The Future Of Tibet And Tibetean Buddhism

[WanderingTaoist]

I don't know very much about Tibetean Buddhism, but lately I've been thinking....

What do you think the future holds for Tibet, and Tibetean Buddhism? Do you think there's any chance China will relinquish its claim?

Also, What about the Dalai Lama? I've heard that he has, on several occasions, mentioned something to the ffect that that the Dalai Lama has "served its purpose" and that he won't be reincarnated again. What do you make of these statements? Are they mostly political, or spiritual, or a mixture of both?

[MidnightSun]

If Tibet is getting independence it will be just the same commercial country as its neighbours.

[scameter]

I don't think China will ever let it go, unless it's government either changes or is pressured into letting Tibet go. When China took Tibet over, people were upset and everything, but if you notice nobody came to the aid of the Tibetans; they had to flee to India. Nobody but common people of countries really care about Tibet. But, Tibetan Buddhism I think will definitely live on; even if there is no Dalai Lama, or even no school or monasteries that are about it, the school of thought in Buddhism that is Tibetan will continue, at least in other countries; people won't simply let it go. We take ideas alot more seriously than we do almost anything else, even other people. Most people are forgotten; they live, and they die, and no one but their immediate family and friends care or knows. But, ideas are recognized and seen and remembered.

[Arctic-Stranger]

I highly recommend "The Jewel and the Lotus" a book about several Jewish scholars who traveled to the Dalai Lama to discuss how a religion survives in diaspora.

Even without this provoking question, I would recommend the book.

[scameter]

Hmm... seems interesting. But why would Jewish scholars be speaking with the Dalai Lama about that particular topic?

[WanderingTaoist]

Hmm... seems interesting. But why would Jewish scholars be speaking with the Dalai Lama about that particular topic?

Probably because the very word "diaspora" originally comes from the history of the Jewish people. They've been in disapora for much of that history. They're definitely one of the most pissed-on groups of people in the history of humanity.

[scameter]

True. Although less so than those societies that we pissed on so much that they hardly exist anymore except in how they were bred into the society of those doing the pissing, like with the Native Americans.

[WanderingTaoist]

True. Although less so than those societies that we pissed on so much that they hardly exist anymore except in how they were bred into the society of those doing the pissing, like with the Native Americans.

Oh, I agree, but as a religious group that has managed not only to survive and maintain its diaspora, the Jews are unparelled. It makes a great deal of sense that they'd want to talk with Tibetean Buddhists, who are a religious group in a similiar situation.

Thanks for the recomendation, Arctic Stranger. That sounds like a very intriguing read...

[scameter]

True. They have had the ability to stay alive, and they took it. The Native Americans did the unintelligent thing and fought us. Course, they didn't have other nations around them to go to, as the Tibetans and Jews did.

[MidnightSun]

The Native Americans did the unintelligent thing and fought us.

It was self defence. The invaders came, occupied their lands, what could they do? Wouldnt you feel the same, they were provoked

[scameter]

The same thing the Jews did against their attackers, and the Tibetans. The Native Americans yes originally didn't want to fight us, and we forced them into self-defense, but if they would have totally submitted and became slaves, as the Africans did, they would still be alive, as the African-Americans are now. The Indians fought because they had pride and dedication; they weren't simply going to give in. And, they died for it.

[MidnightSun]

Its simple die or live a bad life question. Every person would choose this on his own.

[scameter]

So, the Jews and African-Americans decided to live bad lives for a little bit, or sometimes, and the other times, especially in America, to live possibly even better than the other races present. The Indians prefered to be honourable and fight for their freedom, even if it meant losing their lives.