Unmistaken Child?

One night recently I watched “Unmistaken Child”, a PBS documentary that featured beautiful scenery, devoted disciples, the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism and reincarnation. The movie follows the relentless pursuit by Tenzin Zopa, young disciple and devoted Tibetan Buddhist monk. Tenzin Zopa searches high mountain valleys to find a very young boy, aged one to one and one-half, believed to be the reincarnation of his spiritual master, Lama Konchog, who died at 84 in 2001. It is a fascinating combination of astrological signs, spiritual sleuthing, portents found in the lama’s cremation fire (direction of the smoke, bone turned into pearl, etc), a boy born in a certain valley whose father’s first name was “A.” Tenzin Zopa walked in hope from village to village in search of the child expected to be the one. A certain boy in a certain family is found. Investigation and certification by monks and the hierarchy leads to confirmation by the Dalai Lama, and the separation of a 3-4 year old boy from his family, in order to live the rest of his life in a monastery, and to grow up and receive worship and honor from the devoted. This child is renamed Tenzin Phuntsok Rinpoche, and expected from an early age to grow into his role as the new lama. The young boy is told by the Dalai Lama to be “faithful to the teachings.”

The entire program was fascinating, alien, disturbing, pagan, brutal. Viewing the reactions of the common people especially was interesting, many with enraptured faces, tears and joy. Villagers react with hope and thankfulness that their village was chosen, and that their family produced the chosen one. To see this boy give scarves to these villagers, now his worshippers, to see him touch their foreheads, was disturbing. I noticed a slight parallelism to an unknown couple in an obscure village in Israel, giving birth to the Messiah, and to a journey by Magi more than two thousand years ago.

Let me say that not all religions are the same. This is a myth of the academy and of comparative religions. All religions have family resemblances and surface similarities. Under the surface, stark differences exist.

I also admit that I have biases, as we all do. Watching this through Western, Christian eyes, I saw an ancient pagan system playing out, with a family willingly but sadly bereft of their beloved son. I saw Buddhist, and Hindu, themes of karma and reincarnation. I saw superstition and ancient sooth-seeking, subjective confirmation of prophecy, hopeful worship by ordinary people. I also saw some good ethical teaching. This young lama is already blogging on the Internet at the age of 6 to devoted followers worldwide, some of whom already ascribe their dreams as having been sent from him.

My prayer the morning after this video was “Lord, Lord, Jesus, You are more than a lama. When You were on the earth, you were the Incarnation of Almighty God himself, but You are God. You said nothing about reincarnation but only of rebirth spiritual. You gave hope that all men and women could be your disciples, and be born in God’s image, with the potential to be full, and live fully in the Holy Spirit of God.” May we all seek Christ, and God’s kingdom in our lives, with the same determination and devotion of the monk who sought the child: relentlessly, selflessly, hopefully. ©2010 Ray Woolridge