On the margins of the Dalai Lama's tounge

TibetPressNews / 2023. április 13.

Written by Tibor Hendrey, Director of the Sambhala Tibet Centre of the Tibet Support Association Hungary
On the margins of the Dalai Lama's  tounge
Somehow it seems that we are living in lucky times. We have a powerful sense, almost a tangible certainty, of how the true and the manipulated, the controlled, the liar, are separated. I would like to wrap myself in a blanket of silence, to move into a cave of silence and just stare at the empty walls. But I have a chosen vocation to speak out and to answer the many questions that have been raised, because in this situation, it is my duty to do so. It is about the famous Dalai Lama affair, which has caused quite a stir in recent days, mainly in spiritual circles, but it is sensed all over the world. It is spreading like wildfire that the Dalai Lama abused, essentially sexually molested, an Indian boy at a school graduation ceremony in Dharamsala on the 28th of February. Specifically, he invited an about ten years old boy to 'suck' his tongue, that is, the Dalai Lama's outstretched tongue. I feel compelled to comment on what could be interpreted as a revelation.

Dalai Lama
The 14th Dalai Lama is the King and supreme religious leader of Tibet and an iconic figure in the Tibetan freedom movement for the past 60 years, the living embodiment of a tradition, and also one of the most, if not the most, important, cultured, intelligent teachers of the universal human condition. This rank, and the reincarnation that always accompanies it, has been passed on and reincarnated since the sixteenth century, during the reign of Khan Altan, and his work is most blessed now, in the first half of thois century. Probably not by chance. He is recognised, respected, loved and longed to be in the proximity of billions of people, be they politicians seeking fame and credibility, businessmen from the world of money and, of course, people blessed with spiritual sensitivity, who believe, know, that there must be a state of being beyond the rotation of existence called 'samsara'. The 14th Dalai Lama is perhaps the most credible personality of our time, whose credibility has almost never been questioned by anyone except Chinese party politicians, and perhaps a few thousand followers of the Shugden. Now, somehow, for some reason, that has changed and I see masses of people turning against the Dalai Lama and accusing him of nonsenses. But perhaps there is no great teacher who has not had enemies, traitors with all sorts of fabrications, just cast a glance at the lives of Jesus, Buddha and other masters.

The Master
You have to know that the master, the teacher, the guru, the lama, the priest, the tulku is just a good friend, nothing more. A friend who knows more about life, who holds fundamental secrets, who explains to us how to live happily, without suffering, and who gives us concrete and experiential advice on our human condition. Even this friend can't answer the most fundamental questions, but only points the way to where and how we can find a path to "survival" for ourselves. He only gives us a hand-guide to find our way along the path, and to our great admiration, this friend says it all spontaneously, off the top of his head, and is therefore a teacher. We find the master in ourselves as we go along, and who we choose as our teaching friend depends entirely on our "ears".

Kiss my tounge
The little Indian boy and his family obviously knew the Dalai Lama and, in the rapture of this, the child asked to be hugged. The Dalai Lama apparently did not fully understand the situation at first and had it explained and translated to him what they wanted. This is probably because it is quite an unusual request, even for him to make such a direct contact (hug) at a public event, and the Dalai Lama does not understand and speak English perfectly, one could even say he uses quite simple English. Interestingly, this does not stop him from giving important basic teachings to the Western public worldwide and giving high level teachings to those who are in need of it. This is of course helped by excellent translators. The Dalai Lama is also noticeably touched by the little boy's wish and addresses him with the greatest kindness, courtesy and love. He first shows his face by asking for a kiss, as loving grandparents or elderly relatives usually do. Then the Dalai Lama touches his forehead to the forehead of the little boy, in a kind of spiritual friendship, expressing their spiritual communion at the highest level. As a sign of complete immediacy, he also brings his lips, curled into a kiss, towards the boy, who, though touched, does the same. In the same way that a small child reacts to every adult joke with courage, but also with surprise, even shyness. There is no sign of the little child's dismay, no sign of indignation on the parents sitting nearby. The Dalai Lama goes even further into the banter, sticking his tongue out at the little boy so they can kiss. This doesn't happen, because that is clearly not the intention, but the funny, close trusting relationship that was on display there. The Dalai Lama very often jokes and uses his own sense of humour to lighten the mood of the audience or people around him. This is very important. A master who doesn't joke, who doesn't use humour as a method on the spiritual path, is indeed a one-legged giant. The outrageousness, the unexpectedness, the power of surprise of humour, of the joke, is in fact a teaching. The more surprising and abstract the punchline of a joke, the more the listener is surprised and the more such a situation breaks down the frozen state of consciousness. In this way, it can be analogous to a Zen pat on the back or a Dzogchen exclamation of "phet" and other clever methods such as sympathy. Furthermore, cheerfulness and humour relieve the constant stress and tension that is a major obstacle to the reception of dharma and the release of rigid consciousness. There are so many ways to teach, to transmit knowledge: verbally, in writing, with mantra, with the body, with touch, almost anything, at least according to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. At the end of the meeting, the Dalai Lama does not let the boy go without giving him a brief verbal teaching, as a future human being, on what he must keep in mind throughout his life. Simple, but very profound words that should be understood by everyone just once. It is unfortunate, with or without jokes, but usually it is not very successful in planting these fundamental teachings in people's hearts, and that is what His Holiness has attempted to do in this situation. At the very end, the Dalai Lama, with apparent utmost love and kindness, once again gives the child a long hug, who happily hugs him back, as true friends do, and once again touches foreheads with him for the aforementioned exercise. At the moment of parting, he again jokingly tickles the little boy, who responds by laughing sincerely. There is no sexuality involved in any sense! The Dalai Lama uses this language of love to communicate with the little boy who, out of overwhelming respect and love for him, wanted to hug him.

