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Baseler Zeitung - Aurel
Schmidt - December 1999
Berner Zeitung - Hans Peter
Roth - May 1999
Facts No. 9 - Patrick Mauron and Stephanie Riedi - March 1999
Publik Forum - "The Shadow of Tibetan Buddhism" - Norbert
Copray - April 1999
Baseler Zeitung - Aurel Schmidt - December 1999
Religion
in global era - Questions for Buddhism
Every day, life
goes on in Tibet and the country changes a little more, not necessarily for
the better. Daily the cityscape of old Lhasa moves another step closer to
destruction; in Lhasa and Xigatze, the two largest cities in the country,
the Chinese population is now in the majority. The Tibetans have becomes
strangers in their own country. Progress has undoubtedly been made, but the
Chinese occupation cannot be justified by this. When China claims to
respect and support Tibet’s cultural independence, then one has to ask why,
for example, the portrait of the Dalai Lama has disappeared from all the
monasteries in Tibet. Not to mention the political indoctrination and the
religious restrictions, particularly in the monasteries. The Tibetans talk
quite openly to tourists about such matters.
But one can
also nevertheless ask whether an Asian power play between the Dalai Lama
and the Chinese leadership is not involved. The Dalai Lama is winning over
ever more followers in the West; the Chinese leadership is extending its
influence in Tibet and the rest of the world. It would not be surprising if
the Dalai Lama were to return to Tibet with Chinese approval one day. Both
sides could only win – yin and yang complementing each other.
But this is something that the people in the post-Enlightenment West could
hardly understand. They stick to what they believe, and thus fail to
consider that people in Asia have completely different conceptions of time,
action, influence, power, and so forth. The Dalai Lama is an excellent
politician. Persistently, he pursues a goal that he never lets slip from
view. He thinks, with no little success, in longer time spans. In this lies
his superiority. The rationalists must therefore draw the short straw.
Two
points of view
Buddhism under
a Tibetan flag is slowly spreading in the West. Buddhism is modern, chic,
and the Dalai Lama can rely on the Hollywood connection. The actress Goldie
Hawn, from the American film city, is reported to have said, "I meditate and I feel sexy". Those who profess to Buddhism by now
belong to the well-off, even when this is often a private Buddhism from
which each and everyone has picked out the best for themselves.
Robert Thurman,
an American professor of religious studies at Amherst and Harvard and an
avowed Buddhist, as he says of himself, talks of a transformation of
civilization and travels internationally, preaching a "cool" and
"inner" revolution, and enthusing about a Buddhocracy or a
"Buddhaverse", at any rate under US American control. Following
the failure of Judeo-Christian utopianism, everyone with good intentions
may participate. What is happening is a development which - in an allusion
which can be traced back to the theory of "morphic resonance" of
Rupert Sheldrake, also a confessed Buddhist - is "infectious".
That is more edifying than scientific. Nonetheless, Buddhism should and
will conquer the world.
Seen in total,
Thurman’s book, Inner Revolution, is a frankly Buddhist and further
a Tibetan propaganda document, even when it is everybody’s free choice what
they make of it. There are things in the book which are downright
appealing, but the book is definitely not multicultural or multi-religious
(given it need be so).
That one can
also see everything differently, and thus come to completely distinct
conclusions is shown by another book, The Shadow of the Dalai Lama
by Victor and Victoria Trimondi. What Thurman expresses emphatically, but
also in a generalized and vague manner, Trimondi and Trimondi address frankly,
without mincing words. Tantrism (Tibetan Buddhism), they say, is a
theocracy, a conservative if not totalitarian, undemocratic, misogynist
religion; the Dalai Lama, who incontestably holds spiritual and worldly
power in his hands, a skillful "oriental despot", who presents
himself outwardly as friendly and understanding, quick witted and humorous,
but at heart inexorably pursues his goals. That critique from his own ranks
is increasing in proportion to the number of people in the West flocking to
him is another matter. There are two points which Trimondi and Trimondi
make their central concern: on the one hand the sexual-magic tantric
Kalachakra initiation rites, which for a small circle of initiates are
taken beyond a spiritual visualization, and are in a practical and
unequivocal sense carried out, to the disadvantage of women who are abused
by terrible lamas (Sanskrit ‘guru’, actually teacher); and on the other
hand the concept, linked with the Kalachakra Tantra (tantra means
roughly doctrinal text, system of teachings), of a realm called Shambhala,
from where, in the public version, the savior of the world will come, while
for the initiated, Shambhala really means the world conquered by Buddhism.
