A second look at the Free Tibet bandwagon

[TheSollyLama]

This is transcribed from the Free Inquiry February/March 2008 issue. Credit for the author and magazine is at the end. Please excuse any spelling errors.


BUDDHISM: BLOOD AND ENLIGHTENMENT



What country is in the midst of long-standing civil war, a war that has displaced hundreds of thousands of citizens, seen the first widespread use of suicide bombers, and in which the government fighting separatist forces has among its most militant allies the country's religious clerics? Chances are most Westerners with us questions would search their mind for the name of a Middle Eastern or African country, or at least a country with a Muslim majority. However, the correct answer is Sri Lanka, and the pro-war clerics are Buddhist monks.

Buddhist monks have their own political party in the Sri Lanka, the National Heritage Party, which holds nine seats in the country's 225-member parliament (Buddhism holds a "principal" place according to Sri Lanka Constitution). The party's support has strengthened the government's hand in conducting a fierce offensive against the Tamil Tigers separatist group that has been fighting on-off secessionist war since 1983. A new York Times article (February 25, 2007) reports that monks have gone so far as to brawl with antiwar protesters and publicly torched Norway's flag and effigies of its envoy in protest against Norway's efforts to broker peace talks.

This would seem to contrast it with the Western conceptions of Buddhism as they "enlightened, peaceful" religion. After all, Buddhism is probably second only to Scientology in terms of affection among Hollywood elites and has long been trendy among educated American liberals. Even many secularists have proclaimed their respect for Buddhist attributes. All of this has served, among other things, to make the cause of Tibetan freedom in vogue on campuses and celebrity rock tours, as well as to make the Dalai Lama the world's most famous refugee and arguably its most revered man.

However, the current situation in Sri Lanka is not the first time that Buddhism has allied itself with a warring state. And even more illustrative example was the institutional support Buddhist leaders gave the Japanese imperialism during the half century ending with World War II. In his majestic study Zen at War, Brian Daizen Victoria, (himself a Soto priest) explores Buddhist support for Japan during the Sino-Japanese war (1894-95), and the Russo-Japanese war (1904-05), which eventually led to Japan's annexation of Korea in 1910, and how Buddhist leadership reconciled itself to totalitarianism.

Among the references Victoria cites is this early 20th century statement by the famous Buddhist scholar D. T. Suzuki regarding the relationship between religion and the state: (the interests of religion and the state do not conflict but rather aid and support each other in a quest for wholeness... The problem is easily resolved if one thinks of religion as an entity with the state as its body, and as the state as something developing with religion as its spirit. In other words, religion and the state form a unity... then whatever is done for the sake of the state is done for religion, and whatever is done for the sake of religion is done for the state."

Through such a scholarly support, as well as by serving as military chaplains, missionaries, and indoctrination trainers for soldiers and industrial workers, Buddhist leaders contributed to Japan's war effort. Toward the end of World War II, and as Japan's position grew desperate, monks were assimilated into the war industry as "industrial warriors."

It was the most admired Buddhist ideas, such as selflessness and the elimination of the ego, that morphed into militancy for the cause are of aggression and submission to a unity with the state in the person of the Emperor. As Christianity had its Pope Urban II rallying for the first Crusade, Buddhists had Emperor Hirohito. (More ironic to still was some Buddhists' support for Mao Zedong's forces during the Korean War.) It is also fair to note an unhealthy Buddhist influence on Japan stretching back to medieval times: armies of "warrior monks", recruited mercenaries who safeguarded temple wealth, blackmailed local towns, and fought neighboring temples over land and political influence. These disputes were frequently settled with the burning of an opposing temple.

Even the just cause of Tibetan freedom is not without its darker side. Contrary to popular conception, Tibet before China's 1950 military occupation was a feudal theocratic state largely controlled by Buddhist monks, especially the always-reincarnating Dalai Lama. In addition, Tibetan history exhibits its share of religious strife between rival Buddhist sects, often with intervention from China. For example, at about the same time, Europe was experiencing the Reformation and the subsequent wars between Catholics and Protestants, Tibet was rocked by civil and religious strife between the Karma Kargyu and the Yellow Hats sects.

With the fall of China's Qing Dynasty and then return of the 13th Dali Lama (predecessor to the current one), and with the aid of Nepalese troops in 1913, Tibet was able to issue something like a declaration of independence. Given that China did not acknowledge the declaration, some Tibetan aristocrats thought it best to modernize the state in order to defend their territory against Chinese ambitions as well as coordinate international support for their cause. The deli Lama took some initial step towards modernization, but eventually was blocked by Dan monastic elites quite content with the feudal order. In his book The Snow Lion and the Dragon, Melvyn C. Goldstein writes of their reaction to modernization efforts: "All of this, however, sent shock waves through the monastic and aristocratic elites who held most of the land in Tibet in the form of a feudal estates with hereditarily bound serf-like peasants. Modernization was expensive... [and] was also perceived by religious leaders as an ideological threat to the dominance of Buddhism in Tibet... equating modernization with Western atheism and secularism, and conservatives believed that he could diminish the power and importance of Buddhism."


The feudal theocracy was in part by Buddhist teachings on Karma, which taught that serfs had to accept their imprisoned station as punishment, while elites deserved to their glorious wealth as reward for virtue in earlier lives. Debts where often passed down for generations, limiting social mobility. The famous Deprung monastery alone owned 25,000 serfs, and out of a total population of 1.2 million people, an estimated 700,000 were serfs.

