Lama No More

[Sumedho]

Lama No More
Bhikkhu S. Dhammika


I didn't hear about it when it happened because I have been out of the loop for a month or so. Now I have just finished reading the Time magazine article about it as well as several other accounts, and I am making a heroic effort not to say 'I've told you so!' The much promoted and a lauded Lama Tenzin Osel Rimpoche has renounced his role as the reincarnation of the much loved Lama Yeshe. So it seems that all the prophetic dreams foretelling where he would be reborn were wrong, all the oracular signs were misread and all the wonders pointing to him being the lama reborn were just imagination. And how now are we to explain all the claims that when he was young Osel could clearly 'remember' incidents in his earlier life? Imagination again or did truth fall foul to over-enthusiasm? When they bought him to Singapore when he was four or five years old, someone who had been a disciple of Lama Yeshe told me that he had clearly recognized all his old teacher's mannerisms in the young child. Imagination again, apparently. Two former Western dropout from Tibetan Buddhism then studying at Sera Monastery told me the FPMT had to make a huge 'donation' to the monastery before the monks there would 'recognize' Osel as the genuine reincarnation. If true, this too raises a few serious questions about the whole tulku thing.

The Time article says. 'The abdication of the anointed tulku is a significant embarrassment to the group he was supposed to head, the powerhouse Foundation for the Preservation of the Monastic Tradition (FPMT), the foremost Tibetan teaching organization in the West. It also challenges Westerners who have adopted Buddhism to find more sophisticated ways of understanding its magical side'. No Time, I must correct you there. It challenges those Westerners who have adopted Tibetan Buddhism. It neither challenges or threatens me or any Westerner who has adopted the Buddha's Dhamma, as opposed to its various cultural expressions in Asia.

The former Lama Osel apparently does not even consider himself a Buddhist anymore. He was quoted in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo as saying, 'I was taken away from my family and put in a medieval situation in which I suffered a lot. It was like living a lie'. A medieval situation! What a perfect description of the atmosphere that has surrounded the poor kid for the last 20 years. It will be interesting to see if Osel returns to being a 'reincarnated' teacher and if he does what his motives for doing so might be.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not glad this has happened. My heart goes out to the really nice and dedicated people at the FPMT who must be feeling rather confused and let-down right now. But this is what happens when you confuse Dhamma with its various traditional and cultural expressions. If my understanding is correct, the whole tulku concept is a fairly recent one in Tibetan Buddhism (15th century ?) and it had no antecedence in Indian Vajrayana or in other countries where Vajrayana was practiced, like Japan. And I seem to remember that the Buddha said, 'No one is born a brahmin' (Sn.136), which in effect is what the tulku concept says, that a lama is worth listening to because he is supposedly the reincarnation of an earlier lama, whether he has anything profound to say or not.

Don't practice Tibetan Buddhism, or Thai Buddhism, or Japanese Buddhism. Practice the Buddhism that is not culturally specific, the Dhamma that is timeless, that transcends culture and that is applicable everywhere and always.

A little ditty with apologies to Ogden Nash.

A one l lama he's a priest
A two l llama he's a beast
And I will bet a silk pyjama
That you can't really 'recognize' a reborn lama.

[naviscope]

^
aye bantu terjemahin ya

Tidak Lama Lagi >> Lama Tidak Ada Lagi
Bhikkhu S. Dhammika


Aku tidak pernah mendengar tentang hal ini ketika terjadi karena saya telah keluar dari lingkaran selama satu bulan atau lebih. Sekarang saya baru saja selesai membaca majalah Time artikel tentang hal tersebut serta beberapa account lain, dan saya melakukan upaya heroik untuk tidak berkata 'I've told you so! " Banyak yang dipromosikan dan lauded Lama Tenzin Osel Rimpoche telah renounced perannya sebagai penjelmaan dari banyak dicintai Lama Yeshe. Jadi sepertinya bahwa semua nubuatan foretelling mimpi di mana dia akan reborn yang salah, semua dogmatis yang salah membaca tanda-tanda dan segala keajaiban yang kepadanya sebagai reborn telah lama hanya imajinasi. Dan sekarang adalah bagaimana kita semua untuk menjelaskan bahwa ketika dia muda Osel jelas dapat 'ingat' insiden dalam kehidupan sebelumnya? Imajinasi lagi atau kebenaran yang jatuh ke atas curang-antusiasme? Ketika mereka membeli dia ke Singapura ketika dia berumur empat atau lima tahun, seseorang yang telah menjadi seorang murid dari Lama Yeshe berkata dengan jelas bahwa ia telah lama dikenal semua guru di mannerisms anak muda. Imajinasi lagi, ternyata. Dua mantan Barat putus dari Tibet Buddhisme kemudian belajar di Sera Monastery FPMT kepada saya harus membuat besar 'sumbangan' ke biara sebelum ada rahib akan 'mengenal' Osel sebagai penjelmaan asli. Jika benar, ini juga menimbulkan beberapa pertanyaan serius tentang seluruh tulku hal.

Waktu yang mengatakan artikel. 'The abdikasi yang diurapi tulku adalah signifikan kejengahan ke grup dia seharusnya kepala, pembangkit tenaga listrik yang Foundation untuk kelestarian yang monastik Tradisi (FPMT), yang terpenting dalam organisasi pengajaran Tibet Barat. Hal ini juga tantangan Westerners Buddhisme yang telah mengadopsi lebih canggih untuk menemukan cara-cara pemahaman para pihak magis'. Tidak ada waktu, saya harus benar Anda di sana. It Westerners tantangan mereka yang telah mengadopsi Buddhisme Tibet. Tantangan itu tidak mengancam atau saya atau orang barat yang telah diadopsi dari Buddha Dhamma, karena bertentangan dengan berbagai ekspresi budaya di Asia.

