One of the main consequences of the Chinese attempts is that the Dalai Lama has been perceived several times as indicating that he will not reincarnate any longer. Read more

The Spiritual Leader of Tibetan Buddhism, 83, made the remarks in a wide-ranging interview with the BBC last week.

In 2015, he first said that while he would welcome a female Dalai Lama, she would be "not much use" unless she was "very attractive."

BBC News reporter Rajini Vaidyanathan asked the religious leader whether he still stood by the remarks in an interview published last Thursday.

"If a female Dalai Lama comes, she should be more attractive," he reiterated. Read more

The Dalai Lama (83), the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, has been living as a refugee in India since fleeing Tibet in 1959.

In a recent interview with the BBC, he opened up about his views on Africans and Muslims who have sought refuge in Europe.

While Europe is obliged to take in those who needed help, those people should ultimately be returned to their homelands, he asserted.

He went on to say: "European countries should take these refugees and give them education and training, and the aim is - return to their own land with certain skills."

When the interviewer asked what should happen to the refugees who want to stay in their adopted countries, he said: "A limited number is OK. But the whole of Europe [will] eventually become Muslim country - impossible. Or African country, also impossible."

"Europe is for Europeans."

He believes the refugees are "better in their own land."

He also told the BBC about his views on the qualities needed in any hypothetical female successor to his role.

He reiterated comments he first made in 2015, in which he stated if a woman were to become the next Dalai Lama, she would have to be "very attractive" or else she wouldn't be much use to the cause.

He said if a woman were unattractive: "I think [people would] prefer not [to] see her, that face."

The interviewer said his words could be seen as objectifying women and then asked whether the role should be about who a person is on the inside, the Dalai Lama said "Yes, I think both".

Source

• The Daily Mail
• HuffingtonPost
• Image:Telegraphindia

The spiritual leader of the Tibetan Buddhist people says in his opinion Europeans should be the sole decider of politics in Europe.

He made his comments in Malmo, Sweden. Malmo is a city with a significant immigrant population.

The Dalai Lama went on to say that refugees should go back to where they came from and help to rebuild their respective countries.

At the same time, he pointed out Europe is morally bound to assist any refugees who genuinely fear for their lives. Sweden took in the highest number of refugees amongst all other European nations in 2015.

Anti-immigrant and right-wing populist party, Sweden Democrats, says it wants to halve the number of immigrants coming to Sweden, while 60% of the public in polls wish to see immigrant numbers lowered.

The Dalai Lama's comments occurred soon after Sweden's general election results which saw 18 percent of the vote going to the Sweden Democrats.

Their third-place finish in the elections follows a WU-wide trend of far-right nationalist political gains.

The Dalai Lama's remarks upset many of his followers.

He has made similar comments in the past: in 2016 he stated that Germany had "too many refugees" during an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

In addition to demonstrating an obvious lack of understanding about the migrant crisis, the Dalai Lama shocked many of his admirers, especially considering his own status as a refugee residing in India for more than 50 years.

Source

• World Religion News
• Political Critique
• Nikkei Asian ReviewImage:

These allegations are "nothing new," he says.

The Dalai Lama, who is the Tibetan spiritual leader, was visiting the Netherlands when he commented publicly about sex abuse.

He had been invited to visit the Netherlands by four victims of sexual abuse by Buddhist teachers.

In their letter encouraging him to visit them during his current visit to Europe, the victims told the Dalai Lama they had "found refuge in Buddhism with an open mind and heart, until we were raped in its name,".

The Dalai Lama's office responded by saying he would talk to the victims during a "short audience" on Friday afternoon.

"His Holiness the Dalai Lama was saddened to learn of the sexual abuse suffered by students of Buddhist teachers," an official in his office wrote.

The Dalai Lama's meeting with the victims is believed to be the first time he has met with Buddhist abuse victims.

"I already did know these things, nothing new," the Dalai Lama said in response on Dutch public television NOS on Saturday.

"Twenty-five years ago ... someone mentioned about a problem of sexual allegations" at a conference for western Buddhist teachers in Dharamshala, a hill town in northern India.

