M.J. Rose

Dalai Lama may appoint a regent to succeed him

(Times Online)

The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, is considering appointing a regent to lead the Tibetan movement after his death until his reincarnation is old enough to take over.

The idea was discussed this week at an unprecedented meeting of 600 Tibetan exiles in Dharamsala, the northern Indian town where the Dalai Lama set up his government in exile after fleeing Tibet in 1959.

It is the latest proposal intended to ensure a smooth succession after the death of the Dalai Lama, who is 73 and has been suffering recently from ill health. The Tibetan exiles are keen to prevent China from hijacking his reincarnation, as it has tried to do with other of the most senior positions in Tibetan Buddhism.

The most likely candidate for the regency is the 23-year-old Karmapa Lama, the third highest in the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy, who was born and raised in Tibet but escaped to India in 2000 in a huge embarrassment for China’s government… [the rest]

TIBETANS PLOT FUTURE, DALAI LAMA REINCARNATION

BEIJING – As more than 500 Tibetan exile leaders gather in Dharmsala, India, this week to discuss their struggle against Chinese rule, their movement appears to be at a crossroads.

They are expected to debate whether or not they should abandon the Dalai Lama’s longtime attempt to compromise with Beijing, by pursuing a path known as the “middle way,” or if they should go for a last ditch attempt at independence.

But overshadowing those issues, and heightening the urgency of the gathering, is the age and health of the Dalai Lama himself – he is now 73-years-old and has had two hospital treatments since August.

AP

Tibetan Buddhist monks carry a portrait of the Dalai Lama in Dharmsala, India, on Monday.

He called the meeting in the Indian hill town that is the base of Tibet’s self-proclaimed government in exile, but was not expected to attend the meeting because he said he did not want to tilt the debate on future strategy.

But as the Tibetan spiritual leader, his continuing influence on the movement is undeniable… [the rest]

Some of our culture’s greatest minds were reincarnationists:

“To Henry Ford, as to every other reincarnationist, this is the origin of every capacity:

I adopted the theory of reincarnation when I was 26…. When I discovered reincarnation, it was as if I had found a universal plan…. I was no longer a slave to the hands of the clock. There was time enough to plan and to create…. I felt that order and progress were present in the mystery of life…. I would like to communicate to others the calmness that the long view of life gives to us. Genius is experience. Some seem to think that it is a gift or talent, but it is the fruit of long experience in many lives. Some are older souls than others, and so they know more.

To Thomas Edison — who was one of the earliest members of the first reincarnationist association in America, the Theosophical Society — the consciousness of man resided in the brain in the form of a swarm of “entities” which left it at death for another home…”

(from wisdomworld.org)

For more on Theosophical reincarnationist ideas, duck down this rabbit hole.