Rebirth: Superstition or Truth – Bhante Nalaka

Among the myriad views found within the various religions of the world, the Buddhist notion of rebirth is perhaps one of the most difficult concepts for highly educated Westerners (and others with a staunch materialist/atheist worldview) to accept. Amid those who at least entertain the possibility of rebirth, you’ll find people who conflate the ancient Indian belief in reincarnation with the historical Buddha’s teachings on rebirth. This is the dilemma experienced by sincere seekers of truth who encounter the conceptual mass of confusion commonly professed by new age teachers, social media gurus, and those who simply don’t know enough about different religions yet, they teach others, with conviction, their erroneous views. But for the sake of brevity and simplicity, in this particular piece, I’ll use the terms rebirth and reincarnation interchangeably, without delving into the intricacies of these ancient notions. However, it’s very important to note that rebirth and reincarnation are similar yet distinct concepts!

For several years, I struggled with understanding and accepting the topic of this academic composition; And so, I can totally relate to skeptical reactions and rational objections in reference to rebirth. In the following pages, I present the actual doctrine of rebirth which is rooted in the ancient Pāli texts; texts that are sacred to all Buddhists and lovers of ancient writings from around the globe, as well as intriguing anecdotes regarding intentional rebirths characteristic of Tibetan Buddhism. Additionally, I present a summary of cases of childhood recollections of past lives that certainly warrant further scientific investigation. I intentionally omitted the peculiar behavioral phenomena known as xenoglossy and past-life hypnotic regression that others have cited in their writings pertaining to rebirth or reincarnation because, such subjects are unreliable from a scientific point of view, although such phenomena is nonetheless quite intriguing to investigate. Finally, I conclude with my humble opinion regarding the matter of rebirth.

To date, there are millions of people who have never heard of the notion of rebirth. And among those that have heard of this notion—especially those who profess a dogmatic scientific worldview—the “knee jerk reaction” is to simply disregard it as mere superstition, bereft of any scientific validity; and, truth be told, this certainly used to be the case, that is, before the work of Ian Stevenson, M.D. (October 31, 1918 – February 8, 2007). He was a Canadian-born American psychiatrist who worked for the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Before his death, he amassed hundreds of cases of people reporting remarkable memories of past lives with intricate details, including birth defects or birthmarks that match the wounds (usually fatal) on the body of the person they claimed to have been in a past life. His successor, Dr. Jim B. Tucker, a child psychiatrist, has continued Stevenson’s commitment to applying scientific scrutiny to people’s alleged past life recollections. To date, he has collected more than 2,500 extraordinary claims, mostly of children whose memory contains vivid details of dead people’s experiences, their living situation, manner of death, etc.

Regarding what Dr. Tucker calls “life before life”, the ancient Buddhist Pāli discourses reveal that the historical Buddha recalled many previous lives in connection with his series of awakenings, leading up to his complete awakening. In Aṅguttara 3: 103, the Buddha reportedly said: “…There I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose there. There too I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose here.’ Thus he remembers his manifold past lives in their modes and details…” (translated by Ajahn Ṭhanissaro). In Majjhima Nikaya 120, titled: Rebirth Based On Thought, the Buddha reportedly said: “Monks, here a monk has faith, morality, learning, generosity, and wisdom. He thinks, ‘When I am separated from my body, after dying, may I be reborn as a wealthy aristocrat!’ He sets his mind to this, he resolves his mind on this, and he develops his mind for this. Since his thoughts and behaviors are developed and frequently directed in this way, they lead to that kind of rebirth. Monks, this is the practice which leads to that kind of rebirth…” (translated by Bhante Suddhāso). 

The aforementioned discourse in which the historical Buddha instructs his monk disciples regarding intentional rebirths segues into my presentation of Tibetan Buddhism’s history of alleged reincarnated beings known as tulkus: reincarnations of specific awakened masters. HH The 14th Dalia Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the most famous example of recognized Buddhist masters who make a vow to take an intentional rebirth to be able to assist beings along the path to enlightenment.

