March 19, 2024

Dalai Lama & Kalachakra A Wake Up Call for the West (Mandarin and English Interview)

March 10 2014 Washington National CathedralDalai Lama and 9/11 and Beyond

(Note: Since my Mandarin is only rudimentary, please let me know if this “anonymous translation” is accurate and not utilizing our interview for other purposes. I am somewhat cautious. Thank you. James Stephens).

4 December 2008

The following is core text of an interview with Victor and Victoria Trimondi (Germany) by James C. Stephens on September 11, 2003 and its Chinese translation. The article was credited to James C. Stephens and the Chinese translation shall be credited to an anonymous individual. The interview highlights the importance of distinguishing Tibetan Lamaism from the genuine Buddhism.

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” (which is in fact Tibetan Lamaism that is not recoganized by majority followers of the true Buddhism in the world – multipletext.com) the Dalai Lama professed and eventually became one of his sharpest critics.

我们在八十年代首次遇见十四世达赖喇嘛,并通过在我们的出版社出版他的文章而与他成为朋友。在和他以及其他著名的发言人组织关于跨宗教,跨文化的国际会议的时候,尤其是在确保他获得德国和奥地利政府的官方邀请的时候,我们开始认真地了解藏传喇嘛教。但是,在多年的广泛研究和思考之后,我们质疑达赖喇嘛宣扬的喇嘛教的一些基本信条。最终我们成为他最严厉的批判者之一。

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. 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.”

坦白的讲,达赖喇嘛有两张面孔。他以大乘佛教的名义与西方接触,然后有技巧的吸收西方文化的价值和理想。通过富于外交性的容忍态度,他赢得了不可知论者和毫无戒心的犹太人及基督徒的心。对这些人,他以和平主义者和人权运动家的腔调布道,谈及“山中布道”中关于 “同情,爱,和非暴力”的段子。几乎所有达赖喇嘛在公共场合发布的演讲都非常的宽容,有人情味,富于同情心。你只能同意。但是,在这张正义,慈善和友善的面具下,却有另一张面孔。这张面孔使人停下来深入的思考这个“和平主义者”的阴影。

The XIV Dalai Lama, the God-King of Tibet is the highest representative of Tantric “Buddhism” [this representative is in fact not recognized by other branches of Tibetan Lamaism – multipletext.com], 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.

十四世达赖喇嘛是喇嘛教的神王。喇嘛教建于公元8世纪, 是基于仪式和魔法公式的。和其他宗教没有不同,它也有“壁橱里的骷髅”。但是它在西方作客时仔细地把这一点给掩盖了起来。喇嘛教是一种对灵异魔鬼,秘密性交、神秘主义、精神控制和权力崇拜的信仰。与每一个民主团体的习惯相反,现在的达赖喇嘛在所有重要的国家决策上都求助鬼神谕,一个被蒙古战神附体的僧侣。

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.

我们对于在华盛顿特区的国家大教堂举行的跨宗教仪式的最大忧虑,是西方天真的程度。在过去的25年,达赖喇嘛不事声张地对西方成千上万的宗教新人举行着时轮大法这一古代喇嘛教所有灌顶方式中的最高形式,把喇嘛教信仰,秘密的集体淫乱和魔法仪式整合进他的宗教-政治世界观中。他继续秘密地传播着时轮的预言,预言一个无所不在的喇嘛教统治–香巴拉。在这个喇嘛教治之下,所有精神的和世俗的力量都集于一人–世界皇帝,而其他的宗教都不再存在。

Stephens:

Who are these “non-Buddhist” (non-Lamaist) 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.

谁是那些在《时轮大法典籍》中提到的非喇嘛教徒敌人?我已经在佛教(?)杂志《香巴拉之日》中看到了穿着军事制服的喇嘛们。我过去曾以为佛教是一种平和的信仰。

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).

时轮大法预言了一个喇嘛教帝国的建立和喇嘛教的军事力量对非喇嘛教的宗教所发动的战争。时轮的秘密典籍明确地把犹太教,基督教和伊斯兰教的领导人提出来作为喇嘛教的敌人。

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!”

过去五年中,在德语国家里喇嘛教的这些阴暗面已经引起了媒体中日渐增加的批评。去年,当达赖喇嘛在奥地利举行时轮灌顶的时候,电台、电视、和平面媒体都有激烈的争论。国际著名的报纸发布了一篇名为“达赖喇嘛的武士仪式:时轮大法”的文章。德国的基督教知识分子周报也发表了一篇文章:“在时轮大法中掩藏者什么?超级狂战士!”

As in the Islamic martyr-ideology Shambhala-Warriors, who will be killed in the last battle have earned passage into the “Buddhist” (Lamaism) paradise.

正如伊斯兰的烈士信仰一样,在最后一战中死去的香巴拉武士将获得通向喇嘛教天堂的通行证。

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.

到现在为止,在某些喇嘛教中心出现的军事场景还只有象征意义,但这些场景已被解读为对预言中伟大的香巴拉战争的一种精神准备。在某些喇嘛的想像中,所有时轮灌顶的参加者都有重生为香巴拉武士的可能性。他们将参加即将到来的末日大战。依据阶级,他们将成为普通士兵或者军官。某些血统的高级喇嘛已经被赋予未来的指挥职务。

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.

最近,新闻报道了在天主教和基督教的神职人员中发生的性虐待丑闻。我记得许多年以前,我们曾和位于西好莱坞的大麻哈土的成员谈过话。他们公开提到他们的创建者曾故意用艾滋病毒去感染大麻哈土的很多成员,他们还提到九个喇嘛在科罗拉多首府死去。我们为他们在此事上的脆弱无助感到震惊。很明显地,他们感到被严重的侵害了。我们还曾在西雅图遇见过另一个基督妇女。她一度是一个当地的西藏喇嘛的性伴侣。她受的伤害是如此的深, 以至于她从不肯详细提起这些经历。

Trimondi:

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.”

在欧洲这里,最广为人知并被广泛讨论的案例中包括苏格兰喇嘛教徒琼.坎贝尔。她的老师卡鲁仁波切,一位受人尊敬的八十岁的老喇嘛, 曾对她有过性侵犯。英国报纸独立报曾在1999年2月10日刊登头条:“我是一个喇嘛性奴隶。”

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.

坎贝尔在她自己自白性的书《空间的旅行者》中提到,一个喇嘛对女性的性行为有着一个明确的目标:把女性的性能量传入男性伙伴的灵与肉中。这些性仪式是藏传佛教的核心。在时轮大法的更高级的灌顶仪式中,也可以看到带有魔法意味的性仪式。这些仪式的书面描述可以做象征性的解释,也可以做字面上的解释, 两种都行。原文说11岁的女孩子可以用来作为性伴侣。

Trimondi:

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.

真正让人吃惊的是,在党卫军的智库,海因里希·希姆莱公开地与他那个时代最杰出的东方学家讨论建立一种新的印度雅利安纳粹宗教。在二战后,这种讨论为主要的新纳粹主义分子所继续。

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?

我还记得在1996年,赛蒙伪三叟博物馆授予了达赖喇嘛赛蒙伪三叟和平奖。当时赛蒙伪馆长将达赖称为亚伦,我们的和平者。从你对他和纳粹主义的联系的研究来看,犹太社区应该对什么感到担心?

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.

一个毋庸置疑的事实是时轮大法关于世界战争的意识形态于历史上已经在亚洲和宗教法西斯主义及新纳粹主义中导致了过激的行为,妄想,和阴谋论。在作为海因里希·希姆莱的纳粹宗教诞生地的党卫军的智库,时轮大法的内涵曾引起人们浓厚的兴趣。著名的法西斯分子和文化哲学家聚勒司·挨废拉在神话般的香巴拉世界中看到了一个神圣的武士种族的中心地位。这种构想至今仍然在国际极右运动的宗教观念中占据了一席之地。光是这一条就足以要求达赖喇嘛和鼓吹战争的香巴拉之谜保持清楚的距离。

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.

但他不仅没有这样做,反而与诸如布鲁诺·伯格和海因里希·哈尔一类的人建立了友好的联系。其中布鲁诺·伯格是前党卫军,被定罪帮助谋杀了超过86个犹太人人;海因里希·哈尔是《西藏七年》的作者(《西藏七年》讲述了他和达赖喇嘛在达赖流亡去印度之前的七年间的经历)。西藏流亡政府的网站显示了十四世达赖喇嘛站在布鲁诺·伯格和海因里希·哈尔之间。伯格是著名的党卫军西藏探险队在1938-1939年间的成员。这个探险队的主要目的是在喜马拉雅山地区找到一个古代失落的印度雅利安宗教的痕迹。党卫军中的一些头目相信西藏喇嘛们掌握着这一印度雅利安之迷的关键。伯格作为西藏在上一世纪三十和四十年代的政治独立运动的主要见证人,受到西藏流亡政府高度尊敬。

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.

直到最近才被揭露的还有达赖喇嘛和基·麻克斯锐非的联系。麻克斯是法国著名的东方学家,时轮大法专家,坚定的反犹主义者。他因为与党卫军合作,将犹太人交给在法国的盖世太保而被缺席定罪,判为死刑。一个秘密的希特勒运动的创始人,前智利外交家米盖儿·色锐耨也曾与达赖喇嘛会晤过四次。米盖儿是一个基于密宗和关于香巴拉武士的想法的极端种族主义社团的鼓吹者。

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.

众所周知的还有他与日本恐怖分子麻原彰晃的联系。他把麻原彰晃描述为他的朋友,尽管不完美。这已经是在东京沙林毒气袭击之后。直到后来,他才与麻原彰晃疏远开来。麻原彰晃的末日论主要就是受到香巴拉意识形态和藏传喇嘛教的影响。

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 (lama) aristocracy with absolute power.

好莱坞电影是人类已知的最强有力的幻想。所以达赖喇嘛与电影世界和著名演员的广泛而又广为人知的联系就是一个有效的宣传武器。自从九十年代以来,西藏,西藏神王和西藏喇嘛教就被最有名的电影导演们所神化,而对于西藏被一个专制的僧侣贵族统治所绝对控制的封建制的和血腥的过去,哪怕是一点点的批评也被忽略不计了。

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. Some other purpose than an art display? Why should we be concerned?

本拿多·本托虏西的小活佛或者麻钉·死搞嬉嬉的困顿构造了一个虚幻的西藏,这个西藏从来都没有存在过。甚至美国电影里一直存在的反纳粹的传统也在鸡·即刻死·按诺得推出西藏七年的时候被打破了。这部由不拉德·痞特主演的电影是对前党卫军海因里希·哈尔的神化和英雄崇拜。哈尔在四十年代成为年青的达赖喇嘛的老师。 厄非尔·谢尔在他的《虚拟西藏》(2000)一书中详细描述了电影世界所制造的最有效的幻觉:好莱坞的西藏神话。

The following is core text of an interview with Victor and Victoria Trimondi (Germany) by James C. Stephen on September 11, 2003 and its Chinese translation. The article was credited to James C. Stephens and the Chinese translation shall be credited to an anonymous individual. The interview highlights the importance of distinguishing Tibatan Lamaism from the genuine Buddhism.

  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?

我还记得有一次在赛蒙伪三叟博物馆的和平奖颁奖仪式上遇到了理差鸡。我发现他的基金会资助了在美国大陆各地修建的超过三百个沙做的曼荼罗。曼荼罗到底是什么?这些喇嘛们的曼荼罗展览除了作为艺术展览之外还有什么目的?我们为什么应对此感到担心?

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”.

曼荼罗是一种神圣的图案;我们也可以把它叫做魔力圆圈“, 被用来召唤密宗万神殿的神灵和魔鬼们。由于从现代西方的视角来看,宗教和艺术并非是一个统一体,所以曼荼罗被视为一种艺术品。但是在喇嘛教的传统里,审美与神圣并没有区别,曼荼罗被看作是一种灵塔,是神灵与魔鬼的汇聚点,是一种神殿,就象是一种精神电池,从其中可以发出强大的能量,曼荼罗建立之地被认为处于圣灵的绝对控制之下,或者说,在魔鬼的绝对控制之下。

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.

在时轮仪式中,繁复的曼荼罗是用彩色的沙建造的,象征着整个宇宙。在仪式结束时,沙曼荼罗会被西藏喇嘛们摧毁, 象征着整个世界和宇宙的毁灭这是时轮预言中关于末日理论的一部分,这一末日理论预言了一场最终之战和星球的毁灭。然而,曼荼罗的建造和毁灭却被达赖喇嘛包装成对世界和平的贡献。

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.

尽管我们想要相信曼荼罗能够产生和平的能量,我们却不得不接受这一事实:自魔力圈在西方被建造起来的25年里,它并没有给人们带来比它在西藏给人们带来的更多的欢乐。在我们的世界中,激进的和恐怖主义的能量越来越多,越来越强,宗教冲突已经成为家常便饭。显而易见,你提到的遍布美国的超过三百个的曼荼罗并没有给这个国家带来和平,历史正朝相反的方向前进,走向战争和毁灭。

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.”

我们在研究中不安的发现,在1993年世贸大楼遭到第一次炸弹袭击之后,一个时轮沙曼荼罗在一号楼的大厅里被建造起来。在超过三十天的过程中,许多世贸大楼的工作者和游客被西藏喇嘛们邀请参与这个曼荼罗的建造。当达赖喇嘛在随后的几天中访问纽约的时候,我们想问:为什么911那样可怕的事件最终还是发生了,尽管世贸大楼被所谓的和平之轮这一时轮沙曼荼罗所庇佑着?别忘了这些同样的曼荼罗并没有保护西藏的7500个喇嘛庙不被摧毁。在这一背景下,时轮大法专家,印度学者沙士的一句话就显得令人震惊了:时意味着时间,死亡和毁灭。时轮就是毁灭之轮。

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.”

我们在互联网上找到了一个当年世贸大楼的时轮大法仪式的参加者的话,这些话看起来意味深长, 暗藏天机:话题转换到一号楼的时轮曼荼罗上。我当时也在降解仪式上,时间大概是96年。喇嘛们把所有的来自一号楼曼荼罗的沙都搜集起来,放入一个瓶子里面,然后把瓶子通过冬园带过通向世界金融中心的桥,然后郑重其事地把沙倾入哈德迅大河之中,祈求世界和平。当时河面上闪烁着午后阳光,令我感动流泪。五年以后,整座大楼都消失了,就象沙曼荼罗一样。

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?

从你在欧洲关于时轮大法的辩论的经验和对媒体对西藏浪漫化的描述的观察来看,哪些是对其他信仰的危险.

Trimondi:

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.

危险在于时轮大法的仪式为未来的宗教战争巧妙地提供了一个意识形态的基础。如果这个充满问题的远古喇嘛信仰的内涵不被公开讨论的话,它们也许会在意识形态上对西方文明和民主制度的正面遗产提出危险的挑战。在时轮大法的意识形态中提到的喇嘛教统治,一个世界之神,杀戮的自由以及发动喇嘛教圣战,在在都与真正佛教的和平教诲背道而驰。关于时轮大法暴力与独裁本质与佛祖教诲及大乘佛教的根本性区别,我们向达赖喇嘛提出了八项质问。

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?

关于达赖喇嘛在奥运会之前回到中国的严肃讨论正渐渐见于媒体。这将如何影响西方的未来呢?

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.

我们感到很不安。如果这种喇嘛教圣战的意识形态成为中国政治新理念的话, 平和理性的道家和儒家学说是否会被这种香巴拉武士教条所取代呢?在三十年代,日本神道法西斯分子曾利用东密来动员满族和蒙古族少数民族参与分裂中国的战争。当我们目睹德国法西斯分子,新法西斯分子,纳粹知识分子以及亚洲的恐怖分子(如日本的麻原彰晃)对时轮大法的香巴拉战争的兴趣日益增长时,我们不得不因此而充满戒心, 并向西方敲响警钟。

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Stephens Interview with Victor and Victoria Trimondi on the Shadow of the Dalai Lama (Spanish)

George and Laura Bush and the DLEntrevista con Victor y Victoria Trimondi

por James C. Stephens

11 de Septiembre de 2003

 

Stephens: Este 11 de Septiembre, en el segundo aniversario del ataque terrorista contra Estados Unidos, el principal orador en la Catedral Nacional en Washington D.C. no fue el evangelista estadounidense Billy Graham sino Tenzin Gyatso, mejor conocido como el 14° Dalai Lama, el exiliado rey-dios del Tíbet. Acompañado por cinco lamas tibetanos de su Monasterio de Nueva York, él oficialmente comenzó con un canto ritual budista seguido de una charla ante un auditorio de 7.000 personas acerca del “Cultivo de la Paz como un Antídoto contra la Violencia“. Nuestra entrevista hoy desde Alemania es con Victor y Victoria Trimondi, que previamente trabajaron para promover el mensaje del Dalai Lama en Europa. Ellos son coautores de un crítico éxito europeo de librería titulado “La Sombra del Dalai Lama: Sexualidad, Magia y Política en el Budismo Tibetano” (The Shadow of the Dalai Lama: Sexuality, Magic and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism). ¿Cómo ustedes llegaron primeramente a conocer al Dalai Lama?

Trimondi: La primera vez nos reunimos con el 14° Dalai Lama en los años ’80, y nos hicimos amigos y publicamos sus escritos en nuestra empresa editora, Trikont-Dianus-Verlag. Organizando conferencias internacionales con él y otros famosos voceros sobre temas inter-religiosos e inter-culturales, y específicamente asegurando invitaciones para él a nivel gubernamental en Alemania y Austria, comenzamos a explorar seriamente el budismo tibetano. Sin embargo, después de muchos años de estudio y reflexión extensos, cuestionamos seriamente algunos principios fundamentales del budismo tántrico que el Dalai Lama profesaba, y finalmente nos convertimos en uno de sus críticos más agudos.

Stephens: Hoy el Dalai Lama fue cariñosamente recibido por el clero cristiano de la Catedral Nacional que lo invitó como el orador principal y le permitió realizar sus rituales religiosos con varios lamas budistas tibetanos en el segundo aniversario del 11 de Septiembre. ¿Cómo deberíamos nosotros como estadounidenses ver su visita?

Trimondi: Hablando francamente, el Dalai Lama tiene dos caras. Él hace su contacto oficial con el Occidente bajo la máxima del budismo Mahayana, y luego hábilmente asimila los valores más altos y los ideales de la cultura occidental (cristiana, judía y humanista). En su actual viaje a Estados Unidos él se ha reunido con musulmanes como Mohammed Ali, con jesuítas en la Universidad de San Francisco, con líderes políticos de tendencias republicanas y demócratas, y luego se reunirá con toda tranquilidad con especialistas en ética y científicos en el MIT y en Harvard.

Por medio de la tolerancia diplomática él se gana a los agnósticos así como los corazones de judíos y cristianos ingenuos, a quienes él predica con la lengua de “un hombre de paz”, y como un activista de derechos humanos él relata pasajes de “compasión, amor, y no-violencia” del “Sermón del Monte”. Casi todos los discursos que el Dalai Lama entrega en público son extremadamente tolerantes, humanos y compasivos. Usted sólo puede estar de acuerdo. Y aún así, hay otra cara que se asoma por detrás de la máscara de bondad, caridad y gentileza, que da una pausa para pensar más profundamente en la sombra de este “hombre de paz”.

Stephens: Entiendo lo que usted quiere decir. Recuerdo haber asistido a la conferencia de prensa de él en 1993 en el Parlamento de las Religiones Mundiales en Chicago y estar algo sorprendido por su respuesta cuando un periodista le preguntó: “¿Ha estudiado usted la vida y las enseñanzas de Jesús?”. Él comentó acerca de la traducción tibetana de la Biblia en los años ’30 y luego dijo: “Aprendí algo leyendo esos libros, pero aprendí de una manera más profunda de mi amigo personal, Thomas Merton“. Aunque esto revelara que él tenía una relación con un católico, esto también me mostró entonces otro lado: que él no tenía mucho sentimiento por Jesús o por la Biblia. A la luz de su primer libro, La Sombra del Dalai Lama, ¿podría usted explicar sus preocupaciones acerca del “lado sombreado” de él y por sus incursiones en Occidente, a partir de vuestras experiencias en Alemania?.

Trimondi: El 14° Dalai Lama, el rey-dios del Tíbet, es el representante más alto del budismo tántrico, establecido en el Tíbet en el siglo VIII d.C. El tantrismo, la última etapa en la historia del budismo (desde el siglo V d.C. en India), está basado en rituales y fórmulas mágicas. No diferentemente de otras religiones, esto también tiene “esqueletos en su armario” que oculta cuidadosamente cuando está de invitado en el mundo occidental. El tantrismo tibetano es una creencia en espíritus y demonios, prácticas sexuales secretas, ocultismo, control de la mente, y una obsesión con el poder. Contrariamente a las costumbres democráticas, el actual Dalai Lama consulta con el oráculo Nechung, un monje que es poseído por un dios mongol de la guerra, en todas las decisiones estatales importantes.

Lo que principalmente nos preocupa acerca de la ceremonia inter-religiosa en la Catedral Nacional en Washington D.C. es el nivel de ingenuidad que hay en Occidente. Durante los pasados 25 años el Dalai Lama ha realizado silenciosamente el Tantra Kalachakra (“La Rueda del Tiempo“), la más alta de todas las antiguas iniciaciones tántricas para decenas de miles de principiantes espirituales en Occidente, introduciendo la ideología tántrica, prácticas sexuales secretas y rituales mágicos, integrados en el contexto de su cosmovisión religiosa y política. Voces críticas se han levantado, mientras él sigue transmitiendo en secreto la visión profética del Kalachakra del establecimiento de la Budocracia universal (Shambala), en la cual el poder espiritual y el poder mundano están unidos en una sola persona, el “emperador mundial” (Chakravartin), en donde las otras religiones ya no existirán.

Stephens: Samuel Huntington, director del Instituto de Estudios Estratégicos en Harvard advirtió en 1993 en su ensayo sobre El Choque de Civilizaciones que “Lo que finalmente cuenta para la gente no es la ideología política o el interés económico. La fe y la familia, la sangre y la creencia son aquello con lo que la gente se identifica y contra lo que ellos lucharán y morirán“. A la luz de esto, ¿cuál es su preocupación acerca de la ideología que el Dalai Lama está promoviendo en el Tantra Kalachakra?

Trimondi: En el Tantra Kalachakra está profetizado el establecimiento de un Imperio Budocrático. Un choque de civilizaciones surgirá cuando las fuerzas militares del budismo emprendan la guerra contra los ejércitos de las religiones no-budistas. Las criminales super-armas poseídas por el Ejército Budista de Shambala están descritas extensamente y con un detallismo entusiasta en el texto del Tantra Kalachakra (Shri Kalachakra I. 128-142), y serán empleadas contra los “enemigos del Dharma” (las enseñanzas de Buda).

Durante los cinco años pasados en los países de habla alemana estos aspectos sombríos del lamaísmo han conducido a una corriente enorme, constante y creciente de crítica en los medios de comunicación. Durante la iniciación en el Kalachakra impartida por el Dalai Lama el año pasado en Austria hubo debates muy polémicos por la televisión y emisoras de radio y medios escritos. El periódico internacionalmente conocido Der Standardpublicó un artículo titulado “Un Ritual Guerrero con el Dalai Lama: El Kalachakra“. El semanario alemán de los intelectuales cristianos “Der Rheinische Merkur” tituló un artículo como “¿Qué se esconde detrás del Tantra Kalachakra? ¡Guerreros sumamente feroces!”.

Stephens: ¿Quiénes son esos enemigos no-budistas de los que se habla en las enseñanzas del Kalachakra?. He visto artículos en las revistas budistasShambhala Sun y Tricycle sobre lamas vistiendo uniformes militares. Yo pensaba que el budismo era una fe pacífica…

Trimondi: El texto secreto del Kalachakra explícitamente denomina a los “líderes” del judaísmo, cristianismo e Islam como opositores del budismo: “Adán, Enoc, Abraham, Moisés, Jesús, Mani, Mahoma y el Mahdi”, describiéndolos como “la familia de las serpientes demoniacas” (Shri Kalachakra I. 154). La batalla final tipo Armagedón (guerra de Shambala) finaliza con la victoria total de los budistas. El intérprete oficial delKalachakra, Alexander Berzin, compara abiertamente los principios de la “Yihad” islámica con los de la guerra de Shambala. Como en la ideología islámica de los mártires, los guerreros de Shambala que serán muertos en la última batalla habrán ganado un pasaje al paraíso (budista).

Los escenarios militares en algunos centros budistas tales como los campos de entrenamiento Shambala del fallecido lama Chögyum Trungpa, tienen hasta ahora sólo un sentido simbólico, e incluso ellos son interpretados como una preparación espiritual para la gran Guerra Shambala profetizada. En la imaginación de algunos lamas todos los participantes en una iniciación Kalachakra tienen el dudoso privilegio de ser renacidos como “Guerreros de Shambala” a fin de ser capaces de participar en la batalla apocalíptica próxima como infantería u oficiales, dependiendo del rango. Los altos lamas de linajes particulares ya han sido asignados a posiciones de mando en el futuro.

Stephens: Últimamente, el escándalo de abusos sexuales entre los católicos y otro clero cristiano ha golpeado las noticias. Recuerdo que hace varios años hablamos con miembros de Dharmadhatu en el Oeste de Hollywood que mencionaban abiertamente que su fundador Osel Tenzin había infectado a sabiendas a muchos de sus miembros con el virus del SIDA y que nueve lamas habían muerto en Boulder, Colorado. Nos vimos humillados por su vulnerabilidad sobre el asunto. Ellos obviamente se sintieron tremendamente pisoteados. Otra mujer cristiana que encontramos en Seattle, que antes había sido una pareja sexual de un lama tibetano local, estaba tan severamente herida por su experiencia que ella ni siquiera hablaría de ello en detalle. El 5 de Octubre en el Museo de Arte del condado de Los Angeles una exposición titulada “El Círculo de la Felicidad – Artes Meditativas Budistas” abre la exhibición de arte tántrico más grande en el hemisferio occidental. ¿De qué debería estar consciente el público en cuanto a los peligros de las prácticas sexuales del budismo tántrico?

Trimondi: Las prácticas sexuales del tantrismo budista no deben ser confundidas con el abuso sexual normal realizado por algunos lamas. Esto último también ha sido un gran problema en las comunidades budistas, que fueron remecidas por escándalos causados por líderes tan prominentes como Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, el fundador de la Universidad Naropa de Colorado, que fue acusado de tener sexo con sus alumnas. En 1993, 21 profesores budistas occidentales se reunieron con el Dalai Lama en India y publicaron una carta abierta que lamentaba “la mala conducta sexual de varios profesores con sus estudiantes, el abuso de alcohol y drogas, la malversación de fondos y el abuso del poder“. El grupo instaba a los creyentes a encarar a los profesores y a hacer pública su mala conducta.

Aquí en Europa, uno de los casos más conocidos y comentados involucró a la budista escocesa June Campbell y la tentativa de su profesor, el muy honorable lama de ochenta años Kalu Rinpoche, de abusarla sexualmente. El titular del 10 de Febrero de 1999 del periódico británico The Independentdecía: “Yo Fui una Esclava del Sexo Tántrico“.

Pero June Campbell muestra también en su libro confesional “Traveller in Space” que el abuso sexual hacia las mujeres no es sólo una actitud censurable sino que es una parte central de la religión lamaísta tántrica. La práctica de magia sexual ejercida por un lama con una mujer tiene el objetivo específico de transmitir la energía erótica y femenina al poder espiritual y terrenal del compañero masculino. Tales rituales sexuales son el núcleo del budismo tibetano. También en las iniciaciones superiores secretas del Tantra Kalachakra tienen lugar ritos sexuales mágicos. Los textos rituales pueden ser interpretados simbólicamente o como verdaderos. Ambas posibilidades existen. Los originales dicen que muchachas de once años pueden ser usadas como compañeras sexuales.

Stephens: ¡Escandaloso! Sobre todo en nuestra sociedad donde tanto abuso sexual en contra de niños está siendo expuesto en círculos religiosos. Que el dinero público esté siendo asignado para promover esto en nombre de la cultura es sumamente preocupante, especialmente cuando tantos niños van de excursión a estas exposiciones. Otra preocupación en Estados Unidos ha sido el aumento del movimiento neo-nazi. Entiendo que usted desde entonces ha co-escrito otro éxito de librería acerca de la influencia de la religión asiática en la ideología fundacional de Adolf Hitler. Evidentemente esto ha desatado un verdadero debate en Europa. ¿Cuál es la causa de la controversia?

Trimondi: En nuestro ensayo histórico “Hitler, Buda, Krishna. Una Alianza Impía desde el Tercer Reich hasta Hoy” mostramos que las ideas bélicas y racistas de Heinrich Himmler, de la SS y de otros conocidos neo-fascistas han sido fundamentalmente inspiradas por elementos de diferentes religiones asiáticas, como el vedismo, el budismo y el lamaísmo, y que los destacados maestros alemanes de zen Dürckheim y Herrigel han sido nacionalsocialistas convencidos.

Es realmente impactante en el “SS-Ahnenerbe“, que era el grupo académico de expertos de la SS, que su jefe Heinrich Himmler estuviera abiertamente involucrado en discusiones con los más distinguidos orientalistas alemanes de su tiempo en la construcción de una nueva religión nacionalsocialista Indo-Aria. Después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial esta discusión fue continuada por prominentes ideólogos neo-fascistas. Nuestros dos libros han estimulado una gran discusión sobre las fuentes ideológicas del fundamentalismo religioso y sobre el choque de civilizaciones.

Stephens: Recuerdo haber asistido al Museo Simon Wiesenthal de la Tolerancia en 1996 cuando al Dalai Lama se le concedió el “Premio de la Paz Simón Wiesenthal”, y el director comparó a aquél con “Aarón, nuestro hombre de paz“. ¿De qué debería preocuparse la comunidad judía a la luz de vuestra investigación sobre las vinculaciones del Dalai Lama con el nacionalsocialismo?

Trimondi: Es un hecho que la ideología de la Guerra de Shambala delKalachakra-Tantra ha conducido a un comportamiento agresivo, visiones megalomaníacas y teorías de conspiración tanto en la historia de Asia como en la del fascismo religioso y del neo-fascismo. Ya en el SS-Ahnenerbe, donde la religión nacionalsocialista de Heinrich Himmler nació, había un interés por los contenido del Kalachakra-Tantra. El influyente fascista y filósofo de la cultura Julius Évola vio en el mundo mítico de Shambala un centro esotérico de una raza guerrera sagrada. Esta visión todavía está firmemente anclada hoy en las ideas religiosas del movimiento internacional de la extrema derecha. Aquello sólo hace necesario para el Dalai Lama distanciarse claramente del belicista Mito de Shambala.

En vez de eso él ha cultivado contactos amistosos con gente como los ex-SS Bruno Beger (condenado por ayudar a asesinar a más de 86 judíos) y Heinrich Harrer, autor de “Siete Años en el Tíbet” (una crónica de su experiencia con el Dalai Lama durante siete años antes de su exilio en la India). La página de inicio del sitio web del Gobierno del Tíbet en el Exilio(www.tibet.com) mostraba al 14° Dalai Lama entre Bruno Beger a su derecha y Heinrich Harrer a su izquierda. Beger fue un miembro de la famosa Expedición SS al Tíbet organizada en 1938/1939 cuyo objetivo primario era encontrar rastros de una antigua religión perdida Indo-Aria en el Himalaya. Algunos líderes ocultistas de la SS estaban convencidos de que los lamas tibetanos son los poseedores de las claves de estos Misterios Indo-Arios. Beger es muy respetado por el Gobierno del Tíbet en el Exilio como un testigo principal de la independencia política del país en los años ’30 y ’40 del siglo pasado.

Casi desconocidos hasta ahora son los contactos del Dalai Lama con el colaborador francés de la SS, anti-judío convencido, reconocido orientalista y experto en el Tantra Kalachakra Jean Marquès-Rivière (condenado en ausencia a la pena de muerte por entregar judíos a la Gestapo en Francia). El fundador de un movimiento Hitlerista esotérico el ex-diplomático chileno Miguel Serrano (promotor de un misticismo SS extremadamente racista, que está basado en prácticas tántricas y en la idea de los guerreros de Shambala) se reunió con el Dalai Lama varias veces.

Conocida se hizo su relación (del Dalai Lama) con el terrorista japonés Shoko Asahara, a quien él describió, incluso después de los ataques con gas sarín en Tokio, como su “amigo, aunque uno imperfecto“. Sólo más tarde él se distanció realmente de dicho gurú. La filosofía del Día del Juicio Final planteada por Asahara estaba principalmente bajo la influencia de la ideología de Shambala y del tantrismo tibetano.

Stephens: Parece que esta discusión ideológica está surgiendo a nivel global. Para nosotros en California es completamente relevante, a raíz de haberse traído a la memoria aquí y del posterior ataque político reciente contra las conexiones del candidato a gobernador “Terminator” Schwarzenegger con el nacionalsocialista austriaco Kurt Waldheim. Pero después de indagar más profundamente entendemos que él es realmente uno de los más grandes donantes para la educación de la Conciencia del “Holocausto” y del Museo Simon Wiesenthal de la Tolerancia. Yo estaba preocupado, sin embargo, por la aceptación, sin ninguna crítica, del Dalai Lama en aquella ceremonia, entendiendo algunas de las vinculaciones que él tiene con prominentes neo-nacionalsocialistas.

Trimondi: Sí, es asombroso por qué la comunidad judía es tan falta de sentido crítico en relación al Dalai Lama. El 4 de Septiembre de 2003 el periódico suizo Neue Zürcher Zeitung reportó que el líder religioso tibetano dijo en un viaje en Jerusalén que

Hitler también tendría el potencial de un hombre bueno en él. Hitler no nació como un hombre malo; su odio a la gente judía lo hizo malévolo y ese odio debe ser combatido. Pero eso no significa que no hubiera alguna bondad inactiva en Hitler. Un hombre malo puede ser mañana un hombre bueno, dijo el Dalai Lama. Para esto tenemos que luchar.

Además si tal declaración puede ser interpretada como una expresión de la compasión budista, parece de mal gusto recordar el asesinato de judíos por los nacionalsocialistas y la muerte de millones de víctimas de guerra por cuenta de Hitler. Habría una protesta mundial si, por ejemplo, el Papa o un estadista occidental hicieran un comentario tan comprensivo sobre Hitler, sobre todo si tal comentario es hecho en Israel, donde viven muchos sobrevivientes del “Holocausto” y sus hijos.

Stephens: Y luego está la conexión de Hollywood… Exactamente, ¿qué es tan atractivo para el Dalai Lama acerca de Hollywood?.

Trimondi: Las películas de Hollywood son los más poderosos agentes de la fantasía alguna vez conocidos por la especie humana, de tal manera que la extensa y bien conocida vinculación del Dalai Lama con el mundo del cine y con actores y actrices famosos es ciertamente un eficaz instrumento de propaganda. Desde los años ’90, el Tíbet, el rey-dios tibetano y el budismo tibetano han sido glorificados por los más prominentes directores de cine, descuidando incluso un mínimo de crítica hacia el pasado sangriento y feudal del Tíbet, controlado por una despótica aristocracia monacal con poder absoluto.

Pequeño Buda” de Bernardo Bertolucci, o “Kundun” de Martin Scorsese, son construcciones de un Tíbet virtual, que nunca existió. Incluso se rompió la antigua tradición anti-nazi de la industria cinematográfica estadounidense, cuando Jean Jacques Annaud filmó “Siete Años en el Tíbet“. Esta película con Brad Pitt es una mistificación y una adoración del héroe en la persona del antiguo SS Heinrich Harrer, que en los años ’40 llegó a ser el profesor del joven Dalai Lama. En su libro Tíbet Virtual (2000) Orville Schell detalla la historia “increíble” de una de las ilusiones más eficaces en el mundo del cine: las fantasías del Tíbet de Hollywood.

Stephens: Recuerdo que en la presentación del Premio de la Paz del Museo Wiesenthal descubrí que la Fundación de Richard Gere ha financiado la elaboración de más de 300 mandalas de arena en todas partes del EE.UU. continental. ¿Qué es exactamente un mandala de arena?. ¿Tienen estos espectáculos itinerantes de los mandalas de los monjes algún otro objetivo que una demostración de arte?. ¿Por qué deberíamos estar interesados?

Trimondi: Un mandala es un pictograma sagrado; uno también puede llamarlo un “círculo mágico”. Es un instrumento para evocar a los dioses, las diosas y los demonios del panteón tántrico. Para un enfoque occidental moderno, en el cual la religión y las artes no están todavía unificadas, elmandala es una obra de arte. Sin embargo, en la tradición lamaísta, donde no hay ninguna diferencia entre lo estético y lo sagrado, y donde el arte es siempre arte sagrado, el mandala es un vórtice de poder espiritual, un punto de reunión de dioses y demonios, un palacio de lo divino, una batería espiritual desde donde irradian poderosas energías. También está relacionado con la idea lamaísta de que el lugar donde el mandala es construído queda bajo el control absoluto de sus “habitantes” divinos o, mejor diríamos, demoníacos.

El intrincado mandala construído durante la Ceremonia Kalachakra es hecho con arena de colores y simboliza el universo entero. Al final de la interpretación ritualista la construcción de arena será destruída por los monjes tibetanos. El llamado “desmantelamiento” del mandala de arena simboliza la destrucción del mundo y del universo. Esto es parte de los escenarios apocalípticos de Día del Juicio Final en las profecías Kalachakraque culminan en una batalla final y el término de nuestro planeta. Sin embargo, la construcción y la destrucción del mandala son presentadas por el Dalai Lama como una contribución a la paz mundial.

Aunque uno deseara creer en su energía productora de paz, de una manera realista uno tiene que aceptar que la construcción de este círculo mágico después de más de 25 años en el Occidente no ha traído más apaciguamiento a la gente que lo que lo hizo en el Tíbet que ha sufrido mucho. Las energías agresivas y terroristas se han hecho cada vez más fuertes en nuestro mundo y el choque de religiones se ha convertido en un problema diario en la política. ¿No es evidente que la construcción de 300mandalas de arena a través de todo Estados Unidos de los que usted habla no ha contribuído a la paz en este país?. La Historia, por el contrario, se ha desarrollado en la dirección contraria y está en el camino de la destrucción y la guerra.

En nuestros estudios fue alarmante encontrar que después del primer bombazo en el Centro Mundial de Comercio en 1993 un mandala de arena con una Rueda del Tiempo (Kalachakra) fue construído en el hall de entrada de la Torre Uno. Durante más de treinta días muchos de los trabajadores y visitantes del Centro Mundial de Comercio fueron invitados por los monjes tibetanos a participar en la construcción de este mandala. Cuando el Dalai Lama visite Nueva York en los próximos días, preguntaríamos: ¿Por qué el terrible acontecimiento del 11-S pudo suceder en el Centro Mundial de Comercio que fue consagrado por el así llamado “Círculo de Paz”, el mandalade arena del Kalachakra, los mismos mandalas que fueron incapaces de impedir la destrucción de 7.500 monasterios del Tíbet?. En este contexto una frase del experto en Tantra y académico hindú Shashi Bhusan Dasgupta puede ser digna de mención: “La palabra Kala significa el tiempo, la muerte y la destrucción. El Kala-chakra es la Rueda de la Destrucción”.

No hace mucho encontramos en Internet una declaración de un participante de la ceremonia del Kalachakra en el World Trade Center que parece realmente reveladora, sobre todo porque está hecha por un iniciado del Tantra: “El tema cambió al mandala del Kalachakra que fue hecho en elCentro Mundial de Comercio. Yo estaba en la ceremonia de disolución allí, puede ser alrededor del año ’96. Los monjes recogieron toda la arena delmandala en la Torre 1 del World Trade Center y la pusieron en un jarrón. Luego la llevaron cruzando el puente hacia el World Financial Center a través del Jardín de Invierno, y luego derramaron la arena ceremoniosamente en el río Hudson para pedir la paz mundial. La superficie del río brillaba con el Sol de tarde, y lloré. Cinco años más tarde, el edificio completo ha desaparecido, tal como el mandala de arena“.

Contrariamente a esto, Robert Thurman, el “padrino académico de la causa tibetana” (según la revista Time) vio en un sueño (Septiembre de 1979) al Dalai Lama como un rey absoluto y al dios Kalachakra reinando sobre la ciudad de Nueva York. (…) Thurman interpretó este sueño como una profecía.

Stephens: A partir de su experiencia en el debate acerca del Kalachakra en Europa y su observación de la representación romántica del Tíbet que hacen los medios de comunicación, ¿cuáles son los peligros potenciales para las otras religiones, incluyendo al budismo y la democracia, de este crecimiento del mito de Shambala?

Trimondi: El budismo tibetano, como la Nueva Era de los años ochenta, parece ser la “religión de moda” del nuevo milenio. Pero es mucho más que la apariencia carismática del Dalai Lama y sus discursos sobre compasión, paz y felicidad. El peligro yace en que el ritual del Tantra Kalachakraconstruye sutilmente un fundamento ideológico para una futura “guerra de religiones”. Si los contenidos problemáticos de esta arcaica creencia no son discutidos abiertamente, ellos pueden presentar un peligroso desafío ideológico para la herencia positiva de la civilización occidental y las instituciones democráticas. Tampoco hay duda de que la ideología deKalachakra que propone el establecimiento de un gobierno budocrático, un Emperador universal (Chakravartin), la violencia, la licencia para matar y el emprendimiento de una guerra santa budista, están en oposición directa a las enseñanzas pacíficas originales del Buda Sakyamuni. Acerca de esta discrepancia entre los contenidos agresivos del Tantra Kalachakra y eldharma pacífico original, enseñado por el Buda histórico, hemos formulado Ocho Preguntas al Dalai Lama.

Stephens: Conversaciones serias acerca del retorno del Dalai Lama a China antes de las Olimpíadas [de 2008 en Pekín] están comenzando a filtrarse en los medios de comunicación. ¿Cómo afectará esto el futuro de Occidente?

Trimondi: Estamos realmente preocupados, si usted nos pregunta, en cuanto a lo que puede pasar potencialmente si esta “ideología de la yihadbudista” del Tantra Kalachakra se convertirá en una nueva visión de la auto-comprensión política china. La filosofía mucho más pacífica y más suave del Taoismo y del Confucionismo ¿será sustituída por la doctrina guerrera de Shambala, que fue propagada una vez en años ’30 por los shinto japoneses para movilizar a las minorías mongolianas de Manchuria y de China del Oeste?. Si la actual situación en Europa es algún indicador, debemos decir que estamos alarmados cuando presenciamos el interés creciente en Alemania de intelectuales fascistas, neo-fascistas y nacionalsocialistas y en Asia de un terrorista como el gurú japonés Shoko Asahara, en los conceptos ideológicos de la Guerra de Shambala del Tantra Kalachakra. Esto debería ser una “escritura en la pared” [alusión bíblica], como una importante llamada de atención para Occidente.−

The Dalai Lama and the Anatomy of PC Buddhism

The Dalai Lama and the Anatomy of
Politically Correct Buddhism

By James C. Stephens

But what conception of the world is hiding behind the smiling, so apparently philanthropic and peaceable mask of the Tibetan God-King? The ignorance that this key question exposes, particularly in the western world, can only be described as catastrophic. (Neue Zurcher Zeitung July 15, 1999 A German Newspaper)

Nearly three thousand tickets for the Annual “Distinguished Speaker’s Series” at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium featuring the Dalai Lama had sold out within an hour. Since no seats were available, I decided in Jay Leno fashion to go down and conduct some on the street interviews of people waiting to get a glimpse of the God-King of Tibet.

