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Little Buddha, Big City
From The Guardian:
As a toddler, he was put on a throne and worshipped 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.
Yesterday he bemoaned the misery of a youth deprived of television, football and girls. Movies were also forbidden -- except for a sanctioned screening of The Golden Child starring Eddie Murphy, about a kidnapped child lama with magical powers. "I never felt like that boy," he said.
He is now studying film in Madrid and has denounced the Buddhist order that elevated him to guru status. "They took me away from my family and stuck me in a medieval situation in which I suffered a great deal," said Torres, 24, describing how he was whisked from obscurity in Granada to a monastery in southern India....
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.
At this point I was going to say it's better to be a free man than a captive god. But it turns out the prodigal guru gets to keep his lamahood anyway:
Despite his rebelliousness, he is still known as Lama Tenzin Osel Rinpoche and revered by the Buddhist community. A prayer for his "long life" still adorns the website of the Foundation to Preserve the Mahayana Tradition, which has 130 centres around the world. The website features a biography of the renegade guru that gushes about his peaceful, meditative countenance as a baby.
The guy is studying film, so it should occur to him after a while that his story requires him to go home in the third act. The script writes itself: The rock'n'roll lama is welcomed warmly but shocks the square Buddhists with his westernized ways; in the end he learns the value of spiritual practice as he teaches the uptight monks to get down. I'm seeing Justin Timberlake in the lead, with Richard Gere as the expatriate American who helps Torres find himself and Eddie Murphy as the voice of the wisecracking donkey. Rated R for language and nudity.
|6.3.09 @ 12:06PM|#
This is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened in the history of the world.
|6.3.09 @ 12:09PM|#
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
P.S. Any replies to this comment will most likely consist of ad
homs, as libertarians concede my points and show their childish,
anti-intellectual nature.
|6.3.09 @ 12:10PM|#
As a toddler, he was put on a throne and worshipped by monks
who treated him like a god.
Sounds like my childhood. And look how good I turned out.
P.S. Any replies to this comment will most likely consist of ad
homs, as libertarians concede my points and show their childish,
anti-intellectual nature.
Warty|6.3.09 @ 12:21PM|#
Wait, a Spanish kid was raised as a Buddhist god in south India? Did I get that right?
Russ 2000|6.3.09 @ 12:23PM|#
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.
I haven't laughed out loud so hard all week!
Naga Sadow|6.3.09 @ 12:25PM|#
"Hey Bird - Did you just see a little Hare-Krishna midget in the
tree, floatin'?... Or is it me?"
Is the lonewacko thing cool now?
|6.3.09 @ 12:25PM|#
They didn't let him watch Little Buddha? What about
Seven Years In Tibet?
Poor kid, no wonder he's bitter.
|6.3.09 @ 12:26PM|#
You need to keep up, Naga.
P.S. Any replies to this comment will most likely consist of ad
homs, as libertarians concede my points and show their childish,
anti-intellectual nature.
Naga Sadow|6.3.09 @ 12:27PM|#
I've heard of that! Who says I haven't heard of that?
*shakes fist threateningly*
P.S. Any replies to this comment will most likely consist of ad
homs, as libertarians concede my points and show their childish,
anti-intellectual nature.
Invisible Finger|6.3.09 @ 12:28PM|#
Yeah, we all laugh at those stupid Tibetans, yet America voted for Obama on roughly the same lunacy.
Hambone|6.3.09 @ 12:28PM|#
"Is the lonewacko thing cool now?"
Top-shelf, meta-cool.
P.S. Any replies to this comment will most likely consist of ad
homs, as libertarians concede my points and show their childish,
anti-intellectual nature.
Naga Sadow|6.3.09 @ 12:32PM|#
Hella cool?
P.S. Any replies to this comment will most likely consist of ad
homs, as libertarians concede my points and show their childish,
anti-intellectual nature.
|6.3.09 @ 12:34PM|#
for a time he said he lived next to the actor Richard Gere's
cabin.
Oh, the humanity!
Seriously, what did they think, parading in front of simpering,
witless Westerner star-fuckers wouldn't make him run like
hell the first chance he got?
Xeones|6.3.09 @ 12:34PM|#
Too cool for school, Naga.
P.S. Any replies to this comment will most likely consist of ad
homs, as libertarians concede my points and show their childish,
anti-intellectual nature.
Naga Sadow|6.3.09 @ 12:38PM|#
"Ha! I got your stupid knife! Now turn on the goddamn
lights!"
P.S. Any replies to this comment will most likely consist of ad
homs, as libertarians concede my points and show their childish,
anti-intellectual nature.
Naga Sadow|6.3.09 @ 12:39PM|#
Warty,
You didn't go pffffffff and toss your hair outta your eyes.
P.S. Any replies to this comment will most likely consist of ad
homs, as libertarians concede my points and show their childish,
anti-intellectual nature.
Xeones|6.3.09 @ 12:40PM|#
Yo, Warty sucks.
P.S. Any replies to this comment will most likely consist of ad
homs, as libertarians concede my points and show their childish,
anti-intellectual nature.
Naga Sadow|6.3.09 @ 12:41PM|#
Christ! I'm gone for about two weeks and the whole game is
changed on cool! What about wearing leather jackets and elbowing
juke boxes? Still cool?
P.S. Any replies to this comment will most likely consist of ad
homs, as libertarians concede my points and show their childish,
anti-intellectual nature.
Warty|6.3.09 @ 12:42PM|#
I'm gone for about two weeks and the whole game is changed
on cool!
Are short shorts cool again? Please please please...
|6.3.09 @ 12:44PM|#
Are short shorts cool again? Please please
please...
Indeed, Warty. I'm wearing some right now.
P.S. Any replies to this comment will most likely consist of ad
homs, as libertarians concede my points and show their childish,
anti-intellectual nature.
|6.3.09 @ 12:44PM|#
Showing once again that the religions that elite Westerners hold
up as superiorly enlightened have plenty of their own
ridiculousness going on, it's just that we don't know about it
because they're 10,000+ miles away.
Not sure if this counts as an ad hom, but the Lonewacko disclaimers
got old after about the second time. I predict a shorter lifespan
for this fad than the haiku comments of yesteryear.
Hambone|6.3.09 @ 12:44PM|#
" What about wearing leather jackets and elbowing juke boxes?
Still cool?"
Works for Nick.
P.S. Any replies to this comment will most likely consist of ad
homs, as libertarians concede my points and show their childish,
anti-intellectual nature.
Xeones|6.3.09 @ 12:48PM|#
Tulpa, your first paragraph is spot on, but your second
paragraph is wrong, wrong, wrong.
P.S. Any replies to this comment will most likely consist of ad
homs, as libertarians concede my points and show their childish,
anti-intellectual nature.
Citizen Nothing|6.3.09 @ 12:49PM|#
Tulpa,
We'll just change it around a bit.
P.S. ARTTCWMLCOAH,ALCMP,&STC,A-IN
Xeones|6.3.09 @ 12:50PM|#
Anyway, the LoneWacko meme has to stay at least until LoneWacko
itself rises from the damp, Dorito-and-sour-milk-scented bed of its
siesta to grace us with its presence.
P.S. Any replies to this comment will most likely consist of ad
homs, as libertarians concede my points and show their childish,
anti-intellectual nature.
Citizen Nothing|6.3.09 @ 12:52PM|#
Tulpa, wet blanket
Too cool to embrace the fad
Sir, you can bite me.
P.S. ARTTCWMLCOAH,ALCMP,&STC,A-IN
|6.3.09 @ 12:54PM|#
Anyway, the LoneWacko meme has to stay at least until
LoneWacko itself rises from the damp, Dorito-and-sour-milk-scented
bed of its siesta to grace us with its presence.
Precisely. Tulpa, you need to understand mockery better.
P.S. Any replies by Tulpa or LoneMeatHead to this comment will most
likely consist of ad homs, as libertarians concede my points and
show their childish, anti-intellectual nature.
|6.3.09 @ 12:54PM|#
Osel is probably dissing the monks, because he doesn't want
people to figure out his secret ID, once he goes into action as
El Lama
Verde!