Mantan Lama Osel ternyata tidak bahkan menganggap dirinya Buddha lagi. Ia dikutip di koran Spanyol El Mundo berkata, 'Aku telah diambil dari keluarga saya, dan dimasukkan ke dalam sebuah situasi di abad pertengahan yang banyak menderita. Ia hidup seperti berbohong '. J abad situasi! Apa yang sempurna keterangan suasana yang dikelilingi anak-anak yang miskin untuk 20 tahun terakhir. Ini akan menarik untuk melihat apakah Osel kembali menjadi 'reincarnated' guru dan jika dia melakukan apa motif nya untuk melakukan hal itu.

Don't get me wrong. Saya tidak senang ini telah terjadi. My heart goes out dengan baik dan benar-benar berdedikasi pada FPMT yang harus merasa agak bingung dan membiarkan-down sekarang. Tetapi ini adalah apa yang terjadi bila Anda merancukan Dhamma dengan berbagai tradisional dan ekspresi budaya. Jika saya pemahaman yang benar, seluruh tulku konsep yang cukup baru-baru ini adalah satu di Tibet Buddhisme (abad 15.?) Dan tidak memiliki antecedence di India Vajrayana atau di negara-negara lain di mana Vajrayana telah dilakukan, seperti Jepang. Dan sepertinya saya ingat bahwa Buddha berkata, 'Tidak ada seorangpun yang lahir Brahmin' (Sn.136), yang berlaku adalah apa yang tulku konsep mengatakan, bahwa lama senilai mendengarkan karena ia adalah penjelmaan dari yang diduga sebelumnya lama, apakah dia memiliki sesuatu yang mendalam untuk mengatakan atau tidak.

Jangan praktek Buddhisme Tibet, atau Thai Budha, atau Budha Jepang. Praktek yang Buddhisme yang tidak spesifik budaya, maka Dhamma yang abadi, yang transcends dan budaya yang berlaku di mana-mana dan selalu.

Sedikit lagu pendek dengan permintaan maaf ke Ogden Nash.

J satu l lama dia adalah imam
J dua l llama he's a beast
Dan saya akan bertaruh yang sutera pyjama
Bahwa Anda tidak dapat benar-benar 'mengenali' a reborn lama.

N.B. kalau ada salah terjemahan, aye minta maaf ya, hasil pake program penerjemah soalnya

[Shining Moon]

Napis yang baik...+1 ya

[Shining Moon]

Ups. Maaf. Om medhok kelupaan. +1 juga buat om medhok yang baik.

[reborn]

Menemukan kesalahan adalah kebenaran. Pembuktian adalah kebenaran, smoga kita benar2 mencari kebenaran.

[naviscope]

^


wuih, reborn itu pilot yach.... kereeeennnnnn..... ^^V

tar kapan2 nebeng yach bro, hehehe....

[at] yuri-chan
trengkyu yach, kiriman nya sudah diterima
nech saya kirim balik ya

buat sista yuri chan
buat pilot reborn

plus 1 yach ^^V

buat om medho >> utang dulu yach  (Sorry, you can't repeat a karma action without waiting 720 hours.)

[Kelana]

Menurut saya, tradisi pencarian Lama perlu sedikit-sedikit ditinggalkan karena sangat mudah disalahgunakan.

[tula]

pas bangun tengah malam ... ga isa tidur lagi

ini 1 topic ama thread ini ya ?
http://dhammacitta.org/forum/index.php/topic,11123.msg185953.html#msg185953

[Jerry]

 [at] Napis
seengganya diedit dulu dong sebelum posting. zzzz =="

[at] Ko Medho
but the show must goes on they say.

[Sumedho]

 [at] xuvie: close your ears, eyes, and ignore it

[Jerry]

 [at]  ^
nice advice.. thanks. but i prefer another way, my way.

[Sumedho]

 [at] xuvie: kekna salah tangkep deh it was them who ignore the fact and keep on doing what they were doing

[Jerry]

yeah.. exactly why i dont wanna close my eyes, ears, senses and ignore it. well, cant help it but to let it be. ironic it is. but the show must goes on, coz it's the fundament of the 'faith' and without this, how will the show turn out to be?

[Sumedho]

*sigh*

[GandalfTheElder]

Hmmm.... but I think Bhante Dhammika took a wrong meaning on the Osel's saying, like this:

"The former Lama Osel apparently does not even consider himself a Buddhist anymore."

And the fact that he is still a Buddhist and still working with FPMT, as Osel himself said.

Remember, the media always exaggerated the news, and Osel agreed on this too....

The tulku concept goes back to the reincarnation of Karmapas. Karma Pakshi, the second Karmapa is the first in reincarnated tulku system.

The Sixth Dalai Lama's [Tsangyang Gyatso] case also like Osel's case [they both reincarnated lamas],  he [Sixth Dalai] left the monastery and live as a layperson, free and doing everything that is not "so Buddhist". He did activities like a normal layperson. But he is still a Buddhist.

Yes he is a Buddhist and Osel still a Buddhist too.

Buddhist doesnt' have to be the monastic ones right?


The Siddha Wanderer