Tokoh-Tokoh Buddhis

[Hikoza83]

cia yo ! semangat bro felix angkasa.
bagus2 artikelnya..
semoga apa yang mereka lakukan dapat menjadi inspirasi bagi kita dalam praktek Dharma.



By : Zen

[Surya Kumari]

yah..keduluan ama bro felix..aye baca aja lagi..

[Edward]

mo request donk...
Master Sheng Yen dan Ajahn chah

Thx Bro...

[Pitu Kecil]

24. Ajahn Chan

Venerable Ajahn Chah (Phra Bodhiñāna Thera) was born into a typical farming family in a rural village in the province of Ubon Rachathani, N.E. Thailand, on June 17, 1918. He lived the first part of his life as any other youngster in rural Thailand, and, following the custom, took ordination as a novice in the local village monastery for three years, where he learned to read and write, in addition to studying some basic Buddhist teachings. After this he returned to the lay life to help his parents, but, feeling an attraction to the monastic life, at the age of twenty (on April 26, 1939) he again entered a monastery, this time for higher ordination as a bhikkhu, or Buddhist monk.

He spent the first few years of his bhikkhu life studying some basic Dhamma, discipline, Pāli language and scriptures, but the death of his father awakened him to the transience of life. It caused him to think deeply about life's real purpose, for although he had studied extensively and gained some proficiency in Pāli, he seemed no nearer to a personal understanding of the end of suffering. Feelings of disenchantment set in, and a desire to find the real essence of the Buddha's teaching arose. Finally (in 1946) he abandoned his studies and set off on mendicant pilgrimage. He walked some 400 km to Central Thailand, sleeping in forests and gathering almsfood in the villages on the way. He took up residence in a monastery where the vinaya (monastic discipline) was carefully studied and practiced. While there he was told about Venerable Ajahn Mun Bhuridatto, a most highly respected Meditation Master. Keen to meet such an accomplished teacher, Ajahn Chah set off on foot for the Northeast in search of him. He began to travel to other monasteries, studying the monastic discipline in detail and spending a short but enlightening period with Venerable Ajahn Mun, the most outstanding Thai forest meditation master of this century. At this time Ajahn Chah was wrestling with a crucial problem. He had studied the teachings on morality, meditation and wisdom, which the texts presented in minute and refined detail, but he could not see how they could actually be put into practice. Ajahn Mun told him that although the teachings are indeed extensive, at their heart they are very simple. With mindfulness established, if it is seen that everything arises in the heart-mind: right there is the true path of practice. This succinct and direct teaching was a revelation for Ajahn Chah, and transformed his approach to practice. The Way was clear.

For the next seven years Ajahn Chah practiced in the style of an ascetic monk in the austere Forest Tradition, spending his time in forests, caves and cremation grounds, ideal places for developing meditation practice. He wandered through the countryside in quest of quiet and secluded places for developing meditation. He lived in tiger and cobra infested jungles, using reflections on death to penetrate to the true meaning of life. On one occasion he practiced in a cremation ground, to challenge and eventually overcome his fear of death. Then, as he sat cold and drenched in a rainstorm, he faced the utter desolation and loneliness of a homeless monk.

Ajahn Chah sweepingAfter many years of travel and practice, he was invited to settle in a thick forest grove near the village of his birth. This grove was uninhabited, known as a place of cobras, tigers and ghosts, thus being as he said, the perfect location for a forest monk. Venerable Ajahn Chah's impeccable approach to meditation, or Dhamma practice, and his simple, direct style of teaching, with the emphasis on practical application and a balanced attitude, began to attract a large following of monks and lay people. Thus a large monastery formed around Ajahn Chah as more and more monks, nuns and lay-people came to hear his teachings and stay on to practice with him.

Ajahn Chah's simple yet profound style of teaching has a special appeal to Westerners, and many have come to study and practice with him, quite a few for many years. In 1966 the first westerner came to stay at Wat Nong Pah Pong, Venerable Sumedho Bhikkhu. The newly ordained Venerable Sumedho had just spent his first vassa ('Rains' retreat) practicing intensive meditation at a monastery near the Laotian border. Although his efforts had borne some fruit, Venerable Sumedho realized that he needed a teacher who could train him in all aspects of monastic life. By chance, one of Ajahn Chah's monks, one who happened to speak a little English visited the monastery where Venerable Sumedho was staying. Upon hearing about Ajahn Chah, he asked to take leave of his preceptor, and went back to Wat Nong Pah Pong with the monk. Ajahn Chah willingly accepted the new disciple, but insisted that he receive no special allowances for being a Westerner. He would have to eat the same simple almsfood and practice in the same way as any other monk at Wat Nong Pah Pong. The training there was quite harsh and forbidding. Ajahn Chah often pushed his monks to their limits, to test their powers of endurance so that they would develop patience and resolution. He sometimes initiated long and seemingly pointless work projects, in order to frustrate their attachment to tranquility. The emphasis was always on surrender to the way things are, and great stress was placed upon strict observance of the vinaya.

