(6) The Dalai Lama & Democracy : Words v.s. Deeds

The Dalai Lama & Democracy:

Words v.s. Deeds

Selective Quotes of the Dalai Lama on Democracy :


" Although none of our Buddhist societies developed any-thing like democracy in their systems of government, I personally have great admiration for secular democracy. " "Although the Tibetans outside Tibet have been reduced to the status of refugees, we have the freedom to exercise our rights. Our brothers and sisters in Tibet, despite being in their own country do not even have the right to life. Therefore, those of us in exile have had a responsibility to contemplate and plan for a future Tibet. Over the years, therefore, we have tried through various means to achieve a model of true democracy. The familiarity of all Tibetan exiles with the word 'democracy' shows this."



"No system of government is perfect, but democracy is closest to our essential human nature. It is also the only stable foundation upon which a just and free global political structure can be built. So it is in all our interests that those of us who already enjoy democracy should actively support everybody's right to do so."




"The peaceful revolutions in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe have taught us many great lessons. One is the value of truth. People do not like to be bullied, cheated or lied to by either an individual or a system. Such acts are contrary to the essential human spirit. Therefore, those who practice deception and use force may achieve considerable short-term success, but eventually they will be overthrown."

" Truth is the best guarantor
and
the real foundation
of
freedom and democracy."

~ Dalai Lama ~

Source:

URL: http://www.dalailama.com/page.164.htm

Buddhism and Democracy, by the Dalai Lama, Washington, D.C., April 1993

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The Dalai Lama's "Family Business" - The Tibetan Government-in-Exile

"Like many Asian politicians, the Dalai Lama has been remarkably nepotistic, appointing members of his family to many positions of prominence. In recent years, three of the six members of the Kashag, or cabinet, the highest executive branch of the Tibetan government-in-exile, have been close relatives of the Dalai Lama.

An older brother served as chairman of the Kashag and as the minister of security. He also headed the CIA-backed Tibetan contra movement in the 1960s.

A sister-in-law served as head of the government-in-exile's planning council and its Department of Health.

A younger sister served as health and education minister and her husband served as head of the government-in-exile's Department of Information and International Relations.

Their daughter was made a member of the Tibetan parliament in exile. A younger brother has served as a senior member of the private office of the Dalai Lama and his wife has served as education minister.

The second wife of a brother-in-law serves as the representative of the Tibetan government-in-exile for northern Europe and head of international relations for the government-in-exile. All these positions give the Dalai Lama's family access to millions of dollars collected on behalf of the government-in-exile."

(Source: The Role of the CIA:

Behind the Dalai Lama's Holy Cloak,

by Michael Backman,

URL: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8426)

(3) Tibetan Buddhism as a Political Weapon of Mass Destruction: Then & Now

Tibetan Buddhism is often called “Lamaism”. Since the time of Chinggis Khaan, only people who were of his royal lineage were allowed to rule Mongolia. This frustrated many would-be rulers who were not of this line. Altan khan was the most destructive of these usurpers. He perceived that through the Buddhist faith he could gain legitimacy by claiming to be a reincarnation of Khublai Khaan.

Altan khan chose the Gelug order of Tibetan Buddhism (founded by Tsongkhapa, 1357-1419). In 1577 he invited the leader of this order, Sonam Gyatsho, to come to Mongolia and teach his people.

Sonam Gyatsho proclaimed Altan Khan to be the reincarnation of Khublai Khan, and in return, Altan Khan gave the title Dalai Lama to Sonam Gyatsho. Altan Khan posthumously awarded the title to his two predecessors, making Sonam Gyatsho the 3rd Dalai Lama.

Altan khan then proceeded to convert the Mongols to Buddhism either by choice or force.

“The Mongolian government and Lamaist bodies of that period implemented a variety of measures intended to wipe out Mongolian shamanism. For example, Tumed’s Altan Khan passed a law in 1578 that banned shamanist ideological propaganda and traditional rituals. Shamanist ceremonies, including burial-services that involved the burning of animal meat were forbidden by this law. In contrast, Buddhist annual and monthly fasting was strictly enforced. Laws protected inviolable rights of Lamaist officials as officers of the state according to their rank and positions respectively. The four main ranks of Lama priests became exempt from military and fiscal dues. Lavish gifts were given to incoming Lamas according to special codes. For example, a Lama should receive at least 100 horses or equivalent, if he were a learned priest, an unlearned one no less than 20, and even a servant or coachman should be given at least 10. Moreover, images and appurtenances of ongons were burned down and replaced with idols of Mahagal-Burhan. These were to be worshiped with sacrifices of the three kinds of animal flesh (mutton, beef, and horse), and all kinds of milk products. Households were forbidden to carry out shamanist worship at home. Culprits were to pay a fine in horses related to the number of offenses. These laws on one hand gave Lamaism legal, political and economic privileges, while on the other they persecuted shamans and severely restricted the practice of their customs.

Thanks mainly to the investment, assistance, and support of the Ming Dynasty, many Lamaist monasteries were built and many Buddhist texts were published in Beijing to be sent to Mongolia. It is evident that this zeal on the part of the Ming and Qing dynasties to spread the red and yellow Buddhist sects in Mongolia was primarily in order to undermine the heroic warrior traditions of the Mongols. Encouraging Lamaism or Yellow Buddhism in Mongolia subverted the Mongol traditional values. In this regard the distinguished scholar Roy Chapman Andrews wrote “There were several contributory causes of the decay of the Mongol race, but the primal factor was the introduction of Lamaism. Before this they were shamanists, worshipping the spirits of nature...in rocks, trees and mountains.”

Until the 1940’s there were a total of approximately 941 Buddhist monasteries, about 70% of which were not established until the 19th century.

The Manchurian Emperors [Qing Dynasty] instigated a number of aggressive and brutal measures against shamanism during the 17th century, including the humiliation of Oirad’s official Neij (1557-1653) and Zayar Bandid Namhayjamts (1575-1662). The teachings of Maydar Hutagt, sent to Mongolia for the intensification of Lamaism, spread in Mongolia. Shamans were killed, murdered, burnt with dog droppings, and subjected to many fines paid in livestock. Between the 1860’s and 1904, there were three mass burnings at campfires around Horchin, at which it was said, “The ones who have real powers will emerge unscathed, but the remainders shall die.”
Another such burning occurred in the 19th century in Besud Yost Zasagt Hoshuu.
Excerpt from Mongolian Shamanism by Purev Otgony

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Besides the killing of shamans, the campaign to wipe out shamanism had many strategies.

