CRITICAL FORUM KALACHAKRA

 

 

 

 

Eight Questions to the 14th Dalai Lama

on the topic of the Kalachakra-Tantra

 

Over the last 25 years thousands of people worldwide have been initiated into the highest levels of Buddhism by the 14th Dalai Lama. Fundamental to this initiation is a holy text (tantra), namely the Kalachakra-Tantra, part of which is the Shambhala Myth.

 

Kalachakra is Sanskrit and means “wheel of time”. In recent times the Kalachakra-Tantra has been increasingly critically scrutinised. In our western debate-oriented society it stands to reason that the Dalai Lama himself answers some of these critical questions in order to ensure that any misinterpretations are corrected.

 

  1. Why does the Kalachakra-Tantra which supposedly is a “ritual for world peace” prophesy and glorify a holy war (Shambhala war) by Buddhists against non-Buddhists?

 

  1. Why does the Kalachakra-Tantra, which is supposedly a contributor to a world ecumenical movement and a world ethos, attack the 3 monotheist-semitic religions, especially Islam, named as “enemy of the  Dharma”, and swear a religious war against Islam?

 

  1. Why does the Kalachakra-Tantra promote the institution of a “Chakravartin (a world emperor) who should set up a global Buddhist “Theocracy”, a buddhocracy - this in direct conflict to your continual protestations of a belief in democracy?

 

  1. Why do you promote unmoral and criminal acts, such as killing, lying, stealing and adultery, amongst the initiates of the different Buddhist Tantra-texts, especially the Kalachakra-Tantra – this in opposition to your promotion worldwide of social-ethics?

 

  1. Dalai Lama, although you insist that Tibetan Buddhism is a celibate and woman-friendly religion, women are sexually abused and treated in a sexist manner during the higher rites of the Kalachakra-Tantra in order for the initiates to achieve spiritual, worldly and patriarchal power.

 

  1. Dalai Lama, why do you forbid public discussion of the secret rites of the Kalachakra-Tantra to the extent of threatening “the punishments of hell” to all those who might talk?

 

  1. Dalai Lama, why do you have maintained contact with people from the ranks of religious fascism and sect-terrorism such as Bruno Beger, Jean Marquès-Rivière, Miguel Serrano and Shoko Asahara, all of who have been inspired in their visions and behaviours by the content of the Shambhala Myth?

 

  1. Dalai Lama, why have you not written a exegesis on the problematic statements in the text of the Kalachakra-Tantra, which distances itself from the war-mongering, intolerant, sexist and buddhocratic statements in the Tantra?

 


  1. Why does the Kalachakra-Tantra which supposedly is a “ritual for world peace” prophesy and glorify a “holy war” (Shambhala war) by Buddhists against non-Buddhists?

 

Dalai Lama, you are honoured throughout the world as a messenger for peace, who has spoken out publicly many times against every use of violence and, in fact, you have presented the Kalachakra-Tantra as a contributor to world peace. The Kalachakra-Tantra is, however, anything but pacifist in its content, rather it prophecies and promotes on an ideological basis a bloody religious war for world leadership between Buddhists and non-Buddhists (Shambhala Myth). The original text describes the Buddhist war-methods as “merciless” and “cruel”.  It says: “The supremely ferocious warriors will throw down the barbarian hordes” and “eliminate” (them). (Shri Kalachakra I. 163/165) The Kalachakra Tantra describes over many paragraphs murderous super weapons which the Buddhist army will use against “the enemy of the Dharma”. (Shri Kalachakra I. 128-142)

 

The historical Buddha was against war in every form. For him there was no such thing as a “righteous war” and certainly not a “holy war”. It is exactly because Buddhism is seen as being against all use of violence that it receives so much attention in the West. How can the inhumane and warlike statements of the Kalachakra-Tantra be in harmony with the vision of peace of the original Buddha? Why are so many war-gods and war-heroes honoured in Lamaism (Begtse, Mahakala, Gesar von Ling etc.)? It is possible to find these foundational ideas of “Warriors for Buddha” in the writings of many representatives of Lamaism such as Lama Chögyam Trungpa and Lama Ole Nydahl, which build upon a crass “enemy thinking” and preach a military Buddhism. What are you doing against this sort of development amongst your own followers? How can the official Kalachakra-Interpreter Alexander Berzin openly compare the principles of the Islamic “Jihad” with that of the Shambhala war?

 


  1. Why does the Kalachakra-Tantra, which is supposedly a contributor to a world ecumenical movement and a world ethos, attack the 3 monotheist-semitic religions, especially Islam, named as the enemy of Dharma, and swear a religious war against Islam?

 

Dalai Lama, one of your basic demands is tolerance of other religions and this has made you to the most famous symbol of the inter-religious dialogue. This is in conflict, however, with many passages in the Kalachakra-Tantral – even though you have publicly promoted this ritual as a contributor to ecumenical thinking. Some of the main figures in the semitic-monotheist religions such as “Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mani, Mohammed and the Mahdi” are characterised as the “family of the demonic snakes” and are attributed with characteristics of darkness and deceit. (Shri Kalachakra I. 154) According to the Shambhala prophecy, the worldwide implementation of the “Buddhist Dharma” (i.e. Buddhism) will be preceded by an eschatological holy war against the “barbaric Dharma” (i. e. Monotheism). The original text states that the powerful, merciless idol of the barbarians, the demonic incarnation (i.e. Islam) lives in Mecca. (Shri Kalachakra I. 154).

