Other
envoys sent to Lhasa
In order
to obtain further details I sent yet another person to Tibet.
He came back with virtually the same information. During this
time I continued my investigations concerning this child.
I sent
a third person to Lhasa to seek out the family. The father,
a well-known Lama, was frequently asked to assist people with
advice in various matters, as he is regarded as a spiritual
master. Many Lamas live in the same area of Lhasa in which the
family lived. All of them keep their homes open to people. Anyone
can just drop in to ask for advice or a blessing. It's not like
here where you have to make an appointment. I instructed the
person I sent to Lhasa to contact the family casually on the
pretext that he was seeking advice. He was to visit the family
frequently on this pretext with a view to observing the young
child. 
When he
arrived in the Bakhor district, he circumambulated the temples
there. Then he went to the house of the family where, he told
me, he met a young child with a very fair complexion, who
immediately said: "You've come to look for me." The person
in question didn't reply but asked to see the father. The
young child led him into the house where he asked for guidance
in some business matter.
This person stayed in Lhasa only for a short time. He then
returned with information very similar to that which I had
previously received. That the young child told this person
he knew he had come to look for him indicates that he isn't
an ordinary child. Only reincarnates of high spiritual capacity
have this kind of ability:
a heightened perception on the basis of which they are able
to know about, for example, a person's purpose. The fact that
the young child exhibited this quality is an event frequently
encountered in the historical records of previous reincarnations.
It's an exceptional quality that someone of high spiritual
capacity possesses.
To
be able to arrive at a decision about who the young child was,
I decided to do a meditation retreat, to obtain indications
through meditation.
This is a method traditionally used by Lamas to verify their
choice of a reincarnation. To ascertain the whereabouts of a
reincarnation, it is not enough simply to think up some sort
of a mission and then just forge ahead. This was thus the appropriate
method because the late Karmapa - for reasons unknown to us
- had not left instructions behind that could be revealed at
the time. The only way reliable indications can be obtained
in such circumstances is through meditation, and it was my concern
that the authentic reincarnation be found.
In the early morning of the seventh day of the retreat, the
late Karmapa appeared to me in a dream. He was sitting on a
seat performing a ritual carried out on behalf of deceased persons,
to free them from the suffering of the world. This practice
is also performed for the gravely ill. In the dream His Holiness
told me "I've liberated those I set out to liberate. Now I can
come to wherever you want me to be".
The
next day I spent praying to my Yidam (a manifestation of the
enlightened state). I had now become almost certain that the
young child in Lhasa was the authentic reincarnation because
of the information and the indications that I had obtained.
But I also wanted to obtain evidence that he would serve the
Buddha-Dharma to an extent consonant with this status.
In
answer to my prayers for indications I had another dream on
the following day.
I dreamt that a golden Buddha statue of enormous proportions
appeared. In front of the statue were rows of offering bowls
filled with scented water. In the dream I was in the process
of consecrating the statue. As most of you probably know, it
is customary during such ceremonies for the Lama to throw grains
of rice towards the object that is to be consecrated. The rice
grains that I scattered in the dream multiplied and turned into
a rain falling on the Buddha statue. Behind the statue there
were innumerable other Buddha statues. In their midst there
was a very large butter lamp filled to the brim. In the centre
of the butter lamp, where the flame should have been, there
was a luminous ball from which light radiated. Of course, since
this was just a dream nobody can possibly confirm it. However,
I felt strongly it was an indication that the young child in
Lhasa was the authentic reincarnation. I became very excited
and decided to go to Lhasa, travelling incognito.
I had planned to appear as an ordinary businessman, to do the
rounds in the vicinity of the temple in the Bakhor district
as is customary, and then to enter the family's house on the
pretext of requesting advice but actually in order to observe
the young child.
Shamar
Rinpoche in Lhasa...