First, Lamaist ideology spread by targeting shamans, their family, and their children by telling them they were reincarnations of great Lamas. They would then be encouraged to go to the monastery or send their children there, where they would be “reeducated” in Lamaist dogma. If the shaman was considered powerful or important, Lamaists would target their entire family.

Second, shaman prayers were rewritten with Lamaist influences and dogma. People were forced to recite the new prayers.

Third, Shaman ancestor spirits were “reincarnated” as Lamas or “converted” to Lamaism.

Fourth, Lamaists labeled all shamans “Black shamans”, no matter what their tradition. From the 17th to the 19th century, this label was used to create confusion, spread mistrust, and break down the different shaman traditions. (See “Types of Shamans”).

Fifth, Mongolian protector spirits were “converted” into Lamaism and were incorporated into what is called the Tsam dance.

Sixth, sacred shamanic sites were taken over and monasteries and stupas built over them.

In 1644 the Qing dynasty in China came to power. Unlike previous dynasties, the Qing dynasty was very involved with Mongolia, Tibet, and Central Asia. Through both military and diplomatic means, the Qing first overtook the Chahar Mongols and the territory of Inner Mongolia.

The Khalkha Mongols of outer Mongolia needed to unite. Tusheet Khan wanted to unite the Khalkhas. He believed that Lamaism could help unify the Mongols if they had their own Living Buddha. With a Living Buddha- a Bogdo Gegen- of Mongolian descent, he could unite the Mongols, and get out from under the over-lordship of the Dalai Lamas in Tibet. He nominated his son, Zanabazar (1635-1723) to be this living Buddha and sent him to Tibet to be recognized and schooled.

The political unity that Tusheet Khan sought was not successful. However, the tradition of a Bogdo Gegen of Mongolia had been born. Zanabazar returned from Tibet and was the first of many Bogdo Gegens.

In 1691, Mongolia was submitted to Qing ruler ship. The Qing government wanted to encourage Mongols to become pacifist-Lamaists and allowed the continuation of the Bogdo Gegen line. They did place many limitations on the Living Buddhas, however. A decree was made that reincarnations of Mongolia’s Living Buddha had to be found in Tibet and may not be related to any Mongolian nobility. These incarnations were also educated in Tibet before their “reign” in Mongolia. These puppet rulers of Mongolia could only engage in Lamaist religious pursuits and could not even travel without permission from the Qing government.

The series of Bogdo Gegens solidified Lamaism’s role through the region. More and more monasteries were built and people were expected to support them. Lamaist monasteries drained the wealth of the people and changed Mongolian society. My the mid 1800’s, 45% of Mongol males had taken monastic vows.

Many people were forced to serve as bondsmen to the monasteries. Bogdo Gegen had 22,000 monks and 28,000 bondsmen. There were many complaints of children being abused by monks. The monks themselves spread syphilis all over the countryside. The people began to feel unrest. In 1921, requests for assistance to the Soviet Communist government were made. In 1924, when the last Bogdo Gegen died with syphilis, the Mongolian People’s Republic was born.

The Faith Factor in Foreign Policy:
Religious Constituencies and Congressional
Initiative on Human Rights

Allen D. Hertzke, University of Oklahoma

One of the surprises of the past decade is how Congress increasingly seized the foreign policy initiative in crafting American responses to human rights violations around the world. Propelling this development was a new faith-based movement that coalesced out of concern for the denial of religious freedom abroad. That movement succeeded in gaining landmark legislation aimed at the pandemic of global persecution, but it then capitalized on that momentum to attack other human rights abuses.

The key lesson from this story is not the obvious verity that Congress responds to constituent pressure, because Congress itself spurred the very forces that gave rise to initial constituent interest. Rather, the legislative campaign for the persecuted served as the catalyst that ignited nascent forces into a more durable movement. Explaining how and why the congressional system produced this outcome helps us to understand the nexus of global religious trends, movement politics, and American foreign policy.

The Religious Context

Brutal suppression of religion has been a leitmotif of the twentieth century. But until recently the context of the cold war and the press of global crises deflected singular attention to this phenomenon. In the 1990s, however, conditions ripened for a movement to make combating religious persecution a specific aim of American foreign policy.

First, in spite of the secularization paradigm that guided modernization literature, there has been a striking resurgence of religion in the post-cold war - what French scholar Gilles Kepel calls "The Revenge of God."¹ As Samuel Huntington observed, when religion matters to people, authoritarian governments "will insist on controlling it, suppressing it, regulating it, prohibiting it, and manipulating it to their own advantage."²

Second, Christians are among the most numerous victims of this persecution because of an unheralded demographic revolution - a tectonic shift of the Christian population away from the West toward developing and non-democratic countries. Propelled by dramatic indigenous growth, some 60 percent of the world's Christians live outside of North America and Europe, and that percentage is growing.³ Feared as a force for independent civil society and often perceived as agents of the democratic West, as many as 200 million believers in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia live under the threat of brutal treatment at the hands of authorities.⁴

Third, believers in the United States are naturally drawn to these besieged Christians, whose plight is highlighted by a growing array of international advocacy groups. Vivid models of courage and fidelity among modern martyrs can also inspire the faithful, a fact not lost on church leaders. At many evangelical events today featured speakers are foreign Christians, treated like celebrities and role models, who share poignant testimony of how God sustained them as they languished in prison or suffered torture. With Protestant Evangelicalism at the cutting edge of church growth in the United States, grass roots concern for the "suffering church" increasingly percolated in the years leading up to congressional action.

Finally, the emergence of the United States as the globe's lone superpower offered a unique opportunity to ameliorate this suffering through American foreign policy leadership. As popular writers, activists, and religious leaders spotlighted the problem, they implored Americans to take seriously their responsibility as citizens of the world's indispensable nation.

The Legislative Catalyst

The above efforts, though notable in preparing the way, remained fragmented and muted until activists made a pivotal strategic decision: to mount a campaign for congressional legislation. This legislative vehicle provided a tangible way for American Christians to exercise their citizenship on behalf of co-religionists. But it also acted as a powerful magnet, drawing into the movement others who saw their concerns advanced by the initiative.

