What about the next Dalai Lama, sir?

14th Dalai Lama speaks about the 15th Dalai Lama's rebirth

(Religion for Breakfast) The battle to control the next Dalai Lama

(ReligionForBreakfast) June 19, 2025:  As the 14th Dalai Lama turns 90, a global power struggle looms. Who gets to choose his [rebirth] successor? This video explores the battle over reincarnation, politics, Chinese rule, and the future of Tibetan Vajrayana/Bon Buddhism.

• Check out earlier video explaining the Dalai Lama: The Dalai Lama Explained: The Last Lama? (now that YouTube has restricted Last Week Tonight with John Oliver's interview)

Who in the world are the Han Chinese?

What do modern genetics say about the ancient Han Chinese, the dominant group in modern China?

• Millet farming over rice farming among Han Chinese?

Compare news coverage. Spot media bias. Avoid algorithms. Try Ground News today and get 40% off subscription by going to ground.news/religionforbreakfast.

What and who is the Panchen Lama?

CC Liu, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Khedrup Gelek Pelzang, first (to be retroactively titled) "Panchen Lama"

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The Panchen Lama (Tibetan པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ།) is a tulku of the Gelug (Yellow Hat) school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Panchen Lama is one of the most important figures in the Gelug tradition, with spiritual authority second only to Dalai Lama.

"Panchen" is a portmanteau word combining "Pandita" and "Chenpo," meaning "Great scholar."

  

The recognition of Panchen Lamas began with Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen, tutor of the 5th Dalai Lama, who received the title "Panchen Bogd" from Altan Khan and the Dalai Lama in 1645. Bogd is Mongolian, meaning "holy."

John Oliver interviews the 14th Dalia Lama.

Khedrup Gelek Pelzang, Sönam Choklang, and Ensapa Lobsang Döndrup were subsequently recognized as the first, second, and third Panchen Lamas posthumously and retroactively after the term was invented.

There is a big controversy about the current Panchen Lama in China. More

• China kidnaps official Panchen Lama, hides him away
• China trots out its own offically crowned "Panchen Lama"

The Hidden Vegetarians of Tibet

Geoffrey Barstow (Tricycle, Fall 2018), Paul Hostetler (illustrator); Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

Contrary to popular belief, meat eating has been questioned by Tibetan masters both past and present. 

In the mid-19th century, the Tibetan Buddhist master Nyala Pema Dündul composed a poem in which he gave an account of a recent visionary experience.

Have a heart: stop causing killing.

In this short work he recalls waking up one morning and beginning his usual daily practice, focused on Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion.

Suddenly his perception shifted, and instead of having to consciously visualize the deity, he was able to see and speak with Avalokiteshvara directly, as if the bodhisattva were literally present.

Serving as something of a tour guide, Avalokiteshvara showed Nyala Pema Dündul around various hell realms, where he observed people being tortured by demons [narakas, yakkhas, rakshasas, pretas] with animal heads.

Bad karma and its bad results

Hell in Church (Debra Berhan Selassie)

These torments, Avalokiteshvara explained, were the inevitable consequence of having eaten meat in a previous life.

Perhaps not surprisingly Pema Dündul tells his readers that he emerged from his vision shaken, lamenting the fact that he himself had eaten meat.

“Let the Three Jewels be my witness!” he writes, “In the past, ignorance and habit have led me to eat the flesh of beings....From today on, may the thought of eating meat never even enter my mind! If I do eat it, may the Three Jewels punish me!

Nyala Pema Dündul was not alone in his concern about meat eating. In fact, a meatless diet in Tibet was far more common than might be expected.

To date, I have identified more than 110 individual lamas -- religious teachers -- who made the decision to give up meat and who were active prior to the Chinese invasion of the 1950s.

Pema Chodron is foremost Western Vajrayana

Given the fact that Buddhist history in Tibet has spanned 1,300 years, 110 may not seem like a large number. But it represents only those individuals I could identify by name. There must have been many others who are as of yet untraceable.

