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Dalai Lama and
9/11
An Interview with Victor and Victoria Trimondi (Germany)
By
James C. Stephens
September 11, 2003
Stephens: This September 11 on
the second anniversary of the terrorist attack on America, the keynote speaker at the National
Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
was not the American evangelist Billy Graham, but Tenzin
Gyatso, better known as the XIV Dalai Lama, the
exiled God-King of Tibet.
Accompanied by five Tibetan Lamas from his New York Monastery, he
officially began with Buddhist ritual chanting followed by a talk to an
audience of 7,000 on “Cultivating Peace as an Antidote to Violence.” Our
interview today from Germany
is with Victor and Victoria Trimondi, who
previously worked to promote the Dalai Lama’s message in Europe.
They are co-authors of a critical European bestseller entitled The Shadow of the Dalai Lama: Sexuality,
Magic and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism. How did you first come to know
the Dalai Lama?
Trimondi:
We first met the XIV Dalai Lama in the
eighties and became friends while publishing his writings in our publishing
house, Trikont-Dianus-Verlag. While organizing
international conferences with him and other famous speakers on
interreligious and intercultural topics and specifically securing
governmental level invitations to Germany
and Austria
for him, we began to seriously explore Tibetan Buddhism. However, after
many years of extensive study and reflection, we seriously questioned some
of the fundamental tenets of the Tantric Buddhism the Dalai Lama professed
and eventually became one of his sharpest critics.
Stephens: Today, the Dalai Lama was
warmly received by the Christian clergy of the National Cathedral who
invited him as the keynote speaker and allowed him to perfom
his religious rituals with several Tibetan Buddhist lamas on the second
anniversary of September 11. How should we as Americans view his visit?
Trimondi: Frankly speaking, the Dalai Lama has two faces. He makes his
official contact with the West under the maxim of Mahayana Buddhism and
then deftly assimilates the highest values and ideals of western culture
(Christian, Jewish and humanist). On his present trip to America he has met with Muslims like
Mohammed Ali, Jesuits at the University
of San Francisco,
political leaders from Republican and Democratic persuasions, and then will
comfortably meet with ethicists and scientists at MIT and Harvard.
Through diplomatic tolerance he
wins Agnostics as well as the hearts
of unsuspecting Jews and Christians, to whom he preaches in the tongue of
“a man of peace” and as a human rights activist relates passages of
“compassion, love, and non-violence”
from the “Sermon on the Mount.” Nearly all of the speeches the Dalai
Lama delivers in public are extremely tolerant, human and compassionate. You
can only agree. And yet, there is another face that peeks out from behind
the mask of goodness, charity and kindness, which gives one pause to think
more deeply about the shadow of this “man of peace.”
Stephens: I understand what you
mean. I recall attending his press conference at the 1993 Parliament of the
World Religions in Chicago
and being somewhat stunned by his response to a journalist’s question,
“Have you studied the life and teachings of Jesus?” He commented about the
Tibetan Bible translation in the 1930’s and then said, “I learned something
reading these books, but I learned a more deeper
way from my personal friend, the late Thomas Merton.” Although it revealed
that he had a relationship with a Catholic, it also showed at that time
another side to me that he didn’t have much feeling for Jesus or for the
Bible. In light of your first book, The Shadow of the Dalai Lama, could you spell out your concerns
about his “shadow side” and his forays into the West from your experiences
in Germany?
Trimondi: The XIV Dalai Lama, the God-King of Tibet is the highest
representative of Tantric Buddhism, established in Tibet in the 8th
century, A.D. Tantrism, the last stage in the
history of Buddhism (since the 5th century A.D. in India) is
based on ritual and magic formulas. Not unlike other religions it also has
“skeletons in its’ closet” which it carefully conceals as a guest in the
Western world. Tibetan Tantrism is a belief in
spirits and demons, secret sexual practices, occultism, mind control, and
an obsession with power. In contrary to every democratic custom, the
present Dalai Lama consults with the Nechung Oracle, a monk who is
possessed by a Mongolian war God, on all important state decisions.
