Kritik am Buch „The Shadow Of The Dalai Lama ... - Neues von Shi De

highest tantra master, and the cosmos are identical.
"Everything is in the body” — this famous occult correspondence is of fundamental significance for
Tantrism too. The parallel to the world axis (Meru) is formed, for example, by the middle channel
(avadhuti) in the mystic body of the yogi. The texts then also refer to it simply and straightforwardly
as “Meru”. Just as the realm of formlessness is to be sought above Mount Meru in the cosmos, so the
yogi (ADI BUDDHA) experiences the highest bliss of the “emptiness of all forms” above his head in
the “thousand-petaled lotus”. The forehead chakra and the throat chakra correspond to the residences
of various of the thirty-three form gods (Forms) mentioned above. Humanity lives in the heart of the
yogi and below this it goes on to the genitals, where the realms of hell are situated.
Correspondingly, it says in the Kalachakra Tantra: “Earth, wind, gods, seas, everything is to be
recognized amidst the body” (Grünwedel, Kalacakra II, p. 2). All the parts of the “small” body
correspond to the parts of the “great” body: The yogi’s (ADI BUDDHA’s) rows of teeth form the
various lunar houses; the veins the rivers. Hands and feet are islands and mountains, even a female
louse hidden in the pubic hair of a Tantric has a “transcendent” significance: It counts as the
dangerous vulva of a demoness from a particular region in hell (Grünwedel, Kalacakra II, p. 34). This
bodily homology of the cosmos is the great secret which Buddha revealed to King Suchandra as he
instructed him in the Kalachakra Tantra: “As it is without, so it is in the body.” (Newman, 1987, pp.
115,104, 472, 473, 504, 509). At the same time as the secret was exposed, the “simple” recipe with
which the yogi could attain and exercise absolute control over the whole universe was also revealed:
in that he controls the energy currents within his mystic body he controls the cosmos; on the scale in
which he lets bliss flow through his veins (wind channels), on that scale he brings delight to the
universe; the turbulence which he calls forth in his insides also shakes the external world through
storms and earthquakes. Everything happens in parallel: when the yogi burns up his body during the
purification the very same procedure reduces the whole universe to rubble and ash.
Chakravala or the iron wheel
Just as the androgynous body of the ADI BUDDHA or of the enlightened yogi concentrates within
itself the energies of both sexes, so Buddhist cosmography is also based upon a gender polarity. Meru,
the world mountain, has a most obviously phallic character and is therefore also referred to as Vajra
or, more directly, as Lingam (phallus). The great oceans which surround the masculine symbol
represent — as a circle and as water — the feminine principle.
Oddly, the outermost chain of mountains within the cosmic model are forged from pure iron. This
iron crown must have a deep symbolic significance since the whole system is named after it; its name
is Chakravala ("iron wheel”). We thus have to ask ourselves why the Buddhist universe is framed by
a metal which is seen all over the world as a symbol of injury, killing, and war. The image naturally
invites a comparison to the “iron age” to which in Greco-Roman mythology humanity is chained
before its cyclical downfall. The Indian idea of the Kali yuga and the European one of the “iron age”
are congruent in a surprising number of aspects. In both cases it comes to an increasingly rapid
degeneration of the law, cusstoms, and morality. In the end only a war of all against all remains. Then
a savior figure appears and the whole cosmic game begins afresh.
Modern and Buddhist world views
The reader may have already asked him or herself how contemporary Tibetan lamas reconcile their
traditional Buddhist cosmology with our scientific world view. Do they reject it outright, have they