As that balmy October Southern California evening arrived, the air was filled with the anticipation of an opening night in Hollywood. Black limousines carrying the Dalai Lama and his US Diplomatic Secret Service escort pulled up to the Mediterranean style auditorium. A smattering of celebrities and Tibetan lamas with shaved heads dressed in maroon robes trimmed in golden yellow mingled in the large crowd lined up to pass through the specially installed security stations.

I was standing near “Heather” a slender hippyish woman in her twenties who was observing that evening’s crowd and occasionally seeing if a passerby had any extra tickets. Nonchalantly I asked her, “So, what brings you out here this evening?”

She replied, “Oh, I hitch hiked out here this summer from the Ozarks with my boyfriend to attend the Empowerment Ceremonies with the Dalai Lama. Tonight we decided to see if we could attend his public talk on Ethics for the New Millennium.”

“Will you be disappointed if you can’t get in?” I inquired.

Without hesitation she mused, “Not really. I’ve been watching all the well-dressed people going in and decided they probably need to hear him more than I do.”

Since she was open I posed a slightly more personal question, “Hypothetically, let’s say that Jesus Christ and the Dalai Lama were to be standing here before you and you had the opportunity to choose one to follow. Who would you select?”

She paused for a moment and then said, “The Dalai Lama.” Observing my slightly baffled look, she confessed, “Well, he is the spiritual leader of our day who’s bringing everyone together. He seems to fit our times better, and although I find Jesus attractive, I don’t feel the same about most Christians.”

When asked why the Dalai Lama was so popular, she commented, “I think he is like the Wizard of Oz, reflecting people’s illusions of what they want to believe.”

At first I was taken aback, but recognized that her comments represent a growing segment of our society that wholeheartedly embraces Buddhism as their religion of choice and leaving no doubt that the Lotus is blooming in America. Studies have shown that there are presently over 1600 Buddhist temples, centers and monasteries in America, many of them Tibetan. [1] In the twelve years between 1985 and 1997, “more Buddhist meditation centers were established than the total number founded in the first eighty-five years of the twentieth century.” [i]

Currently Buddhism is being marketed to such a high degree that even Buddhists parody the Madison Avenue hype surrounding the Buddhist boom. Buddha books are big business, while magazines are a lucrative cottage industry supported by pages and pages of advertisements marketing everything from retreats, national conferences, the reincarnation of tea, salad dressings, Buddha beads, sneakers to smiling Tibetan lamas opening Toshiba laptops on the “rooftop of the world.” Huge billboards along LA freeways featured the smiling image of the Dalai Lama advertising Apple’s “Think Different,” while the “Simpson’s,” a primetime cartoon program parodying American culture focused on little Lisa’s conversion to Tibetan Buddhism on their Christmas special.

As a college student who had converted to Buddhism in 1970, like Heather, I had been enamored with the exotic religious rituals, smells of incense, chants, and ancient stories of Buddha’s life and teachings. Myths like the life of the Buddha convey powerful images to believer and non-believer alike. Ignoring those myths in global affairs can bring dire consequences, e.g., Wahabism, the radical fundamentalist Islam of Osama Bin Laden. Approaching a worldview different from our own requires freedom to think critically and a “civil public square” [ii] that embraces discussion and debate, essential components for the survival of the human race. In certain Buddhist countries, nationalism is equated with religious expression, e.g., “To be Thai is to be Buddhist, to be Buddhist Thai.” The same holds true in Tibet and other Buddhist nations where there is no separation of Church and State and constitutionally Kings are required to be Buddhist.

Doctrine of Assimilation. Over the last 2500 years, the Buddhist faith has developed a highly sophisticated process of expansion and of contextualizing its religious message. The historic doctrine of assimilation (honji-suijaku) allows Buddhism to compete with the highly established indigenous religions in countries as it attempts to take root.

Its first approach is to the indigenous host culture. As Buddhism took hold in China, which at the time was primarily Confucian and Taoist, this took the form of introducing the Buddhist law (Dharma). The next time-consuming step over a period of eighty years involved the translation of their scriptures into the language of the host country. For the West, this occurred during the pinnacle of the British Empire as Rhys Davids, Max Müller, Daniel Gogerley, and a host of scholars belonging to the Pali Text Society translated numerous Buddhist texts which were incorporated into the voluminous Sacred Books of the East and brought Buddhism to the attention of English speaking audiences worldwide.

During the third step of the process, Buddhists seek out the areas of commonality with the host culture’s faith, thereby appearing to have much in common with their own religion. [iii] In the West, we now find a plethora of books written in this genre by Buddhist teachers, e.g., The Good Heart: A Buddhist Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus by the Dalai Lama, Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh, or The Zen Teachings of Jesus by Kenneth S. Leong.

A careful reading of the Dalai Lama’s book Ethics for the New Millennium bears little resemblance at all to a traditional view of Buddhist ethics. His “consensus ethics” represents the assimilation of a variety of different religious viewpoints which don’t require a person to be a member of any religion. Like a chameleon this enables the Dalai Lama to blend into many different religious settings, granting him access to an enormous secular audience yearning for spiritual answers.

Historical Cause for Concern. The Office of the Dalai Lama has systematically developed the doctrine of “skillful means” (upayakaushalya) over 1300 years. Tibet, as an isolated and sparsely populated country with a weak standing army, is strategically located between four historical military giants, China, Mongolia, Russia, and India. Consequently, it has had to rely upon its religious and political prowess to survive.

Historically, Tibet was not always Buddhist. Tibetans in fact were followers of Bön (pronounced “pern”), an indigenous faith which centered on Shamans who worshipped fierce mountain gods and other demonic spirits. [iv] In 642 A.D. the Tibetan King Srong-btsan-sgampo granted his Chinese and Nepalese wives’ wish to introduce Buddhism.

A little over a hundred years later in 745 A.D., an Indian Tantric Buddhist Padmasambhava made a journey to Tibet and taught that humans could reach enlightenment in one lifetime. At the request of the Tibetan Buddhist King Detsan, he “waged war against and conquered all the malignant gods in Tibet, only sparing those that promised to become Defenders of the Law (Dharmapala).” Padmasambhava introduced the systematic practice of theTantras [2] to Tibetans which involved the use of spells (mantras [3]), circles of deities arranged in sand paintings (mandalas), symbolic sexual union with deities (deity yoga), occult hand gestures (mudras) and magic. [v]

Co-opting control of Tibet from the Bön rulers was accomplished through power encounters with the local gods. One researcher found actual drawings and discovered that when Buddhists originally tried to establish their authority over Tibet’s Bön kingdom by building an altar on the capital’s grounds, it was always torn down.

Frustrated by their lack of success, they consulted their oracles who instructed them on how to secure that authority. They were instructed to locate spiritual power points throughout the nation and then to build altars and make offerings to local topographical gods on mountain peaks, valleys, rivers and lakes. After the Buddhists completed their assignment they noticed that the points on the national map took the form of a demoness who was “nailed down.” They were then able to establish authority over the national capital and build the Jokhang Temple located at the “heart of the woman.” [vi]Consequently, some Buddhologists speculate that Tibetan Buddhism is founded upon the symbolic subjugation of a woman nailed down and metaphysically alive at the bottom of the lake near the Johkang. This is in Lhasa, the ‘city of the gods’, the capital of Tibet, and the former residence of the Dalai Lama, the Potala Palace.

Later, as the Moslem invaders were destroying Buddhism in Northern India, the Mongols were led by Genghiz Khan in 1206 in a war to establish his kingdom across China and Mongolia. The Tibetan lamas seized this opportunity to convert the notorious Khan to Tibetan Buddhism prior to his becoming the Emperor of China. This symbiotic relationship of patron-priest served them both well as the Tibetan Grand Lama became a vassal-ruler of Tibet and spiritual advisor to the Emperor.

Because of the corruption of the Tibetan monastic centers, a reform movement arose called the “dGe-lugs-pa“(pronounced Gelak) literally the “Model of Virtue” recognized by their “yellow hats.” This is the school of Tibetan Buddhism led by the Dalai Lama. Their school focuses upon the serious study of Tantric texts such as the Kalachakra [4] Tantra which forms the foundation of their national myth. [vii]

A key component of their religious agenda is the establishment of Shambhala, a global Buddhist empire, illuminated in the Kalachakra initiation. While researching the life of Agvan Dorzhiev, tutor to the XIII Dalai Lama and Lhasa’s emissary to Russia’s Tsar, John Snelling uncovered the “ShambhalaProject,” Dorzhiev’s vision of a great Buddhist empire. “Many Kalachakra devotees, including the present Dalai Lama believe that it is an actual place.”[viii] Dorzhiev “skillfully” negotiated the political support of the Bolshevik regime in his religious vision by stating that “Buddhist doctrine is largely compatible with current Communist thinking.” [ix]

The “Shambhala Project” incorporated Geshe Wangyal, a key Tibetan Buddhist leader from Kalmykia (a Tibetan Buddhist Republic in the former USSR). Fleeing the “full brunt of Stalin’s wrath” in 1952, Kalmyk refugees were the first group of Tibetan Buddhists to see Lady Liberty. After resettling in New Jersey, they established a Tibetan Buddhist temple and “in 1955, the eminent Kalmyk Lama Geshe Wangyal (1901-83) came to minister there.[x]

Who is the Dalai Lama and What Does He Believe? The term Dalai Lama describes the Office of God-King of Tibet (not unlike the term Pope of Roman Catholicism) and literally means “Ocean of Wisdom.” It was first ascribed to Sonam Gyatso (1543) the Gelak Buddhist reformer by Altan Khan, the leader of Mongolia. Tibetan followers refer to him by the title “Kundun” meaning “the Presence.”

The phrase “the Lama knows” is commonly heard throughout all strata of Tibet’s priest dominated society. Its’ early kings established the divine right of priest-kings and enforced “absolute submission to a religiously charismatic individual.” [xi] For the laity, it is impossible to achieve enlightenment without the instruction of a private lama (guru). From childhood Tibetans are taught to worship the Four Jewels paying; “homage first to the Lama (spiritual master), then to the Buddha, Dharma (Law of Buddhism), and Sangha (priestly community).” [xii]

Reincarnation or Patisandhi (lit. Reunion, Relinking) is a foundational belief of Tibetan Buddhism, wherein an individual’s consciousness or mind is reborn lifetime after lifetime based upon the karmic conditions of their previous existence. Karma is the sum total of “the wholesome or unwholesome actions by body (kaya-kamma), speech (vaci-kamma) and mind (mano-kamma)” which will determine when, where and what form you will be born into, be it a peacock, snake, elephant, or king.

In each lamasery (monastery) approximately 30 lamas are accorded the rank of “noble monks” resulting from their recognition as reincarnations of previous lamas. One such story involves a young boy named Lhamo Thondup who was born in 1935 during the year of the Wood Hog in a small village in northeast Tibet. A group of Tibetan lamas disguised as merchants were led to his household by “a series of signs and visions” in their search for the new reincarnation of the recently deceased thirteenth Dalai Lama.

At the age of three, little Thondup took “hold of the prayer beads around the “servant’s” neck, which had belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama,” and demanded “to be given them saying they were his.” [xiii] These signs along with a physical examination, led the lamas to believe he was indeed the 14th Dalai Lama, considered to be an incarnation of Avalokitsevara, the patron deity of Tibet believed to be able to save all living beings. To obtain his release they paid a large ransom demanded by the local Muslim Governor.

At the age of five he was enthroned in Tibet’s Potala Palace, taken to the Jokhang Temple for ordination, had his head shaved and was renamed “Tenzin Gyatso.” For the next eight years his tutors trained him in the monastic curriculum and the art of leading a nation. He was also schooled in theoccult praxis of Tibetan Buddhism based upon ritualistic chanting of sutras and the magical incantation of Om mani padme hum.

Unlike salvation within Christianity wherein an individual relies upon the unmerited favor of God and through faith personally accepts Christ’s finished work of redemption on the Cross, the religion of Tibetan Buddhism is based upon a rigorous system of works righteousness through which an individual accumulates enough merit to achieve deliverance from the wheel of Samsara or cycle of rebirths. These works primarily include the redundant recitation of incantations (mantras and sutras), proscribed religious rites and an assortment of mechanistic practices utilizing Buddhist rosary beads, prayer wheels, prayer flags, mani stones, visualization of demonic entities and symbolic offerings.

Those disciples who are on a fast track to enlightenment would include attendance of their guru’s empowerment ceremonies, performance of Tantric rituals, deity yoga (being spiritually yoked to Tibetan gods) and other acts, some of which are too vile to mention. Herein, they perform rigorous acts of asceticism which deny the contemptible flesh, whereby they hope to make significant merit to attain the short path of liberation and attain nirvana, “the ultimate and absolute deliverance from all future rebirth, old age, disease and death, from all suffering and misery.”

The Public Relations Department. How is it that wherever the Dalai Lama ventures, that the seemingly Teflon mystique of “Shangri-La” follows him? Originally the myth seems to have found its voice through the writings of James Hilton, the author of Lost Horizons and Lowell Thomas’s radio programs about his adventures in Tibet. [xiv] Movie Director, Frank Capra perpetuated the myth of “Shangri-La,” a mysterious hidden kingdom through “Lost Horizons” (1937).

Rarely though does the Dalai Lama speak of his country’s historical problems with feudalism or his political contacts with Neo-Socialists. In Tricycle, a quarterly Buddhist magazine, Alex McKay explores the Nazi expedition to Tibet in 1939 involving five members of Hitler’s Secret Service. Their anthropological studies sought to confirm evidence of Hitler’s “idea of racial perfection that would justify their views on world history and German supremacy.” [xv] This became a source of embarrassment to the producers of “Seven Years in Tibet” which quickly glossed over Heinrech Harrer’s SS connection to Adolf Hitler.

Dr. Erwin Lutzer, pastor of Moody Bible Church in Chicago, shared his concern about Tibet’s connection with Nazi Germany in Hitler’s Cross, a startling expose. He wrote,

Karl Haushofer became Hitler’s mentor. Haushofer had made several trips to India and was well versed in eastern occultism. He also lived in Japan for a time where he was initiated into an esoteric Buddhist sect called the “Green Dragon.” Through these contacts a colony of Tibetan lamas settled in Berlin, and when the Russians took the city in 1945, they found a thousand Tibetan corpses in German uniforms. Haushofer, more than any other, challenged Hitler with the vision of world conquest. [xvi]

The newer contacts of the Dalai Lama with Neo-Nazis are equally troubling. On several occasions he has met with Chilean diplomat Miguel Serrano, the leader of the National Socialist Party of Chile who is the “ideologist of esoteric Hitlerism.” Serrano was a student of ‘Julius Evola (1898-1974) WWII Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini’s chief ideologist, who was heavily influenced by Tibetan Tantricism.’ [xvii]

The remarkable tenure of the Dalai Lama as God-King for life surpasses every President we’ve had since Franklin D. Roosevelt. Although most nations do not officially recognize Tibet as a sovereign nation, they still allow the Dalai Lama the liberty to speak from his platform as a religious leader, even though they have little knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism’s global agenda or its worldview. As a religious and political foreign guest, the Dalai Lama has mastered the Buddhist art of “skillful means” (Upaya) and utilizes his position to propagate Tibetan Buddhism believing “the end, justifies the means.”

In October 1950, “his age of innocence was swept away as eighty thousand (Chinese) soldiers marched into Chamdo and started the “peaceful liberation” of Tibet.” [xviii]

Commencing at fifteen the Dalai Lama formally assumed the reign of authority as the temporal and spiritual ruler of Tibet and directly dealt with the Chinese occupation until his escape in March 1959. Moment’s before leaving, the Dalai Lama presented a long silk scarf to his personal protector deity,Mahakala. [5] He later commented, “This is the traditional Tibetan gesture on departure and signifies not only propitiation, but also implies the intention of return.”

The US political ties with the Dalai Lama extend back to the CIA’s secret operations as overseen by President’s Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson. [xix]In 1956, the US government secretly trained 300 Tibetan Khamba warriors in Colorado’s Winter Training camp to assist the Dalai Lama, who later “thanked the CIA for organizing some of the guerrillas who protected him during his flight into Indian exile in 1959.” [xx]

How did the Dalai Lama rise to such a high level of international recognition? After his escape, he spent much time concentrating on establishing the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India and encouraging Tibetans to engage in non-violent opposition to the Communist occupation of Tibet. Subsequent travels to Japan and Thailand in 1967 cemented his ties with Asian Buddhists.

In 1973, his first exposure to the West focused on visits to the Tibetan Diaspora in Switzerland and a meeting with Pope Paul IV. His biggest shock came when he found that the next generation of Swiss Tibetans could not speak Tibetan. Upon his 1979 arrival in the United States, the New York Timesheadline greeted him with the now abused greeting, “Hello Dalai!”

During his second journey to the US in July 1981, the Dalai Lama conducted the first Kalachakra Initiation in the West at the Deer Park Buddhist Center in Madison, Wisconsin. Coinciding with the Year of the Iron Bird, they symbolically fulfilled an ancient prophecy of Padmasambhava issued in 745 A.D., “When the Iron Bird flies to the land of the red man, the Dharma will come to the West.”

The Kalachakra Tantra was first preached by the Buddha who explained the spiritual practices necessary to remove obstacles blocking the path to Buddhahood. The Tantric texts include over twelve thousand stanzas, numerous expositions and commentaries written over the last 2,500 years passed to Tibet through Indian Tantric adepts. Normally, before Tibetan lamas are allowed to study Tantric practices, they are required to graduate from regular monastic studies. Concern has been expressed by Tantric practitioners that the Kalachakra initiation is being offered so openly to unprepared Western audiences.

Geshe (Dr.) Ngawang Dhargyey gave an explanation of the Kalachakra to his Seattle students in 1983 which revealed that Tantric teachings were designed as medicine for specific students. Monks typically forbidden to take alcohol or to engage in sexual intercourse with women by the monastic discipline were told that this rule was meant for lower beings. He reasoned that “these same activities can further one towards the attainment of enlightenment” and that highly realized teachers can transform “the five ambrosias” e.g., excrement, urine, menstrual blood and “experience great bliss.”[xxi]

A reading of the Dalai Lama’s commentary on the Kalachakra creates understandable room for concern. Provisional and definitive justification was given to certain followers who had achieved a level of great altruism and compassion, permitting acts that ranged from killing “persons who are harmful to the teaching;” speaking “untrue words” for worthwhile purposes; “stealing others’ wealth” or “mates;” and finally permitting the use of intoxicants, the five ambrosias, and the five fleshes. [xxii] Whether these statements are meant to be taken literally or not is a question well worth posing to the Buddhist community. For us as Christians, they represent doctrines which definitely need to be exposed, but at the same time are too shameful to mention in public.

After thirty years of exile in India, the Dalai Lama was invited to Sweden where he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his non-violent efforts to resolve the Chinese armed occupation of Tibet. The first major door, the Prize, opened for his cause was “The International Year of Tibet” in 1990 which was celebrated in schools, museums, and cities around the globe. Since then the Dalai Lama’s notoriety has dramatically increased.

The Dalai Lama’s Popularity

For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect (Matthew 24:24).

Why do Americans so wholeheartedly embrace him? Founded by political and religious immigrants who fled from repressive regimes, Americans are characterized as a people of goodwill who have a compassionate heart for the oppressed. Slowly, as knowledge of the Chinese invasion of Tibet grew and stories of the gruesome deaths of nearly a million Tibetans through violence or starvation became public, Americans committed to issues of freedom and justice took a strong stand against the repression of Tibetans’ human rights and the systematic destruction of 7500 Buddhist monasteries.

That same year, America welcomed one thousand Tibetan refugees following the passage of the “1990 Tibetan Refugee Resettlement Act” introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass). Since then the Free Tibet movement has been vigorously promoted by an influential Washington lobby spearheaded by Senator Patrick Moynihan, former Ambassador to India, his daughter Maura, and Richard Blum, philanthropist, President of the Himalayan Foundation and husband of Senator Diane Feinstein. Assisted by the notoriety and financial backing of Hollywood celebrities Richard Gere, Steven Seagal, Harrison Ford, and the Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch, the cause found a global stage.

Hollywood has become the Dalai Lama’s most significant public relations department.

The twentieth anniversary re-release of “Star Wars” continues to underscore Hollywood’s public love affair with the postmodern Buddhist illusion. According to Director Irving Kirschner, “The Empire Strikes Back” was “designed to introduce Zen Buddhism to children.” [xxiii] Yoda was the proverbial Zen Master. Lucas Films production of the “Phantom Menace” focused on the council’s selection of the next incarnation of a Jedi Knight closely paralleling the process through which each successive Dalai Lama is selected. Would it be unfair to say that the Dalai Lama is the contemporary physical embodiment of Yoda in our popular culture’s consciousness?

A number of years ago, I received a knock at my office door from a neighbor who had caught a glimpse of our ministry sign. He said he was a member of the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order and had moved from Seattle after being hired as Director of Public Relations for Disney. So it wasn’t a surprise when I later heard that Disney was backing Martin Scorcese’s production on the Dalai Lama’s life called “Kundun” for a cool $30 million. Scorcese you may recall previously produced the controversial film, “The Last Temptation of Christ.”

The historical revisionist production “Seven Years in Tibet” attracted a large following in Europe and America who flocked to see Brad Pitt’s portrayal of Nazi Stormtrooper Heinrech Harrer and his ensuing adventures in Tibet featuring his stumbling inter-cultural relationship with the Dalai Lama. Following the film’s release, the monthly number of hits on the Free Tibet Website increased from 500 to 40,000.

The distinction of being the first Tibetan Buddhist Lama from America goes to Columbia University Professor Robert Thurman, father of actress Uma Thurman. It is rumored that Thurman, who has been mentored by Geshe Wangyal and the Dalai Lama is Dorjiev’s successor and closely connected to his vision of the Shambhala utopia. Referred to as “the Billy Graham of Buddhism” Thurman openly “maintains he will be able to celebrate the Buddhization of the USA within his lifetime.” [xxiv]

In 1991, as Director of Tibet House in New York City which he co-founded with Richard Gere, he sponsored “the Kalachakra Initiation at New York’s Madison Square Garden.” [xxv] The Tibet Center houses a three dimensional Kalachakra Mandala and the only life sized statue of the Kalachakra deity outside of Tibet. Following the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, “The Samaya Foundation, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the Port Authority jointly sponsored the Wheel of Time (Kalachakra) Sand Mandala, or Circle of Peace, in the lobby of Tower 1.” [xxvi] For over thirty days, many of the World Trade Center workers and visitors were invited by the Namgyal Monks to participate in the construction of the mandala. It is said that,

Its shape symbolized nature’s unending cycle of creation and destruction and in the countless grains of its material, it celebrated life’s energy taking ephemeral form, then returning to its source. At the end of the mandala’s month long lifespan, the monks swept up the sand and “offered it to the Hudson River.” This ritual, they believed, purified the environment[xxvii]

For ten days in August 1993, the Palmer Hilton in Chicago was buzzing as 6,000 delegates from a variety of religious backgrounds attended the Centennial Celebration of the Parliament of the World’s Religions. The religious leader that all the eyes of the media focused on was the XIV Dalai Lama, the God-King of Tibet who easily emerged out of the Parliament as the Pluralist Pope.

Now whatever city the Dalai Lama visits, lights flash, noisy keyboards churn out the standard lines and cry for a “Free Tibet!” One moment he seriously addresses human rights abuse in Tibet and the next exhibits an attitude of humorous curiosity that the public finds attractive. The global oral cuisine he delivers with few variations is kindness, compassion and world peace, with a twist of don’t change the faith you’re born with, be tolerant and don’t proselytize.

Dr. David Woodward, a Christian scholar who has sympathetically followed the plight of Tibetans for the last fifty years commented, “It is, of course, ridiculous for him to criticize Christian witness when he himself is engaged in proselytizing westerners.” [xxviii] It was blatantly obvious to Tibet watchers during the spring of 2001, when in Oregon 9,000 hand-picked high school representatives were selected to attend a talk given by the Dalai Lama who encouraged them to become ambassadors of peace. His texts were required pre-reading. And yet, not many of his inviters really knew who this “simple monk” was.

The Dalai Lama as a religious and political globetrotter is reticent to acknowledge his dubious contacts with fringe groups. One such leader is Shoko Asahara, leader of Aum Shinrikyo (a Buddhist apocalyptic Sect) who also holds to a vision of a global Buddhist empire (Shambhala). Asahara is now being tried in Japan for the poison gas attack on a Tokyo subway which injured 5,000 and killed twelve in 1995.

Meetings with the Pope and extensive dialogues with many Catholics such as the late Thomas Merton, who he referred to as a close friend “who taught me a deeper way” than the Bible [xxix] cause one to question the global agenda of this “simple monk.” One closed session of the “Buddhist-Christian Monastic Dialogue” brought together Benedictine and Trappist Monks with the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan Buddhist lamas in a discussion to explore their religious differences and similarities, while Loyola Marymount University opened its doors hosting lamas who built a mandala on its campus. Bryan Borys, a Catholic Professor at USC who attended the Dalai Lama’s three day teaching in Pasadena said, “I think he’s the closest thing to a hero that anyone has around here nowadays.” [xxx]

Evidence that his tolerance is clearly pragmatic is seen as he skillfully exercises care not to offend his hosts be they Mormon, Catholic or Hindu. And yet, his embrace of pluralism is clearly in keeping with the goals of his exclusivist school of Buddhism. After advancing “five arguments against the existence of God” at a talk to a pro-Buddhist audience, he went onto deny the “soteriological (salvific) claims of Christianity,” while holding fast to the “truth that Tibetan Buddhism will be found to make final sense, in contrast to all rival claims and other religions.” As for mission, he maintained, “If Buddhists themselves have to wait, perhaps many lifetimes for their goal, why should we expect that it would be different for non-Buddhists?” [xxxi]

As Christians we hold to the principal that one will reap what one sow’s, but unlike Buddhists we only believe in one lifetime (Heb. 9:27) and that we can not atone for our sins alone (Eph.2:8-9). Robert B. Ekvall (1898-1978), a 19th century anthropologist and missionary to Tibetan nomads penned the words to one of his converts who understood the Good News of Christ’s incarnation. He wrote,

It is ordered for man to die once and after that to be judged. That word once makes the road of life a straight line. We cannot change it. The Complete Perfection [God] that made all things, the great powerful One has ordered it. His honored order stands. We must die once. Not many times, between many rebirths, but one. After that we must be judged from the sins and the sin–leaf, branch, and root. Life is no succession of circles, but a straight line, leading from one time without end to another time without end. It is but once: once to live, once to choose, once to win or lose, once to be saved, or once to be lost. [xxxii]

For Tibetan Buddhists “nothing has inherent existence.” Ultimate truth for Buddhism is relative contrasted to the Christian view where it represents an eternally non-negotiable matter leading to spiritual life or spiritual death. Ultimately doctrine does affect the fruit produced through practice. Belief behaves.

Unlike the Judaeo-Christian immigrants from Europe admitted through Ellis Island a century before, Tibetans arriving from Asia have a religious worldview diametrically opposed to a belief in One God. Resettlement in Los Angeles, Seattle, Minneapolis and thirteen other sites was carefully rethought after the Dalai Lama’s experience of the Tibetan Diaspora’s cultural deterioration in Switzerland. After studying persecuted Jews’ pattern for survival, he purposely encouraged resettlement in cluster sites complete with a resident Buddhist lama, craftsman, artisans, and families to maintain their cultural and religious cohesiveness.

In community after community, the Dalai Lama seems to find acceptance. We identify with other’s stories, for in many ways it is our own story retold. When the Dalai Lama received the “Simon Wiesenthal Peace Prize” in 1996, the Jewish community readily identified with the genocide experienced by the Tibetans and likened him to “Aaron, our man of peace.” He then suggested to the audience that his people had much to learn from the Jews about preserving a minority religious culture that faced extinction. And yet all pilgrims are not alike.

As I listened to the presentation, conflicting pictures flashed through my mind. The Dalai Lama at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem juxtaposed to his close friendships with Nazis from World War II like Heinrech Harrer stirred up some unsettled feelings about this “Oz of Tibet.” Christians who had served Tibetan refugees in the early days expressed a strange alarm at the Dalai Lama’s rapid rise to global prominence. Secular Tibet watchers on the other hand said society needed a man of peace like the Dalai Lama.

The passage from the prophet Daniel in 537 B.C. was particularly striking to me in that setting as I contemplated the reality of the manifest presence of a “man of peace” who will in the end demand worship of himself. I meditatively read,

And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of Princes; but he shall be broken without hand (Dan 8:25 KJV).