Ajahn Chah with three first western monk-disciples.From that time on, the number of foreign people who came to Ajahn Chah began to steadily increase. By the time Venerable Sumedho was a monk of five vassas, and Ajahn Chah considered him competent enough to teach, some of these new monks had also decided to stay on and train there. In the hot season of 1975, Venerable Sumedho and a handful of Western bhikkhus spent some time living in a forest not far from Wat Nong Pah Pong. The local villagers there asked them to stay on, and Ajahn Chah consented. The Wat Pah Nanachat ('International Forest Monastery') came into being, and Venerable Sumedho became the abbot of the first monastery in Thailand to be run by and for English-speaking monks.

In 1977, Ajahn Chah and Ajahn Sumedho were invited to visit Britain by the English Sangha Trust, a charity with the aim of establishing a locally-resident Buddhist Sangha. Seeing the serious interest there, Ajahn Chah left Ajahn Sumedho (with two of his other Western disciples who were then visiting Europe) in London at the Hampstead Vihara. He returned to Britain in 1979, at which time the monks were leaving London to begin Chithurst Buddhist Monastery in Sussex. He then went on to America and Canada to visit and teach.

In 1980 Venerable Ajahn Chah began to feel more accutely the symptoms of dizziness and memory lapse which had plagued him for some years. In 1980 and 1981, Ajahn Chah spent the 'rains retreat' away from Wat Nong Pah Pong, since his health was failing due to the debilitating effects of diabetes. As his illness worsened, he would use his body as a teaching, a living example of the impermanence of all things. He constantly reminded people to endeavor to find a true refuge within themselves, since he would not be able to teach for very much longer. This led to an operation in 1981, which, however, failed to reverse the onset of the paralysis which eventually rendered him completely bedridden and unable to speak. This did not stop the growth of monks and lay people who came to practise at his monastery, however, for whom the teachings of Ajahn Chah were a constant guide and inspiration.

After remaining bedridden and silent for an amazing ten years, carefully tended by his monks and novices, Venerable Ajahn Chah passed away on the 16th of January, 1992, at the age of 74, leaving behind a thriving community of monasteries and lay suporters in Thailand, England, Switzerland, Italy, France, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the U.S.A, where the practise of the Buddha's teachings continues under the inspiration of this great meditation teacher.

Although Ajahn Chah passed away in 1992, the training which he established is still carried on at Wat Nong Pah Pong and its branch monasteries, of which there are currently more than two hundred in Thailand. Discipline is strict, enabling one to lead a simple and pure life in a harmoniously regulated community where virtue, meditation and understanding may be skillfully and continuously cultivated. There is usually group meditation twice a day and sometimes a talk by the senior teacher, but the heart of the meditation is the way of life. The monastics do manual work, dye and sew their own robes, make most of their own requisites and keep the monastery buildings and grounds in immaculate shape. They live extremely simply following the ascetic precepts of eating once a day from the almsbowl and limiting their possessions and robes. Scattered throughout the forest are individual huts where monks and nuns live and meditate in solitude, and where they practice walking meditation on cleared paths under the trees.

Ajahn ChahWisdom is a way of living and being, and Ajahn Chah has endeavored to preserve the simple monastic life-style in order that people may study and practice the Dhamma in the present day. Ajahn Chah's wonderfully simple style of teaching can be deceptive. It is often only after we have heard something many times that suddenly our minds are ripe and somehow the teaching takes on a much deeper meaning. His skillful means in tailoring his explanations of Dhamma to time and place, and to the understanding and sensitivity of his audience, was marvelous to see. Sometimes on paper though, it can make him seem inconsistent or even self-contradictory! At such times the reader should remember that these words are a record of a living experience. Similarly, if the teachings may seem to vary at times from tradition, it should be borne in mind that the Venerable Ajahn spoke always from the heart, from the depths of his own meditative experience.

