i thought that when the average westerner considers buddhism, they either think about orange-clad beggar monks in southeast asia, or wise old monks in east asia, or wacky-yet-serious zen masters. tibetan buddhism was always the weird branch of the tree wasn’t it?
when westerners decide to “go buddhist” they often choose some weird westernized atheist sterilized version, or some local zen temple in california or whatever. but this reminds me of 1: Richard Gere (an 80-year-old man with a 30-something wife and a kid in primary school) who was just at the Dalai Lama’s birthday ceremony and 2: there’s some norwegian or danish Lama who’s apparently big in the west and uses his Great Wisdom to be racist and islamophobic
In a speech last year he said that refugees to the European Union should ultimately return home, adding that “Europe is for Europeans”, a statement he stood by when I challenged him on it.
“A limited number is OK, but the whole of Europe [will] eventually become Muslim country, African country - impossible,” he said.
i thought that when the average westerner considers buddhism, they either think about orange-clad beggar monks in southeast asia, or wise old monks in east asia, or wacky-yet-serious zen masters. tibetan buddhism was always the weird branch of the tree wasn’t it?
when westerners decide to “go buddhist” they often choose some weird westernized atheist sterilized version, or some local zen temple in california or whatever. but this reminds me of 1: Richard Gere (an 80-year-old man with a 30-something wife and a kid in primary school) who was just at the Dalai Lama’s birthday ceremony and 2: there’s some norwegian or danish Lama who’s apparently big in the west and uses his Great Wisdom to be racist and islamophobic
Just like the Dalai Lama, then!
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48772175
I swear he’s propped up as the buddhist pope just so you don’t go and learn about cooler Buddhists
(I don’t think he was explicitly Buddhist but there were cool ones in Vietnam, I just enjoy the image)
The guy in the famous anti us self immolation picture was a Vietnamese Buddhist
The Chuddha
Zenz Buddhism