Congressional Gold and the Shadow of the Dalai Lama

Asia Briefing Links
Critical Issues for Debate in the Civil Public Square
Submitted by James C. Stephens
Executive Director
Sonrise Center for Buddhist Studies, Inc.
http://www.sonrisecenter.org
 

The Shadow of the Dalai Lama: Sexuality, Magic, and Politics
an online English version************************************************************
CAUTION: THIS MATERIAL REQUIRES MATURE DISCRETION.
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The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him.
   —Proverbs 18:17 (NIV)

Victor and Victoria Trimondi, co-authors of the recent German bestseller, The Shadow of the Dalai Lama first met the XIV Dalai Lama in the eighties and came to know him very well. Subsequently, they published his writings, organized critical conferences and were instrumental in securing his invitation to Germany and Austria.  At the time they thought, “Only the worst villain could disagree with what he has said and written.”    However, after responding to his encouragement to convert to Tibetan Buddhism, and after much serious study, they uncovered  a vile connection between magic and politics, “the foundation for an absolutistic system in which spiritual and worldly power are united in one person, the Dalai Lama, and an extreme ‘metaphysical exploitation of women.”

 Link 1: Table of Contents.    

 The Shadow of the Dalai Lama: Sexuality, Magic and Politics, released in 1999 is a best selling expose in Europe numbering  800 pages of carefully researched and reasoned arguments. The Trimondi’s take you on a painful journey that dismantles the West’s idealized image of Tibet and takes off the pacifist mask of the Dalai Lama, revealing a pantheon of warring deities and a skillful God-King who still acknowledges the guidance of a demon-possessed man, the Nechung Oracle in all his important State decisions.     They warn that the ‘Kalachakra Initiation is consciously devoted to the manipulation of believers and introduces “an aggressive military ethos” aiming at “the establishment of a global Buddhocracy” following a Buddhist war in 2327 waged against the followers of Mohammed, Abraham, and Jesus.”

http://www.trimondi.de/SDLE/Contents.htm
 
Link 2: Eight Serious Questions from the Trimondis for the XIV Dalai Lama on the Kalachakra Tantra Ideology.

Question 1. Why does the Kalachakra-Tantra which is supposedly a “ritual for world peace” prophesy and glorify a holy war by Buddhists against non-Buddhists?Question 2. Why does the Kalachakra-Tantra ( taught throughout the USA), which is supposedly a contributor to a world ecumenical movement and a world ethos, attack the 3 monotheistic-semitic religions, especially Islam, named as “enemy of the Dharma”, and swear a religious war against Islam?     Wherein your texts you proclaim “Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mani, Mohammed, and the Mahdi” are characterized as the “family of the demonic snakes and are attributed with characteristics of darkness and deceit. (see Shri Kalachakra I.154). 

For more Questions and explanations see the following link

http://www.trimondi.de/EN/deba03.html
 
Link 3: The Global Debate on the History of Tibetan Buddhism.   

“Over the past few years, increasing criticism has been leveled at Tibetan Buddhism, the history of Lamaism, conditions among the Tibetans in exile and the XIV Dalai Lama himself, criticism which is not from the Chinese quarter. Historians from the USA have begun questioning the widespread glorifying whitewash of Tibetan history (Melvin C. Goldstein, A. Tom Grunfeld). Critical Tibetologists have raised accusations of deliberate manipulation by official Tibetology (Donald S. Lopez Jr.).”(Kalachakra Debate excerpt) For more on this debate enter the following link:

Click here: CRITICAL FORUM KALACHAKRA

Link 4: A Sampling of the Voices of the German Press.  

   “An attempt is made to prove this bitter farewell to a myth with a great flood of sources [...] The criticisms, by the way, also come from Tibetans in exile and cannot be brushed aside, even by the Dalai Lama himself: More and more he concedes to some shady sides. [...] Thus it is a cheap trick when - as has happened - the book by the Trimondis/Röttgens is dismissed as typical renegade revenge. The authorial duo’s grasp of religious and cultural history is undoubtedly firm.”

       —Abendzeitung, 20 June 1999, Germany.

A Critique of Women’s Issues in the Tibetan Buddhist World    

“Now, in time for the turn of the millennium, comes a rousing critique and analysis of women’s role in Tibetan Buddhism, about the devaluation and abuse of the feminine in this religion, (a critique) developed in dialog by a woman and a man, Mariana and Herbert Röttgen (Victor and Victoria Trimondi), which fits into the Ab 40 discussion. I have known Herbert Röttgen for almost 30 years.     

What fascinated me alongside his pioneering, visionary view of the world was his untiring, intensive dialog with women [...], and now his dialog with his wife Mariana about the significance of traditional religions for the establishment of values and creativity in a future culture. Their joint book, The Shadow of the Dalai Lama is a start in this direction and the vehement, often inappropriately aggressive, criticism which this book has aroused in the media demonstrates that Victor and Victoria Trimondi have hit a raw nerve with their thesis.”

     —Ab 40 - Greta Tüllman - January 2000 “Victor & Victoria Trimondi in search of new visions in coming millennium “Debate in the Interest of Investigation.    