Whether or not one should eat meat was a real, active debate in premodern Tibet, and vegetarianism was a frequent response.

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The Dalai Lama follows religion of Kindness.

And yet the simple fact that vegetarianism existed in Tibet is almost unknown today. Indeed, contemporary Tibetan Buddhists -- both Tibetan and Western -- tend to assume that vegetarianism was a non-issue.

Time and again I have been told that researching the history of Tibetan vegetarianism is pointless, as the diet simply did not exist.

The 31 Planes of Existence

Contained in this assumption, moreover, is an argument against adopting vegetarianism today. Like followers of other traditions, Tibetan Buddhists [Vajrayanists] often look to examples set by previous masters to guide their own conduct.

So it is not surprising that contemporary Buddhists often answer the question of why they eat meat by pointing to revered masters... More

• Embodied Love: Core Tibetan Trainings for an Unbounded Heart with Anne C. Klein
• What is the meaning of metta, "loving-kindness" or "friendliness"?

Why did the Buddhist Pope step down?

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Pedants love to preach, 14th Dalai Lama (left) and 16th Benedict Pope (WQ)

   

(ChristyB30/flickr.com)

Years before the current Catholic pope (papa, "father"), Benedict the 16th (Joe Ratzinger), opted or was legally/financially persuaded, to step down, the 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso) left office.

Who is the Dalai Lama, and why has he not been replaced?

According to Mahayana Buddhist lore, the "Dalai Lama" is just an office. But it is different in that it is again and again occupied by the same person.

How is this possible? There are three possibilities and three explanations: the historical Gautama Buddha never left samsara (which he did); Maitreya Buddha is already here (which makes the big Relics Tour building project with its massive Maitreya a bit of an anachronism); the being being reborn is not a buddha but a bodhisattva or "buddha-to-be."

All three possibilities must be mentioned because many lay Buddhists have little to no idea what the distinction is.

Could a buddha grow tired of dealing with China, a naga (dragon) kingdom/empire/police state?

Would Maitreya Buddha arrive long before the historical Gautama Buddha is said to have said he would?

Pederasty-preaching prelate (in private) proceeds to pedantic philological pursuits.

 

Is the male monastic hierarchy of the Pope-King immune from the monetary and sexual scandals the papacy is infamous for? Not at all, but it certainly does not hit the press nearly as often. Nevertheless, the comparisons between Tibetan Buddhism and Roman Catholicism are striking and more than superficial:

• Clerics reside in a Tibetan "Vatican" called the Potala Palace, in the former Himalayan empire's "Rome" or capital of Lhasa. (Like Rome and Italy, Tibet and China are semi-autonomous, one increasingly so, the other less so over time; in ancient times, Lhasa held spiritual sway from Mongolia to modern Bangladesh).
• Its priests (bikshus), bishops (head lamas), cardinals/archbishops (rinpoches), and the head of Vajrayana (Tibetan form of "Universalism" or Mahayana) Buddhism are led by a Dalai Lama. (Other Tibetan schools, like other schools of Christianity, have their own head, such as the Panchen Lama and the Eastern Orthodox Pope).
• The fancy hats, shimmering robes, bells, litanies, cathedrals built to enshrine humility, a church or community that seeks to control the secular as well as the spiritual...

So why did the Buddhist "pope" step down? Ultimately the reason(s) given were not unlike Ratzinger/Benedict's -- he's doing it to help the cause, help the people... and possibly to spend more quality time with their celebrity friends, spending millions in donations while giving the appearance of being ascetic at heart?
  
Vatican Vacancy

Suspiciously, it is not the Pope alone who is stepping down at 8:00 pm local-time today. All of those principals who might also be held to stand for the corporation (Vatican, Inc. or Holy Roman Catholic Church, Int'l.) in regard to a genocide lawsuit by indigenous Canadians or drug-money-laundering Vatican (IOR) bankers are also exiting. Therefore, the official who would step in in the event the pope had been pulled by the Judeo-Christian sky-god, YHWH/Zeus/Deus, is not there to step in, nor is his successor, nor his. There is a chancellor or proxy taking over as explained by the BBC (video).

