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