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Newsgroups: alt.religion.buddhism.tibetan
Path: shell.portal.com!svc.portal.com!sdd.hp.com!gatech!newsfeed.internetmci.com!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!btnet!news.compulink.co.uk!cix.compulink.co.uk!usenet
From: johnc@cix.compulink.co.uk ("John Cleaver")
Subject: Re: Tibetean Buddhist reincarnation.
Message-ID:
Organization: Compulink Information eXchange
References: <4h5q25$i3h@sundog.tiac.net>
Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1996 10:16:01 GMT
X-News-Software: Ameol32
Lines: 48
Sphere observes:
>The
>closest I have found to some sort of mechanism
>for the continued existence of an individual
>self after the death of the body has been in
>the physical objects transformed during the existence
>of the body and the memories of people effected
>during the individual life.
I think a lot of confusion is caused by the Tibetan notion of a
reincarnating lama (tulku, nirmanakaya).
Tulku means Nirmanakaya, physical manifestation of a buddha. The
nirmanakaya is a projection. But Tibetan tulkus are *not* buddhas
(despite the popular presses use of the expression 'living buddha'). They
are bodhisattvas at some level or other. Ask a tulku, and he will confirm
this. Therefore it is incorrect to call them nirmanakayas.
The idea that they can project their personality into a future life
substantially intact seems to me to be rather folklore-ish. It is worth
noting that when Buddhism first came to Tibet, lineages were passed down
through families, not through reincarnating lamas. The tulku system
appears to have been set up in response to some corrupt practices
appearing in the family lineage system (people inheriting a lineage who
were obviously not up to teaching and maintaining the lineage).
Incidentally the family system is preserved in some significant lineages
- I believe the Sakya Trizin (sp?) lineage is passed down through the
family.
The confusion arises (in questioning western minds) because the tulku
system seems to imply that something other than karma can be preserved
through death, and this seems to contradict the fundamental teaching of
no abiding self. People have deep confidence in their tulku lama, not
neccessarily arising from the claim that the lama is a tulku; they then
have difficulty reconciling the tulku claim with the philosophical
position that on death, the personality is necessarily destroyed
completely.
It is worth noting that no other tradition than the Tibetan one has any
similar system, and that there are definitely some aspects of the Tibetan
traditions that were put in place for political reasons - it's no
coincidence that the Tibetan establishment has been theocratic for a
thousand years.
Jack.
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