The Dalai Lama, Barack Obama most popular leaders says new survey

[Ensapa]

If HHDL is the most popular leader, then why is the Dalai Lama made to walk past the garbage dump in the White House and Switzerland did not give him a celebrated welcome?

The Dalai Lama, Barack Obama most popular leaders says new survey
Phayul[Friday, May 31, 2013 23:16]


His Holiness the Dalai Lama attending the official function of the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan national uprising in Dharamshala, March 10, 2009. (Phayul file)

DHARAMSHALA, May 31: A new pan-Atlantic survey has named Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama as the most popular leader in the world along with US President Barack Obama. In contrast, leaders with the least levels of popularity include China’s President Xi Jingping and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Harris Interactive, one of the world’s leading market research firms, announced the results after conducting a Harris Poll online among a total of 7,245 adults aged 16+ in France, Germany, Great Britain and Spain and adults aged 18+ in Italy and the United States between May 8 and 15, 2013.

The poll, which measured “how good or bad opinions are of some well-known world leaders” showed the two Nobel Peace laureates, the Dalai Lama tied with President Barack Obama with the highest levels of popularity. The only leader who came close to the number one spot was Pope Francis.

“Across the six countries, three-quarters of adults (78%) on average have good opinions of both President Obama and His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” the results concluded.

For His Holiness, 86% of respondents in Italy, 85% in Spain, 81% in France, 79% in Germany, 70% in Great Britain and 64% in the US, have good opinions of him.

In the US, Americans have higher opinions of The Dalai Lama (64%) and Pope Francis (61%) than they do of President Obama.

The other end of the popularity spectrum is made up by some “controversial figures” from around the world with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un (4%), Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran (6%), China‘s Xi Jinping (14%) and Vladimir Putin of Russia (19%).

Harris Interactive noted that the data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population while using propensity score weighting to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

Harris Interactive is one of the world’s leading market research firms, leveraging research, technology, and business acumen to transform relevant insight into actionable foresight.

[DS Star]

"Harris Interactive, one of the world’s leading market research firms, announced the results after conducting a Harris Poll online among a total of 7,245 adults aged 16+ in France, Germany, Great Britain and Spain and adults aged 18+ in Italy and the United States between May 8 and 15, 2013."

It is not surprising that HH the Dalai Lama is the most popular public figure among Western countries' adults, especially among those who sympathies with the human right issue of the Tibetans.

HHDL had also top the list of 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People in 2012 by Watkins' Mind Body Spirit magazine.
http://www.nithyananda.org/sites/default/files/news/100spirituallyinclined-mindbodyspirit.pdf

Ever since his 15-day epic escape, on-foot from Tibet over Himalayan mountains to India in 1959, HH the Dalai Lama had been recognized as the Messenger of Peace; with his charismatic personality, his advocation of Buddhist value which are in line with universal goodwill values, fueled by the fear of China's increasing economic and political influence, Western countries, especially during the Cold War era, showered him with supports as both political supremacy figure and spiritual leader of Tibetans.

Unfortunately, HHDL who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 is seen as a 'threat' by the Chinese authorities. He represents the spirits of Tibetans to fight for their independence. He is then made unpopular among the governments that are friendly with the Chinese government.

Any meeting with HHDL cannot be classified as meeting a Head of State for Tibetans, leaders such as the President of US do not wish to offend the Chinese government, thus the hush hush meetings where HHDL was led through secret routes and the garbage dump site on his ways to meet these leaders.

The pressures from the China government have more influence on the Western governments whereas HH the Dalai Lama has the supports of the people of those countries. That is the answer to your question Ensapa.

[Ensapa]

Well, even if the Dalai Lama is the most popular leader, he is but a spiritual leader but not a political or secular one. In that aspect, they should not really compare the Dalai Lama with Obama, because they are simply in different categories. On the other hand, this also shows that it is close to impossible to damage the Dalai Lama's reputation, so the only way where the ban can be removed is when more and more people are aware of who Dorje Shugden is, and the more people realize that Dorje Shugden is not as bad as the Dalai Lama has declared him to be and will warm up to Dorje Shugden. When that happens, the Dalai Lama can no longer justify the banning of Dorje Shugden and he will lift the ban.

[Rinchen]

It is true that the Dalai Lama is well respected in the Western countries, but it does not mean that they practice what the Dalai Lama preach.

I agree that by educating people around the world, they would know that DS is really an enlightened being to help people of our times, making the process of the lift in the ban to be faster.