 

Do you not feel, at a time when religious warfare are dictating world politics, that the war against Islam described in the Kalachakra-Tantra could ignite a clash of civilizations? In the Austrian newspaper “News” from 10. October 2002, you say “Islam wants to be counted amongst the world religions and yet pushes forward its claim via aggression – exactly as the Christians did a few hundred years ago. This has nothing to do with religion, but is rather about power. And that was definitely not the Prophet Mohammed’s desire. Religion should not be led by power.” Is your statement not in conflict to the prophecy of the Shambhala war as described in the Kalachakra-Tantra? Why do you say nothing of the potential for aggression, the buddhocratic visions of power and the intolerance in your lamaistic Religion? Why do you commend, as peacemaker, a Buddhist demon, namely Palden Lhamo, who skinned her own son and used his skin as a saddle for her horse because he refused to take on the Buddhist religion? Do you really believe that such role models of horror can promote tolerance? Why are you accused of intolerance and the persecution of religious minorities by the more traditional proponents of Tibetan Buddhism such as the Dorje-Shugden School, which you yourself once attended?


 

  1. Why does the Kalachakra-Tantra promote the institution of a “Chakravartin” (a world emperor) who should set up a global Buddhist “Theocracy”, a buddhocracy - this in direct conflict to your continual protestations of a belief in democracy?

 

The Kalachakra-Tantra includes the buddhocratic teaching of a Chakravartin or world emperor. The Chakravartin shall come out at the end of the age, from the city the gods fashioned on Mount Kailasa. He shall smite the barbarians in battle with his own four-division army, on the entire surface of the earth.” This statement can be found in the original text of the Kalachakra-Tantra (Shri Kalachakra I. 161). A Chakravartin is, according to the Indian tradition, a messianic priest-king who brings absolution, a “theocrat” (better “buddhocrat”) who unites religious, political, legal and military power in himself. Sharing of power by the common man and democracy are completely unknown concepts in this political theology which stems from the 10th century.

 

Buddha Shakyamuni on the other hand denies totally this “world leadership”. As he was given the choice of becoming a Chakravartin or a Buddha, he choses explicitly the way of the Buddha – in other words, the way of a holy man, and turned aside from the way of the Chakravartin, the world leader. Why, although you applaud democracy publicly, have you been teaching the Kalachakra Ritual for over 30 years now on a worldwide basis, in which a global buddhocracy is promoted with an absolute regent at the head of this state model? Why do you support with a foreword in the book “Inner Revolution” by the American Tibetologist Robert A Thurmann, the Buddhist global blueprint? Why do you use as the basis for your political decision-making a human state oracle (Nechung), who is possessed by a Mongolian War God (Pehar) rather than the normal democratic political processes?

 

  1. Why do you promote unmoral and criminal acts, such as killing, lying, stealing and adultery, amongst the initiates of the different Buddhist Tantra-texts, especially the Kalachakra-Tantra – this in opposition to your promotion worldwide of social-ethics?

 

In the secret eight highest initiation rites of the Kalachakra-Tantra the initiate comes into a state of mind, “beyond good and evil”, through extreme mental and physical acts. The original text demanded from the initiate the following crimes: to kill, to lie, to steal and infidelity. Even you find it legitimate when a Kalachakra-initiate under certain circumstances, kills people “who are harmful to the Buddhist teaching” (Dalai Lama – The Kalachakra-Tantra – London 1985, p. 349). Even when you demand that the killings demanded in many tantric texts – under certain circumstances – should be motivated out of “compassion”, you are still in conflict with the strict command not to kill found in the original Buddhist teaching. In Tibetan history “compassion killings” have had a great weight in legitimising the liquidation of political rivals and have left behind bloody traces. Also ist the ritualistic consumption of human flesh, as described in the Kalachakra-Tantra, is against all Western ethics. The human flesh is usually taken from the dead and, writes the tantric grand master and Shambhala King, Pundarika, in his traditional Kalachakra commentary, is the "meat of  those who died due to  their own karma, who were killed in battle due to evil  karma or and due to their own fault, or that of robbers and so forth who were executed". He continues with the advice that it is sensible to consume these substances in the form of  pills. The flesh of  innocent people, who have been killed as sacrifices to the gods, out of fear, as part of an ancestor cult, out of desire (greed) or for money, is laden with "unspeakable sin" and may not be used in the rituals. "But which falls in the bowl unasked-for is without unspeakable sin" – and may therefore be put to use. (In: John Ronald Newman - The outer wheel of time: Vajrayana Buddhist cosmology in the Kalacakra Tantra - Madison 1987, 266 f.).

 

  1. Dalai Lama, although you insist that Tibetan Buddhism is a celibate and woman-friendly religion, women are sexually abused and treated in a sexist manner during the higher rites of the Kalachakra-Tantra in order for the initiates to achieve spiritual, worldly and patriarchal power.

