Appendix B: What Is a Living Buddha?

Technically speaking, there are no living Buddhas in the present age or kalpa, though the lama Church looks for a reincarnation of the great master. Strange to say, they look for him from the West, and the images they worship of this expected one, such as the crowned and majestic figure in the cathedral at Lhassa, are always seated on a throne in Western fashion, not in the cross-legged attitude of the conventional Buddha. The name they know him by is “The Loving One,”

The Fuh-ie’s or “living Buddhas” of lamaism to-day are supposed incarnations, not of Buddha himself, who has attained Nirvana, but of the five Dhyana or celestial Buddhas who, though not subject to transmigration, are still outside Nirvana. In their great compassion for all living beings they brought forth spiritual sons, or Buddhisats, who through incarnations dwell among men — their chief work being, supposedly, that of intercession for the people by whom they are worshipped, whom they have undertaken to save from the pain of subjection to transmigration.

One of the greatest of these Buddhisats is Avalokitesvara, who was later chosen as the patron saint or saviour of Tibet, to whom is addressed the prayer or exclamation, Om mani padmi hum — O thou jewel in the lotus.

The succession is not hereditary, but is kept up by the lamas, who always have an infant in view to whom the spirit of the incarnation is supposed to pass at his death. The infant is then regarded as a sacred personage and brought up to receive homage and even worship as his due.

Of the origin of this remarkable development Mr. Theo. Sorensen writes: 1

“The doctrine of incarnation, as far as Buddhism is concerned, is a purely Tibetan invention, and of course contradictory to the Buddhist belief in transmigration as a result of Karma or the ethical retribution.

“It was a purely political movement, and came about in this way: In the year a.d. 1640 a Mongolian prince, Gusri Khan, conquered Tibet and made a present of the same to the Grand Lama of Drepung monastery, with the title of Dalai or Ocean, who thus became the first king-priest as the Dalai-Lama. His name was Nag-wan Lobsang. Being very ambitious and wanting to combine the rule of the state with that of the church, he declared himself an incarnation of the famous Avalokitesvara, the tutelary deity of Tibet.

“The Tibetans were no doubt delighted to have as a ruler an incarnation of such a divinity, and the scheme worked well, but in order not to offend his older and in some senses superior lama of Trashi-lhun-po, he declared this lama to be an incarnation of Amitabha — thus establishing the same relationship between himself and theTrashi Lama as exists in the Western Paradise between Amitabha and Avalokitesvara. Amitabha is one of the five Celestial Buddhas who are not able themselves to perform saving acts on behalf of mankind, but whose spiritual sons (Bodhisattvas) become the saviours of the world — and Avalokitesvara is Amitabha’s spiritual son.” Thus the first Dalai Lama cleverly propitiated the Trashi Lama, and at the same time secured for himself a free hand in practical matters. For “while the Trashi Lama

1 See Mr. Sorensen’s illustrated lecture on Tibetan Buddhism, published with his annual report of The Tibetan Religious Literature Depot for 1919 and 1920, pp. 8 and 42.

is an incarnation of a higher deity, it is an impassive deity, who cannot meddle with worldly affairs, which are left to his spiritual son, represented by the Dalai Lama.

“This plan worked so well that all sects in Tibet followed the same idea, and now it would be difficult to find a lamasery in any part of the country where there is not a Trulgu, or Incarnation — though these are not incarnations of gods, but of saints and famous lamas.”