What primarily concerns us about
the interreligious ceremony in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
is the level of naivety in the West. For the past 25 years, the Dalai Lama
has quietly performed the Kalachakra Tantra (“The Wheel of Time”), the highest of all
ancient Tantric initiations for tens of thousands of spiritual novices in
the West; introducing Tantric ideology, secret sexual practices, and magic
rituals integrated into the context of his religious-political worldview.
Critical voices have been raised, while he continues to secretly transmit
the Kalachakra’s
prophetic vision of the establishment of a universal Buddhocracy
(Shambhala)
in which spiritual and worldly power are united in one person, the “world
emperor”(Chakravartin), wherein other religions will no
longer exist.
Stephens: Samuel Huntington, Director
of the Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard warned in 1993 in his
essay on The Clash of Civilizations
that, “What ultimately counts for people is not political ideology or
economic interest. Faith and family, blood and belief are what people
identify with and what they will fight and die for.” In light of this what
is your concern about the ideology that the Dalai Lama is promoting in the Kalachakra Tantra?
Trimondi: In the Kalachakra Tantra
is prophesized the establishment of a Buddhocratic
Empire, a clash of civilizations will arise as the military forces of
Buddhism wage war against the armies of non-Buddhist religions. Murderous super-weapons possessed by the Buddhist Shambhala Army are described
at length and in enthusiastic detail in the Kalachakra Tantra Text
(Shri
Kalachakra
I. 128 – 142) and employed against
"enemies of the Dharma
(Buddha’s teachings).”
Over the last five years in the German
speaking countries, these shadow-aspects of Lamaism have lead to a vast,
steady and increasing stream of criticism in the media. During the Kalachakra-Initiation of the Dalai Lama last year in Austria
there were very controversial debates on TV and Radio Stations and Press
Media. The internationally well known newspaper “Der Standard” published an article entitled “A Warrior Ritual with
the Dalai Lama: The Kalachakra”. The German
Weekly of Christian intellectuals “Der Rheinische Merkur”
entitled an article: “What is hidden behind the Kalachakra Tantra? Supremely ferocious warriors!”
Stephens: Who are these
non-Buddhist enemies spoken of in the Kalachakra Teachings? I’ve
seen articles in the Buddhist magazines the Shambhala Sun and Tricycle
about Lamas dressing up in military uniforms. I thought Buddhism was a
peaceful faith?
Trimondi:
The secret text of the Kalachakra explicitly
names the "leaders" of Judaism, Christianity and Islam as the
opponents of Buddhism: "Adam,
Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mani, Muhammad and the Mahdi"
describing them as "the family
of the demonic snakes" (Shri Kalachakra I.
154). The final, Armageddon-like battle
(Shambhala war) ends in the total victory of
the Buddhists. The official Kalachakra-Interpreter
Alexander Berzin openly compares the principles
of the Islamic “Jihad” with that of the Shambhala war. As in the
Islamic martyr-ideology Shambhala-Warriors, who
will be killed in the last battle have earned passage into the [Buddhist]
paradise.
The military scenarios in some Buddhist Centers
such as the Shambhala training camps of the
deceased Lama Chögyum Trungpa,
have until now only a symbolic meaning, and yet they are interpreted as a
spiritual preparation of the prophesized great Shambhala War. In the
imagination of some Lamas all participants in a Kalachakra
initiation have the questionable privilege of being reborn as "Shambhala Warriors" in order to be able
to participate in the coming apocalyptic battle either as infantry or
officers, dependant on rank. High lamas of particular lineages have already
been assigned to commanding positions in the future.
