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The Shadow of the Dalai Lama – Part
II – 16. Tactics, Strategies, Forgeries, Illusions
© Victor & Victoria Trimondi
16. TACTICS, STRATEGIES,
FORGERIES, ILLUSIONS
From a western point of view, religion
and politics have been neatly and cleanly separated
from one another since the modern era (18th
century). In this sense a clear distinction is
drawn here between the spread of Tantric Buddhism
and the question of Tibet’s international legal
status. However, for an ancient culture like the
Tibetan one, such a division is just not possible.
In it, all levels — the mystic, the mythic, the
symbolic, and the ritual — are addressed by every
political event. From a Tibetan viewpoint it is
thus completely logical that the liberation of
the Land of Snows from the claws of the Chinese
dragon be blown up into an exemplary deed that
should benefit the whole planet. “To save Tibet
means to save the world!” is a widespread slogan,
even among committed Westerners.
Just like the teachings of the
Buddha, the political issue of Tibet at first
evoked little resonance among the western public.
Those who broached the topic of the fate of the
Tibetan people in American and European governmental
circles generally encountered rejection and disinterest.
But this dismissive stance changed in the mid-eighties.
With increasing frequency, His Holiness the Fourteenth
Dalai Lama was officially received by western
heads of state who had previously refused to be
in public contact with him for fear of Chinese
protests.
The “Tibet Lobby”
Since 1985 the so-called Tibet lobby has been at work
in numerous countries. This is a cross-party collection
of parliamentary representatives who in their
respective parliaments advocate a Tibet resolution
that morally condemns China for its constant human
rights abuses and “cultural genocide”. A recognition
of Tibet as an autonomous state is not linked
to such resolutions. At the Tibet
Support Groups Conference in Bonn (in 1996),
Tim Nunn from England gave a paper on the methods
(the upaya) of successful lobbying:
well-groomed appearance, diplomatic language,
proper dress, skilled presentation, and the like.
Mr. Nunn was able to point to successes — 131
members of the British Lower House had engaged
themselves for the cause of the Land of Snows
in London (Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung, 1996, pp.
77ff.).
In the USA the lawyer Michael van
Walt van Praag has successfully argued the interests
of the Tibetan government in exile to both Senators
and Congressmen. He succeeded in getting a resolution
on Tibet passed in the U.S. Senate. One of his
greatest political successes was when in 1991
the Kundun was permitted to take
his place in the rotunda and address the American
House of Congress. Afterwards he met with President
George Bush. Bush signed an official document
in which Tibet was described as am “occupied country”.
Since 1990 The
Voice of America has begun broadcasting programs
in Tibetan. A new broadcaster, Free
Asia, which also has a Tibet department, has
recently been approved by Congress. As of 1997,
the State Department appointed
a “special representative for Tibet” who is supposed
to have the task of negotiating between the Kundun and China.
In early September 1995, the Dalai
Lama smilingly embraced Senator Jesse Helms, renowned
for his ultra-conservative stance. This was a
high point in the thoroughgoing reverence the
Republicans have shown him.
The Democrats barely acknowledged
such conservative solidarity, since it was they
who smoothed the way for the “liberal” god-king
to reach a broad public. The American President,
Bill Clinton, and his Vice-president, Al Gore,
were initially reserved and ambivalent towards
the Dalai Lama, whom they have met several times.
The American government’s position is expressed
unambiguously in a statement from 1994: „Because we do not
recognize Tibet as an independent state, the United
States does not conduct diplomatic relations with
the self-styled the ‘Tibetan government-in-exile’“
it says there (Goldstein, 1997, p. 121).
But after several meetings with
President Clinton and his wife Hillary the god-king
was able to make a lasting impression on the presidential
couple. Clinton committed himself as never before
to resolving the question of Tibet. One of the
major points of his trip to China (in 1998) was
to encourage Jiang Zemin to take up contact with
the Dalai Lama. Every western head of state who
visits the Middle Kingdom now reiterates this,
which has led to success: in the meantime the
two parties (Beijing and Dharamsala) confer constantly
behind closed doors.
In 1989 the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
was awarded the Nobel peace prize. The fact that
he received this high accolade has less to do
with the political situation in Tibet than, above
all, the bloody events in Tiananmen Square in
Beijing, where numerous Chinese students protesting
against the regime lost their lives. The West
wanted to morally condemn China and the Tibet
lobby was successful in proposing an honoring
of His Holiness as the best means of doing so.
From now on the god-king possessed
an international prominence like never before.
The Oslo award could almost be said to have granted
him a passport and access to the majority of world
heads of state. There was hardly a president who
still in the face of Chinese protests refused
to officially receive the god-king, at least as
a religious representative. In Ireland, France,
Liechtenstein, Austria, Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria,
Russia, the USA, Canada, England, Switzerland,
Germany, Sweden, Israel, Japan, Taiwan, Gabun,
Australia, New Zealand, several South American
countries — everywhere the “modest monk” was honored
like a pontiff.
In 1996 the lobbyists succeeded
in maneuvering Germany into a spectacular confrontation
with China through the passing of a resolution
Tibet in the Bundestag (the German lower
house). The resolution was supported by all parties
in parliament, be they green, left, liberal, or
conservative. The paradoxical side to this move
was that both the Dalai Lama and the Chinese were
able to profit from it whilst the naïve Germans
had to pay up. This coup represents the Kundun’s
party’s greatest political success in the West
to date. On the other hand, the Chinese succeeded
in inducing the intimidated German federal government
into continuing to grant China the much desired
Hermes securities formerly refused them. For Beijing,
with this agreement in hand, the question of Tibet
in its relations with Germany was resolved for
now. Even if we cannot speak of a direct cooperation
here, according to the cui bonum principle the two
Asian parties profited greatly by drawing an essentially
uninvolved nation into the conflict.
The media management of the Kundun’s followers is by now
perfect. Numerous offices in all countries, above
all the Tibet Information Network
(TIN) in London, supply the press with material
about the serious shortcomings in the Land of
Snows, life in the community of Tibetan exiles,
and the activities of the god-king. There is successful
cooperation with Chinese dissidents. Reports from
Beijing, which admittedly can only be treated
with great caution but nonetheless include much
important information, are uniformly dismissed
by Dharamsala as communist propaganda. This one-sidedness
in the assessment of Tibetan affairs has in the
meantime also been adopted by the western press
corps.
For example, when at the invitation
of the Chinese the German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl,
visited Lhasa as the first western head of government
and afterwards announced that the situation in
the Tibet capital was by no means so criminal
as it was portrayed to be by the Dalai Lama’s
office, he was lambasted in the media, who declared
that he was prepared to sell his morals for financial
considerations. But when he was there, the former
American President Jimmy Carter, renowned for
his great commitment to human rights, also gained
the same impression (Grunfeld, 1996, p. 232).
The issue of Tibet has become an
important means of anchoring Tantric Buddhism
in the West. As a political issue it appears
in the West to be completely divorced from any
religious instrumentalization. The Kundun appears in public as
a campaigner for peace, a democrat, a humanist,
as an advocate of the oppressed. This skillfully
adapted western/ethical “mixture” gains him unrestricted
access to the highest levels of government. Although
some politicians may see a confirmation of their
ideals in the (ostensible) behavior of the Dalai
Lama, fundamentally it is probably power-political
motives which determine Western policy on Asia.
The West’s relationship with China is namely extremely
ambivalent. On the one hand there is a hope for
good economic and political ties to the prospering
country with its unbounded markets, on the other
a deep-seated fear of a future Chinese superpower.
The political situation in Tibet and the circumstances
of the Tibetans in exile afford sufficient grounds
to be employed as an argument against a potential
Chinese imperialism.
The “Greens”
In Germany the issue of Tibet was
first taken up by green
politicians, primarily by the parliamentary representatives
Petra Kelly and Gert Bastian. Their pro-Tibetan
intervention is still marked by a continuing success.
“Major entertainers and environmentalists”, wrote
the Spiegel magazine, “have found
a common denominator in their commitment to the
kingdom on the roof of the world. Hollywood meets Robin Hood — Tibet’s Buddhism
is the common denominator” (Spiegel, 16/1998, p. 109).
Petra Kelly’s selfless engagement was later interpreted
as a form of “engaged Buddhism” whose principle
concerns were said to include the defense of human
rights, ecological responsibility, and sexual
equality. [1]
The Kundun cleverly co-opted all
these western demands and suddenly (at the end
of the eighties) appeared on the political stage
as a spearhead of the global ecological movement.
„Green
politics” and environmental issues have in the
meantime attained a central place within the political
propaganda of the Tibetans in exile. There are
hundreds of conferences such as the one introduced
by His Holiness in 1993 under the title of „Ecological
responsibility: A dialog with Buddhism”. The Kundun is a member of the
ecologically oriented Goal
Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders on
Human Survival. In 1992 he visited the Greenpeace flagship, the Rainbow Warrior. And at the
„global forum” in Rio de Janeiro the Dalai Lama
had far-reaching things to say about the earth’s
problems: „This blue planet of ours is a delightful
habitat. Its life is our life; its future our
future. Indeed, the earth acts like a mother to
all. Like children, we are dependent on them.
... Our Mother Earth is teaching us a lesson in
universal responsibility”, the god-king announced
emotionally. (www.tibet.com/Eco/dleco4.html)
Since the late eighties it has
become normal at international environmental meetings
all around the world to describe the Tibet of
old as an ecological paradise, where wild gazelles
and “snow lions” eat from the monks’ hands, as
the Dalai Lama’s brother (Thubten Jigme Norbu)
put it at a Tibet conference in Bonn (in 1996).
For thousands of years, it says in edifying writings,
the Tibetans have revered plants and animals as
their equals. “Historical” idylls such as the
following are taken literally by innocently trusting
Westerners: „The Tibetan traditional
heritage, which is known to be over three thousand
years old[!], can be distinguished as one of [the]
foremost traditions of the world in which … humankind
and its natural environment have persistently
remained in perfect harmony” (Huber, 2001, p.
360).
What glowed in the past should
also shine in the future. Accordingly many western
followers of the Kundun
imagine how the once flourishing garden will bloom
again after his return to the Land of Snows. His
Holiness is also generously accommodating towards
this image of desire and promises to found the
first ecological state on earth in a “liberated”
Tibet — for many “Greens” a glimmer of hope in
a world that constantly neglects its environmental
responsibilities.
Today, among many committed members
of the international “ecological scene”, being
green, environmentally friendly, nature-loving,
vegetarian, and Tibetan Buddhist, are all but
identical. But is there any truth in such an equivalence?
Was the Tibet of old really an “earthly garden
of paradise”? Is the essence of Tantric Buddhism
pro-nature and animal-loving?
