Trulku

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Tibetan name
Tibetan script :
སྤྲུལ་ སྐུ་
Wylie transliteration :
sprul sku
Official transcription of the PRCh :
zhügu
THDL transcription :
trülku
Other spellings:
tülku, trulku, tulku
Chinese name
Traditional :
活佛 、 轉世 者 、
呼圖克圖 、 化身
Simplified :
活佛 、 转世 者 、
呼图克图 、 化身
Pinyin :
huófó, zhuǎnshìzhě,
hūtúkètú, huàshēn

A Trülku (also: Tulku ; Tibetan : sprul sku ; Mongolian : Qutuqtu ; Sanskrit : Nirmanakaya ; sometimes inaccurately translated from the Chinese term huofo ( 活佛 , huófó ) as "living Buddha") is a Buddhist master in Vajrayana Buddhism identified as a conscious rebirth ( reincarnation ) of an earlier master, determined by the predecessor himself .

Emergence

When a Buddhist practitioner gains insight into wisdom (and not enlightenment ), or at least very advanced insight, he is likely to be born again under favorable circumstances (for the beings he can help), for example as a person in a Buddhist context, in the sense of rebirth, where he or she may have awareness even during death and consequently can influence the place of his birth. This is logical in the Buddhist framework if one assumes that the Buddha also consciously chose the place of his birth.

From this it follows in Vajrayana Buddhism that one recognizes particularly gifted children as the rebirth of a previous practitioner and trained them in the sense of this social position. For this purpose, especially for important positions, a certain procedure, such as looking for children according to certain omens (sometimes through a testamentary letter from the deceased) and examining the candidates in question by recognizing previous personal belongings, etc. have become commonplace. Candidates, for their part, stand out because, as children, they themselves remember a previous life and share surprising details; furthermore they show special abilities, wish to take the monastery vows etc. As a rule, a high-ranking lama (or several lamas) of the monastery concerned decides on the recognition.

Trulkus have to go to school again in every life and acquire knowledge, but they find it very easy to learn mental abilities or they already have them to a large extent from the start (calmness of mind, meditative abilities, insight, other special abilities). Overall, the Tibetan system promotes young monks and nuns very individually according to their intellectual abilities, according to which the Trülku recognition is only one aspect of this promotion.

The rebirths recognized as Trulkus are male in 99% of the cases.

History of the Trülku system

The Tibetan trulku system has existed for many centuries, and today the most famous trulkus include the “14th” Dalai Lama or the “17th” Karmapa . There are around 1000 Trülkus in total. Depending on the nature of their spiritual focus, these trulkus are also referred to as the rebirth of a certain Bodhisattva ; the Dalai Lama, for example, is considered to be the embodiment of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara , who is seen as the protector of Tibet, among other things.

More precise definition of terms

The term “Trülku” (“emanating body”) literally refers to every physical body that a being has, so it has the special meaning “Trülku of a conscious / special being”. The fact that trulkus is recognized is a Tibetan-Mongolian-Chinese peculiarity that is basically dispensable, but also does not contradict Buddhist teachings, because of course some practitioners can be much more advanced than others from birth due to their earlier practice .

The realization (actual internalization) of calmness, bodhichitta , or insight into voidness will commonly be the reasons why students seek the rebirth of their teacher after their death. In the People's Republic of China, "Measures to manage the reincarnation of living Buddhas" are being taken.

Demarcation

The Trülku title must be distinguished from other Buddhist dignities such as Geshe , (scholar; someone who has learned a lot), Khenpo (monastery abbot) , Khenchen (head abbot) Lama (spiritual teacher; however, it should be noted that in modern Tibetan “Lama “Is usually used synonymously with“ Trülku ”), monk / nun (someone with certain vows), yogi (an advanced practitioner of Tantrayana ). Trülkus can acquire any of these titles in life, "Trülku" they are - by social recognition - from birth.

See also

literature

  • Pamela Logan: Tulkus in Tibet. In: Harvard Asia Quarterly. Vol. 8, No. 1, 2004, ISSN  1522-4147 , pp. 15-23.
  • Horst Nachtigall: The Tibetan dogma of incarnation. In: Paideuma . Vol. 5, H. 5, 1952, ISSN  0078-7809 , pp. 255-263.
  • Reginald A. Ray: Some aspects of the Tulku tradition in Tibet. In: The Tibet Journal. Vol. 11, No. 4, 1986, ISSN  0970-5368 , pp. 35-69.
  • Daniel A. Hirshberg, Derek F. Maher & Tsering Wangchuk (eds.): The Tulku (sprul sku) Institution in Tibetan Buddhism . Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines , numéro trente-huit - Février 2017

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ China's Communist Party government takes measures to manage the reincarnation of living Buddhas . ( Memento of the original from June 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. igeawagu.com, February 1, 2008 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.igeawagu.com