The person most responsible for this strategic decision, ironically, was a Jew, Michael Horowitz, a former Reagan administration official and well-connected think tank lawyer. Outraged when an Ethiopian Christian friend (recovering from torture) was threatened with deportation, Horowitz dramatized the scope of religious persecution, which he complained was an "orphan" of the human rights establishment. A blunt polemicist and tough political infighter, Horowitz prodded Christian leaders and fellow Jews into legislative action by characterizing Christians as "the Jews of the 21^st Century," and the "victims of choice for thug regimes."⁵

Most crucially, Horowitz's strategic analysis mirrored that of scholars who argue that social movement success depends on fostering "cognitive liberation" - a freeing of people from the fatalistic view that they cannot move the political system.⁶ To Horowitz, the legislative campaign was primarily a tool to liberate the Christian community from its sheepishness and transform the way "bigoted" secular elites view devout faith in the twenty-first century.

Horowitz also hoped that the drama of legislative battle would catalyze the emerging movement, drawing diverse groups into its vortex. As the campaign waxed, in fact, liberal Jewish groups teamed up with conservative evangelicals, the Catholic Church with Tibetan Buddhists, Anglicans with the Salvation Army. Though the groups did not always agree on remedies, they created a formidable sense that something had to pass.

Congressional hearings and impassioned floor debates, in turn, fed back into the movement, heightening visibility and providing new fodder for mobilization. Though the elite press slighted the movement, church publications and mailings featured the "exciting" efforts of advocates in the nation's capital. Charles Colson of Prison Fellowship and James Dobson of Focus on the Family publicized the cause in syndicated radio and newspaper outlets. Stories on the legislation appeared in Christianity Today, and advocacy groups, such as Oklahoma-based Voice of the Martyrs, implored their followers to write Congress. Members of Congress noticed the grass roots buzz. Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), who emerged as a leader in the new movement, said he was struck by how often he heard from constituents at town hall meetings in Kansas about the plight of Christians in Sudan or China.⁷

Several features of the law-making arena helped Congress play this catalyst role. First, in our representative system law enjoys both statutory power and the powerful symbolic import of legis rex. Because of this, the legislative campaign attracted the attention of international organizations and foreign dissidents alike. Fierce opposition from the business community, in a curious way, only served to heighten the stakes and energize the advocates.

Second, the bicameral complexities of the system propelled a quest for consensus, which produced a strongly unified congressional initiative. Indeed, the system operated pretty much as the founders envisioned. Responding to "public passions," the House passed tough initial legislation. Sponsored by Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and Chris Smith (R-N.J.), the House bill employed blunt measures designed to hold the president accountable if he waived automatic sanctions against nations that egregiously persecute religionists. The Clinton administration vigorously opposed the House bill and State Department officials testified against it. In spite of this opposition, House leaders were able to use the rules to get the bill to the floor, where it passed strongly but not unanimously.

Though the House bill was unacceptable in the Senate, it sparked efforts by members and staff to craft an alternative. That Senate bill, sponsored by Don Nickles (R-Okla.) and Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), was more measured, less blunt in its remedies, and more tied into the routines of diplomacy. As it became clear that Nickles-Lieberman was the only vehicle with a chance of passage, efforts were made to accommodate some House interests, even while negotiations took place with a reluctant administration loath to appear unsympathetic. The result was a true consensus, but one that barely beat the clock. Legislation made it to the Senate floor and was passed by vote of 98-0 on the last day of the 105th Congress. With no time for conference, and no one wanting to vote for persecution, the House passed the Senate bill by acclamation, thus ensuring that the legislation enjoyed unanimous backing in both houses. In the aftermath of the victory, religious presses lauded this "providential" outcome, which would place the government's unalloyed imprimatur on the cause of religious freedom around the world.

One of the most sweeping human rights statutes on the books, the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) creates a new State Department office and an Ambassador-At-Large for International Religious Freedom. It mandates that State produce a comprehensive annual report on the status of religious freedom around the world - which sets into motion presidential action against violating countries. The law also creates an independent commission, with staff and budget, to monitor violations and hold policymakers accountable for their response. Finally, it reaches into the daily routines of foreign policy by providing better training for diplomatic personnel and fostering their ongoing contacts with vulnerable religious communities on the ground.

Another reason that the legislative arena was so conducive to the religious freedom movement was that there were past models upon which to draw. A case in point was congressional action during the campaign for soviet Jewry in the 1970s. Spurred by Jewish lobby efforts and public sympathy for refuzniks, Congress passed, over Nixon's objections, the Jackson-Vanik act in 1973, which linked normal trade status to emigration policies by the Soviet Union. Some Christian advocates explicitly saw this as their model.

Then, as now, key members of Congress - by virtue of conviction, ties to constituents, and location in the foreign policy system - are inclined to assert a broad view of the national interest, one that transcends narrow calculations of realpolitik. The legislative campaign against religious persecution, consequently, intersected a wider struggle over the direction of American foreign policy. That struggle, which is occurring even within the Bush administration, pits "realists" who view the national interest in narrow economic and security terms against those who would champion American leadership on behalf of democratization and human rights. The campaign for religious rights thus gained strategic allies in the foreign policy commentariat who are similarly inclined to assert a moral underpinning to America's engagement in the world.

Congressman Chris Smith, former chair of the Human Rights Subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee, illustrates the way promotion of religious freedom dovetails with a broader critique of foreign policy "realism." He takes issue with "so-called professionals," especially those in his own party, whose mantra is "stability, stability, stability." Time and again, he observed, "stable" authoritarian regimes turned out anything but. "Dictatorships and lawless governments are unreliable trading partners, dangerous to their neighbors,"and less stable than nations that respect human rights. Promoting human rights, if done smartly, is indeed in the national interest. "If you get that right," he argues, everything else follows.⁸ While Smith has been making these arguments for years, the legislative campaign enhanced his prominence and the new law provided additional levers for him to employ.

Religion on Capitol Hill

A final reason Congress played such a pivotal role in the movement for the persecuted is that many members themselves, and their staffs, are enmeshed in religious life and thus predisposed to sympathy for the cause. Cynics might be skeptical, but serious empirical analysis suggests that religious commitments and worldviews do shape the work of many members.⁹ Moreover, my own investigation confirms a thriving religious life on the Hill, including weekly faith sharing sessions among congressional members across party and denominational lines. Given the exceptional vibrancy of religious life in the United States, it should not surprise us that the people's representatives generally reflect that cultural context, or that some consciously link their faith and human rights advocacy.

