When a lama passes away, is it beneficial to search for the reincarnation of that lama?

When a lama passes away, is it beneficial to search for the reincarnation of that lama?

That’s a very tricky issue. We are opening up a box full of problems (*laughter*). I don’t know much about these things but I can perhaps share my personal opinion.

The precious Dharma of Shakyamuni Buddha spread from the Arya land of India, where many holy beings, extraordinary beings, lived. At that time, they didn’t seem to have the custom of recognizing the reincarnations of previous holy beings. But as the Dharma spread to Tibet the tradition of recognizing reincarnated Lamas gradually began.

If the actual person is extremely precious, someone who practiced the scriptural doctrine and the doctrine of realizations with great compassion for limitless sentient beings, and who with wisdom understands the true nature of all phenomena (outer and inner), such a being can become an emanation body or tulku. A tulku can manifest in various forms to benefit others, stemming from the union of Buddhahood. Because the source of this emanation is extremely precious, the resultant actions are also extremely precious and inexpressible.

At any time and in any aspect, such a being continuously works through their body, speech and mind for the sake of sentient beings, striving to free them from suffering and its causes and to establish limitless sentient beings in the state of liberation and omniscience. This is not just a wish. Through the complete accomplishment and fulfillment of the spiritual path, such a holy being can take actual, practical actions to help all sentient beings, driven solely by great compassion for them. This great compassion gives rise to limitless manifestations and appearances that perfectly align with the aspirations, characters and capacities of each and every sentient being. These emanation bodies seem to manifest naturally, depending on the various causes we've mentioned. 

In the precious teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha he said that, in the future, he will manifest in different ways for the sake of his disciples. These prophecies are incredible and almost inexpressible. These tulkus or manifestation bodies are extremely precious and inconceivable. In the past, many of these very precious emanation bodies have appeared. In the present they are appearing and in the future they will continue to appear. From a positive perspective this is how we describe it. 

However, if we take a negative perspective, nowadays some tulkus are considered extremely precious and to prove that they often recount the many previous lives they’ve had. Some, especially when they go to the West to prove their validity, only speak about the great actions and qualities of their previous incarnations. Currently, there are many such people who, in this very life, do not have any innate qualities from their previous life or who have not undergone any learning to demonstrate their capabilities.

For Westerners who are new to the Dharma and don't yet understand it well, these issues can be confusing and overwhelming. Westerners have made great material progress, have access to excellent education and possess sharp intelligence. They are the kind of people who say, "If it's not true, I'm never going to believe it." But then, when it comes to little children who are recognized as reincarnate Lamas, how can they have faith in them? How do they protect or help you Westerners?  

If we can, it's okay. Why not? We can recognize reincarnate Lamas. But you should not fully entrust yourselves to those reincarnate Lamas. That can harm you a lot and create significant damage (*laughter*). How do they cause damage? How do they harm you? Take, for example, a little child who is said to be great and people advertise everywhere how great he is. But this child doesn't even know Refuge yet, even if he's an extremely precious emanation body. 

For us, representations of the holy body, speech and mind of the Buddhas are also very precious, right? But all these representations cannot speak, can they? So, it's difficult for them to directly benefit us. Similarly, for a very young tulku, even if we say he's very precious, the qualities of abandonment and realization are a bit tricky. This is just my personal opinion, okay? 

So, if any of you want to offer all your money and possessions, build a nice house and make everything special for such children or reincarnate Lamas, this creates only harm for them. Why? Because if they have all these things, they won't study well. Consequently, if they don't generate any good qualities, don't study and don't put the Dharma into practice, they won't be of any benefit to anyone. Whether they truly are the reincarnation of the previous Lama or not, how would I know? If it is the case that they are, that's good. If it's not, well, that's about it. 

Anyway, we should focus on helping them develop good qualities, training them and encouraging them to practice well. If, through the practice of hearing, contemplating and meditating they can generate actual realizations of the Dharma, then whether they are truly the reincarnation of a past life or not, they will benefit the doctrine and all sentient beings. They will become very useful and precious. If we can relate to them as a guru from the outside, then that becomes very precious and useful as well. 