The life of HH the 14th Dalia Lama is the centerpiece in Martin Scorsese’s brilliant film: Kundun, beginning from his childhood days in which he was identified and confirmed as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, to his forced exile from Tibet, on up into his late adulthood as a world-renown and beloved spiritual symbol. The manner in which this alleged reincarnation was confirmed is definitely controversial and not as rigorous as the scientific methods soon to be highlighted. However, I shall present the crux of the method Tibetan masters utilize in their process of identifying reborn beings.

According to a Shambhala publication which is an adaptation from The History of the Karmapas by Lama Kunsang, Lama Pemo, and Marie Aubele, the first case of a tulku reveals that the first karmapa made numerous predictions regarding his successors. Additionally, he wrote a letter wherein he gave instructions for finding his future incarnation (tulku). The writing of a letter or giving an oral transmission to a trusted disciple eventually became the main method of recognizing karmapas; and the 15th Karmapa, Kyakyab Dorje, recognized many tulkus during his lifetime. The recognition of the 2nd Karmapa, Karma Pakshi (1206-1282) marked the birth of the tulku recognition system; and this system was later applied, albeit with a bit of variation, by all the masters of the other Tibetan Buddhist schools.

In the 1970’s, various masters of Tibetan Buddhist lineages began identifying tulkus in the West. The notable but highly controversial teacher Chögyam Trungpa, identified a boy as a rebirth of one of his deceased teachers. The world-renown meditation master/teacher Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche also recognized the rebirth of a tulku in the West. The mother of a young man highlighted in the 2009 documentary: Tulku, said that a male being told her in a dream: “Please, will you give me a place in your body?”; she then claimed that she became pregnant within a couple of weeks. As far fetched as this may sound, such an occurrence is in harmony with ancient Buddhist cosmology which stipulates that a child is born based on specific requisite conditions: a woman is in her fecund period, the sperm (male essence) and egg (female essence) unite, a gandhabba is present (a subtle corporeal being or the being to be reborn). When all three of these conditions are in place, a particular mind-continuum descends into the womb. 

Another recognized Western Tulku is a man named Rubin Derekson. As a boy, he had memories of a previous life. His mother kept a journal of his childhood recollections. As is the case with most people who recall previous lives, they lose those memories by the time they become teenagers. He’s become an example of modern tulkus who doubt various aspects of Buddhism, such as rebirth. Intriguingly, he even claimed, in a scene in Tulku, that he no longer considers himself a Buddhist. However, my focus is on the recognition system used to identify tulkus. 

Some of the procedures of the tulku recognition system were highlighted in Kundun. The documentary: Unmistaken Child highlighted the phenomenon of relics in the form of pearls found among the remains of various cremated meditation masters. The consultation of oracles, auspicious signs in the forms of dreams or the occurrence of peculiarities in the natural world associated with particular deaths and births characterize the process of tulku recognition. But the most important aspect of the process of determining the authenticity of an alleged intentional rebirth is that, the ceremonial objects of a particular tulku must be acknowledged by the boy believed to be his genuine continuation.

Generally, a child identified as the rebirth of a deceased master is presented with an array of bells, rosary beads, little drums (damaru) and other ceremonial instruments. The objects possessed by the deceased tulku must be chosen without hints and, quite naturally, the child should show signs of an emotional connection and familiarity with such sacred and personal possessions that can’t be so easily attributed to chance selections (however, scientifically speaking, chance can’t be ruled out). And this last point is remarkable because children across the globe, and most importantly, within societies bereft of a cultural bias towards notions such as rebirth or reincarnation, such as kids in America, also strongly identify with certain objects, people and places associated with their alleged previous life, yet they occasionally do so unprovoked and with much more precise knowledge than the Tibetan children who get confirmed as tulkus.