Tibetan Buddhism’s hostility
towards nature
No complicated research is required
to establish that the inhabitants of the Tibet
of old, like all highlands peoples, had an ambivalent
relationship with nature, in which fear and horror
in the face of constant catastrophes (turns in
the weather, cold, famines, accidents, illnesses)
predominated. Nature, which was (and often still
is) in fact experienced animistically as being inhabited
by spirits, was only rarely a friend and partner;
instead, most of the time it was a malevolent
and destructive force, in many instances a terrifying
demoness. We have presented some of these anti-human
nature spirits in our chapter on Anarchy and Buddhism. Using
violence, trickery, and magic they have to be
compelled, tamed, and not unrarely killed.
In a comprehensive study (Civilized Shamans), the Tibet
researcher Geoffrey Samuel has demonstrated that
the violent subjugation of a wild nature is a
drama constantly repeated within the Tibetan monastic
civilization: beginning with the nailing down
of the Tibetan primeval earth mother, Srinmo, by King Songtsen Gampo so as to erect
the central shrines of the Land of Snows over
her wounds, the construction of every Lamaist
temple (no matter where in the world) was and
is prefaced by a ritual that refreshes the dreadful
stigmatization of the “earth mother”. Srinmo is undoubtedly the
(Tibetan) emanation of “Mother Earth” or “Mother
Nature” whom the Dalai Lama so emotionally pleads
to rescue at international ecology congresses
("the earth acts like a mother to all”). It was
the Kundun himself — if we take
his doctrine of incarnation literally — who in
the form of Songtsen Gampo many centuries
ago nailed down “Mother Earth” (Srinmo). He himself laid the
bloody foundations (the maltreated body of Srinmo) upon which his clerical
and andocentric system rests. It is he himself
who repeats this aggressive “taming act” at every
public performance of the Kalachakra ritual: before
a sand mandala is created, the local nature spirits
(some interpreters say the earth mother Srinmo) are nailed to the
ground with phurbas
(ritual daggers).
The equation of nature with the
feminine principle is an archetypical move that
we find in most cultures. The Greek Gaia
and Tibetan Srinmo
are just two different names for the same divine
substance of the earth mother. In European alchemy,
nature is the starting point (the prima materia) for the magic
experiments and likewise a principium feminile. We have
examined the close interconnection of alchemy
and Tantrism in detail and proved that in both
systems the feminine principle is sacrificed for
the benefit of a masculine experimenter. By adopting
for ourselves the tantric way of seeing things
in which everything is linked to everything else,
we were able to recognize the nailing down of
Srinmo
(the symbol-laden primal event of Tibetan history)
as the historical predecessor of the “tantric/alchemic
female sacrifice”. Songtsen Gampo sacrificed
the “earth mother” so as to acquire her energies
for himself, just as every tantra master sacrifices
his karma mudra so as to absorb
her gynergy.
In recent decades numerous books
have appeared that address the disrespect, enslavement,
and dismemberment of nature by the modern scientific
world view and technology. Many of the analyses,
especially when they are the work of feminist
authors, indicate that the destruction and control
of nature are to be equated with the superiority
of the masculine principle over the feminine,
of the god over the goddess, in brief with the
supremacy of patriarchy. This critical view of
the history of oppression and exploitation of
the scientific age has largely obscured the view
of atavistic religions’ hostility towards nature,
especially when these come from the east, like
Tibetan Buddhism.
But Buddhist Tantrism, we would
like to unreservedly claim, is hostile to nature
and therefore ecologically hostile in
principle, because it destroys the natural,
sensual, and feminine sphere so as to render it
useful for the masculine. Further, in the performance
of his enlightenment rituals, every tantra master
burns up all the natural components of his
own human body and, parallel to this (on a macrocosmic
level), the entire natural
universe. From a traditional viewpoint nature
consists of a checkered mixture of the different
elements (fire, water, earth, air, ether). In
Tantrism, however, fire destroys the other elementary
constituents. In the final instance it is the
“fiery” SPIRIT which subjugates everything else,
but NATURE in particular. Let us recall that Avalokiteshvara, the incarnation
father of the Dalai Lama, acts as the “Lord of
Fire” and the Bodhisattva of our age.
Nor were the centers of civilization
in former Tibet at all environmentally friendly.
The Lhasa of tradition, for instance, capital
of the Lamaist world, could hardly be described
as an exemplary ecological site but rather, as
a number of world travelers have reported, was
until the mid-twentieth century one of the dirtiest
cities on the planet. As a rule, refuse was tipped
unto the street. The houses had no toilets. Everywhere,
wherever they were, the inhabitants unburdened
themselves. Dead animals were left to rot in public
places. For such reasons the stench was so penetrating
and nauseating that the XIII Dalai Lama felt sick
every time he had to traverse the city. Nobles
who stepped out usually held a handkerchief over
their nose.
It is even more absurd to describe
the Tibetan monastic society as a vegetarian culture.
The production and consumption of meat have always
been counted among the most important branches
of the country’s economy (not least because of
the climatic conditions). It is indeed true that
a devout Tibetan may not kill an animal himself,
but he is not forbidden from eating it. Hence
the slaughter is performed by those of other faiths,
primarily Moslems. The Kundun is also a keen meat
eater, albeit, if one is to believe him, not out
of enthusiasm but rather for health reasons. Anyone
who is also aware of the great contempt Buddhism
in general shows for being reborn as an animal
can only wonder at such eco-paradisiacal-vegetarian
retrospection now on offer in the “scholarly history”
of the exiled Tibetans.
