[Avodah] Chinese repression in Tibet - al pi Torah?

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:

> And his description matches Wikipedia, to the best of my comprehension.
> It's a very "saint" (bodhisattva) oriented religion, believing that
> there are people who hang around after enlightenment to help others get
> there. And they may use effigies to help focus meditation, including
> effigies of the Buddha and other bodhisattvas. But they aren't worshipped
> as deities, and make much less of a claim of such than the system Tosafos
> called shituf.

1. Only one answer in that Tosfos suggests that RC is shituf, and it's
not the final answer.

2. Do they offer food to the statues?  That would contradict any claim
that the statues are mere reminders of the achievements of the person
they stand for.

3. It has been my understanding, which I will now have to check, that
Tibetan Buddhism involves worship of mountain spirits and demons, and
other pure AZ.  *That* is probably not in the books they print for
Westerners.


-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas