[Buddha-l] modern buddhist teachers

[Richard Hayes]

On Jul 2, 2009, at 3:09 PM, Dan Lusthaus wrote:
>
>> I have heard the Dalai Lama say that if the Tibetan people ever again
>> have their own government somewhere, it will be a democratically
>> elected government with a constitution that provides for a guarantee
>
>> People who know the Dalai Lama fairly well
>> report that they are convinced he means these things.
>
> I humbly suggest that the sentence immediately above be changed to  
> past
> tense: "... he meant those things." Richard is showing us he has a  
> wonderful
> memory, since it has been decades since HHDL said most of those things

It has been about one decade since I heard him say those things.  
People I know who spend quite a bit of time with him report that he  
still says those things. But of course hearsay is not a pramāṇa (or  
so they say---I have not tested that hypothesis personally).

> P.S. As for Richard's list of dire concerns more pressing than Michael
> Jackson, with Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan on the list, does  
> this mean
> that Richard now subscribes to the Bush notion of an axis of evil  
> (if not
> the prajnapti, at least the reality)?

Well, if you'll let me put the United States and Israel on the list,  
we'll talk. I'm drawn to the notion of an axis of evil that runs, as  
Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn, once pointed out, straight through the middle  
of every human heart. (I guess that's what makes me a Mādhyamika, eh?)

Richard