Why is the west so fascinated by the Dalai Lama?

[septimine]

I think you’re generalisation needs a complete re-assessment. I’m Roman Catholic and I think he needs all the attention he can get he is after all in exile with his people fleeing persecution from the Chinese.
Perhaps you should read some of his books. Maybe our religions are not compatible but he has stated Buddhism is not compatible with the west due to the life styles, capitalism and materialism we live by. He is a remarkable man. He teaches love, compassion and respect for others. If the Dalai Lama went in to Obscurity who would be the voice of Tibet or Burma. Why do you think it dangerous? Perhaps you should not judge so easily, maybe you should become a missionary and preach to the Dalai Lama? Or maybe change your perception of a really nice and pious man.

Not saying that Tibet doesn’t need attention, but what about other places in the same boat? What about Christians in the Muslim World, or in China? What about Jews in Iran or other similar countries? It’s one thing to be against religious persecution – but it seems like we cherry pick the Tibetens over other groups even in China. Fulun Gong, Catholicism, and even Islam are persecuted in China. I don’t mind Tibet getting attention, but I don’t like that we’ve singled out a single group in China or around the world.

Copts are probably going to face hard persecution in Egypt very soon, but you won’t see a Coptic Christian Patriarch’s book become a best-seller, nor will you find celebrities flocking to the Coptic Christian strongholds, nor will there be protests over church bombings. I don’t mind DL getting a bit of help for his people, but I think we need a bit more balance.

 

[karoleck]

Not saying that Tibet doesn’t need attention, but what about other places in the same boat? What about Christians in the Muslim World, or in China? What about Jews in Iran or other similar countries? It’s one thing to be against religious persecution – but it seems like we cherry pick the Tibetens over other groups even in China. Fulun Gong, Catholicism, and even Islam are persecuted in China. I don’t mind Tibet getting attention, but I don’t like that we’ve singled out a single group in China or around the world.

Copts are probably going to face hard persecution in Egypt very soon, but you won’t see a Coptic Christian Patriarch’s book become a best-seller, nor will you find celebrities flocking to the Coptic Christian strongholds, nor will there be protests over church bombings. I don’t mind DL getting a bit of help for his people, but I think we need a bit more balance.

The Dalai Lama deserves all the attention that he gets and the plight of the poor Tibetan peoples that he admirably represents.So if the sun shines brighter on some part of the world does not mean that we are deprived of it’s warming rays!

May I add,in my country Australia The Chinese Government puts enormeous pressure on our leaders to ban his visits and to “snub” him.I think the press reacts to this blatant Chinese threat by giving the Dalai Lama great press coverage to show them that that we still believe in freedom.

Here are the qualities that come to my mind of The Dalai Lama;I believe he has these human virtues that attract our deservedly esteem–his goodness of heart,sincerity,strength and constancy of mind,zealous pursuit of justice,affability and many others! as St Paul writes in (Ph 4:8) “Whatever things are true,whatever honourable,whatever just,whatever holy,whatever loving,whatever of good repute,if there be any virtue,if anything is worthy of praise,think upon these things”!

 

[GraceSofia]

Iwhy is the West so fascinated by the Dalai Lama?

Because he is exotic. Because he is non-Western and many Westerners have been educated to disdain their own culture.

I noticed that on Face Book, if anybody puts a Dalai Lama quote, it gets lots of “likes”. If I put a Pope Benedict quote, I’m lucky if I get one “like.” People are scared of liking something obviously Christian. People tend to like my Chesterton quotes, but I suspect many of them have no idea he was a Catholic.

 

[PazzoGrande]

Not saying that Tibet doesn’t need attention, but what about other places in the same boat? What about Christians in the Muslim World, or in China? What about Jews in Iran or other similar countries? It’s one thing to be against religious persecution – but it seems like we cherry pick the Tibetens over other groups even in China. Fulun Gong, Catholicism, and even Islam are persecuted in China. I don’t mind Tibet getting attention, but I don’t like that we’ve singled out a single group in China or around the world.

