Dalai Lama branded SEXIST after he says ‘attractive’ woman should succeed Him

“Historically, the population of Tibet consisted of primarily ethnic Tibetans and some other ethnic groups. According to tradition the original ancestors of the Tibetan people, as represented by the six red bands in the Tibetan flag, are: the Se, Mu, Dong, Tong, Dru, and Ra. Other traditional ethnic groups with significant population or with the majority of the ethnic group residing in Tibet (excluding a disputed area with India) include Bai people, Blang, Bonan, Dongxiang, Han, Hui people, Lhoba, Lisu people, Miao, Mongols, Monguor (Tu people), Menba (Monpa), Mosuo, Nakhi, Qiang, Nu people, Pumi, Salar, and Yi people.” ref

“Religion is extremely important to the Tibetans and has a strong influence over all aspects of their lives. Bön is the indigenous religion of Tibet, but has been almost eclipsed by Tibetan Buddhism, a distinctive form of Mahayana and Vajrayana, which was introduced into Tibet from the Sanskrit Buddhist tradition of northern India. Tibetan Buddhism is practiced not only in Tibet but also in Mongolia, parts of northern India, the Buryat Republic, the Tuva Republic, and in the Republic of Kalmykia and some other parts of China. During China’s Cultural Revolution, nearly all Tibet’s monasteries were ransacked and destroyed by the Red Guards. A few monasteries have begun to rebuild since the 1980s (with limited support from the Chinese government) and greater religious freedom has been granted – although it is still limited. Monks returned to monasteries across Tibet and monastic education resumed even though the number of monks imposed is strictly limited. Before the 1950s, between 10 and 20% of males in Tibet were monks.” ref

Tibetan Buddhism has five main traditions (the suffix pa is comparable to “er” in English):

“Gelug(pa), Way of Virtue, also known casually as Yellow Hat, whose spiritual head is the Ganden Tripa and whose temporal head is the Dalai Lama. Successive Dalai Lamas ruled Tibet from the mid-17th to mid-20th centuries. This order was founded in the 14th to 15th centuries by Je Tsongkhapa, based on the foundations of the Kadampa tradition. Tsongkhapa was renowned for both his scholasticism and his virtue. The Dalai Lama belongs to the Gelugpa school, and is regarded as the embodiment of the Bodhisattva of Compassion.” ref
“Kagyu(pa), Oral Lineage. This contains one major subsect and one minor subsect. The first, the Dagpo Kagyu, encompasses those Kagyu schools that trace back to Gampopa. In turn, the Dagpo Kagyu consists of four major sub-sects: the Karma Kagyu, headed by a Karmapa, the Tsalpa Kagyu, the Barom Kagyu, and Pagtru Kagyu. The once-obscure Shangpa Kagyu, which was famously represented by the 20th-century teacher Kalu Rinpoche, traces its history back to the Indian master Niguma, sister of Kagyu lineage holder Naropa. This is an oral tradition which is very much concerned with the experiential dimension of meditation. Its most famous exponent was Milarepa, an 11th-century mystic.” ref
“Nyingma(pa), The Ancient Ones. This is the oldest, the original order founded by Padmasambhava.” ref
“Sakya(pa), Grey Earth, headed by the Sakya Trizin, founded by Khon Konchog Gyalpo, a disciple of the great translator Drokmi Lotsawa. Sakya Pandita 1182–1251 CE was the great grandson of Khon Konchog Gyalpo. This school emphasizes scholarship.” ref
“Jonang(pa) Its origins in Tibet can be traced to early 12th-century master Yumo Mikyo Dorje, but became much wider known with the help of Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen, a monk originally trained in the Sakya school. The Jonang school was widely thought to have become extinct in the late 17th century at the hands of the 5th Dalai Lama, who forcibly annexed the Jonang monasteries to his Gelug school, declaring them heretical. Thus, Tibetologists were astonished when fieldwork turned up several active Jonangpa monasteries, including the main monastery, Tsangwa, located in Zamtang County, Sichuan. Almost 40 monasteries, comprising about 5000 monks, have subsequently been found, including some in the Amdo Tibetan and rGyalgrong areas of Qinghai, Sichuan, and Tibet. One of the primary supporters of the Jonang lineage in exile has been the 14th Dalai Lama of the Gelugpa lineage. The Jonang tradition has recently officially registered with the Tibetan Government in exile to be recognized as the fifth living Buddhist tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th Dalai Lama assigned Jebtsundamba Khutuktu of Mongolia (who is considered to be an incarnation of Taranatha) as the leader of the Jonang tradition.” ref

“The Chinese government continued to pursue a strategy of forced assimilation and suppression of Tibetan Buddhism, as demonstrated by the laws designed to control the next reincarnation of the Dalai Lama and those of other Tibetan eminent lamas. Monks and nuns who refused to denounce the Dalai Lama have been expelled from their monasteries, imprisoned, and tortured. Moreover, Tibetan representations of art are intrinsically bound with Tibetan Buddhism and commonly depict deities or variations of Buddha in various forms from bronze Buddhist statues and shrines, to highly colorful thangka paintings and mandalas.“ ref

“The most distinctive feature of Tibetan architecture is that many of the houses and monasteries are built on elevated, sunny sites facing the south, and are often made out of a mixture of rocks, wood, cement, and earth. Little fuel is available for heat or lighting, so flat roofs are built to conserve heat, and multiple windows are constructed to let in sunlight. Walls are usually sloped inwards at 10 degrees as a precaution against the frequent earthquakes in this mountainous area.” ref

“Standing at 117 meters (384 feet) in height and 360 meters (1,180 feet) in width, the Potala Palace is the most important example of Tibetan architecture. Formerly the residence of the Dalai Lama, it contains over one thousand rooms within thirteen stories, and houses portraits of the past Dalai Lamas and statues of the Buddha. It is divided between the outer White Palace, which serves as the administrative quarters, and the inner Red Quarters, which houses the assembly hall of the Lamas, chapels, 10,000 shrines, and a vast library of Buddhist scriptures. The Potala Palace is a World Heritage Site, as is Norbulingka, the former summer residence of the Dalai Lama.” ref

“Tibet has various festivals, many for worshipping the Buddha, that take place throughout the year. Losar is the Tibetan New Year Festival. Preparations for the festive event are manifested by special offerings to family shrine deities, painted doors with religious symbols, and other painstaking jobs done to prepare for the event. Tibetans eat Guthuk (barley noodle soup with filling) on New Year’s Eve with their families. The Monlam Prayer Festival follows it in the first month of the Tibetan calendar, falling between the fourth and the eleventh days of the first Tibetan month. It involves dancing and participating in sports events, as well as sharing picnics. The event was established in 1049 by Tsong Khapa, the founder of the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama’s order.” ref

14th Dalai Lama

“The 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, known as Tenzin Gyatso; born Lhamo Dhondup), known as Gyalwa Rinpoche to the Tibetan people, is the current Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader of Tibet, and a retired political leader of Tibet. Born on 6 July 1935, or in the Tibetan calendar, in the Wood-Pig Year, 5th month, 5th day, he is considered a living Bodhisattva; specifically, an emanation of Avalokiteśvara. He is also the leader of the Gelug school, the newest school of Tibetan Buddhism, formally headed by the Ganden Tripa. The central government of Tibet, the Ganden Phodrang, invested the Dalai Lama with temporal duties until his exile in 1959. On April 29, 1959, the Dalai Lama established the independent Tibetan government in exile, the Central Tibetan Administration, in the north Indian hill station of Mussoorie, which then moved in May 1960 to Dharamshala, where he resides. He retired as political head in 2011 to make way for a democratic government.” ref

The 14th Dalai Lama was born to a farming family, in Taktser (Hongya in Chinese), in Amdo province (Qinghai in Chinese), northeastern Tibet. He was selected as the tulku of the 13th Dalai Lama in 1937 and formally recognized as the 14th Dalai Lama in a public declaration near the town of Bumchen in 1939. As with the recognition process for the 13th Dalai Lama, a Golden Urn selection process was not used. His enthronement ceremony as the Dalai Lama was held in Lhasa on 22 February 1940 and he eventually assumed full temporal (political) duties on 17 November 1950, at the age of 15, after the People’s Republic of China’s occupation of Tibet. The Tibetan government administered the historic Tibetan regions of Ü-Tsang, Kham, and Amdo, and “In the course of Tibet’s 2000-year history, the country came under a degree of foreign influence only for short periods of time in the thirteenth and eighteenth centuries.” ref

“During the 1959 Tibetan uprising, the Dalai Lama escaped to India, where he currently lives in exile while remaining the most important spiritual leader of Tibet. The Dalai Lama advocates for the welfare of Tibetans while continuing to call for the Middle Way Approach to negotiations with China for the autonomy of Tibet and the protection of Tibetan culture, including for the religious rights of Tibetans. The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, and the US Congressional Gold Medal in 2006. Time magazine named the Dalai Lama one of the “Children of Mahatma Gandhi” and Gandhi’s spiritual heir to nonviolence.” ref

“Tibetan Buddhists normally refer to him as Yishin Norbu (Wish-Fulfilling Gem), Kyabgon (Saviour), or just Kundun (Presence). His devotees, as well as much of the Western world, often call him His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the style employed on the Dalai Lama’s website. According to the Dalai Lama, he had a succession of tutors in Tibet including Reting Rinpoche, Tathag Rinpoche, Ling Rinpoche, and lastly Trijang Rinpoche, who became junior tutor when he was nineteen. At the age of 11 he met the Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer, who became his videographer and tutor about the world outside Lhasa. The two remained friends until Harrer’s death in 2006. In 1959, at the age of 23, he took his final examination at Lhasa‘s Jokhang Temple during the annual Monlam or Prayer Festival. He passed with honors and was awarded the Lharampa degree, the highest-level geshe degree, roughly equivalent to a doctorate in Buddhist philosophy.” ref

