Reincarnation Permit?
This would be really funny if it weren’t real. Normally the separation of Church and State means not letting religion influence politics, but one should realize that it’s the other way around in Communist states. But even thinking of it like that makes no sense…
How can you say that “The so-called reincarnated living Buddha without government approval is illegal and invalid”? It makes me watch a little scene playing around in my mind, where a ghost walks up to a clerk and says “Excuse me, I’d like the form for a reincarnation permit please… Actually, I think you’ll need to fill it with what I tell you since I can’t hold the pen… The little problems of being dead, you know… Or you will, if you forgot how it was last time…”
I’m against preserving cultures for their own sake, but I’ve always felt there’s something in Tibet that should not be touched. Perhaps it’s a small part of the sacredness in us all, and it’s destruction would weaken the already weak goodness in the world even more. Or perhaps it’s nothing more than a dream, but a dream worth dreaming.
I’m also certainly against cultures that refuse to evolve, but I would never accuse Tibet of that. I think there is evolution taking place there, despite China getting it’s dirty paws in the way, just in ways that don’t readily meet the eye.
While I’m sure that Buddhism has plenty of wrong ideas, some of which I oppose quite strongly, I also think that it has many good ones as well. Not to mention that I’m not aware of any other notable world religion where the clergy is so humble or where the control exerted by the leader is so gentle. Please correct me if I’m wrong in saying that.
I’m not sure that I believe that they can accurately guess who the next incarnation is, or even that the same spirit comes back time and time again for so long, never letting its followers and pupils go unguided, but what I believe is that it is a great source of badly needed wisdom and tranquility for this world, a source which has already been badly tampered with. Don’t damage it even further…
Of course, this is only legalizing something that they have already done, albeit at a lesser level… As always, being good is seen as being weak and the strong will rush to squash you. It’s a sad, rough, evil world we live in, and humans as a whole are nothing but selfish, violent morons… I dare anyone to prove that wrong…
