EHESS Colloquium
Spread of Tibetan Buddhism in France.
For the past thirty years or so, the phenomenon of conversion to Buddhism has no longer been isolated but affects thousands of individuals. Although the Dharma has been present in France for nearly a century through the presence of Vietnamese communities, it is primarily the exile of Tibetans and the establishment of numerous centers led by lamas from the mid-1970s onward that has fostered the spread of Buddhism in France. Fueled by the media attention surrounding the Dalai Lama, the success of Tibetan Buddhism has somewhat overshadowed the equally significant spread of two other Japanese Buddhist traditions: the Soka Gakkai, which has approximately eight thousand adherents, and Zen, which has around three thousand meditators who regularly attend dojos. According to our own estimates, the followers of Tibetan Buddhism who are socialized within these centers—and therefore identifiable—number at most ten thousand people. To this figure should be added the hundreds of thousands of people who are influenced by the media presence of the Dalai Lama and other prominent figures of Tibetan Buddhism. However, these sympathizers constitute a population too superficially involved in the Dharma to be taken into account in this study on the authority of the spiritual master. We could also have studied this question through the example of Zen masters, which bears some similarities to that of Tibetan lamas. But the limited time allotted for this presentation led us to focus on Tibetan Buddhism, which reaches a larger French population. 4
The central role of the master in the transmission of the dharma
Why speak of the authority of the "spiritual master" and not the authority of tradition or institution? In the East in general, but also in the West since the East took root there, the spiritual master is the central figure of religious authority. The notions of institution, tradition, canon, and authorized teaching are also very present—contrary to what some Westerners believe—but they are secondary to a more tangible reality: the master's primary role in transmitting this traditional teaching. In very simple terms, the core idea is that the religious community's primary duty, throughout the centuries, is to help individuals achieve a liberating personal experience. Since humanity is trapped in ignorance, it is crucial to help people free themselves from the veils that shroud their minds. To achieve this, it is necessary to study traditional texts, practice certain collective rituals, and maintain proper ethical conduct—all of which is transmitted by a religious group—but the most important thing remains self-work, the intimate experience that cannot be undertaken without the guidance of an accomplished master. The master is, moreover, as essential for learning to meditate and transform oneself as it is for correctly understanding the traditional teachings recorded in writing. He is therefore the linchpin of spiritual transmission and the true religious authority.
Westerners have not only understood this, but it is even one of the main reasons for the success of Eastern spiritualities in the West. Indeed, it was within the countercultural movement, which rejected all forms of bureaucratic institutions and authoritarian leadership, that Westerners turned to the East to find, above all, masters of life and wisdom.
We will see, however, how the concept of the spiritual master's authority was transformed in its passage to the West. Let us first consider, from the discourse of the followers, from which the Buddhist spiritual master, in this case the Tibetan lama, derives the legitimacy of his authority.
Legitimacy of the authority of the Tibetan lama
My analysis here is based primarily on interviews, but also on certain responses from the questionnaire concerning the many followers of Tibetan Buddhism who claim to be connected to a particular lama. It should be noted that in Tibetan Buddhism, one can follow the teachings of any qualified master, but it is strongly advised to choose a lama in whom one will confide more specifically and who will guide the disciple directly in their spiritual work. This lama is called the "root lama," and the questionnaire showed that two-thirds of the followers had a "root lama.".
In very brief terms, I would highlight 6 essential points.
– First: authority is freely chosen. All disciples emphasize the crucial point that religious authority is not imposed upon them. They freely choose to follow a particular master, and some even insist that they can change masters if they made a mistake in their initial choice.
– Second: Tibetan Buddhism encourages the establishment of an emotional relationship with the master. It is even described as a "loving" relationship, although this translation can be misleading, and we will return to this point, to characterize the bond that should unite master and disciple. One is thus invited to love one's master and to be loved by him, which, from the followers' perspective, establishes a genuine relationship of trust and greatly facilitates spiritual progress by allowing the heart, and not just the intellect, to be involved.
– Third: the lama is a being with recognized qualities: he helps the disciple because he has already walked the path and reached its destination. And since he has experienced what he teaches, the master protects against the dangers and pitfalls of the spiritual path. He is both a guide and a safeguard.
– Fourth: The lama transmits the modalities of an experience that one must in turn undertake. He is not there only to impart theoretical teachings but to help his disciples have an experience and progress (pragmatism and effectiveness).
– Fifth: He is radiant. One can know that he is a master because he radiates, because his actions are in accordance with his words: personal charisma.
– Sixth: The lama is the guarantor of the authenticity of an ancient tradition: he ensures that his disciples remain faithful to this age-old teaching that has proven itself over time.
Criticism of Western religious authorities (Christian or Jewish)
To better grasp the typical nature of this religious authority linked to the spiritual master, let us compare, using the followers' own words, this form of authority to that which they reject in the religious traditions of their childhood, which they have left behind. This leads to the following pattern:
– On one hand, we are subjected to circumstances; on the other, we choose.
– On one hand, we have an impersonal, cold, bureaucratic relationship with authority; on the other, a personal, emotional, and warm relationship
. – On one hand, we are guided by someone who has walked the path themselves and knows all its pitfalls; on the other, we are advised by people who have no personal experience of what they teach.
– On one hand, we are in the presence of someone who radiates positivity; on the other, we are in the presence of people who are often sad, unhappy, if not downright perverse.
– On one hand, we receive the tools for a transformative experience; on the other, we receive dogma and conformity.