A Modern Trojan Horse? “They that do not study history are doomed to repeat it.” Victor and Victoria Trimondi, two radical German Buddhists who were instrumental in inviting the Dalai Lama to Germany wrote, “Only the worst villain could disagree with what he has said and written.” After responding to his encouragement to convert to Tibetan Buddhism, they uncovered an extreme “metaphysical exploitation of women,” a vile connection between magic and politics, and “the foundation for an absolutistic system in which spiritual and worldly power are united in one person, the Dalai Lama.” [xxxiii]

Their findings were released in February 1999 in The Shadow of the Dalai Lama: Sexuality, Magic and Politics, an expose of 800 pages of carefully researched and reasoned arguments. The Trimondi’s take you on a painful spiritual 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 theNechung Oracle [6] in all his important State decisions. A deity war is being waged today against the 20,000 followers of Shugden Dorje, whose worship was outlawed by the Dalai Lama and is being enforced by house-to-house searches in India.

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.’ [xxxiv]

In light of Tibet’s historical takeover of Bön, one might be tempted to seriously ask, “Do we as Americans understand the Buddhist worldview that is motivating Tibetans to systematically build sand mandalas across America? Or are they simply sharing their art and culture to raise money to build prayer halls in Asia?” In October 1998, two groups of Tantric Buddhist monks began a tour across America and Canada to construct 100 sand mandalas which were predominantly financed by Gere Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Their professed goal beyond raising funds simply was “to spread their knowledge to everyone who wants to learn about their traditions.” [xxxv]

In one of Karl Gustav Jung’s last works, “Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth,” he remarked that mandalas are the “pre-eminent symbol for our time” and appear in “situations of psychic confusion and perplexity.” [xxxvi] He went on to associate the psychological experience of the UFO phenomena with the “rotundum, the symbol of wholeness and the archetype that expresses itself in mandala form.” [xxxvii]

In the blockbuster movie, “Independence Day” you may recall the terror of citizens across the globe who helplessly observed alien ships attack earth in a global Armageddon. A review of the movie discloses alien ships assuming the form of giant air born mandalas, symbolically opening up as lotus flowers (euphemistic Tantric symbol for vagina in Buddhism) usurping power from giant buildings (phallic symbolism) that penetrated the skies. Prior to the White House’s destruction by an alien ship, a split second shot of a small framed picture of the Dalai Lama and the President is revealed in the Oval Office.

According to the Trimondi’s, “the Kalachakra sand mandala is a means of occult possession of the territory in which it is created” [xxxviii] including the waters where it is dispersed, reminding one of their original strategy of conquest in Tibet. Some Buddhists theorize it brings peace, while other Buddhist scholars speculate it brings destruction in its wake. One such mandala was sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution as part of a $6,500,000 Summer 2000 Folk Life Festival featuring “Tibet Land Beyond the Snows” on the Capitol Mall in Washington, DC. Over 2,500,000 visitors attended the exhibit replete with Tibetan temple, prayer monument, prayer wheels, pornographic Tantric idols and chanting lamas.

Caveat Emptor. In the overcrowded marketplace of ideas, where every guru, priest, and religious leader is being promoted as the solution to the world’s problems, “buyers beware” is a watchword to be taken quite seriously. Maybe my apprehension arises out of my experience as a Buddhist in the 70’s hearing all the talk about peace, compassion and kindness from leaders who in the same breathe spoke in condescending tones about the superiority of Buddhism. Critical thinking however, doesn’t need to go out the door when we are hosting, interacting or sharing our faith with those of other religious persuasions.

Christians have a duty to investigate religious systems that impact their lives and to effectively proclaim the Gospel in full understanding of the context of world history. Os Guinness, born in China, educated at Oxford, at a talk at La’bri in 1973 issued a stern warning to the Church it has yet to heed:

The swing to the East has come at a time when Christianity is weak at just those points where it would need to be strong to withstand the East. Without this strength, the Eastern religions will be to Christianity a new, dangerous Gnosticism, but this time much of the fight will be lost before many see the nature of the danger. [xxxix]

I have observed Tibetan lamas in local host museums teaching young children how to make mandalas who were innocently unaware of their proximity to malevolent spirits. Even Tibetan lamas recognize dangerous demons that manifest during the construction of mandalas and perform ritual offerings to them to prevent their own possession by demonic spirits. The late Mas Toyotomi, a Japanese American who served with Japanese Evangelical Missions Society warned,

Satan’s subtle strategy is to camouflage idolatry in such a way that even Christians do not recognize it as such. Because there is practically no preaching against idolatry in America, they are vulnerable to the temptations of modern sophisticated idolatry.[xl]

The watchman’s warning is clear (Ezekiel 33:4). The Tibetan Buddhist World Peace Vase Project [7] recently completed its’ first global target, America. Tantric vases have now been buried in every state, key National Parks, significant mountain peaks, Capital cities, lakes, and major waterways. Tibetan Tantric Lamas continue to build mandalas at Universities, museums, buildings and temples in America financed by major foundations. In the Old Testament, God “abandoned Israel because it was filled “with idols” and “influences from the east.”

Rather than serving God and loving Him, they “mingled with the nations and learned their practices which were detestable to the Lord. So the Lord “gave them into the hand of the nations and those who hated them ruled over them” (Psalm 106:40b). It is our duty to flee idolatry and to expose the deeds of darkness. Our battle is not against Tibetans for whom Jesus Christ gave His life, but rather it is for them by wrestling against the ruling spirits of darkness that have kept them in spiritual bondage for centuries (Eph. 6:12).

As the Apostle Paul observed the spirituality of the people of Athens at Areopagus near the Acropolis, he found an altar with this inscription, “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.” What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you” (Acts 17:23). To those who profess to be followers of Buddhism, I call attention to your Scripture,

Verily, there is an Unborn, Unoriginated, Uncreated, Unformed. If there were not this Unborn, Unoriginated, Uncreated, Unformed; Escape from the world of the born, the originated, the created, the formed would not be possible (Ud.VIII.3). [xli]

This “Uncreated” is Jehovah God, unborn because He is the unchanging I AM. He is above time and desires to be known and that humanity not be ignorant of His path of deliverance (John 20:30-31). The greatest Mystery of all is that He would physically reveal Himself through His Incarnation as Immanuel (God with us). To those seekers who have eyes to see and ears to hear all creation manifests His handiwork and the heavens speak of his glory. Tibetan Buddhists recognize the power of speech. Seek the “Uncaused Cause”, the Creator who spoke the heavens and the earth into existence from nothing (Gen. 1:1).

There is a dualism, marking a profound distinction between God and His creation in sharp opposition to the Buddhist monism which holds that all creation is divine. Without the Uncreated Cause there is no deliverance from the created cycle of sin conceived through the loins of our own ancestors and our intrinsic relationship with their fall. The Dalai Lama has himself said, “I am not perfect.” And yet, there is a promise of deliverance from that cycle of sin through the only perfect Master who “committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth” (I Peter 2:23). His name is the LORD Jesus Christ whose boundless merit can only be appropriated by faith. He still offers the invitation,

I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved… The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly (John 10:9-10). [xlii]


Footnotes:

[1] A map of Buddhism in America may be viewed online (http://www.AProphetsReward.com/invasion/tibetans.jpg), which is composed from a number of sources including Morreale’s Buddhist America: Centers, Retreats, and Practices.

[2] Tantras according to Christmas Humphrey’s Popular Dictionary of Buddhism (pg. 192-93) are “writings dating from the sixth century A.D. in India…whose “meaning is handed down from Guru to Chela. Both symbolize the basic duality of manifestation in figures, in sculpture or in pictures, composed of some deity or aspect of Reality with a female partner locked in sexual embrace…(In) the Tantras of Tibet the female represents Wisdom (Prajna), and the male the active ‘use’ or compassionate ‘skill in means’ of that wisdom.”

[3] Mantra is defined by Humphrey’s as “A magical formula or invocation used in Tantric Bsm. In Tibet and in the Shingon School of Japan. The practice is based on a scientific knowledge of the occult power of sound. The most famous Mantra is Om Mani Padme Hum.”

[4] The Kalachakra (God of the Wheel of Time) Tantra is a ritual empowerment initiated by a Tibetan Buddhist Master, such as the Dalai Lama who initiates a disciple or group of disciples into the Shambhala kingdom of the Adi-Buddha (universal religious monarch). This is accomplished through a series of secret, active empowerments based upon Buddhist myths that utilize “deity yoga” ( lit. “yoked with Brahman” a Hindu god).

[5] According to Alice Getty, “Mahakala, a.k.a., “Dharmapala,” “The Great Black One,” is “the tutelary god of Mongolia who was not popular until the sixteenth century, when the Dalai-lama was summoned to the court of Altan Khan, and so influenced the king that all non-Buddhist idols were burned, and the six-armed Mahakala was proclaimed Protector of the Mongolian Buddhists.” A manifestation of the god of wealth.

[6] The Nechung Oracle is a human being, submitted to the Dalai Lama who is specially designated to receive demonic impartation verbally instructing the Dalai Lama on key decisions.

[7] The Tibetan Buddhist World Peace Vase Project, http://www.siddharthasintent.org/peace/n_amarica/us.htm


[i] Morreale, Don, 1998 The Complete Guide to Buddhist America. Boston: Shambhala.

[ii] Guinness, Os, 1993 The American Hour: A Time of Reckoning and the Once and Future Role of Faith. New York: Free Press.

[iii] Matsunaga, Alicia, 1969 The Buddhist Philosophy of Assimilation. Tokyo: Voyager’s Press.

[iv] Parrinder, Geoffrey, 1971 A Dictionary of Non-Christian Religions. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, pg. 48.

[v] Ling, T.O., 1972 A Dictionary of Buddhism: A Guide to Thought and Tradition. New York: Charles Scribner & Sons. (pp. 245-252).

[vi] 2000 Report from research at a Tibetan monastery shared at a consultation.

[vii] Banerjee, Anukul Chandra, 1984 Aspects of Buddhist Culture from Tibetan Sources. Firma KLM Private Limited: Calcutta,).

[viii] Snelling, John, 1993 Buddhism in Russia: The Story of Agvan Dorzhiev, Lhasa’s Emissary to the Tsar. Rockport, MA: Element Books Limited, pg. xii, 78.

[ix]Ibid. pg. 193.

[x] Ibid. pg. 256.

[xi] Nakamura, Hajime, 1985 Ways of Thinking of Eastern Peoples. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, pg.327.

[xii] Ibid. 318.

[xiii] Farrer-Halls, Gill, 1998 The World of the Dalai Lama: An Inside Look at His Life, His People, and His Vision. Wheaton, Illinois: Quest Books-Theosophical Publishing House.

[xiv] Orville Schell, 2000 Virtual Tibet: Searching for Shangri-La from the Himalayas to Hollywood. New York: Henry Holt & Co.

[xv] McKay, Alex, Spring 2001 “Hitler and the Himalayas: The SS Mission to Tibet 1938-1939.” Marion, Ohio: Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, pg. 65.

[xvi] Sklar, Dusty, 1977 The Nazis and the Occult. Dorset: New York, pp. 54, 23.

[xvii] Trimondi, Victor & Victoria, 2000 The Shadow of the Dalai Lama: Sexuality, Magic and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism. English Translation pre-release is through the courtesy of the Trimondi’s. H-M-R Medienagentur.

[xviii] Farrer-Halls, Gill, 1998 The World of the Dalai Lama. Wheaton, Ill: Quest Books, pg. 77.

[xix] Wooding, Dan, August 10, 1999 “How God Helped Save The Dalai Lama of Tibet.

[xx] Mirsky, Jonathan, July 18, 1999 “Mission Impossible: An Account of the C.I.A.’s Secret Operations in Tibet.” NY Times.

[xxi] Dhargyey, Geshe Ngawang, A Commentary on the Kalachakra Tantra. New Delhi: Library of Tibetan Works & Archives.

[xxii] Hopkins, Jeffrey, 1989 Kalachakra Tantra Rite of Initiation for the Stage of Regeneration: A Commentary on the Text of Kay-drup-ge-lek-bel-sang-bo by Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, and the text itself. Wisdom Publications: London, pp. 350-351.

[xxiii] Amano, J. Yutaka & Geisler, Norman L., 1983 The Religion of the Force. Dallas: Quest Publications.

[xxiv] Trimondi, Victor & Victoria, 2000 The Shadow of the Dalai Lama: Sexuality, Magic and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism. English Translation pre-release is through the courtesy of the Trimondi’s. H-M-R Medienagentur.

[xxv] Farrer-Halls, Gill, 1998 The World of the Dalai Lama. Wheaton, IL: Quest Books-Theosophical Publishing House.

[xxvi] Darton, Eric, 1999 Divided We Stand: a Biography of New York’s World Trade Center. New York: Basic Books.

[xxvii] Ibid.

[xxviii] Woodward, David, 2001 Excerpt from the Author’s e-mail correspondence with Dr. David Woodward, March 2001.

[xxix] Former Buddhist Monk, 1993 The author’s eyewitness account in Chicago at the 1993 Parliament of the World’s Religions.

[xxx] Watanabe, Theresa, October 12, 1999 “Dalai Lama: Humble Man Inspires Awe.” Los Angeles Times.

[xxxi] D’Costa, Gavin

2000 The Meeting of Religions and the Trinity. “The Near Triumph of Tibetan Buddhist Pluralist-Exclusivism.” Maryknoll: Orbis Books, pp. 72-95.

[xxxii] Ekvall, Robert B., 1978 Tents Against the Sky. Westchester, IL: Good News Publishers, pp.249-250.

[xxxiii] Trimondi, Victor & Victoria, 2000 The Shadow of the Dalai Lama: Sexuality, Magic and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism. English Translation pre-release is through the courtesy of the Trimondi’s. H-M-R Medienagentur.

[xxxiv] Ibid.

[xxxv] Monk’s Tour website address: http://www.monkstour.org/

[xxxvi] Jung, C.G., 1959 Mandala Symbolism. Princeton, NJ: Bollingen Foundation.

[xxxvii] Ibid. pg. vi.

[xxxviii] Victor and Victoria Trimondi’s website: http://www.trimondi.de/en/med01.html

[xxxix] Guinness, Os, 1973 The Dust of Death: A Critique of the Counterculture. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, pg. 209.

[xl] Former Buddhist Monk, 1993 “Looking at Buddhist America and Keys to World Evangelization.” Pasadena, CA: The International Journal of Frontier Missions, pg. 111.

[xli] Nyanantiloka, 1972 Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines. Colombo, Ceylon: Frewin & Co., Ltd., pg. 106.

[xlii] The Holy Bible, New King James Version. 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc.