But by now the Tibetans in exile
themselves gladly believe in such ecological fairytales.
For them it is alone the brutal Chinese (whose
behavior towards Mother Earth is no better nor
worse than any other capitalist country, however)
who are the villains and stand accused (in this
instance rightly) of destroying the ancient forests
of the country and because they pay high prices
for aphrodisiacs won from the bones of the snow
leopard. But there are also some factual objectors
to the opinion that the Tibet of old was an eco-paradise.
The Tibetans were never more ecologically aware
than other peoples, writes Jamyan Norbu, co-director
of the Tibetan Culture Institute in Dharamsala,
and warns against dangerous myth making (Spiegel, 16/1998, p. 119).
Petra Kelly and Gert Bastian
In this section, which we introduced
with the two German “Greens”, Petra Kelly and
Gert Bastian, we would like to draw attention
to some interesting speculations in the Buddhist
scene concerning the reunification of Germany.
The Dalai Lama rarely becomes directly and openly
involved in world politics aside from the issue
of Tibet unless calling for peace in general.
There are nevertheless numerous occult rumors
in circulation among his followers that suggest
him to be the political director of the world
who holds the strings from “another dimension”
in his hands. For example, there has been talk
that the fall of the Berlin Wall was to be attributed
to him. Among other things, the fact that at the
exact point where the first break in the wall
was created (a scene broadcast all around the
world) there stood a graffiti reading Long
Live Dalai Lama is offered as proof of this.
In fact, six months before the
German reunification the Kundun had stood praying before
the “wall of shame” with a candle in his hand.
The pacifist, opponent of atomic energy, environmentalist
and committed campaigner for the freedom of Tibet,
Petra Kelly, had been able to motivate him to
cross the East German border together with his
entire retinue in December 1989. After the candle
ceremony mentioned, the group were ferried to
a Round
Table discussion with citizens’ rights groups
by the GDR state security service (the infamous
Stasi,
or secret police). [2]
The first break in the “fall of the wall” of
Berlin.
See the graffiti “Long live Dalai [Lama]”
Petra Kelly later described the
situation as a political vacuum in which the democratic
opposition presented the vision of transforming
the former GDR into a non-aligned state without
a military or nuclear weapons that would align
itself with neither capitalist nor communist ideas.
The Dalai Lama was assured that he would be the
first guest of this new state and that Tibet’s
autonomy would be recognized as the first act
of foreign affairs. The German participants in
this conversation regarded themselves as a kind
of provisional government. All were said to have
been deeply moved by the presence of His Holiness.
“Only six months later, on 22 June 1990", writes
Stephen Batchelor, “his prayer was answered when
Checkpoint Charlie was 'solemnly dismounted'"
(Batchelor, 1994, p. 378).
The Dalai Lama as a political magician
who brought down the Berlin Wall with his prayers?
Such conceptions lay the foundations for a “metapolitics”
in which international events are influenced by
symbolic actions. Petra Kelly probably thought
along these lines; her extraordinary devotion
to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan cause is otherwise
hard to comprehend.
The pacifist was certainly uninformed
about the Kalachakra Tantra’s aggressive/warlike
core, the androcentric sexual magic of Tibetan
Buddhism, and the dark chapters in the Tibetan
and Mongolian history. Like thousands of others,
she followed His Holiness’s charm and messages
of peace and was blind to the gods of the Vajrayana’s obsessions with
power at work through him. As she and her de facto,
Gert Bastian, visited Dharamsala in 1988, they
were both, despite having an eagle eye for every
minor infringement of democracy in the German
Federal Republic, “enormously impressed by the
extremely democratic discussions” that had taken
place in the parliament of the Tibetans in exile.
This was a total misassessment of the situation
— as we have already shown at length and as anyone
who has the smallest insight into the inner political
affairs of Tibetans in exile knows, their popular
representation is a farce (Tibetan Review, January 1989,
p. 15). But not for Petra Kelly — following her
visit to Dharamsala she was so completely entranced
by the Kundun’s charm and humane
political mask that the issue of Tibet became
for her the quintessential “moral touchstone of
international politics” (Tibetan Review, July 1993,
p. 19). In concrete terms, that meant the politicians
our world stood at a threshold: if they supported
the Dalai Lama they would be following the path
of morality and virtue; if they turned against
the Kundun
or simply remained passive, then they would be
steering down the road to immorality!
The green politician Petra Kelly
completely failed to perceive the religiously
motivated power politics and the tantric occultism
of Dharamsala. Like many other women she became
a female chess piece (a queen) in the Kundun’s game of strategy,
one who opened doors to the German parliament
and the upper political ranks for him.
The illusory world of interreligious
dialog and the ecumenical movement
Although dominated by culturally
fixed images and rituals like every other religion,
Tibetan Buddhism initially presents itself as
a tradition that is tied to neither a culture,
a society, nor a race. We hear from every lama
that the teachings of the Shakyamuni Buddha consist
exclusively in the experiences of each individual.
Anybody can test their credibility in his or her
own religious practices. Being of another non-Buddhist
confession is no obstacle to such sacred exercises.
This, in the light of the tantric
ritual system and the “baroque” Tibetan pantheon
feigned, purist and liberal basic attitude allows
His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama to present
himself as being so tolerant and open minded that
he has been celebrated for years as the “most
open minded and liberal ecclesiastical dignitary”
on the planet. His readiness to engage in dialog
has all but become a catchphrase.
