The Baby and the Buddha
Tenzin Nyudrup
Regular visitors to this blog will know that I find some of the evidence for reincarnation compelling. That said, I am still undecided whether it is something we all experience, or if it occurs only in exceptional cases.
What I am in no doubt about is the incredible impact a belief in rebirth has on whole cultures and, in particular, those families which find themselves coping with the intricate relationships that develop around actual cases.
This is something I have witnessed and researched during two visits to the Lebanon and one to India. The most heart-wrenching aspect of many of these cases is the tug-of-love between a child’s parents in this life and those he claims to remember as his parents in a previous incarnation.
I know of families in Lebanon and India where this situation has been resolved by an agreement to share the child and it lives which each family for an equal amount of time.
In Tibet, for children who are identified as a reincarnated lama, the reality is far harsher, as Nati Baratz’s superb documentary, “The Baby and the Buddha” (screened in the UK on BBCFour TV) demonstrated brilliantly.
After 26 years of isolated meditation in a mountain cave, Geshe Lama Konchog became one of the greatest Tibetan masters of our time. He passed away, aged 84, at the Kopan Monastery in Nepal in 2001 and Baratz’s cameras began recording events soon afterwards, including the lama’s cremation.
The practice of seeking out their reincarnated masters – known as Rinpoches: the precious ones – is a tradition Tibetans have observed for 700 years.
Lama Konchog’s shy, devoted disciple Tenzin Zopa – who had been a follower from the age of seven at his own request – was the undoubted, self-effacing star of the documentary. When instructed to search for his master’s reincarnation the 28-year-old felt he was unworthy, but he set off determinedly on what to most viewers must have seemed an impossible journey.
Beautifully filmed, we follow Tenzin Zopa across countries as he travels by helicopter, mule and on foot. The scenery is spectacular. The people are welcoming. Their homes are humble.
There is a sense of urgency about his search because this “unmistaken child” needs to be found within four years, before it is too difficult to remove him from his parents’ care.
Eventually, the disciple finds a child, Tenzin Nyudrup, whose location and parents seem to match astrological predictions made before the search began. And the boy in question not only shows a liking for a rosary used by Lama Konchog but also becomes very possessive when Tenzin Zopa tries to remove it from around his neck.
Tenzin Nyudrup refuses to part with the rosary
Later, in 2005, the child is taken to the Kopan Monastery where he identifies various items that had belonged to Lama Konchog and the Dalai Lama confirms he is the reincarnation. For Tenzin Zopa it was a moment of great happiness, to be reunited with his former master who he now has to assist as he adjusts to a new life as a Rinpoche in a child’s body.
But our hearts went out to his parents as they were asked whether they would give him up so that he could continue the work he had begun in his previous life. They now visit him once a year.
“The Baby and the Buddha”, part of BBCFOUR’s Storyville series, can be viewed in the UK on the BBC’s website once its iPlayer software has been downloaded. It’s well worth the effort. It may not change your views about reincarnation and Buddhism, but it will fill you with admiration for the people whose beliefs have been so dramatically captured in this film.
You may also find these related articles of interest:
LIFE AFTER LIFE
by
Stephen Contrado, B.A., Th.M.
The “Baby and the Buddha” raises some interesting issues about survival after death. The “Tibetan Book of the Dead” describes death as a moment of luminosity, or brilliant light, before the soul begins its journey towards rebirth or liberation. The West is slowly catching up to the East in probing the mystery.
People interested in the subject should study the research of Ramond A. Moody, the American physician who studied many cases of near-death expeperiences (NDE’s). Here is a passage from his excellent book “Life After Life.” Moody writes:
“A man is dying and, as he reaches the point of greatest physical distress, he hears himself pronounced dead by doctors. He begins to hear an unconfortable noise, a loud ringing or buzzing, and at the same time feels himself moving very rapidly through a long dark tunnel. After this, he suddenly finds himself outside of his body, but still in the immediate physical environment, and he sees his own body from a distance, as though he is a spectator. He watches the resuscitation attempt from this unusual vantage point and is in a state of emotional upheaval.
“After a while, he collects himself and becomes more accustomed to his odd condition. He notices that he still has a “body,” but one of a very different nature and with very different powers from the physical body he has left behind. Soon other things begin to happen. Others come to meet and to help him. He glimpses the spirits of relatives and
friends who have already died, and a loving, warm spirit of a kind he has never encountered before — a being of light — appears before him. This being asks him a question, nonverbally, to make him evaluate his life and helps him along by showing him a panoramic, instantaneous
playback of the major events of his life. At some point he finds himself approaching some sort of barrier or border, apparently representing the limit between earthly life and the next. Yet, he finds that he must go back to the earth, that the time for his death has not yet come.”
You got to admire Moody for this fine summary. Those interested in visiting a supporting website can visit mine: http://www.tarotforum.webs.com. — Stephen Contrado, B.A., Th.M.