• CARTOON SLIDESHOW: Benedict vacates the Vatican
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• Newsflash: god recalls Pope

Fake Panchen Lama speaks in public

Gyaltsen Norbu, the Chinese government-appointed 11th Panchen Lama, speaks during opening ceremony of the 3rd World Buddhist Forum, Hong Kong, 4-26-12 (Kin Cheung/AP).

HONG KONG (AP) - The Panchen Lama chosen by China but disputed by Tibetan Buddhists discussed religious philosophy Thursday [April 26, 2012] during his first appearance outside the mainland, marking greater efforts by Beijing to win acceptance of its rule over Tibet.

The Panchen Lama is Tibetan Buddhism’s second-highest spiritual leader, but followers of the exiled Dalai Lama -- the top [spiritual and former political] leader -- do not recognize China’s choice.

Beijing’s 22-year-old Panchen Lama spoke at the third World Buddhist Forum, a showcase for China’s cultural diplomacy that is attended by more than 1,000 monks, nuns, and scholars from 50 countries. His attendance is aimed at burnishing his religious credentials.

He’s almost never seen in public but has also appeared at the two previous forums, held in mainland Chinese cities in 2006 and 2009. Hong Kong is a semiautonomous region of China.

Buddhist theory is “sweet dew that ends human suffering and is a way to promote world peace,” said the religious leader, who wore a crimson robe and glasses.

He criticized “materialistic technology” in his eight-minute speech and said greed has “unbalanced the ecosystems, contaminated the environments, caused natural disasters, spread epidemics, induced wars and hence endangered all sentient beings now and in future,” according to an official translation of his speech.

The forum highlights efforts by China’s officially atheist communist government to assert control over the religion, an integral part of the restive Himalayan region’s identity. The country’s ethnic Tibetan areas... More

Panchen Lama visits Tibetans in remote China

He's just as good as the other guy. You will worship him, autonomous Tibetan serfs, for the glory of the state.

BEIJING, China (AP) - A Buddhist spiritual leader who was installed by China's communist government when he was a boy has visited a major Tibetan monastery in the latest attempt by Beijing to [enhance] his religious credentials.

The Panchen Lama is the second-ranked religious leader to Tibetans, after the Dalai Lama. But Tibetans generally do not accept this Panchen Lama because he was appointed by Beijing, while the original boy selected by the Dalai Lama in 1995 has not been heard from since.

The official Xinhua News Agency on Tuesday quoted the Panchen Lama as saying he was impressed with the amount of religious freedom enjoyed by Buddhists in the area surrounding the Labrang Monastery in western China's Gansu province.

With cues from the LAPD and former police chief Bratton, Chinese soldiers are getting the hang of how to keep Tibetan monks in line. It is said that more than 2,000,000 Tibetans have been killed so far. Bratton is currently in Britain teaching police their how to "re-educate" London protesters.

Tibetan Buddhism celebrates 900 years of...

Tibetan Buddhism celebrates 900 years of the Karmapa Lama

Both Tibetans and the Chinese government recognize Trinley Thaye Dorje, 17th Karmapa. He occupies the third highest post in Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayana or "lightning vehicle") after the Dalai and the Panchen Lama. He lives under Indian “protection.”

A two-day celebration will be in Bodh Gaya, India (the place thought to be where the Buddha gained enlightenment, but it is not certain even if people take it for granted and a related Bodhi tree has been planted there now), starting this Wednesday.

DHARAMSALA, India (AsiaNews) – “The 17th Karmapa is the oldest and the most revered reincarnate lineage in Tibetan Buddhism,” Samdhong Rinpoche told AsiaNews. The Kalon Tripa or prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile spoke a few days before the 900th anniversary of the Karmapa, the third highest spiritual office in Tibetan Buddhism after the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama.

The current incarnation (since each person who fills the post is thought to be the same person reborn and returning on purpose to continue the work) has lived in India since 2000, free from Chinese control. He is viewed as the “natural” successor to the Dalai Lama.

