The Dalai Lama tradition is Tibetan, not what all Buddhists follow. Buddha himself never talked about it.
It started over 1,500 years after Buddha as a political tool in Tibet.
The Goal: To solve who gets to be the next ruler by making the leader both a religious and a political figure.
The Method: Saying the new leader is the old leader reborn. This made his rule unquestionable.
How Politics Got Involved: The title “Dalai Lama” was given by a Mongol ruler in the 1500s to make a business deal: his army would protect Tibet, and the Dalai Lama would give him religious blessing.
Why Only Tibetan Men: Because Tibetan society was run by men, and keeping the leadership within their own group was a way for the ruling class to stay in power. Choosing a European or Chinese person would have destroyed their authority.
In short: This isn’t Buddha’s original teaching. It’s a Tibetan management system that worked for centuries. The Dalai Lama became the heart of Tibetan identity. Finding him was always kept inside Tibet to maintain control.
I’m studying a social psychology course now, the psychology of groups… it says that group members tend to rate members of their own group higher than members of other groups.
I think the secret to success might be in rating yourself lower, not higher.
After studying religions of the world, Buddhism seems much more advanced than the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam). The only thing I can’t understand is the Dalai Lama’s rebirths. For some unclear reason, it’s only men (never women), and they are born in one specific region, not all over the Earth… seems like nonsense.
Also, it’s unclear why the Buddha did not accept the immortality of the soul (with built-in memory for working off karma in the next life), but instead said the soul is like a flame passed from one candle to another. I don’t really get that – how does the memory from previous life preserve to the next one?
Christianity says: repent and you will enter Heaven. This applies even to Hitler. Meanwhile, non-Christians will not enter Heaven, such as the murdered Jewish girl, Anne Frank.
The basic question lies in the moral framework itself, which prioritizes correct belief over actual conduct. This reframes morality as loyalty to doctrine rather than as a measure of goodness or compassion.
By this logic, obedience is valued above kindness, submission above fairness, and fear above empathy. So, people who follow such a system have no right to teach non-believers about right and wrong. If a god’s “justice” looks the same as injustice, then the teaching might be wrong – not the people who doubt it.