The Tantric Takeover of Turtle Island-Lessons from Tibet

by James C. Stephens


“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?”
The Shadow of the Dalai Lama-The Incarnation of the Tibetan gods
To All Concerned About the Future of Turtle Island,
This is a very important read to understand what the Tibetans are actually doing on Turtle Island. It is a well developed archetypal pattern.
Read the following article all the way through prayerfully. I am interacting with the article from Tibetan Digital Altar with bracketed comments, a few of my maps, some photos,  the map which I composed which actually takes their map and transposes it over Turtle Island and an earlier map I did of all the Buddhist temples, monasteries, tantric vases, sand mandalas, stupas, blood relic tour and Buddhist “art exhibits.”
 Here’s one map I put together of just the sand mandalas (red dots) and the tantric vases (green dots) which have been buried across the US.  (Does not include the overlay of the transposed nailed down body of the demoness (see below).
Mandalas and Tantric Vases in US
They are masters of ritual defilement. I still don’t know why so many have been blinded to this defiant act against the MOST HIGH YHWH. For years we have warned to little avail. Btw, I have since discovered that early on Tantric Buddhism was schooled by the Jesuits in organizing their monastic forces. No wonder they love working together. Such a veil has been drawn over the masses. Only YHWH can remove it. So here’s their research:
[For future reference, notice that the demoness is nailed down and her head is geomatically oriented to the northeast].
{Before you read the following, watch my overview video that I had put together a number of years ago. This will give you a perspective on what you are about to read. I just ran across the text from Digital Tibetan Altars website the other day, many years after I pieced together the other video, so you’ll see that it fills in many of the blanks and actually confirms what I had surmissed to be true.
This is taken from the site Digital Tibetan Altar. It’s not an easy read, but you get a fuller idea of the basis of their worldview. Warning. All this is basically what one would call geomancy, which deals with manipulation of the order of God, in other words it is occultic, magic in so many words:
“In our first articles on this subject, Tibetan Geomancy, and Tibetan Geomancy: Part Two, we have been exploring rudimentary themes. In the instant post, we are going to explore these themes in a bit more depth, by taking comparative notice of Chinese and Indian geomancy. Once again, “geomancy” is an uncomfortable word as applied in either case, but we use it for the sake of handiness, albeit incorrectly. We are going to begin with a quick look at what the Chinese call wu hsing, the Indians call  panchabhuta, and everybody else calls the “five elements.”
I suppose the threshold question is, who got what from where?
I doubt we can answer that question by opening books. The hermeneutical hunt for India’s first Chinese visitor, or China’s first Indian visitor, depends upon deciphering archaic allusions in Indian texts, Chinese texts, and those of the Greeks and Romans. Until we get the lexicology well in hand we will be crossing this part of history the way a small boy crosses a creek, by hopping from stone to stone. I mention this simply because we cannot claim to know whether — as it is applied to geomancy, and strictly in that sense only — the Chinese dragged five element theory back from India, or the Indians dragged it home from China. We can suspect the Chinese received it from India, and chances are we can make a convincing argument, but we cannot be absolutely certain.
In part, this is because India’s five elements and China’s five elements are rather different from one another. The Indian panchabhuta are earth, water, air, fire, and space. The Chinese wu hsing are wood, fire, earth, metal, water. They are not only different in a component sense, but as we shall see, they are regarded differently.
Wu hsing theory seems to arise in China somewhere between 350 BCEand 270 BCE, during the lifetime of the scholar Tsou Yen. You can get some argument about that, pushing the date back to before 400 BCE, but the later dates are substantially established. Of Tsou Yen, the great Cambridge historian Joseph Needham writes:
“If he was not the sole originator of Five-Element theory, he systematized and stabilised ideas on the subject which had been floating about, especially in the eastern seaboard States of Chhi and Yen, for not more than a century at most before his time.”
So, what did Tsou Yen understand as wu hsing? The character wu is simple: it is the cardinal number five. The character hsing demands elaboration. In antiquity, hsing was a pictograph representing a cross-roads or confluence of courses. It is a radical character which at its root has come to mean motility: to do, to act, to walk, to travel. It can also be taken to mean process, conduct, behavior, or way, which definitions should be enough to sketch the sort of thoughts and images Chinese philosophers have grouped behind this radial.
Taking its pictographic sense together with the common denominator of its usage over many centuries, I have always translated hsing as “course” when used in the context here discussed. Thus, for me, the wu hsing are the “five courses.”
For the rest of the world, “five elements” is the preferred translation, to be taken in either one of two ways. “Elements,” as in elemental or fundamental, and having an active sense, or “elements” as on passive substances, the latter idea being a product of component symbolisms. Use of the term “five elements” is so pervasive one can hardly expect to root it out. One occasionally also sees “five agents,” “five forces,” “five processes,” “five qualities,” or “five properties,” which are just variations on the same theme. There is also an earlier concept, the wu cai, or five materials upon which all human existence depends, and some have suggested this is the origin of the wu hsing.
No matter how we translate the term, what we are really talking about are five basic categories or taxonomic indica under which mutually dependent phenomena having related characteristics can be classed, each evolving to the next in cyclic order.
Before delving into the issue of order, I want to stop and take notice of the panchabhuta, or the pancha mahabhutas. “Pancha” simply means five. The Sanskrit word “bhuta” can have several meanings, but the root meanings are truth, reality, natures, that which anything consists of, i.e. elemental, or that which is self-evident. So, in the sense of the mahabhutas, “great” or “gross” bhutas, we are seeing five self-evident natures that all things consist of.
The mahabhutas are recognized in the Vedic age. Just exactly where, I cannot say, because I simply have not studied the matter. They obviously predate the wu hsing, which fall in the Maurya Empire according to Indian reckoning, by a considerable margin. Almost certainly, the concept arises from the Vedic nature deities.
What the early Chinese know as feng shui, the Indians approach as vastushastra, or the science of vastu. This is said to have originated with the Sthapatya Veda, which is a part of Atharva Veda. This would date it to somewhere around the  classical Mantra period of Vedic Sanskrit, at the end of second millennium BCE. The term itself could be translated as the “science of abiding,” or the “science of dwellings,” and actually forms the basis of architecture. The idea is quite probably intertwined with the concept of “lord architect of the world” Viśvákarma, and the relations between his five children. Later, it comes to be associated with Brahma, and a number of other gods. It really does not have anything to do with “geomancy” at all — neither does feng shui for that matter — but, since the late twentieth century, that is a word we have connected with the practice.
In the initial stages, vastu is concerned with the effect of light on man-made structures: with the efficient use of sunlight. However, at a very early date in its development — and again, I do not know exactly when: although certainly prior to Buddhism — it comes to be founded on the fundamental concept of balance — or properly speaking, harmony — between structures and the mahabhutas. I should probably mention that this is with narrow reference to construction. Classical vastu does not entertain the notion of “improving” structures that already exist.
Earlier, we mentioned order. In Chinese practice, the five elements are believed to relate to one another in particular orders. These orders are origination order, which expresses how the elements arise; mutual production order, which expresses how they act to produce each other; mutual destruction order, which expresses how they act to overcome one another; controlling order, which expresses how they interact with each other; masking order, which is another expression of interaction, and common, or “modern” order, which is simply a means of listing them.
[JCS: Sounds like the New World Order doesn’t it?]

In Tibetan practice, these orders are expressed as “affinities,” so we see concepts like “mother” (in early Sino-Tibetan practice “father”) “filial,” “friend,” and “enemy.” All of these various orders are common enough in the literature that I am not eager to reproduce them here. Still, I know my readers well enough to realize you will complain if I do not.

[1] Mutual Production Order

  • Wood produces Fire
  • Fire Produces Earth
  • Earth produces Metal
  • Metal produces Water
  • Water produces Wood

[2] Mutual Destruction Order

  • Wood destroys Earth
  • Earth destroys Water
  • Water destroys Fire
  • Fire destroys Metal
  • Metal destroys Wood

[3] Controlling Order

  • Wood destroys Earth, Metal controls Wood
  • Metal destroys Wood, Fire controls Metal
  • Fire destroys Metal, Water controls Fire
  • Water destroys Fire, Earth controls Water
  • Earth destroys Water, Wood controls Earth

[4] Masking Order

  • Wood destroys Earth, Fire produces Earth and masks
  • Metal destroys Wood, Water produces Wood and mask
  • Fire destroys Metal, Earth produces Metal and masks
  • Water destroys Fire, Wood produces Fire and masks
  • Earth destroys Water, Metal produces Water and masks

So, from these, the Tibetans deduced their systems of water being the mother of wood, wood being the son of water, water being the friend of earth,  earth being the enemy of water, and so forth. How this might come about is interesting. Originally, filial concepts were attached to the trigrams. We had a father, a mother, eldest son, middle son, youngest son, eldest daughter, second daughter, youngest daughter. Those on the father’s side are yang, those on the mother’s side are yin. So, as applied to the elements, this becomes parent, child, enemy and friend.

[1] Mother

  • Mother of Wood is Water
  • Mother of Water is Metal
  • Mother of Metal is Earth
  • Mother of Earth is Fire
  • Mother of Fire is Wood

[2] Child

  • Child of Wood is Fire
  • Child of Fire is Earth
  • Child of Earth is Metal
  • Child of Metal is Water
  • Child of Water is Wood

[3] Enemy

  • Enemy of Wood is Metal
  • Enemy of Metal is Fire
  • Enemy of Fire is Water
  • Enemy of Water is Earth
  • Enemy of Earth is Wood

[4] Friend

  • Friend of Wood is Earth
  • Friend of Earth is Water
  • Friend of Water is Fire
  • Friend of Fire is Metal
  • Friend of Metal is Wood
The importance of the elements in Chinese practice is with exclusive reference to these orders. The importance of the elements in Indian practice is with reference to appreciation of individual potency. The Chinese believe in movement, whereas the Indians seem to be following set rules. One source gives the following example:

“Energy is primarily considered as emanating from the northeast corner and many site and building characteristics are derived from this. Sites sloping down towards north or east from higher levels of south and west are considered good. Open spaces in site and openings in the building are to be more in the north and east than in the south and the west. No obstacles are to be present in the north and the east. Levels and height of buildings are to be higher in the south and west when compared to the north and east. The southwest corner is to be the highest, followed by southeast, then by northwest and finally by northeast. The triangle formed by joining the southwest, southeast and the northwest corner of the site is attributed to the moon and the triangle formed by joining the northeast, northwest and southeast corner of the site is attributed to the sun. The former are prescribed to be heavier and higher and the latter light and lower. Sites having a longer east-west axis are considered better. The diagonal connecting southwest and northeast is to be longer than the diagonal connecting southeast and northwest. An extended northeast corner is considered beneficial.”

These are the exact conditions followed when building Tibetan temples, even to the present day.In expression of their approach, Indian practitioners developed the Purusha Mandala, which is superimposed on the landscape, and used to orient construction from the ground up.
The “houses” of the Purusha Mandala are fixed. They are represented by a square — symbolizing the earth — imposed on the body of a being. The head is always in the northeast.
[JCS: Here I have turned the Purusha Mandala to match magnetic north in order that one may compare the nailed down demoness I have superimposed over the Map of the United States. You must look carefully, but underneath the transparency are Buddhist temples, centers, monasteries and stupas. It has become more obvious over the years that these religious centers have not been placed in a happenstance manner. As a matter of fact, tantric vases have been buried in every state capital, the US Capitol, major rivers, lakes, mountain peaks, national parks and sacred places across the US. The US is the first country they have totally completed]. 
hindu-mandala-pattern
Do you recall how I had earlier pointed out that the Dalai Lama’s American Headquarters is in upper state New York?
WomentiedDown​Where tantric vases have been buried on Turtle Island.
08 01 2016 Peace Vase Map of Turtle Island Alaska Canada USA Hawaii Mexico
[JCS: Therefore the Dalai Lama’s American Headquarters is in Upper State New York at the Namgyal Monastery which is near Ithaca and has been named the new site for the Dalai Lama Center not unlike the Presidential libraries, but for the Dalai Lama. 
mayor-of-ithaca-welcomes-the-construction-of-a-presidential-like-library-center-for-the-study-of-all-the-dalai-lamas-in-ny
“Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick announced that the Dalai Lama selected the town of Ithaca from dozens of cities to be the site of an international center for Buddhism. The cultural center — called “His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama’s Library and Museum” — will be built on South Hill. Myrick says that the library and museum will contain “the writings, teachings, and artifacts of all 14 Dalai Lamas,” referring to the monks who have served as the spiritual leaders of Tibetan Buddhism for centuries.”
The “being” is said to be  formless spirit who blocked heaven from earth, and had to be subdued by Brahma and the other gods. So, each geomantic house is ruled by a particular god, with Brahma in the center. Thus:

  • North is ruled by Kubera, the lord of wealth.
  • South is ruled by Yama, the lord of death.
  • East is ruled by Indra, the solar deity.
  • West is ruled by Varuna, the lord of water.
  • Northeast is ruled by Shiva.
  • Southeast is ruled by Agni, the deity of fire.
  • Northwest is ruled by Vayu, lord of the winds.
  • Southwest is ruled by Niruthi, lord of ancestors.
  • The center is ruled by Brahma.

Apart from its mythological structure, this mandala is actually the framework for an exquisitely detailed set of mathematical rules, having nothing to with elements, but everything to do with hard measurement.

[JCS: Btw, Kathmandu Valley in Nepal is laid out according to a giant mandala].

In parts one and two of our little survey of Tibetan geomancy, we have been discussing Queen Kon-jo. When Wengchen Kon-jo comes to Tibet from China, in 641 CE, her geomantic masterpiece — or metaphor — is the siting of Lhasa’s central temple, Jokhang.

The story is that Kon-jo determined Tibet’s landforms resembled a demoness lying on her back, so various smaller temples and stupas had to be constructed before Jokhang could be successfully completed.

When we examine this approach in contrast with the Purusha Mandala, it certainly becomes suggestive, doesn’t it?

Chinese and Indian approaches were tossed into Tibet’s cultural grinder, with the eventual result that spirits of the earth were now being dredged up and subdued according to a moving position.

The concept of the grid is coming from India, but the concept of motion is coming from China. Basically, the grid is being laid on a site, and four corners are assigned.

The southeast corner is fire, the southwest corner is the demoness, the northwest corner is wind, and the northeast corner is power. The spirit — by this time a naga — is believed to rotate within this square according to the season, and even, as some would have it, according to the year, month, day and hour. The grid is divided into some 8,000 parts, the head of the spirit is aligned, and a “vital point” is established — usually in the spirit’s armpit — where the first disturbance of the soil is to occur.

[JCS: Notice that the demoness is literally nailed to the earth].

It is right about here that we begin to think about the difference between gross and subtle elements, and their lasting — if not thoroughly troublesome — metaphor, the relationship between seen and unseen: the relationship between men and spirits.

[JCS: Notice that in the demoness’ right side a hole is dug into the earth and a tantric vase is buried in the earth. This looks precisely like one of the 6,000 ritual vases made in Bhutan that are being buried all over the world.
Buddhist tantric vase buried in Westminster Abby by the Dalai Lama.

