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Ab 40 - Greta Tüllman - January 2000
Woman World Wide - June 1999
Evangelical Office of Information - Georg Schmid - August 1999
Gesundheit
(Natur-Mensch-Technik) - September 1999
Badische Zeitung - Johannes
Schradl - March 1999
Novalis - Günter Röschert - October 1999
Different Press Voices
Ab
40 - Greta Tüllman - January 2000
Mariana and Herbert Röttgen (Victor & Victoria Trimondi) in
search of new visions in coming millenium.
In [the women’s
magazine] Ab 40, much space has been devoted to criticisms by women
of the monotheistic religions. These have concentrated on Christianity and
Islam and women’s roles in both of these religions. In contrast, Buddhism
had become for many women a place of refuge for their religious needs, and
has stood for inner peace, meditation, compassion, wisdom, calmness,
spiritualization, etc., etc.
Now, in time
for the turn of the millenium, comes a rousing critique and analysis of
woman’s role in Tibetan Buddhism, about the devaluation and abuse of the
feminine in this religion, (a critique) developed in dialog by a woman and
a man, Mariana and Herbert Röttgen (Victor and Victoria Trimondi), which
fits into the Ab 40 discussion. I have known Herbert Röttgen for
almost 30 years.
What fascinated
me alongside his pioneering, visionary view of the world was his untiring,
intensive dialog with women [...], and now his dialog with his wife Mariana
about the significance of traditional religions for the establishment of
values and creativity in a future culture. Their joint book, The Shadow
of the Dalai Lama is a start in this direction and the vehement, often
inappropriately aggressive, criticism which this book has aroused in the
media demonstrates that Mariana and Herbert Röttgen (Victor and Victoria
Trimondi) have hit a raw nerve with their thesis.
As we want to
devote space in the coming years in Ab 40 to an intensive woman–man
dialog, the postscript which we have reproduced here seems with its
philosophical discourse to be a symbolically successful way to launch our Ab
40 dialog off in this direction. Let yourselves be inspired.
Mariana and Herbert
Röttgen (Victor and Victoria Trimondi) are a symbolic start for a
successful "woman–man, man–woman dialog". Greta Tüllman
Woman World Wide - June 1999
The two authors
have ventured almost to the limits of the "expressible" with
their book, The Shadow of the Dalai Lama. Particularly when one
considers how many people have turned to Buddhism nowadays. Average
citizens, followers of the esoteric, celebrities in Europe and
America have in good faith – but uninformed – committed themselves to the
cause of Tibet and its spiritual head of state. They are not familiar with
Lamaism and the religious practices of Tibetan Buddhism. And the peaceable
mask of the Fourteenth God-King remains untouched. It covers his
power-political and fundamentalist visions well.
What is
actually hiding behind Buddhism and Buddhist Tantrism has been subjected by
the authors to a powerful analysis and uncompromising critique. The fine
detail of the differences within the hierarchical ranking of the edifice of
Buddhist teachings is incredibly exactly sketched out here. With this view
behind the curtains, the shocked reader perceives the cultural design (to
be) in its innermost core atavistic, sexist and fundamentalist, and
extremely warlike. Also revealed is just how clearly a global Buddhism is
being striven for, one which questions values such as democracy, human
rights, equality of the sexes, and humanism. With a shock the reader
glimpses the contempt for humans and deeply misogynist culture which
conceals itself behind Tibetan Buddhist thought so glorified by everyone.
The Tibetan
variant of Buddhism is regarded in the West as a hoard of unadulterated Far
Eastern religiousness. The Dalai Lama counts as a living symbol of Good.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner has managed to anchor the "Tibet
myth" in the West thanks to Hollywood films. The public are led astray
with false information and cover-up tactics by the Fourteenth Dalai Lama,
the Tibetan government in exile, and the Tibetan clergy. The two authors
reveal the atavistic, fundamentalist cultural design which cannot deny the
ideological and cultic connection to esoteric fascism and neo-fascism. But
despite this almost uncompromising critique, at the end of their work the
authors canvas a discussion about a Buddhism beyond such outdated and
questionable traditions.
Evangelical
Office of Information - Georg Schmid - august 1999
"People who need no illusions will value the extensive work as
a contribution to a long due correction."
