Based on a video, where Lama Michel Rinpoche answers questions, December 4th 2019

"When we die, there is something that continues. From my understanding, what continues, is the deepest aspect of ourselves. Even in this life, since we were very small kids, as we grow up and get older, there is some part of us that continues. When we know someone really well, and have the sensibility to look at a person, and to know the deepest aspects of their character, of the person, we can see the specific characteristics of the character, of the person, independently of the age, of the time, independent of the context. Once I know you really well, once I know the subtle aspects of your self, imagine that I could recognize you in another body. When we die, we lose the body, the gross aspects, our knowledge etc, but the deeper aspect of the self continues from life to life. So if I know you well enough and I have the sensibility to recognize the deeper aspects of your self, then I can recognize you in another body.

So when a lama dies, the person who has the responsibility to recognize the reincarnation are the people most near to him. It is very sensitive, very deep, it goes very much beyond words, it cannot be put into conceptual understanding, there is no step 1, step 2, step 3, and it is not based on external tests. There are things that are done to recognize lama’s, from external signs, to dreams and so on, but the most important thing for the ones who are searching, is to see on the deepest level the same qualities, the same characteristics, the same person.

Why do we look for the reincarnation of our masters? Each and every one of us, when we are reborn, we take with us our qualities and our faults, like seeds in our subtle mind, our mental continuum, the imprints of our character. When we are born, these are like seeds in a field, waiting for the right conditions to ripen. So if we give a child certain conditions, certain seeds will ripen. That’s why it is so important in Tibetan Buddhism, when someone is reborn with such high qualities, to recognize them, so that we make sure they are given the best conditions for these seeds to ripen. That is the mean reason. The other reason is that the greatest qualities we are looking for in someone to guide us spiritually is not knowledge, but truly love and wisdom. And the deepest state of love and wisdom is something than can be taken from life to life. It is not something that you can gain by study, not something that you can gain by experience, but by an inner process of realization, which can be taken from life to life."

LMR, 04/12/2019