Born in 1983, the current Karmapa Lama (Trinley Thaye Dorje) fled from Tsurphu Temple in central Tibet. And after an overland winter trek across the Himalayas, he reached India where he was given asylum.

He has lived in Dharamsala (the seat of the government in exile) since he went into exile. He is free to travel but requires official permission to receive visitors.

For Rinpoche, 900 years “of Karma tradition are significant because it is an occasion to strengthen and reinforce the Tibetan religious and cultural identity.” Here is the interview Samdhong Rinpoche gave AsiaNews. More>>

Tibet: China's hand in Dalai Lama succession

Ben Blanchard (Reuters)

Tibetan monks engage in a religious debate inside Jokhang temple in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, 11/24/09 (Reuters/Nir Elias/file).

TONGREN, China - For Tibetans living near the birthplace of the Dalai Lama, one question is very much on their minds these days: Who will succeed the aging exiled spiritual leader once he dies?

The possibility that scares most of them, and is seen as the most likely to happen, is that the atheist Communist government in Beijing will simply appoint its own replacement, with a veneer of tradition and religion thrown in. One of the few certainties about the political future of Tibet is that the death of the current Dalai Lama will cause major ructions in Tibet and overseas.

• China says only socialism can save Tibet

Some Tibetans fear a violent backlash in what is now called the Tibet Autonomous Region and surrounding provinces with large Tibetan populations -- like Qinghai, Gansu, and Sichuan -- if Beijing unilaterally appointed the next Dalai Lama. There is precedent for that happening. China chose a rival incarnation to succeed the late 10th Panchen Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's second-holiest position, shortly after the Dalai Lama announced his choice in 1995.

"We think China will try to appoint its own Dalai Lama, as it did with the Panchen Lama," said Jigme, a monk in the Tibetan region of Tongren in the arid northwestern province of Qinghai. "If that happens, we will protest," he added, punching his fists into the freezing air. "The people will be very unhappy. This is a religious decision. There should be no politics."

The worry of violence is very real. Anti-Chinese protests erupted in March 2008, in which at least 19 people were killed in riots in Lhasa. Pro-Tibet groups say hundreds died in a subsequent crackdown across the region. The Beijing-anointed Panchen Lama is spurned by most Tibetans as a fake.

The whereabouts of the Dalai Lama-recognized Panchen Lama is one of China's most tightly guarded secrets. China has in the past insisted he is safe, healthy and wants his privacy. "We will not believe in a Dalai Lama chosen by the government," said another Qinghai Tibetan, who gave his name as Jokhar. "Look what happened when they appointed their own Panchen Lama. We don't believe in that one, and never will." More>>

Pres. Obama meets with the Dalai Lama in Washington on Feb. 18, 2010, against trading partner China's wishes (White House/Pete Souza).

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• China says missing Panchen Lama is living in Tibet
  (NPR: Listen) A boy who disappeared after being named Tibetan Buddhism's second-highest figure by the Dalai Lama is living with his family somewhere in Tibet, the Himalayan region's Chinese-appointed governor said Sunday. Padma Choling, Tibet's China-appointed governor, said Gendun Choekyi Nyima, the boy who disappeared after being named Tibetan Buddhism's second-highest figure by the Dalai Lama, is living with his family somewhere in Tibet.
• Dalai Lama’s Panchen candidate is living in Tibet
  Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, confirmed in 1995 by Tibet’s spiritual leader as the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, is currently living in Tibet as an ordinary person, said the region’s governor Palma Trily. Probably 21 years old, he hasn’t been seen in public since he was named at the age of six. “As far as I know, he and his family are living a good life in Tibet,” Palma said...
• China raises profile of its choice of Dalai Lama's No. 2
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Wisdom Network News II

Ashley Wells, Assistant Editor, Wisdom Quarterly

Walking in the footsteps of the Buddha in Bihar, India
“It's no coincidence that we at the WTO endorse this conclave in the very birthplace of Buddhism. In our stressful world, the Buddha's teaching of the...