800
pages of argumentation
Over 800 pages
the Trimondis expand upon their arguments (behind the pseudonym are Herbert
and Mariana Röttgen, who once ran the Trikont publishing house and also
maintained close contacts with the Dalai Lama). Originally the two authors
had wanted to write a completely different book, but as they began to
better familiarize themselves with the material they became more and more
alert. It was no different with the preparation of this review.
The scope of
the book makes it impossible to go into all the details. An overall
reference to the book must suffice here. Those who will, can gain fresh
insights from it. Nobody must take it on as it is, but the objections,
which are all well substantiated, are weighty enough to warrant being taken
seriously. That the doubts advanced by the Trimondis might be manipulated
by China would be too simple. All religions strive to increase their
influence, as the Pope with his trip to India recently demonstrated to
apply for Christianity in Asia. With regard to the psychological influence
of the tantric rituals on the initiated as well as their sexual partners,
the consequences can be serious. Far-reaching psychic changes can occur, as
is known from (experience with) former members of sects for example.
Connected to this is an extended power structure of lamas culminating in
the Dalai Lama. The book by these two authors has understandably set off
vehement controversies, which are published at length on the Internet.
Perhaps the most important of these are the reactions of women, who in
their commitment to Buddhism suffered as "sex slaves", as the
American June Campbell has described in the ...
book, Traveller in space about the role of women in
Tantrism. What the Trimondis intend to achieve with their book is an
engaged critique of religion. Christianity and Islam are also in their
sights.
Religions are
not just for obvious reasons authoritarian – in the age of globality the
character of religions is also always changing. They are globalizing
themselves, becoming increasingly aggressive, and more and more unyielding
in their claims to possess the ultimate truth. But this is all happening in
a time when people are ever more urgently searching for meaning and hope to
find it in a religion, a disappointing realization. When meaning can only
exist in some form of dependence, then it’s a false meaning. For many
people, Buddhism is probably so attractive because it gets by without a
personal God. It attempts to point out a way which the individual can
pursue to free him- or herself from the cycle of entanglements of worldly
existence. "Pop" or "instant" Buddhism, however, cannot
achieve this. What the discussion triggered by the book by Trimondi and
Trimondi has revealed, over and above its explicit content, is the need to
critically examine Buddhism. Until now a great deal has been considered by
many people probably either much too superficially or much too
idealistically. In contrast to this, critical vigilance can very well
accompany participation. A.S.
Berner Zeitung - Hans Peter Roth - May 1999
"Scratches
in the mythical ‘God-King’s’ veneer"
In
the latest books Hans Peter Roth discovers shadows over the blissful image
of Tibet
The time for
going easy on the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism is over. Forty years
after the Chinese invasion, several authors at once have begun to violently
shake up blissful Western clichés about the ostensibly peaceful Tibetan
culture.
"False!"
says the Dalai Lama with emphasis whilst the cameras roll, "Their
claims are not true! There is no violence among Tibetans". In an
episode of the "10 to 10" program the religious and worldly
leader of the Tibetans reacted with irritation to critical questions from
reporter Beat Regli. The Swiss TV personality had documented attacks among
Tibetans in exile in India and wanted to discuss these with the Dalai Lama.