“A monk since childhood, the Dalai Lama has said that sex offers fleeting satisfaction and leads to trouble later, while chastity offers a better life and “more independence, more freedom”. He has said that problems arising from conjugal life sometimes even lead to suicide or murder. He has asserted that all religions have the same view about adultery.” ref

“In his discussions of the traditional Buddhist view on appropriate sexual behavior, he explains the concept of “right organ in the right object at the right time”, which historically has been interpreted as indicating that oral, manual, and anal sex (both homosexual and heterosexual) are not appropriate in Buddhism or for Buddhists. However, he also says that in modern times all common, consensual sexual practices that do not cause harm to others are ethically acceptable and that society should accept and respect people who are gay or transgender from a secular point of view.” ref

In a 1994 interview with OUT Magazine, the Dalai Lama clarified his personal opinion on the matter by saying, “If someone comes to me and asks whether homosexuality is okay or not, I will ask ‘What is your companion’s opinion?’ If you both agree, then I think I would say, ‘If two males or two females voluntarily agree to have mutual satisfaction without further implication of harming others, then it is okay.'” However, when interviewed by Canadian TV news anchor Evan Solomon on CBC News: Sunday about whether homosexuality is acceptable in Buddhism, the Dalai Lama responded that “it is sexual misconduct.” ref

“In his 1996 book Beyond Dogma, he described a traditional Buddhist definition of an appropriate sexual act as follows: “A sexual act is deemed proper when the couples use the organs intended for sexual intercourse and nothing else … Homosexuality, whether it is between men or between women, is not improper in itself. What is improper is the use of organs already defined as inappropriate for sexual contact.” He elaborated in 1997, explaining that the basis of that teaching was unknown to him. He also conveyed his own “willingness to consider the possibility that some of the teachings may be specific to a particular cultural and historic context”. In 2006, the Dalai Lama has expressed concern at “reports of violence and discrimination against” LGBT people and urged “respect, tolerance and the full recognition of human rights for all.” ref

“In 2007, he said that the next Dalai Lama could possibly be a woman: “If a woman reveals herself as more useful the lama could very well be reincarnated in this form.” In 2009, on gender equality and sexism, the Dalai Lama proclaimed at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee: “I call myself a feminist. Isn’t that what you call someone who fights for women’s rights?” He also said that by nature, women are more compassionate “based on their biology and ability to nurture and birth children”. He called on women to “lead and create a more compassionate world”, citing the good works of nurses and mothers.” ref

“At a 2014 appearance at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, the Dalai Lama said, “Since women have been shown to be more sensitive to others’ suffering, their leadership may be more effective.” In 2015, he said in a BBC interview that if a female succeeded him, “that female must be attractive, otherwise it is not much use,” and when asked if he was joking, replied, “No. True!” He followed with a joke about his current success being due to his own appearance.” ref

“The Chinese press has criticized the Dalai Lama for his close ties with India. His 2010 remarks at the International Buddhist Conference in Gujarat saying that he was “Tibetan in appearance, but an Indian in spirituality” and referral to himself as a “son of India” in particular led the People’s Daily to opine, “Since the Dalai Lama deems himself an Indian rather than Chinese, then why is he entitled to represent the voice of the Tibetan people?” Dhundup Gyalpo of the Tibet Sun replied that Tibetan religion could be traced back to Nalanda in India, and that Tibetans have no connection to Chinese “apart … from a handful of culinary dishes”. The People’s Daily stressed the links between Chinese Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism had accused the Dalai Lama of “betraying southern Tibet to India”. In 2008, the Dalai Lama said for the first time that the territory India claims and administers as part of Arunachal Pradesh is part of India, citing the disputed 1914 Simla Accord.” ref

Tibetan Buddhism?

“Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majority regions surrounding the Himalayan areas of India (such as Ladakh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, and a minority in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand), in much of Central Asia, in the Southern Siberian regions such as Tuva, and in Mongolia. While each of the four schools of Buddhism is independent and has its own monastic institutions and leaders, they are closely related and intersect, with common contact and dialogue.” ref

“Tibetan Buddhism evolved as a form of Mahāyāna Buddhism stemming from the latest stages of Indian Buddhism (which also included many Vajrayāna elements). It thus preserves many Indian Buddhist tantric practices of the post-Gupta early medieval period (500 to 1200 CE), along with numerous native Tibetan developments. In the pre-modern era, Tibetan Buddhism spread outside of Tibet primarily due to the influence of the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), founded by Kublai Khan, which had ruled China, Mongolia and parts of Siberia. In the Modern era, Tibetan Buddhism has spread outside of Asia due to the efforts of the Tibetan diaspora (1959 onwards). As the Dalai Lama escaped to India, the Indian subcontinent is also known for its renaissance of Tibetan Buddhism monasteries, including the rebuilding of the three major monasteries of the Gelug tradition.” ref

“Apart from classical Mahāyāna Buddhist practices like the six perfections, Tibetan Buddhism also includes tantric practices, such as deity yoga and the Six Dharmas of Naropa as well as methods which are seen as transcending tantra, like Dzogchen. Its main goal is Buddhahood. The main language of scriptural study in this tradition is classical Tibetan. Tibetan Buddhism has four major schools, namely Nyingma (c. 8th century), Kagyu (11th century), Sakya (1073), and Gelug (1409). The Jonang is a smaller school that exists, and the Rimé movement (19th century), meaning “no sides”, is a more recent non-sectarian movement which attempts to preserve and understand all the different traditions. The predominant spiritual tradition in Tibet before the introduction of Buddhism was Bon, which has been strongly influenced by Tibetan Buddhism (particularly the Nyingma school).” ref

BӨ and BÖN: ANCIENT SHAMANIC TRADITIONS OF SIBERIA AND TIBET IN THEIR RELATION TO
THE TEACHINGS OF A CENTRAL ASIAN BUDDHA by Dmitry Ermakov

“Bon, also spelled Bön (Tibetan: བོན་, Wylie: bon, ZYPY: Pön, Lhasa dialect: [pʰø̃̀]) and also known as Yungdrung Bon (Tibetan: གཡུང་དྲུང་བོན་, Wylie: g.yung drung bon, ZYPY: Yungchung Pön, “eternal Bon”), is a Tibetan religious tradition with many similarities to Tibetan Buddhism and also many unique features. Bon initially developed in the tenth and eleventh centuries, but may retain elements from earlier religious traditions (which also used the term Bon). Bon remains a significant minority religion in Tibet (especially in Eastern Tibet) and in the surrounding Himalayan regions.” ref

“The relationship between Bon and Tibetan Buddhism has been a subject of debate. According to the modern scholar Geoffrey Samuel, while Bon is “essentially a variant of Tibetan Buddhism” with many resemblances to Nyingma, it also preserves some genuinely ancient pre-Buddhist elements. Followers of Bon, known as “Bonpos” (Wylie: bon po), believe that the religion originated in a land called Zhangzhung, located in the Himalayas, perhaps also the area around Mount Kailash in Tibet. Bonpos identify the Buddha Shenrab Miwo (Wylie: gshen rab mi bo) as Bon’s founder, although no available sources establish this figure’s historicity. Bonpos hold that Bon was brought first to Zhang Zhung, a kingdom to the west of the Tibetan Plateau, and then to Tibet.” ref

“Western scholars have posited several origins for Bon, and have used the term “Bon” in many ways. A distinction is sometimes made between an ancient Bon (Wylie: bon rnying), dating back to the pre-dynastic era before 618 CE; a classical Bon tradition (also called Yungdrung Bon – Wylie: g.yung drung bon) which emerged in the 10th and 11th centuries; and “New Bon” or Bon Sar (Wylie: bon gsar), a late syncretic movement dating back to the 14th century and active in eastern Tibet. From the traditional point of view of the Bon religion, Bon was the original religion of Tibet and Zhangzhung which was taught there by various Buddhas, including Tonpa Shenrab (whose name means “Supreme Holy Man”).” ref

“Tibetan Buddhist scholarship tends to cast Bon in a negative, adversarial light, with derogatory stories about Bon appearing in a number of Buddhist histories. The Rimé movement within Tibetan religion encouraged more ecumenical attitudes between Bonpos and Buddhists. Western scholars began to take Bon seriously as a religious tradition worthy of study in the 1960s, in large part inspired by the work of English scholar David Snellgrove (1920-2016) Following the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950, Bonpo scholars began to arrive in Europe and North America, encouraging interest in Bon in the West. Today, a proportion of Tibetans – both in Tibet and in the Tibetan diaspora – practise Bon, and there are Bonpo centers in cities around the world.” ref

“Early Western studies of Bon relied heavily on Buddhist sources, and used the word to refer to the pre-Buddhist religion over which it was thought Buddhism triumphed. Helmut Hoffmann’s 1950 study of Bon characterized this religion as “animism” and “shamanism”; these characterizations have been controversial. Hoffmann contrasted this animistic-shamanistic folk religion with the organized priesthood of Bonpos which developed later, Shaivism, Buddhist tantras. Hoffman also argued that Gnosticism from the West influenced the systematized Bon religion.” ref

