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<P class=textBodyBlack>Aug. 20-27, 2007 issue - In one of history's more absurd
acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from
reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by
the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect
next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to
reincarnate, is "an important move to institutionalize management of
reincarnation." But beyond the irony lies China's true motive: to cut off the
influence of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual and political leader, and
to quell the region's Buddhist religious establishment more than 50 years after
China invaded the small Himalayan country. By barring any Buddhist monk living
outside China from seeking reincarnation, the law effectively gives Chinese
authorities the power to choose the next Dalai Lama, whose soul, by tradition,
is reborn as a new human to continue the work of relieving suffering.</P>
<P class=textBodyBlack>At 72, the Dalai Lama, who has lived in India since 1959,
is beginning to plan his succession, saying that he refuses to be reborn in
Tibet so long as it's under Chinese control. Assuming he's able to master the
feat of controlling his rebirth, as Dalai Lamas supposedly have for the last 600
years, the situation is shaping up in which there could be two Dalai Lamas: one
picked by the Chinese government, the other by Buddhist monks. "It will be a
very hot issue," says Paul Harrison, a Buddhism scholar at Stanford. "The Dalai
Lama has been the prime symbol of unity and national identity in Tibet, and so
it's quite likely the battle for his incarnation will be a lot more important
than the others."</P>
<P class=textBodyBlack>So where in the world will the next Dalai Lama be born?
Harrison and other Buddhism scholars agree that it will likely be from within
the 130,000 Tibetan exiles spread throughout India, Europe and North America.
With an estimated 8,000 Tibetans living in the United States, could the next
Dalai Lama be American-born? "You'll have to ask him," says Harrison. If so,
he'll likely be welcomed into a culture that has increasingly embraced
reincarnation over the years. According to a 2005 Gallup poll, 20 percent of all
U.S. adults believe in reincarnation. Recent surveys by the Barna Group, a
Christian research nonprofit, have found that a quarter of U.S. Christians,
including 10 percent of all born-again Christians, embrace it as their favored
end-of-life view. A non-Tibetan Dalai Lama, experts say, is probably out of the
question.</P>
<P class=textBodyBlack><A
href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20227400/site/newsweek/from/ET/">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20227400/site/newsweek/from/ET/</A></P>
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