In now presenting the Kundun’s interreligious activities,
we always have clearly in mind an awareness that
at heart the entire Lamaist system is and wants
to be incompatible with other faiths. Let us review
the reasons for this once more, summarized in
seven points. Tantric Buddhism, especially the
Kalachakra Tantra and the
associated Shambhala
myth, includes:
- The extermination of those of other faiths
- A warlike philosophy of violence
- Foundations for a neofascist ideology
- Contempt for the person, the individual
(in favor of the gods), and especially for women
(in favor of the tantra masters)
- The linking of religious and state power
- World conquest and the establishment of
a global Buddhocracy via manipulative and warlike
means
In the face of these points the
Kundun’s
ecumenical activity remains a lie for as long
as he continues to abide by the principles of
the tantric ritual system and the ideological/political
fundamentals of the Shambhala myth (and the associated
grasp for the world throne). It is nonetheless
of important tactical significance for him and
has proved to be an excellent means of spreading
the ideas of Lamaism all over the world without
objection.
This indirect missionary method
has a long tradition in Tibetan history. As Padmasambhava
(Guru Rinpoche) won the Land
of Snows over to Tantrism in the 8th
century, he never went on a direct offensive by
openly preaching the fundamentals of the dharma.
As an ingenious manipulator, he succeeded in employing
the language, images, symbols, and gods of the
local religions as a means of transporting the
Indian Buddhism he had brought with him. The tribes
to whom he preached were convinced that the dharma was nothing more than
a clear interpretation of their old religious
conceptions. They did not even need to give up
their deities (even if these were most cruel)
if they were to “convert” to tantric Buddhism,
since Padmasambhava integrated these into his
own system.
Even the Kalachakra Tantra, based on
a marked and pervasive concept of the enemy, recommends
the manipulation of those of other faiths. Surprisingly,
the “Time Tantra” permits the performance of non-Buddhist
rites by the tantra master. But there is an important
condition here, namely that the mystic physiology
of the practicing yogi (his energy body) with
which he controls the entire occult/religious
event remain stable and keep strictly and without
deviation to the tantric method (upaya). Then, it says in the
time doctrine, “no form of religion from the way
of one’s own or a foreign people is corrupting
for the yogis” (Grünwedel, Kalacakra II, p. 177). With
this permission, the way is free for one to externally
appear tolerant and open minded towards any religious
direction without conflicting with the power-political
goals of the Kalachakra Tantra and the
Shambhala myth that want to
elevate Buddhism to be the sole world religion.
In contrast, the feigned “religious tolerance”
becomes a powerful means of surreptitiously promoting
one’s own fundamentalism.
Where does this leave the ecumenical
politics of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama? Interreligious
discussions are one of the Kundun’s specialties; there
is not a major world ecumenical event of significance
where his negotiating presence is not evident.
He is one of the presidents of the “World’s Parliament
of Religions” in Chicago. The god-king tirelessly
spreads the happy message that despite differing
philosophies all religions have the same motive,
the perfection of humans. „Whatever the differences
between religions,” he explained in Madras in
1985, „all of them want man to be good. Love and
compassion form the essence of any religion and
these alone can bring people together and provide
peace and happiness to humanity” (Tibetan Review, January 1985,
p. 9).
Yet (he says) for the sake of quality
one should not gloss over the differences between
the religious approaches. It is not at all desirable
that we end up with a uniform, overarching religion;
that can not be the goal of the dialog. One should
guard against a “religious cocktail”. The variety
of religions is a outright necessity for the evolution
of humankind. “To form a new world religion,”
the Kundun says, “would be difficult
and not particularly desirable. But since love
is essential for all religions, one could speak
of a universal religion of love. Yet with regard
to the methods for developing love and for attaining
salvation or permanent liberation the religions
differ from one another ... The fact that there
are so many different depictions of the way is
enriching” (Brück and Lai, 1997, p. 520). In general,
everyone should stick with the religion he or
she was born into.
For him it is a matter of deliberate
cooperation whilst maintaining autonomy, a dialog
about the humanity common to all. In 1997 the
god-king proposed that groups of various religious
denominations undertake a pilgrimage to the holy
places of the world together in order to learn
from one another. The religious leaders of the
world ought to come together more often, as “such
a meeting is a powerful message in the eyes of
millions of people” (Tibetan
Review, May 1997, p. 14).
Christianity
In the meantime, exchange programs
between Tibetan Buddhist and Christian orders
of monks and nuns have become institutionalized
through a resolution of the Dalai Lama, with all
four major lines of tradition among the Tibetans
(Nyingmapa, Sakyapa, Kagyupa, and Gelugpa) participating.
In the sixties, the American Trappist monk and
poet, Thomas Merton (1906-1968), visited the Kundun in Dharamsala and summarized
his experience together as follows: “I dealt primarily
with Buddhists ... It is of incalculable value
to come into direct contact with people who have
worked hard their whole lives at training their
minds and liberating themselves from passions
and illusions” (Brück and Lai, 1997, p. 49).
In 1989 the god-king and the Benedictine
abbot Thomas Keating led a gathering of several
thousand Christians and Buddhists in a joint meditation
in the West. The Kundun has visited Lourdes
and Jerusalem in order to pray there in silent
devotion. There is also very close contact between
the Lutheran Church and the Council for Religious and Cultural
Affairs of H.H. the Dalai Lama. At the so-called
Naropa Conferences in Boulder,
Colorado, topics such as “God” (Christian) and
“Emptiness” (Buddhist), “Prayer” (Christian) and
“Meditation” (Buddhist), “Theism” and “non-Theism”,
the “Trinity” and the “Three Body Theory” are
treated in dialog between Christians and Buddhists.