“During the 3rd century CE Buddhism began to spread into the Tibetan region and its teachings affected the Bon religion in the Kingdom of Zhangzhung. While some stories depict Buddhism in Tibet before this period, the religion was formally introduced during the Tibetan Empire (7th–9th century CE). Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures from India were first translated into Tibetan under the reign of the Tibetan king Songtsän Gampo (618–649 CE). This period also saw the development of the Tibetan writing system and classical Tibetan.” ref

“In the 8th century, King Trisong Detsen (755–797 CE) established it as the official religion of the state, and commanded his army to wear robes and study Buddhism. Trisong Detsen invited Indian Buddhist scholars to his court, including Padmasambhāva (8th century CE) and Śāntarakṣita (725–788), which are considered the founders of Nyingma (The Ancient Ones), the oldest tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Padmasambhava who is considered by the Tibetans as Guru Rinpoche (“Precious Master”) who is also credied with building the first monastery building named Samye, around late 8th century. According to some legend, it is noted that, he pacified the Bon demons and made them the core protectors of Dharma Modern historians also argue that, Trisong Detsen and his followers adopted Buddhism as an act of international diplomacy, especially with the major power of those times such as China, India and states in Central Asia – who had strong Buddhist influence in their culture.” ref

“Yeshe Tsogyal, the most important female in the Nyingma Vajrayana lineage, was a member of Trisong Detsen’s court and became Padmasambhava’s student before gaining enlightenment. Trisong Detsen also invited the Chan master Moheyan to transmit the Dharma at Samye Monastery. Some sources state that a debate ensued between Moheyan and the Indian master Kamalaśīla, without consensus on the victor, and some scholars consider the event to be fictitious. A reversal in Buddhist influence began under King Langdarma (r. 836–842), and his death was followed by the so-called Era of Fragmentation, a period of disunity during the 9th and 10th centuries. During this era, the political centralization of the earlier Tibetan Empire collapsed and civil wars ensued.” ref

“In spite of this loss of state power and patronage, however, Buddhism survived and thrived in Tibet. According to Geoffrey Samuel this was because “Tantric (Vajrayana) Buddhism came to provide the principal set of techniques by which Tibetans dealt with the dangerous powers of the spirit world… Buddhism, in the form of Vajrayana ritual, provided a critical set of techniques for dealing with everyday life. Tibetans came to see these techniques as vital for their survival and prosperity in this life.” This includes dealing with the local gods and spirits (sadak and shipdak), which became a specialty of some Tibetan Buddhist lamas and lay ngagpas (mantrikas, mantra specialists).” ref

“The late 10th and 11th centuries saw a revival of Buddhism in Tibet with the founding of “New Translation” (Sarma) lineages as well as the appearance of “hidden treasures” (terma) literature which reshaped the Nyingma tradition. In 1042, the Bengali master Atiśa (982-1054) arrived in Tibet at the invitation of a west Tibetan king. His chief disciple, Dromton founded the Kadam school of Tibetan Buddhism, one of the first Sarma schools.^{[citation needed]}. Atiśa, helped in the translation of major Buddhist texts such as Bka’-‘gyur (Translation of the Buddha Word) and Bstan-‘gyur (Translation of Teachings) helped in disseminating the values of Buddhism in powerful state affairs as well as in the Tibetan culture. The Bka’-‘gyur has six main categories in the book: (1) Tantra, (2) Prajñāpāramitā, (3) Ratnakūṭa Sūtra, (4) Avatamsaka Sutra, (5) Other sutras, (6) Vinaya. The Bstan-‘gyur is a compilation work of 3,626 texts and 224 volumes which basically encompass texts of hymns, commentaries and tantras.” ref

“The Sakya (Grey Earth) school, was founded by Khön Könchok Gyelpo (1034–1102), a disciple of the great scholar, Drogmi Shākya. It is headed by the Sakya Trizin, and traces its lineage to the mahasiddha Virūpa. Other influential Indian teachers include Tilopa (988–1069) and his student Naropa (probably died ca. 1040). Their teachings, via their student Marpa, are the foundations of the Kagyu (Oral lineage) tradition, which focuses on the practices of Mahamudra and the Six Dharmas of Naropa. One of most famous Kagyu figures was the hermit Milarepa, an 11th-century mystic. The Dagpo Kagyu was founded by the monk Gampopa who merged Marpa’s lineage teachings with the monastic Kadam tradition. All the sub-schools of the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism surviving today, including the Drikung Kagyu, the Drukpa Kagyu and the Karma Kagyu, are branches of the Dagpo Kagyu. The Karma Kagyu school is the largest of the Kagyu sub-schools and is headed by the Karmapa.” ref

“Tibetan Buddhism exerted a strong influence from the 11th century CE among the peoples of Inner Asia, especially the Mongols. The Mongols invaded Tibet in 1240 and 1244. They eventually annexed Amdo and Kham and appointed the great scholar and abbot Sakya Pandita (1182–1251) as Viceroy of Central Tibet in 1249. In this way, Tibet was incorporated into the Mongol Empire, with the Sakya hierarchy retaining nominal power over religious and regional political affairs, while the Mongols retained structural and administrative rule over the region, reinforced by the rare military intervention. Tibetan Buddhism was adopted as the de facto state religion by the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) of Kublai Khan.” ref

“It was also during this period that the Tibetan Buddhist canon was compiled, primarily led by the efforts of the scholar Butön Rinchen Drup (1290–1364). A part of this project included the carving of the canon into wood blocks for printing, and the first copies of these texts were kept at Narthang monastery. With the decline and end of the Mongol Yuan dynasty, Tibet regained independence and was ruled by successive local families from the 14th to the 17th century.” ref

“Jangchub Gyaltsän (1302–1364) became the strongest political family in the mid 14th century. During this period the reformist scholar Je Tsongkhapa (1357–1419) founded the Gelug school which would have a decisive influence on Tibet’s history. The Ganden Tripa is the nominal head of the Gelug school, though its most influential figure is the Dalai Lama. The Ganden Tripa is an appointed office and not an reincarnation lineage. The position can be held by an individual for seven years and this has led to more Ganden Tripas than Dalai Lamas.” ref

“Internal strife within the Phagmodrupa dynasty, and the strong localism of the various fiefs and political-religious factions, led to a long series of internal conflicts. The minister family Rinpungpa, based in Tsang (West Central Tibet), dominated politics after 1435. In 1565, the Rinpungpa family was overthrown by the Tsangpa Dynasty of Shigatse, which expanded its power in different directions of Tibet in the following decades and favoured the Karma Kagyu sect. They would play a pivotal role in the events which led to the rise of power of the Dalai Lama’s in the 1640s.” ref

“In China, Tibetan Buddhism continued to be patronized by the elites of the Ming Dynasty. According to David M. Robinson, during this era, Tibetan Buddhist monks “conducted court rituals, enjoyed privileged status and gained access to the jealously guarded, private world of the emperors”. The Ming Yongle Emperor (r. 1402–1424) promoted the carving of printing blocks for the Kangyur, now known as “the Yongle Kanjur”, and seen as an important edition of the collection.” ref

“The Ming Dynasty also supported the propagation of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia during this period. Tibetan Buddhist missionaries also helped spread the religion in Mongolia. It was during this era that Altan Khan the leader of the Tümed Mongols, converted to Buddhism, and allied with the Gelug school, conferring the title of Dalai Lama to Sonam Gyatso in 1578. During a Tibetan civil war in the 17th century, Sonam Choephel (1595–1657 CE), the chief regent of the 5th Dalai Lama, conquered and unified Tibet to establish the Ganden Phodrang government with the help of the Güshi Khan of the Khoshut Mongols. The Ganden Phodrang and the successive Gelug tulku lineages of the Dalai Lamas and Panchen Lamas maintained regional control of Tibet from the mid-17th to mid-20th centuries.” ref

“The Qing dynasty (1644-1912) established a Chinese rule over Tibet after a Qing expeditionary force defeated the Dzungars (who controlled Tibet) in 1720, and lasted until the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912. The Manchu rulers of the Qing dynasty supported Tibetan Buddhism, especially the Gelug sect, during most of their rule. The reign of the Qianlong Emperor was the high mark for this promotion of Tibetan Buddhism in China, with the visit of the 6th Panchen Lama to Beijing, and the building of temples in the Tibetan style, such as Xumi Fushou Temple, the Puning Temple and Putuo Zongcheng Temple (modeled after the potala palace).” ref

“This period also saw the rise of the Rimé movement, a 19th-century nonsectarian movement involving the Sakya, Kagyu and Nyingma schools of Tibetan Buddhism, along with some Bon scholars. Having seen how the Gelug institutions pushed the other traditions into the corners of Tibet’s cultural life, scholars such as Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (1820-1892) and Jamgön Kongtrül (1813-1899) compiled together the teachings of the Sakya, Kagyu and Nyingma, including many near-extinct teachings. Without Khyentse and Kongtrul’s collecting and printing of rare works, the suppression of Buddhism by the Communists would have been much more final. The Rimé movement is responsible for a number of scriptural compilations, such as the Rinchen Terdzod and the Sheja Dzö.” ref

“During the Qing, Tibetan Buddhism also remained the major religion of the Mongols under Qing rule (1635–1912), as well as the state religion of the Kalmyk Khanate (1630–1771), the Dzungar Khanate (1634–1758) and the Khoshut Khanate (1642–1717). In 1912, following the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Tibet became de facto independent under the 13th Dalai Lama government based in Lhasa, maintaining the current territory of what is now called the Tibetan Autonomous Region. During the Republic of China (1912–1949), the “Chinese Tantric Buddhist Revival Movement” (Chinese: 密教復興運動) took place, and important figures such as Nenghai (能海喇嘛, 1886–1967) and Master Fazun (法尊, 1902–1980) promoted Tibetan Buddhism and translated Tibetan works into Chinese. This movement was severely damaged during the cultural revolution, however.” ref

