SourceThe dichotomies that the Dalai Lama represents are clear: he is to Chinese autocrats, what spirituality is to materialism; what tolerance is to hate; and what pluralism is to chauvinism.
It is in the last analogy--the embrace of pluralism--that embodies the critical difference between “religion” as seen by the Abrahamic faiths and Dharma traditions. Religion becomes a definition, a label, an identity when it sees walls between believers. When a believer defines a religion in the language of certitude, polarities of good and evil manifest. “This is Truth,” but “That is Evil,” the “religious” will say, and only one road will lead to salvation, while another yields damnation, no matter how righteous and moral the follower of another faith may be.
For the Dalai Lama, “religion” is not a part of the spiritual journey. Of course Buddhist, Hindus, Sikhs and Jains have core precepts that define their tradition and distinguish them from others, but the tradition is not a members only trip to salvation, nirvana or moksha. The benefits of yoga, meditation, mindfulness and self-realization are open source, not encoded behind secret passwords, where the username is a certain “religion.”
It is this open embrace that the Dalai Lama represents, and it is the power of unconditional love for humanity that an autocratic government in Beijing fears. The Berlin Wall’s fall ended the Cold War, and tearing down the walls of “religion” will end the era of religious exclusivism and usher in the pluralism and tolerance that is the call of our times
Losing my religion
Losing my religion
And finding my spirituality;
