[Buddha-l] Good resource site shut down

[Christopher Fynn]

On 16/03/2012, Joy Vriens <joy.vriens at gmail.com> wrote:

> "Take the example of Prince Charles, who was born as Queen Eliza­beth's
> son. Why was he born as her son? It was only possible through his own
> good karma. There is no one who issued the decree, "He is allowed to be
> the Prince of England and you are not allowed to be- born in that
> position." No one makes this decision. It is the automatic result of
> peo­ple's individual karmic accumulation created from the past. He had
> somehow gathered the merit to become Prince of England while other
> people did not. In the same way, when we see children dying of
> starvation in Africa, it raises the question, "Why were they born in
> Africa? Why do they have to suffer this way?" It is because they were
> reborn as human be­ings at this particular time and place in Africa. Did
> anyone force them to be reborn there? Did someone say, "Now you must be
> reborn in a place in Africa where you will starve to death"? No, no one
> forces living beings to be reborn in this way. The fact that people are
> born into such circum­stances is because of lacking merit. From that
> standpoint, it is definitely very important to accumulate merit. Having
> merit, one can be born the Prince of England; lacking merit, one may be
> born as a starving child in Africa. Think about this and see that there
> is a definite need to create merit." (Thrangu Rinpoche in King of Samadhi)

Though Thrangu Rinpoche  is a nice man, some of the stuff he teaches
to a supposedly educated western audience is shocking - and it is even
more shocking that this audience rarely challenge his views.

Fortunately not all Tibetan Lamas are so literalistic. -

(Recently I read a transcript of one of Thrangu Rinpoche's teachings -
when asked a question about how something he had said related to
something Longchenpa had written - he told the questioner that he had
never read the works of Longchenpa. And this man is supposed to be one
of the foremost Tibetan scholars!)  .

For saying this I've probably lost whatever merit I have accumulated
and now I'll be reborn as one of those  starving children in Africa.