• Sylvia Boorstein, renowned Buddhist teacher, to offer online retreat
  As some of the West's earliest teachers of Buddhist wisdom/practice look toward retirement, they are discovering they don't need to stop teaching the Dharma...
• Dalai Lama really does post to Twitter
  The 14th Dalai Lama, the highest holy man in Tibetan Buddhism, now has a Twitter account with 109,049 followers after 13...
• "World's NEXT top lama" to visit Europe
  With his rare combination of humour, gentleness, and charisma, the Dalai Lama remains, at 75, the undisputed Western poster boy for both Buddhism and Tibet. (The Guardian)
• Why no Hindu or Buddhist representation?
  Of 32 religious leaders, academics, and consultants that made the cut, not a single one belongs to a Dharma tradition -- Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, or Jainism... (On Faith)

Goldie Hawn wants to teach Buddhism to British kids
Goldie Hawn is in talks to set up a Buddhist school in the United Kingdom. The actress' Hawn Foundation already teaches kids Buddhist techniques in schools... (SF Chronicle)

• Buddhist follower opens a new Dharma center in the Avenues
  A new Buddhist figure from China is finding followers across the United States and now has at least one in Utah -- Margaret Esterman...
• Free "Blue Jean Buddha" program scheduled for Drury
  Sumi Loundon Kim traces the role of Buddhism in four generations of her family as it reflects the broader history of Buddhism in America.
• Buddhist temple takes statue fight to NY Supreme Court
  After losing several rounds with the city Zoning Board of Appeals, a North Utica, NY, Buddhist temple is taking to court its fight to...
• When religious zeal displaces the truth in history books
  To his credit, Davis delicately tried to explain that Buddhism dates to between the 6th and 4th century BC, as in before Christ, so obviously it was a... (Sacramento Bee)
• Lifting hazy veils from centuries of Vietnamese art
  None, alas, yields the merest clue to who the people of Fu Nan were, nor to the circumstances in which Hinduism and Buddhism came to spread.

• New rules introduced for visitors at Borobudur temple
  “We realize that many visitors did not respect the fact that both sites are above all sacred sites for Buddhism and Hinduism...."
• Fighter pilot and the monk
  But, seriously, a Buddhist monk and a fighter pilot? If Buddhism's reputation for pacifism seems an odd fit for the death-from-above set...
• The Zeitgeisty Report (blog)

• Tibetans, Han ignore politics to build uneasy ties
  The two peoples share a long historical attachment to Buddhism which years of Communist rule has never managed to kill. China's economic boom has also...
• Monumental revelations
  As a site of historic significance for Buddhism, too, Borobudur deserves respect. If it soon becomes impossible to wander up this hulking mass in the grey... (The Australian)
• Tibet is no Shangri-La (Morung Express)
• Environmentalists and Buddhists go head to head in Taiwan
  Taiwanese Buddhists release catfish into a river during a "mercy release" ceremony in Taipei. (Telegraph.co.uk)

Obama-Dalai Lama meeting pleases critics (Oregon Faith Report)
resident Obama finally met with Tibet's Dalai Lama in a face off that seemed more snub to China than pledge to help human rights in Taiwan, Uighur country, or Tibet -- all restive portions of the Chinese empire. But the perceived insult seems to have pleased many critics.

• What Taiwan can learn from Obama-Dalai Lama meeting
• Karmapa Lama says he hopes to get back to Tibet
  The 17th Karmapa Lama, spiritual head of the Tibetan Kagyu sect who fled to India in 1999, today said he... (PTI)
• Dalai Lama captivates with compassion

Dalai Lama doesn't fault Obama for low-profile reception...
The Dalai Lama said he did not know who Woods was, but said self-discipline is among Buddhism's highest values. When it comes to adultery, he said... (Canadian Press)

• VIDEO: Obama meets Dalai Lama (NewsX)
• Dalai Lama Visits Los Angeles (KTLA)
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• Tsechu Buddhist fair begins at Rewalsar
  Mandi: The famous Tsechu Buddhist began on the banks of sacred Rewalsar Lake on Wednesday. Thousands of Buddhist pilgrims from home and abroad converged at...