[Pitu Kecil]

25. Ajahn Sumedho

Ajahn Sumedho (Robert Jackman) was born in Seattle, Washington in 1934. Beginning at the age of eighteen, he served overseas as a medic in the United States navy for four years, including the period of the Korean War. Following his military service, he completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Far Eastern Studies and, in 1963, graduated with a Masters Degree in South Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He served in the Peace Corps as an English teacher in Borneo from 1964 to 1966, following a one-year stint as a social worker for the Red Cross. In 1966, Ajahn Sumedho was ordained as a novice monk (samanera) at Wat Sri Saket in Nong Khai, northeast Thailand, and received full ordination, as a bhikkhu, in May of the following year.

Following this, he spent the next ten years from 1967-1977 at Wat Nong Pa Pong, studying under the highly venerated teacher, Ajahn Chah. Since that time, he has been regarded as the most influential Western disciple of Ajahn Chah. In 1975 he helped to establish and became the first abbot of the International Monastery, Wat Pa Nanachat in northeast Thailand founded by Ajahn Chah for training his non-Thai students. In 1977, Ajahn Sumedho accompanied Ajahn Chah on a visit to England. After observing a keen interest in Buddhism among Westerners, Ajahn Chah encouraged Ajahn Sumedho to remain in England for the purpose of establishing a branch monastery in the UK. This became Cittaviveka Forest Monastery, in West Sussex.

Ajahn Sumedho was granted authority to ordain others as monks shortly after he established Cittaviveka Forest Monastery. He then established a ten precept ordination lineage for women, "Siladhara".

Ajahn Sumedho is currently the abbot of Amaravati Buddhist Monastery near Hemel Hempstead in England, which was established in 1984. It is part of the network of monasteries and Buddhist centres in the lineage of Ajahn Chah, which now extends across the world, from Thailand, New Zealand and Australia, to Europe, Canada and the United States. Ajahn Sumedho has played an instrumental role in building this international monastic community.

[edit] Teachings

Ajahn Sumedho is a prominent figure in the Thai Forest Tradition. His teachings are very direct, practical, simple, and down to earth. In his talks and sermons he stresses the quality of immediate intuitive awareness and the integration of this kind of awareness into daily life. Like most teachers in the Forest Tradition, Ajahn Sumedho tends to avoid intellectual abstractions of the Buddhist teachings and focuses almost exclusively on their practical applications, that is, developing wisdom and compassion in daily life. His most consistent advice can be paraphrased as to see things the way that they actually are rather than the way that we want or don't want them to be ("Right now, it's like this..."). He is known for his engaging and witty communication style, in which he challenges his listeners to practice and see for themselves. Students have noted that he engages his hearers with an infectious sense of humor, suffused with much loving kindness, often weaving amusing anecdotes from his experiences as a monk into his talks on meditation practice and how to experience life ("Everything belongs").

[edit] Sound of Silence

A meditation technique taught and used by Ajahn Sumedho is the "Sound of Silence" [Disputed] (also known -- in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, for example -- as the Nada tone). Listening to, and resting in, this inner sound produces a peaceful, non-reactive mind in which intuitive wisdom can and does arise. The "Sound of Silence" is also the title of one of Ajahn Sumedho's books (published by Wisdom in 2007).

[Indra]

Apakah yg terakhir juga termasuk TOKOH? apa yg dimaksudkan dengan TOKOH?

[gajeboh angek]

Om Lothar, Master Sheng Yen itu bukan Lu Seng Yen. Master Sheng Yen itu Suhu terkenal dari Tiongkok. Sedangkan Lu Seng Yen itu adalah tokoh cult.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheng-yen

[andrew]

Master Sheng Yen

Seorang Master Ch'an ( Zen ) yang mewarisi dua aliran besar dalam Ch'an : aliran Lin chi ( Rinzai ) dan Tsao tung (Soto)

Juga memegang gelar Doktor  dalam kesusasteraan Buddhis dari universitas Rissho di Tokyo, Jepang.

Pendiri Dharma Drum Mountain

Master Sheng Yen lahir di dekat kota Sanghai, menjadi Bhiksu pada usia 13 tahun, merupakan generasi ke 2 dari Master Xu Yun.

[andrew]

Master Xu yun


Grand Master Xu Yun, Zen Master legendaris yang hidup dimasa penuh pergolakan di Tiongkok. lahir pada jaman perang candu ( 1840 )

Kala mudanya menghabiskan waktu lama bertapa di gunung gunung, hanya menyantap daun pinus.

