Reflections
on the Dalai Lama’s September 2003 Visit to America and the
Ceremony at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. on the Second
Anniversary of 9/11
An Interview
with Victor and Victoria Trimondi (Germany)
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 theXIV
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 perform 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 www.tibet.com/Status/statement.html shows the XIV Dalai Lama
between Bruno Beger on his right and Heinrich Harrer on his left.
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
ideaof 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
Schwarznegger’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 tohumankind. 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, mayBe 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.
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