Dalai Lama Says Cult Isn’t Healthy Japanese Sect Strayed From Buddhism Into Worship Of Its Leader

The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled Buddhist leader, suggested Wednesday that a sect suspected of deadly nerve gas attacks on Tokyo’s subway had strayed from Buddhism and become a cult.

The Dalai Lama has met several times with Shoko Asahara, leader of the Aum Shinri Kyo sect. The sect describes itself as Buddhist, but its teachings are based on Buddhism, Hinduism and the worship of Asahara.

“At the beginning, he seemed eager to know about Tibetan Buddhism, then eventually I felt he was more concerned with organization than with spiritual practice,” the Dalai Lama said as he wound up a nine-day visit to Japan.

“Basic Buddhist belief is you must not rely on a person but on teaching. Thus becoming a cult is not healthy.”

Some Aum members wear headgear with electrodes and wires that reportedly are meant to synchronize the follower’s brain waves with those of Asahara. The cult also reportedly charges followers high prices for items such as vials of Asahara’s blood or the leader’s used bath water.

The sect has denied involvement in the nerve gas attacks. Police have seized tons of chemicals from its compounds that could have been used to produce sarin, the nerve gas used in the attacks.

The Dalai Lama said suspicions of the sect are unlikely to damage the image of mainstream Buddhism, whose roots go back some 2,500 years.

“The teachings are sound,” he said. “Unfortunately, people sometimes use religion in a wrong way.”

The Dalai Lama has lived in exile since 1959, when he fled to India following a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule.