China Regulates Reincarnation

Brian Doherty | September 5, 2007

From Newsweek:

In one of history's more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation." But beyond the irony lies China's true motive: to cut off the influence of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual and political leader, and to quell the region's Buddhist religious establishment more than 50 years after China invaded the small Himalayan country. By barring any Buddhist monk living outside China from seeking reincarnation, the law effectively gives Chinese authorities the power to choose the next Dalai Lama, whose soul, by tradition, is reborn as a new human to continue the work of relieving suffering.

Comments

|9.5.07 @ 2:49PM|#

uh oh

|9.5.07 @ 2:49PM|#

The person issuing this law is going to be reincarnated as a horse's ass.

(Same as this incarnation.)

Episiarch|9.5.07 @ 2:54PM|#

Watch out, China--the Beastie Boys are gonna have a HUGE concert over this, and that'll show...well, it'll...

Be a license to ill, or something?

|9.5.07 @ 2:55PM|#

According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation."

An officially atheistic government is ruling on reincarnation. Curiouser and curiouser.

|9.5.07 @ 2:56PM|#

Oh, man, now Richard Gere is going to start kissing people in China.

|9.5.07 @ 2:58PM|#

In one of history's more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission.

Wow, just wow.

|9.5.07 @ 2:59PM|#

Aresen - No, the person issuing this law, currently a horse's ass incarnate, will return to this world as the intestinal fauna residing in the product of a horse's ass.

Perhaps an amoeboid parasite, although perhaps granting a nucleus at this point is overgenerous.

|9.5.07 @ 3:01PM|#

Now that is hubris.

|9.5.07 @ 3:02PM|#

Is there a form for this? An appeals process? I mean, you don't know the circumstances of your reincarnation at your death and you certainly don't know it until well after your birth at which point, the deed's already been done.

Who, then, files the appropriate paperwork? What are the deadlines for filing?

Scop|9.5.07 @ 3:13PM|#

I feel sorry for China. For every step they take forward, it seems they take one back. Giving any credence whatsoever to the lie of reincarnation, and thereby giving some backhanded support to the insane religious dictatorship of Tibet, is about 1,000 steps back.

|9.5.07 @ 3:16PM|#

It's one thing to mock a stupid regulation, but imagine what Radley's going to have to say about all the botched reincarnation raids...

|9.5.07 @ 3:22PM|#

If they'd only outlawed dying, they wouldn't have to worry about this.

|9.5.07 @ 3:23PM|#

Scop's going to come back as a LGF commenter.

shecky|9.5.07 @ 3:23PM|#

Hopefully, the US will soon ban the Second Coming of Christ, on grounds that it's unfair to immigrants already in line.

Mike Laursen|9.5.07 @ 3:32PM|#

I'm gonna be really pissed if this is the absurd-assed political issue that touches off World War III!

|9.5.07 @ 3:42PM|#

And to think, we are sponsoring their military. I wouldn't be surprised if China painted a yellow smiley face on the top of their missiles.

|9.5.07 @ 3:43PM|#

That's funny shecky.

SPD|9.5.07 @ 4:08PM|#

As a precaution, The Person's Republic has also banned radio stations from playing "Galileo" by the Indigo Girls.

Russ 2000|9.5.07 @ 4:48PM|#

I sent this in to H&R over a week ago. Where's my hat tip?

This is my favorite part:

Recent surveys by the Barna Group, a Christian research nonprofit, have found that a quarter of U.S. Christians, including 10 percent of all born-again Christians, embrace it as their favored end-of-life view.

Funny that the "born-again" embrace rebirth at a LOWER rate than the non-"born-again".

Brian Sorgatz|9.5.07 @ 5:16PM|#

I'm gonna be really pissed if this is the absurd-assed political issue that touches off World War III!

Mr. Laursen, we must not allow an illegal reincarnation gap! Do you realize that more than 10% of born U.S. citizens are illegally reincarnated Mexicans? ¡Yo soy un Berliner!

Scop|9.5.07 @ 7:01PM|#

LGF?

M.|9.5.07 @ 7:37PM|#

I *so* want a nasty quote from Christopher Hitchens on this..

|9.5.07 @ 7:52PM|#

Little Green Footballs, douchebag blog extraordinarie, full of right-wing fuckholes and "terrorists are lurking in your crisper drawer!" bedwettery.

I was implying that by criticizing Tibetan Buddhism, you would be brought back as a commenter on an infinitely worst blog comment board.

Explained jokes die the slowest deaths.

Mike Laursen|9.6.07 @ 1:42AM|#

Do you realize that more than 10% of born U.S. citizens are IllegallyReincarnated Mexicans?

It's so much better with whackapitalization.

|9.6.07 @ 11:21AM|#

This posting is a reincarnation, better get it approved.

http://reason.com/blog/show/122273.html#776800