Herbert and
Mariana Röttgen, the author couple publishing under the pseudonym of
Trimondi, tear a public blinded by the modern myth of Tibet not just from
out of its nostalgic dream of an in every respect peaceful, never violent,
thoroughly pro-woman Tibetan Buddhism which transforms all the dark forces
in people into bright energy.
In the volume
of over 800 pages, the dark, occult, sexual magical, misogynist,
fascist-near, warlike, and politically totalitarian aspects of Tibetan
Buddhism, actually already known about in the west, are also linked to one of
its most essential ritual texts, the Kalachakra Tantra.
Viewed in this
context, the shady sides of Tibetan Buddhism are no accident in the history
of a spirituality which is actually totally peaceful, but rather a logical
expression of a religion and a culture which never did nor does want to
just dissolve its shadows into light, and instead grants them a fateful
inherent dynamism. The outbreaks of violence in the milieu of Tibetan
Buddhism and the Dalai Lama, so incomprehensible to a western Tibet romantic
– think of the still-echoing ramifications of the struggle between Red Hats
and Yellow Hats in the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama with its many victims,
of the so-called Shugden debate of recent years, of the continuing conflict
around the true reincarnation of the new Karmapa, of the support which the
Dalai Lama lent the Japanese sect guru Shoko Asahara, or of the military
ambitions of the Dalai Lama’s brother - all these "absurd"
incidents are no longer bolts from the blue, without precedent or resonance.
The Dalai Lama’s claims to power, smilingly denied on the one hand,
accepted without question on the other, are, like many other apparent
contradictions, based in Tibet’s spiritual and political tradition and can
only be understood when the modern enthusiasm for Tibet gives way to a more
realistic engagement with this particular culture and religion, which like
any other has nurtured and continues to nurture both its bright and shady
sides.
The reader’s
verdict upon this detailed engagement with the shady side of Tibetan
Buddhism is entirely dependent upon his or her willingness to renounce
nostalgia and to concede that there never was nor ever will be a completely
peaceful culture or religion in the world of humankind. Those who cannot or
will not abandon the illusion of a thoroughly peaceful Buddhism will only
be able to see the work of the two authors as a grim settling of accounts
by disappointed former friends of Tibetan Buddhism. People who need no
illusions will value the extensive work as a contribution to a long due
correction.
Gesundheit (Natur-Mensch-Technik) -
September 1999
"Precisely because I know the danger of exercising magical
miraculous forces, I avoid and abhor them." Sayings of Buddha 1. 212.
This very
up-to-date book presents the reviewer, and certainly the main body of his
readers, with no small difficulties. It is simply apt to divide our society
– at least it ought not leave any reasonably responsible contemporaries
unmoved; at the end of the day it is about nothing less than the claim that
the spiritual and political leader of Tibet, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, is
in his worldwide campaign up to more than the thoroughly legitimate freeing
of his home country, occupied by Red China. People who here want to ask
what Buddhism has to do with us in central Europe are ignoring the fact
that Tibetan Buddhism in particular has become a sounding board for the
religious desires of tens of thousands of Europeans.
The large
crowds that the Dalai Lama is able to draw must make the pope pale with envy.
The authors, both formerly active in the "Free Tibet" movement,
took literally the Dalai Lama’s instruction to thoroughly investigate his
teachings and traditions before making a possible conversion to Buddhism.
However, their study, from an initially thoroughly sympathetic approach, in
the end produced a completely unexpected and contrary result: they
recognized a danger in Tibetan Buddhism, in its teachings and magical
praxis in day-to-day politics, not just for the psyche of the individual
adept, but also for world peace. With their book, based upon personal
experience and meticulous research, they hope to expose this so ostensibly
pacifist, nonviolent religion, pious as it is tolerant, as being an
imperialistic, misogynist atavism, riddled with a medieval-like belief in
spirits and demons.