“After the Battle of Chamdo, Tibet was annexed by China in 1950. In 1959 the 14th Dalai Lama and a great number of clergy fled the country, to settle in India and other neighboring countries. The events of the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) saw religion as one of the main political targets of the Chinese Communist Party, and most of the several thousand temples and monasteries in Tibet were destroyed, with many monks and lamas imprisoned. During this time, private religious expression, as well as Tibetan cultural traditions, were suppressed. Much of the Tibetan textual heritage and institutions were destroyed, and monks and nuns were forced to disrobe.” ref

“Outside of Tibet, however, there was a renewed interest in Tibetan Buddhism in places such as Nepal and Bhutan. Meanwhile, the spread of Tibetan Buddhism in the Western world was accomplished by many of the refugee Tibetan Lamas who escaped Tibet, such as Akong Rinpoche and Chögyam Trungpa who in 1967 were founders of Kagyu Samye Ling the first Tibetan Buddhist Centre to be established in the West. After the liberalization policies in China during the 1980s, the religion began to recover with some temples and monasteries being reconstructed. Tibetan Buddhism is now an influential religion among Chinese people, and also in Taiwan. However, the Chinese government retains strict control over Tibetan Buddhist Institutions in the PRC. Quotas on the number of monks and nuns are maintained, and their activities are closely supervised.” ref

“Within the Tibetan Autonomous Region, violence against Buddhists has been escalating since 2008. Widespread reports document the arrests and disappearances of nuns and monks, while the Chinese government classifies religious practices as “gang crime”. Reports include the demolition of monasteries, forced disrobing, forced reeducation, and detentions of nuns and monks, especially those residing at Yarchen Gar‘s center, the most highly publicized.” ref

“Today, Tibetan Buddhism is adhered to widely in the Tibetan Plateau, Mongolia, northern Nepal, Kalmykia (on the north-west shore of the Caspian), Siberia (Tuva and Buryatia), the Russian Far East and northeast China. It is the state religion of Bhutan. The Indian regions of Sikkim and Ladakh, both formerly independent kingdoms, are also home to significant Tibetan Buddhist populations, as are the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh (which includes Dharamshala and the district of Lahaul-Spiti), West Bengal (the hill stations of Darjeeling and Kalimpong) and Arunachal Pradesh. Religious communities, refugee centers and monasteries have also been established in South India.” ref

“The 14th Dalai Lama is the leader of the Tibetan government in exile which was initially dominated by the Gelug school, however, according to Geoffrey Samuel:

The Dharamsala administration under the Dalai Lama has nevertheless managed, over time, to create a relatively inclusive and democratic structure that has received broad support across the Tibetan communities in exile. Senior figures from the three non-Gelukpa Buddhist schools and from the Bonpo have been included in the religious administration, and relations between the different lamas and schools are now on the whole very positive. This is a considerable achievement, since the relations between these groups were often competitive and conflict-ridden in Tibet before 1959, and mutual distrust was initially widespread. The Dalai Lama’s government at Dharamsala has also continued under difficult circumstances to argue for a negotiated settlement rather than armed struggle with China.” ref

“In the wake of the Tibetan diaspora, Tibetan Buddhism has also gained adherents in the West and throughout the world. Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and centers were first established in Europe and North America in the 1960s, and most are now supported by non-Tibetan followers of Tibetan lamas. Some of these westerners went on to learn Tibetan, undertake extensive training in the traditional practices and have been recognized as lamas. Fully ordained Tibetan Buddhist Monks have also entered Western societies in other ways, such as working academia.” ref

“Samuel sees the character of Tibetan Buddhism in the West as

…that of a national or international network, generally centred around the teachings of a single individual lama. Among the larger ones are the FPMT, which I have already mentioned, now headed by Lama Zopa and the child-reincarnation of Lama Yeshe; the New Kadampa, in origin a break-away from the FPMT; the Shambhala network, deriving from Chögyam Trungpa ‘s organization and now headed by his son; and the networks associated with Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche (the Dzogchen Community) and Sogyal Rinpoche (Rigpa).” ref

His Foolishness The Dalai Lama

“The planet does not need more ‘successful people’. The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of all kinds.” ~H.H.The Dalai Lama

Sorry, to seem like the atheist/anti-religious asshole but I call bullshit, The Dalai Lama is very successful, so what he states is a clear contradiction.

Then in a weird way, I do kind of agree we don’t need him. He had controlled the Tibetan Government in exile, which receives many donations which pays for his traveling around the world and his security detail. The very successful Dalai Lama has 111 books you can count them: http://www.dalailama.com/biography/books/20

With at least 111 books to his name, I would say he is very successful, so how can he judge. When you say, healers, you don’t mean doctor’s right, you mean ”spiritual” healers like faith magic, which is ridiculous and disproven superstitions and how absurd to say we need more storytellers as a way to help the world…

How about more education, more science, and more critical thinking, rather than ridiculous beliefs in faith magic?

But who cares right if the Dalai Lama expresses empty platitudes, he is just an ordinary MAN (Lhamo Dondrub) not a 14 time reincarnated unique anything. Lhamo Dondrub the Dalai Lama’s birth name reminds us he is just a man nothing special and it is absurd to think otherwise, just like all others who are claimed to be holy (I am thinking of you pope).

Lhamo Dondrub, when you say lovers, you don’t mean homosexuals right, not that you don’t go beyond the standard view of Buddhism; which has viewed homosexuality as falling under its rules of “sexual misconduct”. Lhamo Dondrub, is in one way ok with love, just not for sexual intercourse when it serves no other purpose other than to satisfy an urge. Therefore, any sex that is not trying to reproduce (ie. gay sex), though, let’s not forget he does not claim to hate of homosexuals, that is until they want to have sex, then it would seem he is against that, so again he’s absurd.

Lhamo Dondrub’s stance on homosexuality bothered me, so I decided to look into it more for myself. In his 1996 book Beyond Dogma: Dialogues and Discourses, he said that homosexuality was wrong. He later clarified that homosexuality was wrong because it involved the use of the mouth, rectum and/or hands as opposed to only using genitalia. He added that the use of the mouth, rectum, and hands are also prescribed in heterosexual encounters. So, I think we can kind of discount the “lovers of all kinds” statement right?

The primary issue in Buddhism and with Lhamo Dondrub’s stance on homosexuality it would seem is whether a sexual act between lovers is “sexual misconduct.” The problem is that “sexual misconduct” was not defined by Buddha. An article published on the World Tibet Network News website of a transcript between an interviewer and the Dalai Lama, he explains that sexual activity, and therefore sexual misconduct, has to be separated into different categories. The first category is for those who are in religious communities–nuns and monks. The second category is for those who are not celibate–everyday Buddhists. In the first instance, any form of sexual activity, including masturbation would be wrong, because there would be ejaculate (he obviously had men in mind). However, the same could not be said of masturbation for someone not in a religious community. But still, homophobia is homophobia even if you think you can say sometimes it is not.

In actuality, there is a third category: non-Buddhists. Although he viewed homosexuality as “sexual misconduct” for Buddhists, Lhamo Dondrub’s stance on homosexuality was that it was “non-harmful” for non-Buddhists.

Asking someone to defend who or how they are or choose to be or love, is like saying “I have the right to challenge your rights to wellbeing just because I am superior to you, ie. “have more rights or better rights then you” , so again he’s absurd.

I try to always stay open to evaluate ideas. I feel we need to work more on thinking together instead of only trying to prove we are right. Nevertheless, sometimes we must expose lies and thinking that is wrong. It is in the place of open reason, that we can reach shared truth, not just one-sided opinions.

I value the right to choose beliefs and the right to not have to defend that right. However, if asked I will explain what and why I think. My goal is less a desire to change your mind as to be an assisting catalyst in opening your mind to new possibilities.

Nevertheless, Lhamo Dondrub the Dalai Lama said: “homosexuality was wrong” but supports “lovers of all kinds” thus to me he is not being equal or contradicting himself thus it is he that is wrong. You cannot say, I half love justice and half love injustice and still be for justice, if that seems reasonable to others I think that too is absurd.

We confine ourselves when we try to fit ourselves to religious thinking this is not true when we start analyzing all the thinking in religious dogma. We can always find an excuse if we want to keep believing no matter what flawed dogma we realize.

However, if we seek truth than dogma will fall short, the question is not is there a way to see flawed dogma as ok; the question is do we want to live free thinking or caged thinking, only sticking too or aiming to prove outdated religious thinking others created long ago. I see holding on to this bigotry and myths as absurd in an age of scientific understanding. We must free are selves from charlatans and not be trapped in a galaxy full of fear-driven religious slaves who try to make nature into magic to give meaning to things they do not understand. Instead, we must move past controlling dogma and live in the real wisdom built on the scientific truth of today.

I choose truth, not mystic hopes we not know are just not real.

Coverage accorded to the Dalai Lama in the Western media has been excessively favorable and uncritical, just as the media coverage in China of the Dalai Lama is appallingly biased only towards the negative.

It is clear, ethnic Tibetans have been killed by the Chinese military. However, it is also clear that ethnic Chinese have been murdered by ethnic Tibetans in racially based attacks. This has not been made as clear in the Western media. And yet, the Western media were rightly appalled in 1998 when ethnic Chinese were raped and murdered in Jakarta for similar reasons- perceived excessive economic control at the expense of non-Chinese locals.

In Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, four Chinese girls and one Tibetan girl were burned alive when a clothing store in which they worked was set alight by Tibetan protesters. But the rampage against the Chinese was not as simple as an attack on Han Chinese. Ethnic Chinese Muslim traders were also rounded on. Muslim traders have a centuries-old presence in Lhasa, a legacy of the ancient Silk Road. But in the unrest two weeks ago, the main mosque in Lhasa’s old quarter was also burned down. Beyond China, there are many vested interests wanting a stake in the future of Tibetan rule.

No mere spiritual leader but the head of Tibet’s government why not hold him accountable as a political figure?

Tibet’s government was not that “clean” was a state apparatus run by aristocratic, nepotistic monks that collected taxes, jailed and tortured dissenters and engaged in all the usual political intrigues. (The Dalai Lama’s own father was almost certainly murdered in 1946, the consequence of a coup plot.)

The government set up in exile in India and, at least until the 1970s, received $US1.7 million a year from the CIA.

The money was to pay for guerilla operations against the Chinese, notwithstanding the Dalai Lama’s public stance in support of non-violence, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

The Dalai Lama himself was on the CIA’s payroll from the late 1950s until 1974, reportedly receiving $US15,000 a month ($US180,000 a year).

The funds were paid to him personally, but he used all or most of them for Tibetan government-in-exile activities, principally to fund offices in New York and Geneva, and to lobby internationally.

Details of the government-in-exile’s funding today are far from clear. Structurally, it comprises seven departments and several other special offices. There have also been charitable trusts, a publishing company, hotels in India and Nepal, and a handicrafts distribution company in the US and in Australia, all grouped under the government-in-exile’s Department of Finance. The government was involved in running 24 businesses in all, but decided in 2003 that it would withdraw from these because such commercial involvement was not appropriate. Dalai Lama at one time received $500,000 for guerrilla fighters and $400,000 for a training center in America all from the CIA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNQpCACYim8&feature=youtu.be

The unluckiest Dalai Lama?

The Dalai Lama seeks sympathy by proclaiming that he is “the unluckiest Dalai Lama” because he is not able to live in Tibet. Based on 300 years of the 14 Dalai Lamas, his bad luck is the good luck of the Tibetan people. Their rule was a theological dictatorship complete with a serf-based culture that kept 95% or the population illiterate and in involuntary servitude. Slave sales were the order of the day as was torture and execution for dissenters. Sitting at the head of this abomination was the Dalai Lama, who resided in a sumptuous palace offering the theological rationalization of karma. Karma says we are where we are because of how we lived in a prior life. For the Dalai Lama Karma is easy to believe in when you’re the one who was in the palace ruling everyone else in a theological dictatorship. http://www.browardbeat.com/the-dalai-lama-is-a-big-phony/

Dalai Lama the Selfish Jerk?

None of the Dalai Lama’s raised hundreds of millions of dollars benefit Tibetan citizens in the slightest. He gives most of it to unrelated charities, and that’s a fine thing; but his only prerogative in Tibet is to get himself back into Power. The rest of the money he raises go to his pet project: metaphysical spirituality. In many ways, he’s no different from Deepak Chopra; except that instead of misstating quantum physics, he allows his donors to misperceive his mission. The Dalai Lama is a highly successful self-help and metaphysical author. https://skeptoid.com/blog/2012/05/14/dalai-lama-savior-or-selfish-jerk/

Dalai Lama is a pretty nasty piece of work: http://www.examiner.com/article/is-the-dalai-lama-a-monumental-fraud
The Dalai Lama Deserves Criticism, Not Adulation: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/james-snell/dalai-lama-criticism_b_4421553.html
Dalai Lama Lying: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ppkwtvc_ms&feature=youtu.be
Buddhists Who Hate the Dalai Lama: http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/03/13/buddhists_hate_dalai_lama_china/
Dalai Lama is a Fraud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlWrpR1tBXA&feature=youtu.be
Dalai Lama: slave owner of Tibet (to Dalai and his followers, “Free Tibet” means free for them to own slaves again): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWTD2MjCg0g
Penn And Teller – Dalai Lama the slave owner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7t2Ztb92mE
A theocratic serfdom, which Tibet effectively was, is very much a society of slavery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom_in_Tibet_controversy
Dalai Lama owned 6,000 serfs: http://www.antimoon.com/forum/t13141.htm

Tibetan Buddhism?

Tibetan Buddhism is the form of Buddhist doctrine and institutions named after the lands of Tibet, but also found in the regions surrounding the Himalayas and much of Central Asia. It derives from the latest stages of Indian Buddhism and preserves “the Tantric status quo of eighth-century India.” It has been spread outside of Tibet, especially due to the Mongol power of the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), founded by Kublai Khan, that also ruled China. Tibetan Buddhism applies Tantric practices, especially deity yoga, and aspires to Buddhahood or the rainbow body. Tibetan Buddhism in Tibet has four major schools, namely Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya and Gelug (developed out of Sakya). The Jonang is a smaller school, and the Rimé movement is an eclectic movement involving the Sakya, Kagyu and Nyingma schools. Among the prominent proponents of Tibetan Buddhism are the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama, the leaders of Gelug school in Tibet. Buddhism was formally introduced into Tibet during the Tibetan Empire (7th-9th century AD). Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures from India were first translated into Tibetan under the reign of the Tibetan king Songtsän Gampo (618-649), In the 8th century, King Trisong Detsen (755-797) established it as the official religion of the state. Trisong Detsen invited Indian Buddhist scholars to his court, including Padmasambhāva (8th century) and Śāntarakṣita (725–788), who founded the Nyingma, The Ancient Ones, the oldest school of Tibetan Buddhism. There was also influence from the Sarvāstivādins from Kashmir to the southwest and Khotan to the northwest. Trisong Detsen also invited the Chan master Moheyan to transmit the Dharma at Samye Monastery. According to Tibetan sources, Moheyan lost the socalled council of Lhasa (793), a debate sponsored by Trisong Detsen on the nature of emptiness with the Indian master Kamalaśīla, and the king declared Kamalaśīlasphilosophy should form the basis for Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism comprises the teachings of the three vehicles of Buddhism: the Foundational Vehicle, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna. The Mahāyāna goal of spiritual development is to achieve the enlightenment of buddhahood in order to most efficiently help all other sentient beings attain this state. The motivation in it is the bodhicitta mind of enlightenment — an altruistic intention to become enlightened for the sake of all sentient beings. Bodhisattvas are revered beings who have conceived the will and vow to dedicate their lives with bodhicitta for the sake of all beings. Widely revered Bodhisattvas in Tibetan Buddhism include Avalokiteshvara, Manjushri, Vajrapani, and Tara. Buddhahood is defined as a state free of the obstructions to liberation as well as those to omniscience. When one is freed from all mental obscurations, one is said to attain a state of continuous bliss mixed with a simultaneous cognition of emptiness, the true nature of reality. In this state, all limitations on one’s ability to help other living beings are removed. Tibetan Buddhism claims to teach methods for achieving Buddhahood more quickly (known as the Vajrayāna path). It is said that there are countless beings who have attained buddhahood. Buddhas spontaneously, naturally and continuously perform activities to benefit all sentient beings. However it is believed that one’s karma could limit the ability of the Buddhas to help them. Thus, although Buddhas possess no limitation from their side on their ability to help others, sentient beings continue to experience suffering as a result of the limitations of their own former negative actions. There has been a “close association” between the religious and the secular, the spiritual and the temporal in Tibet. The term for this relationship is chos srid zung ‘brel. Traditionally Tibetan lamas have tended to the lay populace by helping them with issues such as protection and prosperity. Common traditions have been the various rites and rituals for mundane ends, such as purifying one’s karma, avoiding harm from demonic forces and enemies, and promoting a successful harvest. Divination and exorcism are examples of practices a lama might use for this. Ritual is generally more elaborate than in other forms of Buddhism, with complex altar arrangements and works of art, many ritual objects, hand gestures (mudra), chants, and musical instruments. A special kind of ritual called an initiation or empowerment (Sanskrit: Abhiseka, Tibetan: Wangkur) is central to Tantric practice. These rituals consecrate a practitioner into a particular Tantric practice associated with individual mandalas of deities and mantras. Without having gone through initiation, one is generally not allowed to practice the higher Tantras. Another important ritual occasion in Tibetan Buddhism is that of mortuary rituals which are supposed to assure that one has a positive rebirth and a good spiritual path in the future. Of central importance to Tibetan Buddhist Ars moriendi is the idea of the Bardo (Sanskrit: antarābhava), the intermediate or liminal state between life and death. Rituals and the readings of texts such as the Bardo Thodol are done to ensure that the dying person can navigate this intermediate state skillfully. Cremation and sky burial are traditionally the main funeral rites used to dispose of the body. – Wikipedia

Lords and Lamas Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth (by Michael Parenti)

