KATHERINE V. MASÍS-IVERSON
My Reincarnation (2011)
Filmmaker and director Jennifer Fox based this documentary on materials filmed from 1989 to 2010, and tells the story of another tulku born in the West who in turn is the son of a tulku born in Tibet. Yeshi Silvano Namkhai is the son of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu (1938-2018) who died seven years after filming. Namkhai Norbu was a professor of Tibetan culture at the Oriental University of Naples (Università degli Studi di Napoli–L’Orientale) and, later, a Dzogchen teacher. Exiled from Tibet and resident in Italy since 1960, he met his wife Rosa with whom he formed a family with his son Yeshi (born in 1970) and his daughter Yuchen (born in 1971).
Namkhai Norbu explains that when his son Yeshi was in his mother’s womb, he had dreams of his uncle Khyentse Rinpoche, who had been one of his teachers in Tibet. In a dream, he went to visit Khyentse along with Rosa and a red light emerged and dissolved into her. After having this dream, he received a letter from a Lama based in India in which he said that Yeshi was the reincarnation of Khyentse.
The documentary begins with underwater scenes; We can hear Yeshi’s voice, who narrates that he had had dreams and visions about Tibet in his childhood. He acknowledges that these dreams and visions made him afraid and that he did not want to go to Tibet. He remembers that when he asked his father about these images, he “just listened” and did not respond. Later in the film, in a very casual manner, Yeshi claims to have “evidence”, for example, having identified specific places in Tibet through photographs.
At different points in the documentary, Namkhai Norbu states that didn’t want his son to suffer the situations that Khyentse suffered in his previous life and that he has tried not to interfere in Yeshi’s decisions regarding his path in life. his life. Perhaps this explains why, according to Yeshi, he does not answer his questions about his dreams, visions and fears.
However, at nineteen years old, Yeshi reports that his father has always told him that “he is an important person” and that “they are waiting for him in Tibet.” He comments that his father travels the world teaching Dzogchen most of the year and that they don’t have a close bond. He also perceives that his father’s followers idealize him: “Many people look for myths, legends, and saints.” He rejects what he considers to be his father’s expectations of him and the possibility of “being in the shadow of something or someone.”
Thirteen years later, in 2002, the documentary shows Yeshi as a computer professional. He has got married, started a family, and lives “in a very ordinary and very Italian way.” Time and time again, he resists what he perceives to be the expectations of others should he agree to be a teacher. At Dzogchen practice centres, he observes his father officiating at ceremonies, facilitating practices and answering questions from students who wait in long lines to be received, some of them seeking advice about difficult personal situations. Yeshi notices the way people “think the solution to their problems is my father” and that they “forget that my father is human.”
Later, Yeshi relates that during the long car trips that were part of his work, he began to listen to and follow Dzogchen chants, which became a form of spiritual practice for him. Yeshi leaves his job and, little by little, in order to help his father, he accepts administrative management tasks in different Dzogchen centres around the world. Not only do his childhood visions return, he also has new ones in which he begins to remember painful events about his death in his previous life in Tibet. Finally, he decides to fulfil his father’s wish: to travel to Tibet “to finish what was yet to be done.” On the trip to Khyentse Rinpoche’s village, he expresses his concern about the expectations the villagers might have regarding his visit. The interpreter responds that “the only thing they want is a teacher.” Yeshi wears ceremonial robes, performs rituals, and listens to touching testimonial accounts from those who knew Khyentse Rinpoche, his previous reincarnation.
A year later (2010), Yeshi gives talks to Dzogchen students, not wearing robes, but ordinary Western clothes. A later scene shows Yeshi sitting on the beach with his father, enjoying the waves. There are final signs indicating that Yeshi has assumed the role of teacher as the tulku that he is.
LACK OF SOCIAL SUPPORT, OR PERSONAL UNCERTAINTIES?
In Memoiries d’ un autre vie / Memories of a Previous Life, Tenzin Sherab (Elijah Ary) shows no signs of having strong internal conflicts regarding where his life should take place. After a decade of monastic training in India, he is determined on his purpose of returning to the West.
In Tulku, Dylan Henderson, Ashoka Mukpo and Ruben Derksen seem certain of the decisions they have made about their lives. On the other hand, Gesar Mukpo, the filmmaker, like Wyatt Arnold, express strong uncertainties about how to deal with the fact of having been identified as tulkus in their childhood.
In My Reincarnation, Yeshi Silvano Namkhai, after years of resisting assuming the role of his father’s successor in teaching Dzogchen, clearly seems to accept it at the end of the film.
