After death for a
rinpoche -- a "
precious one" in Tibetan (
Vajrayana) Buddhism, a spiritual leader said to be imbued with supernatural powers -- he may choose to become a
tulku to "reincarnate" (actually, to undergo rebirth, see below for the difference) as a human being again.
Such was the extraordinary fate of a child named
Padma Angdu, identified as a
rinpoche in 2010.
He was only 6-years-old. A new documentary follows him as he grows into his destiny.
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"Reincarnation"? No! Rebirth
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| Maitreya is not Shakyamuni Buddha. |
Technically, there is a big difference between "reincarnation" (soul entering flesh or
carne again) and "rebirth" (the process of being born yet again).
We use the words as if they were synonyms, but as Buddhism realizes that life is an
impersonal process (composed of the
Five Aggregates clung to as "self" undergoing
a repetitive cycle of
dependent origination or conditioned-arising (coming into apparent existence based entirely on supporting conditions and not without them), there is --
ultimately speaking -- no ego, self, soul, or essence being reborn. It is only an impersonal process, so we say
rebirth (
patisandhi).
"Reincarnation" is used by religions that cling to the subtle but pernicious
wrong view that all of this is happening to an unchanging and eternal soul. At enlightenment there will be the realization that this is never what had been happening. For the profound and utterly counter-intuitive truth the Buddha taught, see
anatta/not-self.
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