 ”That a discussion which needs to be had is being instigated here is not doubted by most critics, however. Even if the authors here and there bring out the heavy artillery, as where they produce the proximity of Tibetan Buddhism to German fascism and of the 14th Dalai Lama to the leader of the murderous Japanese Aum sect, Asahara - their concern is justified: to devote themselves to the myths behind the permanent smile of the Far Eastern God-King.

In the interests of investigation. Although the Dalai Lama may preach values like human rights, democracy, equality and pacifism, they are not anchored in Tibet’s religion and traditions, as the religious studies scholar from Tübingen, Cristoffer Grundmann, also says.     “However, the Dalai Lama regularly avoids raising the veil which covers the “shadows”, the dark side of his religion, where there are: sexual magic mysteries and power-political obsessions (Shambhala myth), spirits and demons (Nechung oracle) and powerful destructive forces.”

—Badische Zeitung - Johannes Schradl - March 1999. “The Dalai Lama – End of a beautiful legend?”

BOOK UNDER DISCUSSION: A new study poses critical questions for the religious basis of the smiling God-King.      “The reader’s verdict upon this detailed engagement with the shady side of Tibetan Buddhism is entirely dependent upon his or her willingness to renounce nostalgia and to concede that there never was nor ever will be a completely peaceful culture or religion in the world of humankind. Those who cannot or will not abandon the illusion of a thoroughly peaceful Buddhism will only be able to see the work of the two authors as a grim settling of accounts by disappointed former friends of Tibetan Buddhism. People who need no illusions will value the extensive work as a contribution to a long due correction.”
       —Evangelical Office of Information - Georg Schmid - August 1999.

For more information:
   Click here: med01   

   “The outbreaks of violence in the milieu of Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai Lama, so incomprehensible to a western Tibet romantic – think of the still-echoing ramifications of the struggle between Red Hats and Yellow Hats in the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama with its many victims, of the so-called Shugden debate of recent years, of the continuing conflict around the true reincarnation of the new Karmapa, of the support which the Dalai Lama lent the Japanese sect guru Shoko Asahara, or of the military ambitions of the Dalai Lama’s brother - all these “absurd” incidents are no longer bolts from the blue, without precedent or resonance.”
       —Evangelical Office of Information - Georg Schmid - August 1999

 Link 5: Questions for Buddhists: e.g., “Will the Dalai Lama Return to Tibet?”  

 ”But one can also nevertheless ask whether an Asian power play between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese leadership is not involved. The Dalai Lama is winning over ever more followers in the West; the Chinese leadership is extending its influence in Tibet and the rest of the world. It would not be surprising if the Dalai Lama were to return to Tibet with Chinese approval one day.     

 But this is something that the people in the post-Enlightenment West could hardly understand. They stick to what they believe, and thus fail to consider that people in Asia have completely different conceptions of time, action, influence, power, and so forth. The Dalai Lama is an excellent politician. Persistently, he pursues a goal that he never lets slip from view. He thinks, with no little success, in longer time spans.”
    —Baseler Zeitung - Aurel Schmidt - December 1999. “Religion in global era - Questions for Buddhism”  

  “ False!” says the Dalai Lama with emphasis whilst the cameras roll, “Their claims are not true! There is no violence among Tibetans.” In an episode of the “10 to 10″ program the religious and worldly leader of the Tibetans reacted with irritation to critical questions from reporter Beat Regli. The Swiss TV personality had documented attacks among Tibetans in exile in India and wanted to discuss these with the Dalai Lama. And thereby obviously hit a raw nerve. Then the “God-King” is consistently protected by his entourage from everything which could tarnish the image of His Holiness or Tibetan Buddhism. “I was nevertheless perplexed at how aggressively and strained the Dalai Lama reacted to several questions,” says Regli.”
       —Berner Zeitung - Hans Peter Roth - May 1999″Scratches in the mythical ‘God-King’s’ veneer” In the latest books Hans Peter Roth discovers shadows over the blissful image of Tibet.

See the link for more information on these subjects.

Click here: med02

Link 6: Short interview with Victor Trimondi.

    Victor commented, “In 1982 I brought him from Paris to the Frankfurt Book Fair in a small propeller-driven aircraft. The plane was caught in a storm and began to toss wildly. All the passengers grew pale, including the Dalai Lama. Such moments in life generate bonds, and a relaxed friendship developed…
 
—- Berner Zeitung - Hans Peter Roth - May 1999. “Scratches in the mythical ‘God-King’s’ veneer.” In the latest books Hans Peter Roth discovers shadows over the blissful image of Tibet.

Click here: interv01

BRIEFING LINKS END/

 

Caveat Emptor

For a number of years, I have talked about writing a column entitled The Cynical Prophet to give vent to my thoughts about troubling issues of the day from the perspective of a realistic idealist. Maybe the title is a bit misleading and I should call it the slightly cynical nonprophet who has worked in a nonprofit for nineteen years, while  still attempting to think the best of people and aim toward noble ends.

The Caveat Emptor or “buyer beware” tag arises out of many years of tested idealism, warning others to seriously investigate whatever someone is attempting to sell them, be it a product, a philosophy, or a religious perspective on life. Why? Because it’s your life, and believe it or not, you’re on a limited timetable as we all are and in my opinion, you’ve got one shot as this thing they call life according to the Good Book, “one life and then comes the judgment” (Hebrews 9:6).