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

spiritual power in his person. Every single monastery reiterates this political geometry with the
respective abbot in the middle.
But the mandala does not just structure the world of appearances; in Buddhist culture it likewise
determines the human psyche, the spirit and all the transcendental spheres. It serves as an aid to
meditation and as an imaginary palace of the gods in the tantric exercises. On a microcosmic level the
energy body of the yogi is seen as the construction of a three-dimensional mandala with the middle
channel (avadhuti) as the central axis. The whole cosmic-psychic anatomy of the ADI BUDDHA
(tantra master) is thus a universal mandala. For this reason we can comprehend Buddhist culture in
general (not just the Tibetan variant) as a complicated network of countless mandalas. Further, since
these exist at different levels of being, they are encapsulated within one another, include one another,
and overlap each other.
Quite rightly one aspect of the Buddhist/tantric mandalas has been compared in cross-cultural studies
with the magic circles used by the medieval sorcerers of Europe to summon up spirits, angels, and
demons. Then a mandala ("magic circle”) can also be used to conjure up Buddhas, gods and asuras
(demons).
The Kalachakra sand mandala
Mandalas are employed in all tantric rituals, yet in the Kalachakra Tantra it plays an extremely
prominent role. Before the seven lower solemnities of the Time Tantra even begin a mandala –a very
lavish one indeed — is constructed in the visible external world. Specially trained monks — for the
Dalai Lama a special unit from the Namgyal institute — are entrusted with its construction. The
“building materials” consist primarily of colored sand, lines and figures of which are applied to a
sketch in a complicated process lasting several days. Every line, every geometric form, every shading,
every object inserted has its cosmic significance. Since the mandala is built from sand, we are dealing
with a very vulnerable work of art, which can easily be destroyed; and this, astonishingly — and as
we shall see — is the final goal of the entire complicated procedure.
The sand mandala of the Time Tantras can be deciphered as the visual representation of the whole
Kalachakra ritual by anyone who understands the symbols depicted there. Such an interpreter would
once again come across all the semantic content we have encountered in the above description of the
tantric initiatory way.