[Buddha-l] Re: Contemporary Tibet

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Sat, 2005-06-18 at 11:18 -0700, Gad Horowitz wrote:

> Here in Toronto a journalist once asked DL "do you really believe that you
> are the reincarnated Avelokiteshvara, God(dess) of Compassion?"  DL replied
> "some days I think I am, and some days I think I'm not" with his well loved
> giggle.

About ten years ago I saw a similar interview on CBC. At that time, when
asked the same question, HHDL just laughed and said nothing at all. He
just looked at the reporter and waited patiently for the next question.
I can't imagine a better answer to such a question.

Once when HHDL was in Montreal at a political workshop, he said he
thought the whole institution of the Dalai Lama should be scrapped,
because it is undemocratic and no longer useful. The philosopher Charles
Taylor was at this meeting, and he said "Don't be too quick to get rid
of a system that produces leaders of your calibre." That exchange got
right to the heart of an ambivalence many of us have about democracy. I
just didn't know where I stood on the issue. I suppose I agree most with
Aristotle's observation that democracy is the worst of the good forms of
government and the best of the bad forms of government. Because
democracy is so cumbersome, it is bad because it slows down a benevolent
dictator (as the current Dalai Lama could be if he had a country to
govern and if he chose to be a dictator, neither of which is the case),
but it is good because it retards a tyrant (although not as much as some
of us would like). I don't know what Aristotle would think about
democracies, such as the one in the USA, that have become a farce
because of the appallingly misinformed and undereducated citizenry.

Speaking of HHDL, have any of you read the article about a British
Buddhist named Steven Lane (not the same fellow who contributes to
buddha-l from time to time) and his criticism (character assassination?)
of HHDL? It's available on numerous sites, one of which is
http://www.tibet.ca/en/wtnarchive/1996/7/17_2.html

-- 
Richard Hayes
http://www.unm.edu/~rhayes