In all three documentaries, the only two tulkus who express concern about the presence or absence of social and cultural support for their roles as tulkus in the West are Gesar Mukpo and Wyatt Arnold. This is possibly a reflection of their personal uncertainties, since, had they assumed the functions of tulku, they would have undoubtedly received abundant support, both in their own families and in their respective Buddhist communities in the West.
WHERE ARE THEY NOWADAYS?
It has been several years since these documentaries were filmed. What are these tulkus doing today?
Tenzin Sherab (Elijah Ary) lives in France and works as a Gestalt psychotherapist and meditation instructor for lay people. He is a family man and has written an autobiography in which he narrates his experiences in the Western and Eastern worlds.
Today Wyatt Arnold is an engineer and family man. He claims to feel closely connected to Buddhist teachings, even though he works in the secular world.
Ruben Derksen lives and works in the travel industry in Bangkok, Thailand, judging by his personal Facebook page.
There are not many allusions to Yeshi Silvano Namkhi on the Dzogchen Community websites in the last five years. However, there is news about a teaching transmission event offered by Yeshi to be taught in April 2020, which was later suspended until further notice, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
There are no recent news about the other tulkus appearing in the documentaries, at least as of today.
FINAL THOUGHTS
None of the tulkus featured in the three documentaries needed to be searched by a disciple. They were already located and only tests were conducted to confirm their identities. From a Tibetan Buddhist perspective, there is no definite explanation why these tulkus chose to reincarnate in the West. Probably, not even they themselves could give a compelling reason for it. Perhaps they wanted to reveal that being a tulku is not so relevant today, at least for Buddhism in the Wes, or it could be that the purpose of being born again in other times and in other spaces simply comes to show that there are many ways and many contexts from which to practice and teach the Dharma, in addition to the traditional ones.
REFERENCES
The Tulku Tradition
Khyentse, J. (2016). Time for Radical Change in How We Raise Our Tulkus. Tricycle.https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/dzongsar-jamyang-khyentse-tulkus/
MacKenzie, V. (1998). Maestros de la reencarnación: Quiénes son, cómo fueron identificados, cómo transcurren sus vidas, cuál es su misión Trad. A. Pareja Rodríguez. Madrid: NeoPerson.
[English original: MacKenzie, V. (1996). Reborn in the West: The Reincarnation Masters. Marlowe & Co].
McLeod, K. (2016). Reflections on Dzongsar Khyentse’s “How We Raise Tulkus”. Tricycle. https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/reflections-on-dzongsar-khyentses-how-we-raise-tulkus/
Thinley, K. (1980). The History of the Sixteen Karmapas of Tibet. Boulder, Colorado, EEUU: Prajna Press.
Three documentaries
Fox, J. (Director) (2011) My Reincarnation. USA: Long Shot Factory.
https://archive.org/details/MyReincarnation2011
Mukpo, Gesar (Director) (2009). Tulku. Canada: National Film Board of Canada. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV_8YvIbrvY
Poulin, M. & Grégoire, C. (Co-directors) (1994). Memoiries d’un autre vie / Memories of a Previous Life. Canada: Productions Thuk Kar.
Documentary in French: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8bUq7k7CZM
Documentary in English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLWPUcGUQvE
Where are they nowadays?
Ary, E. (n.d.) Tenzin Tulku: Lama Tibétain réincarné en Occident.
https://www.tenzintulku.com/index.php/fr
Ary, E. (n.d.) Tenzin Tulku: Tibetan Lama Born in the West.
https://www.tenzintulku.com/index.php/en
Ary, E. (2019) Tulkou: Autobiographie d’un lama réincarné en Occident. Paris: Philippe Rey.
Derksen, R. (n.d.) Ruben Derksen. https://www.facebook.com/ruben.derksen/about
International Dzogchen Community Gakyil (2020). How can I get Transmission or Direct Introduction?
http://dzogchencommunity.org/faqs/how-can-i-get-transmission-or-direct-introduction/
Miller, A. (2021). Magical Emanations: The Unexpected Lives of Western Tulkus. Lion’s Roar.
https://www.lionsroar.com/magical-emanations-the-unexpected-lives-of-western-tulkus
*This article was originally published in Buddhistdoor en Español.
Katherine V. Masís-Iverson
The author is a retired professor from the University of Costa Rica in San José, Costa Rica, where for several years, she taught introductory philosophy courses at the School of General Studies, as well as courses on Ethics and Hindu and Buddhist thought at the School of Philosophy. Some of her work can be found at:
