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The Shadow of the Dalai Lama – Part II – 1. The Dalai
Lama: Incarnation of the Tibetan Gods
©
Victor & Victoria Trimondi
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.
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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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