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BUDDHISM DEBATE
Eight Questions
to the 14th Dalai Lama
on the topic of
the Kalachakra-Tantra
Over the last 25 years thousands of people worldwide have been
initiated into the highest levels of Buddhism by the 14th Dalai
Lama. Fundamental to this initiation is a holy text (tantra), namely the Kalachakra-Tantra,
part of which is the Shambhala Myth.
Kalachakra is Sanskrit and means “wheel of time”. In recent times the Kalachakra-Tantra has been
increasingly critically scrutinised. In our
western debate-oriented society it stands to reason that the Dalai
Lama himself answers some of these critical questions in order to ensure
that any misinterpretations are corrected.
1. Why does the Kalachakra-Tantra which supposedly
is a “ritual for world peace” prophesy and glorify a holy war (Shambhala war) by Buddhists against
non-Buddhists?
2. Why does the Kalachakra-Tantra, which is
supposedly a contributor to a world ecumenical movement and a world ethos,
attack the 3 monotheist-semitic religions, especially Islam, named as
“enemy of the Dharma”, and swear a
religious war against Islam?
3. Why does the Kalachakra-Tantra promote the
institution of a “Chakravartin (a
world emperor) who should set up a global Buddhist “Theocracy”, a buddhocracy
- this in direct conflict to your continual protestations of a belief in
democracy?
4. Why do you
promote unmoral and criminal acts, such as killing, lying, stealing and
adultery, amongst the initiates of the different Buddhist Tantra-texts, especially the Kalachakra-Tantra – this in
opposition to your promotion worldwide of social-ethics?
5. Dalai Lama,
although you insist that Tibetan Buddhism is a celibate and woman-friendly
religion, women are sexually abused and treated in a sexist manner during
the higher rites of the Kalachakra-Tantra
in order for the initiates to achieve spiritual, worldly and
patriarchal power.
6. Dalai Lama, why
do you forbid public discussion of the secret rites of the Kalachakra-Tantra to the extent of
threatening “the punishments of hell” to all those who might talk?
7. Dalai Lama, why
do you have maintained contact with people from the ranks of religious fascism
and sect-terrorism such as Bruno Beger, Jean Marquès-Rivière, Miguel
Serrano and Shoko Asahara, all of who have been inspired in their visions
and behaviours by the content of the Shambhala
Myth?
8. Dalai Lama, why
have you not written a exegesis on the problematic statements in the text
of the Kalachakra-Tantra, which
distances itself from the war-mongering, intolerant, sexist and
buddhocratic statements in the Tantra?
1. Why does the Kalachakra-Tantra which supposedly
is a “ritual for world peace” prophesy and glorify a “holy war” (Shambhala war) by Buddhists against
non-Buddhists?
Dalai Lama, you are honoured throughout the world as a messenger for
peace, who has spoken out publicly many times against every use of violence
and, in fact, you have presented the Kalachakra-Tantra
as a contributor to world peace. The Kalachakra-Tantra
is, however, anything but pacifist in its content, rather it prophecies and
promotes on an ideological basis a bloody religious war for world leadership
between Buddhists and non-Buddhists (Shambhala
Myth). The original text describes the Buddhist war-methods as “merciless” and “cruel”. It says: “The supremely ferocious warriors will throw down the barbarian
hordes” and “eliminate”
(them). (Shri Kalachakra I. 163/165) The Kalachakra Tantra
describes over many paragraphs murderous super weapons which the Buddhist
army will use against “the enemy of
the Dharma”. (Shri Kalachakra I. 128-142)
The historical Buddha was against war in every form. For him there
was no such thing as a “righteous war” and certainly not a “holy war”. It
is exactly because Buddhism is seen as being against all use of violence
that it receives so much attention in the West. How can the inhumane and
warlike statements of the Kalachakra-Tantra
be in harmony with the vision of peace of the original Buddha? Why are so
many war-gods and war-heroes honoured in Lamaism (Begtse, Mahakala, Gesar
von Ling etc.)? It is possible to find these foundational ideas of
“Warriors for Buddha” in the writings of many representatives of Lamaism
such as Lama Chögyam Trungpa and Lama Ole Nydahl, which build upon a crass
“enemy thinking” and preach a military Buddhism. What are you doing against
this sort of development amongst your own followers? How can the official Kalachakra-Interpreter Alexander
Berzin openly compare the principles of the Islamic “Jihad” with that of
the Shambhala war?
