March 19, 2024

Breaking the Code of Silence

Bonhoeffer first service to our brethren is to listen to them

 

 

 

 

 

The following is a brief  history of organizational conflict which has transpired over the last forty years between  the interlocking organizations known as the U.S. Center for World Mission (USCWM) aka, Frontier Ventures (FV, Venture Center)/William Carey International University (WCIU) /Frontier Mission Fellowship (FMF) {known as “The Order”} and their relationship with other individuals and collaborating organizations. Breaking the Code of Silence

This is a synopsis of each conflict beginning with the person or organization’s description, what happened, and the final outcome. It addresses how conflict was put to silence, resolved or how it continues to affect the lives of others.

Not all stories are fully known as the mission community holds to a code of silence.  The list of incidents while not conclusive,  demonstrates that a bitter root which is hidden and remains unrecognized by wise elders will only grow and bear much bitter fruit.

While we are commanded in the body of Christ to maintain unity and to “Follow peace with all men, and holiness,” we are also commanded to look “diligently”  and to examine ourselves “lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness spring up to trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.”

We must all examine and test and evaluate ourselves to see whether we are holding to our faith and showing the proper fruits of it.

NKJV Hebrews 12:14-16/Amplified Bible 2 Cor. 13:5.

Breaking the Code of Silence Bonhoeffer quote

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).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Open Letter to the US Conference of Mayors re The Dalai Lama in Bulgarian

Анализи

„Вечната бдителност е цената на свободата”[1]

Джеймс С. Стивънс

Отворено писмо до американската Конференция на кметовете – 2016
Относно
Обръщение на XIV Далай Лама от 26 юни 2016 г.
Индианаполис,
щат Индиана
Дата: 24-28
Юни, 2016 г.

През 1996 г. XIV Далай Лама, признат по това време за божеството-цар на Тибет, беше награден с ключа на град Пасадена. Загрижени за поредицата от събития, д-р Артър Гласър, почетен декан на Висши училища „Фулър”, и аз присъствахме на официалната реч на Далай Лама в общинската сграда в Пасадена.

В интервю, излъчено по CBN, попитах д-р Гласър как трябва да се гледа на посещението на Далай Лама. Той отговори: „Той е чуждестранна знаменитост и трябва да се отнасяме с уважение към него, но на това, чему се поднася ключа за града, християните би трябвало да реагират. Те би трябвало да зададат въпроса, „ключ, власт, но за какъв вид власт Далай Лама ще приеме, че става дума?“

520

Нанси Пелоси, Джон Бейнър и Далай Лама, който получава Златния медал
на Конгреса на САЩ в ротондата на сградата на Конгреса на САЩ

Като бивш будистки младежки лидер и възпитаник на Академия по будистки дисциплини,  имах задълбочени знания относно практикуването на будизма (1970-1984 г.). През 1981 г., преди едно будистко поклонение, преживях инцидент на железопътна гара в Япония. През следващите три години изследвах други религиозни учения и практики и взех решение да стана последовател на Исус Христос, като вярвах, че Той е мой Спасител и Месия. През следващите години изучавах християнството така ревностно, както се бях занимавал с будизма, и така започнах дълбоко да уважавам християнска вяра с нейното историческо значение – такава, каквато първоначално е предадена на еврейските апостоли.

В същото време, продължавах да следя със загриженост влошаването на християнството на Запад и финансирането на различни религиозни традиции в Америка, които се бяха установили с одобрението на държавната власт. Наблюдавах внимателно Далай Лама и работата му в САЩ и сериозно изследвах мирогледа му, който той внимателно прикриваше чрез публичния си образ на човек на мира. Като платен в миналото агент на ЦРУ, работата му на основен лектор в големи университети, на корпоративни събития, по стадиони и правителствени зали продължава да бъде сериозно подкрепяна от правителството на САЩ. Беше доста смущаващо също, че той беше поканен за основен говорител на втората годишнина от събитията на 11 септември в Националната катедрала във Вашингтон, окръг Колумбия. Сега вече е водещ говорител по въпросите за промените в климата.