Stephens: Of
late, the scandal of sexual abuse among Catholics and other Christian
clergy has hit the news. I recall that a number of years ago, we spoke to
members of Dharmadhatu
in West Hollywood who openly mentioned that their founder Osel Tenzin had knowingly
infected many of their members with the aids virus and that nine lamas had
died in Boulder, Colorado. We were humbled by their vulnerability on the
subject. They obviously felt terribly violated. Another Christian woman we
met in Seattle
who was formerly a sexual consort to a local Tibetan lama was so severely
wounded by her experience that she would not even speak of it in detail. On
October 5 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art an exhibit entitled, “The
Circle of Bliss-Buddhist Meditational Arts” opens the largest Tantric Art
exhibit in the Western Hemisphere. What
should the public be aware of about the dangers of sexual practices of
Tantric Buddhism?
Trimondi: The sexual practices of
Buddhist Tantrism are not to be confused with
normal sexual abuse by some Lamas. The latter also has been a great problem
in the Buddhist communities, which were rocked by scandals caused by such
prominent leaders as Chogyam Trungpa
Rinpoche, founder of Colorado's
Naropa
University, who was
accused of having sex with his women students. In 1993, 21 Western Buddhist teachers met the
Dalai Lama in India and issued an open letter that lamented various
teachers' ``sexual misconduct with their students, abuse of alcohol and
drugs, misappropriation of funds and misuse of power.'' The group urged
believers to confront teachers and publicize their misconduct.
Here in Europe, one of
the most well known and discussed cases involved the Scottish Buddhist June
Campbell and the attempt of her teacher, the most honorable
eighty year old Lama Kalu Rinpoche,
to misuse her sexually. The 10. February 1999 headline of the British
newspaper The Independent read: “I was a Tantric sex slave.”
But Campbell shows also in
her confessional book Traveller in
Space that the sexual misuse of women is not only a blameable attitude
but that it is a central part of the Lamaist
Tantric religion. The sexual magic
practice exercised by a Lama with a woman has the specific goal to transmit
the erotic and female energy into the spiritual and worldly power of the
male partner. Such sexual rituals are the core of Tibetan Buddhism. Also in the secret higher initiations of the Kalachakra Tantra
sexual magical rites take place. The ritual texts can be interpreted
symbolically or real (!). Both are possible. The originals say that
eleven-year-old girls may be used as sexual partners.
Stephens: Shocking! Especially in
our society where so much sexual abuse of children is being exposed in religious
circles. That public money is being appropriated to promote this in the
name of culture is of great concern, especially as many children go on
field trips to these exhibits. Another concern in America has been the rise of
the Neo-Nazi movement. I understand
that you have since co-authored another bestseller on the influence of
Asian religion on the foundational ideology of Adolph Hitler. Evidently,
this has unleashed quite a debate in Europe.
What’s the cause of the controversy?
Trimondi: In our historical essay “Hitler
– Buddha – Krishna – an Unholy Alliance from the Third Reich to Today”
we show that the warlike and racist ideas of Heinrich Himmler of the SS and
of other well known Neo-fascists have been fundamentally inspired by
elements of different Asian religions, such as Vedism,
Buddhism, Lamaism and that prominent German Zen Teachers-Dürckheim & Herrigel have
been convinced Nazis.
It’s really shocking, in the “SS-Ahnenerbe” ,
which was the academic brain trust of the SS, that its’ Chief Heinrich
Himmler, was openly engaged in ongoing discussions with the most
distinguished German Orientalists of his time in
the construction of a new Indo-Arian Nazi-Religion. After WW II this discussion was continued
by prominent neo-fascist ideologues. Both of our books have stimulated a
great discussion about the ideological sources of religious fundamentalism
and about the clash of civilisations.
Stephens: I recall attending the
Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance in 1996 when the Dalai Lama was
awarded “The Simon Wiesenthal Peace Prize” and the director equated him
with “Aaron, our man of peace.” What should the Jewish community be
concerned about in light of your research on his connections with Nazism?