The comparison between Christ and
Buddha has a long tradition (see Brück and Lai,
1997, pp. 314ff.). There are in fact many parallels
(the virgin birth for example, the messianism).
But in particular Mahayana Buddhism’s requirement
of compassion allows the two founding figures
to appear as representatives of the same spirit.
Avalokiteshvara, the supreme
Bodhisattva of compassion is thus often presented
as a quasi-Christian archetype in Buddhism and
also prayed to as such. This is naturally of great
advantage to the Kundun, who is himself an
incarnation of Avalokiteshvara and can via
the comparison (of the two deities) lay claim
to the powerful qualities of Christ’s image.
But His Holiness is extremely cautious
and diplomatic in such matters. For a Buddhist,
the Dalai Lama says, Christ can of course be regarded
as a Bodhisattva, yet one must avoid claiming
Christ for Buddhism. (Incidentally, Christ is
named in the Kalachakra
Tantra as one the “heretics”.) The Kundun knows only too well
that an open integration of the archetype of Christ
into his tantric pantheon would only lead to strong
protests from the Christian side.
He must thus proceed with more
skill if he wants to nonetheless integrate the
Nazarene into his system as Padmasambhava once
incorporated the local gods of Tibet. For example,
he describes so many parallels between Christ
and Buddha (Avalokiteshvara)
that his (Christian!) audience arrive at the conclusion
that Christ is a Bodhisattva completely of their
own accord.
Just how successful the Kundun is with such manipulation
is demonstrated by a conference held between a
small circle of Christians and himself (in 1994),
the proceedings of which are documented in the
book, The Good Heart: A Buddhist Perspective
on the Teachings of Jesus. In that the god-king
repeatedly and emphatically stressed at this meeting
that he had not the slightest intention of letting
Buddhism monopolize anybody or anything, he in
fact had the opposite effect. The more tolerant
and respectful towards other religions he showed
himself to be, the more he convinced his listeners
that Buddhism was indeed the one true faith. With
this Catch 22, the Dalai Lama succeeded in emerging
at the end of this meeting as a Buddhist super
monk, who in himself combined all the qualities
of the three most important Christian monastic
orders: „He [the Dalai Lama]
brings three qualities to a spiritual discourse,”
the chief organizer of the small ecumenical event,
a Benedictine, says, „traits so rare in some contemporary
Christian circles as to have elicited grasps of
relieved gratitude from the audience. These qualities
are gentleness, clarity, and laughter. If there
is something Benedictine
about him, there is a Franciscan side as well and
a touch of the Jesuit”
(Dalai Lama XIV, 1997, pp. 16–17). The Kundun appeared to the predominantly
Catholic participants at this interreligious meeting
to be more Christian than the Christians in many
points.
Richard Gere: “Jesus is very much accepted
by the Tibetans, even though they don’t believe
in an ultimate creator God. I was at a very moving
event that His Holiness did in England where he
lectured on Jesus at a Jesuit seminary. When he
spoke the words of Jesus, all of us there who
had grown up Christians and had often heard them
before could not believe their power. It was ...” Gere suddenly chokes
with emotion. For a few moments he just stares
into the makeup mirror, waiting to regain his
compusere. “When someone can fill such words with
the depth meaning that they are intended to have,
it’s like hearing them for the first time.” (Schell,
2000, p. 57)
Although the Dalai Lama indignantly
rejects any monopolization of other religions
by Buddhism, this is not at all true of his followers.
In recent times an ever-expanding esoteric literature
has emerged in which the authors “prove” that
Buddhism is the original source of all religions.
In particular there are attempts to portray Christianity
as a variant of the “great vehicle” (Mahayana). Christ is proclaimed
as a Bodhisattva, an emanation of Avalokiteshvara who sacrificed
himself out of compassion for all living creatures
(e.g., Gruber and Kersten, 1994).
From the Tibetan point of view,
the point of ecumenical meetings is not encounters
between several religious orientations. [3]
That would contradict the entire tantric ritual
system. Rather, they are for the infiltration
of foreign religions with the goal (like Padmasambhava)
of ultimately incorporating them within its own
system. On rare occasions the methods to be employed in
such a policy of appropriation are discussed,
albeit most subtly. Two conferences held in the
USA in 1987 and 1992 addressed the central topic
of whether the Buddhist concept of upaya ("adroit means”) could
provide the instrument “for more relaxed dealings
with the issue of truth in dialog (between Christians
and Buddhists)” (Brück and Lai, 1997, p. 281)
“More relaxed dealings with the issue of truth”
— that can only mean that the cultic mystery of
the sexual magic rites, the warlike Shambhala
ideology, and the “criminal history” of Lamaism
is either not mentioned at all at such ecumenical
meetings or is presented falsely.
An 800-page work by the two theologists
Michael von Brück and Whalen Lai (Buddhismus und Christentum [Buddhism
and Christianity]) is devoted to the topic of
the encounter between Buddhism and Christianity.