And thereby obviously hit a raw nerve. Then the "God-King" is
consistently protected by his entourage from everything which could tarnish
the image of His Holiness or Tibetan Buddhism. "I was nevertheless
perplexed at how aggressively and strained the Dalai Lama reacted to
several questions", says Regli. The incensed reactions to Regli’s
program show that we are not (yet) accustomed to critical talk about
Tibetan culture and its sole leader, the Dalai Lama. Especially in
Switzerland, the sympathy awakened by the brutal Chinese invasion of Tibet
exactly 40 years ago remains particularly strong. Then a renowned community
of exiled Tibetans lives here with monasteries of their own.
The
"cuddly Buddha"
The ethnologist
Elisabeth Oberfeld from Bern sees reasons for the one-sidedly positive view
of Tibetan culture in the West: "The blissful image is based upon
hopes and fantasies that ‘Shangri La’, a perfect world exists there, a sort
of paradise on earth so to speak. The majority of the representations in
the media, especially the big Hollywood productions like 'Kundun', 'Little
Buddha' or 'Seven Years in Tibet' contribute to this blissful image."
Idealizations and fantasies are systematically cultivated, the Tibetans
one-sidedly presented as a peaceful and compassionate people. Other aspects
of Tibetan reality on the other hand remain blanked out, claims Elisabeth
Oberfeld, who has traveled in Tibet a total of six times.
But now the
pendulum is swinging the other way, as the magazine Facts recently wrote:
"Tibetan Buddhism is falling into discredit." This is in large
measure attributable to the Dalai Lama himself. He has disqualified himself
with his "publicity madness" and downgraded himself to the status
of an "eternally smiling cuddly Buddha".
Helmut Gassner
has also distanced himself from the Tibetan leader in the meantime. From
1979 to 1995 he was the Dalai Lama’s personal German translator and recalls
a "very warn relationship" to him. Today he is shocked by the
"contradictory statements, indeed lies of His Holiness".
Misogynist
Tradition
Most recently,
numerous freshly published books convey an unaccustomedly gloomy image of
Tibetan culture. June Campbell, a religious studies scholar from Scotland,
stresses misogynist aspects in the Tibetan system in her book Traveller in Space. There is no place for a
self-determined subjectivity of the woman. She has personally experienced
the consequences of masculine power, feminine dependency, and secrecy. Over
many years she was the "secret sexual companion" of her teacher,
Kalu Rinpoche, a highly revered "monk-lama". Yet, tantric-sexual
relationships between teacher and pupil maintained in strict secrecy are
not one-off cases, according to June Campbell: "They are just the tip
of an iceberg of spiritual tradition, in which power structures, secrecy
and exclusion play an important role."
Ritual
sexual magic
The most
intensive criticism comes from the newly published book The Shadow of
the Dalai Lama by the German couple Victoria and Victor Trimondi alias
Mariana and Herbert Röttgen. "A deeply misogynist culture appears on
the Tibetan-Buddhist stage when the pacifist curtain of compassion is drawn
aside", the publisher and the historian say in confirmation of the
views of June Campbell, and they go further: iIn tantric sexual rites the
feminine life force, the "gynergy" is bled out of women as
"fuel". Then in sacred sexuality, in erotic love and particularly
in the woman’s "gynergy" lies the chief energy source with which
the mysto-political motor of the lamaistic system is driven, directly
through ritual sexual magic. "In general, the profane and
materialistically oriented West completely underestimates such
connections", Victoria Trimondi is convinced: "We completely
ignore the power of practices like the sexual ritual magic and the dangers
they imply. In its one-sided spiritual orientation Western culture
unfortunately refuses to open up a broad-ranging discussion on this topic.
It blindly leaves the religions to their domain, under the condition that
they abide by the laws of the state."
In total, in
their more than 800-page book, the Trimondi couple summarize the Tibetan
system as an "an at heart atavistic, fundamentalist, sexist, and
warlike cultural design", which is striving towards a "global
Buddhocracy". A cultural design which also fundamentally questions the
Western values of democracy, freedom of opinion, human rights, sexual
equality and humanism, although it constantly appeals to them.
