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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.
- 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?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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.
- 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, 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?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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.).
- 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.
- 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-Tantra “You 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?
- 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.
- 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
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