В процеса на осъзнаване, че личната му история е доста привлекателна, на гледане на филми за живота му, четене на много от книгите му и слушане на речите му, си задавам въпроса за наивността на американската общественост, която му пише празен духовен чек и го издига, в известен смисъл, до позицията на „плуралистичния папа“, като му предоставя обществена платформа за въвеждане на неговата учебна програма по светска етика в нашата държавна училищна система. Като лидери на своите градове, ви призовавам да проведете открито и осведомено проучване на наличните външни доказателства за моите опасения, с които вярвам, че всеки здравомислещ човек ще се съгласи. Макар да съм съгласен с д-р Гласър, че трябва да се отнасяме с уважение към сановници от други страни, нашият мандат на пазители изисква от нас внимателно да преценим всяко предложение или идеи, които произтичат от тези, които са поканени в дома ни, в този случай, Съветът на кметовете на САЩ.

В началото на деветдесетте години, когато преподавах в Англия, говорих с директора на лондонското Будистко общество, който с гордост ми показа „вратичка” в Religious Reform Act (Закон за религиозна реформа) от 1988 г., който даде възможността в Обединеното кралство да се преподават всички религии и въведе нова учебна програма, погазвайки векове на държавна политика, в които християнството е било преподавано в тяхната училищна система в продължение на стотици години. Ако насочим погледа си обратно към 2016 г., ще видим, че положението е такова, че Садик Хан – новият кмет на Лондон– е мюсюлманин, а цяла Европа е във вихъра на голямо религиозно сътресение в резултат на кризата с бежанците. Неотдавна Далай Лама шокира със следното свое изявление: „Вече има твърде много (бежанци)“. „Европа, например Германия, не може да стане арабска земя“, добавя той със смях. „Германия е Германия. Също така, от морална гледна точка мисля, че бежанците трябва да бъдат допускани само временно. Целта трябва да бъде те да се върнат и да помогнат за възстановяване на техните страни“ (статия от Кюнал Ананд вIndia Times, 01 юни 2016 г.).

Стабилността на една нация зависи от ролята на религията в държавното управление, но също така и от религиозната свобода и свободата на съвестта. Думите на израелския цар Соломон, най-мъдрият цар в историята, „Правдата възвишава народ, а грехът е позор за племената“, гравирани на северния вход на общинска сграда на Лос Анжелес, звучат много актуално.

Самюъл Хънтингтън, директор на Института за стратегически изследвания в Харвардския университет, предупреждава в своето есе от 1993 г. Сблъсъкът на цивилизациите: „Това, което в крайна сметка има значение за хората, не е политическата идеология или икономическият интерес. Вярата и семейството, кръвните връзки и убежденията са това, с което хората се идентифицират, и това, за което ще се борят и умрат.” Макар че е задължение на християните в плуралистичните общества да си сътрудничат с хора от други религии в търсенето на справедлив ред в обществото, от нас се изисква също да се придържаме към своите първоначални основополагащи принципи, които направиха Америка земя, от чиито брегове бежанци бяха приветствани. Това е прост въпрос на гостоприемство – добре дошли сте да останете у дома, но има някои правила, които трябва да спазвате. Гостът престава да бъде гост, когато започне да ви казва как да управлявате собствения си дом. Това е урок, който всички ние трябва да помним, тъй като повечето от нас са гости (имигранти) на Turtle Island.[2] Първите нации[3] знаят, че земята принадлежи на Твореца, а не на някой човек, и ако бъде изпълнена с насилие, ще избълва тези, които я оскверняват.

Чарлз Бриджис (1794-1869), един от лидерите на Евангелисткото крило в Англиканската църква, постави под въпрос решенията на нейните лидери, когато започнаха да преподават човешки учения, които не бяха в състояние да дадат насока на държавните дела. Той заяви:

„Библията предоставя отреден от Бога лек, съответен на безграничното страдание на човека, и е приет от Бога заради неговата сила и общодостъпност.Кой би се усъмнил в превъзходството на написаното в нея, така богато на съвет и знания – присъщи на князе думи, които да бъдат слушани от най-достойните? Какъв прецизен и практичен стандарт за пълноценен живот и социален  дълг!”