Call
for boycott
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. Peter Michel’s opinion for instance is scathing:
"It would be desirable if readers seriously interested in Buddhism
were to abstain from this book", says the chief and head of sales of
the publisher Aquamarin in a two-page circular to bookshops in an indirect
call for a boycott. The "concoction" is an "historical Tibet
porno". That Michel’s esoteric publishing house has no interest in the
criticism of the Dalai Lama is revealing, however: just last September
Michel published The Path of Compassion, a book which lends the
"God-King" an all too well-known radiant aura. But The Shadow
of the Dalai Lama is selling well. "Precisely thanks to the
controversy about the book", Victoria Trimondi believes. The authors
are already at work preparing the third, revised edition.
And further
trouble already threatens: Anytime now a polemic work by Jutta Ditfurth and
Colin Goldner with the title Dalai Lama: A Biography is to appear.
In it the sect investigator Goldner accuses the Tibetan leader of, among
other things, "religious brainwashing".
Facts No. 9 -
Patrick Mauron and Stephanie Riedi - March 1999
THE
DISMANTLING OF HIS HOLINESS
In
the West he is revered and idolized as an angel of peace. Stars adorn
themselves with His Holiness. And 1999 is the fortieth anniversary of his
escape from Tibet. Now of all times critics are telling the DALAI LAMA
where to get off.
GOD
OR DEMON?
Sexual
abuse, contact with fascists, brainwashing - the accusations against the
Dalai Lama are really something.
They
criticize the Dalai Lama:
- Victor and Victoria
Trimondi:The author couple want to expose the peaceableness of the
Dalai Lama as "a mask".
- Colin Goldner The
psychologist accuses the Dalai Lama of religious brainwashing.
The Buddha is
the party sensation. Alongside techno parade, carnival and fireworks, the
spiritual and worldly head of Tibet is the main attraction at the Fêtes de
Genève in Geneva at the beginning of August: his Holiness, the Dalai Lama.
There is barely
a party without the 64-year-old jet-set monk. Whether film premiere or gala
dinner, this year the Dalai Lama will hardly be absent from any celebrity
occasion. The popularity of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama is greater than ever
before, 40 years after his escape and the suppression by the Chinese
occupation of the Tibetan popular rebellion on the 10th of March 1959.
Commemorative celebrations on the 40th anniversary are taking place all
around the world. 1999 will be the year of the Dalai Lama.
Now of all
times, at the zenith of this reverence for His Holiness, two books with
explosive contents have appeared. The Buddha of compassion ought to be
knocked from his pedestal. "Overnight, the god has become a
demon", says the just published, 800- page strong, indictment The
Shadow of the Dalai Lama by Victor and Victoria Trimondi. The author
couple want to expose the peaceableness of the Dalai Lama as "a
mask" and Tibetan Buddhism as "an at heart atavistic,
fundamentalist, sexist, and warlike cultural design".
The second
polemic, Dalai Lama: The Fall of the Godking by Colin Goldner,
appears in April. The sect investigator accuses the Tibetan leader of
religious brainwashing, maintaining contacts with right-wing radicals, and
protecting a belief system in which women and girls are sexually abused.
Goldner, a psychologist, who runs a counseling center in Munich for those
who have suffered under therapy, supports his case with documents from
Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government in exile, eye-witness
reports, religious texts, and historical indicators.
The
deconstruction is targeted at a god king who, since receiving the Nobel
peace prize ten years ago has been riding a wave of sympathy which has
carried him as far as Hollywood. Stars, starlets and statesmen sun
themselves in the aura of the charismatic Buddhist. From top model Cindy
Crawford to fashion designer Christa de Carouge, from Clinton to Cotti they
fraternize with the Prince of Peace. Dalai Lama is there for everybody,
Dalai Lama loves you. A meeting with His Holiness from the "roof of
the world" is considered the highest level of social enlightenment. In
the last two years Hollywood has also seized upon the topic of Tibet.
