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© Victor & Victoria Trimondi
The
Shadow of the Dalai Lama – Part II – 1. The Dalai Lama: Incarnation of the
Tibetan Gods
1.
THE DALAI LAMA:
INCARNATION OF THE TIBETAN GODS
The two principal divine beings who act through the
person of the Dalai Lama are the Bodhisattva, Avalokiteshvara (in Tibetan, Chenrezi),
and the meditation Buddha, Amitabha. Spiritually, Amitabha is on a higher level
(as a Buddha). He does not “lower” himself directly into the “god-king”
(the Dalai Lama), but appears first in the form of Avalokiteshvara. Only Chenrezi then
takes on the bodily form of the Dalai Lama.
Buddha Amitabha: The sun and light
deity
The meditation Buddha, Amitabha, rules –according to a point of doctrine of Mahayana Buddhism — as regent of the
current age. Even the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni,
was considered his earthly emanation. The sun and light are assigned to him
and summer is his season. The peacock, a classic animal of the sun, adorns
his throne. The red color of Amitabha’s body
also signals his solar character. Likewise, his mantra, “HRIH”, is referred
to as a “sun symbol”: “It possesses not just the warmth of the sun, that
is, the emotional principle of kindness and of pity — but also the brilliance, the quality of
clarification, the discovery, the unmediated perception” (Govinda, 1984, p. 277). Amitabha is the Buddhist god
of light par excellence and his
followers thus pray to him as the “shining lord “. As the “unbounded light”
he shines through the whole universe. His luminance is described in ancient
texts as “a hundred thousand times greater than the radiance of gold”
(Joseph Campbell, 1973, p. 315).
The opulent sun symbolism which is so closely
linked to the figure of this Buddha has led several western oriented
scholars to describe Buddhism in total as a solar cult. For example, the tantra researcher, Shashibhusan
Dasgupta, even sees an identity between the
historical Buddha (the incarnation of Amitabha), the Dharma (the Buddhist doctrine) and
the Indian solar deity (Surya) (Dasgupta, 1946, p. 337). The Dharma (the teachings) are also often
referred to as the “sun” in traditional Buddhist writings, since the words
of Buddha “radiate like sunshine”. Sometimes even the principle of
“emptiness” is identified with the sun: “Dharma is Shunya [emptiness] and Shunya has the form of a
zero”, writes Dasgupta, “Therefore Dharma is of
the shape of a zero; and as the sun is also of the shape of a zero, Dharma
is identified with the sun. Moreover, Dharma moves in the void, and void is the sky, and the sun moves in the sky
and hence the sun is Dharma” (Dasgupta, 1946, p.
337).
Amitabha and the historical Buddha are not just
associated with the sun, but also with the element of “fire”. “As for the
Fiery-Energy,” Ananda Coomaraswamy
tells us, “ this is the element of fire present as
an unseen energy in all existences, but preeminently manifested by Arhats [holy
men] or the Buddha” (Coomaraswamy, 1979, p. 10).
There are a number of depictions of Gautama as a
“pillar of fire” from as early as the third century B.C.E. (Coomaraswamy, 1979, p. 210). The column of fire is both
a symbol for the axis of the world and for the human spine up which the Kundalini
ascends. It further has a clear phallic character. A Nepalese text refers
to the ADI BUDDHA as a “linga-shaped [phallic]
flame” which rises from a lotus (Hazra, 1986, p.
30). This close relation of the Buddha figure to fire has induced such
discriminating authors as the Indian religious studies scholar, Ananda Coomaraswamy, to see
in Shakyamuni an incarnation of Agni, the Indian god of fire (Coomaraswamy, 1979, p. 65).
Yet the power of fire is not only positively
valued in Indian mythology. In the hot subcontinent, destructive forces are
also evoked by sun and flame. Notorious demons, not just gods, laid claim
to be descended from Surya, the
sun god. Hence, the Indologist, Heinrich Zimmer,
recounted several traditional stories in which demonic yogis reached for
divine power through the generation of inner heat. He calls this fiery yogic force tapas, which means roughly “inner blaze”.
