Wirehead Studios

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20227400/site/newsweek/

Just... read it.  This is about the most absurd thing I have ever read.  Next thing they'll do is pass a law banning me from self-immolating.  :rolleyes:

I agree, that is one of the most absurd things I have ever heard... They are traking this seriously?
No reincarnating without government permision? How does that work exactly? Do they get a reincarnation license? And how can you seriously tell people: Hey you can't reincarnate Dali Lama here without a license. And  how is this law enforced... And another thing: Does this even make sense?

I might have one positive side-effect: to stop people from yapping on about their fancy-pants past lives (thoe most glorious things I've ever been was delivery boy, court jester and professional turkey wrangler :/).

Does China command the Buddha?

What's next? you need a license to cleanse your own aura? No chi focusing except in specific places? No waxing willy wonka without a government approved overseer? No astral projection without a passport?

The Reclining Buddha will be arrested by China for loitering.

Typically, people don't even remember their previous lives.  I certainly don't know who (or what) I was in my previous life, if any.  So... that's not much of a positive side effect...

Assuming they have previous lives of course.  Who can know?  If some almighty deity decides you only have one shot, it's kind of hard to argue the point.  Also kind of hard to argue if same almighty deity decides you're going to run the course more than one time.  Of course, I should think that if someone woke up one day and remembered that they were Adolph Hitler or Attila the Hun they might not be too fond of themselves.  Perhaps lack of such memory would be a blessing, saving such integration of one's experiences for a more mature state of spirit where one could accept all aspects of their nature and be able to forgive the bad parts instead of succumbing to guilt.  I leave it to God as to whether or not humans are reincarnated, though I would say there's "no time like the present" to start being a better person.  Even a Buddhist would tell you that procrastinating on spiritual growth is something that one is best to avoid.

Now as for myself... well... setting yourself on fire every 500 years or so plays havoc with the memory, and there's only so much you can cram into a bird brain.  I remember things I think I'd like to forget, and I've forgotten things I should say I would like to remember.

Two things...

1.)  To the best of my knowledge, the Chinese government has very little control over people's immortal souls.

2.)  A government trying to seize control of organized religion makes me worried.

Amen, brother.  Amen.

I fail to understand how they can do it... it seems similar to... if america needed every christian (regardless of where they live) to get permission to be baptized...

Tibet probably (I don't know, I'm not a religious scholar) holds a lot of importance in Buddhism but china has no real claim to the actual religion...

The people who follow this religion believe that they are constantly reincarnating. The german guy who spent 7 years in Tibet said, in his book, that the people there weren't allowed to kill the animals, since they could be a reincarnation of one of their ancester.They don't even celebrate birthdays because of their belief in constant reincarnation! I wonder how the people who follow this religion in China reacted.

Communism typically tries to stamp out religion, and China has a horrible record when it comes to religious freedom.  A Communist government can't afford to have people answering to something higher than the state.  To them, the state is the only god, the supreme authority, and while everyone is answerable to the state, the state is answerable to no one.  They've tried unsuccessfully for decades to oppress and control the Dali Lama and the Tibetan monks.  As with Taiwan's independence, the Chinese government sees their resistance to Communist control as a blemish, a stain on their national pride, so this is their latest attempt at trying to control them.  The Chinese government takes this decree every bit as seriously as we view it as absurd.  The strange thing to the outsider is that by "banning" the Dali Lama from reincarnating it, in effect, declares a state position that he does in fact reincarnate - a very strange concept coming from an atheistic regime, but then I suppose if obedience is the only desired result it doesn't have to make logical sense so long as people do what they're told.  They can always say "no we never said that" later and, of course, it will have always been that they never said it if you ask them.