Spectacular epic films like Kundun and Seven Years in Tibet
finally won over a broad public.
But now the
pendulum is swinging the other way. Tibetan Buddhism is falling into
discredit. Tibetan circles show their shock: "The books are an
exploitation of the ignorance of the West", says the Dalai Lama’s
private secretary, Kelsang Gyaltsen. Tibetan Buddhism is being maliciously
defamed by them.
The contents of
both books display amazing parallels. Victor Trimondi explains the
simultaneous appearance of the two titles with reference to the zeitgeist:
"A critical discussion with the Tibetan religion and the shady side of
the Dalai Lama was overdue."
In comparison
to Islam and Christianity, to date Buddhism has in fact been only
hesitatingly examined: "Buddhism was not just nonviolent", says
Tibet expert Martin Brauen from the Ethnological Museum of the University
of Zurich. In the West Buddhism was idealized around the myth of
nonviolence and the desire for a land of happiness was projected onto Tibet.
This resulted in the myth of Shangri La, the place where gentleness rules
the heart.
One of those
who actively participated in the creation of this myth is the same person
who now bugles to attack: Herbert Röttgen under the pseudonym of Victor
Trimondi, co-author of The Shadow of the Dalai Lama. In the
seventies a member of a Maoist group, he sought refuge in the eighties in
the bodily incarnation of compassion. As publisher of books in praise of
Buddhism and His Holiness’s tour manager he organized appearances at the
Frankfurt Book Fair in 1982 and conferences with Carl Friedrich von
Weizsäcker, Fritjof Capra and David Bohm for the Dalai Lama. But Röttgen
did not find enlightenment. Instead a warning lamp lit up when he and his
wife Victoria thoroughly examined the inner workings of Tibetan Buddhism
and the Dalai Lama. Now he takes to the field as investigator of his
earlier mentor. "The Dalai Lama is not just the simple man he presents
himself as," he says, "but rather a sacred ruler, who controls
both worldly and spiritual power in one person." His claim to world
domination is an element of Buddhist doctrine. Röttgen refers to the
Tibetologist Robert Thurman, father of the actress Uma Thurman. In 1997 at
a Tibet conference in Bonn "the spokesperson for the Dalai Lama"
announced the impending fall of the decadent West and its replacement by a
worldwide Buddhocratic leadership along Tibetan lines.
Radical
disillusionment for the believers and "boom Buddhists". Alone in
Switzerland there are 100 Buddhist centers, over 30 000 sense-seekers
follow the path of the goodly people.
Of all the
Buddhist lines, Tibetan Tantrism is the most widely distributed in Europe
and the USA. As the youngest Buddhist teaching it has, according to the
Dalai Lama, "a marked sexual symbolism", which leads to the false
impression that it is about real sex. The tantric rituals consisted solely
of visualization exercises used to unite feminine and masculine energies.
This stands in
blatant contrast to one of the chief accusations of the book authors
Trimondi and Goldner. "Tantrism is about nothing other than sexual
violence, the sexual exploitation of girls or as young women as possible,
ostensibly for the individual’s enlightenment", says Goldner, a
psychologist. The sexual attacks and the highly secretive sexual
relationships of high-ranking Tibetan lamas are not isolated cases, but
rather part of the systems. However, the accusers only cite Western women
as witnesses.
On the whole,
criticizes the ethnologist Brauen, the authors lack convincing evidence for
their most important theses. "Trimondi’s indictment is based upon
literal translations of tantras which are over 1000 years old and have been
superseded." This is as if an African sought to explain current day
Christianity on the basis of St John’s Gospel. Röttgen replies to this:
"The Dalai Lama also refers to these text and rituals, which he
performs."