In it there is no mention at all of the utmost
significance of Vajrayana in the Buddhist
scene, as if this school did not even exist. We
can read page after page of pious and unhurried
Mahayana statements by Tibetan
lamas, but there is all but nothing said of their
secret tantric philosophy. The terms Shambhala and Kalachakra Tantra are not
to be found in the index, although they form the
basis for the policy on religions of the Dalai
Lama whom the authors praise at great length as
the real star of the ecumenical dialog. We can
present this “theologically” highbrow book as
evidence of the subtle and covert manipulation
through which the “totalistic paradigm” of Tibetan
Buddhism is to be anchored in the west.
Only at one single incriminating
point, which we have already quoted earlier, do
the two authors let the cat out of the bag. In
it they recommend that American intellectuals
who feel attracted to Chinese Hua-yen Buddhism
should instead turn to the Kundun as the only figure
in a position to be able to establish a Buddhocracy:
“Yet Hua-yen is no longer a living tradition.
... That does not mean that a totalistic paradigm
could
not be repeated, but it seems more sensible to
seek this in the Tibetan-Buddhist tradition,
since the Tibetan Buddhists have a living memory
of a real 'Buddhocracy' and a living Dalai Lama
who leads the people as a religious and
political head” (Brück and Lai, 1997, p. 631).
The authors thus believe, despite pages of feigned
ecumenical Christianity, that a “totalistic paradigm”
could be repeated in the future and recommend
the god-king from Dharamsala as an example. They
thus clearly and openly confirm the Buddhocratic
vision of the Kalachakra Tantra and the
Shambhala myth, of which they
themselves have not breathed a word.
The Kundun even seems to have
succeeded in gaining access to the “immune” Judaism.
After the Dalai Lama’s visit to Jerusalem (in
1996), groups were formed in Israel and the USA
in which Jewish and Buddhist ideas were supposed
to be brought together. A film has been made about
the fate of the Israeli writer Rodger Kamenetz,
who converted to Buddhism after he had visited
the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala and then set about
reinterpreting his own religious roots in Buddhist
terms. The so-called Bu-Jews
(Buddhist Jews) are the most recent product of
the Kundun’s politics of tantric
conquest. They are hardly likely to be aware of
the interlinkage between Tantric Buddhism and
occult fascism that we have described in detail.
Islam (The Mlecchas)
In contrast Islam is proving more
difficult for His Holiness than the Jews and Christians:
“I can barely recall having a serious theological
discussion with Mohammedans”, he said at the start
of the eighties (Levenson, 1992, p. 288). This
is only all to readily understandable in light
of the apocalyptic battle between the Mlecchas (followers of Mohammed)
and the Buddhist armies of the mythical general,
Rudra Chakrin, prophesied
in the Shambhala
myth. A foretaste of this radical confrontation,
which according to the Kalachakra prophecy awaits
us in the year 2327, was to be detected as the
Moslem Taliban in Afghanistan declared in 1997
that they would destroy the 2000-year-old statues
of Buddha in Bamyan because Islam prohibited human
icons. This could, however, be prevented under
pressure from the world public who reacted strongly
to the announcement. (We would like to mention
in passing that the likenesses of Buddha carved
into the cliffs of Bamyan, of which one figure
is 60 yards high, are to be found in a region
from which, in the opinion of reliable investigators
like Helmut Hoffmann and John Ronald Newman, the
Kalachakra Tantra originally
comes.)
However, after being awarded the
Nobel peace prize, the Kundun in his function as
a world religious leader has revised his traditional
reservation towards Islam. He knows that it is
far more publicity-friendly if he also displays
the greatest tolerance in this case. In 1998,
he thus encouraged Indian Muslims to play a leading
role in the discourse between the world religions.
In the same, conciliatory frame of mind, in an
interview he earlier expressed the wish to visit
Mecca one day (Dalai Lama XIV, 1996b, p. 152).
[4]
On the other hand however, His
Holiness maintains very close contact with the
Indian BJP (Bhatiya Janata Party) and
the RSS (Rashtriya
Svayam Sevak Sangh), two old-school conservative Hindu organizations
(currently — in 1998 — members of the governing
coalition) who proceed with all vigor against
Islam. [5]
An honest renunciation of Tantric
Buddhism’s hostility toward Islam could only consist
in the Kundun’s clear distantiation
from all the passages from the Kalachakra tradition that
concern this. To date, this has — as far as we
know — never happened.
In contrast, already today there
are radical developments in the Buddhist camp
that are headed for a direct confrontation with
Islam. For example, the Western Buddhist “lama”,
Ole Nydhal (a Kagyupa), is strongly and
radically active in opposition to the immigration
of Moslems to Europe.
As problematic as we perceive fundamentalist
Islam to be, we are nonetheless not convinced
that the Kalachakra
ideology and the final battle with the Mlecchas (Mohammedans) prognosticated
by the tantra can solve the conflict at the heart
of the struggle between the cultures. A contribution
to an internet-based discussion rightly described
the idea of a Shambhala warrior as the Buddhist
equivalent to the jihad, the Moslem “holy war”.
Religious wars, which have the goal of eliminating
the respective non-believers, have in fact, and
for the West unexpectedly, become a threat to
world peace in recent years. We return to this
point in our conclusion, especially the question
of whether the division of humanity into two camps
— Buddhist and Islam — as predicted in the Kalachakra Tantra is just
a fiction or whether it is a real danger.