През последните няколко години Далай Лама разработваше светска учебна програма по етика, която желае да бъде въведена в учебната програма на нашите държавни училища. Беседите му на тема „Извън религията“, които на пръв поглед се харесват на светския начин на мислене, сe пормоцират като преподаващи състрадание и етика без религия. Мнозина, в качеството им на кметове, се борят в своите градове с плуралистичния микс между религиозно и безбожно. Въпреки това, възприемането на една неизпробвана учебна програма със съмнителен дневен ред, замислена от учени с прогресивен[4] будистки, социалистически произход, макар, както се смята, те да нямат каквито и да е религиозни намерения, все още представлява голямо предизвикателство за господстващите устои на Съединените американски щати.

„Ако основите бъдат разрушени, какво може да направи праведният?“[5]Кой сега става тълкувател на това кое е правилно и кое не е наред в една нация, която е изоставила вярата на бащите си? Някои може да твърдят: „О, това е за тези, които не са религиозни“ или нещо подобно. Все пак, нашите закони и съдебна система се основават на юдео- християнските принципи, както всеки проницателен правно трениран умможе да потвърди. Новите предложения за учебната програма представляват сериозни промени в посоката с непредвидими последици. Бързите приятелства ще донесат трайни разочарования. Не става дума за някой конкретен чуждестранен гост или лидер в нашата нация, тъй като вътрешните ни проблеми и кризиизискват повече от един пореден лейкопласт. Моралната ни криза е тежка и не е време за промени в движение. Макар Далай Лама като чуждестранна бележита личност да може да вникне в нашите слабости, предоставяйки ценната гледна точка на външен наблюдател, това не означава, че решението, което дава с другата ръка, е приемлива алтернатива.

Пророците на Троя предупредиха старейшините на града да не се доверяват на гърци, носещи подаръци. Пророците правилно казаха: “Изгорете Троянския кон“. Вместо това, старейшините приеха дара и знаете как продължава останалата част от старата история. Подобно на цар Езекия, който неразумно показа на своя враг всичките си съкровища и запаси, което доведе до това градът да бъде плячкосан малко по-късно. Това не се случи за една нощ, но задейства процес, чиито семена на унищожение бяха внимателно засаждани с течение на времето.

Да, мирът, състраданието и загрижеността може да звучат прекрасно в началото. Кой би ги отхвърлил? Мъдрият човек обаче си спомня правилото „рискът е за купувача“ и че купувачът трябва да се пази. Продавачът на стоката може да постави под съмнение почтеността на устоите на страната, подхранвайки фалшиви илюзии как мирът може да победи, като един град бъде просто наречен град на състрадание. Човек може да почисти външността на чашата, но вътре остава пълно с мъртвешки кости.

Като млад последовател на будизма си спомням как марширувах в будистки духов оркестър, облечен в костюм на Дядо Коледа и свирещ християнски химни за коледното парти на кмета на Лос Анжелес. Пласирането на будизма като нещо толкова американско, като „ябълковия пай на мама”, е стратегия, измислена от рекламните мениджъри от Медисън и Пето авеню[6]. Така че, когато слуша Далай Лама и неговата завладяваща история, като зрял лидер, в чиито електорат християните без съмнение съставляват сериозен процент, човек трябва да си зададе по-трудните въпроси, а именно: „Защо Далай Лама е избран за основен говорител? Какво идва на дневен ред? Дали не съм на път да прегърна нещо, за което нямам представа, и да се откажа от това, което ми е познато? Дали искам да приложи една идеология, която може да доведе до разединение много от хората, които пастирувам? Като мъдър цар, Соломон каза: „Има път, който се вижда прав на човека, но краят му води към погибел“. Дори и най-мъдрият цар изгуби посоката за известно време и прие много фалшиви идеологии, преди да се вразуми в края на живота си. Не е ли по-добре предварително да изпитате своята преценка и да се стремите към това, което са ви учили възрастните? Защо да пропилеете настоящите възможности и важните реформи,като приемете някакъв си, според вас, „по-добър подход”?

Съмнения могат да възникнат, тъй като отдалечеността придава очарование на гледката. Внимателната преценка и проучване на информацията, която чувате за съдбата на вашия град, зависи от мъдростта на неговите съветници.

