submitted on Sun, 07/15/2007 - 18:45 in Travel Asia with Raimondo Bultrini Niche by zorg 
The Venerable Lhakdor, director of the Tibetan Library of Works and Archives, is a Geshe, the highest grade attainable in the study of Dharma, the Buddhist doctrine that is lead in Tibet by the Dalai Lama. Lhakdor is relatively young for this diplomatic task, which has been personally entrusted to him by His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, XIV in the lineage of Dalai Lamas.
For many years he was his personal translator of English and has travelled all over the world with him. There is nothing to say that he could not one day be among those destined to find the reincarnation of the Master. The Geshe knows the history and the meaning of the rituals and mystical preparations, as he tells in this narrative journey through ten centuries of rebirths of the sages of the Himalayas. Venerable Lhakdor: The present Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, was born in the gya month of the Tibetan Wood Pig Year, corresponding to 6th July 1935. The person who discovered him was Reting Rinpoche, the Regent chosen by the committee of abbots and lamas after the death of the XIII Dalai Lama. The first thing he did was to go to Lake Lamo Latso, where Tibetans traditionally believe it is possible to foretell their own future, thanks to the powers of a divinity called Rimati. Reting stayed in meditation on the banks of the lake for many days until he saw a series of Tibetan letters on its surface. These were A, KA and MA, related to different places and circumstances, which later proved to be true. The clearest indication was (a vision like) a perfect photograph of the place where the rediscovery actually happened. Reting saw a three-storey monastery, the second storey of which was turquoise, with a path going eastwards from it to the foot of a hill, on top of which was a low house with a light blue roof. The regent wrote down his visions on a sheet of paper and sealed it until it was time to make the real search, conducted by four different teams of lamas and monks, sent out in the four cardinal directions of the compass.
The previous incarnation who proclaimed the independence of Tibet died when he was fifty eight years old; leaving a testament that was worrying and incredibly prophetic. He wrote, ‘One day the political system founded by the three Dharma kings will be only an empty name. The government officials will be deprived of their wealth and made slaves of their enemies and the people will be subjected to such suffering they will not be able to tell the difference between day and night’. Undoubtedly the coming of the Chinese corresponds with his prophesies.
There remains the ineffable mystery of his many lives. Venerable Lhakdor: The concept of reincarnation comes from Buddha himself. He spoke of the three ‘bodies’ of the Buddha: physical, spiritual and mental. A human emanation who has attained the real spiritual and mental ‘body’ can manifest in many other forms such as a bridge for those who cannot cross or bread for the hungry. But in India, where Buddha taught, there is no longer the concept of reincarnation as it is understood in Tibetan Buddhism, where, in the eleventh century, before the beginning of the lineage of the Dalai Lama, the first Karmapa of the Kagyupa tradition reincarnated in a child of his choice, and a century later the Masters of the Nyingmapa, the most ancient school of Tibetan Buddhism, did the same, followed in the XV Century by the Gelugpa School with the Dalai Lama.
The correct process of research to discover a reincarnation is to find an intelligent and healthy individual who is able to reveal facts related to his previous lives and to recognise objects that belonged to him. According to several traditions the method is to leave, before dying, some indications of the place, the village or the family in which the lama will again take a body. But even if this doesn’t happen, other reincarnated lamas, tulkus, are consulted and specific divinations are performed. The research is done according to the results of the divinations and the lama’s advice on how to proceed. Finally, once a candidate has been identified, his intelligence is examined.
The XIII Dalai Lama had already expressed, through various signs, his preference for his next rebirth. During a visit to the area where he was to be reborn, he made an unusual comment on the beauty of the place, and also left a pair of shoes in the monastery near the house, a gesture that many considered very symbolic. When he died in 1993 he was transferred in meditation position onto his throne in the Potala palace in Lhasa and after some hours his head, which was perfectly upright, turned towards the wall in the eastern direction, where a strange mushroom appeared in the form of a star. However, in the history of the reincarnations of the Dalai Lama the signs accompanying the event are not always positive, like rainbows or the arrival of birds never seen before.
For example, before the present Dalai Lama was born his father became seriously ill and only recovered after the birth; also dozens of his farm animals died for mysterious reasons. Raimondo B: How does the selection of the child candidate proceed? Venerable Lhakdor: The first selection concerns his capability. After having ascertained their characteristics, the names of the various candidates are put into balls of pastry and placed in a vase. Prayers to invoke the divinity precede the shaking of the vase until one of the balls literally jumps out. At this point special oracles are consulted, who have demonstrated their knowledge and power to enter into communication with the divinities. Raimondo B: How would you describe the mind of a reincarnation? Venerable Lhakdor: The more one goes towards the level of the subtle mind the more one is free from the physical body. At the time of death the body loses its component elements: fire, earth, air and so on, and at that moment the mind can separate itself from it. However, it is only through practice that you can obtain control over your mind. When an ordinary being realizes he no longer has a body he feels afraid, because his mind is connected with his body and he doesn’t know how to live without it. The reason is that normally we are all dependent on our afflicting emotions and we are unable to maintain a state of mind that could take us to different places and dimensions, besides allowing us to take control of another mind.
During what we Tibetans call the bardo, the intermediate state between this life and the next, the type of rebirth will depend on whether your actions have been positive or negative. If they were negative you could be reborn as an animal or a man who suffers, according to the different circumstances we ourselves have created, not only in our immediately previous life but also in all the others. A real lama who has practised is not afraid of death, in fact he welcomes it. Raimondo B: The Dalai Lama only spoke about intuitions with regard to his next life. Venerable Lhakdor: A good practitioner doesn’t talk about things people cannot understand the meaning of, and he doesn’t publicise his capacities. In our tradition, in the past, obviously not all those who were recognised as reincarnations were capable of controlling their own minds. Often recognitions were made to satisfy the wishes of powerful or aristocratic families. For example, there is the story of a lama who recognised seventy eight tulkus, but very few of them were real ones. At times some children clearly show certain abilities, they know how to recite mantras and entire sacred texts without having ever been taught them by anyone.
This has also been documented by western scholars. The present Dalai Lama immediately recognised the mala and the walking stick of the XIII from among various others. He also remembered exactly the face of the lama when he took him on his knee and the names of the other members of the search party. When he saw them go away the first time the little Dalai Lama, who was called Lhamo Dondub at that time, started to cry to go with them. In fact he had been saying for a long time that he would have to go to Lhasa.