However, I do not believe that Dalai Lama is able to influence the Westerners to believe that they should not practice DS. This is because, the Westerners are not as superstitious as compared to the Asians. They would usually analysis situations based on knowledge, and not just by faith, trust, and believes.

[Ensapa]

It is true that the Dalai Lama is well respected in the Western countries, but it does not mean that they practice what the Dalai Lama preach.

I agree that by educating people around the world, they would know that DS is really an enlightened being to help people of our times, making the process of the lift in the ban to be faster.

However, I do not believe that Dalai Lama is able to influence the Westerners to believe that they should not practice DS. This is because, the Westerners are not as superstitious as compared to the Asians. They would usually analysis situations based on knowledge, and not just by faith, trust, and believes.

The Dalai Lama has an ace up his sleeve. His embrace is powerful enough to overwhelm anyone and convince them to give up Dorje Shugden. Luckily, it didint work on helmut gassner.

The official request from His Holiness' representative came
only a few days before the beginning of the tour. I felt insecure and
feared a reprimand of some sort. But His Holiness was cordial and
during our last private audience at the end of the trip he embraced
me for a long while, something he had never done before. Only later
did I learn that on certain occasions, His Holiness had treated many
Tibetan masters and monks as well as Westerners with similar
special expressions of affection. It is easy to become deeply moved
and emotional and at that moment willing to do anything for the
Dalai Lama. In situations such as these, many promised the Dalai
Lama to turn away from Dorje Shugden, a promise they often deeply
regretted later on. In view of this incident, whenever I was asked in
subsequent years to interpret for His Holiness, I tried to keep my
distance. As the end of a tour approached and the program showed
that my services were not longer needed, I would quietly slip away
so as not to be present for a closing audience with His Holiness.

This is how the Dalai Lama convinced many to give up Dorje Shugden.

[Rinchen]

The Dalai Lama has an ace up his sleeve. His embrace is powerful enough to overwhelm anyone and convince them to give up Dorje Shugden. Luckily, it didint work on helmut gassner.

The official request from His Holiness' representative came
only a few days before the beginning of the tour. I felt insecure and
feared a reprimand of some sort. But His Holiness was cordial and
during our last private audience at the end of the trip he embraced
me for a long while, something he had never done before. Only later
did I learn that on certain occasions, His Holiness had treated many
Tibetan masters and monks as well as Westerners with similar
special expressions of affection. It is easy to become deeply moved
and emotional and at that moment willing to do anything for the
Dalai Lama. In situations such as these, many promised the Dalai
Lama to turn away from Dorje Shugden, a promise they often deeply
regretted later on. In view of this incident, whenever I was asked in
subsequent years to interpret for His Holiness, I tried to keep my
distance. As the end of a tour approached and the program showed
that my services were not longer needed, I would quietly slip away
so as not to be present for a closing audience with His Holiness.

This is how the Dalai Lama convinced many to give up Dorje Shugden.

This might just be another article on how the Dalai Lama defames Dorje Shugden, causing more schism that is already happening.

It is correct to say that the Dalai Lama may be doing these things during private audience, but it would only be the ones that has the audience with the Dalai Lama would be able to know what really happens. I do not agree with what is said in that quote, simply because there are still many secret Shugden practitioners that are very close assistants to the Dalai Lama. If what is said is true, there will not be any secret Shugden practitioners around him at all. Why would there even be questions about that?

[Ensapa]

The Dalai Lama has an ace up his sleeve. His embrace is powerful enough to overwhelm anyone and convince them to give up Dorje Shugden. Luckily, it didint work on helmut gassner.

The official request from His Holiness' representative came
only a few days before the beginning of the tour. I felt insecure and
feared a reprimand of some sort. But His Holiness was cordial and
during our last private audience at the end of the trip he embraced
me for a long while, something he had never done before. Only later
did I learn that on certain occasions, His Holiness had treated many
Tibetan masters and monks as well as Westerners with similar
special expressions of affection. It is easy to become deeply moved
and emotional and at that moment willing to do anything for the
Dalai Lama. In situations such as these, many promised the Dalai
Lama to turn away from Dorje Shugden, a promise they often deeply
regretted later on. In view of this incident, whenever I was asked in
subsequent years to interpret for His Holiness, I tried to keep my
distance. As the end of a tour approached and the program showed
that my services were not longer needed, I would quietly slip away
so as not to be present for a closing audience with His Holiness.

This is how the Dalai Lama convinced many to give up Dorje Shugden.

This might just be another article on how the Dalai Lama defames Dorje Shugden, causing more schism that is already happening.

