The Dalai Lama, a sordid history of Nazi Mentors and forgiving Fascists

[magical thyme]

67. "a deposed theocrat?" Buddhism does not have a deity

Buddhist lamas are teachers, not gods or priests or saints, and Buddhism does not address the existence of a deity. In achieving enlightenment, they are believed to have been freed from the cycle of rebirth, but they *choose* to reincarnate in order to assist others in achieving enlightenment.

It is westerners who use the phrase "His Holiness" and equate him to the Catholic Pope; there is no translation of those ideas to Tibetan.

The 14th Dalai Lama was identified in their traditional manner. On the death of the prior Dalai Lama, the head monk or monks meditated while gazing into a specific lake know to promote visions. The vision gives a direction and, in this case, showed a roof of specific type and color pattern. They then searched in that direction for 4 years before they found a house with that roof on it. A 4 year old boy lived there. They tested the boy, including showing him a group of objects. He correctly identified which objects in the group had belonged to the prior Dalai Lama. Once his identity was confirmed, he went to live at Lhasa, where he was raised and educated by the monks to be the leader of Tibet.

The Dalai Lama originally was the spiritual leader only, but many centuries ago they began filling the dual role or spiritual and political leader. As written elsewhere in this thread, the 14th Dalai Lama was actively transitioning Tibet to a democratic government when China invaded.

Buddhism teaches that all life is suffering, and to end the suffering you must detach yourself from life. That is, you should live your life and you love life, but you do not attach yourself to outcomes. It is in attachment -- in trying to create specific outcomes -- that you create more suffering and trapped in the cycle of rebirth.

Are there Buddhists who do bad things? Yes, of course. They are the students, though, not the masters.