Alongside the
academic dispute there are also more robust criticisms of His Holiness. In
his keen hawking of the Tibet issue he has obviously lost his sense of good
and evil. His contact to the Japanese guru and poison gas murderer Shoko
Asahara won him a name as a friend of fundamentalists among other things.
"In 1989 the Dalai Lama issued a letter of recommending the fascist
sect leader for the dissemination of Buddhism in Japan", says Colin
Goldner. Only thanks to this "letter of protection" was it
possible for Asahara to establish, in Aum, the financially most potent
occult sect of all time which was responsible for the poison gas attack on
the Tokyo underground in 1995. "In return, gigantic sums flowed into
the coffers of the Tibetan government in exile."
Goldner has
still more strings to his bow. Thus he accuses the Tibetan government in
exile of a "targeted propaganda by misinformation". Tibet support
communities are reputedly furnished with arguments so that donations flow
in. Ultimately there is no proof for the alleged 1.2 million Tibetan
victims of the systematic torture of political prisoners and the oft-cited
cultural genocide.
Cynicism, says
Kelsang Gyaltsen, His Holiness’s private secretary, of Goldner’s
accusations. Regarding those who have died, he admits that there are no
exact numbers, since they are based on the questioning of refugees.
"But the current 300 to 400 refugees per month are sufficient
witness." In January the Chinese launched a new atheism campaign.
The Dalai Lama
has only himself to blame for many mistakes. Kitsch and commerce overshadow
the Tibet myth and distract from social and politico-religious grievances.
Even Martin Brauen says, "It is difficult to reconcile having a state
oracle as political decision maker in the parliament in exile with a
democratic state system". And the institution of reincarnated lamas (tulku)
also leads to an undesirable concentration of power.
It is
undisputed that the Dalai Lama has disqualified himself with his publicity
madness. for a double-figure million dollar fee he posed as an advertising
model for Apple Computers, designed a special issue of the glossy Vogue
and writes prefaces for other authors in piece work. The marketing chief of
Buddhism has thus degraded himself to an eternally smiling cuddly Buddha.
Even the Dalai
Lama’s own PR strategy "nonviolence, tolerance, and compassion"
has reached the end of its half-life. "All the attestations of
sympathy from the world public have after 40 years finally achieved
nothing", says the Swiss-Tibetan Jigme Risur, president of the
European Association of Young Tibetans. "We are fed up with the role
of the nice little Tibetans." The organization opposes the political
direction of their chief. The explicitly advocate independence for Tibet,
and not just autonomy like the Dalai Lama .
Apart from
political differences the Dalai Lama has also stirred up religious
turbulence in the ranks since the mid-nineties. With the declaration that
the worship of the protective spirit Dorje Shugden is dangerous, he split
the largest school of Tantrism, the so-called Yellow Hats, into two camps.
Ironically, the Dalai Lama is leader of the Yellow Hats.
"All the
attestations of sympathy from the world public have finally achieved
nothing." (JIGME RISUR; European Association of Young Tibetans)
Switzerland is
a mirror of the religious brotherly quarrel. Since the beginning of the
sixties the largest community of Tibetans in exile outside of Asia, with
2400 people, lives here. The Shugden conflict led to a split between the
two Tibetan monasteries in Switzerland. The monks of the monastery in
Mont-Pelerin VD in contrast to those in Rikon ZH have not bowed to the
recommendation of the Dalai Lama. "We revere His Holiness; but we
cannot abjure a belief that is hundreds of years old", says the Abbot,
Gonsar Tulku Rinpoche. Since then they are outlaws for a majority of the
Tibetans in exile, who stand behind the Dalai Lama. The seven monks from
the monastery in Rikon unconditionally follow the course of their leader.
The formerly good relations have been overshadowed by the God-King’s
decision. In the one Western monastery founded by the Dalai Lama one would
prefer not to comment on the conflict. "We are in the first instance
Tibetans", says the acting Abbot, Lodro Tulku.
