Reincarnation
Reincarnation
The following is an extract from the Reincarnation
chapter of "Karmapa":
These days one finds some highly-readable comments on ordinary people's
rebirth and on lamas' reincarnations. In a laudable effort to make the
concepts of Buddhism more readily understandable, modern similes based
on physics, psychology, neurology and the like are expertly conjured in
zippy language to explain ... it happens like this. But beware! —a most
essential point is missing in nearly all of them; an understanding of
the fundamental nature of reality. That lacuna makes them ring not quite
right. These descriptions sound like the conversations of two people
deluded by a mirage, trying to work out where the water has come from
and what sort of fish might be found in it; or like the mumblings of
someone talking in his sleep, describing the world of his dreams as a
vivid reality. In brief, the details are relatively correct within their
context but the context itself makes them quite wrong. A dreamer may
dream of taking a ruler to prove that it really is a seven-foot-long
ant he is riding and, in the dream, he might feel triumphantly proven
right; only to awaken to realise that it was not all quite like he thought!
Beyond the light-heartedness of these examples, it is extremely important
to know that ordinary reason cannot explain everything and that some
things are true mysteries. "Mystery" usually means one of two things
in religions: a cover-up for a flaw in their logic or something that is
truly too subtle for the mind to understand from its present perspective.
Buddhist teachings make it clear that it is not until one has reached the
eighth level of voidness—the eighth bodhisattva level where every
intellectual preconception and all subject-object perception is
transcended—that the real truth of these matters emerges. This means that
every matter-of-fact, intellectual explanation of rebirth or causality is
only good, at best, as a stopgap measure; a crutch to help one along the
path.
Something refreshing in the Kagyu teachings brings back a sense of wonder
in life, a freshness in perception. It shakes off the stale yet stubborn
attempts of the intellect to reduce everything to that which can be
explained in terms of familiar reference points. It is said that a man in
Belfast was asked whether he was Catholic or Protestant and replied,
"I'm a Buddhist", to which the reply came, "Yes, but a Catholic Buddhist
or a Protestant Buddhist?"
The ineffable, unimaginable nature of all existence, including
reincarnation, need not be viewed in disappointment but in welcome relief.
As Bengar Jampal Zangpo, the sixth Karmapa's great disciple said of true
open-mindedness:
... bless the true meditator who can realise the freshness of the instant,
without speculation or contrivance, just being in it, as it is ...
Relative and ultimate truths
One very useful key opens many doors to Buddhism and its tenets.
It is the distinction between what is relatively-true and what is
ultimately true. Some Buddhist ideas (such as reincarnation) are attempts
at explaining the mechanisms of what happens on the seemingly true level
of reality—the relatively true world of our mental imagery; the personal
movie we are living out; a subjective, interpretative, landscape based on
thoughts, memories and the various stories we constantly tell ourselves to
explain life. The mind experiencing this world is like a camera constantly
set on zoom, totally absorbed in its focus.
Other areas of Buddhism (such as non-ego) point us towards the
really true, an ultimately true, non-subjective, reality far greater in
its scope and depth than those limited conceptual pictures. This could be
compared to the wide angle; a clear sharp image but set within a panorama
and with lots of space...
Thanks for reading this ... the rest is in the book!
Return to Karmapa page for ordering details.
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Last Updated: 24 August 1996