I recently heard a news story about the Chinese government expressing its intent to select the next Dalai Lama. At first, the notion struck me as almost nonsensical — how could a political entity appoint a spiritual leader whose identity is believed to be discovered through reincarnation? When I asked ChatGPT about it through my Alexa device, the political reasoning became clear enough: it’s about control, influence, and the desire to shape a narrative. But even with that understanding, something deeper didn’t sit right with me.
It made me reflect on a broader truth: control, in many ways, is an illusion.
There’s something profoundly contradictory in a government trying to dictate the course of a spiritual tradition. The Dalai Lama isn’t chosen through election or decree — he is recognized through sacred rituals, visions, and centuries of lineage. To attempt to force that process into the machinery of state control is to misunderstand the very essence of what the Dalai Lama represents.
And perhaps that’s the point. When those in power try to control matters of the spirit — matters rooted in belief, intuition, and community — it reveals the limits of power more than its strength. You can command obedience, but you can’t legislate reverence. You can claim authority, but you can’t manufacture faith.
In the end, we are reminded that much of what we think we control — people, ideas, even the future — slips through our fingers the moment we tighten our grip. Real influence comes not from domination, but from understanding. And true leadership, especially of the spiritual kind, arises not from appointment, but from recognition.
What do you think — can something sacred ever truly be controlled? Or does trying to own the sacred only strip it of its power?
