Kalu Rinpoche shocking news!

[nirmal]

We'll just be left standing when he splits the sea and walks across it.

[kirtu]

I never did say all tulkus. You must have wax in your eyes, I just said all that I have met.... which was only four. Thinking back one was actually okay but he spent a third of his life in prison so he understood a bit of humility. The worst was recognized as a baby and always had Tibetan khenpo tutors.
Gossip is not always idle speech, you can learn a lot from the right folks.

You said:

I have never met a tulku that was NOT extremely screwed up.

meaning the set of tulkus you have met were all screwed up. You then quantified this to a set of four tulkus. It is true that you did not say that all tulkus were screwed up but often if a person makes such a statement without qualification or quantification they are making a statement about the entire set or concept under discussion.

I am sorry that the entire set of four tulkus you have met was screwed up. Perhaps you have a poor attitude or perhaps all four hit on you or abused you in some way. Or perhaps your use of the term screwed up is not what one would think. How were they screwed up in your view?

OTOH if you didn't like their personalities but they were honest, non-abusive, kind, compassionate, following the precepts according to their level of ordination, sincere and able to either teach or inspire to practice then they were basically fulfilling their roles.

It is really not possible to study or practice Tibetan Buddhism without meeting lots of tulkus over time. There are few exceptions to this (the Geluk tradition is perhaps more of an exception and perhaps smaller Kagyu lineages such as Drikung as most of their teaching and transmission seems to happen with the khenpos).

Kirt

[kirtu]

Yeah, I'm not sure that any religious tradition has managed to deal with human sexuality in an entirely realistic or healthy manner.

I think so. Non-monastic Vajrayana and Dzogchenpas.

Very good point.

It's true, we are likely to see a revival of the non-monastic siddha tradition. But this interpretation is in part what has gotten some Westerners in trouble to begin with.

Kirt

[skillful klesha]

I agree with everything you said Kirt.
I don't know about you but I think spending a third of your life in prison is extremely screwed up.

[kirtu]

I agree with everything you said Kirt.
I don't know about you but I think spending a third of your life in prison is extremely screwed up.

Yes that is. But was the tulku? They way you wrote this you referred to the tulkus themselves as extremely screwed up - not the sometimes negative circumstances of their lives. So were the tulkus themselves total disasters? Or did they just experience terrible circumstances?

We have entered a Dharma ending age long, long ago. The negativities of beings have massively multiplied long ago. However these ages go through their own ups and downs. The entire West after 1950 went through an upswing. Now things may be changing again.

If you meant that you never met a tulku who didn't have many negative circumstances that they lived through then this is a nearly unimpeachable statement. Almost all the Himalayan tulkus and certainly all the Tibetan tulkus went through extreme circumstances and even premature death from 1949-1965 at least because of the attempt to exterminate Tibetan Buddhism. Even so these tulkus took rebirth to benefit beings no matter what the circumstances and did so based on their great merit and wisdom from the practice of previous lives.

Kirt

[Jinzang]

We'll just be left standing when he splits the sea and walks across it.

Wrong religion.

[Jinzang]

we are likely to see a revival of the non-monastic siddha tradition

To be a siddha, you've got to have siddhis. And the would-be Westerners don't.

[kirtu]

we are likely to see a revival of the non-monastic siddha tradition

To be a siddha, you've got to have siddhis. And the would-be Westerners don't.

I'm not referring to siddhis like the magical activity of Ra Lotsawa but definitely transforming negativities and in a primarily non-monastic setting. So like the activity of Tulku Urgyen and his uncle Karma Samten.

Kirt

[Jinzang]

like the magical activity of Ra Lotsawa

I certainly hope there aren't any Western Ra Lotsawas out there.

[kirtu]

So like the activity of Tulku Urgyen and his uncle Karma Samten.

Of course I mean Samten Gyatso .....