Missionaries, Carpetbaggers, Highjackers, and Honkies: Dharma in the West

The plateau weren't high sufficient this morning,
so a clouds came up with their own solution.
If we wish to engage in quick as good as dirty, tactical warning of a target population, do an perspective poll, call a press conference, as good as massage a results.

It is finished all a time, for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes we call it public diplomacy, as good as alternative times we call it plain, old-fashioned turn doctoring. When we do it to sell toothpaste, we contend which 9 out of ten dentists agree, as good as call it law in advertising.

Truth be known, it is all bullshit.

I see a technique has been used again utterly not prolonged ago -- by an organization funded with a deduction from Big Oil, hustling to in front of itself in Big Media -- with a single anticipating which purports to show Buddhists in America have been not unequivocally good suspicion of by average Americans.

If they knew a total truth, they would similar to us even less.

There was another, unequivocally unsure anticipating which suggests Buddhists in America have been all middle-aged, deviant honkies, with post-graduate educations:
Buddhism in a U.S. is primarily done up of native-born adherents, whites as good as converts. Only one-in-three American Buddhists describe their race as Asian, whilst nearly three-in-four Buddhists contend they have been converts to Buddhism.Perhaps this is since a pollsters usually polled in a English language, as good as included changed couple of Asians in their survey. But, no mind, this essay is not about polls.


This essay is about Dharma in a West, as good as on top of is a couple to Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche adding his opinion, during a discussion in France this summer. we indicate we stop now, as good as watch a video to a conclusion. we do not know how prolonged it will sojo! urn avai lable.

Which is a pity, since many of what follows is a reply to what he says.

And, what he says is positively zero unequivocally new. In vital part, he is discussing a tragedy between keeping Tibetan Buddhism alive in India as good as a Himalayan limit polities, as good as transplanting Tibetan Buddhism to a West. He does not contend this explicitly, though he positively says it implicitly. In all events, greatfully watch a clip as good as have up your own thoughts about what he says. we do not wish to put difference in a man's mouth.

What we wish to do instead is inspect a tragedy between missionaries, carpetbaggers, highjackers, as good as honkies.

The Missionaries.

In a little ways it is a pity which Khyentse Rinpoche could not have walked with his grandfather, Dudjom Rinpoche, as his grandfather walked a lands in America hewn by a Nyingma missionaries as good as pioneers. It is a pity he could not listen to what his grandfather had to contend when, for example, he visited Odiyan, in Northern California, or even Tashi Choling, in Southern Oregon. It is a pity he could not have traveled with a 16th Karmapa through America's Southwest. It is a pity he could not have accompanied Kalu Rinpoche upon his tours of America. Those of us who were there, who heard what was said, or who differently came in to ? la mode hold of such events, will stop which a discount was struck.

The discount was simple: if we traffic your life, your treasure, your time as good as your belief, afterwards there will be teachers who essentially live here with you; teachers who have been not small academics, though have been in actuality entirely satisfied masters, who will clarity your language, as good as your ways, as good as together, we will set up Dharma in a West.

You will be means to strech these teachers upon a telephone if need be. You will know where they live, we will be means to come to them, as good as they will be means to come to you. If you've got a question, we ! can get an answer. Because, they will be traffic their life, their treasure, their time as good as their idea to common purpose, just as you.

This discount was sincerely kept by both sides -- as most appropriate any could, as good as for as prolonged as any could conduct -- as good as what we see around we now, when we look around a West, is a product of which bargain.

Those were unequivocally good times. We were all young, in reasonable health, as good as we all had a lot of energy. We did not know unequivocally much about any other, though we were ready, willing, as good as means to learn. We had good lamas -- Tarthang Rinpoche, Trungpa Rinpoche -- as good as we were assured of a good as good as obligatory mission. We didn't reason out much goal for personal accomplishment, though clever instead upon what we deliberate our primary responsibility: a preservation of Tibetan Buddhism, prior to it crumbled to dust as good as blew divided in a wind.

Whatever which entailed.

The Carpetbaggers.

In a 1980s, a lot of things changed. Karmapa died in 1981. Dudjom Rinpoche died in 1987. Trungpa Rinpoche died in 1987. Kalu Rinpoche died in 1989. So, in less than a decade, a landscape changed. we can contend -- as a matter of direct, personal hold -- these teachers had a idea in a West. They had a interest in a West. They had a healthy, two-way street approach to a West. They had an investment in a West. You know -- they essentially favourite a West.

Enter a carpetbaggers.

Nobody enjoys to listen to a plain, unvarnished truth, though a couple of things happened in a 1980s which did not suggest beforehand good for authentic presence. As referred to above, key teachers began dying. The next thing to occur was a relaxation of immigration policies vis-a-vis Tibetans. In a 1960s as good as 1970s, visas for Tibetan lamas were not easy to obtain, as good as permanent resident status was unequivocally almost impossible. This started to relax ever so somewhat in a late 1970s, as ! good as when Reagan came in to office, brand new policies went in to place. This was followed by a influx of people who -- as good as let us be unequivocally diplomatic as good as kind here -- were not utterly as idealist as a teachers who were flitting away.