For example, HH the 14th Dalai Lama identified all the sacred objects used by the previous Dalai Lama. Jim B. Tucker M.D. frequently highlights cases of children who know details about a deceased person they claim to be; they also identify objects and places associated with the person singled out as their past life personality. Such cases, as you’ll see when conducting a deeper investigation, can’t be easily dismissed as merely coincidental. Even without taking into consideration the historical doctrine of rebirth taught by the Buddha and the Tibetan tradition of reincarnated beings, there’s enough evidence amassed by Dr. Ian Stevenson and his successor Jim B. Tucker M.D to make a solid case for the validity of rebirth.

Dr. Ian Stevenson studied hundreds of cases of people who claim to remember details of a past life. However, his research is largely comprised of people in Southeast Asia were belief in rebirth and reincarnation is widespread. Thus, such cases have the drawbacks of being flawed by cultural/religious bias. And so, I will only briefly highlight Dr. Ian Stevenson’s fascinating research and then move on to summarize his successors slightly more credible work which focuses on children who recall past lives in countries where belief in rebirth/reincarnation is not widespread. The former pointed out that some children between ages 2 and 5 might say; “When I was big, I…” “You’re not my mother. I want to go to my real mother.” “This house is too small. My house is much bigger.” When children make statements like these, one might laugh and attribute their claims to a fantastic imagination but, it’s important to note that some children report past life memories that can be independently verified; and that’s exactly what Dr. Ian Stevenson and Dr. Jim B. Tucker have done. Children across the globe mention specific names, places, and events that they couldn’t have known about through mere chance. The specifics can be and, in many cases actually were confirmed via delving into public records.

In one particularly convincing case, a young boy, now a grown man named James Leininger used to, according to his mom, frequently wake up screaming and crying as a child from a nightmare in which he vividly recalled dying in an airplane crash. On one particular night, during an intense dream, his mother recalls him yelling: “Airplane crash…on fire… little man can’t get out.”. His mother grabbed his father Bruce so he could also hear what his son was saying and they both heard him, wondering: where did that come from?!  Once she’d woke him up and he was calm, she asked him “Who’s the little man?”, and, the boy said “Me”. He claimed that “the little boy’s” name is James which, is also his actual name. And so, initially his mom was thinking: well his name is James and he’s two so he’s not processing what I’m trying to ascertain. She then asked him “Does the little man have any friends?” And he allegedly said: “Jack Larson”. At that point, his father wondered: “How could he give me a specific name, where could this come from?”. To hastily accept that this child is accurately recalling a previous life definitely seems outlandish but, as we shall see, many children know details about people, places and things they couldn’t have otherwise known through ordinary conventional means, such as simply googling information or guessing the names of actual deceased people, their lifestyle, their family, belongings, etc. 

Dr. Jim B. Tucker investigated this boy’s outlandish claims and, as bogus as this and other cases of childhood past life recollections seem to be, he has nonetheless compiled a list of childhood recollections that match, often times perfectly, with historical records of various actual deceased people, and specific places and things associated with their lives. And it’s not as if the child in the aforementioned anecdote, James Leininger, or other kids simply sat around and googled information and then began having dreams or visions about a previous human existence. We are dealing with children who weren’t raised in families who believe in rebirth or reincarnation which are beliefs not found in Judaic-Christian-Islamic faiths—let alone among atheist households. And so, cases involving American children raised without exposure to eastern concepts such as reincarnation or rebirth stand out against myriad unconvincing cases. 

Going back to the story of the American child James Leininger, he claimed to have known, intuitively, lots of things about planes (a key into his alleged previous life as a pilot). His parents certainly didn’t teach him the things he knew as a very young boy. Around the age of 3, he started making drawings of airplanes engaged in repetitive aircraft battle scenes. According to his mother, he never drew anything else. He was fascinated with planes. Around this time, he nonchalantly told his mother, while playing with a little toy plane that before he was born, he was a pilot and his airplane was shot in the engine and crashed in the water, that that was how he died. He frequently smashed a toy plane into his family’s coffee table saying “airplane crashed on fire”. Thus in his nightmares, drawings, and his childhood play, he acted like a traumatized person, according to Dr. Jim B. Tucker, though he never experienced childhood trauma. Sometimes he would sign his name as James 3; when his mother asked him about that peculiar behavior, he said that he was the third James. Astonishingly, he also mentioned “natoma” which sounds Japanese but it is actually the name of an American ship: the USS Natoma Bay which was at Iwo Jima. This discovery led his father to take his statements even more seriously. His father subsequently learned via searching through a log book that there was indeed an assistant armament aboard Natoma Bay named Jack Larson.

