Tibetan Buddhism claims that one reincarnates due to attachment to the physical form. Your desire to cling on to life is so great that after death it leads your consciousness to attach itself to a new body. An enlightened person has freed himself from desires and upon death is free to attain a state of pure consciousness or parinirvana. However, it would be selfish to do so, and enlightened beings in traditions based on the Mahayana teachings, like Tibetan Buddhism, look to the ideal of the Bodhisattva: someone who despite reaching enlightenment voluntarily refrains from parinirvana in order to help more people.
jovan well put in terms of Buddhism, and, the Dalai Lama is one who is held as the pinnacle of that thought. if you are far enough aware, there is choice in the direction of reincarnation, without immediate temporal terms. I cannot even fathom the complexity there, but it is quite elaborated, understood, and preserved within the Tibetan tradition.
That is the dangerous loss of that tradition, from my meager understanding of it. In my studies, it is a complex and rational explaintion of the human mind, with a incisive intent, yet, generous in it’s social ramifications. That’s the immense loss we face in the destruction of the Tibetan culture. Not the immediate gratification of oil money, but a well-honed tradition of mental development.
Found a very good pertinent link Read that for a more complete understanding. Young Tibetans are at the same point that our country was when faced with the racial issues we had in the 60’s. They are righteously angry now, and want the world to see it, beyond the Dalai Lama’s tempered means. Now is their time to act.
I’ve waffled back and forth in responding here., but see it better to say a bit so.
Yes, you can choose not to, but one of the main “agreements” of a bodhisattva is that you serve the terms of those in need, regrdless of your own needs. In that understanding, the Dalai Lama is held in highest regard, as he supresses all needs in order to serve others. It’s a supposittion, still, that he has progressed to do that at the high level required by Tibetan tradition. They do it at an impeccable level, by my eyes.
Ain’t this the truth. Any real information is buried under the pro- and anti- Dalai Lama floods.
Does anyone know of an actual, scholarly reference on Tibetan society before 1949 (presumably the one that DL wants to restore)?
I don’t know if you just meant “Christian era” in the sense of the time of Jesus, but Christianity never really arrived in Tibet; before the introduction of Buddhism between the 6th and 7th centuries, the major religion was Bon, which was/is a sort of proto-shamanistic belief system of somewhat controversial origin. Tamerlane can probably tell you much more about it (or about any of the history of South Asia).
The Dalai Lama has no intent to restore it (fortunately, I must add).
And in fact, he has announced that should it be necessary he will reincarnate outside of Tibet and China and continue his work that way.
By the way, I just requested an interview with him.
Yes, but his decision to reincarnate (or not) would be made based on the needs of Buddhism and Buddhist people, not on his own needs, right? He might feel that it would be detrimental to the whole to be reincarnated under the current circumstances.
Here ya go: http://e-asia.uoregon.edu/easia/echina_b.htm
download the free Tibet Past and Present by Sir Charles Bell, the British Envoy to Tibet in the 1930’s. He was stationed in Lhasa.
If you look through the free ebooks, there are quite a few books on Tibet.
Now that’s a source. Thanks China Guy.