Tibetan Buddhism's leader aggravates China's leaders -- again (good)

While the attention of many Americans who follow news about religion is focused on such issues as mandating Bibles in public schools, the health of Pope Francis and an Episcopal bishop speaking truth to power, an intriguing religious story is unfolding among the world's Buddhists.

As this Reuters story reports, "the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism," the Dalai Lama (pictured here), says his "successor will be born outside China." He makes that prediction, the story says, "in a new book, raising the stakes in a dispute with Beijing over control of the Himalayan region he fled more than six decades ago."

As this Wikipedia entry notes, "the Dalai Lama is believed by adherents to be able to choose the body into which he is reincarnated." As the Reuters story notes, the 89-year-old 14th Dalai Lama, born as Tenzin Gyatso, fled (Tibet) at the age of 23 to India with thousands of other Tibetans in 1959 after a failed uprising against the rule of Mao Zedong’s Communists."

And, as I say, in his new book, the Dalai Lama says that the next Dalai Lama will be born outside of China.

It must drive the Chinese governmental leaders crazy. Which is not a bad thing, given how merciless they have been in squashing religious freedom in China.

Again, the Reuters story: "Beijing insists it will choose his successor, but the Dalai Lama has said any successor named by China would not be respected."

You can find the idea of reincarnation in several religious traditions, though I personally find the idea appalling, especially if it's coupled with the graceless notion that your next incarnation will be based on how well you did in the previous life. That aside, the interesting thing about this new Dalai Lama story is that he is again revealing the history of China's Communist leadership's suppression of religious freedom.

It's a story that can't be told too often -- at least until such oppressive regimes stop persecuting people because of their religious beliefs. And that kind of persecution can be found around the globe, as the annual reports from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom makes clear.

This Dalai Lama once said he might live to be 110 years of age. I hope he makes it at least that far, keeps his wits about him and continues to call out governments that crush people's freedom of religion.

And if the next Dalai Lama is to be born outside of China, my hope as a Kansas City journalist is that he (or maybe she or they) will be born right here in the Heartland. I know some Buddhists here who might think that would be pretty cool -- in a contemplative sort of way that would be non-craving or non-grasping and in harmony with the idea of what Buddhists call taṇhā.

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ANOTHER STAIN ON RELIGIOUS LEADERS

Sexual abuse by clergy continues to be a running scandal in the U.S. (and, no doubt, elsewhere). For instance, as this AP via The Guardian story reports, "A former pastor of a Texas megachurch – and ex-Donald Trump spiritual adviser – surrendered to Oklahoma authorities on Monday on charges of child sexual abuse. Robert Preston Morris, 63, turned himself over to officials in Osage county, where he was charged on Thursday with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child. . ."

Today would be a good time for leaders of every faith community to make sure processes and policies are in place to prevent clergy and other faith leaders from using their positions to take sexual advantage of children. What can be more important than protecting innocent kids from people who probably never should have been ordained? And while faith leaders are at it, maybe it's time to review the hoops someone has to jump through to become clergy.

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