The Shadows of Buddhism

Posted Sep 30, 2022, 6:02 AM

On October 7, 1950, Mao’s China invaded Tibet to make it a Chinese province. Thus began a period of cohabitation between Chinese imperialist dogma and the Buddhist tradition represented by the Dalai Lama which ended abruptly in 1959, with the flight of this man whose wisdom would be consecrated thirty years later by a Nobel Prize in the peace. The Dalai Lama has inspired a new path for millions of Westerners tired of growing materialism and eager to recreate a path of spirituality outside of a Christianity deemed worn down. We no longer cite the many musicians and intellectuals of the 1960s who saw in Buddhism the hope for a better world. The Dalai Lama in exile, raises the question of the financing of his action in favor of peace and the diffusion of this philosophical religion.

The attraction of Westerners happy to find a new faith leads to the multiplication of Buddhist centers in the world, France being no exception, on the contrary. Generously funded by their practitioners, these centers are organized around masters who weave with their disciples a relationship of abandonment and submission to authority widely accepted by all those who wish to discharge themselves. The power of the master is great, indisputable and if the master is failing, the fault lies with the student who did not know how to choose the right master, this is what is answered to those who begin to doubt.

The investigation of Elodie Emery and Wandrille Lanos

This power contains in itself its excesses which will soon appear here and there, going as far as sexual submission and rape. It is this terrible story that Elodie Emery and Wandrille Lanos tell us in Buddhism, the law of silence, a very thorough investigation into the facts recorded in certain French centers which, over the years, have let real torturers abuse their practitioners. According to the authors, the highest authorities of the movement, alerted on many occasions, wanted to ignore indisputable facts. The cause is simple, these centers constituting the basis of the financing of the action of the Dalai Lama and his entourage, it was difficult for the holy man and his entourage to deny large contributors. These deviant lamas, creators of prosperous centers based on the financial drain of the faithful lead great train, beautiful cars, travels, contrary to the principles of their religion and indulge in different forms of perversity on practitioners sometimes reduced to a form of ‘slavery.

It took this book published by JC Lattès and the associated documentary on Arte for us to discover that the law of silence imposed by the church regarding rogue priests has not only infected Catholicism but also Buddhism, even if it is to a lesser extent related to the vastly lower number of believers. But the principle is the same, based on an abuse of weakness and a dominant position, all exercised in a feeling of total impunity by lamas who provide funds extorted from their followers.

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The Shadows of Buddhism