Expert: Alex Wilding - 9/3/2010

Question
Hello!

I have read that both the Dalai Lama and the Karmapa are considered emanations of the Buddha Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of the Compassion. But I don't really understand what it means. Are they really reincarnations of Avalokiteshvara? Both? I thought mental continuum were individual, so I'm very confused...

I have another question. In my country, Spain, there is a community of monks called "Sakya Tashi Ling". But they say they are "ngagpa monks". I am confused because I thought that ngagpa were lay people, not monks. I have read HH Sakya Trizin is a ngagpa too, is he a monk? Can you explain it to me?

And, finally: According to Buddhism -specially Tibetan Buddhism- are homosexuality, masturbation and oral and anal sex correct sexual behavior?

Thank you very much.  

Answer
Hi DB,
As to the first, we simply shouldn't take this kind of praise too literally. Maybe there is something in it (I think that there is), but if you take it too literally you end in a complete tangle.

"Ngagpa" means that they are practitioners of the mantric methods. You can be a mantra practitioner without being a monk (as you understood), or you can do that as a monk or nun. So they are distinguishing themselves from, for example, Theravada monks and nuns.
Sakya Trizin is not a monk, but a ngagpa in the sense you were already aware of.
To your last question, you won't get a clear answer. (Well you will, but they will differ!) Oral and anal sex is frowned on, but I'm not sure how much that is cultural. What would be important would be to be clear what vows, if any, you have taken, and what your own teacher's view is on this. Above all, of course, not to do things that are harmful.
I hope that helps a bit