It is from no lesser of an authority than the current Dalai Lama that we glean the preeminence of karma.
During an interview with Jonathon Hari of The Independent in 2004, the Dalai Lama provided a bizarre response when asked about karma, as follows:

JONATHON HARI: Yet the Dalai Lama has suggested that Tibetans are being punished for "bad karma." Can this be true, your Holiness?
DALI LAMA: Yes, of course. We are punished for feudalism. Every event is due to one's karma.
JONATHON HARI: So, are disabled children's being punished for sentence in a past life?
DALI LAMA: Oh yes, of course.
Suddenly, a member of the Dalai Lama's and garage, dormant until now, leaps up and speaks quickly to his master in Tibetan.
DALI LAMA: (to Hari) This is for Buddhists! Only for Buddhists!

This is not to say that there aren't some aspect of Buddhism worth defending. Indeed, it probably was the great Nietzsche who first acknowledged element in Buddhism that humanists could respect, such as its lack of theistic divinity. However, history reveals that Buddhism has earned a place in the realm of religious cruelty. Like all religions at various times, it has hitched itself to aggressive states, acquired and preserved political power at the expense of nonbelievers, and blocked progressive modernization. It is clear that whatever the virtues of Buddhism, true "enlightenment" was only be achieved with this acknowledgment.


The above is transcribed from the February/March 2008 issue of Free Inquiry, from an article entitled in BUDDHISM: BLOOD AND ENLIGHTENMENT, by Joseph Gross, a librarian and writer living in Brooklyn, New York

[Mr. Whippy]

There have been several, less xenophobic articles recently in the printed press discussing the differentiation between passivist Buddhism and activist Buddhism including the Burmese monks, Sri Lankan Buddhists, Tibetans and the anti-Vietnam protestors in Washington DC who burnt themselves to death.

This article is fairly inflammatory. (Pun intended)

[TheSollyLama]

It's not imflammatory unless your an apologist for them. Otherwise it's just a simple history and points out that Buddhism is no more a 'religion of peace' than is Islam or any other. Despite what hollywood or the media seem to be selling.

I liked it because I see a bunch of those Free Tibet stickers on college kid's cars although I doubt a single one of those people could even find it on a map, much less know the actual history of the place.

It's trendy. It's pseudopolitical nonsense white guys with dreds and african color shirts like to spout to sound like they actually know what they're talking about to impress girls.
The same liberals that decry the theocracy of the US under Bush are only too happy to push for a theocracy in Tibet. They're clueless and just like the idiot with the Che shirt he got at The Gap hasn't a clue who that dude was, the people I see hanging out with the Dalai lama and spouting Free Tibet, are the ones that know the least about the subject.

Dont ya just love trendy?

[HighsideSV]

I realize that the concept of Democracy may elude some folks, but people should be allowed to have the government of THEIR choosing, even if it is a theocracy. Shit, we elected Bush, why shouldnt they be allowed to make the same mistakes?

[wshtb]

Of course people should to be allowed to elect their own government, but there are things with higher priority. For one, people should be allowed to decide whether their country should be invaded in the name of allowing them to elect their own government.

Did people of Iraq voted in majority to invite American troops over for diner? Did the native Americans voted in majority to allow European settlers to take their land, kill their buffalo, burn their house, and kill them?

Back to the topic of this article, I personally believe that any re-union of religion and politics is a step back for modern society. Look back in history, whenever religion took over a government, chaos and oppression always ensued.

[Wakey]

[shah269]

It's funny Mr. Gandi was once called a terrorist. And so was Mr. Mandela.
And I'm sure the English had some kind words for Washington and his band of enlightend men.
But hay.....nothing a little water boarding can't fix right?

[Wakey]

Originally Posted by shah269

But hay.....nothing a little water boarding can't fix right?

+1

[SlowGoose]

One man's resistance is another man's terrorism. Always been that way, always will be that way.

[shah269]

You guys do know that big daddy bush, back when he worked at the head of the cia gave the orders for the tracking and subsequent capture of Mr. Mandella?
The family is evil......what can I say?

[Mr. Whippy]

Originally Posted by shah269

You guys do know that big daddy bush, back when he worked at the head of the cia gave the orders for the tracking and subsequent capture of Mr. Mandella?
The family is evil......what can I say?

Supporting evidence, bitte?

[shah269]

Actually I got that while I was visiting Mr. Mandela's home in Joburgh on my last trip.
They some how got the info from the freedom of information act and had it up for all to see. It was a little disturbing. But considering the time and our fear of a Red Africa.....
I wanted to take a picture but was not allowed to.
But I have to say, you can tell a lot by a man by the shoes he wears.
When he came out of prison he could have bought any shoe, hell any designer was willing to give him a pair of shoes. But do you know what he bought? A cheap set of Hi-tech hiking boots. Shame what's happened to that country since he stepped down.
But that's for another time.

[Mr. Whippy]

Hmmm....

Sorry, it sounds apocryphal.

[636blurr]

Well buddism like anything has been twisted into what man wants it to be, What started out as a philosphy on how to live life did indeed end up as a religion and like christianity and the muslim religion, differnt sects mean differnt way's of worship.
The line of thought where you are punished in your next life for what you did in your past life is fucking retarted to say the least.
I can go on about other silly aspects of it but it doesnt really apply.
The point is of the Big Free Tibet things is before the chinese invasion the poor "oppressed" people really were living fairly well, under chinese occupation its been quit litterally a living hell.

[Gaolee]

Saying Buddhism is retarded because you get punished in your next life is just as retarded as saying you go to hell forever for punishment. Nobody knows.

The Zen part of Buddhism is a bit different from the Buddhism practiced in the Indian subcontinent and adjacent areas. Some Cistertian monks (Catholics, for the record), I visited about 15 years ago in Oregon told me they practice a lot of Zen. They were also killer basketball players, but that was on their time off from piety. Pretty great people.