People who commit sexual abuse "don't care about the Buddha's teaching. So now that everything has been made public, people may concern (sic) about their shame," he said.

Tseten Samdup Chhoekyapa, a representative of the Dalai Lama, says the Tibetan spiritual leader "has consistently denounced such irresponsible and unethical behaviour".

When Tibetan spiritual leaders meet in November they "should talk about it," the Dalai Lama says.

Source

• Channel News Asia
• BBC
• Channel News Asia
• Image: ABC News

Morgan asked the Dalai Lama what he thought of Donald Trump.Read more

The accounts of Papa Francesco are varied. Sometimes he's portrayed as a Catholic Dalai Lama - all sweetness and serenity in the face of the world's horrors and all the complexity that cultures and institutions create for innocent individuals.

He visits jailed refugees; he says Mass in prisons; as Bishop of Rome (which he prefers as his title to pope) he says parish Masses and hears confessions; he has announced his respectful and non-judgmental attitude to gays; he embraces the disabled and hugs babies. His reactions are warm, humane and tug at your heartstrings.

At other times he's expected to be a senior executive of a global agency that specializes in refitting and refocusing extensive and well resourced enterprises that have lost direction. He has inherited a Vatican in tumult over alleged corruption, inefficiency, arrogance and the influence of a "gay lobby" that has adversely affected good governance.

Francis has declared his hand on the sort of people who should be in leadership positions in the Church - simple, humble, poor, engaged and respectful people who are pastors rather than authoritarian rulers, and leaders who understand their own and their flock's frailty, and who are listeners first.

But he has also brought in McKinsey's, a consultancy firm that is a world leader in advising companies, even nations, on managing organizational and cultural change. Pope Francis has engaged the services of the chief executive of McKinsey's in Germany to advise him on how best to refit the Vatican to deliver on its mission.

In what may be the first sign of the German's work, the pope has appointed a committee of seven lay experts with a cleric as their secretary to advise on all matters financial and operational in the Vatican.

Even if someone inside the Vatican came up with the idea, it is the first time that the Vatican itself has looked outside its own processes and resources for guidance about how to do its job.

The recurrent resort of dioceses and religious congregations is to invoke canon law as the guide on how to do things, to search out the way people in the institution have done it before, to appeal to the constitutions or the memory of the founder as a guide to the next step.

What this betrays is the limited experience, lack of training for management and leadership and myopic approach that too many "leaders" in the Church take. Not for them to investigate how comparable problems are handled by institutions away from the Church.

In my experience, too many in clerical and religious life say, "We've always done it this way and I don't want to be the one to set a precedent by looking outside the Church (or the congregation) for guidance".

Result: stagnation, inefficiency and failure. It's living proof of one definition of insanity in which, after failing the first time, one attempts the same task using the same approach but expects a different result.

Opening up to new approaches and to what Pope Francis says he's not afraid of - making mistakes - has a much greater likelihood of bringing lasting change than just repeating a failed formula.

But how is he going to do it? As the Dalai Lama or as the management consultants would?

I can already hear the cries of dismay that come from Church people when there is even the mention of the use of management consultants. And those shrieking with dismay will invoke the criticism Pope Francis has made of a world grown inhuman by idolizing efficiency, speed and "results" as the only criteria to be used for assessing the appropriateness or otherwise of suggested approaches to fixing things.

But Papa Bergoglio is a Jesuit and as I write this on the feast of St Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits (July 31), it is well to remember something central to his spiritual legacy and the school of spirituality dearest to the pope.

For Ignatius and because of what we celebrate at Christmas - the Incarnation - the challenge is to find God in all things. There is no circumstance, resource or reach of human experience that is outside or beyond what God's grace can encompass.

Finding God in all things means to value secular expertise in itself and for the good it can be used to achieve for religious purposes.

So this pope's answer as to whether he's the Dalai Lama or a McKinsey's executive is simple: his approach will encompass both.

But as an actor on the world stage, as the leader of a multinational faith community, and as one leading a highly exposed and frequently reviewed life, he will also have to take into account the advice of a very seasoned political operator.