„Когато предупрежденията, в които има напътствия, не са приети, те стават признак на унищожение. Това е истина, която никой не отрича напълно и никой не вярва напълно. Ако беше повярвана, много опустошителни възгледи в миналите векове щяха да бъдат предотвратени; народи и градове трябваше да живеят в благоденствие, но сега са потънали в разруха, да, чак до ада.”[7]

Ползвани източници и бележки:

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[8]http://www.trimondi.de/SDLE/Contents.htm.[9]

Критичен форум за проучване на Калачакра тантра и мита заШамбала.[10]

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

На 20 юни, 2016 г. Далай Лама говори пред щатското Законодателносъбрание на Калифорния. Ето линк, който може да даде предварителна представа за това, което той ще каже на Конференцията на кметовете на САЩ – 2016. https://youtu.be/lRw92jng35M.

„(Сакраменто) – Калифорнийският щатски законодателен орган приветства Негово Светейшество, 14-ия Далай Лама, за специално обръщение по въпросите на състраданието, околната среда и етичното лидерство, преддвете камари на законодателния орган в понеделник, 20 юни 2016 г., всградата на Законодателното събраниев Калифорния.“


Публикува се с разрешение © 2016. Всички права върху превода запазени.
Оригиналът на статията на английски можете да видите 
тук.

JamesДжеймс C. Стивънс е възпитаник на Академията по будистки дисциплини и будистки лидер в продължение на четиринадесет години (1970 –1984). През 1978 г. се жени в будистки храм за Елизабет, будистка от еврейски произход. След инцидент по време на будистко поклонение в Япония през 1981 г., последван от интензивно тригодишно духовно търсене чрез различни други религии и практики, Джеймс и Елизабет решават да станат последователи на Исус Христос. През 1999 г. Джеймс завършва магистърска степен по междукултурни науки въвВисши училища „Фулър” и през 2010 г. основава уеб сайта http://www.worldviews101.com/, който предлага дванадесетседмичен курс на тема „Християнската гледна точка за Далай Лама и тибетския будизъм“.

Бележки

[1]Оригинално думите на тази известна мисъл са „Условието, при което Бог е отредил свобода на човека, е вечна бдителност” и са изказани  от ирландския адвокат Джон Филпот Кърън в реч през 1790 г. в Дъблин, бел. ред.

[2]Предишното название на Северна Америка, дадено от местните племена, преди да бъде кръстена на името на мореплавателя и търговец Америго Веспучи, бел. ред.

[3]Политически коректният термин за племената, познати у нас като „индианци”, населявали Северна Америка при пристигане на европейските заселници, бел. ред.

[4]„Прогресивен” в американското публично пространство е термин, който обозначава някого, който е със социалистически, егалитарни, и клонящи към комунистически, политически схващания, бел. ред.

[5]Цитатът е от Библията, Стар Завет, книгата Псалми, 11:3, бел. ред.

[6]Известни търговски центрове и улици в Ню Йорк, САЩ.

[7]Джон Оуен към Парламента на Обединеното кралство в деня за размисъл върху духовно състояние на нацията.

[8] Това изследване не е за хора със слаби сърца. Ако искате да живеете в света на фантазиите, не четете това експозе.

[9]„Нашето изследване е разделено на две части. Първата съдържа описание и критика на религиозните основи на Тибетския („Тантра”) будизъм и е озаглавена „Ритуалът като политика“. Втората част („Политиката като ритуал“) разглежда силовата политика на Kundun (Далай Лама) и нейните исторически предпоставки. Връзката между политическа власт и религия е от централно значение в нашата книга.“

[10] Калачакра тантра е всичко друго, но не и пацифисто учение, което по-скоро предсказва и подкрепя кървава религиозна война между будисти и не-будисти за световно господство (митът за Шамбала).

Текстът посочва изрично името на „лидерите“ на трите монотеистични религии (юдаизъм, християнство, ислям) като противници на на будизма: „Адам, Енох, Авраам, Мойсей, Исус, облеченият в бяло [Мани], Мохамед и Матани [Махди]”.  Калачакра тантра ги описва като „семейството на демоничните змии” (Шри Калачакра I.154).