Allegedly,
there is no taboo (child abuse, necrophilia, cannibalism!) which is not
broken in the sexual magic rites of the tantric ways of this religion. As
an enlightened citizen of central Europe one does not want to believe all
this and seeks refuge in depth psychology, which is able to explain the
horrors as projections or symbolic events – but even here the authors have
collected damning counter-evidence. Buddhism too has a wildly turbulent
history and past, where misogyny and witch burnings can also be found, and
there are still battles between warring sects. One only needs to think of
the poison-gas guru Shoko Asahara, who sees himself as a champion of a
worldwide Buddhocracy. But, if one is to take the implications of the book
at hand seriously, the Dalai Lama also wants nothing less than control of
the world in a Buddhist-theocratic tyranny. A careful reading reveals that
the authors declare themselves prepared to publicly discuss their
hypothesis with him or a representative; that this certainly
furore-provoking work is thus not a one-off surprise attack which only
serves to generate confusion. What remains is a shaken image of the most
holy Dalai Lama, of the pure, philanthropic politics and teachings of Buddhism,
and the certainty that every traditional religion, regardless of its shade
of opinion, has its skeletons in the closet. Only the idealism of those
numerous volunteer helpers of the Committee for the Freeing of Tibet is to
be regretted. (b.h.)
Badische Zeitung - Johannes Schradl - March 1999
The
Dalai Lama – End of a beautiful legend?
BOOK
UNDER DISCUSSION: A new study poses critical questions for the religious
basis of the smiling God-King
Is the Dalai
Lama a murderer of women? Is a dangerous despot lurking behind this figure,
who appears as both a God-King and a mendicant monk at the same time? To
ask such questions is to take on a large congregation. In Germany alone
half a million people are devoted to Tibetan Buddhism. For them the Dalai
Lama stands for peaceableness, inner harmony, compassion and social justice
– for, in a word, the good in this world.
When - in the
enlightened Western sphere - living figures from other cultural circles
become objects of fervent adoration, it cannot be ruled out that critical
rationalism will stir itself and rear up against excess and mystification.
For the Fourteenth Dalai Lama it has now come to this. Just in time for the
40th anniversary of the occupation of Tibet by the Chinese, the authors
Victor and Victoria Trimondi have set out to do some deciphering of the bad
in the good, in the cellar (gokhang) of Tibetan Buddhism and behind
the "tantric mask" of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Victoria and
Victor Trimondi (real names: Mariana and Herbert Röttgen – well-known and
controversial as the publisher Trikont) do not question that the countless
public appearances of the Nobel Peace Prize winner are of an impressive
gentleness and modesty. However, the Dalai Lama regularly avoids raising
the veil which covers the "shadows", the dark side of his
religion, where there are: sexual magic mysteries and
power-political obsessions (Shambhala myth), spirits and demons (Nechung
oracle) and powerful destructive forces.
Tibetan
teachings vs. Western civilization
For all that,
of course the image of the Dalai Lama as a murderer of women, for example,
is not meant literally. But the higher tantras do concern the sacrifice of
the feminine principle in favor of the masculine and the theft of feminine
energy in the interests of the tantric master. This is not something which
a civilized Western person can approve of, nor is the alleged urge recorded
in the religious myths to establish a "Buddhocratic" world rule.
In this country, it is the custom to separate state and religion –
especially when we are dealing with a pretty aggressive potential.
Western
‘fashion’ Buddhists with a rather superficial desire for enlightenment are
hardly open for this sort of thing – at least not consciously, but beneath
the skin they might already be pre-formed, the authors suspect. Not least
the flood of Buddhist films which Hollywood produces plays a role here.
This may be exaggerated. Then it remains rather doubtful whether those
10,000 worshippers, who made the pilgrimage to Schneverdingen in Lower
Saxony last November to hear the words of the Dalai Lama and to meditate
for hours, would also follow him in a Buddhist religious state. And for
them he meant: just stick to the religion you have; everything else rapidly
becomes strenuous.
The book had
barely gone on sale when critics – invited Tibetologists perhaps –
reproached the authors that they had fundamentally misunderstood something.
It is not acceptable to unconditionally interpret the religious
"images" of Buddhism as (dangerous) recipes for action in the
here and now – rather than simply as treasures of wisdom. The shockingly
aggressive fighting out of intra-Buddhist conflicts in Tibet with the
Shugden group – up to possible ritual murders – meanwhile, teach us
something different. There remains the criticism of the ostensible
scientific shortcomings of the 800-page calling to account of Lamaism – a
charge which one can readily present to outsiders.
