Probably the only religious leader I listen to sometimes...

Ljohnson72 · 8 months

Though I enjoy this passage, the Dalai Lama did NOT say this.

disharmonia · 8 months

The Dalai Lama still makes me sad with his stance on gays and lesbians, though. I think he's a rad dude over all, and I at least appreciate that his stance is tolerant instead of violent, but he still thinks we're using our sexual organs 'improperly.'

I mean, I still give credit that he accepts that his views are not the world's views, and he does admit that there is a difference between religious beliefs and how the secular world should treat something. Which, obviously I want to give props for that.

Still. Sad lesbian is sad.

Tonksm · 8 months

Attended the Lama speaking at UW a few years back, he is incredibly down to earth.

Some girl asked him a long winded question about how he thinks we should stop AIDS from spreading in Africa. His one word answer: Condoms.

blueone11 · 8 months

This quote is actually from Confucius.

Keldrath · 8 months

"The Dalai Lama, for example, is entirely and easily recognizable to a secularist. In exactly the same way as a medieval princeling, he makes the claim not just that Tibet should be independent of Chinese hegemony--a "perfectly good" demand, if I may render it into everyday English--but that he himself is a hereditary king appointed by heaven itself. How convenient! Dissenting sects within his faith are persecuted; his one-man rule in an Indian enclave is absolute; he makes absurd pronouncements about sex and diet and, when on his trips to Hollywood fund-raisers, anoints major donors like Steven Segal and Richard Gere as holy. (Indeed, even Mr. Gere was moved to whine a bit when Mr. Segal was invested as a tulku, or person of high enlightenment. It must be annoying to be outbid at such a spiritual auction.) I will admit the current "Dalai" or supreme lama is a man of some charm and presence, as will I admit that the present queen of England is a person of more integrity than most of her predecessors, but this does not invalidate the critique of hereditary monarchy, and the first foreign visitors to Tibet were downright appalled at the feudal domination, and hideous punishments, that kept the population in permanent serfdom to a parasitic monastic elite." -Christopher Hitchens from Chapter 14 of his book "God is not great, how religion poisons everything."

magnusmclintock · 8 months

The Lama class aspires to basically enslave the poor. He's not that great of a guy.

carmentosca · 8 months

Sweet visor, bro.

Oriumpor · 8 months

“If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.” Just don't kill the sucka. --Dalai Lama

iama_brick · 8 months

For fucks sake, stop reposting this quote

Hanguo · 8 months

I wonder how many times this quote gets posted in a week...

usernamecharlie · 8 months

Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu is worth listening too, as well. He has some very insightful things to say and doesn't really try to bring religion into the picture.

spundred · 8 months

I think in general as atheists, we need to get over the assumption that spirituality as a whole is devoid of value.

Mythology aside, the practice of contemplation and reflection is worthwhile.

Kryten_2X4B_523P · 8 months

The Dalai Lama is no rational humanitarian, but he does say some profoundly important things from time to time.

When the message become the person instead of the message, the message is lost.

(Note the banner of this subreddit.)

TheEternalUnrest · 8 months

I'm not the kind of guy to push religion.....but if you like this you should check out Buddhism.

[deleted] · 8 months

Buddhism is still as sexist, homophobic, and ethically misguided as the Catholic Church. Though it is slightly less detestable, it is still a tactless faith. See Nietzsche's Der Antichrist for more information on the relation between Buddhism and Christianity.

lanepryce · 8 months

There is no reliable source for the origin of this quote. All of the blogs that post this quote link to one another as sources; this quote in particular shows up in many different forms, attributed to many different speakers.

Here is a blog entry going a little more in-depth about the deception.

platypusmusic · 8 months

How do think did his sect gain power? Friendly talks with the supporters of the bön religion and the red hat sect or by brutal wars?

Do you like GOD KINGS, that rule a state of slaves? C'mon this guy talks about work, but actually has worked in his life.

pillage · 8 months

I like how you can basically say anything that amounts to the "folly of man" and be considered deep.

kimchifart · 8 months

This is rather banal Buddhism 101 really. Yes, yes, attachments, blah blah, living in the present blah blah. All has truth to it, but let's not give credit to the Dalai Lama for these concepts.

It's also rather ironic that I see a picture of the Dalai Lama with a picture of Christopher Hitchens' head above it (Hitchens was a critic of Dalai Lama.)

mjs77 · 8 months

Good message, but false attribution of the quote: http://thedamienzone.com/2011/10/12/dalai-lama-quote-on-facebook-about-man-sacrifice-and-health-is-a-hoax/

tombone66 · 8 months

This comment thread is far too serious. So he walks into a pizza shop

CoachCarter · 8 months

what about Qui-Gon Jinn?

crackedup1979 · 8 months

I'll get down voted to hell for pointing it out but he did own slaves. Old Tibet was also a feudal system wherein most people were serfs. He's not a guy you should look up to.

liverpoop · 8 months

Not this stupid shit again.

meta_elephants · 8 months

This guy rocks. He also believe that if science and religion contradict, go with science.

riddlingdark · 8 months

Yeah I went from straight gangster atheist to Zen Buddhist, because they are the masters of not giving a fuck. My giving a fuck meter was pegged and now a few months later I'm chillin not givin a fuck. thats str8 up anicdotal evedence upon that ass!