Throne
and Foot of the Buddha with sun symbols and swastikas
In contrast, Lama Govinda
completely represses the destructive force of the tapas and simply declares them to be the main principle of
Buddhist mysticism: “It is the all-consuming, flaming power, the inner
blaze which overwhelms everything, which has filled the religious life of
the people in its thrall since the awakening of Indian thought: the power
of the Tapas ... Here, Tapas is the creative principle, which functions in
both the material and the spiritual [domains] ... It is 'enthusiasm', in
its most lowly form a straw fire fed by blind emotion, in its highest, the
flame of inspiration nourished by unmediated perception. Both have the
nature of fire” (Govinda, 1991, p. 188). With
this citation Govinda leaves us with no doubt
that Tantric Buddhism represents a universal fire cult. [1]
Already in Vedic times fire was considered to be
the cause of life. The ancient Indians saw a fire ritual in the sexual act
between man and woman and compared it with the rubbing together of two
pieces of wood through which a flame can be kindled. The spheres assigned
to the “fire Buddha”, Amitabha, are
thus also those of erotic passion and sexuality. Of the sexual magic
fluids, the male seed is associated with him. This makes him the
predestined father of Tantric Buddhism. In his hand the “fire god” holds a
lotus, by which his affinity to the symbolic world of the feminine is
indicated. “The Lotus lineeage is that of Amitabha”,
the Fourteenth Dalai Lama writes in a commentary upon the Kalachakra Tantra, “practitioners of which especially should
keep the pledge of restraining from, or abandoning, the bliss of emission,
even though making use of a consort” (Dalai Lama XIV, 1985, p. 229).
Amitabha rules as the sovereign of the western
paradise, Sukhavati.
After their deaths, upright Buddhists are reborn here from out of a lotus
flower. They all move through this hereafter in a golden body. Women,
however, are unwelcome. If they have earned great merit during their
earthly existence, then they are granted the right to change their sex and
they are permitted to enter Amitabha’s land after they have been incarnated as men. [2]
Apart from this, the light Buddha is worshipped as
the “lord of language”. Analytic thought and distinctions also belong to
his area of responsibility. This induced Lama Govinda
to make him the patron of the modern (and western) sciences. He is
“differentiating”, “researching” and “investigative” (Govinda,
1984, p.123).
Let us summarize then: Buddha Amitabha possesses the
character traits of a light, fire, and sun deity. His cardinal point is the
West. As founding father of the Lotus family he stands in a deep symbolic
connection to sexuality and through this to Tantrism.
In the light of his qualities as “fire god”, “lord
of the West”, and “patron of science”, Amitabha could indeed be
regarded as the regent of our modern age, then the last two hundred years
of western civilization and technological development have been
predominantly dominated by the element of fire: electricity, light,
explosions, and the modern art of war count as part of this just as much as
the greenhouse effect and worldwide desertification. The great inventions —
the steam engine, dynamite, the automobile, the airplane, rockets, and
finally the atomic bomb — are also the handiwork of “fire”. The fiery
element rules the world as never before in history.
Committed Buddhists — headed by the Dalai Lama —
describe our western civilization as decadent and unbalanced, because it is
no longer fair to spiritual values. But, one could say, an elementary
imbalance likewise determines the myth of the “world dominion” of Amitabha, who
as the Buddha of a single (!) element ("fire”) controls our epoch. In
terms of cultural history, fire and the sun can be considered the classic
patriarchal symbols, whilst the moon and water represent the feminine.
Hence, Amitabha
is also a symbol for our global androcentric
culture, which, however, can only develop its complete purity when totally
freed of women in the paradise of Sukhavati.
The various masks of Avalokiteshvara
As an emanation from the right eye of his
spiritual father, Amitabha, emerged his son, Avalokiteshvara, with the Tibetan name of Chenrezi. He
is the “Bodhisattva” of our age, the “chief deity” of Tibet and the divine
energy which functions directly behind the person of the Dalai Lama. There
is no figure in the Buddhist pantheon who enjoys
greater respect than he does. His name means “he who looks down kindly”. He
is identified by his chief characteristic of mercy and compassion for all
living creatures. This close linkage to emotional life has won him the deep
reverence of the masses.
Avalokiteshvara can appear in countless forms, 108 of
which are iconographically fixed. In an official
prayer, he is described as a puer aeternus (an eternal boy):
Generated from ten million rays,
his body is completely white.
His head is adorned
and his locks reach down to his breast. [...]
His kindly, smiling features
are those of a sixteen year old.
(Lange, n.d., p. 172)
His best known and most original appearance shows
him with eleven heads and a thousand arms. This figure arose — the myth
would have it — after the Bodhisattva’s head split apart into countless
fragments because he could no longer bear the misery of this world and the
stupidity of the living creatures. Thereupon his “father”, Amitabha, took the remnants with him to the
paradise of Sukhavati and formed ten new heads from the
fragments, adding his own as the tip of the pyramid. This self-destruction
out of compassion for humanity and the Bodhisattva’s subsequent
resurrection makes it tempting to compare this Bodhisattva’s tale of
suffering with the Passion of Christ.
In some Mahayana
Buddhist texts the figure of Avalokiteshvara is exaggerated so that he becomes an
arch-god, who absorbs within himself all the other gods, even the Highest
Buddha (ADI BUDDHA). He also already appears in India (as later in Tibet in
the form of the Dalai Lama) as Chakravartin, i.e., as a “king of all kings”, as a
“ruler of the world” (Mallmann, 1948, p. 104).
His believers prostrate themselves before him as
the “shining lord”. In one interesting picture from the collection of
Prince Uchtomskij he is depicted within a circle
of flame and with the disc of the sun. His epithet is “one whose body is
the sun” (Gockel, 1992, p. 21). He sits upon a
Lion Throne, or rides upon the back of a lion, or wears the fur of a lion.
Thus, all the solar symbols of Amitabha and the historical Buddha are also associated
with him.
Avalokiteshvara in the form of the Death God Yama
In the face of this splendor of light it is all
too easy to forget that Avalokiteshvara also has his shady side. Every Buddha
and every Bodhisattva — tantric doctrine says — can appear in a peaceful
and a terrible form. This is also true for the Bodhisattva of supreme
compassion. Among his eleven heads can be found the terrifying head of Yama, the god of the dead. He and Avalokiteshvara
form a unit. Hence, as the “king of all demons” (one of Yama’s epithets), the “light
god” also reigns over the various Buddhist hells.
Yama is depicted on Tibetan thangkas as a horned demon with a crown of human skulls
and an aroused penis. Usually he is dancing wildly upon a bull beneath the
weight of which a woman, with whom the animal is copulating, is being
crushed. Fokke Sierksma
and others see in this scene an attack on a pre-Buddhist (possibly
matriarchal) fertility rite (Sierksma, 1966, p.
215).
As god of the dead (Yama) and snarling monster Avalokiteshvara
also holds the “wheel of life” in his claws, which is in truth a “death
wheel” (a sign of rebirth) in Buddhism. Among the twelve fundamental evils
etched into the rim of the wheel which make an earthly/human existence
appear worthless can be found “sexual love”, “pregnancy” and “birth”.
In the world
of appearances Yama
represents suffering and mortality, birth and death. So much cruelty and
morbidity is associated with this figure in the tantric imagination that he
all but has to be seen as the shadowy brother of the Bodhisattva of mercy
and love. Yet both Buddha beings prove themselves to be a paradoxical unit.
It is self-evident according to the doctrines of Tantrism
that the characteristics of Yama can also combine themselves with the person of the
Dalai Lama (the highest incarnation of Avalokiteshvara). This has
seldom been taken into consideration when meeting with the god-king from
Tibet who “looks down peacefully”.
A further striking feature of the
iconography of Avalokiteshvara
are the feminine
traits which many of his portraits display. He seems, as an enigmatic being
between virgin and boy with soft features and rounded breasts, to unite
both sexes within himself. As it says in a poem addressed to a painter:
Draw an Avalokiteshvara,
Like a conch, a jasmine and a moon,
Hero sitting on a white lotus seat [...]
His face is wonderfully smiling.
(Hopkins, 1987, p. 160)
Avalokiteshvara as Androgyne
Shells, jasmine, and the moon are feminine
metaphors. The Bodhisattva’s epithet, Padmapani (lotus bearer),
identifies him (just like Amitabha) as a member of the Lotus family and equally
places him in direct connection with feminine symbolism. All over Asia the
lotus is associated with the vagina. But since Chenrezi generally appears as
a masculine figure with feminine traits, we must refer to him as an androgyne, a god who has absorbed the gynergy of
the goddess within himself. For Robert A. Paul, he therefore assumes a
“father-mother role” in Tibetan society (Paul, 1982, p. 140). The two
colors in which he is graphically depicted are red and white. These
correspond symbolically to the red and the white seed which are mixed with
one another in the body of the tantra master.
