You know what? On a deeper level, I dont think the headline is so far from the truth. Who is to say Lama Osel isnt teaching people Dharma when hes chilling on the beach? If he were in robes, could he reach out to and help the people who are out on the beach getting pissed every night? No, theyd never accept him.
So perhaps its time for us to stop thinking of everything from FPMTs perspective, and start thinking about the people Lama Osel is helping. It may have been FPMTs loss for giving up Dorje Shugden, and therefore breaking samaya with their teacher and losing Lama Osel, but for those people on Ibiza, its their gain.
This is true... In his infinite wisdom, Lama Osel is perhaps using our degenerate times to spread the Dharma. He certainly has not denounced Buddhism. In fact he is most likely using skillful means to impart the Dharma. Even if his students action has caused him to be distant from them, it does not mean he still cannot turn the wheel of Dharma. In fact, the very fact that he is still continuing in this life means there has to be a point to his being in this physical form in this life... and from this very logic, I reckon Lama Osel is certainly a revolutionary teacher to keep an eye on.
I would also like to share this beautiful picture of Lama Osel and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. If a picture were to paint a thousand words, surely this one speaks volumns!:
A shorter article on the same interview by Fiona Govan, Madrid (The Daily Telegraph)
link:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/9574777/Tibetan-lama-reincarnation-rediscovers-himself-in-Ibiza.htmlTibetan lama 'reincarnation' rediscovers himself in IbizaAs a toddler he was identified as a reincarnation of a Tibetan lama, sent to a monastery in India where he was locked away from the outside world and worshipped as a god.Now, aged 27-years-old the Spaniard who was recognised by the Dalai Lama as Lama Tenzin Osel Rinpoche, has swapped his monastic robes for a life on the party island of Ibiza where he plays bongo drums, chills out to trance music and dreams of becoming a documentary film maker.
Osel Hita Torres has spoken out about his extraordinary childhood and his decision to abandon life as a spiritual leader, thwarting the dreams of his parents and the Tibetan monks who guided him until he left the monastery shortly after his 18th birthday.
Interviewed for a BBC Radio Four documentary entitled "The Reluctant Lama" he described how he was taken away from his parents and sent to a Tibetan monastery in southern India.
A search for the reincarnation of Lama Thebden Yeshe, who died in 1984, led his devotees to Spain and to baby Osel, the fifth child of two of his Spanish followers in whom they detected "a certain meditative self-containment".
He was taken to Sera monastery in India where aged only 14 months he picked out former possessions belonging to Lama Yeshe, including his sunglasses, thereby confirming the reincarnation, which was then endorsed by the Dalai Lama.
His parents, Maria and Paco were thrilled at the idea that their son had been chosen as the vessel for Lama Yeshe's spirit.
"For them it wasn't something negative," Mr Torres told the BBC. "It was a huge opportunity – like sending their kid to Yale or Oxford."
But over the years he started to wonder whether he was a true Buddhist at all, a feeling that culminated when he read Herman Hesse's Siddhartha.
When he turned 18 he asked if he could leave the monastery and return to his family in Spain.
"I got a huge amount of letters and phone calls and people coming to visit me, just telling me that I made a huge mistake, that I lost a huge opportunity, that was my destiny, my purpose, blah-blah-blah, whatever." said Mr Torres, who after years of a shaved head, now sports a mop of hair, bushy sideburns and a goatee beard. A large tattoo decorates his left shoulder.
But he admitted that he still feels a closeness to the Lama he is worshipped as a reincarnation of.
"Sometimes I ask Lama Yeshe to give me a message or a sign or something. And many times he does.
"So I don't know if he's outside or if he's inside. I don't know, but he's one of my best friends."