Power of Karma

Author(s): Alexander Cannon
Publisher: Rider and Co

Page 49

REINCARNATION
49 the conception of any human, brain, and it is profitless to pursue such inquiries on earth. For this reason much that has been written in explanation of the term Nirvana is practically unintelligible to the Western mind.
How deeply rooted in the life of the Tibetans is the belief in reincarnation can be observed in their choice of the spiritual head and ruler of the 300,000 priests of lamaism, the Dalai Lama. It is held that the Dalai Lama is a reincarnation of a Boddhisatva, or emanation in physical form of the “Heavenly Buddha of Measureless Light”. When the term of physical existence of the Dalai Lama comes to an end, another reincarnation of a Boddhisatva follows immediately, and the spirit that animated the late ruler is transferred to a new-born child. A search is made throughout the vast country surrounding Lhasa to find an infant born at the exact moment that the old ruler ceased to breathe. The three millions of Tibetan Buddhists offer prayers for the success of those who undertake the search.
In July 1934 it was reported that after a search of seven months which had elapsed since the passing of the former sovereign pontiff on December 11th, 1933, a baby had been found in a remote mountain village in whom the