Freedom from the wheel of existence, from the tyranny of our bodies and our passions, from the cycle of birth and death and rebirth, from desire and delusion . . . One need not be born a Buddhist to think wistfully of the abolition of selfish selfhood through union with the divine. But for a Buddhist monk whose whole long life has been a strenuous, selfless meditation, the prospect of further reincarnations should seem an admission that meditation has fallen short of its goal or its goallessness. But perhaps not for every Buddhist. Seventy-seven years ago, a synod of senior Tibetan lamas embraced one particular infant as the reincarnation of his predecessor and the conduit for the wisdom and spiritual gifts of an ancient tradition. Few Tibetans now would dispute that revelation. The current Dalai Lama, 14th in a more or less direct line of reincarnation, serves as the polestar for much of the Tibetan people. Living in exile or under colonial occupation, clinging precariously to their centuries-old culture, they instinctively recognize the Dalai Lama’s enormous spiritual and political legitimacy as too …