But equally significant, key members of Congress actually emerged as leaders of the movement itself. Three friends and prayer partners, Tony Hall (D-Ohio), Frank Wolf, and Chris Smith, have traveled the world to meet with Jewish refusniks, Chinese dissidents, imprisoned pastors, Sudanese refugees, tortured believers, war refugees, and victimized women. Hall, an evangelical Democrat from working class Dayton, linked his leadership against world hunger with work against dictatorships that destroy their own people. Wolf, a devout Presbyterian, was profiled by the Washington Post as the capitol's first "bleeding heart conservative."¹⁰ Pastors in Eastern Europe were said to carry dog-eared letters from Wolf to use when harassed by authorities. The evangelical legislator is respected by colleagues across the aisle (liberal San Francisco Democrat Nancy Pelosi referred to him as "my leader" on religious freedom issues). Chris Smith, a Catholic, describes himself as a Matthew 25 Christian ("whatsoever you do to the least of these, you do to me"). Inspired by the book, Tortured for Christ by a Romania pastor, Smith used his chairmanship to build a massive documentary record of the denial of religious freedom, which was picked up and publicized by advocacy groups.

In the Senate, too, the convictions of members played a crucial role. Notable in the effort were retiring evangelical Dan Coats (R-Ind.), who viewed the legislation as his swan song and insisted that it pass before adjournment, Catholic Don Nickles (R-Okla.), whose prior work on the issue made him a logical principal sponsor, and Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), whose orthodox Jewish faith (and its link to political convictions) became legendary in the presidential campaign. Lieberman continues to list the passage of IRFA as one of his major legislative achievements.

The impact of religious commitments extends to staff. A number of crucial Hill staff members have close ties to international church groups and are respected in the religious community. Some bring experience in foreign missions, others in human rights advocacy abroad, still others serve as fellows sponsored by religious groups. Two such staff fellows, John Hanford in the office of Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and Laura Bryant Hanford in the office of Congressman Bob Clement (D-Tenn.), worked for months helping to hammer out what ultimately became the Nickles-Lieberman bill.

The Legacy: A Movement Buoyed

The legislative campaign to make promotion of religious freedom a "basic aim" of American foreign policy propelled the faith-based movement into the vanguard of human rights advocacy.

First, the campaign enhanced the social movement infrastructure. New leaders emerged, trust relationships were forged, and advocacy groups experienced dramatic membership growth and heightened visibility. Activists operating on shoestring budgets won more stable foundation funding as their efforts gained stature. Established institutions, such as Freedom House, expanded their focus on religious freedom. Think thanks and academic institutes sponsored conferences, books appeared, and news stories sprouted. Religious non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are being drawn into foreign policy counsels for information and advice.

Second, the movement established new government institutions and process that ensure ongoing attention. The State Department now has internal advocates whose clout is enhanced by legal mandates and outside pressure. The independent Commission on International Religious Freedom, designed to hold officials' feet to fire as they implement the law, conducts its own fact finding trips, sponsors hearings, and shares policy recommendations with top officials at the White House and Congress. Obscure but besieged religious minorities - Hoa Hao Buddhists in Vietnam, Muslim Uyghurs in China, Ahmadis in Pakastin, and Baha'is in Iran - have found their causes highlighted. Leaders in foreign capitals have noticed the increased American attention to abuses. The government of Uzbekistan, apparently fearing that it would be named to the list of worst persecuting nations in 1999, freed its known Christian prisoners before the State Department report was released.¹¹

Third, the movement plucked the tragedy in Sudan from the backwaters of human rights concern. Africans in southern Sudan, most of them Christians or tribal religionists, have been subjected to forced starvation, genocidal massacres, and abduction into slavery by agents of the militant Islamist regime in Khartoum.¹² That record is no longer ignored because the congressional-church network has intensified pressure on the regime. Not only have bipartisan congressional members traveled to Sudan, but one of them, Senator Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), even "performed surgery in a bush hospital bombed by planes from Khartoum."¹³ Because of religious humanitarian efforts, moreover, clinics and schools hit by the regime are often run by Catholic, Anglican, or evangelical churches with international linkages and strategic access to policymakers. One relief organization, for example, is Samaritan's Purse, founded and led by Franklin Graham, who offered prayer at the inauguration of George W. Bush.

A Movement That Travels

The coalition for international religious freedom has also proven mobile. Buoyed by their victory in 1998, religious leaders led another successful legislative effort in 2000, this time joining with feminists to attack the brutal global trafficking of up to two million vulnerable women and children annually into forced prostitution.¹⁴ Laura Lederer, director of the Protection Project at the Nitze School at Johns Hopkins University, led a huge project to document the inadequacy of laws dealing with the global crime syndicates that perpetuate this human rights catastrophe. Her efforts, however, did not gain policy traction until the issue was engaged by the religious community. Many of the leaders who forged partnerships in the religious rights campaign were central in building the groundswell for major sex trafficking legislation. These included David Saperstein, the veteran liberal leader for Reform Judaism, who lobbied with Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, John Busby of the Salvation Army, Charles Colson, and William Bennett.

Even given the capacity of social movements to create strange bedfellows, the coalition was a sight to behold, as feminist groups joined hands with their evangelical foes on abortion policy. Chris Smith, the principal architect of the legislation, recounted how some feminist leaders planned strategy in the same room with evangelical representatives, some of whom might be depicted as "Christian Right." As Richard Cizik, director of the Washington office of the National Association of Evangelicals noted, "human rights is now no longer the only prerogative of the left."¹⁵

A final and fascinating case of religious foreign policy engagement concerned the effort to relieve debts burdening impoverished nations. Long a cause of international development organizations, major debt relief legislation passed the 106th Congress with pivotal backing from the religious community. This time the initiative came from the liberal church groups, led by Tom Hart, former Democratic staffer and director of the national Episcopal office in Washington. In part because of relationships forged in the religious freedom campaign, he was able to reach across the cultural divide to enlist ecumenical support, not the least of which came from Pat Robertson, who asked members of his 700 Club to write Phil Graham (R-Texas) when the senator threatened to put a hold on the legislation.¹⁶

Summary

There is "power in movement."¹⁷ Social movements take people out of their routines. They excite, buoy confidence, forge new relationships, and strengthen organizations. But movements need vehicles to focus disparate leaders and energize constituencies. Congress, as "the keystone of the Washington establishment," provided the vehicle for the new religious coalition on foreign policy. Just as laser technology focuses and intensifies diffuse light, the congressional arena absorbed nascent movement energies against religious persecution and sent them out in magnified form.

