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Monday, September 17, 2018

Dalai Lama is NOT the Buddhist Pope

TMI - Allegations of sex abuse by Buddhist teachers 'nothing new' to Dalai Lama (extracts):


People who commit sexual abuse 'don't care about the Buddha's teaching,' says the Dalai Lama

EPA pic, September 16, 2018

The Dalai Lama said yesterday that he has known about sexual abuse by Buddhist teachers since the 1990s and that such allegations are “nothing new”.

The Tibetan spiritual leader, revered by millions of Buddhists around the world, made the admission during a four-day visit to the Netherlands, where he met on Friday with victims of sexual abuse allegedly committed by Buddhist teachers
.

What His Holiness said, that 'People who commit sexual abuse don't care about the Buddha's teaching,' is correct. However, that's not what I am blogging in this post.

Many in the West  mistake the Dalai Lama as the 'Pope' of the Buddhist Church, equating him to His Holiness the Pope of the Catholic Church. That is incorrect.


In using the word 'Church' I am not necessarily referring to the Christian Church but rather a 'religious organisation' (of any religion, eg. Christian, Buddhist, Hinduism, Islamic, etc).

Like Christianity and Islam, Buddhism has two major denominations.

Where Christianity comprises the Catholic Church (including the Orthodox Churches, Coptic, Greek, Russian, Serbian etc, under the RC for the purpose of this post) and Protestant Church (including Methodist, Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian, etc), and Islam has the Sunni and Shia denominations, Buddhism has two schools, namely, Mahayana mainly practised in China, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Bhutan, Eastern parts of Russia whilst Theravada is found mainly in Sri Lanka, and SE Asia.


Mahayana school monks

Uniquely, Malaysian and Singaporean Buddhists hail from the two schools and mostly of mixed schools. It proves we and Ah Bengs like rojak, wakakaka.

World demographics of Buddhists show that Mahayana has 360 million followers, while Theravada has 150 million believers; and Vajrayana is the smallest group with 18.2 million adherents.


Theravada school monks 

Actually, Vajrayana Buddhism is a small sub-group under the bigger Mahayana school, somewhat but not quite alike the Jesuits under the Catholic Church and the Shafi'i under Islam.


Vajrayana school monks with their unique 'lama' hats

the Dalai Lama belongs to the Gelugpa or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayana)

Anyway, it is a body of teachings attributed to Indian adepts, and sometimes may be viewed as a separate branch or as mentioned, an aspect of Mahayana Buddhism. It is practised mainly in Tibet and the Himalayan region, Mongolia and Kalmykia Russia. The Dalai Lama is the recognised head of the Vajrayana Buddhism.

Though the Dalai Lama is highly respected in the Buddhist World, he is only the religious head of about 18.2 million people who follow the Vajrayana Buddhism, and not as the West believes, by the entire 530 million of Buddhists world-wide.

There is not much he can do with naughty Buddhist monks of, say, Thailand or Myanmar, where the people and monks of both countries practise Theravada Buddhism.


some monks in Myanmar

abusing Buddhist teachings by getting involved in politics and hatred

And neither can he do much with wayward monks in Taiwan or South Korea or Japan - these countries follow the Mahayana School (but not including the Vajrayana sub-group's teachings).

11 comments:

  1. My observation is most Chinese following of religion is for gain of Material wealth.
    They will pray to the Hindu God during Thaipusam, Catholic St. Anne, Sai Baba , and also all schools of Buddhism.
    With Buddhism, there is a preoccupation with Wealth Amulets.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. it's very obvious you do not know anything about Buddhism, and where you think you do, it's superficial knowledge based mainly on your bias.

      As you're a Muslim I won't bother to enlighten you besides the legality that I am not allowed to

      Delete
    2. With zombieism, the followers have the craving for the 72 vrigins in afterlife!

      To put in simply, 2x5 mah!

      Delete
    3. KT, as a Chinese Buddhist, I have to say, many if not really most of those religion followers of ethnic Chinese do seek religion for the benefit of their ownselves either for material, health or prosperity gains. Don't believe, try interviewing what their devotees pray for. Its certainly not world peace.

      Why do you think Genting has setup so many altars and shrines along the way up hill?

      Delete
    4. John, altar and shrines are relates to chinese gods and not Buddhism.

      Delete
  2. It DOESN'T help too, when Dalai Lama, himself, has been avoiding clarificatiobs about such distinction to the blur2, mainly Westerners!

    Read too about HIS alleged nepotism in managing the collected funds in the name of Buddhism!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dalai Lama is essentially a politician who wants international help, assistance and political lobbying for him to regain control over Tibet, to make Tibet again a theocracy.

      he enjoys immense sympathy and popularity in the West so it's unlikely he would "enlighten" them that he is only religious head of 18 million Buddhists instead of half a billion world wide

      Delete
    2. The West uses the Dalai Lama, and the Dalai Lama uses the West , for each of their political propaganda purposes.

      Delete
    3. that's true but there are also some sincere believers in the Dalai Lama in the West like influential film stars Richard Gere and former wife Cindy Crawford who exert powerful influence on the everyday Americans - I deem them as honest but gullible guppies

      Delete
  3. Would anyone believe that the world would be a more peaceful and happier place without religions? Would they then fight and go to wars because of different tribes, races and colours of the skin?

    Religions are just ideological concepts created by mankind to seek answers to their existance and unexplainable, unintelligible things and happennings during their lifetime and in their period of mankind history. As mankind's intelligence grows over the generations, so will religions face scrutiny as stories and tales centuries ago to spread this ideological concepts are being debunked by discoveries of new things by advancing human intelligence in scientific discoveries.

    All human beingas will die just as all living things on this Earth and whether you'll end up in Heaven or Earth or reborn or resurrected or disappear into nothing, so far no one has come back thru the generations of millions of years to say it or to prove it to fellow mankind.

    Being an ideological concept to human beings, it is up to oneself to believe or not to believe.

    Religions are just ideological concepts just like those who advocate Nations, Communism, Democracy, political parties etc.

    The only thing ideologically different about religion is how to dress up a certain religion from time to time to make it more appealing to mankind to belief in it when the ultimate hidden objective is to subjugate and conquer the whole world or continent or country. Would it then stop wars? Would everyone then go to Heaven or Hell and whatever is promised there?

    The ideological wars has been fought for thousands of years and nobody in the next few thousand years will ever live to see the result of what is being fought over now.

    Instead of Religion as an ideological tool for making peace among mankind, many have used it to further their greed and power among fellow mankind.

    Are humans really as stupid as animals and for most to just follow the herd?

    ReplyDelete
  4. It will be interesting to see what happens when the current Dalai Lama passes away. He is currently 83 years old.

    Likely , China PRC will appoint an "officially recognised" Dalai Lama.
    The Tibetan community in-exile will appoint its own.

    Then there will be two Dalai Lamas.

    The 14th Dalai Lama is a living reminder that Tibet is Occupied Territory. The 14th Dalai Lama is not, and has never been a China national.

    Most Tibetans consider their land Occupied Territory, just as occupied as Gaza and the West Bank of the Jordan River.
    If they are in Tibet, that is only whispered , and rarely mentioned to strangers, for fear of arrest.

    The PLA has used tanks and army troops to suppress dissent in Tibet.
    It must be condemned just as Israeli actions in Gaza and West Bank are condemned.

    ReplyDelete