It is correct to say that the Dalai Lama may be doing these things during private audience, but it would only be the ones that has the audience with the Dalai Lama would be able to know what really happens. I do not agree with what is said in that quote, simply because there are still many secret Shugden practitioners that are very close assistants to the Dalai Lama. If what is said is true, there will not be any secret Shugden practitioners around him at all. Why would there even be questions about that?

I'd say that whether or not you'd still continue your practice after being told to give up in such ways depends entirely on how strong your conviction in the Dharma and in your root Guru is. There is also a chance that the Dalai Lama does allow these individuals to practice Dorje Shugden with full knowledge and on purpose. What one practices in private has nothing to do with another individual as it is a personal connection between someone and their Gurus and  Yidams, and cannot be influenced by someone else.

[WisdomBeing]

Ironically, i think that the Dalai Lama only gained fame after he became exiled from TIbet. With no disrespect to the Dalai Lama, who i do think is a holy monk, he became the poster boy for the "poor victim of China". With the gradual transfer of power over the past few decades from the west to China, the world is using the Dalai Lama as a bargaining tool against China. The Dalai Lama's Nobel Peace prize, for example, was i believe only given to the Dalai Lama as a protest against China.

All this media coverage of the Dalai Lama to date has served to elevate the Dalai Lama to a world icon. As a result, many non-Tibetans began to think that the Dalai Lama's word is unquestionable, so when the Dorje Shugden ban came about, people accepted it as gospel without question.

While most people see the Dalai Lama as a holy person, they do not realise that the Dorje Shugden ban is just political, even though the Dalai Lama has stepped down as the temporal head of the Tibetan diaspora. It will be interesting to see how this complicated situation is resolved by one of the world's most popular leaders, the Dalai Lama.

[Ensapa]

Ironically, i think that the Dalai Lama only gained fame after he became exiled from TIbet. With no disrespect to the Dalai Lama, who i do think is a holy monk, he became the poster boy for the "poor victim of China". With the gradual transfer of power over the past few decades from the west to China, the world is using the Dalai Lama as a bargaining tool against China. The Dalai Lama's Nobel Peace prize, for example, was i believe only given to the Dalai Lama as a protest against China.

All this media coverage of the Dalai Lama to date has served to elevate the Dalai Lama to a world icon. As a result, many non-Tibetans began to think that the Dalai Lama's word is unquestionable, so when the Dorje Shugden ban came about, people accepted it as gospel without question.

While most people see the Dalai Lama as a holy person, they do not realise that the Dorje Shugden ban is just political, even though the Dalai Lama has stepped down as the temporal head of the Tibetan diaspora. It will be interesting to see how this complicated situation is resolved by one of the world's most popular leaders, the Dalai Lama.

I have a feeling that the Dalai Lama would one day apologize to Dorje Shugden and their practitioners and say that he has done a mistake about Dorje Shugden and then reverse the ban. He has done this before as the 5th Dalai Lama and the 13th Dalai Lama so why cant he do this again? To me, that is the most probable way of him lifting the ban and ending this dispute once and for all. Only thing now is that he is waiting for the perfect time to execute this plan and end the ban once and for all.

[WisdomBeing]

Personally i don't think HH the Dalai Lama will apologise for the ban on Dorje Shugden. Of course this is mere conjecture and honestly i do hope i am wrong because should he lift the ban himself (apology or not apology), it would be the best and fastest way for Dorje Shugden to be accepted in the mainstream. If the Dalai Lama does NOT lift the ban, it would be difficult for Dorje Shugden to get back into the mainstream because people will always refer to the Dalai Lama's ban, however illogical it is. Personally, I think that the ban will slowly fade away and over time, it will be disappear. I guess time will tell. I really really hope I am wrong and that the Dalai Lama would make a statement to lift the ban.

[DharmaDefender]

WisdomBeing I dont agree with you. If the Dalai Lama passes away without lifting the ban, I think theres a chance itll go back into the mainstream because theres now no one your disrespecting by flouting the ban. In that way, itll eventually fade over time. Therell always be fundamentalist factions who insist on the ban (Phayul trolls / TYC stalwarts) but as people find the Dalai Lamas grip loosening on them, and the CTA starts to disband because of in-fighting and lack of strong leadership (who is he kidding, Lobsang Sangay has no control over his government), the ban will slowly, naturally become a non-issue.

When theres a power vacuum and people have their secular posessions like rank and reputation to fight for, theyll forget religion. Just you watch and see.