The Dalai Lama himself stated that “the pervasive influence of Buddhism” in Tibet, “amid the wide open spaces of an unspoiled environment resulted in a society dedicated to peace and harmony. We enjoyed freedom and contentment.” A reading of Tibet’s history suggests a somewhat different picture. “Religious conflict was commonplace in old Tibet,” writes one western Buddhist practitioner. “History belies the Shangri-La image of Tibetan lamas and their followers living together in mutual tolerance and nonviolent goodwill. Indeed, the situation was quite different. Old Tibet was much more like Europe during the religious wars of the Counterreformation.” In the thirteenth century, Emperor Kublai Khan created the first Grand Lama, who was to preside over all the other lamas as might a pope over his bishops. Several centuries later, the Emperor of China sent an army into Tibet to support the Grand Lama, an ambitious 25-year-old man, who then gave himself the title of Dalai (Ocean) Lama, ruler of all Tibet. His two previous lama “incarnations” were then retroactively recognized as his predecessors, thereby transforming the 1st Dalai Lama into the 3rd Dalai Lama. This 1st (or 3rd) Dalai Lama seized monasteries that did not belong to his sect, and is believed to have destroyed Buddhist writings that conflicted with his claim to divinity. The Dalai Lama who succeeded him pursued a sybaritic life, enjoying many mistresses, partying with friends, and acting in other ways deemed unfitting for an incarnate deity. For these transgressions he was murdered by his priests. Within 170 years, despite their recognized divine status, five Dalai Lamas were killed by their high priests or other courtiers. For hundreds of years competing Tibetan Buddhist sects engaged in bitterly violent clashes and summary executions. In 1660, the 5th Dalai Lama was faced with a rebellion in Tsang province, the stronghold of the rival Kagyu sect with its high lama known as the Karmapa. The 5th Dalai Lama called for harsh retribution against the rebels, directing the Mongol army to obliterate the male and female lines, and the offspring too “like eggs smashed against rocks…. In short, annihilate any traces of them, even their names.” In 1792, many Kagyu monasteries were confiscated and their monks were forcibly converted to the Gelug sect (the Dalai Lama’s denomination). The Gelug school, known also as the “Yellow Hats,” showed little tolerance or willingness to mix their teachings with other Buddhist sects. In the words of one of their traditional prayers: “Praise to you, violent god of the Yellow Hat teachings/who reduces to particles of dust/ great beings, high officials and ordinary people/ who pollute and corrupt the Gelug doctrine.” 8 An eighteenth-century memoir of a Tibetan general depicts sectarian strife among Buddhists that is as brutal and bloody as any religious conflict might be. This grim history remains largely unvisited by present-day followers of Tibetan Buddhism in the West. Religions have had a close relationship not only with violence but with economic exploitation. Indeed, it is often the economic exploitation that necessitates the violence. Such was the case with the Tibetan theocracy. Until 1959, when the Dalai Lama last presided over Tibet, most of the arable land was still organized into manorial estates worked by serfs. These estates were owned by two social groups: the rich secular landlords and the rich theocratic lamas. Even a writer sympathetic to the old order allows that “a great deal of real estate belonged to the monasteries, and most of them amassed great riches.” Much of the wealth was accumulated “through active participation in trade, commerce, and money lending.” Drepung monastery was one of the biggest landowners in the world, with its 185 manors, 25,000 serfs, 300 great pastures, and 16,000 herdsmen. The wealth of the monasteries rested in the hands of small numbers of high-ranking lamas. Most ordinary monks lived modestly and had no direct access to great wealth. The Dalai Lama himself “lived richly in the 1000-room, 14-story Potala Palace.” Secular leaders also did well. A notable example was the commander-in-chief of the Tibetan army, a member of the Dalai Lama’s lay Cabinet, who owned 4,000 square kilometers of land and 3,500 serfs. Old Tibet has been misrepresented by some Western admirers as “a nation that required no police force because its people voluntarily observed the laws of karma.” In fact. it had a professional army, albeit a small one, that served mainly as a gendarmerie for the landlords to keep order, protect their property, and hunt down runaway serfs. Young Tibetan boys were regularly taken from their peasant families and brought into the monasteries to be trained as monks. Once there, they were bonded for life. Tashì-Tsering, a monk, reports that it was common for peasant children to be sexually mistreated in the monasteries. He himself was a victim of repeated rape, beginning at age nine. The monastic estates also conscripted children for lifelong servitude as domestics, dance performers, and soldiers. In old Tibet there were small numbers of farmers who subsisted as a kind of free peasantry, and perhaps an additional 10,000 people who composed the “middle-class” families of merchants, shopkeepers, and small traders. Thousands of others were beggars. There also were slaves, usually domestic servants, who owned nothing. Their offspring were born into slavery. The majority of the rural population were serfs. Treated little better than slaves, the serfs went without schooling or medical care, They were under a lifetime bond to work the lord’s land–or the monastery’s land–without pay, to repair the lord’s houses, transport his crops, and collect his firewood. They were also expected to provide carrying animals and transportation on demand. Their masters told them what crops to grow and what animals to raise. They could not get married without the consent of their lord or lama. And they might easily be separated from their families should their owners lease them out to work in a distant location. As in a free labor system and unlike slavery, the overlords had no responsibility for the serf’s maintenance and no direct interest in his or her survival as an expensive piece of property. The serfs had to support themselves. Yet as in a slave system, they were bound to their masters, guaranteeing a fixed and permanent workforce that could neither organize nor strike nor freely depart as might laborers in a market context. The overlords had the best of both worlds. One 22-year old woman, herself a runaway serf, reports: “Pretty serf girls were usually taken by the owner as house servants and used as he wished”; they “were just slaves without rights.” Serfs needed permission to go anywhere. Landowners had legal authority to capture those who tried to flee. One 24-year old runaway welcomed the Chinese intervention as a “liberation.” He testified that under serfdom he was subjected to incessant toil, hunger, and cold. After his third failed escape, he was merciless beaten by the landlord’s men until blood poured from his nose and mouth. They then poured alcohol and caustic soda on his wounds to increase the pain, he claimed. The serfs were taxed upon getting married, taxed for the birth of each child and for every death in the family. They were taxed for planting a tree in their yard and for keeping animals. They were taxed for religious festivals and for public dancing and drumming, for being sent to prison and upon being released. Those who could not find work were taxed for being unemployed, and if they traveled to another village in search of work, they paid a passage tax. When people could not pay, the monasteries lent them money at 20 to 50 percent interest. Some debts were handed down from father to son to grandson. Debtors who could not meet their obligations risked being cast into slavery. The theocracy’s religious teachings buttressed its class order. The poor and afflicted were taught that they had brought their troubles upon themselves because of their wicked ways in previous lives. Hence they had to accept the misery of their present existence as a karmic atonement and in anticipation that their lot would improve in their next lifetime. The rich and powerful treated their good fortune as a reward for, and tangible evidence of, virtue in past and present lives. The Tibetan serfs were something more than superstitious victims, blind to their own oppression. As we have seen, some ran away; others openly resisted, sometimes suffering dire consequences. In feudal Tibet, torture and mutilation–including eye gouging, the pulling out of tongues, hamstringing, and amputation–were favored punishments inflicted upon thieves, and runaway or resistant serfs. Journeying through Tibet in the 1960s, Stuart and Roma Gelder interviewed a former serf, Tsereh Wang Tuei, who had stolen two sheep belonging to a monastery. For this he had both his eyes gouged out and his hand mutilated beyond use. He explains that he no longer is a Buddhist: “When a holy lama told them to blind me I thought there was no good in religion.” Since it was against Buddhist teachings to take human life, some offenders were severely lashed and then “left to God” in the freezing night to die. “The parallels between Tibet and medieval Europe are striking,” concludes Tom Grunfeld in his book on Tibet. In 1959, Anna Louise Strong visited an exhibition of torture equipment that had been used by the Tibetan overlords. There were handcuffs of all sizes, including small ones for children, and instruments for cutting off noses and ears, gouging out eyes, breaking off hands, and hamstringing legs. There were hot brands, whips, and special implements for disemboweling. The exhibition presented photographs and testimonies of victims who had been blinded or crippled or suffered amputations for thievery. There was the shepherd whose master owed him a reimbursement in yuan and wheat but refused to pay. So he took one of the master’s cows; for this he had his hands severed. Another herdsman, who opposed having his wife taken from him by his lord, had his hands broken off. There were pictures of Communist activists with noses and upper lips cut off, and a woman who was raped and then had her nose sliced away. Earlier visitors to Tibet commented on the theocratic despotism. In 1895, an Englishman, Dr. A. L. Waddell, wrote that the populace was under the “intolerable tyranny of monks” and the devil superstitions they had fashioned to terrorize the people. In 1904 Perceval Landon described the Dalai Lama’s rule as “an engine of oppression.” At about that time, another English traveler, Captain W.F.T. O’Connor, observed that “the great landowners and the priests… exercise each in their own dominion a despotic power from which there is no appeal,” while the people are “oppressed by the most monstrous growth of monasticism and priest-craft.” Tibetan rulers “invented degrading legends and stimulated a spirit of superstition” among the common people. In 1937, another visitor, Spencer Chapman, wrote, “The Lamaist monk does not spend his time in ministering to the people or educating them. . . . The beggar beside the road is nothing to the monk. Knowledge is the jealously guarded prerogative of the monasteries and is used to increase their influence and wealth.” As much as we might wish otherwise, feudal theocratic Tibet was a far cry from the romanticized Shangri La so enthusiastically nurtured by Buddhism’s western proselytes. http://www.michaelparenti.org/Tibet.html

I Hate Religion Just as I Hate all Pseudoscience

Quit Trying to Invent God or Pseudo-Mystical

(not actually, mystical)

Beliefs From the Scraps of Science.