Debate in the interests of
investigation
That a
discussion which needs to be had is being instigated here is not doubted by
most critics, however. Even if the authors here and there bring out the
heavy artillery, as where they produce the proximity of Tibetan Buddhism to
German fascism and of the 14. Dalai Lama to the leader of the murderous
Japanese Aum sect, Asahara - their concern is justified: to devote
themselves to the myths behind the permanent smile of the Far Eastern
God-King. In the interests of investigation. Although the Dalai Lama may
preach values like human rights, democracy, equality and pacifism, they are
not anchored in Tibet’s religion and traditions, as the religious studies
scholar from Tübingen, Cristoffer Grundmann, also says.
Novalis - Günter
Röschert - October 1999
The
Buddhism of the Dalai Lama – A Trojan Horse for the West?
In an interview
in the weekly Das Goetheanum (No. 20/1998, pp. 294f.) the General
Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in America, Arthur Zajonc,
recently described Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, as a ‘modern
representative of the consciousness soul’. This anthroposophical statement
of Professor Zajoncs now appears doubtful on the basis of an extensive
study, produced by Victor and Victoria Trimondi under the title of The
Shadow of the Dalai Lama. The married couple Trimondi (real names
Herbert and Mariana Röttgen) were for several years to be counted among the
Dalai Lama’s sympathizers, but then began to regard him and Tibetan
Buddhism increasingly critically and to evaluate their experiences through
a detailed study of the accessible specialist literature. This biographical
background, which the authors unreservedly concede, has led isolated
critics of the book to disqualify it as a personal settlement of
accounts.(The reviewer for the Süddeutschen Zeitung headlined his
review with the title ‘Renegade literature’ and spoke of a ‘settling of
accounts by two disappointed (believers)’. The review was so mercilessly
damning that, according to information from booksellers, many SZ
readers inquired about the book for precisely this reason.) The book indeed
has an explosive potential, since at least the German-language literature
about the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism is almost exclusively affirmative
or even originates from the Dalai Lama himself.
1. To help understand
the book, first up the following remarks in advance (introductory
literature consulted: Helmuth von Glasenapp, Buddhistische Mysterien [Buddhist
Mysteries]. Stuttgart 1940; Julius
Evola, Metaphysik des Sexus [Metaphysic of the Sexus]. Stuttgart 1962;
Heinrich Zimmer, Indische Mythen und Symbole [Indian Myths and
Symbols]. Düsseldorf 1972; Philip Rawson, Tantra. Munich 1974;
Heinrich Zimmer, Philosophie und Religion Indiens [The Philosophy
and Religion of India]. Frankfurt 1976; Mircea Eliade, Yoga. Unsterblichkeit
und Freiheit [Yoga. Immortality and Freedom]. Frankfurt 1985; Michael
von Brück, Buddhismus [Buddhism]. Gütersloh 1998): The
development of Buddhism has proceeded in four stages; a fifth stage has
been heralded. At the beginning are the teachings and life of the
historical Buddha Gautama. After his death (480 B.C.E.) the ‘Teachings of
the Elders’ (known as Hinayana or ‘Low Vehicle’) developed, with the
Four Noble Truths: of Suffering, the Cause of Suffering, the Relief from
Suffering, and the Eightfold Path. From the second century B.C.E. the
‘Great Vehicle’ (Mahayana) emerged, with the development of the
teaching of the Bodhisattvas. From 500 C.E. an India-wide movement,
Tantrism, began, which gradually took a hold on Hinduism and Buddhism as
well. Even the word tantra (or Tantrism) is difficult to define
(Eliade, p. 209). It concerns a system of esoteric instruction of
non-ascetic character on the basis of a thoroughly magical-symbolic world
view (von Glasenapp, p. 17). Characteristic of Tantrism is the marked
inclusion of sexuality (Rawson, p. 14). Tantric Buddhism is referred to as
the ‘Diamond Vehicle’ (Vajrayana). All stages of Buddhism still
exist today alongside one another in more or less large areas. Buddhism
entered Tibet in its tantric form from the eighth century C.E. on and
displaced the up until then predominant shamanism (von Brück, p. 277). In
the following centuries in constant exchange with Indian Buddhism several new
tantric systems with a number of extensive collections of texts emerged.