Menempuh beribu -ribu mil mil menjalankan laku " sujud tiap tiga langkah " dari pulau Pu Tuo  hingga puncak salju gunung Wu tai pada usia 43 tahun.

Mencapai pencerahan besar pada usia yang rada lanjut 56 tahun.

Raja Muangthai, mengangkat beliau menjadi guru pribadinya, setelah Master melakukan meditasi selama 9 hari disalah satu vihara di kota bangkok.

Beliau  terus melakukan karya -karya besarnya dengan tetap rendah hati dan sederhana.
hingga wafatnya di usia 120 tahun, menjelang geger revolusi kebudayaan China.

[Adhitthana]

Master Lu Sheng Yen, apakah masuk dalam kategori Tokoh Buddhis  

[Mr. Wei]

26. Master Lu Sheng Yen

Lu Sheng-Yen (盧勝彥, Lú Shèngyàn) (27 June 1945-), commonly referred to by followers as Master Lu is the founder and spiritual leader of the True Buddha School, a relatively new Buddhist sect with teachings taken from Sutrayana and Vajrayana (Tantric Buddhism), as well as Taoism. Master Lu has declared himself to be Living Buddha Lian Sheng (蓮生活佛, Liansheng Huófó) and is revered by his disciples as a Living Buddha.[1]

His organization says that over five million students have taken refuge as disciples under Lu. There are also more than three hundred local chapters of the True Buddha School, including thirty major temples, such as the Ling Shen Ching Tze Temple in Redmond, Washington, where he resides presently. The majority of his disciples hail from Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Lu is married to Lian Hsiang, who is also a vajra master, and is referred as Grand Madam Lu. Lu and Lian Hsiang have two children.[2]

Life

Born in Chiayi County, Taiwan in 1945, Lu was raised a Christian, attending a Protestant school. His post-secondary education was at Chung Cheng Institute of Technology, and he graduated with a degree in Survey Engineering. In his early twenties he was both a survey engineer and a Sunday school Bible teacher.

He has written that his epiphany came in 1969 when he had a mystical experience, leading him to seek out a total of twenty-one human gurus in Taoism, Sutra, and Tantra. In 1982, Lu moved to the United States, and lived in the state of Washington.

To date, Lu has written over 200 books in Chinese on various topics, including feng shui and poetry.

According to his website, he went into seclusion in Tahiti for six years starting late 2000 and lived in Taichung, Taiwan.[3] Today he lives in the state of Washington.

[edit] Teachings

Lu teaches the Mahamudra method of attaining Buddhahood. His teachings follow the traditional stages of the practice of the Four Preliminaries, followed by Guru Yoga, Deity Yoga, the Vajra Practices, and finally Highest Yoga Tantra.[4] Lu has written that his spiritual gurus included the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje and Tai Situ Rinpoche.[5]

He describes the state of enlightenment using the allegory of Padmakumara, whom he identifies with Amitabha Buddha and his own enlightened self.[6]

According to Noah Casey, Lu's teachings do not prohibit the consumption of meat and alcohol; however, "The consumption of alcohol is limited to quantities not resulting in intoxication, and the eating of meat is restricted to animals not butchered especially for the person consuming. Before consuming either of these, or any other nutritional substance, a special prayer is required. For meats, the spirit of the animal must be delivered."[7] However, this is seen as contradiction, in comparison with traditional Pure Land Buddhist teachings.

[edit] Controversies

Lu made headlines during an investigation by the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission into his cash donations to Chinese American politician Gary Locke, who Lu had hoped would run for the White House. Locke was cleared of any wrongdoing by the commission in 1998.[8]

He was also sued in civil court by a former disciple, who anonymously called herself SHC, a 41-year-old Malaysian immigrant, over allegations of sexual misconduct, after the King County, Washington prosecutor declined to file charges for lack of evidence. The case was dismissed by King County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Learned citing constitutional issues.[8] In the case S.H.C. v. Sheng-Yen Lu,[9] the Superior Court of King County granted the Temple's motion for summary judgment, and the Court of Appeals later "affirm[ed] the trial court's grant of summary judgment dismissing all claims against the Temple."