To be a Lama is not easy. Even teachers of general knowledge are valuable and precious. Even a teacher who teaches us knowledge useful for this life, is very precious. So, when it comes to a Lama, a Lama is the one who guides us from our state of being an ordinary being all the way to the state of omniscience. In other terms, someone who helps us travel the ten bhumis, the ten grounds, so that we reach a state in which we will never, ever have to experience suffering again.

From the perspective of Buddha Dharma, the presentation of suffering and happiness is extremely vast and detailed. What is really useful and precious is someone who can show us the actual methods and techniques that help us reduce and destroy our sufferings.

When we conceive this person as being very precious, how do we do that? It’s not because their physical aggregates are precious that we see them as precious. Even if a very precious Lama appears from the dharmakaya as a human being, they are not made of flesh and bones. They are actually a completely inconceivable type of being that appears to us as a human being. However, because they emanate and appear as a human being, what we see is a human being from our side. Further, we consider them precious not because of their physical form but because of their speech and advice. Also, if their qualities of body and speech are not sourced in the holy qualities of their mind, then we cannot trust the first two.

The person who shows us what to engage in and what to discard is very precious because of showing us all the causes that we need to implement. We see the reasons for valuing them according to what they embody.

There are all kinds of different tulkus and it’s difficult to place our faith in them. Through a good education and once they reach 30 or 40 years of age, we can see their qualities. For someone like me, before tulkus have reached this age and shown qualities for themselves, it is very difficult to have faith in them. When they are little kids, declaring them as precious doesn’t fit in my understanding. Maybe it’s because I have impure vision or karma. If it’s not beneficial, a great name, a high throne and the enumeration of past lives that could be so long that one can use a mala to count them, I can’t really have conviction in that.

Then, when they grow up, they might do all kinds of stuff. They may build a little nest for themselves and engage in the ‘eight worldly dharmas’, the eight worldly concerns. If these tulkus act like this and they use all the things that are offered by so many people, things which we call the substances of faith, if they use all these offerings to look fancy and just have a good time and be happy, if they are surrounded by poor people or miserable people and still they walk around looking all fancy and have a liking for luxury things, then how can we have faith in them? I don't understand how it is possible. If people act like that, it is very difficult to have faith in them.

From the perspective of how to relate to the spiritual master, in guru yoga, there's a very precious and very important aspect to that relationship. There's a reason for which we should see our guru as very precious. But from the perspective of a little kid who has a big name, it's very difficult to see him as precious. Many people try their best to have such faith and pure view, but in the end there's only one way it ends up; they generate wrong views and lose faith.  It always ends up like this. 

At the beginning, in one's own brain, it's very difficult to believe in reincarnation, in past lives and future lives. We have a strong conviction that the mind and the brain is actually one and the same. It's very difficult for us to use our intelligence to understand the subtler aspects of karma, cause and subtler aspects of actions and their results. Therefore, when tulkus do all kind of things, even if we insist and try to force ourselves to have faith in them, it's like the blind leading the blind.

So, putting this aside, what we can do first is to not spoil the little tulkus. Whether it's a boy or girl, it doesn't matter. We push them to do good studies, work hard and become a person who truly understands the Dharma and generates faith in the Dharma through their understanding of it. If the tulku is truly the reincarnation of the previous Lama, then that would activate their imprints. This person will become very precious. Otherwise, we will praise or revere a little kid like a previous life Lama when the reality is that they are two different people. So, whether we  receive benefit or not through a relationship with this person, it's something we can see for ourselves. 

What actually protects us, what is truly beneficial to us, is the one who tells us, “This is non-virtuous, this is virtuous. This is positive and wholesome, this is negative and harmful. This is only temporary, this is ultimate. This is your self-grasping, this is your self-cherishing. This is how you get rid of those things and this is how you generate bodhicitta and understand emptiness. A person who guides you slowly through these different steps so you generate such positive mindsets, is a person who is truly precious.

This person then shows you how to understand these realizations, first through hearing and studying, then by showing you how to generate wisdom from hearing and studying. They will teach you how to engage in these realization through contemplation and then how to generate an experience from this contemplation. At first this will be an experience that is contrived and then an experience that is not contrived. They don’t just leave you at the level of contemplation but will also guide you to the level of meditation, where you generate a contrived experience and realization and then cultivate an uncontrived experience of the meditation on the positive realizations that we mentioned.

