Tracy's World

Maybe the Dalai Lama was just a few days too late in signing up for a Twitter account which could have saved Tiger Woods a whole lot of trouble. If the Dalai Lama had been tweeting, Tiger, a Buddhist himself, could have been in touch with His Holiness through the Internet. Maybe the message that self-discipline is among Buddhism’s highest values could have given Woods the extra strength he needed to fight off the temptations of sexual promiscuity.When asked about Tiger Woods, the Dalai Lama stated that he did not know who he was. Just think, they could have been following one another with tweets via Twitter!

I don’t blame the Dalai Lama for being hesitant about setting up an account. After all,  last year’s fake account for the Dalai Lama tricked over 16, 000 people into joining it.  But this account is legitimate.  It has Twitter’s seal of approval and has almost 100,000 followers so far. On February 21, Evan Williams, Twitter´s founder, met with the Dalai Lama and persuaded him to join. Williams later tweeted that the Dalai Lama laughed when he heard Williams´s advice to use the social networking site. The next day, the Dalai Lama´s office in Dharamsala, India, set up a Twitter page and sent the first message with information that the Dalai Lama has visited Los Angels.

When Tiger’s sex scandal was explained to the Dalai Lama, he said that all religions have the same idea “when it comes to adultery.” “Whether you call it Buddhism or another religion, self-discipline, that’s important. . . . Self-discipline with awareness of consequences.”

Tiger seems to agree, saying that in the past he had “drifted away” from the Buddhist values of his upbringing. “Buddhism,” he said, “teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint.”

This seems like a great way for Tiger to curb his appetite for the pleasures of this world. I hope he can learn from his mistakes and find whatever it is he needs to recover from his downfalls. He may want to consider what Brit Hume had to say on Fox News Sunday, “He’s said to be a Buddhist; I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. So my message to Tiger would be, ‘Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.’”

Whatever he chooses, I wish Tiger Woods the best and hope for a true recovery and reconciliation in his life.