The last major tantric system, the Kalachakra Tantra, appeared in
the 10th or 11th century (von Brück, p. 284). It is thought that the
tantric texts – despite a complete absence of proof – originated from
Buddha Gautama and existed for centuries as hidden ‘treasure’ (terma),
waiting to be found at the correct time (cf. von Glasenapp, p. 49). The
book under discussion here concerns the Kalachakra Tantra (Time Tantra) and
its most important representative, the Dalai Lama.
2. The main
thesis of Part 1 of the book states that: ‘the mystery of Tantric Buddhism
consists in the sacrifice of the feminine principle and in the manipulation
of erotic love in order to obtain universal androcentric power (pp. 30,
317). From the up to now accessible texts (see p. 24) the authors gather
that there is a hidden monistic orientation to Tantrism, whilst everything
which exists in the universe is dualist, emanating from a primeval divine
couple, indeed from their sexual union. In the sexual magic union of the
tantric yogi with a female partner the former seizes the feminine energy
and elevates himself to an androgynous state, through which the body of the
yogi approximates the spiritual unity of the universe. The ritual sacrifice
of the woman (the tantric partner) as originator of the great Maya is the
precondition for a transfer of her life energy to the tantric master. This
procedure is in the authors’ interpretation an application of an
overarching tantric law of ‘inversion’, according to which immersion in the
lowly and the base turns into spiritual elevation to the supreme. Since the
relevant passages in the texts are presented by the authors as containing
an abundance of practical instructions, real, not just internal (to the
soul) sexual magic should be assumed (this is confirmed by Evola, p. 386).
The repeated sexual magic act lets the yogi, approaching androgynous unity,
experience the spiritual union of his physical and subtle body with the energies of the universe. The apex
of the Kalachakra Tantra is the overarching figure of the primal Buddha
(von Glasenapp, p. 85), of the so-called Adi-Buddha as cosmic androgyne.
Through the forces of the tantric initiation path the body of the yogi
achieves an occult correspondence to the diamond body of the Adi-Buddha,
down, indeed, to a detailed correspondence in the physiological energy
structure. The Adi-Buddha is the Lord of the Universe and thus the bearer
of unbridled power, including political power over the entire globe. This
claim to power is concretized in the utopia of the Shambhala realm, which
is hovering on the threshold of revelation and is destined to arise in the
foreseeable future in a final battle for control of the world.
3. In every era
only one tantric master reaches the highest level of the initiation path.
The authors believe that the encounters with the vile and demonic, which
thanks to the law of inversion should be transformed into the elevated and
divine, can lead to the demonic becoming taken for granted, at any rate
among those adepts of the Kalachakra Tantra who do not reach the highest
level. But the tantric master identifies himself with not just the ‘good’
Bodhisattvas (e.g.. Avalokiteshvara), but also with the Tibetan gods of
wrath. In this connection the authors attempt to explain the Tibetan
pantheon of gods and demons with its shockingly aggressive and murderous
astral figures, even the morbidity and aggressiveness of Tibetan culture in
general. For the tantric real and ritual/symbolic deeds are of the same
moral value, since he assumes a pervasive magical unity of the universe,
through which each layer of the phenomenal world can be a symbol of
another. The Kalachakra Tantra includes fifteen levels of initiation. The
first seven levels count as lower orders and are performed in public
by the Dalai Lama in front of thousands of people at huge open-air events.
The higher levels are of a sexual magical nature (pp.171, 183). The authors
describe the four highest levels as Ganachakra (a magical circle
under participation of several female sexual partners in an orgiastic
form). The Master of the Kalachakra Tantra of our time is the Dalai Lama;
when one considers his previous incarnations he has always been so, from
the beginning. The authors are convinced that he must thus understand
himself to be a figure who corresponds to the Adi-Buddha and prospective
world ruler (Chakravartin).
4. In Part 2 of
the book the authors attempt to show that all of the Dalai Lama’s teachings
and actions without exception can only be understood against the background
of the Kalachakra Tantra. The sexual magic world of gods and demons of
Tantrism with its by Western standards repulsive rituals is carefully kept
hidden from the Western public. The Dalai Lama only provides European and
American media with the attractive teachings of Mahayana Buddhism. But the
true politics of the exile Tibetan community orients itself to the
eschatological plan of the Kalachakra Tantra with the Shambhala myth.
