The Logical Lama

The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Buddhists and a political figure for the people of Tibet. To date there have been 14 different Dalai Lamas. When one Dalai Lama dies, the people at the very top of the Buddhist ranks must go searching for his reincarnation. The way they get hints is to wait at a sacred lake until they have visions or the lake gives them physically visible hints. They also watch which way the smoke from the cremated Dalai Lama blows and search in the general direction. Once the searchers think they have found the reincarnation of the old Dalai Lama they show him a mix of items that either were or weren't belongings of the previous Lama. If the suspected reincarnation is able to pick out only the belongings of the prior Lama then he is brought to a high council for inspection. Once the council says that they think that he is the reincarnated Dalai Lama he is sent to learn how to lead his people and it’s a done deal.

It seems amazing that this is how the leader of around 360,000,000 is chosen. It is a huge political and spiritual decision, with almost no Cartesian influence. It may seem more outrageous to me because I am a westerner who has been raised in a Cartesian state of mind. This practice of hunting down a male child from the villages of Tibet to become a spiritual and political figurehead due to which way the wind blows uses no Cartesian deduction logic at all. But who is to say that they are wrong in saying that a child already born is now the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama even though he doesn't know it.

Historically this practice has been done 14 times, and has apparently proven to find strong enough leaders to keep the faith in this practice. It seems like a nonsensical theory, but think of the power it gives the people who get to choose the next Dalai Lama. The search team gets to go out to a remote part of Tibet and choose a young man who is then taken, along with his family, to go get training from Buddhist monks for years. Basically the child can be taught whatever they want him to learn and they can shape his mind believe whatever they think. So the practice itself is not Cartesian but the process of choosing the Dalai Lamas reincarnation is.

This process of choosing the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama resembles the process that Mustapha Mond describes about how he was chosen to become the world leader in ‘A Brave New World’. The leaders of the new world were purely Cartesian thinkers who attempted to make the world as comforting as possible, whereas Buddhists live their lives out trying to transcend this world by reaching nirvana. It seems as if the Buddhists have a “brain in a vat” point of view, where the mind can be separated from the body. This belief that leaders can be chosen and molded, under the veil of silly science and reincarnation seems to be working for the Buddhists.

Since reincarnation is not logical, it cannot be doubted by logical reasoning. So while the people who can read “signs” go out to find the new Dalai Lama, they can choose someone who can be molded to their liking. What can be learned from the Buddhist practice of finding the new Dalai Lama is that it is very effective to give the people an un-Cartesian practice to mask a logical plot.