Dalai Lama: 'I Am A Marxist'

USA Today reports:

Usually what we hear from the Dalai Lama is an insistant yet soothing voice for compassion and peace.

So Tsering Namgyal, a journalist based in Minneapolis, was jolted by the Dalai Lama's talk to 150 Chinese students this month at the University of Minnesota. Writing at Religion Dispatches, he says:

"Midway through the conversation, His Holiness, much to their surprise, told them 'as far as socio-political beliefs are concerned, I consider myself a Marxist ... But not a Leninist', he clarified."

... When one student asked if this didn't contradict the Dalai Lama's philosophy, he replied: Marx was not against religion or religious philosophy per se but against religious institutions that were allied, during Marx's time, with the European ruling class.

He also provided an interesting anecdote about his experience with Mao.

He said that Mao had felt that the Dalai Lama's mind was very logical, implying that Buddhist education and training help sharpens the mind. He said he met with Mao several times, and that once, during a meeting in Beijing, the Chinese leader called him in and announced: "Your mind is scientific!" -- an assessment that was followed by the famous line, "religion is poison."