I couldn’t agree more.

Aside from the exotic aspect of it, again I really have to ask why all the fascination with the Dalai Lama? The media adores him, ignores the Coptic Pope and ignores that Catholicism is actually illegal in China. Really, your average person knows Tibetan Buddhism is illegal there, yet don’t even know that Catholicism is (I mention that to people and it always gets a surprised look).

Christians go gaga over the lama, and they forget our own people, our own causes, our own struggles. They are dazzled by what is frankly an alien religion to them and ignore the already-familiar Christianity.

What about Cardinal Kung? What about Cardinal Van Thuan? Our own people struggle and it’s still going on, as we’ve seen in recent months. Is it because there are no Richard Geres to extol those heroes? Really, is the Dalai Lama’s popularity merely a product of celebrity help?

Cracked had an article about silly causes that got attention because of celebrity endorsements. I’m not saying the Tibetan cause is silly, but if it’s only the celebrity sympathy that gets it any attention, then that says something very sad about our society.

I like Stephen Colbert, who’s not afraid to be Catholic out in public. If only there were more of him, would Cardinals Kung and Van Thuan be household names? Do our Catholic causes need the Kony treatment just to get taken seriously?

 

[RKO]

Buddhism in its purest form isn’t a religion or even a “spirituality” as i think was mentioned here.

I’ll take a shot at part of the reason some people (like me) are a fan of the dalai Lama.

He speaks of goodness, peace and the golden rule, without any judgmentalism at all. he simply ignores the idea of God, because that is not at all what Buddhism is about. VArious schools of Buddhism have developed certain deistic ideas, but again, that is not the central theme.

The Dalai Lama relentlessly speaks of the necessity for all of us to treat each other with respect and compassion, and for each of us to develop our inner selves to a better understanding.

Sure reincarnation is part of it, but Buddhism simply believes in reincarnation, if you don’t and want to study or follow the tenets of Buddhism, you are welcome to do so. If you believe in jesus Christ as the Son of god and our Salvation as we do, yet you think there is value in Buddhist teaching, you are welcomed with open arms.

For me, it’s that refusal to judge or to insist you believe in certain things that makes Buddhism and the Dalai lama a positive thing.

 

[sami1066]

Because he is exotic. Because he is non-Western and many Westerners have been educated to disdain their own culture.

I noticed that on Face Book, if anybody puts a Dalai Lama quote, it gets lots of “likes”. If I put a Pope Benedict quote, I’m lucky if I get one “like.” People are scared of liking something obviously Christian. People tend to like my Chesterton quotes, but I suspect many of them have no idea he was a Catholic.

As a Catholic I will say first I love my faith, second facebook is not the best way to get statistics but to answer your question, Can you think of any scandals involving the Dalai Lama?

 

[RKO]

As a Catholic I will say first I love my faith, second facebook is not the best way to get statistics but to answer your question, Can you think of any scandals involving the Dalai Lama?

Good point. Also, i find it interesting to note that in its 2500 year history there has never been a war fought over or as a result of buddhism. They tried to defend themselves for 10 minutes when China sent armed soldiers to Lhasa, but they very shortly just fled.

 

[TheRealJuliane]

The Dalai Lama is visiting where I am right now and he’s getting a lot of good media attention and is attracting crowds, but really, would the people going to cheer him on even agree with what he teaches? I don’t think so. And it’s like this everywhere.

So it begs the question: why is the West so fascinated by the Dalai Lama? The only guess I can make is that some celebrities supported him, it got good media attention, so he won a lot of sympathy. But is that a good guess? Will the very short list of B and C actors really shoot Dalai Lama to celebrity status?

He’s always in a really good mood. He never gets angry or grumpy. He has a good sense of humor. Buddhism is non-threatening - they basically get along with everyone because the whole point is not to be attached to anything.

I think there is a lot of sympathy toward Tibet as well, and his exile.