Trimondi: It is a fact that the Shambhala War Ideology of the Kalachakra-Tantra
has led to aggressive behaviour, megalomaniacal visions and conspiracy
theories both in the history of the Asia
as well as in that of religious fascism and neo-fascism. Already in the SS-Ahnenerbe,
where Heinrich Himmler’s Nazi-Religion was born, there was an interest in
the contents of the Kalachakra-Tantra.
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.
That alone makes it necessary for the Dalai Lama to distance himself
clearly from the war-mongering Shambhala Myth.
Instead
of this he has cultivated friendly contacts with people such as the ex-SS
men Bruno Beger (convicted as helping to murder
more than 86 Jews) and Heinrich Harrer, author of
Seven Years in Tibet (a chronicle
of his experience with the Dalai Lama over seven years prior to his exile
to India). The Homepage of the
Government of Tibet in Exile did show the XIV Dalai Lama between Bruno Beger on his right and Heinrich Harrer
on his left (In 2003: www.tibet.com/Status/statement.html). Beger has been
a member of the famous SS-Tibet Expedition organized by the SS in 1938/1939
whose primary goal was to find traces of an ancient, lost indo-Arian
religion in the Himalayas. Some occult
leaders in the SS were convinced that Tibetan Lamas are the key holders of
these Indo-Arian Mysteries. Beger is highly
respected by the Government of Tibet in Exile as a chief witness for the
political independence of the country in the 30’s and 40’s
of the last century.
Nearly
unknown until now are the contacts of the Dalai Lama with the French
SS-collaborator, convinced anti-Semite, recognised Orientalist
and Kalachakra Tantra
Expert Jean Marquès-Rivière (in his absence
convicted and given the death sentence for turning Jews over to the Gestapo
in France).
The founder of an esoteric Hitler movement the ex-Chilean diplomat Miguel
Serrano (promoter of an extremely racist SS-mysticism, which is based on
Tantric practices and on the idea of the Shambhala
Warriors) met the Dalai Lama four times.
Well
known became his relationship with the Japanese terrorist, Shoko Asahara, whom he described, even after the Tokyo sarin gas attacks, as his "friend, albeit an
imperfect one”. Only later he did distance himself from the Guru. Asahara's Doomsday Philosophy was mainly influenced by
the Shambhala Ideology and by Tibetan Tantrism.
Stephens: It seems that this ideological discussion is being raised globally.
For us in California, it is quite relevant
in light of the California
recall and recent political attack on “Terminator” candidate
Schwarzenegger’s Austrian Nazi connections with Waldheim. But after probing
more deeply we understand that he’s actually one of the largest
contributors to Holocaust Awareness education and the Simon Wiesenthal
Museum of Tolerance. I was concerned however, about the uncritical
acceptance of the Dalai Lama at that ceremony, understanding some of the
connections he has with prominent Neo-Nazis.
Trimondi: Yes, it
is astonishing why the Jewish Community is so uncritical vis-à-vis the
Dalai Lama. On 09.04.03 the Swiss Newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung
reported, that the Tibetan religious leader said on a journey in Jerusalem: Hitler
would also have the potential of a good man in himself. Hitler was not born
as a wicked man, his hatred of the Jewish people made him malicious and
this hatred must be battled. But
this doesn’t mean that there was not also lying dormant some Goodness in
Hitler. A wicked man can be tomorrow a good man, said the Dalai Lama. For
this we have to fight.
Also if such a statement can be interpreted as an expression of
Buddhist compassion, it seems tasteless remembering the murdering of six
million Jews by the Nazis and the death of millions and millions of war
victims on the account of Hitler’s madness. There would be a worldwide
protest, if for example the Pope or a Western statesman made such a
sympathetic remark on the most prominent mass murderer in human history,
especially if such a remark is done in Israel, where many survivors of
the Holocaust and their children are living.
Stephens: And then there’s the Hollywood
connection. Exactly, what is so
attractive to the Dalai Lama about Hollywood?