His androgyny is most clearly recognizable in the
famous mantra with which Padmapani (Avalokiteshvara) is called upon and which millions of
Buddhists daily mumble to themselves: OM MANI PADME HUM. There is an
extensive literature concerned with the interpretation of this utterance,
from which the sexual magical ones sound the most convincing. In
translation, the mantra says, “Om, jewel in the lotus, hum”. The jewel
should be assigned to the masculine force and the phallus, whilst the lotus
blossom is a symbol of feminine energy. The “jewel in the lotus blossom”
thus corresponds to the tantric union, and, since this takes place within a
male person, the principle of androgyny. The syllable OM addresses the
macrocosm. HUM means “I am” and signifies the microcosm. The gist of the
formula is thus: “In the union of the masculine and feminine principles I
am the universe”. Anyone who knows the magic of the famous mantra
“possesses control over the world” (Mallmann,
1948, p. 101). Trijang Rinpoche
(1901-1981), an important teacher of the current Dalai Lama, also offers a
clear and unambiguous translation “... mani indicates the vajra jewel of the father, padma the lotus of the mudra, and the letter hum [indicates] that by joining these two together, at the time
of the basis, a child is born and at the time of the [tantric] path, the
deities emanate” (quoted by Lopez, 1998, p. 134).
The most famous living incarnation of Avalokiteshvara
is the Dalai Lama. All the energies of the Bodhisattva are concentrated in
him, his androgyny as well as his solar and fiery qualities, his mildness
as well as his wrath as Yama, the god
of the dead. Within the Tibetan doctrine of incarnation the Dalai Lama as a
person is only the human/bodily shell in which Chenrezi (Avalokiteshvara) is manifest.
It is — from a tantric point of view — the visions and motives, strategies
and tactics of the “mild downward-looking Bodhisattva”, which determine the
politics of His Holiness and thereby the fate of Tibet.
The Fourteenth Dalai Lama as the supreme Kalachakra
master
Since the Tibetan god-king acts as the supreme
master of the Kalachakra Tantra,
the androgynous time god (Kalachakra and Vishvamata in one person) is likewise incarnated within
him. The goal of Time Tantra is the “alchemic”
production of the ADI BUDDHA. We have described in detail the genesis, “art
of functioning”, and the extent of the powers of the Highest Buddha in the
first part of our study, with special attention to his position as Chakravartin,
as “world ruler”. This global power role is not currently assumed by the
Dalai Lama. In contrast — the western public sometimes refers to him as the
“most powerless politician on the planet”. Thus, in precisely locating his
position along the evolutionary path of the Kalachakra Tantra,
we must observe that the Kundun has not yet reached the spiritual/real level of
an ADI BUDDHA, but still finds himself on the way to becoming a world ruler
(Chakravartin).
All the “divine” and “demonic” characteristics of Avalokiteshvara
(and also ultimately of Amitabha) mentioned above are combined by the Tibetan
“god-king” as the highest vajra master with the Kalachakra Tantra.
According to what is known as the Rwa tradition, the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara even stands
at the beginning of the Buddhist doctrine of time as the “root guru”
(Newman, 1985, p. 71). Now, what do we know about the performance of the Kalachakra system by the current incarnation
of the Chenrezi,
His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama?
Almost nothing is known in public about the eight
“highest initiations” of the Time Tantra
described in the first part of our study, but all the more is known about
the seven lower initiations. They have been and continue to be conducted by
His Holiness — frequently, publicly, on a grand scale and throughout the
whole world. The ostentatious performance of a Kalachakra spectacle set in
scene by the monks of the Namgyal Institute
[3] in colorful robes is meanwhile an
exotic sensation, which on each occasion attracts the attention of the
world’s press. Thousands, in recent years hundreds of thousands, come
flocking to experience and marvel at the religious spectacle.
The Kalachakra Tantra, whose aggressive and imperialist character
we have been able to demonstrate in detail, is referred to by the Dalai
Lama without the slightest scruple as a “vehicle for world peace”: “We
believe unconditionally in its ability to reduce tensions”, the god-king
has said of the Time Tantra, “The initiation is
thus public, because in our opinion it is suited to bringing peace, to
encouraging the peace of the spirit and hence the peace of the world as
well” (Levenson, 1990, p. 304).
Interested westerners, who still block out the
magic-religious thought patterns of Lamaism, are presented with the Kalachakra
ritual and the associated sand mandala as a
“total work of art, in which sound and color, gesture and word are linked
with one another in a many-layered, significance-laden manner” (Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung, 1 February 1986). For the Dalai
Lama, however, an assembly of the invoked gods actually takes place during
the rite.