По този начин, Калачакра тантра е против всички религии от семитски произход и по тази причина се използва от десни радикални и антисемитски кръгове за тяхната расистка пропаганда.

Калачакра тантра призовава за световна война между ислямския и не-ислямския свят, в която последователите на Мохамед са представени като основни врагове на будистите. Оригиналният текст споменава Мека, където „могъщ, безмилостен идол на варварите“ живее като „демоничен въплъщение“ (Шри Калачакра I.154).Обновена на 21 Юни, 2016.

European Press Critically Exams the Dalai Lama and Kalachakra Rituals While the American Press Naps in Washington, D.C.

Comments on a Press Release

Monday, July 11, 2011

I just ran across a press release that gives some vital information on the Kalachakra Initiation that is occurring in Washington, DC. Here it is. It  provides very critical insights on what appears to be happening in Washington, DC. Hope you find it of assistance.

‘The Kalachakra Initiation in Washington DC is the one of the largest and most spectacular events Tibetan Buddhism ever has performed in the West. Nearly all high ranked Lamas are present from around the globe including the young Karmapa, who seemingly is being billed by the D. L. as his spiritual successor. So estimate that 100.000 participants will be attending the Kalachakra ceremonies over the ten day period (July 6-16,2011) including some high ranking political figures.’ Although the Dalai Lama recently resigned from his position as King of the Tibetan-Government-in-Exile and boasts of “separation of Church and State, he has already had political meetings with US top politicians including Speaker of the House John Boehner, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA), and several other representatives.

Because of the complexity and potential consequences of the initiation, it is imperative that this  issue be discussed into an open and critical debate.  Unfortunately, it’s difficult to find journalists that are not Tibet-o-philes blogging at the ceremony.  While they provide interesting observations, the difficult analytical work of the investigative journalist is missing. Take a look below at the list of hard hitting European articles. What a difference. Where are the Aikman’s and Woodwards?  JCS

Trimondi Online European Magazine (English)

Press release of the Critical Forum Kalachakra.

The Kalachakra-Tantra

A Ritual of Peace or a Totalitarian Temptation?

From July 6 through 16, 2011 the XIV Dalai Lama will offer a Kalachakra-Tantra-Ritual in the heart of the U.S. capital, Washington, DC. In Sanskrit, Kalachakra means “The Wheel of Time.” The Kalachakra Tantra, as well the sacred text used in its ritualistic performance, is considered to be “the pinnacle of all Buddhist systems.”

Included in the Kalchakra Tantra are: the construction of a so-called Sand Mandala, which symbolizes the cosmos, an apocalyptic prophecy known as the Shambhala Myth, and several top-secret initiations.

This complicated mystical ritual is presented by the Dalai Lama and the organizers of the event as a dignified and uplifting contribution to world peace, which fosters compassion with all living beings, inter-religious dialog, interracial tolerance, ecological awareness, sexual equality, inner peace, spiritual development, and bliss for the third millennium (Kalachakra for World Peace). One of the Dalai Lama’s mottos for the whole performance is: “Because we all share this small planet earth, we have to learn to live in harmony and peace with each other and with nature.”

But are the Kalachakra Tantra and the Shambhala Myth truly pacifist? Do they really encourage harmony and cooperation among people? Do they make any real contribution to freedom and justice, equality of gender, religious tolerance or ethnic reconciliation? Are they a comprehensive, politically humanist, democratic and non-violent contribution to world peace?

Andrei Znamenski, Associate Professor of History at Alabama State University and author of an exciting book about the Shambhala Myth in Bolshevist Russia (Red_Shambhala – Magic, Prophecy, and Geopolitics in the Heart of Asia) came to another conclusion:

“It might be shocking for many readers, but let me start by saying that the Kalachakra Tantra has nothing to do with peace, compassion­, and freedom. In Tantric Buddhism it was a misogynist­ic quest performed by male initiates to accumulate sacred power of particular Buddhist deities (the lower seven initiation­s are open for all) and, through blending male and female fluids (top secret initiation­s that involved sexuality)­, to eventually turn themselves into superhuman androgynou­s beings. Moreover, part of the Kalachakra teaching was a militant Shambhala prophecy, a call for a Buddhist holy war against enemies of Buddhism.”
.

