Word: dalai
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Tibetan Buddhists feel that throughout history many souls who approach Nirvana decide to return to earth to help others in times of need. A person who turns down Nirvana to help others is called a Bodhisattva. To Tibetans. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is just such a Bodhisattva. Tibetans consider him a "living Buddha," the fourteenth consecutive incarnation of Avalokita, "spirit of infinite compassion...
Sometime during his first incarnation as leader of Tibet in the late 1500s, the Dalai Lama came to a momentous decision. For the sake of Tibet, he decided to reincarnate life after life in the same human niche, as leader of his country, to preserve its spiritual welfare. Each lifetime, before he dies, the Dalai Lama gives several clues as to where his soul will next be born...
When the last Dalai Lama died in 1933, after predicting the future destruction of Tibet, he left no clues. According to custom, however, attendants placed his body in a shrine facing south. Within several days, cloud formations appeared over the northeastern end of the city. A giant star-shaped fungus grew overnight on a pillar in the northeast corner of the Dalai Lama's room. And, several days after his death, the head of the deceased ruler had turned from facing south to facing towards the northeast...
According to the lamas and to state tradition, this was still insufficient proof of the child's identity. For a more definitive test, the monks placed several of the deceased Dalai Lama's personal possessions before the boy, along with an equal number of skillfully-wrought replicas. The child chose the right item every time. Finally, the lamas examined the child for the eight birthmarks that reputedly identify the Dalai Lama. From large protruding ears and marks like a tiger's skin on his legs to two vestigal bits of skin on his shoulders representing the third and fouth arms...
Forty years and vast oceans of experience later, the Dalai Lama feels that his mission as a spiritual leader extends beyond Tibet. "As long as there are sentient beings to be liberated from suffering and unhappiness, I will work for the sake of all of them," he said last Thursday. Combining inner meditation with outward service, he embodies the central tenets of Tibet. The practice of kindness, compassion, and love for one's enemies, he says, brings a clear realization of the true nature of reality. "Compassion is something very forceful," he said, adding that it is a potent remedy...