After a meeting in November 1996 with the Dalai Lama, Lu asserted that the Dalai Lama had endorsed him as an authority in Tibetan Buddhism. This was rebutted by sources close to the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, who asserted that it was merely an individual meeting. His claims that he has millions of disciples have also been heavily questioned by Tibetan sources, as well as his claim to have attained lineage from various Tibetan lineages. The source also dismissed claims made by Lu that he had been afforded an audience of between 1500 and 2000 lamas upon a 1996 visit to Tibet and India. Since then, Tibetan monasteries have been advised to avoid contact with Lu, so as to diminish the possibility that they could be misrepresented for his own benefit.[10]

Lu has also gained attention for his opulent lifestyle, with his vehicle being a Rolls Royce.[10]

He has been criticized by Tsering Phuri, the president of TIBETcenter, who said "People should not say, `I am a living Buddha'".[11]

Klo ini mah Sheng Yen yang tokoh cult...

Master Sheng Yen

Seorang Master Ch'an ( Zen ) yang mewarisi dua aliran besar dalam Ch'an : aliran Lin chi ( Rinzai ) dan Tsao tung (Soto)

Juga memegang gelar Doktor  dalam kesusasteraan Buddhis dari universitas Rissho di Tokyo, Jepang.

Pendiri Dharma Drum Mountain

Master Sheng Yen lahir di dekat kota Sanghai, menjadi Bhiksu pada usia 13 tahun, merupakan generasi ke 2 dari Master Xu Yun.

Nah ini baru Sheng Yen yang suhu terkenal dari Tiongkok

[iwakbelido]

wow, Master Lu Sheng Yen punya rolls royce...
tokoh cult itu maksudnya apa?

[samsung]

26. Master Lu Sheng Yen

Lu Sheng-Yen (盧勝彥, Lú Shèngyàn) (27 June 1945-), commonly referred to by followers as Master Lu is the founder and spiritual leader of the True Buddha School, a relatively new Buddhist sect with teachings taken from Sutrayana and Vajrayana (Tantric Buddhism), as well as Taoism. Master Lu has declared himself to be Living Buddha Lian Sheng (蓮生活佛, Liansheng Huófó) and is revered by his disciples as a Living Buddha.[1]

His organization says that over five million students have taken refuge as disciples under Lu. There are also more than three hundred local chapters of the True Buddha School, including thirty major temples, such as the Ling Shen Ching Tze Temple in Redmond, Washington, where he resides presently. The majority of his disciples hail from Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Lu is married to Lian Hsiang, who is also a vajra master, and is referred as Grand Madam Lu. Lu and Lian Hsiang have two children.[2]

Life

Born in Chiayi County, Taiwan in 1945, Lu was raised a Christian, attending a Protestant school. His post-secondary education was at Chung Cheng Institute of Technology, and he graduated with a degree in Survey Engineering. In his early twenties he was both a survey engineer and a Sunday school Bible teacher.

He has written that his epiphany came in 1969 when he had a mystical experience, leading him to seek out a total of twenty-one human gurus in Taoism, Sutra, and Tantra. In 1982, Lu moved to the United States, and lived in the state of Washington.

To date, Lu has written over 200 books in Chinese on various topics, including feng shui and poetry.

According to his website, he went into seclusion in Tahiti for six years starting late 2000 and lived in Taichung, Taiwan.[3] Today he lives in the state of Washington.

[edit] Teachings

Lu teaches the Mahamudra method of attaining Buddhahood. His teachings follow the traditional stages of the practice of the Four Preliminaries, followed by Guru Yoga, Deity Yoga, the Vajra Practices, and finally Highest Yoga Tantra.[4] Lu has written that his spiritual gurus included the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje and Tai Situ Rinpoche.[5]

He describes the state of enlightenment using the allegory of Padmakumara, whom he identifies with Amitabha Buddha and his own enlightened self.[6]

According to Noah Casey, Lu's teachings do not prohibit the consumption of meat and alcohol; however, "The consumption of alcohol is limited to quantities not resulting in intoxication, and the eating of meat is restricted to animals not butchered especially for the person consuming. Before consuming either of these, or any other nutritional substance, a special prayer is required. For meats, the spirit of the animal must be delivered."[7] However, this is seen as contradiction, in comparison with traditional Pure Land Buddhist teachings.