Andrei Znamenski is not alone in this assessment. The Kalachakra Tantra and Tibetan Buddhism are coming more and more into focus by critics. (See: Critical Links to Lamaism) In their groundbreaking work The Shadow of the Dalai Lama – Sexuality, Magic and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism, German cultural philosophers, Victor and Victoria Trimondi, not only provide surprising, previously ignored research but also undertake a well-founded interpretation of Lamaism, rendering the Tibetan-Buddhist worldview understandable for Western readers through a comparison with European religious traditions.

The text pays particular attention to an extensive analysis of the Kalachakra Tantra and its political, ideological, and spiritual implications. (The book appeared in 1999 through the reputable German publishing house Patmos Verlag. The English version is online. It became the standard work on the critical examination of Lamaism and the metapolitics of the Dalai Lama.

In the eighties Victor Trimondi did support the Tibetan religious leader, organized several international congresses and other events with him and featured books about him in his own publishing house, the Dianus-Trikont-Verlag.) In their book the two authors describe in detail the secret rituals of sexual magic in the higher initiations of the Kalachakra Tantra (The Public and the Secret Initiations); they have shown the religious-political intention of the Tantra to establish a world-wide Buddhocracy with a sacred world-ruler (The ADI Buddha); they discuss the intolerance of the Tantra vis-à-vis the monotheist religions, its militant and aggressive warrior-ideology, and its vision of a religious end-time battle against Islam (The Aggressive Myth of Shambhala); and they show how the Tantra is interpreted by the Dalai Lama spokesman Robert Thurman as a symbolic and meta-political instrument to conquer western culture by Lamaism (The Buddhocratic Conquest of the West ).

The Trimondis came to very similar conclusions as their American colleague Andrei Znamenski and other critical authors on the topic: “The teachings of the Buddha have so many treasures and wonderful insights, but the philosophy, the vision and the practices of the Kalachakra Tantra are neither compatible with fundamentals of Buddha’s teachings nor with basic principles of Western Enlightenment. Therein are included an apocalyptic war of religion, the aggressive application of super-weapons, radical transgressions of a humanistic moral code, the dissolution of the ego and the soul of the participants of the ritual, the totalitarian subjugation under the will of the guru, the idea of an imperial and global lama-state (Buddhocracy), and the concept of an absolutist world ruler, the Chakravartin.

The sexual rites in the higher initiations of this occult ritual have to be designated as a manipulation of erotic love and a misuse of female energy to produce spiritual and worldly power of men and monks. So the equality of the sexes, democratic decision making, and ecumenical movements are in themselves foreign to the nature of the Kalachakra Tantra.”

The two German cultural philosophers created the Critical Forum Kalachakra to open a wide-ranging debate over the hidden “dark sides” of the Tantra, and  published many other articles, including a pamphlet, Eight Questions to the 14th Dalai Lama on the Topic of the Kalachakra.

During the public Kalachakra Initiation in Graz/Austria directed by the Dalai Lama (2002), the German-speaking media picked up these critiques from the Trimondis and other authors  to discuss the controversial ritual.