When the
God-King visits Switzerland this year, he will not just smilingly bring his
goods to market at the Fêtes de Genève. With a smile he will also,
following Gina Lollobrigida, Roger Moore, Fredy Knie, and priest of the poor Abbe Pierre, take over the
patronage of the smallest vineyard in the world: the 1.67 square meter
"Farinet" in the Lower Valias
town of Saillon. This will make the Dalai Lama – despite a vow of
abstinence from alcohol – the first Buddhist winemaker.
Publik Forum - "The
Shadow of Tibetan Buddhism" - Norbert Copray - April 1999
The
Dalai Lama comes in for criticism - The Shadow of Tibetan Buddhism
Does
the religion of the Dalai Lama have its "skeletons in the closet"
too? A book gets feelings running high.
Uproar in the
Buddhist scene in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The new book by Mariana
and Herbert Röttgen, published under the pseudonyms of Victoria and Victor
Trimondi and with the title The Shadow of the Dalai Lama has struck
like a thunderbolt. The Buddhist scene generally presents itself as
peaceful and worldly. But the fundamental criticisms of the author couple
is strong stuff for the Buddhists, who see their religion and the Dalai
Lama as badly defamed by the book. For weeks, threatening and abusive
letters have been descending upon the publisher and the authors. At a
recent public occasion in Frankfurt a representative from the inner circle of
the Dalai Lama’s friends gave vent to wild threats against Mariana and
Herbert Röttgen.
By
German-speaking standards the authors have broken a taboo. In Anglo-Saxon
countries the amount of critical literature about Buddhism, even by
Buddhists, has been swelling for some time. (But) particularly in Germany
the media have stuck to mostly favorable, uncritical portrayals. Thus it
was possible to read some time ago, perhaps in the Spiegel,
that Buddhism is the only religion with no skeletons in its closet. Something
which especially angers Herbert Röttgen, since such a statement displays
not only ignorance but also the marketing success which the Dalai Lama
knows how to orchestrate for his own cause in the West. The Dalai Lama as
an individual also fascinates the Röttgen couple, and they would happily
agree point by point to what the Dalai Lama says and does in public. But
the point is to look behind this surface and to understand what the Tibetan
Buddhism of old was, how it continues to function and be organized today,
what goals are associated with it and how it plans to realize these.
Buddhism is not
simply Buddhism. Basically, Tibetan Buddhism unites Mahayana Buddhism,
which makes Buddhism comprehensible for the broad masses, with
pre-Buddhist, sexual tantric, magical, and typically Tibetan cultural
traditions into a major creed of its own, alongside other Buddhist
denominations. But even within Tibetan Buddhism there are various schools
which cannot stand one another. The Dalai Lama’s circle even suspects followers
of one of these schools of cooperation with the Chinese invaders and
repressors of Tibet. They are also supposed to have accepted funding from
them.
Similar charges
have been leveled at the author couple Röttgen. They are alleged to have
received a billion deutschemarks from either the Catholic Church, the
Evangelical Church, the Chinese, or the Scientology organization for their
"campaign of agitation". None of this is true. It is certainly
true that the Patmos publishing group has been known for over forty years
for its soundly-based, investigative, and humanistic nonfiction and
specialist program, which assembles such select intellectual figures as
Leonardo Boff and Eugen Drewermann. They stand for keen criticism of the State Catholic Church and the manner in which it
interprets and makes use of Christianity. Here, the Röttgens’ book is not
just in good company, but also comparatively moderate.
Look
at a religion with very earthly conflicts
An attempt to
mow down the content of the book using the biographies of the authors ought
to misfire, and the intentions guiding it are easily seen through. It is
true that in the sixties Herbert Röttgen belonged to the left-wing
revolutionary scene in Munich, and that his Trikont publishing house
published among others Mao’s Little Red Book. But what does that
tell us? In the eighties he nonetheless published such valuable and
important books as "The Re-enchantment of the World" by Morris
Bermann, "Abundance and Nothing" by the Dominican mystic David
Steindl-Rast, and the Dalai Lama’s "The Logic of Love".