 

[tarboy]

thanks for the video link, it was a shocker to me as well

I found it heartening that the DL was in synch with Christian teachings on so many things.

 

[GraceSofia]

I think that there is in the West a tendency (especially in films and new media) to romanticize oriental religions. I am amazed that many people have no idea of the murders and persecutions carried out by Hindus against Christians in India, for example. I won’t give links for those as probably Catholics on these forums are aware of them, but here are a couple about Buddhists:

Under attack, Christians fear militant Buddhism
Bishop of Mannar appeals to the UN. Buddhist Party calls for his arrest

I don’t want to make this a spitting match about the religions, but do want to point out that some people seem to have overly-rosy misconceptions about oriental religions.

 

[GraceSofia]

As a Catholic I will say first I love my faith, second facebook is not the best way to get statistics but to answer your question, Can you think of any scandals involving the Dalai Lama?

No, but I am not that interested in him. This thread caught my eye partly because I have a couple friends who are into posting quotes by him on Face Book, and I always read them and think… hhmmm… those same ideas are to be found in the Bible but if I posted them as Bible verses many of the same people who like the DL quotes would not “like” them simply because of their provenance.

Implied in your statement is that Pope Benedict has been involved in scandals. The media has worked hard to insert that idea in people’s minds. Think of the NY Times’ hit job on the Pope – which was a complete distortion of facts. Pope Benedict is a very holy man, but many in the MSM love to sling mud against the Catholic Church and the Pope.

 

[PumpkinSeed]

I didn’t know that we were. I couldn’t care less about it.

 

[Beautiful_Epona]

I would say he ‘attracts crowds’ because people can see and feel his ‘peacefulness’. It is on his face, in his eyes and in his words of wisdom.

People are only trying to find their spirituality, and he offers a gentle way of life. He doesn’t say ‘this is the right path’ or ‘that is the right path’. We are all on a spiritual journey after all. He just ‘offers’ his wisdom in the hope it can effect many in a positive way, and change attitudes and therefore bring more peace to the world.

I get it. I understand why people are drawn to him. Yes, it is a bit ‘modern’ to be into Buddhism at the moment, they are selling statues etc everywhere in cheap shops now, prayer flags etc. But you get past that, you get to the deeper meaning in it all.
Meditation, acceptance of others and their beliefs, being of service to others, loving your brothers and sisters.

I would love to see him or the Pope. Being in the presence of peaceful, spiritual people like that can only help your journey… I think.

Blessings.

 

[PazzoGrande]

No, but I am not that interested in him. This thread caught my eye partly because I have a couple friends who are into posting quotes by him on Face Book, and I always read them and think… hhmmm… those same ideas are to be found in the Bible but if I posted them as Bible verses many of the same people who like the DL quotes would not “like” them simply because of their provenance.

Implied in your statement is that Pope Benedict has been involved in scandals. The media has worked hard to insert that idea in people’s minds. Think of the NY Times’ hit job on the Pope – which was a complete distortion of facts. Pope Benedict is a very holy man, but many in the MSM love to sling mud against the Catholic Church and the Pope.

Yeah actually I agree with you as well on both points. People in my world also tend to zone out whenever the discussion turns to the Pope or Christianity, and they think those who promote Catholicism are dismissed off as closed-minded. Meanwhile those who quote the Dalai Lama are worldly, progressive and open. Talk about the Tibetan Buddhists’ struggle against China and it evokes sympathy. Talk about Catholicism’s struggle against China, and it evokes the response, “Catholicism is illegal in China? I didn’t know that.”

And on the other point, the scandals that surround the Pope tend to be yellow journalism. After he was elected, the UK media trumpeted how he was a Nazi, and of course that’s what forms public opinion. It ignores that he was forced to join the Nazi youth and abandoned it anyway at his own risk, ignores that he did a ton of speeches criticising Nazi ideaology, ignores that he had relatives killed by the Nazis, ignores that the Ratzinger family’s opposition to Nazism gave Joseph Ratzinger Sr professional problems and the family had to move around a lot, and ignores that Benedict’s election was congratulated by Jewish leaders and the Pope got to visit synagogues.