Notes

1. Gilles Kepel, The Revenge of God: The Resurgence of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism in the Modern World (University Park: PA: Pennsylvania State University Press,1994).

2. Samuel Huntington, "Religious Persecution at the Close of the Twentieth Century: Its Nature and Causes, and Implications for the International System," in The Faith Factor, Elliott Abrams, ed. (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, forthcoming 2001).

3. The World Almanac and Book of Facts (Mahwah, NJ: World Almanac Books, 2000); and the Britannica Book of the Year, 2000.

4. This is the estimate of Canadian human rights scholar Paul Marshall, Their Blood Cries Out (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1997). Specific documentation can be found in "Persecution of Christians Worldwide," hearing before the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights of the Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives, 15 February 1996; and in Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, Department of State, November 2000.

5. See Paul Blustein, "A Jew Battles Persecution of Christians," The Washington Post, 9 October 1997; and Michael Cromartie, "The Jew Who is Saving Christians," Christianity Today, 1 March 1999.

6. Doug McAdam, Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985).

7. Interview.

8. Interview.

9. Peter Benson and Dorothy Williams, Religion on Capitol Hill (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986).

10. Lori Montgomery, "Party Lines Blur for Area Lawmakers, The Washington Post, 24 May 2000.

11. Religious Freedom in the World, Paul Marshall, ed. (Washington D.C.: Freedom House, 2000), 321; confirmed by State Department sources.

12. The Sudanese regime is the world's worst perpetrator of religious persecution, according to the Report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, 1 May 2000 (www.uscirf.gov).

13. Mary McGory, "Suddenly Sudan," The Washington Post, 11 March 2001.

14. Alexandra Marks, "Activists Unleash Campaign to Shut Down Sex Tours," Christian Science Monitor, 16 January 1999.

15. Laurie Goodstein, "A Move to Fight the 'Persecution' Facing Christians," The New York Times, 9 November 1998.

16. "Religious Leaders Cheer Debt Relief," Christian Century, November 2000.

17. Sidney Tarrow, Power in Movement (Cambridge University Press, 1994).

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Dateline the World
Azerbaijan	"Sixty Christians arrested at worship service"	1999
China	"Police destroy 15,000 religious sites in Zhejiang province"	1998
Chechyna	"Baptist leader reported beheaded"	1999
Columbia	"Christian leaders marked for assassination"	2000
Cuba	"Bibles reported burned"	1999
Egypt	"Coptic monk murdered"	1999
India	"Hindu extremists 'justify' rape of Catholic nuns"	1998
Indonesia	"Clergy slain in East Timor"	1999
Laos	"Christians forced to recant their faith"	2000
Nigeria	Christian women targeted in Sokoto State"	2001
Pakistan	"Christian ordered hung for blasphemy"	1998
Russia	"Further Christian kidnappings in North Caucasus"	1999
Saudi Arabia	"Riyadh police break up Christian worship service"	2000
Sudan	"Forced starvation, enslavement of African Christians and animists"	2000
Vietnam	"Protestants and Catholics imprisoned without charge, heavily fined"	2000
These headlines, taken from newsletters of international Christian advocacy groups, news stories, and official reports, dramatize the plight of the "suffering Christian church" abroad and create pressure for an American foreign policy response.

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Allen D. Hertzke, professor of political science at the University of Oklahoma, is currently writing for Rowman & Littlefield publishers a book entitled To Untie the Yoke: Global Religious Persecution, Human Rights, and American Foreign Policy. His email address is ahertzke@ou.edu.

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How and Why to Support Religion Overseas Scott M. Thomas | November 6, 2007 Editor: John Feffer

Foreign Policy In Focus www.fpif.org

(1) The Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism Guru and Sex Abuse

Best-selling Buddhist author accused of sexual abuse

Nov 10 , 22:57:55 PST, 1994

http://www.well.com/conf/media/SF_Free_Press/nov11/guru.html

$10 million civil suit filed in Santa Cruz by a woman who says Sogyal Rinpoche, author of the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, "coerced" her into an intimate relationship

By Don Lattin
Special to the Free Press

SAN FRANCISCO -- With the blessings of the Dalai Lama, a group of American Buddhist women have launched a campaign to expose the alleged sexual misconduct of a prominent Tibetan lama and best-selling author.

Sogyal Rinpoche, author of the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, is accused of "physical, mental and sexual abuse" in a $10 million civil suit filed last week in Santa Cruz County Superior Court.

According to the lawsuit, an anonymous woman identified only as "Janice Doe" came to Rinpoche for spiritual guidance last year at a retreat sponsored by the Rigpa Fellowship meditation center in Santa Cruz, but was "coerced into an intimate relationship" with the Tibetan guru.

"Sogyal claimed (she) would be strengthened and healed by having sex with him and that to be hit by a lama was a blessing," the lawsuit states.

The suit -- which accuses Rinpoche of fraud, assault and battery, infliction of emotional distress and breach of fiduciary duty -- also charges that the Tibetan lama has "seduced many other female students for his own sexual gratification."

Sandra Pawula, spokeswoman for the Rigpa Fellowship of Santa Cruz, one of many meditation centers in the United States, Europe and Australia, declined to comment about the allegations, but said that Rinpoche is not married and does not claim to be a celibate monk. Rinpoche, who lives abroad, could not be reached for comment. The lawsuit follows a letter-writing campaign to the Dalai Lama by American women concerned about alleged sexual exploitation by Rinpoche and several lesser-known Tibetan lamas.

"What some of these students have experienced is terrible and most unfortunate," said Tenzin Geyche Tethong, the Dharamsala-based secretary to the Dalai Lama.

In a letter sent earlier this year to one of the women, Tethong said Tibetan Buddhist leaders "have been aware of these (allegations) for some years now."

Jack Kornfield, founder of Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin County, was among a group of two dozen Western teachers who discussed the sexual misconduct of Buddhist teachers with the Dalai Lama last year in India.

According to Kornfield, the Tibetan Buddhist leader told the Americans to "always let people know when things are wrong. Put it in the newspapers if you must do so."

Another woman allegedly abused by Rinpoche, Victoria Barlow of New York City, said she is "disgusted by the way the Tibetans have manipulated the reverence Westerners have for the Buddhist path."