The Röttgens’
way involves, since 1982, a decided nearing of Tibetan Buddhism and a
direct encounter with the Dalai Lama, in order to then treat his demands
seriously, to not simply make a change in religion out of fascination, but
rather to precisely examine this religion and its ways, to gain experience
and to investigate critically. The findings are nonetheless negative in
character.
Mariana and Herbert
Röttgen see in Tibetan Buddhism a backwards-facing religion with a
pronounced belief in spirits and demons and many multilevel esoteric
teachings and initiations, which finally aims for a "Buddhocracy"
which would make absolute demands upon individuals and society, that is
existentially, religiously, ethically, socially and politically. To
consider this at all possible, a thorough study of the historical,
religious, theological, spiritual and sociopolitical backgrounds of Tibetan
Buddhism and of the role and function of the Dalai Lama is necessary. What
Röttgen and Röttgen enlarge upon in the over eight hundred pages of the
book, is thus also an intensive (in a few rare cases inexact)
investigation of the available and accessible literature.
Nonetheless
significant is the question, to what extent the traditions and practices
examined can be laid at the doorstep of the current Dalai Lama and his
role, to what extent he himself has not also undergone a major development
since he has turned to the West, and whether he even still sees himself as
a "God-King". The authors attempt to prove how much the old
traditions have maintained their validity to the present day, but cannot -
for fear of asking too much of them - be admitted to enthusiastic fans in
the West, in order to not lose the esteem believed to be needed to advance
the matter of religious and political freedom for Tibet.
Non-Buddhist
experts on Buddhism, however, see in the rituals, in the belief in spirits
and images the attempt of Tibetan Buddhism to provide spiritual transport,
huge rafts as it were, with which to cross over the flow of human
rationality to an holistic consciousness, which lets Buddhahood be achieved
already in this life. "Maha-yana", as this Buddhist creed is
known, literally means ‘great vehicle’. The theory says (that ) if one has
reached the shores of holism, one can be
relied upon to provide a raft for him- or herself. The visualizations and
rituals thus ought to make possible the breakthrough to a higher state of
existence, since a person who imagines himself as a divinity gains powers
of consciousness for enlightenment.
Röttgen and
Röttgen nonetheless believe that this is a favorable interpretation. In
reality Tibetan Buddhism is dominated by a literal belief in gods, rituals
and images, which are lacking transformative power and thus should be
worked through afresh. Especially the tantric sexual practices, which
according to theory ought to bring both man and woman enlightenment in the
bodily union, lead in the Röttgens’ view to a straightforward sexual
exploitation of the woman. For the Röttgens this Tantrism is, finally, a
"ritualized female sacrifice".
The
Dalai Lama: highly revered by religious seekers in the western world, but
not undisputed in the Asian world of Tibetan Buddhism
Everything
flaring up as part of this criticism of Tibetan Buddhism has long been
everyday for Christianity, especially in its Catholic variety: historical,
psychological, and political critical examination, confrontation with
internal contradictions, the making aware of the risks for a religion when
it favors literal over symbolic belief. Further discussion will have to
show whether the Röttgens’ criticism is right, at least in its starting
point. In all religions fundamentalist and progressive interpretations
coexist. Perhaps, just like the pope, the Dalai Lama shimmers as he tries
to simultaneously internally and outwardly demonstrate affection for some
basic orientation in matters which are existential for him. But if
anyone thought that there really could be a pure, innocent, naive religion,
and believed they had found it in Tibetan Buddhism, they are possibly now
either bitterly disappointed about this religion or more than just angry at
the authors. But what is happening here is something which (even within a
denomination) both pope and church have had to put up with for centuries,
and which everyone therefore should perhaps have already known about:
religions are shaped by people. They must therefore face criticism and take
it on board, in order to not be misused as instruments of power or for the
exploitation of human hopes and needs.
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