What religious in most of their arguments try to do, is to act as if they reverse engineer facts of reality, trying to prove a god something or other has to be the only way it could be the way it is. Of course, as an atheist but more importantly a supporter of science and the valid and reliable reason and evidence they work from I know religion is false. I know, the work of reverse engineering facts of reality has mostly been done and is being done by science which is why we know about the truth of evolution over creationism in the first place as well as the truth of reality that contradicts or completely challenges any argument the supporters of religion can offer. I realize they are trying to reoffer thinking that is already reasonably been disregarded as the wishful thinking fantasies it always was. Science in an abstract sense replaces old ideas for new. Whereas, religion suppresses new ideas for old. Religion is not about truth; it’s about indoctrinated faith. Do you really believe that even if clear documents demonstrate that Jesus had said he was not god, that they would stop all Belief, not hardly as it’s not about truth? Just like if clear documents proved Mohammed had said he was not really a prophet of Allah but only made it up, that they would stop all Belief, not hardly. So, again, I state it’s all about indoctrinated faith, not truth. If you are a religious believer, may I remind you that faith in the acquisition of knowledge is not a valid method worth believing in? Because, what proof is “faith,” of anything religion claims by faith, as many people have different faith even in the same religion? No, science CAN NOT be with religion as in religion needs science or appeals to the things of science as if they require their child-like myths and fantasy beliefs, whereas, science does not need or appeals to the things of religion. In fact, never was the answer religion was the answer rather it has been science removing the power of such religious inaccuracies. Science is a method to understand the world as it is, which is naturalistic only, not one shred of magic. In fact, the scientific method assumes Methodological naturalism, because that is all that has ever been found and is the most likely thing that ever will be found. As religion is not intended to represent the world as it is but instead what it is not the stupid supernatural, which is the thing of fantasy, wishful thinking, and delusion. We must not confuse beliefs, religion is beliefs built from myths devoid of corroborating evidence. Science uses corroborating evidence to establish what is true and that offers something worthy to believe.

Some atheists don’t like to say they hate religion, may say they hate what religion does, me? I am just cool to say I hate religion just as I hate pseudoscience. Religion is just socially accepted pseudoscience (with tax breaks). After all, the arguments in favor of ghosts, alternative medicine, and ancient aliens, are very similar to the arguments for angels, the “power of prayer” and God. Sleep paralysis and hallucinatory visions are taken to be evidence for ghosts/angels, post-hoc reasoning is used in arguments for alternative medicine/prayer, and “unexplained mysteries” are counted as evidence for aliens/God. Religion is just socially accepted pseudoscience.

The following have broad consensus concerning pseudo-scientific status. See if you can find any religion thinking?

*Astrology refers to any of several systems of understanding, interpreting and organizing knowledge about reality and human existence, based on the relative positions and movement of various real and construed celestial bodies. Planetary alignments are events where two or more planets and the Sun and Moon line up from the perspective of Earth. Much of astrology has been developed around such alignments. Sun signs are astrological signs that are determined by the location of the Sun at a particular moment in time such as an individual’s birth.

*Baraminology is an attempt to create a bible friendly version of species without invoking evolution.
Biblical scientific foreknowledge asserts that the Bible makes accurate statements about the world that science verifies thousands of years later. A favorite of kdbuffalo/Conservative. Suffers from the problem that prophesies should predict the future, not the past. Kind of the whole point.

*Creationist cosmologies “Creationism (pseudoscience)” are ones which, among other things, allow for a universe that is only thousands of years old. Flood geology is the creationist form of geology that advocates most of the geologic features on Earth are explainable by a global flood. Hydroplate theory is an attempt to explain how an earth-wide flood could occur. Soft-sediment deformation is the idea that rocks can only be deformed if wet and soft. Intelligent Design is a version of creation science stated in secular terms, viz. that “certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection.” The Banana fallacy is an argument about how things are designed to suit humans while ignoring other explanations such as artificial selection. Irreducible complexity is the claim that some systems are so complex that they cannot have evolved from simpler systems. It is used by proponents of intelligent design to argue that evolution by Natural selection alone is incomplete or flawed, d that some additional mechanism (an “Intelligent Designer”) is required to explain the origins of life. Specified complexity is the claim that when something is simultaneously complex and specified, one can infer that it was produced by an intelligent cause (i.e., that it was designed) rather than being the result of natural processes. Modern geocentrism cites uniform gamma ray bursts distribution as evidence that we are at the center of the universe, and other ideas of this type.

*Creation science is the belief that the origin of everything in the universe is the result of a first cause, brought about by a creator deity, and that this thesis is supported by geological, biological, and other scientific evidence. This “evidence” is either Biblical in nature, or it attacks a tenet of evolution, incorrectly assuming that if any part of evolution is wrong, the whole thing is wrong and creationism is right.

*Crop circles are geometric designs of crushed or knocked-over crops created in a field. Aside from skilled farmers or pranksters working through the night, explanations for their formation include UFOs and anomalous, tornado-like air currents. The study of crop circles is termed “cerealogy” by proponents.
Erich von Däniken’s proposal of ancient astronauts.

*Full moon lunacy is the belief that the full moon is correlated with the manifestation of lunacy.
Non-materialist neuroscience is the attempt to scientifically prove the existence of a “mind,” and is closely related to dualism.

*Hyperdimensional physics is a concept that has been very vaguely described by Tom Bearden. Mike Bara once summed it up as “a rotating body pulls energy from its higher state.” None of the examples he gives are actually valid.
Ufology is the study of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and frequently includes the belief that UFOs are evidence for extraterrestrial visitors.

*Numerology, is any belief in the divine, mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. It is often associated with the paranormal, alongside astrology and similar divinatory arts. There is no supporting evidence for the modern practice of numerology in modern science.

*Paranormal beliefs, such as subjects believing they are Channeling, which is the proposed communication of information to or through a person allegedly from a spirit or other paranormal entity. Of things like Dowsing, which refers to practices said to enable one to detect hidden water, metals, gemstones or other objects under the ground. There are also things like Electronic voice phenomenon, which is the alleged communication by spirits through tape recorders and other electronic devices. Or there are things like the so called Extra-sensory perception, which is the paranormal ability (independent of the five main senses or deduction from previous experience) to acquire information by means such as telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, psychic abilities, and remote viewing. There are also those who believe in the outlandish from Holding back walls of water (Moses in the Jewish faith) walking on water (Jesus in Christianity) to similar things such as flying horses (Muhammad in Islam) or just some other generalized belief in Levitation, which in this sense, is the act of rising up from the ground without any physical aids, usually by the power of thought.

*Psychokinesis is the paranormal ability of the mind to influence matter or energy at a distance.
Spiritualism is a religious movement which holds the belief that communication with the dead can occur through the powers of individuals called mediums. Seances are ritualized attempts to communicate with the dead.

*Torsion field physics is a theory about some new kind of fields that travel much faster than light. Torsion fields are often used to “mathematically describe” other pseudoscientific topics.

*The Face on Mars (in Cydonia Mensae) is a rock formation on Mars asserted to be evidence of intelligent, native life on the planet. Higher resolution images show it to appear less face-like. It features prominently in the pseudoscientific theories of Richard C. Hoagland. Alien abductions are events where people claim to have been taken into a spaceship for medical experiments by aliens before being returned to earth. Close encounters are events where persons witness UFOs, or purportedly meet and/or communicate with alien beings. Immanuel Velikovsky’s proposals that ancient texts refer to the collision of astronomical bodies as in Worlds in Collision. Etc.
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/List_of_pseudosciences

Promoting Religion as Real is Harmful

Am I alone?

I am an Axiological (value theory) Atheist, thus I feel compelled to try to care for everyone as much as I can because other people matter and my humanity has a high value to me. But I wonder am I alone as I see and hear lots of people who seem not to feel the same. I wish others self-mastery thus do not feel a need to try and change people who may think differently, rather I wish to create a caring space if I can, so they can see things differently if they wish. I care more about human flourishing then just my disbelief, am I alone?

To quickly understand Axiological Atheism,

it is like humanistic anti-theism and anti-religionism with strong secularism.

Religious beliefs often don’t stay in the “belief” category, as if it is something chosen temporarily if needed or changeable if required. No, what is most common is that religious beliefs are completely infused to the person’s identity, thus it’s not what they believe it is more a factor of who they are. What this means is if they are later challenged and given reason to let the belief go this is largely disrupted because they and the belief are mixed with the person’s identity making its loss, not just a possible belief loss but a perceived personal identity loss.

Religions continuing in our modern world, full of science and facts, should be seen as little more than a set of irrational conspiracy theories of reality. Nothing more than a confused reality made up of unscientific echoes from man’s ancient past. Rational thinkers must ask themselves why continue to believe in religions’ stories. Religion myths which are nothing more than childlike stories and obsolete tales once used to explain how the world works, acting like magic was needed when it was always only nature. These childlike religious stories should not even be taken seriously, but sadly too often they are. Often without realizing it, we accumulate beliefs that we allow to negatively influence our lives. In order to bring about awareness, we need to be willing to alter skewed beliefs. Rational thinkers must examine the facts instead of blindly following beliefs or faith.

“Religion is an Evolved Product”

What we don’t understand we can come to fear. That which we fear we often learn to hate. Things we hate we usually seek to destroy. It is thus upon us to try and understand the unknown or unfamiliar not letting fear drive us into the unreasonable arms of hate and harm.

I am an Out Atheist, Antitheist, and Antireligionist as a Valuized Ethical Duty.

