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predicts only when he feels the inspiration or when a special delegate comes to
him bearing a request for it from the Dalai Lama or the Tashi Lama. When the
Russian Czar, Alexander I, fell under the influence of Baroness Kzudener and of
her extreme mysticism, he despatched a special envoy to the Living Buddha to
ask about his destiny. The then Bogdo Khan, quite a young man, told his fortune
according to the "black stone" and predicted that the White Czar would finish his
life in very painful wanderings unknown to all and everywhere pursued. In Russia
today there exists a popular belief that Alexander I spent the last days of his life
as a wanderer throughout Russia and Siberia under the pseudonym of Feodor
Kusmitch, helping and consoling prisoners, beggars and other suffering people,
often pursued and imprisoned by the police and finally dying at Tomsk in Siberia,
where even until now they have preserved the house where he spent his last days
and have kept his grave sacred, a place of pilgrimages and miracles. The former
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Beasts, Men and Gods, by Ferdinand Ossendowski
dynasty of Romanoff was deeply interested in the biography of Feodor Kusmitch
and this interest fixed the opinion that Kusmitch was really the Czar Alexander I,
who had voluntarily taken upon himself this severe penance.
CHAPTER XLIII
THE BIRTH OF THE LIVING BUDDHA
The Living Buddha does not die. His soul sometimes passes into that of a child
born on the day of his death and sometimes transfers itself to another being
during the life of the Buddha. This new mortal dwelling of the sacred spirit of the
Buddha almost always appears in the yurta of some poor Tibetan or Mongol
family. There is a reason of policy for this. If the Buddha appears in the family of a
rich prince, it could result in the elevation of a family that would not yield
obedience to the clergy (and such has happened in the past), while on the other
hand any poor, unknown family that becomes the heritor of the throne of Jenghiz
Khan acquires riches and is readily submissive to the Lamas. Only three or four
Living Buddhas were of purely Mongolian origin; the remainder were Tibetans.
One of the Councillors of the Living Buddha, Lama-Khan Jassaktu, told me the
following:
"In the monasteries at Lhasa and Tashi Lumpo they are kept constantly informed
through letters from Urga about the health of the Living Buddha. When his human
body becomes old and the Spirit of Buddha strives to extricate itself, special
solemn services begin in the Tibetan temples together with the telling of fortunes
by astrology. These rites indicate the specially pious Lamas who must discover
where the Spirit of the Buddha will be re-incarnated. For this purpose they travel
throughout the whole land and observe. Often God himself gives them signs and
indications. Sometimes the white wolf appears near the yurta of a poor shepherd
or a lamb with two heads is born or a meteor falls from the sky. Some Lamas take
fish from the sacred lake Tangri Nor and read on the scales thereof the name of
the new Bogdo Khan; others pick out stones whose cracks indicate to them where
they must search and whom they must find; while others secrete themselves in
narrow mountain ravines to listen to the voices of the spirits of the mountains,
pronouncing the name of the new choice of the Gods. When he is found, all the
possible information about his family is secretly collected and presented to the
Most Learned Tashi Lama, having the name of Erdeni, "The Great Gem of
Learning," who, according to the runes of Rama, verifies the selection. If he is in
agreement with it, he sends a secret letter to the Dalai Lama, who holds a special
sacrifice in the Temple of the 'Spirit of the Mountains' and confirms the election by
putting his great seal on this letter of the Tashi Lama.
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Beasts, Men and Gods, by Ferdinand Ossendowski
"If the old Living Buddha be still alive, the name of his successor is kept a deep
secret; if the Spirit of Buddha has already gone out from the body of Bogdo Khan,
a special legation appears from Tibet with the new Living Buddha. The same
process accompanies the election of the Gheghen and Hutuktus in all the Lamaite
monasteries in Mongolia; but confirmation of the election resides with the Living
Buddha and is only announced to Lhasa after the event."
CHAPTER XLIV
A PAGE IN THE HISTORY OF THE PRESENT LIVING BUDDHA
The present Bogdo Khan of Outer Mongolia is a Tibetan. He sprang from a poor [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]