In this way the master guides you progressively, step by step, showing you what to uphold and what to discard. The tulku or Lama should act in this way and, from the disciple's side, they should know how to cultivate proper faith, devotion and conviction. One should strive to generate faith based on understanding and reasoning. If you manage to generate such faith, it is certain that you will not lose faith or develop wrong views. There are three different types of faith; the faith of emulation, the faith of aspiration and the faith of conviction. If we work only on the level of the faiths of emulation and aspiration, without trying to generate the faith of conviction, it will not work in the 21st century. This is not the way to practice the Dharma. 

Whether we practice the Dharma or not is entirely up to us and is a personal decision. However, once we decide to practice the Dharma, we should do so well and perfectly, with a long-term view, progressing step by step without jumping ahead. In this way, our qualities can grow like a huge ocean and we can be successful on the spiritual path, reaping the results we are striving for. From the very beginning, we need to have the courage and strength in our minds to travel the spiritual path correctly.

For many Westerners, Buddhism is new. We are beginners. We might start our relationship with the Dharma through meditation, receiving an empowerment or a teaching. Whatever the case, in your first encounter with the Dharma you should not (I can say that with strong certainty) regard the first Lama you meet as your guru. You need to be cautious. What is the Lama saying? Is it related to your situation or not? Since it is still a Dharma relationship, you might see them as a brother or sister, like a Dharma friend. If they are beneficial to you then you can view them as some kind of teacher. You need to understand the fundamentals of Buddhism and the difference between a Buddhist and a non-Buddhist.

Especially through the explanation of dependent origination, you need to see if this suits you and if it is something you can find conviction in. If it suits you well, helps you and you see its value, then you need to investigate the benefits of seeing this person as your guru and the drawbacks of not relying on them. To relate to someone as a spiritual friend or guru, what qualifications are necessary from their side? Then, as a disciple, what qualifications of the body, speech and mind do we need to have? By understanding these things to some extent, if you still find it greatly beneficial, then slowly enter into this relationship. That’s fine. 

But also keep in mind; if you think, "I will investigate the guru and check him well before accepting him as my guru," you may spend your whole life seeing only faults and never find a guru. You won’t see your own faults. We’ll remain self-centered, thinking we’re great and amazing. We’ll have eyes to see others negatively, but not ourselves. Acting this way brings great loss in life.

A guru should have many qualifications. If someone has the realization and experience of bodhicitta, it’s precious to rely on them. But it’s difficult to know if someone actually has bodhicitta and great compassion, as we’re often drawn to what’s pretty and attractive. We feel compassion towards those who are very vulnerable, sick, poor or miserable. Oh, this beggar, he's so poor. Poor thing! You have compassion like that. There is some kind of compassion and feeling of affection in this way. Many people have this feeling. However, this feeling is only temporary and advantageous.

There’s one type of beggar we don’t see; those who only follow self-grasping and self-cherishing, striving to accumulate money, reputation, possessions and enjoyments. We may think they’re great and successful but they’re actually slaves to money and fame. They only strive for worldly happiness, seeing the pleasures of this life as the best and most precious thing, without realizing that all these samsaric excellences are impermanent and in the nature of suffering. They spend their lives chasing fame, money and possessions, with no compassion, love or interest in others. Even if they’re wealthy, these people are truly objects of compassion, a type of beggar from this perspective.

Anyway, these tulkus are emanations of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. They are the enlightened activities appearing in any way that will be beneficial to sentient beings. For this sake, they will show all kinds of aspects and have all kinds of appearances. Because of this, it is not good to criticize them. So, whether you have faith or not, whether you find him or her beneficial or not, this is your personal decision. If you don't find them beneficial or you don't have faith, it's no use to criticize. You can just remain silent. 

That's just my personal opinion, my own confusion that I'm expressing. It looks like you've had a lot of hardships with tulkus and lamas (*laughter*). From one perspective, it is very good. If we know the Dharma really well we understand that even receiving the transmission or the explanation of one mantra, such as ‘Om Mani Padme Hum’, to have a connection just through this of one mantra, is extremely precious. Just the transmission of these few words, is so precious and so beneficial.