2. Why does the Kalachakra-Tantra, which is supposedly
a contributor to a world ecumenical movement and a world ethos, attack the
3 monotheist-semitic religions, especially Islam, named as the enemy of
Dharma, and swear a religious war against Islam?
Dalai Lama, one of your basic demands is tolerance of other
religions and this has made you to the most famous symbol of the
inter-religious dialogue. This is in conflict, however, with many passages
in the Kalachakra-Tantral – even
though you have publicly promoted this ritual as a contributor to ecumenical
thinking. Some of the main figures in the semitic-monotheist religions such
as “Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mani, Mohammed and the Mahdi” are
characterised as the “family of the demonic snakes” and are attributed with
characteristics of darkness and deceit. (Shri Kalachakra I. 154) According to the Shambhala prophecy, the worldwide implementation of the “Buddhist Dharma” (i.e. Buddhism)
will be preceded by an eschatological holy war against the “barbaric Dharma” (i. e. Monotheism). The
original text states that the powerful, merciless idol of the barbarians,
the demonic incarnation (i.e. Islam) lives in Mecca. (Shri Kalachakra I. 154).
Do you not feel, at a time when religious warfare are dictating
world politics, that the war against Islam described in the Kalachakra-Tantra could ignite a
clash of civilizations? In the Austrian newspaper “News” from 10. October
2002, you say “Islam wants to be
counted amongst the world religions and yet pushes forward its claim via
aggression – exactly as the Christians did a few hundred years ago. This
has nothing to do with religion, but is rather about power. And that was
definitely not the Prophet Mohammed’s desire. Religion should not be led by
power.” Is your statement not in conflict to the prophecy of the Shambhala war as described in the Kalachakra-Tantra? Why do you say
nothing of the potential for aggression, the buddhocratic visions of power
and the intolerance in your lamaistic Religion? Why do you commend, as
peacemaker, a Buddhist demon, namely Palden Lhamo, who skinned her own son
and used his skin as a saddle for her horse because he refused to take on
the Buddhist religion? Do you really believe that such role models of
horror can promote tolerance? Why are you accused of intolerance and the persecution
of religious minorities by the more traditional proponents of Tibetan
Buddhism such as the Dorje-Shugden School, which you yourself once
attended?
3. Why does the Kalachakra-Tantra promote the
institution of a “Chakravartin” (a
world emperor) who should set up a global Buddhist “Theocracy”, a
buddhocracy - this in direct conflict to your continual protestations of a
belief in democracy?
The Kalachakra-Tantra
includes the buddhocratic teaching of a Chakravartin
or world emperor. “The Chakravartin shall come out at the end of the age, from the
city the gods fashioned on Mount Kailasa. He shall smite the barbarians in
battle with his own four-division army, on the entire surface of the earth.”
This statement can be found in the original text of the Kalachakra-Tantra (Shri Kalachakra I.
161). A Chakravartin is,
according to the Indian tradition, a messianic priest-king who brings
absolution, a “theocrat” (better “buddhocrat”) who unites religious,
political, legal and military power in himself. Sharing of power by the
common man and democracy are completely unknown concepts in this political
theology which stems from the 10th century.