  • The Austrian state TV & Radio ORF broadcasted a feature called, “Critique of the ‘Peace Ritual’ of the Dalai Lama in Graz.” ‘Peace Ritual’ has been written in quotations marks to emphasize the ambivalence of the term in this context.
  • Der Standard (The “New York Times” of Vienna) published a cover article with the title, “A Warrior Ritual of the Dalai Lama: The Kalachakra,”
  • The conservative German Weekly Der Rheinische Merkur wrote: “Extremely wild warriors: what is hidden behind the Kalachakra – Thousands have attended the peace ritual of the Dalai Lama. But the ‘Religion of Happiness’ has also its dark sides.”
  • Georg Schmid, Prof. for Religious Studies at the University Zürich (Switzerland) called attention to the fact that the Kalachakra Tantra was the product of the religious war between Buddhists and militant Moslems in India around the turn of the first millennium.  It was under this influence that the Tantra changed fundamental Buddhist principles. “In this time,” said Professor Schmid, “Buddhism had adopted the law of its enemies and had developed a Buddhist concept of a holy war, a forthcoming apocalyptic conflict between friend and foe of the Buddha-way and a future Buddhist world dominium.”
  • Alexander Berzin, a designated Kalachakra expert of the Dalai Lama [JCS comments Berzin is the Dalai Lama’s apologist. So what’s needed are several different perspectives], also confirms that the Tantra proclaims a holy war: “A careful examination of the Buddhist texts, particularly The Kalachakra Tantra literature, reveals both external and internal levels of battle that could easily be called ‘holy wars.’ An unbiased study of Islam reveals the same. In both religions, leaders may exploit the external dimensions of holy war for political, economic, or personal gain by using it to rouse their troops to battle. Historical examples regarding Islam are well known; but one must not be rosy-eyed about Buddhism.”
  • In the meantime, dozens of books, articles, and discussion groups in German and French have carried forward these criticisms and have expanded them–without sparing the person of the Dalai Lama.
  • A lot of the critical voices came also from the Buddhist camp. See, for example, comments to an article about the Kalachakra Initiation 2011 in the Huffington Post.

 

  • The latest high point of this critical wave in Germany was a cover story in Germany’s biggest magazine “Stern” (2009): The two faces of the Dalai Lama – The soft Tibetan and his undemocratic Regime (trans. in English). This article was written by Tilman Müller, the same journalist who uncovered ten years before–with his Austrian colleague Gerald Lehner–the Nazi past of the Dalai Lama’s teacher, Heinrich Harrer: Dalai Lama’s friend: Hitlers Champion (trans. in English). Their sensational discovery caused a protest movement in the Jewish community against the film adaptation of Harrer’s autobiographical book Seven Years in Tibet, with Brad Pitt as Harrer.
  • Very accurately the historian Andrei Znamenskis calls the Kalachakra Tantra “a totalitarian temptation.” In his book Red Shambhala he recounts the story of political and spiritual seekers from West and East who used the Tibetan Buddhist prophecies of the Kalachakra Tantra (the Shambhala Myth) to promote their spiritual, social, and geopolitical agendas and schemes. Red Shambhala proves that people in the Left were no strangers to the occult, and they were equally mesmerized by the Tantra. But even more mesmerized have been people of the far Right.
  • In their second book, Hitler-Buddha-Krishna – An unholy alliance from the Third Reich to the present day (2002) which received international attention, Victor and Victoria Trimondi show how influential Fascists and Nazis used the philosophies, mythologies, visions, and dogmas as well as the religious practices and texts of the spiritual traditions of Asia for glorifying war, and for the deification of the “Führer” and the white race. Some of them have been electrified by the Kalachakra Tantra and the Shambhala-Myth.
  • The Trimondis uncover how the Nazi-Orientalists who prepared the SS Tibet Expedition of Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler have been interested in the ritual, and how members of the SS Ahnenerbe (the brain trust of the SS) wanted to spare the Kalachakra Temple in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) during the siege and barrage of the city by the Deutsche Wehrmacht (1941 – 1944). The Shambhala Myth of the Kalachakra Tantra and its militant ideologies are a topic in the occult literature of the international Neo-Fascist and Neo-Nazi scene. One example is Miguel Serrano, the recently deceased leader of the Chilean National Socialists.
  • Another is Ernesto Mila, former chief of the Spanish National-Socialists, who writes about the Kalachakra-Ritual in his article, The envoys of Hitler in Tibet: “The Kalachakra Tantra and its initiation is not a normal ritual. . . . It is the ‘supreme initiation,’ that ‘assured the renaissance in Shambhala’ at the moment of the last battle against the powers of evil. . . . It is the initiation which is appropriate for the warrior caste.”
  • Another example is the accredited expert on the Orient (and Hitler admirer) Jean Marquès-Rivière who after WW II was convicted in absentia and given the death sentence for turning Jews and Free Masons over to the Gestapo and SS in France. He was the author of a Kalachakra interpretation once popular with some fascist elements. He wrote in his book that the Dalai Lama personally gave a ring to him with the Kalachakra Emblem to demonstrate that he is part of the inner circle of Shambhala adepts. (Kalachakra: Initiation Tantrique du Dalai Lama)  Last but not least, the Japanese Doomsday Guru, Shoko Asahara must be mentioned. He intended a Shambalization of our planet by means of nuclear terror. Asahara was responsible for poisonous gas attacks on Tokyo’s metro in 1995, killing 12 and leaving hundreds injured. The terrorist sect’s leader met the Dalai Lama on several occasions. Even weeks after the first assault, the Dalai Lama called him a “friend, yet not a perfect one.” Only later did the Dalai Lama distance himself from the sect leader. (The Doomsday Guru Shoko Asahara and XIV Dalai Lama).
  • So the “totalitarian temptation” which streams out from the Kalachakra Tantra for all sorts of political and religious fanatics makes it absolutely necessary that the text, commentaries, and the ritual itself are discussed and disputed openly and honestly, especially at this time when the ritual is performed in a place where the power of the world is concentrated: Washington DC. The organizers are very conscious of this political acupuncture point when they write, “The Kalachakra for World Peace 2011 will unfold in a world capital where local actions deeply and globally affect the lives of so many.”

