False Sense of Maturity

As the Dalai Lama’s health weakens, he is planning the best way to deal with the battle over Tibet after he has died (or been reincarnated, according to his Buddhist beliefs). The Chinese government is planning ahead too, and figure their best way to gain the upper hand in Tibet is to control the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation by changing the law:

Last year the Chinese passed a law that gives Beijing the power to approve the reincarnation of living Buddhas or lamas, of whom the Dalai Lama is the highest in the Tibetan hierarchy.

Not to be outdone, the Dalai Lama may change how he is reincarnated:

In turn, the Dalai Lama has raised the possibility to forgo his rebirth, or to be reborn while still alive so that he, not China, can choose his successor.

Reincarnation, the migration of the soul from one body to another in a continuous process of rebirth so that lamas or senior monks can carry on their religious work, is a basic tenet of Tibetan Buddhism.

The current 14th Dalai Lama who is considered a reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, was discovered, through various forms of rituals and divination, while still a young boy, more than two years after the death of the previous Dalai Lama.

But while the issues of afterlife and rebirth seem like ones of strictly religious belief, for China’s rulers, they also involve the deadly business of political control over Tibet. The current Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize-winner, has become an international icon and the peaceful face of Tibet’s struggle for autonomy.

I don’t mean to be too hard on the Dalai Lama, who has done many good deeds in his life, but the whole reincarnation battle he is having with China is ridiculous. The future of Tibet is going to be impacted by the false belief that reincarnation is not only real, but controllable. However, China looks even sillier than the Dalai Lama by claiming they can legislate Buddhist tenets. It’s sort of like a Christian country passing a law saying that Jesus will return to Earth in the next year; clearly, it would be a non-binding law.