Suck my tounge
The media can now make you believe anything, it just needs to be skillful in the way it presents the news, and in the way it presents the information. If people's minds are sufficiently prepared for something, they may even go voluntarily unto their own slaughter.  Unfortunately, independent news reporting has now completely disappeared and all information is provided by the media under the total influence of politics, with the prostitution of journalists (who no longer exist in the traditional sense). This event of a month and a half ago has now somehow been dragged out and apparently thrown into the public consciousness in the form so popularly presented to Western audiences these days, i.e. labelled sexual abuse, which means primarily paedophilia, violence, molestation, abuse against children or women. This trend has now been confused with the Dalai Lama, and the essence of the event has been completely twisted into a juicy news story. Here is your Dalai Lama, the great benefactor, one of the saviours of humanity, the Pope of Buddhism, the embodiment of goodness and love, abusing little boys, and in public! First, let us take take and examine the language of the news reports. Almost all Western news sources, and even Indian ones, use almost literally the same misguided language. This clearly shows that the images, headlines, misleading descriptions and commentaries of the event, which were released to the public from one place, were all taken from one place and from each other by the different media. The distorted information is further compounded by the interpretation in Hungarian, which does not take into account the multiple meanings of the English language. The Dalai Lama kissed a boy on the lips and asked him to suck his tongue. In English, the word 'kiss' also means to kiss and also to peck. Of course, in this case the latter is the case, as the whole scene started with a kiss on the cheek. The Dalai Lama later says 'suck my tounge', which is an extremely distorted translation of 'now suckling my tongue' in Hungarian. The second meaning of 'suck' is 'to lick', in this case certainly not 'to suck'. This is an extremely manipulated use of words in the Hungarian translation, of course what the original news story suggested… Beyond that, each text must be interpreted in its own context and, of course, translated so. Taking advantage of the possibility of out of context, the media have taken the sexual meaning of Western usage, which of course exists in its place, but not here, not publicly and certainly not in relation to the Dalai Lama. There has been a huge slip of the tongue, a manipulative play on words, an exploitation of the multiple meanings of the English language, for what can only be a vile reason of some outside influence.

Tradition and modernity
In a better and usable case, conservatism, that is to say, tradition, either in the spiritual or in the everyday sense (although there is only one tradition...), may combine well with the changes of the modern age and even promote the recognition of the possibilities of conscious development. The protrusion if the tongue is a cultural custom in the Tibetan tradition, but it should be added at once that it is not only in the Tibetan tradition and not only in ancient times... Several well-meaning people have invoked this tradition in defence of the Dalai Lama's intentions. The excited responses were of course not late, that is to say: it is not the case... at this point the Dalai Lama was not representing a cultural tradition, but simply and briefly indulging himself. These responses only seek to confirm the basic slander, namely that the Dalai Lama practised paedophilia. The Dalai Lama is the perpetual bearer, practitioner and inspiration of Tibetan culture wherever he appears. He is Tibet itself, with all its beauty and horror.  Although he was forced to leave Tibet in March 1959, he was endowed with a great deal of intellectual and spiritual knowledge, and finally settled in Dharamsala, India, where he spends most of his time, in a city which, although much westernised by tourists, is far from being a Western despotic place. The Dalai Lama's work is assisted by many Tibetan teachers, lamas, masters and many other professionals, especially in ensuring that the Tibetan tradition is preserved and strengthened, if not elsewhere, then in the West. This is a very important aspect for Tibetans forced into exile to survive and especially in the absence of alternatives. Two traditions should be mentioned here¸ one is the tradition of tongue protrusion, which has nothing to do with sexuality. It is used to show goodwill, mainly by proving to an enemy or friend that I am not under the influence of demons, because demons have had a black tongue since King Langdharma. Native Tibetans and nomads still practice this method of proof today, despite the Chinese ban. The demonstration of tongue is also present in other traditional societies. The power of this tradition is still with us today, as if we look carefully, many Daoists and celebrities still use it today, mainly with a now sexual magical charge. The other tradition is much more general, that of physical closeness as an expression of friendship, love, compassion and the fact that an older man, who by virtue of his age and in every sense of the word has already been a teacher, expresses his love and trust to a little one just coming into life. Anyone who misinterprets this has a problem with his own state of consciousness, and is infected by the estrangement of inappropriate, polluted modernity from the cohesive and unifying force of tradition. The Western educated man arrogantly thinks he knows so much about the world, while he is disconnected from natural, ancient, human values and views. But this ancient value system, with all its manifestations, is still natural, even if in traces, in the traditional cultures that still exist.  Let us not impose our 'advanced' Western approach on everything and judge it as such. Today, our own dirty, unloving and anti-human state of consciousness, in connection with the expression of kiss and lick, only one-sidedly thinks of sexuality and its distorted and deformed pornographic form. Think of the natural way in which a tiny child uses kissing and licking as an expression of love and affection towards his parents, grandparents and those he trusts. Such was the childlike purity of intention of the Dalai Lama.  "Verily I say unto you...Be ye as children!" By the way, sexuality itself is a sacred manifestation even in its pleasurable form. Many traditions, but not all, of course, also use it as an energetic method to walk the supreme path (e.g. tantra, Kama-sutra, Tao, kabbalah). Of course with the assistance of conscious beings.