In the year 1953 His Holiness was
initiated into the Kalachakra
rites by Ling Rinpoche for the first time. To
what level is unknown to us. Profoundly impressed by the beauty of the sand
mandala, the young Kundun fell into a state of
dizziness. Shortly afterwards he spent a month in seclusion and was
internally very moved during this period. In saying the prayers the words
often stuck in his throat through emotion: “In hindsight I understand this
situation to have been auspicious, an omen that I would conduct the Kalachakra
initiation much more often than any of my predecessors” (Dalai Lama XIV,
1993a, p. 118).
The Dalai Lama with the Kalachakra Mandala as aureole
Strangely enough, the first initiation into the Kalachakra Tantra he
performed himself (in 1954) was in his own words “at the wish of a group of
lay women” (Dalai Lama XIV, 1993a, p. 119). We can only speculate as to
whether this euphemistic phrase is used to disguise a ganachakra with eight or ten karma mudras
(real women). Yet this is to be strongly suspected, then how in the Tibet
of old where women did not have the slightest say in religious matters
should a “group of lay women” of all people have come to enjoy the great
privilege of motivating the nineteen-year-old hierarch to his first Kalachakra
ceremony? In light of the strict court ceremonial which reigned in the Potala, this was for those times completely
unthinkable, and we must therefore presume that we are dealing with a
tactful reformulation of a tantric ritual involving yoginis.
His Holiness celebrated two further Kalachakra
initiations in Lhasa in 1956 and 1957. In 1970 the first public initiation
in exile (in Dharamsala) was staged. He himself
had a dream shortly before this: “When I woke up, I knew that in the future
I would perform this ritual many times. I think in my previous lifetimes I
had a connection with the Kalachakra teaching. It's a karmic force” (Bryant, 1992,
p. 112). This dream was in fact to come true in the years which followed.
In the summer of 1981, the “iron bird year” of the
Tibetan calendar, the god-king granted a public Kalachakra initiation for the
first time outside of Asia. The date and the location (Wisconsin, USA) of
the initiation were drawn directly from a prophecy of the Tibetan
“religious founder”, Padmasambhava, who
introduced Vajrayana
to the Land of Snows from India in the eighth century: “When the iron bird
flies and the horses roll on wheels … the Dharma will come to the land of
the Red Man” (Bernbaum, 1982, p. 33). The iron
birds — in the interpretation of this vision — are airplanes, the wheeled
horses are automobiles, and the land of the Red Man (the American Indians)
is the United States. During the ritual a falcon with a snake in its claws
is supposed to have appeared in the sky. In it the participants saw the
mythic bird, garuda,
representing the patriarchal power which destroys the feminine in the form
of a snake. [4] Do we have here the image
of a tantric wish according to which the West is already supposed to fall
into the clutches of Tibetan Buddhism in the near future?
Not more than 1200 people took part in the first
western initiation in Wisconsin. In1983 the Kalachakra ceremony was
performed in Switzerland and thus for the first time in Europe. Now there
were already 6000 western participants. In the same year more than 300,000
people appeared at the initiation in Bodh Gaya
(in India). This grandiose spectacle was declared by the press to be the
“Buddhist event of the century” (Tibetan
Review, January 1986, p. 4). Many very poor Tibetans had illegally
crossed the Chinese border in order to take part in the festivities. It is
certainly worth mentioning that at least fifty people died during the
ritual! (Tibetan Review, January
1986, p. 6).
In 1991, in Madison Square Gardens
in New York City, there was a further Kalachakra ceremony in front
of 4000 participants which attracted much public attention. At the same
time a sand mandala was constructed in the Museum of Asian Art which drew tens
of thousands of visitors. By the beginning of 1998, the Dalai Lama could
look back over 25 public initiations into the Time Tantra
which he had conducted as the supreme vajra master.
|
List
of Kalachakra Initiations given by the XIV
Dalai Lama
|
|
S.No.
