Other
envoys sent to Lhasa
In order to obtain
further details I sent yet another person to Tibet. He came back with
virtually the same information. During this time I continued my investigations
on this child.
I sent a third
person to Lhasa to seek out the family. The father, a well-known Lama,
would frequently be asked to assist people with advice in various matters,
as he is regarded as a spiritual master. Many Lamas live in the same
area of Lhasa in which the family lived. All of them keep their homes
open to people. Anyone can just drop in to ask for advice or a blessing.
It's not like here where you have to make an appointment. I instructed
the person I sent to Lhasa to contact the family casually on the pretext
that he was seeking advice. He was to visit the family frequently on
this pretext with a view to observing the young child.
When he arrived
in the Bakhor district, he circumambulated the temples there. Then
he went to the house of the family where, he told me, he met a young
child with a very fair complexion, who immediately said: "You've come
to look for me." The person in question didn't reply but asked to
see the father. The young child led him into the house where he asked
for guidance in some business matter.
This person stayed in Lhasa only for a short time. He then returned
with information very similar to that which I had previously received.
That the young child told this person he knew he had come to look
for him indicates that he isn't an ordinary child. Only reincarnates
of high spiritual capacity have this kind of ability:
a heightened perception on the basis of which they are able to know
about, for example, a person's purpose. The fact that the young child
exhibited this quality is an event frequently encountered in the historical
records of previous reincarnations. It's an exceptional quality that
someone of high spiritual capacity possesses.
To
be able to arrive at a decision about who the young child was, I decided
to do a meditation retreat, to obtain indications through meditation.
This is a method traditionally used by Lamas to verify their choice
of a reincarnation. To ascertain the whereabouts of a reincarnation,
it is not enough simply to think up some sort of a mission and then
just forge ahead. This was thus the proper method because the late Karmapa
- for reasons unknown to us - had not left instructions behind that
could be revealed at the time. The only way reliable indications can
be obtained in such circumstances is through meditation, and it was
my concern that the authentic reincarnation be found.
In the early morning of the seventh day of the retreat, the late Karmapa
appeared to me in a dream. He was sitting on a seat performing a ritual
carried out on behalf of deceased persons, to free them from the suffering
of the world. This practice is also performed for the gravely ill. In
the dream His Holiness told me "I've liberated those I set out to liberate.
Now I can come to wherever you want me to be".
The
next day I spent praying to my Yidam (a manifestation of the enlightened
state). I had now become almost certain that the young child in Lhasa
was the authentic reincarnation because of the information and the indications
that I had obtained. But I also wanted to obtain evidence that he would
serve the Buddha-Dharma to an extent consonant with this status.
In
answer to my prayers for indications I had another dream on the following
day.
I dreamt that a golden Buddha statue of enormous proportions appeared.
In front of the statue were rows of offering bowls filled with scented
water. In the dream I was in the process of consecrating the statue.
As most of you probably know, it is customary during such ceremonies
for the Lama to throw grains of rice towards the object that is to be
consecrated. The rice grains that I scattered in the dream multiplied
and turned into a rain falling on the Buddha statue. Behind the statue
there were innumerable other Buddha statues. In their midst there was
a very large butter lamp filled to the brim. In the centre of the butter
lamp, where the flame should have been, there was a luminous ball from
which light radiated. Of course, since this was just a dream nobody
can possibly confirm it. However, I felt strongly it was an indication
that the young child in Lhasa was the authentic reincarnation. I became
very excited and decided to go to Lhasa, travelling incognito.
I had planned to appear as an ordinary businessman, to do the rounds
in the vicinity of the temple in the Bakhor district as is customary,
and then to enter the family's house on the pretext of requesting advice
but actually in order to observe the young child.
Shamar
Rinpoche in Lhasa...
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