Buddhist tantric vase buried in Westminster Abby by the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama even placed one in Westminster Cathedral. One is also buried in Washington, DC near the National Christmas Tree and Washington Monument or Baal’s shaft].

Of spirits, in Chinese, Tibetan, and Indian practice, one could write an almost endless number of volumes.

At the very least, maybe we will get around to a few paragraphs in a future post.[JCS: So why the Kalachakra in Washington, DC?  
Answer:  http://www.worldviews101.com/?p=1895
US Map Work on Tantric Buddhist sand mandalas, stupas, vases, and blood relic tours
 
by James C. Stephens

Over the years I have compiled maps on the locations where Tibetan sand mandalas have been constructed by traveling teams of Tibetan lamas from various monasteries and tour groups. Some have been financed by Richard Gere, others are by invitation from the US Federal, State and local governments, universities. Churches have also invited them in to be built as well as museums, festivals, wherever they find receptive sponsors.

At the Seventh International Conference on Buddhist Christian Dialogue held at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, one session held off campus at Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple in Hacienda Heights focused on the “Mandalization of US Politics.”  Sand mandalas involve a ritual of territorial possession and are highly organized metaphysically and have even involved their enemies blood mingled with the sand according to Dalton in his well documented and researched book, Taming of Demons which focuses on the altars of blood Tibetan Buddhists were actively building whose documents were discovered in the Dunhuang Caves in China on the Silk Road.
Here are some links to the maps that I have worked on over the years, which do not include some of my earlier renditions that I tracked by hand on a map of the United States of the first flurry of 300 sand mandalas financed by the Richard Gere Foundation’s Mystical Arts and Sacred Dance tour of the Drepung Monks way back when. Some of the maps also include the Heart Shrine Relic Tour of Buddhist blood and relics, the burying of tantric vases under the program called Siddhartha’s intent out of Bhutan.
All of these are leading to a culmination of their dark spiritual work to the Maitreya Project being built in Bodh Gaya, India where the Dalai Lama will preside over the Kalachakra initiation beginning in January 2017.
1)This map was put together at the last election in 2012 where many mandalas were built in State Capital Buildings and in Universities where the Presidential debates took place. Unfortunately, both political parties are involved at the highest levels in opening doors to the Tibetan practices that they accept as cultural, without any proper understanding of the deeper spiritual implications of the defilement of the land by idolatry disguised as art. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1uhd_FaOxAtBqvRXPch_3cxks1J0&usp=sharing
2. Here is a link to the present 2016 Mystical Tour of the Tibetan Monks in the UShttps://drive.google.com/open?id=1QF3h9aBLimSL_iJ3xCyvrR4UgiE&usp=sharing
3. Tibetan Buddhist influences in Washington, DC. Sites of influence of the XIV Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhist influences in Washington DC and surrounding region, including but not limited to sand mandalas, tantric vases, Blood relic tour, initiation ceremonies have been conducted, White House visits and award ceremonies, where the Nechung Oracle has visited, etc. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-SkgQ6PAbG_vDBXvFlSFRpOQBOw&usp=sharing
4. Tibetan Buddhist Activities and rituals in St. Louis, the site of the Second US Presidential Debate also the home to Urbana Student Mission Conference every three years. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1K6oph438NapyircXeBFuBFChjWA&usp=sharing
5. Sand Mandalas and Tantric Vase locations in the USA. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1r3IcJqYiLJO4zlSVaP5UEq13Gmw&usp=sharing 
7.  Tantric Vases planted in US.  Bhutanese Vajrayana Buddhists established Siddhartha’s Intent and created over 6,000 Tantric Vases they euphemistically call Peace Vases.            https://drive.google.com/open?id=1A-hbBt5LVVX-eYztVtmgqflEin0&usp=sharing

An Open Letter to the 2016 US Conference of Mayors Regarding the Keynote Speaker the XIV Dalai Lama

An Open Letter to the 2016 US Conference of Mayors

Regarding the Keynote address by the XIV Dalai Lama on June 26, 2016

Site: Indianapolis, Indiana

Date: June 24-28, 2016

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

by James C. Stephens

In 1996, the XIV Dalai Lama, recognized at that time as the god-king of Tibet, was awarded the key to the City of Pasadena.  Concerned about the series of events, Dr. Arthur Glasser, Dean Emeritus of Fuller School of Intercultural Studies and I attended the Dalai Lama’s acceptance speech at Pasadena City Hall.

In an interview, aired on CBN, I asked Dr. Glasser how one should address the visit of the Dalai Lama. He replied, “He is a foreign personage of prominence, we should be respectful of him, but to offer him the key to the city, Christians would tend to react. They would say, ‘the key, the authority, what sort of authority is going to be understood by the Dalai Lama?”

Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner, and the Dalai Lama being awarded the US Congressional Gold Medal in the US Capitol Rotunda.

Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner, and the Dalai Lama being awarded the US Congressional Gold Medal in the US Capitol Rotunda.

As a former Buddhist youth leader and graduate of a Buddhist Study Academy, I had an intimate knowledge of the practice of Buddhism (1970-1984).  In 1981, prior to a Buddhist pilgrimage I had an accident in a train station in Japan.  For the following three years, I investigated other religious paths and practices and made a decision to become a follower of Jesus Christ, believing Him to be my Savior and Messiah.  In the ensuing years, I have studied Christianity as zealously as I had Buddhism, and came to deeply respect the historic Christian faith as originally delivered to the Jewish Apostles.

At the same time, I have continued to watch with concern, the deterioration of Christianity in the West and the funding of various religious traditions in America that have taken root through Government support.  I have closely watched the Dalai Lama and his work in the US and have seriously investigated his worldview, one which he carefully disguises in his public personae as a man of peace.  Formerly a paid agent of the CIA, his work continues to be heavily supported by the US Government as a key speaker at major universities, corporate venues, coliseums, and government halls.  It was also quite disconcerting that he was invited to be the keynote speaker at the Second Anniversary of 9-11 at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. He now has become a leading spokesman for climate change.

While I understand that his story is quite engaging, have seen movies about his life, read many of his books, heard him speak,   I find myself questioning the American public’s naiveté in writing him a spiritual blank check and elevating him,  in a sense,  to the position of “the pluralist pope” by providing a public platform to introduce his curriculum of secular ethics to our public school system.

As leaders of your respective cities, I urge you to pursue a candid and intelligent survey of the available external evidence of my concerns, which I believe will satisfy a reasonable mind.  While, I agree with Dr. Glasser that we should treat dignitaries from other countries with respect, our mandate as gatekeepers requires us to carefully weigh any proposal or ideas arising from those who are invited into our house, in this case, the US Council of Mayors.

In the early nineties, while teaching in the UK, I spoke to the Director of the London Buddhist Society who proudly showed me the loophole in the 1988 Religious Reform Act which opened the door in the UK to teach all religions and introduced a new curriculum overriding centuries of public policy wherein Christianity had been taught in their school system for hundreds of years.  Fast forward to 2016, and Sadiq Khan the new Mayor of London is a Muslim and all of Europe is in the throes of great religious turmoil as a result of the refugee crisis. The Dalai Lama recently shocked others when he stated, “There are now too many (refugees),” he said. “Europe, for example Germany, cannot become an Arab land,” he added with a laugh. “Germany is Germany. From a moral point of view too, I think that the refugees should only be admitted temporarily. The goal should be that they return and help rebuild their countries.” (India Times, June 01, 2016 by Kunal Anand).

The stability of a nation depends upon its religious statecraft, but also upon religious freedom and freedom of conscience.  Engraved on the North entrance of Los Angeles City Hall, the words of Israel’s King Solomon, the wisest King in history ring true,

“Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.”

Samuel P. Huntington, Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University warned in his 1993 essay on The Clash of Civilizations, “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.”   While it is the duty of Christians in pluralist societies to cooperate with people of other faiths in seeking a just ordering of society, we are also required to hold to our original founding principles that made America a land in which refugees were welcomed to her shores.  It is a very simple question of hospitality, you are welcome to stay in our home, but there are a few rules you must follow. A guest is no longer a guest, when they begin to tell you how to run your own household. A lesson we all must remember as most of us are guests (immigrants) to Turtle Island.  The First Nations know that the land belongs to the Creator and not to any one man and if violated will vomit those out which defile her.

Charles Bridges (1794-1869), one of the leaders of the Evangelical party in the Church in England called its leader’s decisions into question when they began to chase after the traditions of men which had not proven to provide steady counsel to direct the affairs of state.  He stated, “The Bible exhibits a divinely appointed remedy commensurate with man’s infinite distress, and accepted of God in its power and prevalence. Who can doubt the excellency of the things that are written, so rich in counsel and knowledge—‘words fit for a prince to speak, and the best man in the world to hear? Such a minute and practical standard for relative life and social obligation!”

Over the last several years, the Dalai Lama has been developing a secular curriculum of ethics that he desires to be introduced into the curriculum of our nation’s schools.  His talks on “Beyond Religion” that seemingly appeal to the secularist mindset are touted to teach compassion and ethics without religion.  As Mayors, many struggle with the pluralist mix of religious and “none’s” in their cities.  However, embracing an untried curriculum with a questionable agenda designed by scholars from a progressive, Buddhist socialist background albeit supposedly stripped of any religious intent, still presents a major challenge to the prevailing foundations of the United States of America.

“If the foundations be destroyed, how can the righteous stand?”  Who now becomes the interpreter of what is right and what is wrong in a nation that has abandoned the faith of her fathers?  Some may argue, “Oh, but it’s for those who are not religious” and the like.  However, our laws and justice system were founded on Judeo-Christian principles as any astute legal mind will attest.  New curriculum proposals are serious changes of course that pack within them, unforeseen consequences. Making quick friends will bring lasting regrets.  This is not limited to any one foreign guest or leader in our nation, as our internal issues and crisis require more than a new Band-Aid. Our moral crisis is severe and it is not time to switch boats in midstream.  While the Dalai Lama as a foreign personage may provide key insight into our shortcomings providing a valuable outsider’s point of view, it does not mean that the solution he holds out with the other hand is an acceptable alternative.

The prophets of Troy, warned the city fathers not to trust Greeks bearing gifts.  The prophets out rightly said, “Burn the Trojan Horse.”   The City fathers instead accepted the gift and you know the rest of the old story.  Not unlike King Hezekiah that showed his enemy all his treasure stores unwisely, only later to have the City sacked.  It didn’t happen overnight, but set in motion a process whose seeds of destruction were carefully planted over time.

Yes, peace and compassion and mindfulness at first may sound wonderful. Who would reject them?  A wise man however, remembers “caveat emptor,” buyer beware.  The seller of his wares may call into doubt the integrity of the country’s foundation, promoting vain imaginations of how peace can be won by just calling a city a city of compassion. One may clean the outside of the cup, but inside it’s full of dead man’s bones.  As a young Buddhist, I recall marching in a Buddhist Brass Band dressed up in Santa Claus uniforms and playing Christian hymns  for the Los Angeles Mayor’s Christmas party.  Marketing Buddhism as American as Mom and Apple Pie; strategies cooked up by Madison Fifth Avenue Ad executives.

So, when you listen to the Dalai Lama and his fascinating story, one must ask oneself the more difficult questions as a mature leader whose constituency no doubt contains a high portion of Christians, “Why has the Dalai Lama been chosen as the keynote speaker? What is the agenda? Am I about to embrace something I have no understanding of and discard what I have known? Am I willing to implement an ideology that may be divisive to many of the people I shepherd? As the wise King Solomon said, “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end leads to destruction.”   Even the wisest king lost his way for a time and embraced many false ideologies, before coming to his senses at the end of his life. Is it not better to question your own judgment upfront and seek what your elders once taught? Why waste present possibilities and needed reformation by embracing what you only perceive to be a better way?

Doubts may arise as distance lends enchantment to the view. Carefully weigh and survey the information you hear for the destiny of your city depends upon the wisdom of its counselors.

“When warnings for instruction are not received, they are tokens of destruction. This is a truth which none almost deny, and none almost believe. Had it been believed, many desolating judgments in former ages had been prevented; nations and cities should have abode in prosperity, which are now sunk into ruin, yea, into hell.”

               -(John Owen to the UK Parliament in a day of reflection on the nation’s spiritual state).

 

Resources:

EpicycleMedia:  The Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism playlist.

https://youtu.be/5oAZMn3Vx6E?list=PL6ysZa-S0tJs_l4PCIVlIQseHTebCFiXq

“The Dalai Lama and the Anatomy of Politically Correct Buddhism” by James C. Stephens based on a chapter in InterVarsity Press’s Guide to New Religious Movements edited by Dr. Ronald Enroth, Sociology Professor at Westmont College, Santa Barbara.

http://www.worldviews101.com/?p=2420

Dalai Lama and the Kalachakra: A Wake-Up Call for the West.  Stephens’ Interview of Victor Trimondi on the Dalai Lama and 9-11 (in English and Chinese).

http://www.worldviews101.com/?s=interview.

The Shadow of the Dalai Lama: Sexuality, Magic and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism by Victor and Victoria Trimondi

This study is not for the fainthearted. If you want to live in the world of fantasy, don’t read this expose.

http://www.trimondi.de/SDLE/Contents.htm.

“Our study is divided into two parts. The first contain a depiction and critique of the religious foundations of Tibetan (“Tantric”) Buddhism and is entitled Ritual as Politics. The second part (Politics as Ritual) examines the power politics of the Kundun (Dalai Lama) and its historical preconditions. The relationship between political power and religion is thus central to our book.”

Critical Forum for the Investigation of the Kalachakra Tantra and the Shambhala Myth.

http://www.trimondi.de/SDLE/Annex.htm.

The Kalachakra-Tantra is anything but pacifist, rather, it prophesies and promotes a bloody religious war for world domination between Buddhists and non-Buddhists (Shambhala myth).

The text explicitly names the “leaders” of the three monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) as opponents of Buddhism: “Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, the White-Clad one [Mani], Muhammad and Mathani [the Mahdi]”. The Kalachakra Tantra describes them as “the family of the demonic snakes” (Shri Kalachakra I. 154).

Thus, the Kalachakra Tantra is opposed to all religions of Semitic origin, and for this reason has been pressed into service by right-wing radical and anti-Semitic circles for their racist propaganda.

The Kalachakra Tantra invokes a global war between the Islamic and the non-Islamic world in which the followers of Mohammed are presented as the principal enemies of the Buddhists. The original text refers to Mecca, where the “mighty, merciless idol of the barbarians” lives as a “demonic incarnation” (Shri Kalachakra I. 154).