• Thousands gather in Himachal to celebrate Buddhist fair
• Under Indonesia's surface, an intricate quilt of faiths
  About 90 percent of Indonesians are now Muslim, with only pockets of Buddhists and Hindus left. But Hinduism and Buddhism, Java's dominant religions for a...
• Diamond Way group practices ancient methods of Buddhism
  Buddha's highest methods have been practiced in Tibet and India for centuries and are carried out through UW-Whitewater's Diamond Way Buddhist group. (Royal Purple)
• Stony author explores effects of Christianity in China
  "In my view, Christianity is part of a solution in giving China a better society, because the traditional religions in China like Buddhism, Taoism…"
• What would Sid do on a snow day like today?‎
  How would he combine Buddhism and dating? How would he handle stress in the workplace? "What would Sid do?" is devoted to taking an honest look... (Beliefnet)

Exhibition explores Buddhist, Shinto religious beliefs
“The Way of the Gods: Shinto Shrines and Their Art” explores interaction between Buddhist and Shinto beliefs and imagery.

• Seokguram: Korea's Supreme Grotto
  As Buddhism flowed into the early Korean kingdoms, however, they only carved the holy images on cliffs and boulders on their craggy granite mountains... (Korea Times)
• People & Events
  Explore Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, and Buddhism by looking at art in the exhibition, “Illuminating: Spiritual Symbols and Stories.” (Community Journal)
• The Toyota name is all about good luck
  The kanji symbol for eight widens at the bottom, suggesting that a more prosperous future awaits. Eight is also the number of auspicious symbols in Buddhism.
• Pastor apologizes personally to Buddhist and Taoist fed's
• Singapore denounces pastor for ridiculing Buddhists
• Some who viewed the videos felt the pastor had insulted the Buddhist and Taoist faiths. On Monday, the pastor was called up by the ISD.
• Buddhist, Taoist leaders accept pastor's apology (AsiaOne)
• Tibet House US benefit
  ...ancient bastion of Himalayan tranquility known as West 15th Street, where the cultural center operates a gallery space, Buddhist shrine and library.
• Tibet House's XX annual benefit at Carnegie Hall
• Bristol lays siege to TV
  "Whether you call it Buddhism or another religion, self-discipline, that's important," he said. "Self-discipline with awareness of consequences."
• The spirit of the matter
  Since Buddhism had come out of India, he said, "I always describe myself as a messenger of India, because I am a Buddhist." Speaking of the Buddha... (Times of India)
• Petals from the Sky
  Yip deviates from the expected with her injection of Buddhism throughout the novel, which not only enhances the plot, but adds elements of poetry and art... (UPI Asia)
• Calif. Pastor Weighs in on Abortion, Homosexuality, Woods' Buddhism
  Commenting on the professed faith of pro golfer Woods, he stated, "Here's the problem with Buddhism: they don't believe in a personal God that is there to... (Christian Post)
• Shechen Monastery centennial
  The monastery was founded by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910-1991) who was a luminary of Buddhism, respected throughout the world for his teachings. (Nepali Times)

The Buddha at Bamiyan was destroyed by the Taliban. It was the largest in the world because Afghanistan was once an important center of learning on the western frontiers of greater-India (Bharat). Which is to scale and which has been photographed to seem smaller? (See men at bottom for size).

• "Taliban's conversion rider stalled Japan's Bamiyan bid"
  He said that an official delegation from Japan, along with a Buddhist group from Sri Lanka, offered to remove the statues piece by piece and reassemble them... (Times of India)
• “In the Realm of the Buddha” opening explores the sacred arts...
  Buddha is part of the film series, “Tibetan Buddhism: Films from Around the World,” presented by the Freer and Sackler, in conjunction with the...
• Anti-Christian sentiment marks journey for Bhutan's exiles
  Bhutan began expelling almost one-eighth of its citizens for being of Nepali origin or practicing faiths other than Buddhism in the 1980s.