Indeed, a well-worn Tibetan joke of a epoch goes something similar to this: "What does it take to be recognized as a Rinpoche these days? How about a red robe, a passport, a U.S. visa, as good as a white girl?"

The newcomers had been sitting in Asia, hearing wonderful stories about Gold Mountain, as good as to put it bluntly, they were entrance not for a future, though for a piece of a pie. Suddenly, we began to see pound as good as squeeze lama tours -- a couple of days in this city, a couple of days in which city, empowerment here, empowerment there -- thank we unequivocally much, as good as drag all a plunder back to a ship.

Not just a West, we know? Taiwan as good as Singapore fared no better.

The Highjackers.

Most people hold which alcohol is a clever addiction, or analgesic refinements similar to heroin. Gold is a stronger obsession than any of these. To gain more gold than a pound as good as squeeze tours authorised would need infrastructure -- it would need actual commitment. Except, a pound as good as squeeze lamas were not peaceful to deposit in infrastructure. They were not peaceful to have much of a commitment. So, they did what colonialists have finished since time immemorial, as good as turned a emanate of infrastructure over to compradores -- go-betweens, who could extract a gold as good as hoop a cries as good as greivances of a local workers.

The compradores, in turn, did what compradores have finished since time immemorial, as good as hijacked a ship.

Sheep-faced carpetbaggers returned to Middle East as good as satisfied themselves with an additional covering of gilt, leaving guilt to a fox-eyed highjackers. Do we know? There have been still a series of people in a West who essentially ho! ld they have been part of something -- something that, upon tighten examination, does not unequivocally exist aside from a couple of rapidly vanishing pieces of cheap paper.

Here is my wand, I'll have we a wizard.

It was a lousy trade, we know?

The Honkies.

Most people do not assimilate which vast organizations with committees, sub-committees, as good as raiding parties have been not necessary. Tarthang Rinpoche started with 3 individuals, as good as developed a core of approximately thirty individuals. Around this, came a ever-fluctuating series of people, similar to a leaves of trees in seasons. Great gestures were bestowed in good measure. Honkies have been unequivocally resourceful, as good as can work wonders if they can be persuaded. People have been trying to poach Tarthang Rinpoche's students ever since, not realizing it was not a students who worked a sorcery -- it was Tarthang Rinpoche. If we can obey his qualities, afterwards we will work sorcery too.

One has to have vision, we know?

If we burglar a world to set up temples upon unsure ground, in order to serve a shrinking subdivision in present instability, what have we accomplished? When China uses a dams to close off a sub-continent's water, what will happen? What is function in Nepal right now? What is function in Sikkim? Is a Karmapa free to travel? Are throngs of knowledge-seekers turning up during a temples built with unfamiliar money? Have local flowering plants blossomed, as good as spread their natural fragrance? Or, have we grafted invasive species, as good as alien heavy perfume?

If, upon a alternative hand, we recognize -- as good as it is a cold recognition, similar to a bucket of unequivocally cold water, upon a unequivocally cold day -- which a West enjoys domestic stability, a powerful horizon of laws, as good as estimable confidence -- which there have been numbers of people in a West, either local or immigrant does not matter, who have been interested in Dharma, who have a thirst for D! harma, a s good as who have been peaceful to give their all if a single can usually teach a clarity of goal -- if we can recognize this, afterwards why would we not deposit your appetite in a prolonged run, as graphic from a short run?

These days, a single mostly hears bitter mumbling about "Tibetan feudalism." One hears this all over a West -- this is not something quite confined to America. It may warn a little Tibetans to clarity which they have been not quite good regarded -- which fifty years on, a judgment of "Tibetan refugee" does not jerk a rip it once did, as good as which a idea of an enlightened minority entrance to edify a barbarous majority just does not fly. Nobody likes a high shawl treatment, we know? People might put up with it for a while, though in a end, it functions opposite you.

I goal we can replace which mumbling with open dialogue, as good as we goal we can replace dialogue with construction. we goal we can continue with a commitments we done to any alternative -- it right divided seems so prolonged ago, though it is usually 40 or 50 years -- as good as we goal we can keep operative together to safety what is left of Dharma as it was used in Tibet, as good as reinstate it within a secure borders of a West.

Still, we recognize which a inlet of all compounded things is impermanence, as good as which a minds of all sentient beings have been predictably fickle.

The operative word in a on top of sentence is "all," as good as we repeated it twice so maybe we can locate a drift.

Write to rinpoche2006@gmail.com http://tibetanaltar.blogspot.com