Trimondi: Hollywood films
are the most powerful vectors of fantasy ever known to humankind. So the
extensive and well known connection of the Dalai Lama with the film world
and with famous actors and actresses is certainly an effective propaganda
instrument. Since the nineties, Tibet, the Tibetan God King and Tibetan
Buddhism have been glorified by the most prominent film-directors,
neglecting even a minimum of critique of Tibet’s feudalistic and bloody
past controlled by a despotic monk aristocracy with absolute power.
Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Little Buddha” or
Martin Scorsese’s “Kundun”
are constructions of a virtual Tibet, which never did exist.
Even the ancient anti-Nazi tradition of the American film-fabric was
broken, when Jean Jacques Annaud brought out
“Seven years in Tibet”.
This film with Brad Pitt is a mystification and hero worship of the former
SS-man Heinrich Harrer who in the forties became
the teacher of the young Dalai Lama. In his book Virtual Tibet (2000) Orville Schell details the “incredible”
story of one of the most effective delusions in the film world: The Tibet
Fantasies of Hollywood.
Stephens: I remember running into Richard Gere at
the Wiesenthal Museum Peace Prize presentation and discovered that his
Foundation has financed the building of over 300 sand Mandalas
throughout the continental US. What exactly is a sand Mandala?
Do these Monk’s Mandala tours have some other
purpose than an art display? Why should we be concerned?
Trimondi: A Mandala is a sacred
pictogram; one also can call it a “magic circle”. It is an instrument to
evoke the gods, goddesses and demons of the Tantric pantheon. For a modern
Western approach, in which religion and arts are not yet unified, the Mandala is a work of art. However, in the Lamaist tradition where there is no difference between
the aesthetic and the sacred and where art is always sacred art, the Mandala is a spiritual power vortex, an assembly point
of gods and demons, a palace of the divine, a spiritual battery from where
powerful energies are radiating. It is also connected with the Lamaist idea that the place, where the Mandala is erected, stands under the absolute control
of its divine or, we would say, demonic “inhabitants”.
The intricate Mandala, constructed during
the Kalachakra
Ceremony, is made with coloured sand and symbolizes the whole universe. At
the end of the ritualistic performance the sand construction will be
destroyed by the Tibetan monks. The so called “dismantling” of the sand Mandala symbolizes the destruction of the world and of
the universe. This is part of the apocalyptic Doomsday Scenarios in the Kalachakra prophecies which culminate in a
final battle and the End of our planet. Nevertheless the construction and
destruction of the Mandala is presented by the
Dalai Lama as a contribution to world peace.
Although one would desire to believe in its peace producing energy,
realistically one has to accept, that the construction of this magic circle
after more than 25 years in the West has brought no more appeasement to the
people than it did in Tibet
which has suffered much. The aggressive and terrorist energies have become
more and stronger in our world and the clash of religions has become an
everyday-problem in politics. Is it not evident that the construction of
300 sand Mandalas throughout the U.S.
you are speaking of has not contributed peace to this country? History on
the contrary has proceeded in the opposite direction and is on the way of
destruction and war.
In our studies it was alarming to find that following the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 a
Wheel of Time (Kalachakra)
Sand Mandala was built in the lobby of Tower
One. For over thirty days, many of
the World Trade Center workers and
visitors were invited by the Tibetan Monks to participate in the
construction of this Mandala. When the Dalai Lama
visits New York in the next days, we would
ask: Why the terrible event of 9/11 could happen at the World Trade
Center
that was consecrated by the so called “Circle of Peace,” the Kalachakra
Sand Mandala, the same mandalas
that were unable to prevent the destruction of 7500 monasteries of Tibet?
In this context a sentence of the Tantra expert
and Indian scholar Shashi Bhusan Dasgupta may be remarkable: "The word Kala means time, death and
destruction. Kala-Chakra is the Wheel of Destruction."