Individual elements of the politics of Dharamsala (the residence in exile
of the Dalai Lama in India) are still today mediumistically determined by
the pronouncements of an oracle. The famous Kalachakra sand mandala is a
means of occult possession of the territory in which it is created and then
dispersed.
The book by the
two Trimondis offers an exceptional abundance of material in this part and
describes, for example, the Dalai Lama’s connections to representatives of
fascism, to Mongolia, to Chinese Communism, to the Japanese terrorist
Asahara and to many Hollywood actors. The West has such boundless good
faith that it doesn’t notice Tantric Buddhism setting out on a magical
world mission straight out of its situation of exile. With no clue of the
sexual magical and demonic ‘shadow’ of the Dalai Lama, statesmen, artists,
and academics everywhere seek out and host visits from him. The spread of
Tantric Buddhism in the West (the fifth stage in the development of
Buddhism) is already in top gear. The authors believe an intensive
explicatory study of the Kalachakra Tantra is absolutely necessary, in its
political aspects as well, and its core transformation of sexuality into
power. They view their book as a warning study, which should be followed by
further, unprejudiced investigations.
5. In this
connection it is interesting that the anthroposophical journal Info3
(11/1998) published several articles on Buddhism on the occasion of a camp
organized by the Dalai Lama on the Lüneburg Heath at the end of October
1998. An editorial assistant reported, with reference to Professor Zajonc,
that the Dalai Lama, because of the imminent apocalyptic Shambhala war, had
begun to deposit the Kalachakra initiation as an image in the subtle bodies (!) of more and more participants
at his large meetings. There were strong similarities between the
Kalachakra Tantra and Rudolf Steiner’s book An
Outline of Secret Knowledge. It
then goes on to say: "Rudolf Steiner repeatedly referred to the
connection between Buddhism and Christianity. He went as far as to say that
both religions must come together in the future. In the spiritual world
this consolidation has already occurred." Whoever studies the cited
speech from 13.3.1911 (GA 124) attentively, will note that Steiner is
speaking of the continued effects of the spiritual individual Buddha
Gautama. Steiner was not, in this passage, discussing Tibet’s Tantric
Buddhism which first emerged a thousand years after Buddha Gautama had
died. This raises the question whether this amazing reinterpretation
through recontextualization of an extract from a speech by Steiner can be
linked to the outward appearance of the Tibetan mission as a Trojan horse
(Trimondi, p. 326).
In an era of
spiritual and religious pluralism the study of religion is an especially
significant anthroposophical desideratum. The book by the two Trimondis,
which could only be discussed in fragments here, is a polemical document
and as such a clear warning not to approach the world of religions naively
or with guileless identifications. It is an exciting book and in its wealth
of material a stimulating invitation to one’s own power of judgment, and to
the appropriately qualified pupil of Rudolf Steiner, to engage more closely
with the subject of the book.