It was the belief of Benjamin Disraeli, the legendary 19th century British prime minister, that the key to success in public life was not so much what you do first. It's what you are going to do about the consequences of the consequences of what you do first that needs to be considered.

Everyone can only wish Pope Francis well as he discerns the way forward for Vatican reform and the rejuvenation of the Church.

• Michael Kelly SJ in ucanews.com
• Published with permission

Michael Kelly SJ is the executive director of the UCAnews

The welcome was followed by a discussion on Maori beliefs at the University of Otago Clocktower Building.

On Monday, in Christchurch, the Dalai Lama had a meeting with the New Zealand Youth Representatives of the Council for a Parliament of World Religions. While he gave his support for their work, His Holiness stressed that attaining inter-religious harmony requires us to be active.

"Religion is about cultivating a more peaceful mind, so it's very disappointing if religion becomes a source of conflict," His Holiness told the group.

His Holiness spoke to 12 parliamentarians from different parties, reflecting the diverse 120-person Parliament. The topic of discussion quickly centered on Tibet's relationship with China. His Holiness spoke out against censorship and explained that the judicial system must be raised to international standards.

Source

• TheTibetPost
• Image: TVNZ

Attempting to condemn bad proselytism, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism spoke against conversions and changing from one religion to another.

His position was seen as support for the policies of the radical Hindu groups and the anti-conversion laws that exist in some Indian states. Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the archbishop of Bombay, took issue with him.

Continue reading

The Tibetan Buddhist leader, who has 4.3 million Facebook fans, posted this status update on Monday last:

"All the world's major religions, with their emphasis on love, compassion, patience, tolerance, and forgiveness can and do promote inner values. But the reality of the world today is that grounding ethics in religion is no longer adequate. This is why I am increasingly convinced that the time has come to find a way of thinking about spirituality and ethics beyond religion altogether."

The post got over 4, 770 comments, and over 53,920 shares.

Because the Dalai Lama, 77, is one of the world's most recognizable religious figures, his words got others talking — and questioning his intent.

The religious leader was commenting on a quote he published last year, in which he wrote: "Any religion-based answer to the problem of our neglect of inner values can never be universal, and so will be inadequate. What we need today is an approach to ethics which makes no recourse to religion and can be equally acceptable to those with faith and those without: a secular ethics."

Rather than denouncing faith, the religious leader is highlighting the need for a universally shared ethos that is rooted in compassion and is relevant to the modern age, the LA Times said in reviewing the book.

Recently, CathNews reported that in comparison to the Dalai Lama, Pope Benedict was in a "Digital Difficulty" as results from a published study showed the Dalai Lama had a "balanced" image whereas the descriptions of Pope Benedict were "emotional and negative".

Sources

• Huffington Post
• CBC News
• Image: Huffington Post

As a social psychologist interested in the emotions, I long wondered whether this spiritual understanding of compassion was also scientifically accurate. Empirically speaking, does the experience of compassion toward one person measurably affect our actions and attitudes toward other people? If so, are there practical steps we can take to further cultivate this feeling? Recently, my colleagues and I conducted experiments that answered yes to both questions.

In one experiment, designed with the psychologist Paul Condon and published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, we recruited people to take part in a study that was ostensibly about the relation of mathematical ability to taste perception — but that in actuality was a study of how the experience of compassion affects your behavior.

Each experimental session consisted of three individuals: a real participant and two confederates (i.e., people who secretly worked for us). First, the participants were told that they had four minutes to solve as many of 20 difficult math problems as they could and that they would receive 50 cents for each one they solved correctly. Twenty was far more than the typical person could do; the average number solved was 4. After time expired, the experimenter approached each person to ask how many problems he or she had solved, paid the person accordingly, and then had the person place his or her work in the shredder. Read more

Sources

• The New York Times
• Image: Open Lounge

The Tibetan spiritual leader asked Cardinal Christoph Schoernborn, who was showing him around Vienna's St Stephen's Cathedral, if he could attend the Pentecost Mass as a pilgrim, as he had at Lourdes.

"Whoever is deeply rooted in their own faith can also show a deep respect for the belief of others," Cardinal Schoenborn replied. Continue reading