|
Date
|
Place
|
Attendants
|
|
1
|
May 1954
|
Norbulingka,
Lhasa, Tibet
|
100,000
|
|
2
|
April 1956
|
Norbulingka,
Lhasa, Tibet
|
100,000
|
|
3
|
March 1970
|
Dharamshala,
India
|
30,000
|
|
4
|
May 1971
|
Bylakuppe,
Karnataka, India
|
10,000
|
|
5
|
December 1974
|
Bodh
Gaya, Bihar, India
|
100,000
|
|
6
|
September 1976
|
Leh,
Ladakh, India
|
40,000
|
|
7
|
July 1981
|
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
|
1,500
|
|
8
|
April 1983
|
Bomdila,
Arunachal Pradesh, India
|
5,000
|
|
9
|
August 1983
|
Tabo, Spiti, Himachal Pradesh, India
|
10,000
|
|
10
|
July 1985
|
Rikon,
Switzerland
|
6,000
|
|
11
|
December 1985
|
Bodh
Gaya, Bihar, India
|
200,000
|
|
12
|
July
1988
|
Zanskar, Jammu & Kashmir, India
|
10,000
|
|
13
|
July 1989
|
Los Angeles, USA
|
3,300
|
|
14
|
December 1990
|
Sarnath, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India
|
130,000
|
|
15
|
October 1991
|
New York, USA
|
3,000
|
|
16
|
August 1992
|
Kalpa,
Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh, India
|
20,000
|
|
17
|
April 1993
|
Gangtok,
Sikkim, India
|
100,000
|
|
18
|
July 1994
|
Jispa,
Keylong, Himachal Pradesh, India
|
30,000
|
|
19
|
December 1994
|
Barcelona, Spain
|
3,000
|
|
20
|
January 1995
|
Mundgod,
Karnataka, India
|
50,000
|
|
21
|
August 1995
|
Ulan Bator, Mongolia
|
30,000
|
|
22
|
June 1996
|
Tabo, Spiti, Himachal Pradesh, India
|
20,000
|
|
23
|
September 1996
|
Sydney, Australia
|
3,000
|
|
24
|
December 1996
|
Salugara,
West Bengal, India
|
200,000
|
|
25
|
August 1999
|
Bloomington, Indiana, USA
|
3,500
|
|
26
|
August 2000
|
Key Monastery, Spiti,
Himachal Pradesh, India
|
15,000
|
|
27
|
January 2002
|
Bodh
Gaya, Bihar, India
|
Postponed
|
|
28
|
October 2002
|
Graz, Austria (Europe)
|
10,000
|
|
29
|
Januar
2003
|
Bodh
Gaya, Bihar, India
|
200,000
|
The great significance which the Dalai Lama
accords the Kalachakra Tantra
and its worldwide distribution, demands that all of his political activities
be interpreted in the light of the visions and intentions of the Time Tantra. The Kalachakra Tantra is a major political event. It is the magic metapolitical instrument with which the Kundun hopes
to conquer the West and the rest of the world. He himself, or rather the
forces and powers which operate behind him, wish(es) to become the ruler of history and time itself. [5]
Statements of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama on sexuality and
sexual magic
We know almost nothing (publicly) from the Kundun about
the eight highest initiations in the Kalachakra Tantra
and the associated sexual magic rites. Outwardly the god-king presents a
strictly asexual image. In answer to the question what he thought about
sex, he replied in Playboy: “My
goodness! You ask a 62-year-old monk who has been celibate his entire life
a thing like that. I don’t have much to say about sex — other than that it
is completely okay if two people love each other” (Playboy, German edition, March 1998, p. 46). Or he resolves the
delicate topic with colloquial humor, as for example when he quotes the
Indian scholar, Nagarjuna, with a three-line
thought on the question of erotic love:
If one is itchy, then one scratches himself.
Better than any number of scratches
However, is when one does not itch at all.
(Dalai
Lama XIV, 1993a, p. 301)
Such sayings are reminiscent of the philosophy of
life of a humorous Mahayana
Buddhist, but not that of a Tantric. Whether the Kundun himself conducts are
has conducted sexual magic practices is a secret which is for
understandable reasons not betrayed. Only through incidental remarks — the
taboo topic would never be spoken about in public otherwise — can it be
gauged that the Dalai Lama is completely informed about the consequences
which proceed from the tantric rites.
Thus, at an event in San Francisco (in 1994) His
Holiness was discussing the topics of “sexuality and Buddhism” with
students. When the talk came around to the “wise fool” Drungpa
Kunley, who became known through his erotic
escapades, his huge male member, and through the Tibetan literature, the Kundun
justified this figure’s wild sex life: in Drungpa
we are dealing with a highly developed enlightened being, and his erotic
activities — no matter how bizarre they may seem to an ordinary person — were
always carried out for the benefit of all living beings. “He could”, the
Dalai Lama said with a smile, “enjoy excrement and urine just like fine
foods and wine” and then he joked of the modern Tibetan lamas that, “If you
put into their mouth some urine, they will not enjoy it” (Arianna,
Newsgroup 3). From this it can be logically concluded that every
enlightened one must pass the tantric “taste test” and that contemporary
lamas are not prepared to undergo this test.
