November 14, 2005
Morning Roundup: Dalai Lama Visits Edition
Good morning, Washington. Today will be mostly cloudy and chilly - highs in the 60s. Matthew Bradley posted this photo to DCist photos, taken at the Dalai Lama's talk yesterday at the MCI Center. The W. Times has a short story about the talk where they report the 1-hour talk was on "compassion". Did you attend? What else did the Tibetan leader speak on?
Changes on 14th Street: The Post today explores in depth the changes at 14th and T Streets Northwest where the Church of the Rapture has been purchased for a condominium development, Paradise Liquor has been forced out by increasing rents, and the owner of Cafe Saint-Ex is plotting to open a new restaurant farther east in the city. The article is the second in a two-part series.
Kaine Announces Town Halls: Virginia's governor-elect Timothy Kaine has announced the first of a series of public town hall meetings in Northern Virginia to solicit feedback about how he should approach what he terms the state's transportation "crisis", the Post reports. This week's meeting is in Manassas.
Briefly Noted: Deer wanders into Cheetah yard at National Zoo ... Redskins? For Courtland Milloy it's no different than Whiteys and Darkies ... D.C. government tackles prostitution ...
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Hey, Matt Bradley is my co-worker! Way to go, Matt -- great photo!
looks like a fire has gutted fasika's. anyone know anything about it?
I am sure that the Dalai Lama looks like the guy in the TV show Kung Fu as someone else has noted.
I saw the Dalai Lama on Sunday, and the most entertaining part was when he was asked about the media. He declared that all newsmen should be cursed like Pinocchio, so we can tell when they are lying. Some of them, he said, would have "elephant noses".
An 11 year boy wrote in from the Internet asking what interests China has in maintaining their ownership of Tibet. It was an interesting breakdown of the situation in words and concepts an 11 year old could understand.
Finally, he was also asked why the Dalai Lama has never reincarnated as a woman. Supposedly, there's another Buddist "spirit" that reincarnates into women, but he didn't rule out the possibility that it may reincarnate as a woman one of these cycles.
Indeed, Fasika's has been gutted by fire. I snapped a photo for my blog earlier this morning.
The West's fascination with the Dalai Lama is kind of baffling. Yes, Tibetan Buddhism has a rich tradition of pacifism, but why don't the Richard Gere/Adam Yauch types talk about the other traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, like rampant misogyny and almost reactionary adherence to "tradition" and religious autocracy? Oh wait, that's because the Dalai Lama says one thing to Western audiences while he says another (usually in Tibetan, natch) to the Tibetan people. He's not an angel on Earth like he's portrayed by so many...
Boy, you make the Lama sound like... Oh, I dunno. A Catholic. Or pick almost any spiritual leader tied into a religious tradition of millenia. Tradition is a confining thing.
I'm an Atheist myself, but I don't get the people who they're a Christian of one stripe or another (and they're good, nice people, who do things Christ would probably approve of) and also buck some of the more restrictive tenants of commandments or examples of Christ.
Sort of seems like you're reacting to a straw man (because no one talked about anyone being a saint or an angel here) and are feeling rather burned yourself, as if you expected the Dalai Lama to be something other than what most high profile religious/spiritual icons are.
Hell, I don't know why people like the Pope. He's just as "bad."
Point is people do and that's ok by me. Seems pretty voluntary.
Nevermind that I have had a hard time finding concrete, current, citable examples of mysogyny -- true "hate" and abuse of women -- with mandate traceable to any sane interpretation of what the Dalai Lama has said or done (or that of people under his actual control (like actual employees)). Without that such atrocities seem to be in the same vein as any Christian, Muslim or Jewish believer with a particular self-righteous bent doing bad stuff to other people, or simply people who are mysogynistic and happen to also self-identify or culturally identify with some larger category.
Indignation and blame on one person (instead of the people actually doing bad stuff, or in addition to -- dilutin the blame) isn't going to change much. Meanwhile the good Lama was teaching some nice things yesterday and if anyone followed what he said that day, we'd be in a better place because of it.
He had some interesting thoughts, by the way, on choosing not to be Buddhist and being sincere in one's beliefs.