Different
Press Voices:
Opinions differ
about The Shadow of the Dalai Lama: according to co-author Victoria
Trimondi, their book is in roughly equal proportions well received and torn
to pieces by the media. ... But The Shadow of the Dalai Lama is
selling well. "Precisely thanks to the controversy about the
book" [...]. The authors are already at work preparing the third,
revised edition. Berner Zeitung, 2 May 1999, Switzerland
Former Dalai
Lama sympathizers settle accounts with Buddhism. The new trend religion is
said to be deeply caught up in superstitious practices. The study in hand
interprets Dalai Lama Buddhism as a medieval-style secret doctrine. Focus Magazine, 15
March, Germany
Sexual abuse,
links to fascism, brainwashing – the accusations against the Dalai Lama
have got what it takes. [...] The two authors aim to expose the
peaceableness of the Dalai Lama as "a mask" and to present
Tibetan Buddhism as "an at heart atavistic, fundamentalist, sexist,
and warlike cultural design". [...] Radical disillusionment for the
faithful and the "boom Buddhists". Facts, 4 March 1999, Switzerland
An attempt is
made to prove this bitter farewell to a myth with a great flood of sources
[...] The criticisms, by the way, also come from Tibetans in exile and cannot
be brushed aside, even by the Dalai Lama himself: more and more he concedes
to some shady sides. [...] Thus it is a cheap trick when - as has happened
- the book by the Trimondis/Röttgens is dismissed as typical renegade
revenge. The authorial duo’s grasp of religious and cultural history is
undoubtedly firm. Abendzeitung, 20 June 1999, Germany
Finally a
long-overdue discussion of the antifeminist, anti-liberal, and
antidemocratic core of Tibetan Buddhism. Bayrische
Rundfunk [Bavarian Brooadcasting],
April 1999, Germany
The first
cracks have appeared in the image of the perfect Buddhist ‘roof of the
world’ which were, however, long overdue ... Explanations of the background
of Tibetan Buddhism are always necessary. Sender
Freies Berlin, April 1999
Victoria and
Victor Trimondi (have)delivered an informative and gripping work of
cultural history and fundamental research. The book throws up many
questions, several are answered satisfactorily. Thus, a western reader’s
curiosity about the tantra system is stilled. The authors present Tibetan
Buddhism as a religion of mysteries. [...] Its mysteries are the driving
force behind its political decisions and goal setting. [...]The Shadow
of the Dalai Lama is a thorough - sometimes too detailed – and
uncompromising analysis of Lamaism. The study is not without emotion,
however. Die Presse, 27 March 1999, Austria
A critical
debate is emerging at the zenith of the euphoria around Buddhism in the
west: Is TIBETAN BUDDHISM really as peaceful and democratic as the Dalai
Lama claims? ... The authors ... address the foundations of Tibetan
Buddhism. ... Critical discussion of Tibetan Buddhism is only just
beginning in the west. Die Woche, 19 March 1999, Germany
As the title
anticipates, we are dealing with an sensation. ... The elevated level at
which this attack is pitched is a surprise. None of the work at hand (is)
"dull" or superficial. Everything is soundly researched and
demonstrable. ... To sum the book up: extremely well worth reading with
comprehensive (coverage) of all aspects of Tibetan Buddhism. Tattva Viveka, May
1999, Germany
Anybody who
believes that the authors’ (the Röttgen couple’s) critique can be consumed
as journalistic fast food may well be disappointed. As a matter of fact
it’s a weighty tome of 800 pages, which is nonetheless written in a very
accessible style and offers unaccustomed perspectives which harbor real
dynamite. ORF, 4 March 1999, Austria
Tibet is going
to enter Western popular culture as something can only when Hollywood does
the entertainment injection into the world system" wrote the Herald
Tribune in 1997. This statement is also taken up by the two authors
Victor and Victoria Trimondi in their book, The Shadow of the Dalai Lama.
The Trimondi’s theses are as aggressive as they are provocative: desire for
the end of the world, an aggressive cult, the goal of world domination, and
the sexual exploitation of women – strong stuff with which to reproach
Tibetan Buddhism. In fact, in this book Buddhism and the Dalai Lama himself
are subjected to a comprehensive critique for the first time in the
German-speaking world. This (the criticism) comes from experts in the
scene. [...] Attacks from their own ranks, from Tibetans in exile, are also
accumulating. Like the sellout of their own country to the Chinese,
political lies, the rewriting of history among others. The authors inform
the reader in detail about the development of Buddhism and its cultic
ramifications such as Tantrism. Thus The Shadow of the Dalai Lama is
also an introduction to Buddhism. But the writers have something definite
at heart. [...] The book’s theses are well founded, described in detail,
and annotated with numerous sources. The background to the cultic and
ritual practices, the sexual and military obsessions of Buddhism are accurately
described. They carefully introduce the distinctions between the individual
tantras and compare this reality with idealized European conceptions. The
couple lay much value on the difference between the public image of
the "Prince of Peace" and his alleged power-political ambitions.