At an academic seminar on dream research in Dharamsala the Kundun commented upon a paper with the following
sentence: “Such work with dreams by which it comes to ejaculation could be
important” (Dalai Lama XIV, 1996a, p. 115). Anyone who knows about the tantric
seed gnosis also knows how fundamental the god-king’s interest in this
topic must be. At the same meeting he chatted about orgiastic encounters as
if they were a constant part of his world of experiences. A comparison of
the mystic clear lights with orgasm is also self-evident for him (Dalai
Lama XIV, 1996a, p. 116).
Some years later, at the
„Mind and Life” conference in Dharamsala (in
1992), he spoke in great detail about tantric practices and even mentioned
the offensive Vajroli
method:”One training method that can be used as a standard of measurement
of the level of one’s control entails inserting a straw into the genitals.
In this practice the Yogi first drwas water, and
later milk, upt to the straw. [Later again, we
would add, the sukra from out of the vagina of his
sexual partner] That cultivates the the ability
to reverse the flow during intercourse (Varela, 1997, p. 172). With a
somewhat insinuating smile the Dalai Lama then explained the various
typologies of the mudras
to the western scholars who were attending: “In tantric literature, four typs of women, or consorts
(Skt. mudra)
are discussed. These four types are lotus-like, deer-like, conch-shell-like, and
the elephant-like.” He then joked that: “If the classification had
originated in Tibet instead of India, they would have called it yak-like.
These distinctions all have primarily to do with the shape of the genitals,
but they also refer to differences in terms of bodily constitution. There
are no such categories for men” (Varela, 1997, p. 173).
Like all priests the Kundun’s attitude towards marriage is benevolent and paternalistic,
without granting it any special spiritual significance. “At first glance
married life appears full and attractive and that of the celibate as
miserable. But I believe the life of a monk is more well
balanced, there are less extremes, less highs and lows. I also always tell
this to my young monks and nuns as consolation” (Zeitmagazin, no. 44, 22
October 1998, p. 24). It is nonetheless very important to him as reproduction
for the maintenance of the Tibetan race and he is not at all happy when
exiled Tibetans choose marriage partners of another race. He finds it
likewise repulsive when ordained monks suddenly decide to marry. As his
brother Lobsang Samten
told him of his marriage plans, the Kundun shouted at him in a reference to the Chinese
repression, “Even a dog doesn't copulate while it's actually being beaten”
(Craig,1997, p. 260). He later excused himself for this uncontrolled
outburst.
In 1997 on his journey through the USA, the Dalai
Lama named oral and anal intercourse for both hetero- and homosexuals as
being sexually taboo, and masturbation as well.
The latter is condoned by the secret tantras when
no real partner is available. Fellatio and cunnilingus are — as we have
described in detail in Part 1 — even prescribed in the four highest
initiations of the Kalachakra Tantra.
But among common mortals both sexual practices are — according to a
relevant sutra — punished after death by the destruction of the sexual
organs in the Samghata hell. The Kundun
declared sexual relations with a monk or a nun who has made a vow of
celibacy to be especially reprehensible, naturally only when this takes
place outside of the tantric rites. Likewise, the sexual act is forbidden
in temples. In contrast, intercourse with a prostitute is allowed when the
customer himself pays and does not receive the money from a third party.
Both male and female homosexuality
are allowed — according to the Kundun — as long as no oral
or anal contact is practiced. It was at least politically unwise mistake to
have made this statement in San Francisco, the Mecca of the American gay
movement. The sexual ban immediately led to the strongest protests. “Many
Americans” have been disappointed, a statement from the homosexual scene
said, since they “embraced Buddhism because they
thought it was not nonjudgmental in sexual matters” (Peterson, Newsgroup
6). [6]
Footnotes:
[1] In light of this emphasis on the solar and fiery nature
which characterizes the historical Buddha, his close connection to the
symbolism of snakes is puzzling, above all because snakes are associated
with water and the feminine. They
are known to every student of Buddhism as nagas, and reign as kings of
the springs, brooks, streams, and lakes.
In his book, The Sun and the
Serpent, the Englishman, C. F. Oldham, has attempted to prove that
Buddhist snake worship is a solar institution. During his lifetime, Buddha already
enjoyed widespread adoration as Maha Naga, the
great serpent (Oldham, 1988, p. 179).