 

At the highest levels of the secret initiations of the Kalachakra-Tantra sexual rites are practised, the objective of which is to transform sexuality into worldly and spiritual power. According to the original texts the women used for such rites represent a form of sexual energy, whereby the age is of great importance. One begins with eleven year old girls. In levels 8 to 11 of the initiations only one woman is used; in levels 12 to 15, the Ganachakra as it is known, a total of 10 women participate in addition to the “master and his initiates”. It is a duty of the pupil to offer his Lama these women as a gift. Women are purely “energy providers” for the male participants in the Kalachakra-Tantra and, at the end of the ritual, are of no further importance. How can such rites be understood in the light of the equal rights for male and female which you have often publicly confessed to uphold? The secrecy surrounding these sexual practices in the upper levels of the Kalachakra-Tantra has led to wild speculations and suppositions.

 

  1. Dalai Lama, why do you forbid public discussion of the secret rites of the Kalachakra-Tantra to the extent of threatening “the punishments of hell” to all those who might talk?

 

Dalai Lama, you yourself state that it is forbidden under threat of the punishment of hell for the initiates to talk openly about the secret rituals in the Kalachakra-Tantra. In this context, you threaten a pupil in a commentary on the Kalachakra-TantraYou must do what I tell to you. You should not deride me, and if you do, without forsaking fright, the time of death will come, and you will fall into a hell.” (Dalai Lama – The Kalachakra-Tantra – London 1985, p. 242). Buddha, on the other hand, insisted that one should believe nothing but rather test everything through experience and with commonsense (Anguttara Nikaya I, 174). You have also made this statement many times. Why do you forbid an open discussion about the secret tantras and the secret rites of the Kalachakra-Tantra? Why do you not make public the secret rites?

 

  1. Dalai Lama, why do you have maintained contact with people from the ranks of religious fascism and sect-terrorism such as Bruno Beger, Jean Marquès-Rivière, Miguel Serrano and Shoko Asahara, all of whom have been inspired in their visions and behaviours by the content of the Shambhala Myth?

 

You have stressed many times that the basic principles of Mahayana-Buddhism are in line with western democratic ideas and human rights. This is not true, however, of many ideas contained within tantric Buddhism, which is at the centre of the Tibetan religion, if these are taken literally. It is a fact that the Shamhala Myth (Shambhala war) in the Kalachakra-Tantra has led to aggressive behaviour, megalomaniacal visions and conspiracy theories both in the history of the Asian peoples as well as in that of religious fascism and neo-fascism. Already in the SS-Ahnenerbe, where Heinrich Himmler’s ideologies were born, there was an interest in the content of the Kalachakra-Tantra and the influential fascist and cultural philosopher Julius Evola saw in the mythic world of Shambhala an esoteric centre of a sacred warrior race. This vision is today still firmly anchored in the religious ideas of the international far-right movement. Alone this fact makes it necessary for you to distance yourself clearly from the war-mongering Shambhala Myth and to remove this from the texts. Instead of this you have made efforts to maintain friendly contacts with people such as the ex-SS man Bruno Beger (convicted as helping to murder more than 86 people), the SS-collaborator, well-known expert on the Orient and Tantra Jean Marquès-Rivière (in his absence convicted and given the death sentence for turning Jews and Free Masons over to the Gestapo in France); the founder of an esoteric Hitler movement and ex-Chilean diplomat Miguel Serrano (promoter of the SS-mystic) and the Japanese terrorist and admirer of Hitler Shoko Asahara. As the Kalachakra-Tantra is against all religions which have a Semitic origin, it can be misused very easily by the extreme right, anti-Semitic groups for their racist propaganda and has been used in this way.

 


  1. Dalai Lama, why have you not written an exegesis on the problematic statements in the text of the Kalachakra-Tantra, which distances itself from the warmongering, intolerant, sexist and buddhocratic statements in the Tantra?

 

Until now there has been no clear exegesis from you which distances itself from the potential for violence contained within the Kalachakra-Tantra texts. To the question in how far it is possible to make an exegesis of these old texts, you have given contradictory answers. On the one hand you say: “even Buddha’s statements must be critically tested. Some of his statements should not be taken literally and must be interpreted in a different way. We have the freedom to not just accept certain statements; rather in certain circumstances we must interpret them in a new light.” (Dalai Lama, Augen der Weisheit – Freiburg 2002, 178). On the other hand, this is contradicted by your following statement: “The Tantras and Sutras are the ultimate authority, we aren’t. Unless there is a scriptural reference in them, there is no need for us to make these things up and assert that Buddha had in mind an analogy with Western religion or science.  (in: The Berzin Archives – Kalachakra Teachings HHDL 2. htm) Why has to date no complete, correct and commentated translation of the Kalachakra-Tantra been made available in a Western language, although you have already initiated tenthousands of Westerners into this ritual?

 

© Victor & Victoria Trimondi


See:

Critical Forum for the Investigation of the Kalachakra Tantra and the Shambhala Myth

 

 

 

© Copyright 2003 – Victor & Victoria Trimondi

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