Sunday, November 30, 2008

No sex is good sex?


I've always been a big fan of the Dalai Lama. I saw him speak a few years ago to a crowd of thousands in DC. He spoke about the joy of understanding religion as medicine -- each ailment has its own cure, and some folks don't need as much as others. The message sat well with me and made sense. He seemed like a very wise religious leader and I felt thankful to have heard his words.

But he's gone and gotten himself knocked down a peg on the old wisdom meter with this most recent statement. Apparently, according to his holiness the Lama, sex is for losers and celibacy is where it's at. The spiritual leader recently told a group of reporters that bumping uglies leads to "fleeting satisfaction and trouble later."

I want to get behind this message, like I have before, but I've got just one eensy little problem. Ain't this guy pretty definitively celibate? I mean, if he's followed his path strictly, he shouldn't have ever gotten down with the nasty. So really, with all due respect, how can he be an authority on this issue? Sure sure sure, he has lots of FRIENDS who've done it. He's heard stories about the anguish of love gone wrong, but really, he's no better suited to be doling out MY lovelife advice than the 14 year old down the block who knows a guy who knows a guy who did it with this older girl and it went bad so he's gonna wait.

Seriously Dalai. What's your plan here? We stop procreating? You're not even telling kids to wait til marriage like the fundamentalists do. You're actually claiming we just shouldn't do it at all! That's absurd. What are we supposed to do about the future of our culture? Or maybe that's your plan... I oughta think about this one more.

Don't get all shaker on my ass dude. Just go back to telling me I can be ecumenical. I liked you way better back then.

0 comments: