"In one of history's more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnation without government permission." -- Newsweek, Aug 20
... this is scary but I actually thought of a practical application for this!!! Does it mean that the Chinese can now arrest the Dalai Lama (or his successor) for reincarnating without permissin?
Well, all they have to do is reincarnate somewhere outside Tibet and then make their way back... which admittedly could take time if they reincarnate into a potted plant. Or a whale.
I'm not surprised really, it's bad enough babies plopping out all over the place without old codgers reincarnating like flies.
Somewhat pathetic, really, but only a matter of time in a country where you try to supress both any religious belief and any non-Chinese nationalist sentiments.
Or will they have to ask permission like -"sir, can I be allowed to come back as a cow this time" ? (where the obvious response will be) -"No, I've told you once, I've told you a million times, everyone wants to be a cow, be gratefull that you can be a fruitbat"
that is funny, fruit bat I get the impression the chinese Government hasn't changed all that much from the days the courtesans and enchuchs ran things, not that there is anything wrong with that. Its just that you would have thought such an ancient culture might have made a little more progress by now.
It's just like Pyramids. The same rituals over and over which hold back the progress of an old country.
You'd be surprised how far china has come. It might not be succecful in our eyes and there are certainly a lot of issues to be addressed but in many ways a place like China could never be quite so free, it's not in their culture nor would it be practical (that said it doesn't have to be quite so conservative either). At any rate it's not entirely their traditions that are holiding them back - before the west got their hands on China it was actually a very wealthy and high standing nation. Plus...if they modernised too much it would disrupt feng shui.
The reincarnation stuff has nothing to do with China really, only Tibet which they sort of illegally possess. Obviously the Chinese government doesn't seriously believe they can stop reincarnation, they don't even consider it to even exists. It's just another way to say that the Dalai Lama, [SIZE=-1]Tenzin Gyatso and his cronies are illegal by their very existence. It's an age old story actually; you pick on some quality that a person or group of people can either do nothing about, or you know they will never refute, and declare it illegal - Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, being black, being not a Christian, not a Muslim, dancing around naked and howling at the Moon... they've all been declared illegal before by some nutjob/s or other. Most of China rocks, this is about a time worn territorial dispute. [/SIZE]
I've heard that you don't have to ask permission to be reincarnated as an invertebrate. They went on to say that one could come back as a cockroach, worm, or even a Democratic congressman. I about wrecked my car laughing so hard. The reason they want this is so that they can "control" who is being reincarnated as the religious leaders. I don't think they give a flip about the religious/social aspect of it, only the political.
Not a cat - but I should soon be reincarnated as a home-owner! At the moment, there is a possibility that I will buy the apartment I am in (which saves the hassle of moving) but I have to agree a price, but before that I need to get a valuation done - partly to be sure the landlord isn't ripping me off too much (I don't mind paying a little over the market price to avoid moving, both because of the hassle and because I like the apartment) but also to find out how much tax I will have to pay - the government here automatically assumes that part of the payment was "under the table" unless otherwise proved, so the tax is either on the valuation or the price paid whichever is higher (of course!). In the meantime I have been having hassles with the landlord about the untidiness of the place (mainly due to the rather rocky few years recently with the neighbour from hell, my parents dying and losing my job) - things came to a head when he brought in two young gleeful hooligans to sort the place out. The landlord had promised me that no books would go, but I lost my mother's cookery books among others, and also that only things on the floor would go unless I said otherwise (I did get rid of all my obsolete computers that way) but they had a very liberal idea of the word "floor" - they emptied my fridge, threw away all my dry-food stock (in both cases this included food I had bought the previous day!) and there was a certain amount of selective "throwing away" (I suspect into various pockets) of things on tables or shelves - one of my digital cameras (the good one, of course), CDs and DVDs, computer peripherals that were not plugged in at the time, a lot of kitchen equipment - unfortunately for a lot of the time, one of them was taking stuff out to the truck through the kitchen at one end of the apartment, and the other was throwing stuff into the truck from the balcony at the other end, so I could not keep an eye on both of them - I am still finding out what else is missing, usually just as I need to use it. Maybe I should have realised what was likely to happen when the landlord warned me not to leave any cash lying about! I have had to replace a lot of stuff which is eating into my budget for the apartment - I could not get a mortgage even if I wanted one, being out of work, so wherever I buy will be cash down using most of my inheritance. I am still in the process of cleaning the place - I am not normally a very domestic person - and have also been fairly heavily involved in the theatre, but now I only have two things coming up - stage-managing "The Mikado" in November and sound effects for "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat" in February - and that one should be easy - there are only six sound effects, and I still have them on the computer from last time we did it about three years ago.
This is a very "inspired" way to alienate the Lama from his subjects. If the next reincarnation is a Tibet native, the Chinese authorities will arrest the kid easily. If the next reincarnation is not from Tibet, or if it is successfully evacuated, the next Lama will be alienated from his people. This sucks.