How can we silently watch as yet another generation is indoctrinated with religious faith, fear, and foolishness? Religion and it’s god myths are like a spiritually transmitted disease of the mind. This infection even once cured holds mental disruption which can linger on for a lifetime. What proof is “faith,” of anything religion claims by faith, as many people have different faith even in the same religion? When you start thinking your “out, atheism, antitheism or antireligionism is not vitally needed just remember all the millions of children being indoctrinated and need our help badly. Ones who desperately need our help with the truth. Three things are common in all religions: “pseudo-science,” “pseudo-history,” and “pseudo-morality.” And my biggest thing of all is the widespread forced indoctrination of children, violating their free choice of what to not believe or believe, I hate forced hereditary religion.

The Way of a Sound Thinker?

“Sound thinking to me, in a general way, is thinking, reasoning, or belief that tends to make foresight a desire to be as accurate as one can with valid and reliable reason and evidence.”

Sound axiological judgment, to me, a “presumptive-value” success, is value judged opinions expressed as facts with a valid and reliable justification. In an informal and psychological sense, it is used in reference to the quality of cognitive faculties and adjudicational (relating to adjudication) capabilities of particular individuals, typically called wisdom or discernment. In a legal sense, – used in the context of a legal trial, to refer to a final finding, statement, or ruling, based on a considered weighing of evidence, called, “adjudication“.

A shallow thinker (i.e. not a Deep Thinker, a person whose thoughts are reasoned, methodological, logical, empirical, profound; an intellectual) quickly talks, often with boastful postulations, likely just as often pushed strongly and loudly as if this adds substance, and they do this before fully understanding what’s is really involved. Whereas, a Sound Thinker is reasoned (comparativemore reasoned, superlativemost reasoned) generally based on reasoning; being the result of logical thought. As a first debate process, a Sound Thinker commonly poses Questions to understand slowing down and assessing all the facts or factors involved and then builds their argument or ideas. In classical logic, the law of non-contradiction (LNC) (also known as the law of contradiction, principle of non-contradiction (PNC), or the principle of contradiction) states that contradictory statements cannot both be true in the same sense at the same time, e.g. the two propositions “A is B” and “A is not B” are mutually exclusive. It is the second of the three classic laws of thought.

Lastly, let me make this clear, Sound Thinkers don’t value FAITH!

Critical Thinking, What Does it Mean to Be Open to Learn?

A General Thinking in all My Epistemology Theorizing is Justificationism

Do you want what is true or want what you believe without concern for what may actually be true?

Religion and it’s god myths are like a spiritually transmitted disease of the mind. This infection even once cured holds mental disruption which can linger on for a lifetime.

“An Archaeological/Anthropological Understanding of Religion Evolution”

If you are a religious believer, may I remind you that faith in the acquisition of knowledge is not a valid method worth believing in. Because, what proof is “faith”, of anything religion claims by faith, as many people have different faith even in the same religion?

I Don’t Have to Respect Ideas

People get confused ideas are not alive nor do they have beingness, Ideas don’t have rights nor the right to even exist only people have such a right. Ideas don’t have dignity nor can they feel violation only people if you attack them personally. Ideas don’t deserve any special anything they have no feelings and cannot be shamed they are open to the most brutal merciless attack and challenge without any protection and deserve none nor will I give them any if they are found wanting in evidence or reason. I will never respect Ideas if they are devoid of merit I only respect people. When I was young it was all about me, I wanted to be liked. Then I got older and it was even more about me, I wanted power. Now I am beyond a toxic ego and it is not just about me, I want to make a difference. Sexism is that evil weed that can sadly grow even in the well-tended garden of the individual with an otherwise developed mind. Which is why it particularly needs to be attacked and exposed; and is why I support feminism. Here are four blogs on that: Activism Labels Matter, thus Feminism is Needed, Feminist atheists as far back as the 1800s?, Sexism in the Major World Religions and Rape, Sexism and Religion?

Having privilege in race, gender, sexuality, ability, class, nationality, etc. does not mean one did not have it hard in life, it just was not hard due to race, gender, sexuality, ability, class, nationality, etc. if one has privilege in that area.

Theism is presented as adding love to your life… But to me, more often it peddles in ignorance (pseudo-science, pseudo-history, and pseudo-morality), tribalism (strong in-group loyalty if you believe like them and aversion to difference; like shunning: social rejection, emotional distance, or ostracism), and psychological terrorism; primarily targeting well being both safety and comfort (you are born a sinner, you are evil by nature, you are guilty of thought crimes, threats of misfortune, suffering, and torture “hell”).

Hell yes, I am against the fraud that is the world religions.

Why not be against the promotion of woo-woo pseudo-truth, when I am very against all pseudo-science, pseudo-history, and pseudo-morality and the harm they can produce. Along with the hate, such as sexism and homophobia are too often seen or the forced indoctrination of children. And this coercive indoctrination of the world religions, with their pseudo-science, pseudo-history, and pseudo-morality mainly furthered by forced Hereditary Religion (family or cultural, religious beliefs forced on children because the parent or caregiver believes that way). This is sadly done, even before a child can be expected to successfully navigate reason; it’s almost as if religious parents believe their “woo-woo pseudo-truth” lies will not be so easily accepted if they wait on a mind that can make its own choice. Because we do see how hard it is for the ones forced into Hereditary Religion. It seems difficult for them to successfully navigate reason in relation to their woo-woo pseudo-truth, found in a religion they were indoctrinationally taught to prefer, because after being instructed on how to discern pseudo-truth as truth than just wishing that their blind servitude belief in a brand of religious pseudo-truth devoid of justified, valid or reliable reason and evidence. I care because I am a rationalist, as well as an atheist.

Thus, this religious set of “woo-woo pseudo-truth” pushed on the simple-minded as truth bothers me greatly. So, here it is as simple as I can make it you first need a good thinking standard to address beliefs one may approach as a possible belief warranted to be believed. I wish to smash that lying pig of religion with the Hammer of Truth: Ontology, Epistemology, and Axiology Questions (a methodological use of philosophy). Overall, I wish to promote in my self and for others; to value a worthy belief etiquette, one that desires a sound accuracy and correspondence to the truth: Reasoned belief acquisitions, good belief maintenance, and honest belief relinquishment. May we all be authenticly truthful rationalists that put facts over faith.

I have made many mistakes in my life but the most common one of all is my being resistant to change. However, now I wish to be more, to be better, as I desire my openness to change if needed, not letting uncomfortable change hold me back. May I be a rationalist, holding fast to a valued belief etiquette: demanding reasoned belief acquisitions, good belief maintenance, and honest belief relinquishment.

Truth Navigation: Techniques for Discussions or Debates

I do truth navigation, both inquiry questions as well as

strategic facts in a tag team of debate and motivational teaching.

Truth Navigation and the fallacy of Fideism “faith-ism”

Compare ideas not people, attack thinking and not people. In this way, we have a higher chance to promote change because it’s the thinking we can help change if we address the thinking and don’t attack them.

My eclectic set of tools for my style I call “Truth Navigation” (Techniques for Discussions or Debates) which involves:

*REMS: reason (rationalism), evidence (empiricism), and methodological “truth-seeking” skepticism (Methodic doubt) (the basic or general approach)
*The Hammer of Truth: ontology, epistemology, and axiology (methodological use of philosophy)
*Dialectical Rhetoric = truth persuasion: use of facts and reasoning (motivational teaching)
*Utilizing Dignity: strategic dignity attacks or dignity enrichments (only used if confusion happens or resistance is present)

Asking the right questions at the right time with the right info can also change minds, you can’t just use facts all on their own. Denial likes consistency, the pattern of thinking cannot vary from a fixed standard of thinking, or the risk of truth could slip in. Helping people alter skewed thinking is indeed a large task but most definitely a worthy endeavor. Some of my ideas are because I am educated both some in college (BA in Psychology with addiction treatment, sociology, and a little teaching and criminology) and also as an autodidact I have become somewhat educated in philosophy, science, archeology, anthropology, and history but this is not the only reason for all my ideas. It is also because I am a deep thinker, just striving for truth. Moreover, I am a seeker of truth and a lover of that which is true.

Ok, I am a kind of “Militant” Atheist

I want a war of ideas where the loser is ignorance or hate and the victor is kindness and a rational mind. Not another religious war with people where the loser is always humanity no matter the victor. What I hope for with my discussions or expressed ideas is not so much to strive to change people’s mind. But instead, I wish to inspire your mind to reason and to thrive on the search for valid and reliable evidence as well as a high standard n your ethics of belief. This ethics of belief I hope everyone adopts is something like this: reasoned belief acquisitions, good belief maintenance, and honest belief relinquishment. Sadly the professed thing of hope, “Religion” can be an and too often is an easy excuse to do horrible things, which is clear throughout history.

I am a BIG fan of the truth.

“Where did you find it?! Mankind has been diligently seeking truth since time memorial!” – Challenger

My response, Your statement is a “truth claim” right after asking about truth: “Where did you find it?! Mankind has been diligently seeking truth since time memorial! (a “truth claim” emphasized with two exclamation marks seeming to demonstrate that you believed you had said a confirmed truth. So you do believe you have found a truth while acting as if you don’t know, and seemingly by your strength of assertion, believe I guess, that no one can but here I am teaching you truth!!!

His Foolishness The Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama branded SEXIST after he says ‘attractive’ woman should succeed Him

Tibetan Buddhism?

His Foolishness The Dalai Lama

Tibetan Buddhism?

I Hate Religion Just as I Hate all Pseudoscience

Promoting Religion as Real is Harmful

“Religion is an Evolved Product”

The Atheist-Humanist-Leftist Revolutionaries Shows in the prehistory series:

Damien Marie AtHope (Said as “At” “Hope”)/(Autodidact Polymath but not good at math):

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