan areas. He refers to this in the speech and to the plan the Tibetan government in exile put to the PRC in 1987. However, much of the speech emphasises universalism: the idea that all human beings, wherever they are located in space and time, are subject to the same experiences and responsibilities. How does he emphasise common human experience and why do you think he does this?

Discussion

First the Dalai Lama accepts the prize on behalf of the oppressed everywhere and for all those who are working for peace and freedom. At the very beginning of his speech he makes clear that although he accepts the prize on behalf of his own people, the Tibetans, he also wants to include others who are in similar circumstances.

He then goes on to argue that all beings are basically the same, with the same concerns, and you may have noticed that he includes the people of China within that. Nearer the end of the speech, after he has made reference to the specific situation between Tibet and China, he returns again to the theme of universality. The idea that suffering is caused by ignorance is central to Buddhist doctrine, but the Dalai Lama uses language that is accessible to non-Buddhists, and he goes so far as to say that universal responsibility for humanity and for the planet is not dependent on a religious perspective. You will notice that he also refers to scientific advance and emphasises that science and religion are not at odds, especially in relation to the natural environment.

As for why the Dalai Lama has constructed his speech in this way, I think it is clear that he sees the way forward for humanity to lie in cooperative action, and in order for that to happen it is necessary to emphasise common human experience rather than specific ethnic or cultural differences.

  1. The western love affair with Buddhism
  1. The Dalai Lama's emphasis on keeping one's own religion:

In general I am in favor of people continuing to follow the religion of their own culture and inheritance. Of course, individuals have every right to change if they find that a new religion is more effective or suitable for their spiritual needs. But, generally speaking, it is better to experience the value of one’s own religious tradition. [...] If you are a Christian, it is better to develop spiritually within your religion and be a genuine, good Christian. If you are a Buddhist, be a genuine Buddhist. Not something half-and-half!

(Dalai Lama, 1996, pp. 45–6)

  1. The Dalai Lama's attitude in this speech: ACCEPTING

Buddhism is and always has been a missionary religion. Ever since the time of the Buddha in India, Buddhists have believed that they follow the best possible religious teaching and there are structures within the tradition for the instruction of others. Allversions of Buddhism have the same broad aims, which can be summarised as happiness and understanding.

  1. The Dalai Lama’s reputation in the West is based partly on the kinds of qualities that won him the Nobel Prize, but it is enhanced by the fact that Buddhism is enjoying a high profile.
  1. It is associated in many people’s minds with the allure of the Orient and linked with a positive – if rather vague – notion of ‘spirituality’.
  2. Aspects of Buddhist teaching and practice have become absorbed by western culture. Buddhist techniques for training the mind have been adopted and adapted for therapeutic purposes on all levels of counselling and psychology.
  3. Since Buddhism has always seen its message as relevant for everyone, not just for a clearly defined ethnic population, this portable and adaptable religion has moved readily and been welcomed in places where traditional religious positions – for example, belief in a personal, all-powerful God – have waned. Buddhism offers an explanation for suffering and evil which is very different from that offered by monotheistic traditions (which believe in one God) and many find eastern ideas more acceptable than traditional, western, religious or non-religious ideologies.
  4. Another reason why some westerners find Buddhism attractive is that it teaches that faith, though important, is not the way to salvation, as it is in Christianity. Instead, Buddhism emphasises practice built on questioning and experience, and this has caught the spirit of the time. Its promoters argue that Buddhism offers practical ways to improve the experience of life. These methods, such as meditation, can be embraced on different levels so that even active Christians and Jews, as well as those who identify with no religion, can and do incorporate techniques derived from Buddhism into their lives.
  1. The Tradition of the Dalai Lamas
  1. What is a Dalai Lama according to the tradition to which he belongs? Who do the Tibetan people believe the Dalai Lama to be? Who does the present Dalai Lama think he is?

Activity (p. 206)

Now read the following paragraph, taken from the Dalai Lama’s autobiography, Freedom in Exile. Here he acknowledges that his reputation is complex and he tells us how he views himself. Again, don’t worry if some of the concepts mentioned here are unfamiliar: it is part of the role of this chapter to explain them to you. This paragraph falls into three sections, which I will call religious status, political role and self-identity. Can you identify these?

Dalai Lama means different things to different people. To some it means that I am a living Buddha, the earthly manifestation of Avalokiteshvara, Bodhisattvaof Compassion. To others it means that I am a ‘god-king’. During the late 1950s it meant that I was a Vice-President of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China. Then when I escaped into exile, I was called a counterrevolutionary and a parasite. But none of these are my ideas. To me ‘Dalai Lama’ is a title that signifies the office I hold. I myself am just ahuman being, and incidentally a Tibetan, who chooses to be a monk.

(Dalai Lama, 1990, p. ix)

Discussion

The first section is about the Dalai Lama’s religious status. This is the section that is likely to seem most strange and unfamiliar. The Dalai Lama acknowledges here that he is regarded as a Buddha, as the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, and as a god-king.

The second section is about his political power: the king half of god-king is a

political role, and the Dalai Lama tells us that he has been a member of

a committee of the PRC but is now regarded by the government of the PRC as

a counter-revolutionary.