Buddha Shakyamuni on the other hand denies totally this “world
leadership”. As he was given the choice of becoming a Chakravartin or a Buddha, he choses explicitly the way of the
Buddha – in other words, the way of a holy man, and turned aside from the
way of the Chakravartin, the
world leader. Why, although you applaud democracy publicly, have you been
teaching the Kalachakra Ritual
for over 30 years now on a worldwide basis, in which a global buddhocracy
is promoted with an absolute regent at the head of this state model? Why do
you support with a foreword in the book “Inner Revolution” by the American
Tibetologist Robert A Thurmann, the Buddhist global blueprint? Why do you
use as the basis for your political decision-making a human state oracle
(Nechung), who is possessed by a Mongolian War God (Pehar) rather than the
normal democratic political processes?
4. Why do you promote
unmoral and criminal acts, such as killing, lying, stealing and adultery,
amongst the initiates of the different Buddhist Tantra-texts, especially the Kalachakra-Tantra – this in opposition to your promotion
worldwide of social-ethics?
In the secret eight highest initiation rites of the Kalachakra-Tantra the initiate comes
into a state of mind, “beyond good and evil”, through extreme mental and
physical acts. The original text demanded from the initiate the following
crimes: to kill, to lie, to steal and infidelity. Even you find it
legitimate when a Kalachakra-initiate under certain circumstances, kills
people “who are harmful to the
Buddhist teaching” (Dalai Lama – The
Kalachakra-Tantra – London 1985, p. 349). Even when you demand that the
killings demanded in many tantric
texts – under certain circumstances – should be motivated out of
“compassion”, you are still in conflict with the strict command not to kill
found in the original Buddhist teaching. In Tibetan
history “compassion killings” have had a great weight in legitimising the
liquidation of political rivals and have left behind bloody traces. Also
ist the ritualistic consumption of human flesh, as described in the Kalachakra-Tantra, is against all
Western ethics. The human flesh is
usually taken from the dead and, writes the tantric grand master and
Shambhala King, Pundarika, in his traditional Kalachakra commentary, is the "meat of those who died due to their own karma, who were killed in
battle due to evil karma or and due
to their own fault, or that of robbers and so forth who were executed".
He continues with the advice that it is sensible to consume these
substances in the form of pills. The
flesh of innocent people, who have
been killed as sacrifices to the gods, out of fear, as part of an ancestor
cult, out of desire (greed) or for money, is laden with "unspeakable
sin" and may not be used in the rituals. "But which falls
in the bowl unasked-for is without unspeakable sin" – and may
therefore be put to use. (In: John Ronald Newman - The outer wheel of time: Vajrayana Buddhist cosmology in the
Kalacakra Tantra - Madison 1987, 266 f.).
5. Dalai Lama,
although you insist that Tibetan Buddhism is a celibate and woman-friendly
religion, women are sexually abused and treated in a sexist manner during
the higher rites of the Kalachakra-Tantra
in order for the initiates to achieve spiritual, worldly and patriarchal
power.
At the highest levels of the secret initiations of the Kalachakra-Tantra sexual rites are
practised, the objective of which is to transform sexuality into worldly
and spiritual power. According to the original texts the women used for
such rites represent a form of sexual energy, whereby the age is of great
importance. One begins with eleven year old girls. In levels 8 to 11 of the
initiations only one woman is used; in levels 12 to 15, the Ganachakra as it is known, a total
of 10 women participate in addition to the “master and his initiates”. It
is a duty of the pupil to offer his Lama these women as a gift. Women are
purely “energy providers” for the male participants in the Kalachakra-Tantra and, at the end of
the ritual, are of no further importance. How can such rites be understood
in the light of the equal rights for male and female which you have often
publicly confessed to uphold? The secrecy surrounding these sexual
practices in the upper levels of the Kalachakra-Tantra
has led to wild speculations and suppositions.
6. Dalai Lama, why
do you forbid public discussion of the secret rites of the Kalachakra-Tantra to the extent of
threatening “the punishments of hell” to all those who might talk?