James’ father continued to investigate his son’s claims and eventually he went to a Natoma Bay reunion. There he learned that there was only one pilot who was killed during the Iwo Jima operation from the particular ship Natoma and that particular squadron; and his name was James Huston Jr. Thus James Leininger was indeed the third James! There are many more cases of childhood memories being linked to exact places, people and things via investigations conducted by either the parents of such special children, Dr. Ian Stevenson or Dr. Jim Tucker and his colleagues. But I feel that I’ve already shared enough to convince some people that rebirth, though esoteric and bizarre, nonetheless warrants more scientific research. And to buttress my claim, consider that the luminary scientist Carl Sagan who, was a founding member of a debunking organization called CSICOP (Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal) spoke about three claims that he believed “…deserve serious study…” in his book: The Demon-Haunted World. The third of the three was young children who sometimes report details of a previous life, which upon checking turn out to be accurate and which they could not have known about in any other way than rebirth.

To conclude, I intentionally left out many esoteric aspects of rebirth because, my intention in writing this piece was to produce a brief treatise that’ll inspire people to seriously investigate the possibility that death is not the end of existence. I’ve laid out ancient teachings that talk about the phenomenon of rebirth and how it can be a conscious and intentional endeavor. The tradition of reincarnate Tibetan Buddhist masters known as tulkus was briefly explored. The fascinating work begun by Dr. Ian Stevenson and continued by Jim B Tucker MD pertaining to the scientific study of children who recollect past lives  should intrigue any genuine intellectual or anyone committed to ascertaining the truth regarding the mystery of sentient existence amid the incalculable expanse of seemingly “objective” space-time and quirky material dimensionality 

I highly recommend reading Dr. Jim Tucker’s book: Life Before Life and watching episode six of Netflix’s documentary: Surviving Death. For those who want to go even deeper into this matter, explore the work of Dr. Ian Stevenson, the ancient Pāli canon discourses that explicitly deal with rebirth, as well as ancient societies with traditions that speak of processes analogous to rebirth or reincarnation. Lastly, I recommend talking to young children about their earliest memories to see if what they reveal goes beyond their childhood experiences, without suggesting rebirth or reincarnation, of course.

In spite of all of the anecdotal evidence of rebirth I’ve shared, I acknowledge the possibility that science will one day explain all of the aforementioned fascinating phenomena that currently seem to be pointing to rebirth as the best explanation, particularly regarding certain strong cases of children knowing intricate details of the lives of deceased people whom, they couldn’t have learned about via any currently known modes of accessing information. This would suggest that perhaps such people truly do remember (via some subtle mechanism that stores memory) a life as another human, or as Jim Tucker MD says, “life before life”. 

Is rebirth truth or superstition? Some claim to know the answer to this question and others, such as myself, haven’t verified an authentic, indubitable recollection of a past life. However, and better yet, here is another question: if rebirth is a fact of existence for conscious beings—and as we know from experience, our past actions coupled with those of the present certainly co-create our momentary experiences—shouldn’t we be very meticulous regarding what we say, do or consume mentally? Moreover, the interplay between our past and present actions, in the form of thoughts, deeds and speech patterns determine our social, economic and psychological predicaments. Therefore, wouldn’t it be wise of us to act as if rebirth is true, so that we can condition for ourselves a beautiful next life?

Bhante Nalaka-Dang Dai Minh

PS: This is the author’s article and does not reflect the views of the website editor. – THOM-