Tathagata

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama holds a flower as he visits Seliginstadt, Germany on Aug.

The Drikung Meditation Center in Arlington draws Buddhists from across the country wanting to see the 8-foot-tall replica of Tibet's Jowo RInpoche statue, the only one of its kind in the United States.

A blessing ceremony for a newly completed holy Buddhist stupa monument and Tibetan prayer wheels at Earth Sanctuary will be held early next month at the nature preserve and retreat center near Langley.

There are some sights and attractions unique to a country or region. Like how you can't visit Paris without seeing the Eiffel Tower.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama today released a long statement concerning his future rebirth. He explains the Tibetan understanding of rebirth and says this is process is directed by karma and by the person being reborn. He also says the government of China doesn't have anything to say about it.

His Holiness also addresses the controversy of the Golden Urn. China insists that Dalai Lamas can only properly be chosen by means of drawing a name out of this particular urn, something like a lottery. I'm sure they arrange to have ceremonies and drums and dancing to go along with this, so it's a bigger deal than your standard church raffle, but it's still picking names out of an urn. And since they have the urn, Beijing says, they get to run the show and choose the next Dalai Lama.

His Holiness says the Golden Urn method was only used occasionally, and usually after the candidate was already chosen. The only Dalai Lama actually chosen by the Golden Urn was the 11th, says the 14th. (And, by the way, if you can't remember anything about the 11th, that may be because he died when he was 18.)

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The Dalai Lama and the Golden Urn originally appeared on About.com Buddhism on Wednesday, September 28th, 2011 at 14:51:45.

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We walk into a space that might as well be a temple_enveloped in gold with patches of shimmering gold leaves climbing up the walls.