We just did find in the Internet a statement of a participant of the
WTC Kalachakra Ceremony, which seems really
revealing especially because it is made by an initiand
of the Tantra: “The topic shifted to the Kalachakra Mandala that was
made at One World Trade
Center.
I was at the dissolution ceremony there, may be around '96. The monks
gathered up all the sand from the Mandala at
1WTC, put it in a vase, then carried it across the bridge into World
Financial Center through the Winter Garden, then
dumped the sand ceremoniously into the Hudson River for the sake of World
Peace. The surface of the river glittered with the afternoon sun, and I
cried. 5 years later, the whole building is gone, just like the sand Mandala.”
In contrary to this, Robert Thurman, the
“academic godfather of the Tibetan cause” (Time Magazine) saw a dream
(September 1979) the Dalai Lama as an absolute King and Kalachakra
God reigning New York City.
“The night before he [the Dalai Lama] landed in New York, I dreamed he was manifesting
the pure land mandala palace of the Kalachakra Buddha right on top of the Waldorf Astoria
building. The entire collection of dignitaries of the city, mayors and
senators, corporate presidents and kings, sheikhs and sultans ,celebrities
and stars—all of them were swept up into the dance of 722 deities of the three
buildings of the diamond palace like pinstriped bees swarming on a giant
honeycomb. The amazing thing about the Dalai Lama’s flood of power and
beauty was that it appeared totally effortless. I could feel the space of
His Holiness’s heart, whence all this arose. It was relaxed, cool, an
amazing well of infinity” Thurman did interpret this dream as a prophecy.
Stephens: From your experience in the Kalachakra
Debate in Europe and your observation of mass media’s romantic portrayal of
Tibet,
what are the potential dangers to other faiths, including Buddhism and
democracy of this growing Shambhala myth?
Trimondi: Tibetan Buddhism, like the New Age of the
eighties appears to be the “trendy religion” of the new millennium. But it
is much more than the charismatic appearance of the Dalai Lama and his
speeches about compassion, peace and happiness. The danger lies in that the
Kalachakra Tantra
ritual subtlety builds an ideological foundation for a future “war of
religions.” If the problematic
contents of this archaic belief are not openly discussed, they may present
a dangerous ideological challenge to the positive legacy of Western
Civilization and Democratic institutions.
There is also no doubt that the Kalachakra
ideology proposing the establishment
of Buddhocratic rule, a universal Emperor (Chakravartin)
, violence, the licence to kill and the waging of a Buddhist holy war are
in direct opposition to the original peaceful teachings of Sakyamuni
Buddha. Concerning this discrepancy between the aggressive contents of the Kalachakra Tantra and the
original peaceful Dharma, taught by the historic Buddha, we have formulated
Eight Questions to the Dalai Lama.
Stephens: Serious talks of the Dalai Lama’s return to China before the Olympics are
beginning to leak into the media. How will this impact the future of the
West?
Trimondi: We are really uneasy, if you ask us, as to what
may potentially happen if this “Buddhist-Jihad-Ideology” of the Kalachakra Tantra
will become a new vision of the Chinese political self-understanding. Will the much more peaceful and softer
philosophy of Daoism and Confucianism be replaced by the “Shambhala
Warrior Doctrine”, which was once propagated in thirties by the Japanese
Shinto-Fascists to mobilize the Mongolian minorities of Manchuria and West China? If the present situation in Europe is any
indicator, we must say that we are alarmed as we witness the rising
interest in Germany of Fascist, Neo-fascist and Nazi-intellectuals and in Asia of a terrorist like the Japanese Doomsday Guru
Shoko Asahara in the ideological concepts of the Shambhala War of the Kalachakra Tantra.
This should be a Menetekel,
that the “writing is on the wall” as a major wake-up call for the
West.
“The Shadow of the Dalai Lama – Sexuality, Magic and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism” (1999) is available online in English and “Hitler
– Buddha – Krishna – an Unholy Alliance from the Third Reich to Today”
(2002) is also a German Bestseller and is being translated into English.
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