Shamanism
Up until well into the eighties,
the encounter with nature religions played a significant
role for the Dalai
Lama. There was at that stage a lot of literature
that enthusiastically drew attention to the parallels
between the North American culture of the Hopi
Indians and Tibetan Buddhism. The same terminology
was even discovered, just with the meanings reversed:
for example, the Tibetan word for “sun” was said
to mean “moon” in the language of the Hopi and
vice versa, the Hopi sun corresponded to the Tibetan
moon (Keegan, 1981, unnumbered). There are also
said to be amazing correspondences among the rituals,
especially the “fire ceremonies”.
For a time the idea arose that
the Dalai Lama was the messiah announced in the
Hopi religion. In the legend this figure had been
a member of the “sun clan” in the mythical past
and had left his Indian brothers so as to return
in the future as a redeemer. “They wanted to tell
me about an old prophecy of their people passed
on from generation to generation,” His Holiness
recounted, “in which one day someone would come
from the east. ... They thought it could be me
and had come to tell me this” (Levenson, 1992,
p. 277).
In France in 1997 an unusual meeting
took place. The spiritual representatives of various
native peoples gathered there with the intention
of founding a kind of international body of the
“United Traditions” and presenting a common “charta”
to the public. By this the attendees understood
a global cooperation between shamanistic religions,
still practiced all over the world, with the aim
of articulating common rights and gaining an influence
over the world’s conscience as the “circle of
elders”. The Dalai Lama was also invited to this
congress, organized by a Lamaist monastery in
France (Karma Ling). Just how adroitly
the organizers made him the focal figure of the
entire event, which was actually supposed to be
a union of equals, is shown by the subtitle of
the book subsequently published about the event,
The United
Traditions: Shamans, Mecidine Men and Wise Women
around the Dalai Lama. The whole scenario
did in fact revolve around the Dalai Lama. Siberian
shamans, North, South, and Central American medicine
men (Apaches, Cheyenne, Mohawks, Shuars from the
Amazon, and Aztecs), African voodoo priests (from
Benin),Bon lamas, Australian Aborigines, and Japanese
martial artists came together for an opening ceremony
at a Vajrayana temple, surrounded “by the amazing
beauty of the Tibetan décor” (Eersel and Grosrey,
1998, p. 31). The meeting was suddenly interrupted
by the cry, “His Holiness, His Holiness!” — intended
for the Dalai Lama who was approaching the meeting
place. The shamans stood up and went towards him.
From this point on he was the absolute center
of events. There were admittedly mild distantiations
before this, but only the Bon priests dared to
be openly critical. Their representative, Lopön
Trinley Nyima Rinpoche, strongly attacked Lamaism
as a repressive religion that has persecuted the
Bon followers for centuries. In answer to a question
about his attitude to Tibetan Buddhism he replied,
“Seen historically, a merciless war has in fact
long been conducted between us two. … Between
the 7th and the 20th century a good four fifths
of Tibet was Buddhist. Sometimes this also meant
violence: hence, in the 18th century, with the
help of the Chinese, the Gelugpa carried out mass
conversions in the border regions of Tibet which
had long been inhabited by the Bon” (quoted by
Eersel and Grosrey, 1998, p. 141). Still today,
the Bonpos are disadvantaged in many ways: “You
should be aware, for instance, that non-Buddhist
children do not see a penny of the money donated
by international aid organizations for Tibetan
children!” Nyima Rinpoche protested (quoted by
Eersel and Grosrey, 1998, p. 132).
But the Kundun knows how to deal
with such matters. The next day he lets the Bon
critic sit beside him, and declares the Bonpos
to be “Tibet’s fifth school”. In his pride, Nyima
Rinpoche forgot about any criticism or the history
of the repression of his religion. The Dalai Lama
takes the African voodoo representative, Daagpo
Hounon Houna, in his arms and has a photo taken.
The two book authors comment that, “Back home
in Africa this picture will certainly receive
great symbolic status” (Eersel and Grosley, 1998,
p. 132). Then the Kundun says some moving words
about “Mother Earth” he has learned from the New
Age milieu and which as such do not exist in the
Tibetan tradition: “These days we have too little
contact to Mother Earth and in this we forget
that we ourselves are a part of nature. We are
cildren of nature, Mother Earth, and this planet
is our only home” (quoted by Eersel and Grosrey,
1998, p. 180). Let us recall that before the start
of every Kalachakra
ritual the earth spirits are nailed down with
a ritual dagger. The Dalai Lama goes on to preach
about the variety of races and the equality of
the religions of the world. And he has already
won the hearts of all. It is naturally his
congress, he is the axis around which the
“circle of elders” revolves.
Roughly in the middle of the book
we suddenly learn that the delegates were invited
in his name and that “without the support
and the exceptional aura of His Holiness” nothing
would have been possible (Eersel and Grosrey,
1998, p. 253). Even the high priest from Benin,
who smuggled the remains of an animal sacrifice
into the ritual temple that was, however, discovered
and removed, accepts the Tibetan hierarch as the
central figure of the meeting, saying “I therefore
greet His Holiness the Dalai Lama around whom
we have gathered here” (Eersel and Grosrey, 1998,
p. 199). One of the organizers(Jean-Claude Carrière)
sums things up: “That was actually the motor of
this meeting. Here for the first time peoples,
some of whom have almost vanished from the face
of the earth, were asked to speak (and act) and
they have recognized the likewise degraded, disowned,
and exiled Dalai Lama as one of their own. It
is barely imaginable how important it was for
them to be able to bow before him and present
him with a gift” (Eersel and Grosrey, 1998, p.
254). Tibetan |