BRIDGING LIFE TO LIFE
A two-year old Spanish child, Osel, recognizes possessions belonging to Lama Thubten Yeshe, a Tibetan Master and is identified as his reincarnation. Many of the child's personality traits and behavior are so similar to those of the previous Master, that the students are astonished.1 In hypnosis, an Australian woman recounts her life as a Scottish doctor, and when visiting her previous medical school for the first time this life tells of architectural changes in the building that are known only by the local historian. Parents recount how each of their children have different personality characteristics even as babies. Some people learn a certain skill so easily that it seems they have already been familiar with it. What can explain these things?
In many countries, and in many cultures, people believe in rebirth, that is, that our present life is one in a series of lives. Although our present existence seems so real and so sure, in fact, it does not last forever. Death, however, does not signify the end of our existence. It marks a transition in which our mental continuum leaves the present body and migrates to another one.
When we approach the topic of rebirth, It It advisable to do so by temporarily setting aside whatever preconceptions we may have about how and why we came into existence. Listen, read, reflect with an open mind. Discuss it with others with a spirit of free inquiry that seeks to know the truth.
Stories of People Who Remember
Although most of us are unable to remember our previous lives, some people have that ability. To hear their experiences can help us to understand.
In Tibet, there is the system of searching for, testing, and identifying the reincarnations of realized Spiritual Masters. I would like to share with you the stories about how two Tibetan masters I know personally were identified. Just after the thirteenth Dalai Lama, the religious and political leader of Tibet, passed away in 1933, signs indicating the whereabouts of his future incarnation appeared: the head of his lifeless body turned to face northeast, a rare fungus grew on the northeast pillar in the room where his tomb was, and rainbows and auspicious cloud formations appeared on the northeast sky of Tibet's capital, Lhasa. The Spiritual Master who was then the regent of Tibet went to the visionary lake where he witnessed the appearance of three letters and a landscape. The landscape contained a monastery on a hill, and below it, a farmer's house with a dog in the courtyard.
Later a search party, disguised as merchants on a trading excursion, was sent to Amdo in northeastern Tibet. It is common in Tibet for travellers to seek food and shelter from the local farmers, and as the party approached a certain farmhouse, a brown dog in the courtyard barked at them. They noticed that the house corresponded to the one seen by the regent in the lake, and the location of the village corresponded to the letters which appeared in the lake. The leader of the party, disguised as a servant, went into the kitchen where a young body climbed on his lap. The child started to play with the rosary around the leader's neck and told him he was a teacher from Sera Monastery. He identified the government official posing as the head merchant and spoke to them in the Lhasa dialect of Tibetan, known by the previous Dalai Lama but not by the young child's current family and the people in Amdo. Later he correctly identified a walking stick, ritual implements and the glasses of the previous Dalai Lama which had been placed among others that were similar to them. In this way, the child came to be recognized as the fourteenth Dalai Lama.
For over twenty years, in a cave in a remote area in Solokumbu, Nepal, the Lawudo Lama, Kunzang Yeshe, diligently pursued his spiritual practice in solitary retreat. The neighboring villagers asked him to help with the education of their children, and he promised that in the future he would build a school for the young monks of the area. As it were, he continued his solitary practice and passed away in meditation around 1945. In 1946 a child was born in Thami, a village across the steep river gorge from Lawudo. When the child could barely toddle, he would repeatedly set off in the direction of Lawudo, much to the fright of his mother. His sister had to run after him and bring him home before he got too far or hurt himself on the mountain paths. When he was old enough to speak, he would tell them, "I am the Lawudo Lama and I want to go to my cave." He was later recognized as the incarnation of the Lawudo Lama and named Zopa Rinpoche. One of his first deeds as an adult was to set up a monastery school in the Kathmandu Valley principally for the young monks of the Solokumbu area. Despite his busy life with many disciples and frequent trips to Western countries to teach, Zopa Rinpoche still gives one the impression of a mountain meditator. "He carries his cave with him as he travels," we joke, for he sleeps but one hour a night, sitting up at that, and he easily goes in and out of meditation states as one talks with him.
Remembering previous lives is not confined to realized spiritual masters. Many children do as well. For example, there is Sunil Dutt of Bareilly, India, who, in 1964, at the age of four, told his parents that he was Seth Krishna, the owner of a school in Budaun, India. His parents took him there, and he at once recognized the building and knew his way around. He went to the principal's office and was dismayed to see a stranger there. In fact, the principal Seth Krishna had appointed had been changed. He remarked that the sign bearing his name on the facade of the building was no longer there and indicated where it had formerly been. On going to the Shri Krishna Oil Mill, he called for an old servant by name, he recognized the Seth's elder sister and brother-in-law, and also identified Seth Krishna in a group photograph. The meeting with the Seth's widow was poignant. He asked her about a particular religious object belonging to the family, and recognized his previous wardrobe. This, and many other cases of previous life recall, were investigated and validated by Francis Story and Dr. Ian Stevenson, and written in Rebirth as Doctrine and Experience, by the former, and Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation by the latter.
Under hypnosis, Helen Pickering, who had never been out of Australia, remembered being Dr. James Burns of Scotland during the early 19th century, and she drew the medical college that he had attended. Later she travelled with the research team and two independent witnesses to the town where she remembered living. Indeed, in the town records, it mentioned a Dr. James Burns who had lived there at the time she stated. Helen recognized the place where the pub had been, but commented how different it was now that it had been remodelled. The researchers blindfolded her and drove to Aberdeen, the city where the medical college was. Once the blindfold was removed and she got her orientation, Helen led them without hesitation directly to the medical college. On the way, she told them where the old Seamen's Mission had been, and when town records were checked, this was validated. She had a very strange feeling upon entering the medical college — it was clearly an emotional experience. She led the others around the college better than one of the witnesses, who had attended the college, said she could have. At times Helen would comment about how the structure of the building had been different at the time of Dr. Burns, and when they consulted the local historian, this too was confirmed. The historian then asked her questions about the college and its floor plan as it had been nearly a century and a half before, and her answers were consistently correct. The witnesses and the historian, none of whom believed in rebirth, were astonished and began to accept the existence of rebirth. This is one of several stories of previous life recall, as shown in a program produced by Australian television entitled "Reincarnation."
by Thubten Chodron
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