This article recently featured in an Indian newspaper called the Business Standard. It talks about His Holiness' 'gaining' popularity in the west and seems to suggest an ulterior motive behind it.
Quote:
While I do not usually react to articles such as these, for some reason I chose to respond to this one. Here's my response:
Sir,
The BS article on HH Dalai Lama by Barun Roy (“Dalai Lama’s Brain Game” 17th Oct ’03) offered unique insights into the activities of the Dalai Lama. However, reading through the article one does get the feeling that almost all the inferences drawn are either ill researched or speculative.
Sure the Dalai Lama and Buddhist teachings in general are gaining greater acceptance in the USA, but this is not a recent phenomenon. It is a hangover from the 70’s appetite for Eastern mysticism that is finally surfacing. While the West’s fascination with Hinduism was much more evident in India, there were a significant number of Buddhist followers from the West at the same time. The only reason this was probably not that evident may have been because of the fact that these early Lamas were not as publicity oriented as the Mahrishis (The first visible Buddhist teacher in the west was probably Chogyam Trungpa, who established the Naropa University.)
So the West’s fascination for Hinduism is fading off, but apparently Buddism is still influencing a lot of Americans. Is this because of a publicity hungry Spiritual and Political leader? I really do not think so. The article speaks about the amount of revenue generated by the teachings and books. As far as I know, most of the revenue generated is re-distributed amongst a number of charities. A small research into this would have given a correct perspective to the article.
Also the article speaks of the large number of converts and teaching centers in the US. It gives an impression that HH is the inspiration for this. Please note that there are four sects in Tibetan Buddhism, and HH heads the Gelug sect, which though the most dominant as far as Tibetans are concerned, may or may not be the dominant form of Buddhist teachings prevalent in America. Also apart from Tibetan monks, American monks and nuns too have established large number of the Dhrama Centers in the US. And this would include a large number of Kagyu, Sakya and Nyingma monks, apart from the Gelugs, of course.
As far as the Dalai Lama’s experiments with the ‘Meditative Mind’ is concerned, this I believe is a proof of his earnestness and openness which is quite lacking in some of the spiritual leaders of today. Moreover with reputed psychologist like Daniel Goleman and others involved in the project, it also happens to some amount credibility, depending upon how you want to look at it.
All in all, without some of the above perspectives the article currently appears a bit like Chinese propaganda. And certainly the appearance of such an article in a publication of your reputation does not do it justice.
Navneet Nair
Ven Thubten Chodron has a very nice explaination of the entire practice [view pdf]
These are the teachings that fall in the category of the Pratyekabuddha (or Self-made Buddhas) Teachings.
The twelve links are as follows:
Also as an aside, in Buddhist charts of the 12 Links of Dependant Origination, each link corresponds with an astrological sign. (info from khandro.net)