A statement from the Capital Area Tibetan Association, which is putting on the event, also stressed the significance of having it in Washington: “If there is a seed of spirituality in this very city, that seed when it grows is bound to have an effect.” The ritual is to be carried out in the Verizon Center approximately mid-way between the White House and the US Capitol Buildings, just a short stroll from the National Mall.

A Washington Post article states, “Many still see huge significance in his [the Dalai Lama’s] picking the capital of the world’s superpower as the place for a ritual about how to reconcile disunity. Some believe the Kalachakra’s hopeful explanation about how to deal with differences literally will spread through meditators to area bigwigs coping with national debt, wars, environmental disasters and terrorism.”

The article cites Clark Strand, former editor of Tricycle, a Buddhist magazine: “The most significant thing about this is the time and place, 10 years after 9/11, and in a place where big decisions are being made about the planet.”

Yes,10 years after 9/11! But what did happen exactly ten years before 9/11? In 1991 in New York City a so-called Kalachakra Sand Mandala was constructed, then destroyed by the Dalai Lama, and the sand was poured into the water near the World Trade Center. Two years later in 1993 another Wheel of Time (Kalachakra) Sand Mandala was built by Tibetan Monks in the lobby of Tower One. For over thirty days, many of the World Trade Center workers and visitors were invited to participate during the construction of this Mandala. Although these coincidences may be accidental, they prove that these two Kalachakra events were not a remedy for “national debt, wars, environmental disasters and terrorism.” If they did have any magical effect at all, it was to produce exactly the opposite.

You will find a résumé of the most problematic contents of the Kalachakra Tantra with original citations under: Critical Forum Kalachakra. The English site of the “Trimondi Online Magazine” under: www.trimondi.de/EN/front.html and the book “The Shadow of the Dalai Lama – Sexuality, Magic and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism” under: www.trimondi.de/SDLE/Index.htm Critical Forum Kalachakra.

Journal of a Young Buddhist Radical Part II

In April 1981, I journeyed to Japan on a study tour with UCLA Extension on the Gardens of Japan meeting various architects and landscape architects, some who were in the process of restoring historic gardens. We also visited many historic sites ranging from Tokyo’s Imperial Palace, to the Ise Shrine, Todaiji Temple in Nara, Nijyo Castle, the Golden Temple and Nanzenji Temple in Kyoto to name a few. (For an audio file follow the highlighted link   ~approximately 15 minutes). Journal of a Young Buddhist Radical Part II

Journal of Young Buddhist Radical

My Spiritual Autobiography

(Click the highlighted link to hear a brief spiritual autobiography. Approximately 3 minutes.)

Photo: In 1970, the General Director George M. Williams, aka Masayasu Sadanaga of Nichiren Shoshu Academy, now known as SGI (Soka Gakkai International), visited California State University Northridge and gave a talk on Buddhism which I and several other members attended, among them Russ Dilando, Carol Dell, Jim Jay, Lance Stromsoe, and Mike Maeda. Steve Gore leaning over in the background was one of General Director Williams’ special assistants who accompanied him to his speaking engagements.