Initiation
In case it hasn't occurred to most interested and astute people, there is also an initiation taking place during the above event. During the whole event, from the first embrace to the last, there is a tactile and verbal initiation that not many people get to witness, and many people long to receive such a casual and profound initiation from the Dalai Lama. I am sure that the Indian boy will remember this encounter and initiation with exalted happiness for the rest of his life. By the way, the Dalai Lama has a very close and fraternal relationship with the Indians, firstly because Buddhism originated in India, secondly because Buddhism is in a sense a renewal of the Vedic tradition and, not least, because India gave the Dalai Lama and Tibetan refugees a strong refuge in 1959.

The Dalai Lama has apologised to those concerned
Here again, we are witnessing another media slip. In a terse (what more can be said about this story for the ignorant) statement from the Dalai Lama's office, they say that the Dalai Lama apologised for what happened, as if the Dalai Lama had admitted the acts alleged against him, but that he was very sorry for the hurt he had caused to some by this outrage. However, the reality is that His Holiness has apologised for hurting others - because of their own filthy ignorance. To use an analogy, it's like someone walking home in the hallway of a roundabout house passing a window, but the person living there always gets very upset and starts arguing with him and/or the person passing by apologizes to the angry person.

Cui prodest?
The question may arise as to whose interest it is to bring this event into light in such a slanderous, false, untrue and defamatory way, a month and a half after it happened. Clearly, it is forces that want to discredit the Dalai Lama and his institution, to discredit him for political interests and influences. One could say that it is a cover-up for some other important world political event, because this happens more than once. The media always have one or two local or world political sensation in their bag, which they can suddenly update to trivialise another fact that needs to be covered up. Or you might think that it's pickle season in the news world, and how good a juicy story is. In my view, this is most probably not the case. The Chinese card wins this poker game. It is very important for Chinese politics to tarnish and discredit the person of the Dalai Lama. If this attempt, which has been made over and over again for decades, is successful, the whole Tibetan issue could take a new turn, which would be more fortunate for the Chinese. This is how the Dalai Lama was given the costume of the wolf in sheep's clothing on the world political stage, which, despite its immaturity and mothballedness, is still being proclaimed by the Chinese lie factory that puts the Orwellian 1984 to shame. It may well be known that the Dalai Lama has recently recognised and acknowledged the Dalai Lama of the Mongols, Bogdo Gegen, who is also the most respected leader of the Gelug order in Mongolia. Bogdo Gegen is always recognised by the current Dalai Lama, and this is what has just happened. It is well known that there is also a great deal of Chinese anxiety about the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, because it is not all the same to Chinese superpower ideas who the Tibetans will listen to, whether in Tibet or in exile. That is why the Panchen Lama XI had to be removed and replaced by another Tibetan boy under Chinese influence. Since the defection of Urgyen Thinley, the 17th Karmapa, and the failure of the Chinese to act, Chinese policy has become even more cautious and they are desperate to prepare the way for the new Dalai Lama to be reborn. This is a priority for them in relation to Tibet. If, after His Holiness's passing, there is no rebirth soon, as there is speculation that there will be, the Bogdo Gegen would be one of the authentic heads of the Gelug line, the Bogdo Gegen now recognised by the Dalai Lama. So it is 'feared' that he will continue the Dalai Lama's approach, which would cause further headaches for Chinese policy. The Tibetan leader should therefore be totally discredited. Is that what is happening now?!

Conclusion
In the above interpretation of events, it is unfortunate that a good number of Tibetan Buddhist practitioners who are following the Buddha's path have fallen for this unscrupulous manipulation to bring down the head of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Many people fail to see the media's ignorant or deliberate game of misleading millions of people into believing that His Holiness the Dalai Lama is a pawn in a game of high political chess, and to slander and discredit him.
I fully understand that the roots of such a case go very deep and it is difficult to see clearly, soberly and wisely, to get to the real reasons... but, unfortunately, there are unforeseeable depths of our human condition will produce even more surprising events...
I am very sorry that many people have wasted years of practice in vain.  But never mind, nothing is too late...
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."