[edit] Controversies

Lu made headlines during an investigation by the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission into his cash donations to Chinese American politician Gary Locke, who Lu had hoped would run for the White House. Locke was cleared of any wrongdoing by the commission in 1998.[8]

He was also sued in civil court by a former disciple, who anonymously called herself SHC, a 41-year-old Malaysian immigrant, over allegations of sexual misconduct, after the King County, Washington prosecutor declined to file charges for lack of evidence. The case was dismissed by King County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Learned citing constitutional issues.[8] In the case S.H.C. v. Sheng-Yen Lu,[9] the Superior Court of King County granted the Temple's motion for summary judgment, and the Court of Appeals later "affirm[ed] the trial court's grant of summary judgment dismissing all claims against the Temple."

After a meeting in November 1996 with the Dalai Lama, Lu asserted that the Dalai Lama had endorsed him as an authority in Tibetan Buddhism. This was rebutted by sources close to the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, who asserted that it was merely an individual meeting. His claims that he has millions of disciples have also been heavily questioned by Tibetan sources, as well as his claim to have attained lineage from various Tibetan lineages. The source also dismissed claims made by Lu that he had been afforded an audience of between 1500 and 2000 lamas upon a 1996 visit to Tibet and India. Since then, Tibetan monasteries have been advised to avoid contact with Lu, so as to diminish the possibility that they could be misrepresented for his own benefit.[10]

Lu has also gained attention for his opulent lifestyle, with his vehicle being a Rolls Royce.[10]

He has been criticized by Tsering Phuri, the president of TIBETcenter, who said "People should not say, `I am a living Buddha'".[11]

Klo ini mah Sheng Yen yang tokoh cult

bisa juga,, CULT.di mata dunia buddhis reputasi nya kurang bagus.

[samsung]

                                               Dalai Lama
                                             
Dalam Tibetan Buddhism, para Dalai Lama (bahasa Tibet: ཏ་ཱལའི་བླ་མ་ taa-la'i bla-ma; Hanzi sederhana: 达赖喇嘛; Hanzi tradisional: 達賴喇嘛; pinyin: Dálài Lǎmā) adalah garis tulku dari pemimpin Gelugpa yang dapat dilacak kembali sampai 1391. Tibetan Buddhists percaya bahwa Dalai Lama adalah perwujudan insani dari Avalokitesvara ("Chenrezig" [spyan ras gzigs] dalam bahasa Tibet), bodhisattva of compassion. Antara abad XVII dan 1959, Dalai Lama adalah kepala pemerintahan Tibet, mengendalikan sebagian besar negara dari ibukota Lhasa. Dalai Lama adalah kepala Tibetan Buddhism, dan para pemimpin dari keempat aliran percaya bahwa Dalai Lama adalah lama tertinggi dalam tradisi Tibet. Ia sering dipanggil "His Holiness" (atau HH) sebelum gelarnya.

Dalai Lama sering dikira kepala aliran Gelug, namun jabatan ini resminya dipegang Ganden Tripa (dga' ldan khri pa).

Dalai Lama ke-5, dengan dukungan Gushri Khan, seorang penguasa Mongol dari Khökh Nuur, mempersatukan Tibet. Para Dalai Lama memerintah di Tibet sampai Republik Rakyat Tionghoa menginvasi daerah ini pada 1949 dan kemudian mengambil alih kendali pada 1959. Dalai Lama ke-14 kemudian melarikan diri ke India dan telah renounced temporal power. Dalai Lama ke-14 menginginkan otonomi bagi Tibet, bukan kemerdekaan. Lihat Sejarah Tibet untuk keterangan lebih lanjut.

"Dalai" artinya "lautan" dalam bahasa Mongol, dan "Lama" (bla ma) adalah bahasa Tibet untuk "guru", dan dapat juga berarti "rahib". Gelar ini pertama dianugerahkan oleh penguasa Mongol Altan Khan kepada Sonam Gyatso, seorang abbot di biara Drepung yang dianggap sebagai lama paling terkemuka di masanya. Walaupun Sonam Gyatso menjadi lama pertama yang memegang gelar "Dalai Lama", karena ia adalah anggota ketiga dalam garisnya, ia menjadi "Dalai Lama ke-3". Kedua gelar sebelumnya diberikan kepada dua inkarnasi sebelumnya. Gelar "Dalai Lama" sekarang diberikan kepada setiap inkarnasi pemimpin agama tersebut. Orang Tibet memanggil Dalai Lama Gyawa Rinpoche (rgya ba rin po che) berarti "Precious Victor," atau Yeshe Norbu (ye shes nor bu) berarti "Wisdom Jewel". Dalai Lama ke-14, dan para pendahulunya, dianggap sebagai inkarnasi Buddha of Compassion.