Gassho and Metta

HospitableJohnDoe · 8 months

Yes, I would listen to him too. I mean someone who was raised to be a god on earth, travels the world meeting with celebrities being venerated by complete strangers is the kind of authority I listen to.

Leading a simple enlightened life is a piece of cake if your the reincarnation of a Lama.

fireburt · 8 months

I can respect some of the stuff he does, but does this strike anyone else as simple bullshit dressed up to sound nice?

I may have sacrificed my health in terms of being stressed to make money, but that's about it. Of course I sacrifice money to get healthier because what the fuck else am I supposed to do? He phrases these two to sound like you make x money and lose y health then spend x money to get back y health. That's not even close to what's happening.
Yes, I do look towards the future as does every other living thing. Does it also strike him as odd that squirrels store up nuts for the winter? Maybe he thinks they should just enjoy their time in the fall and worry about the winter when it comes around.
If you're living as if you'll never die, it's not fucking possible to have never lived. Fuck him if wants to tell me what really living is.

So we have a bunch of self-contradicting bullshit dressed up like poetry and everyone accepts it because he is supposed to be a profound man. If anyone thinks I'm misreading this, please explain.

kouei · 8 months

I'll just leave this here.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5sOm-uQH9Y

sydneygamer · 8 months

I've always liked buddhism because it's the least religious religion around.

Jackstick · 8 months

Women, on the other hand...

GenuineWolf · 8 months

All of his supreme insight and depth of wisdom is undermined by the red fucking visor he is clutching.

nomadz · 8 months

Well, he may not sound as bad as christian fundamentalists... But don't be mistaken, Buddhism as an organized religion is not really different from other religions. In my experience in most countries in South-East Asia, the clergy lives well thanks to charity and donations from people who are often extremely poor, but still have an awful lot of "traditionnal" obligations and duties towards buddhist clerics ; a lot of monks join the clergy because they see it as a good career path, and they are a wealthy, privileged cast, prospering through a form of legal parasitism. Most buddhist countries have at some point lived under some kind of theocracy, and only when modern nations emerged did the clergy lose part of its power. The philosophy of Buddhism is certainly interesting in itself, but has been long institutionalized and turned into an instrument of control and power (as many other oriental philosophies have).

mlockup · 8 months

Religious AND leader? If you find something of value in Dalai Lama's words, you'll find the whole world in Lao Tzu's or Jiddu Krishnamurti's words - both NOT leaders but profoundly religious.

bitcloud · 8 months

Buddhism is more of a philosophy than a religion...

Some have definitely "dogmatised" it, but by and large it's the canon of eastern philosophy.

soporific16 · 8 months

But why still listen to people who explain the world by themselves and believe in things that wouldn't exist the moment they stopped believing in them??

But i can see the allure from the quote, it's very good in that it expresses the reality of wage-slavery robbing people of the time they need to live, let alone to develop themselves as human beings.

Someone once said: "The duty of all human beings is to become human". That is, we are only born with the potential to lead rich and fulfilling lives we sorta need the time in order to do this. The problem is the quote blames the victims of our insane economic arrangement without even a nod to the fact that wage-slavery exists. If he's really a Marxist, he could be expressing that a whole lot better ;)

TBizzcuit · 8 months

That title is kind of arrogant. You don't have to follow a religious leader's religion to get something out of his/her message. For example, just because one is not Christian does not mean that he or she has to ignore Jesus' teachings about how to treat people.

[deleted] · 8 months

He made 25 grand of the speech he said that in though right?

painperdu · 8 months

"Sacrifice health in order to make money"

How true is this? It seems to me that the richest people in the world are the healthiest.

beauty_contest · 8 months

http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/ntjld/now_if_ratheism_can_get_over_the_massive_circle/

Didn't want to have to resort to this, but I made a post to shine some light on the the dalai lama as well as question the validity of the quote. I hope the atheists, skeptics and critical thinkers alike can help educate people on who the dalai lama and open the floor to some interesting conversation. As it stands i'm being downvoted into oblivion.

OatSharpener · 8 months

So the only religious leader you listen to sometimes is a man who took money off the CIA to sponsor terrorist attacks in China?

He's just a man, another exiled dictator who wants his country back.

The_Mexorcist26 · 8 months

I find it hilarious that /r/atheism pays tribute to a theocratic god king.

what a fucking joke.

jjg_denis_robert · 8 months

Yeah, sure. The "Dalai Lama" is really nothing but yet another huckster, just like every single cleric. He lives on the "generosity" of others, has not worked a day in his life, pontificates on issues he knows nothing about (having been a sheltered spoiled brat his entire life), and has ideas on sexuality even more dangerous than those of the Catholic Church. The only thing that's good about him is that he annoys the hell out of the Chinese government. Other than that, he's an empty shell.

