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 Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 5:33 am
This was taken from Wikipedia. Quote: The Dalai Lama is a lineage of religious officials of the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism. "Lama" is a general term referring to Tibetan Buddhist teachers. In religious terms, the Dalai Lama is believed by his devotees to be the rebirth of a long line of tulkus who descend from the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. Traditionally, His Holiness is thought of as the latest reincarnation of a series of spiritual leaders who have chosen to be reborn in order to enlighten others. I was a bit puzzled when I read this because I thought the Buddha taught "no soul". How is it determined who becomes the next Dalai Lama? Where does the person go while waiting to be reborn? Heaven? Hell? Ghost? Thanks. biggrin
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Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 7:32 am
Rebirth is indeed different from reincarnation in that it requires no soul to function. And the Dalai Lama is an even more special case, given he's considered an emination (effectively an avatar) of Kwan Yin, meaning he's around at the same time as the Bodhisattva in question.
Rebirth, put simply, only requires a karmatic string to function. All creatures create karma through their actions (and yes, this includes simple intention as well as actual action, so something performed for less than up and up reasons will net you 'bad'). This is sort of a running toll of sorts, and contrary to popular Western belief, isn't really 'good' or 'bad' - all karma keeps one tied to the cycle of rebirth, so the goal isn't 'accumulate good', but 'stop accumulating'.
When someone dies, their last thoughts, along with the whole group beforehand, help determine if the karma is going to make another run through the system. If they've still got any, 'good' or 'bad', the karma necessitates a rebirth. This rebirth will NOT be the same person as was previously, and they do not have memories of the predecessors.
If it makes it easier, consider it as lighting a new candle using the dying spark of a previous one - the candles are different, the flame is different, but because of the previous one's burning, the new one is alight. 3nodding
Now, as I said, the Dalai Lama is sort of a special case. Being who he is (a bodily emination of a Bodhisattva who is residing in the heavenly realms), he seems to be capable of, from a very young age, some recall of his previous incarnations which allows him to be identified by the monks who go seeking him to bring him back. This marks him as fairly high up on the scale of ability; he could probably be enlightened tomorrow if he chose to. But he's made vows to stick around (as the previously mentioned Bodhisattva has) to help people out of the cycle. Kwan Yin in particular refuses to leave until we all go with them. 3nodding
Everyone else? Feel free to correct as needed.
I'm still a little iffy on how Vajrayana cosmology functions. xd
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Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 9:58 pm
I really enjoyed that response. From what i know (which isn't much) all of that is correct or, at least, possible. I think though in addition to what you answered: Everything does have a soul that travels with them no matter what. The only difference is that it can be chosen to be forgotten. According to the teachings of the most recent Dali Lama, when one dies they have a choice to make. They can choose to come back and help others as an enlightened awareness (which are the Dali Lamas and other religious celebs), or to go into the universe or happiness (heaven), or if they are not happy with their lives they can choose to come back and give it another shot but also forgetting everything. The only way to be a Dali Lama though is to have already worked extremely hard to improve one's self and let go of one's ego to become more budda-like.
That's just my little 2 cents. And criticism or correction is welcome.
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