Barlow, 40, said she first met Rinpoche in the mid-1970s, when she was 21, and that she was sexually exploited by him during meditation retreats in New York and Berkeley.

"I went to an apartment to see a highly esteemed lama and discuss religion," she said in an interview with the Free Press. "He opened the door without a shirt on and with a beer in his hand."

Once they were on the sofa, Barlow said, the Tibetan "lunged at me with sloppy kisses and groping."
"I thought I should take it as the deepest compliment that he was interested and basically surrender to him," she said.

Sources say the Tibetan Buddhists were trying to handle this issue within their community but decided, especially after the Dalai Lama made the comment about going to the press, to go public now.

"The Dalai Lama has known about this for years and done nothing. There is a real code of secrecy and silence," said Barlow.

The Independent - 10. February 1999 - Paul Vallely

I was a Tantric sex slave

For years June Campbell was the`consort`of a senior Tibetan Buddhist monk. She was threatened with death if she broke her vow of secrecy. But then enlightenment can be like that.
Feet of clay? No, it was a different part of the anatomy - and of all too fleshly substance - which caused the trouble. But, I suppose, you don`t expect Tantric sex to be a straightforward activity. Then again, sex of any kind isn`t really what you`re planning when you become a celibate nun.

It was, said June Campbell as she began her lecture, only the second time she had been asked to give a talk to a Buddhist group in this country since her book. Traveller in Space came out three years ago. Small wonder. The topic of her talk was "Dissent in Spiritual Communities", and you don`t get much more potent types of dissent than hers. For she not only revealed that she had for years been the secret sexual consort of one of the most holy monks in Tibetan Buddhism - the tulku (re-incarnated lama), Kalu Rinpoche. She also insisted that the abuse of power at the heart of the relationship exposed a flaw at the very heart of Tibetan Buddhism.

This was heresy , indeed. To outsiders, the Rinpoche was one of the most revered yogi-lamas in exile outside Tibet. As abbot of his own monastery, he had taken vows of celibacy and was celebrated for having spent 14 years in solitary retreat. Among his students were the highest ranking lamas in Tibet. "His own status, was unquestioned in the Tibetan community", said Ms. Campbell, "and his holiness attested to by all".

The inner circles of the world of Tibetan Buddhism - for all ist spread in fashionable circles in the West - is a closed and tight one. Her claims, though made in a restrained way in the context of a deeply academic book subtitled - "In Search of Female Identity in Tibetan Buddhism" - provoked what she described as a primitive outpouring of rage and fury. "I was reviled as a liar or a demon", she said during a public lecture last week at the nonsectarian College for Buddhist Studies in Sharpham, Devon. "In that world he was a saintly figure. It was like claiming that Mother Teresa was involved in making porn movies".

But it was not fear of the response which made her wait a full 18 years before publishing her revelations in a volume entitled Traveller in Space - a translation of dakini, the rather poetic Tibetan word for a woman used by a lama for sex. It took her that long to get over the trauma of the experience. "I spent 11 years without talking about it and then, when I had decided to write about it, another seven years researching. I wanted to weave together my personal experience with a more theoretical understanding of the role of women in Tibetan society to help me make sense of what had happened to me."
What happened was that , having become a Buddhist in her native Scotland in the hippie Sixties, she travelled to India where she became a nun. She spent 10 years in a Tibetan monastery and penetrated more deeply than any other Westerner into the faith`s esoteric hierarchy. Eventually she became personal translator to the guru as, during the Seventies, he travelled through Europe and America. It was after that, she said, that "he requested that I become his sexual consort and take part in secret activities with him".
Only one other person knew of the relationship - a second monk - with whom she took part in what she described as a polyandrous Tibetanstyle relationship. "It was some years before I realised that the extent to which I had been taken advantage of constituted a kind of abuse".
The practice of Tantric sex is more ancient than Buddhism. The idea goes back to the ancient Hindus who believed that the retention of semen during intercourse increased sexual pleasure and made men live longer. The Tibetan Buddhists developed the belief that enlightenment could be accelerated by the decision "to enlist the passions in one`s religious practice, rather than to avoid them". The stategy is considered extremely risky yet so efficacious that it could lead to enligthenment in one lifetime.

Monks of a lower status confined themselves to visualising an imaginary sexual relationship during meditation. But, her book sets out, the "masters" reach a point where they decide that they can engage in sex without being tainted by it. The instructions in the so-called "secret" texts spell out the methods which enable the man to control the flow of semen through yogic breath control and other practices. The idea is to "drive the semen upwards, along the spine, and into the head". The more semen in a man`s head, the stronger intellectually and spiritually he is thought to be.

"The reverse of ordinary sex expresses the relative status of the male and female within the ritual."

More than that, he is said to gain additional strength from absorbing the woman`s sexual fluids at the same time as withholding his own. This "reverse of ordinary sex", said June Campbell, "expresses the relative status of the male and female within the ritual, for it signals the power flowing from the woman to the man".
The imbalance is underscored by the insistence by such guru-lamas that their sexual consorts must remain secret, allowing the lamas to maintain control over the women. "Since the book was published, I`ve had letters from women all over the world with similar and worse experiences".
So why did she stay for almost three years? "Personal prestige. The women believe that they too are special and holy. They are entering sacred space. It produces good karma for future lives, an is a test of faith". The combination of religion, sex, power and secrecy can have a potent effect. It creates the Catch 22 of psychological blackmail set out in the words of another lama, Beru Kyhentze Rinpoche: "If your guru acts in a seemingly unenlightened manner and you feel it would be hypocritical to think him a Buddha, you should remember that your own opinions are unreliable and the apparent faults you see may only be a reflection of your own deluded state of mind...If your guru acted in a completely perfect manner he would be inaccessible and you would be able to relate to him. It is therefore out of your Guru`s great compassion that he may show apparent flaws... He is mirroring your own faults".
The psychological pressure ist often increased by making the woman swear vows of secrecy. In addition June Campbell was told that "madness, trouble or even death" could follow if she did not keep silent. "I was told that in a previous life the lama I was involved with had had a mistress who caused him some trouble, and in order to get rid of her he cast a spell which caused her illness later resulting in her death.
There are those Buddhists, like Martine Batchelor - who spent 10 years as a Zen Buddhist nun in a Korean monastery and who now teaches at Scharpham College - who insist the religious techniques the Buddha taught can be separated from the sexist, patriarchal and oppressive culture of many Buddhist countries. But June Campbell is not convinced. "You have to ask what is the relationship between belief and how a society structures itself," she said. In Tibetanism, power lies in the hands of men who had often been traumatised by being removed from their mother at the age of two and taken to an all male monastery. "Some were allowed visits from their mothers and sisters but always in secrecy - so that they came to associate women with what must be hidden".
But there is more to it, she believes than that. Teaching at Sharpham last week she gave the students a whole range of material about different kind of feminism - from the political to the psychotherapeutic. She then asked them how it relates to the fact that there are no female Buddha images or to why in Tantric sex images the woman always has her back to the viewer, or to why Buddhist women are told to pray that they will be reborn into a male body in their next life -for only in a man`s body can they attain full enlightenment.
"Once I started unravelling my experiences, I began to question everything," she said. That meant not just the actions of a particular guru But the very idea of the guru. She began to wonder whether the Tantra was just a fantasy, and whether there is really any difference between Tantric sex and ordinary sex. She questioned the very concept of enlightenment itself and the practice of meditiation. "I realised that in order to be myself I had to leave it all - completely an utterly."

[Child abuse in Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries]

By Lama Shree Narayan Singh

Newsweek, Sep. 2, 1996 , had carried a special report titled 'The World's Dirtiest Business – What can be done to stop the Child-Sex Trade'. The article itself was titled 'Children for Sale'; the abstract reading 'A horrific crime in Belgium shocks the world and serves as a grim reminder that the sexual exploitation of children – some of them barely school age – is a global curse. What can be done to stop it?' This was the question asked by Susan H. Greenberg. Belgians asked as to how their prayers had gone unheard! The discovery of the bodies of two young girls and two girls near death in Belgium , had shocked the conscience of the world and resulted in an intense soul-searching followed by an international outcry and campaign against paedophilia.

Few know that this scourge is rampant in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in India of His Holiness the XIVth. Dalai Lama, Nobel Peace Prize winner for 1988. During the last decade he has emerged as an icon of the twentieth century, his charisma overshadowing any possible criticism of him, even though valid, and the various institutions he governs or represents. The international media has gone to the extent of terming him 'the face of Buddhism' presenting him as the messiah of the new age!

The Tibetan Review, a monthly magazine an organ of the Govt. of Tibet in exile, published from New Delhi, interestingly has also focussed on this evil within the Tibetan context in a telling book review on 'The Struggle for Modern Tibet – the autobiography of Tashi Tsering' by Melvyn Goldstein, William Siebenschuh & Tashi Tsering, published by M. E. Sharpe (NY & London 1997). Mr. John Billington, under whom this writer has personally studied English in Darjeeling , imbibing also the qualities of liberalism from him, writes in his review titled 'Helping Tibetans to catch up with the 20th. century' , Tibetan Review April 1998, page 23, central column, para 1:

'Polyandry and the peculiarly Tibetan mode of homosexuality were never a problem; in fact he is grateful for the patronage bestowed on him by his homosexual monk-official lover.'

Heinrich Harrer in Seven Years in Tibet too states categorically that the monks in the Potala are homosexual whilst also mentioning the terror of dob-dobs, the monk-thugs, in Lhasa .

Recently a journalist investigating the phenomenon of Tibetan Buddhism, stumbled across some alarming evidence concerning paedophilia in a Tibetan monastery. Not so long ago, a young boy aged 7 had been inducted into a monastery directly under the Dalai Lama in the hills of West Bengal . Amazingly he had himself insisted that he had wanted to go to a monastery for further studies. The parents of the boy had been naïve, even though closely associated with the monastery for many generations, until the mystery was unraveled. The boy had stayed there for about eight months and by the time he fled the monastery, he had been scarred for life. Initially he had been extremely reticent about telling his parents concerning what had happened. But slowly the truth had emerged.

The monastery he had gone to was a den of vice, even though it claimed to be of the Gelugpa persuasion – 'those who uphold virtue'. The Dalai Lama is the head of this tradition!

What transpired is briefly as follows: Every night the elder monks would entice the novice monks away from their beds offering them sweets and then rape - sodomise -- them to their hearts' content, overpowering any resistance the young ones would put up. Throughout the nights the monastery would be filled with the subdued sobbing of these unwilling victims of sexual lust. But there was nothing they could really do about it as their parents had sent them there from afar with the hope that they would be cared for well and taught the paths of virtue.

To prevent a full blown scandal, the offending teenage monk was sent off to a sister monastery in Kathmandu where such behaviour too is the norm.

This is institutionalised as 'helenkos' in Afghan society where apparently certain tribes gradually, through insertion of progressive larger pieces of rounded wood into the rectum of young boys, prepare them for their mission later on in life. In one interview published in a newspaper, an Afghan adult admitted that he indulged himself in this way due to their sheer availability, due to the separation of sexes in society. The report went on to state that invariably, the adult would have his helenko get married to one of his daughters so that he could remain in the family. Many such youngsters invariably develop rectal incontinence, the report stated.

More often than not, child abuse goes undetected primarily because of the hesitation of the victims to be frank to their parents about it. Debonair April 1996 had carried an in-depth analysis on this issue. Though focussing on heterosexual abuse, the article titled INCEST – INHOUSE ABUSE deals with the matter very sensitively and elaborating partly along the following lines.

Firstly, as is well-known, children find it extremely difficult to tell their parents about anything as personal and immediate as the violation of their bodies which they do not understand in any case. Secondly such behavior is not to be expected from those who have been entrusted with their welfare and upbringing, be it parents, relatives or mentors. It is a blatant breach of trust. Thirdly, it is natural for the authorities to feign absolutely no knowledge of child-abuse. Fourthly Tibetan society, as is well-known, is amazingly blind when it comes to its beliefs in the Dharma and their Lamas who constitute an elite of supra-mundane beings who can do no wrong and that too in spite of ever growing evidence of their culpability.

It is even more amazing that such people openly continue to wear robes, be called monks and continue apparently as being so, even though the Vinaya or the Code of Ethics, as laid down by the Buddha, prohibits penetrative intercourse of any type whatsoever and provides for their immediate expulsion from the order.