Dalai Lama, you yourself state that it is forbidden under threat of
the punishment of hell for the initiates to talk openly about the secret rituals
in the Kalachakra-Tantra. In this
context, you threaten a pupil in a commentary on the Kalachakra-Tantra “You
must do what I tell to you. You should not deride me, and if you do,
without forsaking fright, the time of death will come, and you will fall
into a hell.” (Dalai Lama – The
Kalachakra-Tantra – London 1985, p. 242). Buddha, on the other hand,
insisted that one should believe nothing but rather test everything through
experience and with commonsense (Anguttara
Nikaya I, 174). You have also made this statement many times. Why do
you forbid an open discussion about the secret tantras and the secret rites of the Kalachakra-Tantra? Why do you not make public the secret rites?
7. Dalai Lama, why
do you have maintained contact with people from the ranks of religious
fascism and sect-terrorism such as Bruno Beger, Jean Marquès-Rivière,
Miguel Serrano and Shoko Asahara, all of whom have been inspired in their
visions and behaviours by the content of the Shambhala Myth?
You have stressed many times that the basic principles of
Mahayana-Buddhism are in line with western democratic ideas and human
rights. This is not true, however, of many ideas contained within tantric
Buddhism, which is at the centre of the Tibetan religion, if these are taken
literally. It is a fact that the Shamhala
Myth (Shambhala war) in the Kalachakra-Tantra has led to
aggressive behaviour, megalomaniacal visions and conspiracy theories both
in the history of the Asian peoples as well as in that of religious fascism
and neo-fascism. Already in the SS-Ahnenerbe, where Heinrich Himmler’s
ideologies were born, there was an interest in the content of the Kalachakra-Tantra and 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. Alone this
fact makes it necessary for you to distance yourself clearly from the
war-mongering Shambhala Myth and
to remove this from the texts. Instead of this you have made efforts to
maintain friendly contacts with people such as the ex-SS man Bruno Beger
(convicted as helping to murder more than 86 people), the SS-collaborator,
well-known expert on the Orient and Tantra Jean Marquès-Rivière (in his
absence convicted and given the death sentence for turning Jews and Free
Masons over to the Gestapo in France); the founder of an esoteric Hitler
movement and ex-Chilean diplomat Miguel Serrano (promoter of the SS-mystic)
and the Japanese terrorist and admirer of Hitler Shoko Asahara. As the
Kalachakra-Tantra is against all religions which have a Semitic origin, it
can be misused very easily by the extreme right, anti-Semitic groups for
their racist propaganda and has been used in this way.
8. Dalai Lama, why
have you not written an exegesis on the problematic statements in the text
of the Kalachakra-Tantra, which
distances itself from the warmongering, intolerant, sexist and buddhocratic
statements in the Tantra?
Until now there has been no clear exegesis from you which distances
itself from the potential for violence contained within the Kalachakra-Tantra texts. To the
question in how far it is possible to make an exegesis of these old texts,
you have given contradictory answers. On the one hand you say: “even Buddha’s statements must be
critically tested. Some of his statements should not be taken literally and
must be interpreted in a different way. We have the freedom to not just
accept certain statements; rather in certain circumstances we must
interpret them in a new light.” (Dalai
Lama, Augen der Weisheit – Freiburg 2002, 178). On the other hand, this
is contradicted by your following statement: “The Tantras and Sutras are the ultimate authority, we aren’t. Unless
there is a scriptural reference in them, there is no need for us to make
these things up and assert that Buddha had in mind an analogy with Western
religion or science.” (in: The Berzin Archives – Kalachakra
Teachings HHDL 2. htm) Why has to date no complete, correct and
commentated translation of the Kalachakra-Tantra
been made available in a Western language, although you have already
initiated tenthousands of Westerners into this ritual?
©
Victor & Victoria Trimondi
See:
Critical Forum for the Investigation of the Kalachakra Tantra and
the Shambhala Myth
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