The Tulku Tradition within Vajrayana Buddhism
"Tulku" means embodiment of compassion; it one of three dimensions or "bodies" spoken of in the Vajrayana Buddhist and Dzogchen teachings. These three dimensions are, in Sanskrit, Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, and Nirmanakaya (The word "kaya" in Sanskrit means "body"). These three dimensions are not separate locations or places, but aspects of awareness that meditators identify as facets of their experience. These three dimensions are the dimension of utter openness, limpid lucidity and radiant manifestation.
Beings on the path of awakening discover the power of the limitless wish. This wish can be imagined as an arrow of compassion sent out of the aspirant's mind like a heartfelt stream of thoughts sent out into space. The idea or intention behind this wish or prayer has its specific scope, and this intention might seem to remain dormant for some period of time. When the aspirant attains enlightenment, when they rest in perfect awareness beyond the strategies and calistenics of the intellect, at that point their past intentions seem to begin to flower. But this flowering takes place as a kind of synergy, so that what seems to be "a leads to b which leads to c" actually may be somewhat more mysterious: this kind of activity seems to arise as a spontaneous harmony between appearances and the nature of space itself, beyond the trap of linear causality or time. However, for beings in time, that aspirant's awakening seems to trigger events that brighten and stir the awakening of others who have come into contact with that person.
The state of awakening is not an experience that has any sense of finality or duration, and the spectacle of struggles in the dimensions of phenomena can appear to continue through time. And so for the sake of beings struggling in the realms of endless dissatisfaction where there is nowhere to rest, these beings actualize their most perfect wish to truly help those of us who struggle in this world. When tulkus reappear, it is not the personality but the wishes that continue unbroken. These wishes are like a ripple sent out long ago that continues to reverberate amongst all the other ripples of intention, and the reverberations are like echoes that interact with the contours of people and circumstances around them.
Tulkus have the capacity to clearly shine through any and all movement in and around them. This means that their encounters with people and situations of their lives constantly illuminate the mystery of what we are, and those around them often cannot help but be caught up in this inquiry as well. So these echoes can be seen as a kind of energy that continues to motivate the tulku's awakened heart beyond the initial voicing, inspiring him or her to galvanize tangible experiences of balance and harmony appropriate to each moment's point of equilibrium. This is the blessing of the awakening made manifest in the world as an unceasing and precise outpouring of love and instruction.
People on the path tell stories about these tulkus because these stories and songs of their lives actually encode the force of their limitless wish within the specific phenomenal "signature" of their personality and qualities. This is the reason why Tibetans have a separate word for hagiographies, or spiritual biographies, compared to ordinary ones. Highly realized beings, beings who have true realization of awareness and are aware of the specific "signature" of another enlightened being's qualities can often recognize these signatures within people, and this is the crucial part of what perpetuates the tulku tradition within these lineages. This is how certain people are "recognized" as being a reincarnation of a certain saint or master. When the process is "true," when the process is actually perpetuated by the recognition of masters with realization and not the activity of some spiritual materialistic vehicle of politics, then the tulku tradition can be seen as the interweaving of inestimable wishes of various beings on The Path through the days, like a golden braid.