RedCoatsForever · 8 months

It's easy to talk about money not being important when you've never had to work a day in your fucking life.

Fennder · 8 months

Why would you listen to someone who didnt have to do shit to get where he is. Hes like a king who thinks he understands how his minions think because he once drove through Birmingham.

You know why man sacrifices his health to get money? So he can life in a house and feed his family. Not all of us can be a reincarnated god, who gets waited on hand and foot by an army of servants.

Less of a cock then the other religious bosses but still a pretty big cock.

BostonCentrist · 8 months

The Dalai Lama wants to get his power and riches and temples back. He runs a religious oligarchy and his place is chosen by birth. It's not such a great life for the lower-caste peons born into his society. He's really still not worth looking up to.

douglasmacarthur · 8 months

I'm so tired of "atheists" that like eastern religion. "Atheism" doesnt mean "different from what my dad likes," kids.

MelsEpicWheelTime · 8 months

He is not a religious leader to me. He is a spiritual leader, and a damn good one.

Keldrath · 8 months

i still dont like him.

rdouble · 8 months

This man practices his religion by attempting to bring peace and enlightenment to everyone, where Christians are always about converting as many as possible. Truly demonstrating what following your faith is.

wingedpegasus · 8 months

The Dalai Lama is tolerant of, and even promotes, slavery. Proof? Look at Penn and Teller's episode of "Bullshit" named "Holier than thou." It debunks and insults the myths that religious leaders like him can do no evil which you, r/atheism of all subreddits, should know.

He is a normal fucking person like the rest of us, except he's a stupid religious bigot that has influence over many people by claiming he support all these good ideals, but leaving the tyrannical rule of his country out of the equation, leaving the gullible susceptible to deception.

HE'S AN ASS, JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER RELIGIOUS LEADER, EVER.

Zeniths · 8 months

I saw him speak last year, very inspiring.

KarmakazeNZ · 8 months

The thing that annoys me is that it is not even correct. The quote reverses the order of things, for a start. In order for man to live, he must make money. In order to make money he must sacrifice his time and his health. Because he has sacrificed his health and his time, he doesn't care about the future and simply tries to enjoy the present as best he can given his limited time, money and health.

More accurate and insightful than that crap.

KorgRue · 8 months

This coming from a man that lives on rice, walks on eggshells, and exists in exile.

He is the last person that should be preaching about the good life.

hiltonking · 8 months

If the dali lama had to work for a living he wouldn't say shit like that. What a lazy cunt!

nhowl · 8 months

The Dalai Lama is an atheist. His response when asked about god:

Q:The Buddha was silent on the question of God. What about you?

Dalai Lama: "Why did the Buddha not say anything about God? Because he talked about the law of causality. Once you accept the law of cause and effect, the implication is that there is no 'creator'. If the Buddha accepted the concept of a creator, he would not have been silent; everything would have been God!"

Q: Who caused the law of causality?

Dalai Lama: "About that, the Buddha would say 'the mind', never God or dharmakaya or even the Buddha himself."

Q: How did the mind come about?

Dalai Lama: "The source of mind is nature. The word that been used for existence is 'interdependent arising'. Talking of God, who created God? There is no point arguing. Dharmakeerti and Shantideva debate the existence of God and reach the conclusion that if we believe in a benevolent creator, how do we explain suffering? I remember a funny incident. In Tibetan drama, criticism is allowed and even the Buddha is not spared. There was this man acting on-stage and he was saying that he did not believe in God. If God made us, he said, instead of putting both the eyes in the front, one should be at the back! We would have been more efficient that way. Jokes apart, the idea is not to disrespect any religion but to analyze the nature of reality."

mleczko · 8 months

anyone who claims that he has the only right and ultimate truth can go fuck himself, no matter if pope or dalai lama.

SumoMoses · 8 months

I myself used to think the Dalai Lama was different than other religious leaders, but have since learned that he's just as bad the Pope or the Ayatollah.

Under the Dalai Lama, Tibet actually operated under a caste system of sorts where he and his priests lived in luxury, while the rest of the population lived in abject poverty just to support the upper priest "caste".

He talks a good one, but at the end of the day, he's just another conman.

therealgaloosh · 8 months

I understand his point, and I'll admit that I know next to nothing about the Dalai Lama, but this strikes me as a quote from a person who doesn't live in the real world. I'd love to sit around all day and do nothing but "meditate" about shit but I have to feed myself and put a roof over my head. I don't always have the luxury to live in the moment Mr. Lama.

ZeroKiel · 8 months

The Dalai Lama is a great guy till you realize that all he wants is for his country to reinstate the Lama class and have their slaves back.

8 months

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