Monday, June 01, 2009

Lama leaves monastary, discovers clubbing. Enlightenment sure to follow.

According to the The Guardian, a Spanish teenager who was recognized by Tibetan Buddhists as a Lama (reincarnated spiritual leader) has denounced his Buddhism and returned to Spain.

As a toddler, he was put on a throne and worshipped as by monks who treated him like a god. But the boy chosen by the Dalai Lama as a reincarnation of a spiritual leader has caused consternation – and some embarrassment – for Tibetan Buddhists by turning his back on the order that had such high hopes for him.

Instead of leading a monastic life, Osel Hita Torres now sports baggy trousers and long hair, and is more likely to quote Jimi Hendrix than Buddha.

...blah blah blah…

According to the foundation biography, another leader suspected Torres was the reincarnation of the recently deceased Lama Yeshe when he was only five months old. In 1986, at 14 months, his parents took him to see the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India. The toddler was chosen out of nine other candidates and eventually “enthroned”.

At six, he was allowed to socialise only with other reincarnated souls – though for a time he said he lived next to the actor Richard Gere’s cabin.

By 18, he had never seen couples kiss. His first disco experience was a shock. “I was amazed to watch everyone dance. What were all those people doing, bouncing, stuck to one another, enclosed in a box full of smoke?”

It is only a matter of time before he reaches enlightenment.  The original story of the Buddha, of course, is one of a rich prince, Siddhartha, who is not allowed to leave the palace until he reaches adulthood.  Feeling rebellious, he convinces a servant to bring him into the surrounding town.  Once there, he witnesses sickness, old age, and death, things that were hidden from him throughout his early life.  Confronted with the reality of the world in which he lives, Siddhartha embarks on a life of harsh monasticism, nearly starving himself to death. Later, realizing that neither hedonism nor deprivation is productive, he finds the Middle Path, and becomes the Buddha, the awakened one.

This is the same story, it is just happening in a slightly rearranged order.  The kid will be under a Bodhi tree intercessing for all beings in short order.