The only point of convergence concerns tradition. In both cases, there is respect for the authority of an ancient, proven tradition, and a recognition of the need for an authority to faithfully transmit this sacred legacy. However, it is emphasized that the lama is better able to convey this teaching than pastors, priests, or rabbis, who lack pedagogical skills.
The power of charisma and its limits
To borrow classic categories from the sociology of religion, we can therefore say that authority in Tibetan Buddhism is charismatic, according to Weber's ideal type. "Charismatic authority," Weber writes, "means: a domination (whether more external or more internal) exercised over people, to which the dominated submit by virtue of the belief in this quality attached to that particular person."6 The master gathers disciples around him through his personal charisma. Most followers, moreover, compare their lama to great charismatic Christian figures, such as Jesus or Francis of Assisi. The follower is bound to the community by the charisma of the spiritual master and invests in a strong personal and emotional relationship with the lama he has chosen as his spiritual guide. To revisit the different modes of validating belief developed by Danièle Hervieu-Léger, we could speak here of a mixed validation regime, both institutional and charismatic. For the lamas clearly play the role of institutional mediators: their personal charisma allows them, in a number of cases, to guide their disciples towards a regime of institutional validation. 7
But while it allows many Western disciples to be socialized in Tibetan centers that transmit traditional practices and teachings, this charismatic nature of authority is not without its serious problems. Particularly sensitive to the "radiance" of certain lamas, which contrasted sharply with the somber demeanor of the priests of their childhood, many followers have come to project onto these masters all sorts of childish and romantic issues that no longer had much to do with the traditional notion of "devotion" to the master. By emphasizing the importance of this devotion, especially in the Kagyu school, the Tibetan lamas probably did not anticipate triggering so many emotions, thus creating relationships that were often more passionate than spiritual. Therefore, the careless transposition of a traditional religious concept into a modern world where romantic love, seduction, and passion often intertwine in a confused manner gives rise to surprising misunderstandings. Given that some Tibetan lamas are not immune to feminine charm, and considering that it is culturally accepted in Tibet for a lama who has not taken monastic vows to have sexual relations with his disciples—another cultural misunderstanding with the Christian West, which unconsciously equates the lama with the Catholic priest—more than one Western disciple has found herself in a rather ambiguous situation. These misunderstandings have caused genuine scandals and sometimes even led to lawsuits in the United States. Of course, one finds in all religions such examples of pious followers falling in love with a cleric, all the more so because he seems unattainable. But the problem more specific to the East transposed to the West, and to Tibetan Buddhism in particular, is that this amorous impulse can appear as legitimized by the very authority of the tradition, which encourages the creation of strong personal bonds between master and disciple and does not hesitate to speak of "loving devotion" in a sense which becomes ambiguous when transposed without caution into a different cultural area.
Beyond this emotional aspect and the problems it poses, the purely charismatic nature of the method of integration into the tradition actually constitutes a real obstacle to the stabilization of followers within the community. Many followers leave the centers or cease attending them after the master's death. Either they abandon all contact with the sangha, the Buddhist community, and perhaps continue to meditate alone, or they go to another center under a different master.
The East-West misunderstanding regarding spiritual authority
These problems did not exist in Tibet. Firstly, because there was no misunderstanding surrounding the notions of romantic relationships and the unconscious process of idealizing the lama, and secondly, because charisma was much less pronounced. What matters more to Tibetans than personal charisma is the charisma of office, the spiritual master's place in the lineage, which reflects a fairly classic institutional model. A master like the Karmapa, who is the head of the great Kagyu lineage, has a much greater aura for Tibetans than any lama of that lineage, however holy he may be. The same cannot be said in the West. Although he visited France many times, beginning in 1974, the 16th Karmapa had very few Western disciples. Conversely, the first Westerners to travel to India to visit the exiled lamas were captivated by the personality of a Kagyu lama of low institutional standing, Kalu Rinpoche, who had spent over thirty years meditating in caves in Tibet and possessed extraordinary personal charisma. They invited this rather elderly lama to come to France. Although he spoke only Tibetan, he aroused immense enthusiasm, most of his disciples saying they were literally "struck by lightning" when they saw him for the first time, sometimes even just in a photograph. He single-handedly founded half of the Tibetan centers in France, inaugurated the practice of the great retreats of three years, three months, and three days, and sheltered nearly thirty thousand people between 1975 and 1989, the year of his death.
After generating immense enthusiasm around himself, the directors of the centers he had founded were unpleasantly surprised to see attendance plummet after the master's death. For example, the large center in Plaige, Burgundy, which had invested tens of millions of francs in the mid-1980s to build the largest Tibetan temple in the West and a hotel capable of accommodating two hundred people, went bankrupt, its attendance having collapsed after Kalu Rinpoche's passing. It took more than ten years to pay off its debts thanks to donations from numerous patrons, and crowds only returned to the center for the enthronement ceremony of a four-year-old child recognized as Kalu Rinpoche's reincarnation. The exact same phenomenon occurred in the United States after the death of the highly charismatic Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
Conclusion
This emphasis on the personal charisma of the master, to the detriment of other forms of legitimacy of authority, including the charisma of office, constitutes a profound transformation in the transmission of the dharma from East to West. It is both the great strength and the great weakness of Tibetan Buddhism in the West: a powerful attraction that draws many disciples by minimizing the role of the institution, it simultaneously hinders the stabilization and retention of followers within the tradition.