Lama Ole Nydahl, Controversial, Unconventional Lama, Speaks Tonight

Have you seen those fliers resting in storefront windows and hanging from light poles all over town with the headline, “Buddhism in the 21st Century”? They are advertising a talk tonight at the Winningstad Theatre [Portland, Oregon] by Lama Ole Nydahl , the former drug dealer and street boxer from Denmark who now travels the globe lecturing on his unique, Western brand of Tibetan Buddhism , the “Diamond Way.”

As you might expect from somebody with such a rough and tumble past, Nydahl has his share of detractors. Some Buddhists are turned off by his skydiving, openly sexual, rockstar personality, in many ways the opposite of the common image of the Buddhist as a monk who stays above the sins of the world by retreating from them the meditate his life away in a temple. Others can forgive him the sex and motorcycles, but simply find his remarks about Islam to be xenophobic. But it’s not like everybody’s an enemy: you don’t found 600 Diamond Way centers around the world without a devoted following.

Speaking with him, it’s easy to understand why people flock to the Lama. He projects a kind of warm equanimity and, even over the phone, there is a palpable charisma . He comes across as a friendly person who does really care for the person he’s talking to. Perhaps this makes him the head of a cult of personality . But then, what religious (or secular) leader is there who can avoid that charge? Does anybody remember John McCain’s Obama-is-a- Celebrity ad ?  It’s not like the 67-year-old Nydahl hasn’t done the work: he and his deceased wife Hannah studied for years in Tibet under the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpei Dorje .

What follows is a Q&A WW conducted last week with Nydahl, who was in Hawaii working on a new book. Read Article