People will buy Susan Sarandon’s complaint that Benedict is a Nazi, and they will conveniently ignore how the Jewish Anti-Defamation League came to the Pope’s aid and condemned her comments.

More recently there was hubbub over how the Vatican’s biographies of the new Cardinals were lifted off Wikipedia. It was ridiculous controversy that the bias in people’s minds automatically make them think that somehow proves the Vatican is evil or corrupt, which is silly. I found it kind of charming, actually – they get their sources the same way we do. So much for the suspicions Vatican secrecy: really, these guys get their info the same way we do! The story was funny but it was painted as outrageous.

Over the last couple weeks, there were news stories about Cardinal Pell dissing the Jews. It made sensational headlines. But when you actually look at what he really said, it wasn’t controversial in the slightest.

There are media scandals that surround the Pope and very rarely are they fair news stories. The media goes unchecked and anyone who speaks out against the coverage will be dismissed off as a whitewasher.

 

[septimine]

The Dalai Lama deserves all the attention that he gets and the plight of the poor Tibetan peoples that he admirably represents.So if the sun shines brighter on some part of the world does not mean that we are deprived of it’s warming rays!

May I add,in my country Australia The Chinese Government puts enormeous pressure on our leaders to ban his visits and to “snub” him.I think the press reacts to this blatant Chinese threat by giving the Dalai Lama great press coverage to show them that that we still believe in freedom.

Here are the qualities that come to my mind of The Dalai Lama;I believe he has these human virtues that attract our deservedly esteem–his goodness of heart,sincerity,strength and constancy of mind,zealous pursuit of justice,affability and many others! as St Paul writes in (Ph 4:8) “Whatever things are true,whatever honourable,whatever just,whatever holy,whatever loving,whatever of good repute,if there be any virtue,if anything is worthy of praise,think upon these things”!

I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with DL, just that I don’t like when we’re cherry picking our “just causes” to get concerned about. Or when we pick certain types of religious freedom to celebrate while others cannot get any attention at all. A Christian pastor recently got executed in Iran – there were no protests, and most of the comments were things like “This is because Iran is pissed at the West, we should be more understanding”. OTOH, blowing up a Buddhist statue in Afghanistan in the early days of the Taliban drew a lot of outrage – how dare you blow up a statue? I don’t like double standards. I don’t like it when one cause is elevated to the level of “outrage” when other very similar causes are virtually ignored. If you believe in religious freedom in China, you believe in it for all people, not just Tibetan Buddhists, but everyone.

 

[Deconi]

There are two reasons why.

1. Political.
   He is in exile from his own country and people in various countries are sympathetic to the plight of his people…etc etc.
2. Religious.
   People in the West are looking for what their idea of ‘truth’ is, but in effect, they’re looking for what makes them feel better about themselves and ‘fulfilled’ as long as it is NOT Christianity! They love the mysticism of the Eastern Oriental philosophies of life etc. especially the relativistic tenet of, there is no real, only real self! (paraphrasing)

Observation note:
Currently in Asia, (India and China) they’ve been living with this stuff for CENTURIES and have discovered it is insufficient! They convert to Christianity in droves! The spiritual tenets of Catholicism appeals to ALL who find Her, and they ACTUALLY understand the traditions and mystic aspects of Catholic RITUALS more readily than westerners do. As I said, they’ve been living with Hinduism / Buddhism for millenias!!

The ‘danger’ in the Phillipines from Islamic converts is also due to this history, steeped in philosophical mysticism and finally ‘discovering’ the ‘One God’ albeit, Allah, and accepting the Quran at literal, unadulterated form.

The East are converting to the Western FAITH and the West are clammering for what the East are discarding, in a sense. Even in Tibet, home of the DL, the Catholics are returning to Mass!, but they do love their ‘globetrotting’ leader!