[...] The fullness, density, and challenge of this book will demand a
strong public discussion. This will be awaited with bated breath. München Aktuell, 22
March 1999, Germany
It appears that
the keenness of intellect and linguistic skill of a 1968-trained
dialectician are needed to tear the mask from the face of the Dalai Lama in
a manner which gets through these days. Etika, 2 May 1999, Italy
For those
familiar with the material, as the researchers Victor and Victoria Trimondi
have shown themselves to be in their book The Shadow of the Dalai Lama
recently published by Patmos-Verlag, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama proves to be
a Trojan Horse, with whose help the archaic-patriarchal monastic culture
hopes to conquer the West and thus take a great step towards its final goal
of Buddhist world domination. Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung, 20 July 1999,
Professor Dr. Dr. Udo Köhler, Germany
The Trimondis
do not descend upon a harmless, peaceful paradise, Shangri-La, so
attractive to mental tourists, but they are indeed stirring up a hornet’s
nest at present. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 15 July 1999, Switzerland
Ignorance has
always been a precondition for and foundation of all religions and
ideologies, since "he who knows nothing must believe everything"
(Maria von Ebner-Eschenbach). On this well-tested foundation, above all,
dealings with Indian and Asian religions and schools of wisdom, especially
Tibetan Buddhism, are currently flourishing in West. The latter’s highest
representative, His Holiness the Dalai Lama , exerts an almost magical
attraction over that great mass of people who neither know nor can judge
critically either the roots or the decisive content of their own religion,
let alone that of others. To this group belong in no sense just those
without academic training, whose healthy human intelligence protects them,
but rather those many, often highly specialized, but inadequately
philosophically trained intellectual eclectics, in particular physicists,
but also politicians and, especially of course, artists (Hollywood!),
religious enthusiasts and mystics of all sorts, for whom exact science and
rational thought are foreign or even hated anyway. The supreme Yellow Mage
has an easy job with them. But what conception of the world is hiding
behind the smiling, so apparently philanthropic and peaceable mask of the
Tibetan God-King? The ignorance which this key question exposes,
particularly in the Western world, can only be described as catastrophic.
Here, the book at hand can and wants to help, for which one cannot be
grateful enough to the courageous researcher couple Trimondi. Within it,
they have divided the vast amount of material into two parts. [...] In
order that they do not sink afresh into the sweet sleep of their affluence,
but rather become immune to that no less sweet, but in the end deadly
poison of archaic-totalitarian, patriarchal-fundamentalist Tibetan
Buddhism, the book at hand is more suitable than any other currently
available. Reading it is thus a sine qua non for all scientists,
educators, politicians, and all who are responsible for others, not least
doctors, psychotherapists, and psychiatrists. Alongside a subject and
biographical index, a detailed glossary is urgently required. Wiss.Literatur-Anzeige der Univ. Gießen
und Marburg,
Autumn 1999, Prof. Dr. Dr. Köhler
As people say,
where there is much light there are also many shadows. No wonder then, that
critics and warning voices also address Eastern teachings of wisdom. The
Shadow of the Dalai Lama (Victor and Victoria Trimondi, Patmos, 800
pp., with photos and illustrations, DM 58.00) is a sharp-sighted analysis,
a religious-philosophical work of fundamental research into the
interpretation and decipherment of Tibetan Buddhism. The book is riveting–
I was "hooked" from the start: belief in ghosts, sexual magic,
political and ritual murder, ideologies of war, torture, and a deeply
misogynist culture appear on the stage when the authors pull aside the
pacifist curtain of "compassion". The book is actually more of a
political and explanatory book, which wishes to warn us of the
power-political consequences of Tibetan Buddhism. Buchhändler Heute,
Düsseldorf, June 1999
The Trimondi’s
theses are provocative: desire for the end of the world, an aggressive
cult, the goal of world domination, and the sexual exploitation of women –
"strong stuff" with which to reproach Tibetan Buddhism. In fact,
in this book Buddhism and the Dalai Lama himself are subjected to a
comprehensive critique for the first time in the German-speaking world.
[...] The authors inform the reader in detail about the development of
Buddhism and its cultic ramifications such as Tantrism. They oppose the
hyping up of Buddhism by media and culture trendies without a knowledge of
its historical and cultural background. This ignorance of the topic and of
the background is what the authors wish to put an end to with their book.
The book’s theses are described in detail and annotated with numerous
sources. The background to the cultic and ritual practices, the sexual and
military obsessions of Buddhism are accurately described. Rheinische Post, Nr. 214 Christoph Weiss - September
1999
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