Kevin
Citizen Nothing|6.3.09 @ 12:54PM|#
NutraSweet again
Too fast for the poor old scribe.
Wish I typed swiftly.
P.S. ARTTCWMLCOAH,ALCMP,&STC,A-IN
VM (very naughty moose)|6.3.09 @ 12:54PM|#
He Has Longish Hair
Does not want Buddha's tummy
studies Film in spain
P.S. Any replies to this comment will most likely consist of ad
homs, as libertarians concede my points and show their childish,
anti-intellectual nature.
DHS Thinks I’m a Terrorist.|6.3.09 @ 12:58PM|#
What I like about the New Kadampa tradition is that it strips a lot (though not all) of that superficial B.S. out and focuses on the actual philosophy of Buddhism. Whether this person or that is "literally" the reincarnation of Buddha is not the issue.
Cabeza de Vaca|6.3.09 @ 12:58PM|#
Come on Tulpa everybody doin it. You want to be one of the cool
kids don't you?
P.S. Any replies to this comment will most likely consist of ad
homs, as libertarians concede my points and show their childish,
anti-intellectual nature.
|6.3.09 @ 1:00PM|#
lunch calls me away
steak and queso burritos
Lonewacko fuming
P.S. ARTTCWMLCOAH,ALCMP,&STC,A-IN
The (Real) Expatriate|6.3.09 @ 1:01PM|#
Despite his rebelliousness, he is still known as Lama Tenzin
Osel Rinpoche and revered by the Buddhist community.
I'm a Buddhist and I don't revere him.
|6.3.09 @ 1:02PM|#
Yesterday he bemoaned the misery of a youth deprived of
television, football and girls.
Shuddup up you little wanker. Epi grew up the same way and it
didn't hurt him, now did it?
DHS Thinks I’m a Terrorist.|6.3.09 @ 1:02PM|#
"I'm a Buddhist and I don't revere him."
I second that.
Russ 2000|6.3.09 @ 1:04PM|#
Seriously, what did they think, parading in front of
simpering, witless Westerner star-fuckers wouldn't make him run
like hell the first chance he got?
I would think living next to Richard Gere would make one AVOID
studying film.
Man from Nantucket|6.3.09 @ 1:09PM|#
George Bush was stupid
But Kerry would've been worse
Like Barack Obama.
Of if you like the 3-5-3:
Bush: stupid
Kerry: would be worse
Like Obama.
|6.3.09 @ 1:26PM|#
So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald. . .striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one--big hitter, the Lama--long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga. . .gunga, gunga-galunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.
Hambone|6.3.09 @ 1:29PM|#
"I would think living next to Richard Gere would make one AVOID
studying film."
But not if his selfless, long-term goal was to try to help Gere
reach his full acting potential.
I, Kahn O\'Clast|6.3.09 @ 1:40PM|#
He Has Longish Hair
Does not want Buddha's tummy
studies Film in spain"
This.
P.S. Any replies to this comment will most likely consist of ad
homs, as libertarians concede my points and show their childish,
anti-intellectual nature.
Not This.
|6.3.09 @ 1:49PM|#
So he's turning his back on Buddhism for show business? I guess now the Jews will get the blame for killing the Lama also.
|6.3.09 @ 1:54PM|#
Buddhism to many, including me, is not a religion but a
philosophy.
He was lured by the flesh of women. It's that simple. It is what it
is (despite the over- and misuse of this phrase.)
Spoonman|6.3.09 @ 2:04PM|#
He was lured by the flesh of women. It's that simple. It is what it is (despite the over- and misuse of this phrase.)
Wait, what?
Also, can you blame him?
DHS Thinks I\'m a Terrorist|6.3.09 @ 2:34PM|#
I asked Wolfram|Alpha "Is Osel Hita Torres a reincarnation of a
spiritual leader?"
The response I got was "Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with
your input."
|6.3.09 @ 2:43PM|#
I remember when he was first picked to be the Dalai Lama,
I watched a show about it on discovery or something like that. They
interviewed the parents, and how proud they were. I remember
wondering if the kid would think it was cool or not.