 

[PazzoGrande]

1. Religious.
   People in the West are looking for what their idea of ‘truth’ is, but in effect, they’re looking for what makes them feel better about themselves and ‘fulfilled’ as long as it is NOT Christianity! They love the mysticism of the Eastern Oriental philosophies of life etc. especially the relativistic tenet of, there is no real, only real self! (paraphrasing)

With this Western fatigue of Christianity, do you think Eastern Christianity is a good way to get Westerners interested in their religion again? I recently read an article that said that Eastern Catholicism can get Westerner’s attention because of that taste for the exotic. Interesting thesis.

I must admit that I have a taste for Eastern Christian things. I find their vestments and the icons much more beautiful than what we Latins have nowadays.

 

[Deconi]

With this Western fatigue of Christianity, do you think Eastern Christianity is a good way to get Westerners interested in their religion again? I recently read an article that said that Eastern Catholicism can get Westerner’s attention because of that taste for the exotic. Interesting thesis.

The West have had the TRUTH and taken it for granted for so long that it’s been diluted with global materialism they no longer recognise it! The ‘battle’ between The Church and The Reformers, levelling accusation upon accusation against Her, needed time WASTED to defend sound doctrine and Scriptures from contamination and corruption. With the secular attacks on Her stand on abortion (1960s) global conflicts, sovereigns and state powers threateneing / abusing their citizens and neighbours, ‘philosophical’ scientific claims, rise of Islamic violence, Her attention to worldly events for centuries and the filth infiltrating within her among laymen and clergy have taken their pound of flesh and ‘weakened’ Her!

Except for the Mass which ‘unifies’ Catholics, people search for what is true from a multitude of choices that they think it doesn’t exist anymore…which sounds exactly like what the Orients have been practicing for centuries! So, celebs and the rich, because they can afford it, flood East and the throngs follow what the media feeds them!

What the media does not show the West, is that the celebs and rich of the East are converting to the faith the West have, which includes the ‘freedom’ of democracy, incidently a tenet of Catholicism from antiquity that every human person has a right to life and freedom…and written into the founding documents of Western countries.

I must admit that I have a taste for Eastern Christian things. I find their vestments and the icons much more beautiful than what we Latins have nowadays.

Eastern have things that are ‘new’ to visualise and experience and are attractive for those reasons, but the novelty must wear off as every novelty does. Remember, to the East, these are nice but the vestments on your side are attractive too! It is just more colours, brighter and more flavour than you’re used to. (Like food as well)

That said, the statutes will be different than you’re used to, the colours, experience etc…are indeed BEAUTIFUL in this part of the world and likely not seen often in the west. A simple crucifix with the Asian or Pacific Rim flavour is different to what the west may be used to, but it is still a crucifix.

Bottom Line?
People East and West just want The Truth!
In the west is the resurgence of that search for truth among Christians in multiple denominations as information and ‘libraries’ have become accessible at your fingertips! Alas, cyberspace is already flooded with fact and fiction or mixture of both!..but people are smarter, younger, and hungry for that truth!

Just musing, of course…

 

[Kouyate42]

I’d say a lot of it is to do with the fact that many Buddhist principles have been swallowed up into Western culture, stripped of any real spiritual meaning (if it had any in the first place) and then given this trendy, fashionable status.

It happens with a lot of cultural practices. A few years ago around my area there was some huge fad for Japanese stuff (manga, anime, kimonos, paper fans, origami) and a LOT of people I knew simply did a lot of it without really understanding the cultural and social reasons behind it, and as someone with a lot of respect for Japanese culture, it hurt me quite badly.

 

[PazzoGrande]

It happens with a lot of cultural practices. A few years ago around my area there was some huge fad for Japanese stuff (manga, anime, kimonos, paper fans, origami)

That’s interesting, I wasn’t aware there was much in social context on those topics. I’m not a fan of them but I guess I prove your point.