Worshipping money, China won't gain trust
Long under the influence of Buddhism, the most secular among the dominant religions, local culture lacks power in restraining the desire for money.

• Firecrackers destroy historical site as China celebrates Spring Fest
• ...festival led to the destruction of a historical structure in north China's Zhengding County, known as the birthplace of several schools of Zen Buddhism. (Times of India)
• China's Panchen Lama voted VP of state Buddhism body: report
  He added he would "adhere to socialism, safeguard national unification, strengthen ethnic unity, and expand Buddhist exchanges, on the basis of adherence to..." (AFP)‎
• 11th Panchen Lama elected VP of China Buddhist association (Xinhua)
• 11th Panchen Lama elected China Buddhist association VP (CCTV)
• China warns of Obama-Dalai Lama meeting (UPI)
• Tuva-Online: Moscow assigned land for Buddhist temple
  The leaders of Moscow assigned land for building a Buddhist temple in Victory Park on Poklonnaya Mountain. This was announced by RIA Novosti, referring to...

Australian elephant blessed by Buddhist monks
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Mali the baby elephant played with a red rubber ball as three Buddhist monks splashed her face with water Thursday in blessing ceremony for the Melbourne Zoo's newest star. The baby was born six weeks ago to mother Dokkoon after a naming ceremony performed by Buddhist monks in Melbourne, Australia. Mali is Thai for jasmine and was chosen out of five possibilities derived from her Thai lineage in a public vote held by the zoo.

China Applauds Itself On Tibet

"China Applauds Itself Ahead of New Tibetan Holiday"
Stephanie Ho (VOA News, 3/27/09)

Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama, Gyaltsen Norbu, greets the audience at a ceremony marking "Serf Liberation Day" in Beijing, China, March 27, 2009.

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On the eve of a government-declared holiday to celebrate 50 years of Chinese Communist rule in Tibet, Chinese officials are emphasizing the material improvements made in the lives of ordinary Tibetans.

The Chinese government is applauding itself for overturning Tibet's feudal hierarchy 50 years ago.

In 1959, Tibet's top spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled his homeland and Beijing crushed a failed uprising against Chinese rule. China says this is when it brought democratic reform to Tibet, and it is celebrating the event Saturday with a new holiday called "Serf Emancipation Day." More>>

Child Lama missing!

The Panchen Lama: Tibet's Stolen Childhood
If still alive, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima turned 18 years old on April 25, 2007. Since his 1995 kidnap, China has refused to allow either governments or United Nations emissaries access to the Panchen Lama, claiming that his parents requested he not be disturbed.

As of his birthday, however, he is no longer considered a child under Chinese or international law. He presumably has the right to speak on his own behalf. In 2007, the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Ms. Asma Jahangir, reiterated her request for a fact-finding visit to China.

The Special Rapporteur could demand access to the Panchen Lama and his family to verify that they are alive and well. We need the UN Special Rapporteur to know that the Panchen Lama must be a top priority when she next travels to China – sign the petition!

International Campaign for Tibet

The ICT Action Network is a team of thousands of individuals worldwide who are concerned about Tibet and poised to take urgent action to convince decision-makers of their concerns. Receive monthly email updates about important Tibet issues, email action appeals, and an invitation to take part online serving Tibet.

Mahayana Buddhism

Colorful Mahayana symbolism

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Kheper.com (text edited for clarity)

Nagarjuna image from Madhyamaka

The Mahayana ("Great vehicle"), or Northern branch, is one of the two major divisions of Buddhism. The other is Theravada ("Teaching of the Elders"), which is also referred to derogatorily as Hinayana, "Small vehicle."

Mahayana Buddhism is based on sophisticated metaphysical speculations regarding the nature of Reality (shunyata), or Enlightenment (sambodhi, prajna), and of the Buddha (Trikaya).

Soteriologically, the main idea is of not escaping into a quiescent nirvana. Rather, once having achieved enlightenment, one returns as a Bodhisattva to the world for the sake of other beings.

