1. Religious Freedom
The Dalai Lama's half-century crusade for the Tibetan people has made him one of the world's premier spokespeople for human rights and religious freedom. But human rights start at home, and questions have arisen about the Dalai Lama's own respect for the religious freedom of Tibetans living in Tibet and in exile. Some say that in his quest for political unity, the exile leader has trampled on the traditional religious diversity of Tibetans. This controversy is based on the recognition of one of the highest lamas in Tibetan Buddhism, the Karmapa, and China’s collaborative role in choosing this leader.
2. "The Controversy"
For eight hundred years, the largest school of Tibetan Buddhism--with two million adherents worldwide--has chosen a lama known as the Karmapa as its leader. From the eleventh through the twentieth centuries sixteen Karmapas were chosen by his lamas without major incident. But in 1992 a controversy over the identity of the seventeenth Karmapa arose that now threatens to tear Tibetan Buddhism apart, pitting the Dalai Lama and his supporters against hundreds of thousands of Buddhists in the Himalayas and around the world. This controversy translates to who is in control of a tremendous amount of donations, monastery property, and ancient treasures.
3. The Future of Buddhism
Buddhism is the fastest growing major religion in the United States and the Tibetan variety is its most popular path. Tibetan Buddhism has already started to transform our spiritual and cultural landscape. But how much do we know about its leaders, the lamas who have brought this ancient faith to our shores? We place much faith in their honesty and integrity. But do they deserve it? And will there be a backlash against Buddhism once we find out that many lamas do not meet our high expectations?
4. Dalai Lama vs. Buddhists
Called by Richard Gere the "greatest living human," the Dalai Lama is revered worldwide as the spiritual leader of Tibet. To Tibetans in exile, he is their moral and political leader. But he is not necessarily their spiritual leader. Tibetans worship in five different religious sects, and the Dalai Lama is head only one of these. Followers of the other four groups each have their own leaders and sometimes they resent the Dalai Lama's efforts to control their traditions. Who is the real Dalai Lama? He is neither a saint nor a cynical strategist, but a very human leader who has expertly played a weak hand of geopolitical cards by appealing to an immense spiritual prestige.
5. Intentional Reincarnation
All Buddhists believe that humans and other living beings take innumerable lives after death. But only in Tibet did people believe that their greatest spiritual masters returned after death again and again to teach their students and help all beings. When a master died, his students were supposed to find his genuine reincarnation wherever he might appear, as peasant or prince, nomad, farmer or city-dweller. But since these masters enjoyed great wealth, power and prestige, over the centuries politics often interfered and caused incarnate lamas to be chosen for how they could benefit prominent families, rulers, or even foreign powers. Today, such a dispute over the third-most famous lama in Tibet, the Karmapa, threatens to destroy the nearly thousand-year-old system of choosing spiritual leaders through reincarnation.
|
