"Buddhism for Vampires" (Halloween)

David Chapman (Buddhism-for-Vampires.com); Wisdom Quarterly HALLOWEEN SERIES
COMING SOON, BREAKING NEWS: Peaceful Buddhists go on murderous rampage.

European vampires were killed and given a special postmortem meal -- a stake. Here a female had a brick placed in her mouth to prevent her from feasting on blood (Daily Mail).

WQ has been sitting on this Bon/Black Magic exposé. For Halloween, we introduce B.F.V.

  

Cheater and Sap vamps (Life&Style)

“Buddhism for vampires? That’s silly. Buddhism and vampires don’t have anything to do with each other -- or do they?”

Surprisingly, vampires have played a significant role in Buddhism in Asia for centuries. They are not a Western invention.

Contemporary vampire fiction -- “preternatural romance” -- provides tools for presenting aspects of Buddhism that are otherwise difficult to communicate.

  

Vampires in Buddhist history

Vomiting blood (Buddhism-for-vampires.com)

There is extensive vampire lore [that preceded and was incorporated] within traditional Buddhism. This has been summarized in “The Tibetan Book of the Undead.” Apart from its intrinsic interest, this history makes it clear that one cannot dismiss “Buddhism for vampires” as bogus.

  

...No one can say this is an illegitimate topic or some kind of Western commercial distortion. One can combine Buddhism and vampires as a cheap gimmick -- but I believe it is possible to explain Buddhism accurately in the language of the undead. In fact, I believe some aspects of Buddhism are best explained that way.

Vampires, ambiguity, and paradox

Vajrayana is a mix of Bon and Buddhism

Buddhism, at root, is a method for facing the paradoxes of life and death with curiosity, appreciation, generosity, and joy. Its starting point is the experience of ambiguity. The natural tendency is to polarize: to say “this is this and that is that; I love this and hate that.” But experience is unavoidably undefinable.
  
Reality refuses to fit into categories; it is always in flux. When “this” inexplicably turns into “that,” and you love or hate the “wrong” thing: that is paradox. Rejecting ambiguity is, according to Buddhism, the primordial error, and source of all unhappiness. Paradox is resolved through non-duality: allowing the horns of a dilemma to co-exist.

   

"China accuses me of being devil" (Dalai Lama)

What has this to do with vampires? Consider the basic paradox of the undead. To paraphrase the great Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna, they are not alive, nor dead, nor both, nor neither. The undead are, as contemporary Buddhist philosopher Stephen T. Asma puts it, “liminal beings.”
  

China really dislikes Dalai Lama and Buddhism

“Liminal” means “on the threshold”; a defining feature of monsters is that they are neither one thing nor another. This is just the fundamental Buddhist paradox of emptiness and form, reflected in a pool of blood. More

• Halloween STORM likely to kill everyone on East Coast
• Meet the real-life US vampires (Smithsonian)
• "Vampire" skeletons found (Discovery News) 
• National Geographic finds real vampires
• China warns: Some paths are bad and evil!
• Evils of Communist Khmer Rouge in Buddhist Cambodia
• Lama sex abuse calls Buddhist taboos into question
• Name-calling in China: Hitler, Devil, HHDL
• Tibetans self-immolate, Americans use guns
• VIDEO: CIA's CNN dismisses the Kentucky UFO
• PBS: The investigative reporting crisis in America
• PHOTOS: Monster (yakkha) temple protectors
• China on Buddhism: Brainwashed with evils
• SCARY: 14-year-old student punished by Buddhist monk for refusing to learn Buddhism

"But who's more Gothic and Vampiric than us?"

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Tibet: The Story of a Tragedy (film)

Nepal fails to erase Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama holds poster of jailed Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi (AP).

Nepal fails to erase Dalai Lama from Tibetan hearts
Sudeshna Sarkar (TNN, June 26, 2009)

KATHMANDU – At one time, the name plate outside the walled house proudly said "Gaden Kangsar" – the residence of the Dalai Lama. But when Nepal’s Maoist government began a fresh crackdown on supporters of the exiled Tibetan leader last year, the house in Kathmandu’s embassy enclave, once known as the office of the Dalai Lama’s representative in Nepal, chose discretion over confrontation and the sign, written both in English and the elegant Tibetan script, was tarred over.

But it is not so easy to erase the loyalty to the Dalai Lama and dreams of a free Tibet from Tibetan hearts. A group of 35 Tibetan exiles proved so on Friday when they courted arrest by trying to stage a peace march in Tibet.

As the world observed the International Day Against Torture, the exiles left Kathmandu at 4:00 am on a bus heading north. Their plan was to take the Araniko Highway, which connects Nepal with China’s Tibetan Autonomous Region, cross the Nepal-Tibet border and stage a public protest in Tibet asking for the restoration of rights and democracy in the annexed Buddhist kingdom.

However, they were prevented by the Nepal police contingent patrolling the border, who stopped the bus and took the group under control. The protesters lay down on the highway, raising slogans for a free Tibet until they were dragged away. Police said the bus had been sent back to Kathmandu where the group, including eight women, will be handed over to the immigration authorities for appropriate action.

This is the first major Tibetan protest since the formation of a coalition government led by communist Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal. The protests, which had continued for almost a year mortifying China last year on the eve of the Olympic games, were stifled after a Maoist government came to power in August 2008 and ordered stronger measures, including patrolling by its cadres.

Nepal, having received an invitation to visit Beijing but is yet to set any dates, will come under fresh pressure from his northern neighbor after Friday’s resumption of protests. Though the new government adheres to the earlier administration’s foreign policy of not allowing anti-Chinese activities on Nepali soil, Beijing is bound to seek more effective measures to control the protests. It has stepped up its vigil along the border with Nepal to prevent Tibetan fugitives from heading towards Dharamshala in India via Nepal and is now asking for the regulation of the open Indo-Nepal border to cut off the entry of protesters from India. Source

Anti-Dalai Lama protesters in Germany advocating for the right to practice without politically motivated condemnation indicate the shocking fact that the beloved political leader does not in fact enjoy universal religious renown (Xinhua/Shugden).

Dalai Lama Responds to Shugden Controversy

Part 1 of a Q&A with the Dalai Lama concerning teachings on "Lam Rim Chen Mo" at Lehigh University, hosted by the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center on July 14, 2008.