Mayahana, therefore, emphasizes that the duty of enlightenment is to work compassionately to relieve the suffering of others (upaya or "skillful means") and argues that all sentient creatures will ultimately achieve Buddhahood.

Mahayana Buddhism spread northeast from India into China (1st century A.D.), and from there into Tibet and Korea, and from Korea into Japan.

By convention, Mahayana is divided into two philosophical schools, both of which had a strong influence on the various Mahayana Buddhist sects, but also the Advaita Vedanta of Gaudapada and Shankara as well.

The first is the anti-metaphysical Madhyamika or Dialectic school, which emphasizes the negation of all possible phenomenal reality through a kind of logical reducto-ad-absurdum in order to arrive at the ineffable absolute or Void (shunyata) that is the only Reality.

The second Mahayanist school is the Vijnanavada or "Consciousness-[only] doctrine" which uses the experience of meditation in order to prove that all reality is ultimately Consciousness (hence the alternative names of Yogachara, "Yoga doctrine," and Chittamatra, "mind-only").

Unlike the Madhyamikas, they developed a number of metaphysical and occult conceptions, including an emanationist ontology quite similar to that of Samkhya, though psychologically rather than cosmologically oriented.

Buddhist advertisements Bodhidharma or Buddhist graffiti? The temples around Seoul hang posters. They advertise temple events and other programs. This is an older poster, on a signpost with plenty of other adverts under it.

The Bodhisattva Ideal
At the heart of Mahayana Buddhism is the noble "Bodhisattva Ideal":

.

However innumerable sentient beings are,
I vow to save them. However inexhaustible the defilements are,
I vow to extinguish them. However immeasurable the dharmas are,
I vow to master them. However incomparable enlightenment is,
I vow to attain it.
The Bodhisattva Vow (in Andrew Harvey's The Essential Mystics, Harper: San Francisco, 1996, p.75)

A bodhisattva is a being who searches for the attainment of Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings. This conception, central to Mahayana school, developed from the original idea of one who defers the "ultimate goal" of nirvana (extinction) in order to return to the world of suffering again and again for the sake of sentient beings.

Master Shantideva (695-743 AD) was a great proponent of the Bodhisattva Ideal and the Middle Way of Buddhism [Buddhist Artwork - mirror (Australia)]

The Bodhisattva and Reincarnation
By Evgueni Tortchinov

Within the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, which is also a Mahayana school, two types of reincarnation must be differentiated: the usual one (the interpretation of which has the doctrine of Karma as its foundation), an interpretation of which does not differ much from that of the Theravadins, and the doctrine of Sprul-sku (read tool-koo, Sanskrit: nirmanakaya, "a magically produced body, or magically transformed body). This is the ability of the bodhisattvas and other "saints" (arya pudgala) to create by the force of mind special "artificial" bodies to reveal themselves to the Samsaric world by their will for the benefit of other living beings.

Thus, the Dalai-lama is [are] a sprul-sku of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, the Panchen-lama a sprul-sku of the Buddha Amitabha, Bogdo-gegen (of Mongolia) a sprul-sku of the saint Taranatha, and so on. Only such special incarnations can be realized on the levels of mind, speech, and body.

Moreover each bodhisattva, by his/her supernatural powers, can produce unlimited numbers of such "magical bodies" to be incarnated in several persons. (Such as was seen in the collision in Bertolucci's movie "Little Buddha"). In common parlance such incarnations are called "incarnated lamas," or even "living buddhas."

But ordinary beings move through the Wheel of Cyclic Existence [Samsara] by the force of their karma, which holds together their "santana," the individualized continuity of psycho-physical experience.

READ MORE (www.kheper.net/topics/Buddhism/colors.html)

• The Bodhisattva
• The Trikaya
• Shunyata
• Buddha Nature
• Madyamika Buddhism
• Yogachara or Vijnanavada Buddhism
• The Vijnanvada Conception Of "Consciousness-Only"
• Vajrayana (Tantric Buddhism)