Dalai Lama and Barack Obama

"LandepNews"

Dalai Lama and Barack Obama

The question of continuing the tradition of Dalai Lama in Tibetan Buddhism is more and more challenged by Tibetan Buddhist scholars after the incumbent Dalai Lama announced that he may be the last Dalai Lama to take rebirth, thus ending a tradition that goes back as the 17th century.
The problem of continuing or not the tradition is linked to the situation of the country, which is now a part of the People’s Republic of China, a Communist country which has a very powerful stance against religion.
In the Chinese-ruled Tibet the preservation of the traditions is very difficult as the Chinese government attempts on one hand the uprooting religion, in the struggle between atheism and religion, and, on the other hand, to change the balance in ethnic representation of the people in Tibet, by bringing in Chinese Han population to the purpose of making it possible that in the future the Han to become the dominating ethnic group in Tibet.
Under these circumstances, the temptation of the Chinese government to interfere with the Tibetan way of preserving spiritual and political power of the people in this province compels Dalai Lama to think about the situation of his country after he dies.
Since it is very difficult to believe that a new Dalai Lama could be recognized by the Tibetan themselves if he is born out of Tibet, let alone by the Chinese government, and taking rebirth within Tibet could happen, as Beijing said, only with Chinese blessing, Dalai Lama has advanced the idea of ending the series of reincarnations and allowing the people of Tibet to elect their leaders in other ways, so that the risk of manipulating the recognition of the next Dalai Lama be avoided.
In September 2004, speaking about the fact that he will be the one to decide when, and whether he would be reincarnated, not the Chinese government, Dalai Lama explained the principle of reincarnation in the Tibetan Buddhism. “There are two ways,” he said, “one by the sway of karma and destructive emotions, and another through the power of compassion and prayer.”
This mentality led the Tibetan Buddhism to a power structure based on the fact that many holy people or learned scholars often assume fresh bodies in order for them to continue their work. Dalai Lama is only one example of these.
In order for people to understand that the illustrious personality has been reincarnated, especially in the case of the Dalai Lama, a theology has been developed, called tulkus, or the conscious reincarnation, by which the predecessor leaves behind some clues about his next reincarnation.
Thus, in the case of the new Dalai Lama, his recognition is made by interpreting the clues left behind by the Dalai Lama before him, by the divination and the astral signs that would certify that the child proclaimed as the new Dalai Lama is the chosen one through the interpretations of events that accompanied his birth. Even relations to the family of the former Dalai Lama are taken into account.

Tibetan City of Lhasa

The child is then instructed in the scriptures, philosophy, the practices of his lineage, so that at the coming of age he may resume the work of his predecessors. Or rather his own work.
The key to understanding the reincarnation process in Tibetan Buddhism is the concept of bodhisattva, the Buddha-to-be, the enlightened superior being which has attained the path of seeing by exercising compassion. Bodhisattva is one that delays the becoming of Buddha by freeing from samsara out of compassion for the others, who still need him.
The need to make sure that the tulku practice is not submitted to manipulation compelled Dalai Lama to say that when he reaches 90 years, he would consult with the scholars of Tibet to instruct him on how to recognize him, unless he decided to renounce the reincarnation.
Tibet has been annexed to the People’s Republic of China in 1959, when Dalai Lama has been forced to choose to go into exile. Since then, he has been living into exile in the UK and India.
China has always seen him as an enemy and a symbol of the fight of the Tibetans for autonomy. Dalai Lama has claimed autonomy for his people, not independence though.
Recently, the monks in Tibet have begun a series of protests by self-immolating in public market places, which drew the Chinese to react very angrily.
Chinese also react angrily to the visits Dalai Lama made to different countries, where he was received in his double capacity of political and spiritual leader.
In March, he relinquished his political duties, which he transferred on the prime minister of the government in exile.
Even so, he was received in the United States by the president Obama, which angered Beijing, but was denied visa in South Africa, which angered South African iconic human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate archbishop Desmond Tutu, who accused the African National Congress on that occasion of being worse than the apartheid regime.

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