Apparently not.
|6.3.09 @ 3:18PM|#
The outcome of the story will more likely follow the
path of these Mr. Show sketches...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAHHs7Hi8gs
part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtE1HnIU6q8
Jesse Walker|6.3.09 @ 3:22PM|#
I sent this story to one of my Buddhist friends, incidentally, and he wrote back: "I am not surprised. The Gelugpa order (Dalai Lama's lineage) really sucks. Monasticism is such a crock."
¢|6.3.09 @ 3:48PM|#
I can't stop thinking "next to Richard Gere's cabin" means up
his ass.
CAN'T STOP.
Plant Immigration Rights Suppo|6.3.09 @ 4:12PM|#
Elsewhere in the world of religion more people are realizing
that telling some stranger who is forbidden to get married and who
doesn't even have a psychology degree about your marital sins is
less than effective.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D98ILCBG2&show_article=1
|6.3.09 @ 4:13PM|#
Shouldn't it be:
"P.S. Any replies to ThisComment will most likely consist of
AdHoms, as libertarians concede MyPoints and show their
ChildishAntiIntellectual nature."
?
Xeones|6.3.09 @ 4:33PM|#
I can't stop thinking "next to Richard Gere's cabin" means
up his ass.
So "cabin" is slang for "prostate" now? I guess it adds a new layer
of meaning to the Log Cabin Republicans...
P.S. Any replies to this comment will most likely consist of ad
homs, as libertarians concede my points and show their childish,
anti-intellectual nature.
Paul|6.3.09 @ 4:43PM|#
Yesterday he bemoaned the misery of a youth deprived of television, football and girls.
Get in line. I feel the same way, and I grew up in a decidedly
non-monastic life in the states.
Paul|6.3.09 @ 4:43PM|#
"They took me away from my family and stuck me in a medieval situation in which I suffered a great deal," said Torres, 24, describing how he was whisked from obscurity in Granada to a monastery in southern India....
So this guy isn't really the Dragon Warrior?
Old Bull Lee|6.3.09 @ 5:13PM|#
I agree with the posters who say Buddhism is a philosophy, not a
religion (and I lean that way myself but wouldn't quite call myself
a Buddhist).
This kid could still be a Buddhist (now or in the future) and
ignore all the Lama stuff.
MaterialMonkee|6.3.09 @ 5:27PM|#
The only way that the reincarnation thing works is if its just
one soul in an infinite nvmber of incarnations eh?
dividing things up doesn't work, you can't divide infinity,
so everyone is everyone else, I am he as you are he as you are me
and we are all together
Its retarded and not true but helps you see the interconnectedness
of things
|6.3.09 @ 5:40PM|#
Imagine my shock and disappointment when I searched the comments here for the word "gerbil" and came up empty.
Brett Stevens|6.3.09 @ 6:08PM|#
Individualism accomplishes little and makes no one happy. What makes us happy is fulfilling a role in the world, and finding something to challenge ourselves that makes us get over ourselves. That's the real task of life. This kid is just avoiding his destiny, whether "real" or by chance, with which he could do great good.
|6.3.09 @ 8:13PM|#
Yesterday he bemoaned the misery of a youth deprived of television, football and girls.
Well, I was deprived of football. Do I get part marks for 1/3
deprivation?
BakedPenguin|6.3.09 @ 9:40PM|#
The Buddha in that picture looks like he has a fro. Which made
me think of The Trammps.
YMMV.
P.S. Any replies to this comment will most likely consist of ad
homs, as libertarians concede my points and show their childish,
anti-intellectual nature.
|6.4.09 @ 3:24AM|#
What makes us happy is fulfilling a role in the world, and finding something to challenge ourselves that makes us get over ourselves.
Yeah, but should this be chosen by others? And can any of us really avoid our destinies? And how much Kung Fu did they teach this kid, or are these not those kind of monks?
Medic|6.4.09 @ 4:13PM|#
Something worth smiling about. :)
"One often meets their destiny on the road to avoid it"-My favorite
quote.
Me|6.4.09 @ 4:15PM|#
"Individualism accomplishes little and makes no one happy. "-
Wow it was the brillant ideals of a few "individuals" who started
out country.
I will take individualism over being a sheep.
bahhhhhhhhhhh
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