Moreover from the perspective of energy exchange, it is clear that the aggressive partner is being downloaded with excretory energy from the passive. This enters his central channel with wondrous results! This writer has noted with extreme concern, the harmful changes in personality such encounters bring about amongst active homosexuals! Anyone who tries to glorify homosexuality writing a kama sutra adapted for such people, recently reviewed in Tricycle published from the USA, needs to look deeply into the energy aspects of what he might be intending to promote.

This writer has also come to know about what is referred to as 'the peculiarly Tibetan mode of homosexuality' mentioned in the review above. In fact, it forms the rite of passage into the noviceate. Fortunately the process is non-penetrative and could be termed as a sophisticated form of masturbation where the gap between the groins serves as the make-believe. This can also take the form of mutual gratification through an interchange in the missionary position!

In fact it is said in these monasteries that one must practise this to be and remain a 'good monk'. The young are invariably abused and receive favors of various kinds from their active partners in the form of cash and so on becoming de facto 'monastic sex workers'.

Practitioners of this art trace their heritage back to a rather naughty monk called Charkha, as the Tibetans refer to him, during the time of the historic Buddha himself. The Buddha however, had refused to condone this and had included it as one of the principle infractions in the Discipline for Monks. Masturbation has been incorporated as the first of the Thirteen Lhag-mas, which require automatic expulsion after the third offence. Sex being such a fundamental human drive, it is only natural to expect that each and every monk could not possibly be purely celibate. Males are naturally aggressive as is well known.

This practice, termed "monks' custom", between consenting adults however, seems to have existed in Tibet from the days of the Buddhist founding fathers. It is not known as to when children were inducted into this phenomenon although it could be fairly early in its history considering the tremendous sexual appeal pre-adolescent boys seemingly exude as their hormones become more and more active.

Authentic Masters however, have through the centuries, spared no effort to decry this malpractice. However, they have succeeded in doing little to curb it for obvious reasons. His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche openly spoke out against it. The XVIth Gyalwang Karmapa when asked, pensively replied that during these degenerate times, it is considered sufficient if a monk could keep inviolate his Five Principal Vows. It is known however that 'monastic homosexuality' became actually institutionalized with the advent of the reformed Gelugpa movement of Je Tsongkhapa in the fifteenth century. Even so, penetration oral or anal, has always constituted a breach of the monk's vow of celibacy and openly discouraged!

In fact esoteric teachings of any tradition invariably stress the presevation of what is termed the 'bindu'. It is said concerning the previous Sangjay Nyenpa Rinpoche of the Karma Kagyu Bheng-chhen Monastery, that due to his strict celibacy, a glow could be seen in his third eye chakra. For success in the practices of the Six Yogas of Naropa in particular and for Vajrayana practises in general, the preservation of one's 'bindu' is a pre-requisite.

This writer has himself been witness to one pathetic incident a few years ago in a particularly well-known monastery in Nepal, in which one night, a young monk aged 8 was being physically hauled by none other than the Monk in-charge of Discipline. The boy in his undergarments, had kept on pleading to be released whilst his young roommate helplessly watched on. There was nothing this writer could have done as the entire episode took place in front of one of the high Lamas of that monastery, who merely chuckled over the incident.

As they grow up some adolescent monks begin to pair off; such adult 'couples' sharing their joys and sorrows as they age together within the monastic system, are not uncommon. Others merely contribute to the perpetration of this vicious cycle! In all fairness it must be stated that the more sincere amongst them, as they grow in the practice and understanding of the Dharma, veer away from indulging in themselves.

The manner in which they accost each other is through an innocuous handshake in which the would-be active partner will tickle the palm of his desire with his forefinger. The other, should he acquiesce, would tighten his grip; should he not, merely release his hand, look away and go his own way.

In conclusion, it needs to be stated that such compulsive behaviour is reprehensible and punishable under the penal codes of most civilized societies. Even worse is that the Dalai Lama has never taken the initiative to stop it, being content to brush it under the carpet for expediency!

What is amazing is the incredible veneer of respectability monks of the Tibetan plateau exude and are thus able to literally fool millions of people throughout the world. In brief, it must be emphasized that any culture or sub-culture which fails to protect its young needs to be relegated to its place in history. Modern society has no place for this. This is a message which must be sent loud and clear to the Dalai Lama.

The United Nations High Commission on Human Rights and various NGO-s are hereby urged to investigate this seriously and punish as many offenders as possible even though a personage such as the Dalai Lama be involved and implicated in such goings on. The world needs to tell this Nobel Peace Prize winner that hence it refuses to acknowledge him and his compatriot 'monks' as monks within the tradition of the Buddha!

This is in direct contrast with the stance taken by Pope John Paul II in the recent past. He has openly condemned the sexual abuse by Catholic priests of their charge. Many priests have been taken to court and forced to resign their positions! Clearly winds of reform are blowing through the Roman Catholic world, even as the Holy Tibetan Buddhist Empire of the Dalai Lama begins to disintegrate with the expose of one scam after another, stagnant as it is, clinging on to dead wood!

The inscrutable Dalai Lama clearly belongs to an anachronistic, obscurantist and medieval past where whatever he said was the law irrespective of the merit inherent in his statements and deeds. The modern world demands transparency and that its spiritual leaders actively live up to the ideals professed by them or at the very least not be hypocritical. At least Osama bin Laden is honest about his aims.

He knows now that he can no longer order that an opponent be liquidated simply by his wishing it to happen and/or paying for it! He and his devout followers must now also curtail their misguided use of tantra to get rid of and torture those who openly oppose him.

The modern world has become more of a level playing field where his idiosyncrasies are tolerated to the extent that they are not known by the ordinary person! People particularly in the west have been thoroughly fooled by his amiability for the simple reason they do not understand Asia-craft! And if he finds himself incapable of contributing meaningfully to the Buddhist world as is becoming increasingly evident, he should take sannyasa from his supposed God-kingship and be done with it.

Of what use is the gala show called the Kalachakra Initiation, due Jan 2003, when conducted by a person who has himself, given the above, committed endless breaches of the samaya covenants specifically concerning the Karmapa Imbroglio and the schism he has himself fostered in the Buddhist sangha causing immense suffering -- all in the name of Buddhism!

What blessings are expected to flow from one such?

Would it not be yet another instance of the blind leading the blind?

Would it not be better then, were he to immerse himself in social service, exchanging himself with others, practising the qualities he eloquently writes about in all his books, and thus become a worthy recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize like Mother Teresa!

'Taala'i Lama – are you listening?'