Third, the Dalai Lama tells us how he thinks of himself.

  1. Tibetan, Buddhist worldview of the Dalai Lama

This Tibetan view of how the world operates was developed from classical Indian Buddhism. Buddhism became the official religion of Tibet in the second half of the eighth century CE and there has been a Dalai Lama in Tibet since the sixteenth century. Then the title was applied to a prominent teacher by the Mongol king, Altan Khan, and applied retrospectively to two of that teacher’s predecessors. Translated literally, Dalai Lama means something like ‘Ocean of Wisdom’, but this does not tell us very much about his significance. More helpful is that the Tibetan word lama corresponds to the Indian word guru. A guru is a religious teacher who deserves the respect and devotion of his followers. In Tibetan, lama is also closely related to the word for mother, which gives a nurturing dimension to the role of a religious teacher.

The present Dalai Lama is, in many ways, a modern man with an interest in science and technology. He regards his title as referring to the office he holds, but he accepts that the series of Dalai Lamas are linked with each other and with enlightened Buddhas in a special way. The Dalai Lama is the most important lama for the Tibetans. He has religious status of the very highest kind, and because religion and politics were integrated in traditional Tibetan society he is also the head of the Tibetan state.

  1. The Dalai Lama as Chenresig

Buddhists believe that all sentient beings (beings who perceive through the power of the senses, whether they be humans, animals, gods or ghosts) age, die and are reborn again and again in a tiresome cycle called samsara. According to Buddhist doctrine, birth, life, ageing, illness and death are intrinsically unsatisfactory and painful but, even so, beings cling on to existence and continually crave for things: for sensual pleasures of all kinds, for life, or for the end of life. It is this longing or desire, whatever its focus, that keeps them trudging from life to life, and they experience birth, ageing, illness and death over and over again. Beings in samsara suffer: they are not at ease. They experience feelings such as anger and hatred and they fail to understand the nature of life and their place within it. Buddhists call this dis-ease, or unsatisfactoriness, dukkha.

The Buddha of fifth century BCE India, who pointed out the truth of dukkha and showed that dukkha is caused by craving, did not deny that good things happen and that beings can Experience transient happiness, but he claimed that these good things and this happiness are

ultimately unsatisfactory because they are impermanent: even as something good happens, it is tainted by the thought that it cannot last.

The aim of Buddhist practice is real happiness, and the end of pain and suffering. This can only come about when all longings and desires have ended, breaking the cycle of samsara. This is what Buddhists call enlightenment and it occurs when ignorance ends and beings understand the way things really are. When they die, all unenlightened beings are reborn into a new life. The nature of this new life is automatically determined by past actions and intentions. Human beings have a distinct advantage over animals and other categories of being because they can control their actions and intentions in this life, and can choose to act in skilful ways which may lead towards rather than away from wisdom and ethical conduct. The benefit of this, from a Buddhist perspective, is that skilful intentions and actions automatically and inevitably lead towards happiness and an advantageous rebirth. Conversely, unskilful actions lead automatically and inevitably towards unhappiness and a disadvantageous rebirth. The precise nature of rebirth – where one is reborn and in what circumstances – is not controlled by God or gods. Instead, the law of karma – cause and effect – which operates naturally and automatically will determine where and how a being is reborn. Actions that people perform, and the intentions that lie behind them, lead inexorably to results in this life and the next, including the nature of future rebirths.

Buddhism teaches that those who take this seriously and assiduously examine these doctrines in order to understand and apply them can end their experience of suffering. Relevant for our purposes here is that, along the way, they can also acquire certain skills. One such skill is the ability to determine the specific nature and place of their future rebirths. According to Tibetan tradition, the Dalai Lamas have this skill and for them, as for other lineages of special teachers, this ability is of an advanced nature.It is believed that when they die, such lamas can choose where they are reborn and they may leave coded instructions for their followers so that they can be found.

Buddhas (like the Buddha of fifth-century BCE India), and associated beings called Bodhisattvas, have come by their own efforts to understand the nature of life in samsara, and they are free from the unsatisfactoriness, anger, hatred and ignorance that characterise it. Instead of blundering along within samsara they have the understanding to escape from it. Rather than escaping, however, they may stay in samsara to help other suffering beings. The Dalai Lamas are closely associated with a particular Bodhisattva, the popular Bodhisattva of compassion called in Sanskrit Avalokiteshvara.The same being is known in Tibetan as Chenresig

(pronounced Chen ré zee). In some sense the Dalai Lamas are considered to be Chenresig. This is part of the reason why Tibetans believe that the Dalai Lama is a living Buddha.

  1. The Dalai Lama's description of his role as Chenresig:

I am held to be the reincarnation of each of the previous thirteen Dalai Lamas of Tibet (the first having been born in Tibet in 1351 AD [CE]), who are in turn considered to be manifestations of Avalokiteshvara, or Chenresig, Bodhisattva of Compassion ... Thus I am believed also to be a manifestation of Chenresig ... I am often asked whether I truly believe this. The answer is not simple to give. As a fifty-six year old, when I consider my experiences during this present life and given my Buddhist beliefs, I have no difficulty accepting that I am spiritually connected both to the thirteen previous Dalai Lamas, toChenresig and to the Buddha himself.