Since he and his tribe belonged to the “sun race”, conjectures this
author, the snake gods also ought to be “solar”. Among other sources, he
makes reference to an old sutra, where we can read of “The lord of the
overpowering serpents belonging to Surya
[the sun god]” (Oldham, 1988, p. 66).
Nonetheless, we believe Oldham’s thesis, that the Buddhist snake
cult had an originally solar nature, to be a false conclusion. The close
connection of heliocentric Buddhism to the sphere of the snake can
therefore only be explained in that Buddha subjected the nagas so as
to consolidate his supreme rule as patriarchal sun god with this victory.
This is precisely the procedure which we also know from tantric practices, where
the feminine, ignited by the masculine fire energy, ultimately serves the androcentric yogi. The ignited feminine element is, as
we know, referred to as Kundalini, that is, fire
serpent.
[2] The “pilgrimage” of the soul to the “pure land” of
the light god has in Asia become — above all in China and Japan — a widely
distributed religious belief and has led to the formation of various
Buddhist schools.
[4] Garuda, the bird of prey, is presented in
Tibetan mythology as a powerful snake killer. It is the fire eagle, which feeds upon
the flesh of the nagas
(snakes). We know already from the
Indian national epic, the Mahabharata, that it belongs to the race of the sun, and
that it was a totemic figure for tribes which worshipped the sun as their
highest deity. The garuda is also the protective animal of
the Dalai Lama and is mentioned in the Kalachakra Tantra. Does it represent the fiery masculine
power over the feminine snake world?
Albert Grünwedel saw it in these terms
when he wrote: “We know the garuda-like, awful,
high-flying bird of prey which tears girls [nagis] apart ...” (Grünwedel, 1924, vol. II, p. 68). The author is further convinced that there is talk in the Kalachakra Tantra of
a transformation of the nagas into garudas (Grünwedel, 1924, vol.
II,
p. 68; Kalacakra IV, p. 182). Whatever one may think of Grünwedel’s interpretation, it at any rate draws
attention to the tantric mystery which can be seen to sparkle behind the garuda myth: the transformation of
feminine water energy (the snake) by masculine fire (the garuda), or
the absorption of the moon (the snake) by the sun (the garuda)
as the culmination of the development of patriarchal power.
[5] Perhaps his role as supreme time god has something
to do with the fact that the Kundun has a very special fondness for taking apart,
repairing, and then reassembling modern watches? A Swiss organization of exiled Tibetans
sells clocks featuring the main symbol of the Kalachakra Tantra
(the dasakaro vasi) and
markets these via the Internet. The
monk Daoxuan (596-667) had already compared
Buddhism to a clock. When a Buddha appears in the world — we learn from him
— then the clock also functions. If the clock does not keep the time, this
means that the people no longer follow the Dharma. When Shakyamuni
died, “the clockwork no longer functioned” (Forte, 1988, p. 259).
[6] In this connection, a text on homosexuality
recently published by one of the most intimate of His Holiness’s western collaborators appears
quite bizarre. The most recent book by Jeffrey Hopkins, currently Professor
of Tibetan Studies at the University of Virginia, has the title of Sex, Orgasm and the Mind of Clear Light:
The 64 Arts of Gay Male Sex (Hopkins, 1996). In reading through the
text we naturally asked ourselves the question: Can the tantric exchange of
energies also take place between men? Is a female wisdom consort necessary
at all for the performance of the sexual magic practices or may it also be
a male consort? The book does not offer an answer to this and must
therefore, as Hopkins himself stresses, not be regarded as a tantric text.
It is much more a matter of — as he himself puts it — a homosexual Kama Sutra, a guide to erotic
amusement. Quite a number of lecherous lines are devoted to anal
intercourse, which is one of the sexual taboos for His
Holiness. — One text in which homosexual tantric practices are discussed by
a guru is The Dawn Horse Testament
by Da Free John, the former spiritual teacher of
the American evolutionary theorist, Ken Wilber. The author approves of
homosexual rites to a limited degree, but
strongly emphasizes that during the sexual magic act strictly one man must
play the masculine role and the other should take the feminine role (Da, 1991, p. 348). One of the men is thus is used in
terms of energy as a substitute woman, which only confirms the
fundamentally heterosexual orientation of Tantrism.
Next Chapter:
2. THE DALAI
LAMA (AVALOKITESHVARA)
AND THE DEMONESS (SRINMO)
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