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

country, with all its viceroys, ministers, generals, officials, warriors, ladies of the court, vajra girls,
palace grounds, administrative bodies and dogmata, now appears as a structural model which
describes the mystic body of a yogi: “If you can use your body properly, than the body becomes
Shambhala, the ninety-six principalities concur in all their actions, and you conquer the kingdom
itself.” (Bernbaum, 1980, p. 155)
The arduous “journey to Shambhala” and the “final battle” are also subjectified and identified as,
respectively, an “initiatory path” or an “inner battle of the soul” along the way to enlightenment. In
this psycho-mystic drama, the ruler of the last days, Rudra Chakrin, plays the “higher self” or the
“divine consciousness” of the yogi, which declares war on the human ego in the figure of the
“barbarian king” and exterminates it. The prophesied paradise refers to the enlightenment of the
initiand.
We have already a number of times gone into the above all among western Buddhists widespread
habit of exclusively internalizing or “psychologizing” tantric images and myths. From an “occidental”
way of looking at things, an internalization implies that an external image (a war for example) is to be
understood as a symbol for an inner psychic/spiritual process (for example, a “psychological” war).
However, according to Eastern, magic-oriented thinking, the “identity” of interior and exterior means
something different, namely that the inner processes in the yogi’s mystic body correspond to external
events, or to tone this down a little , that inside and outside consist of the same substance (of “pure
spirit” for example). The external is thus not a metaphor for the internal as in the western symbolic
conception, but rather both, inner and exterior, correspond to one another. Admittedly this implies that
the external can be influenced by inner manipulations, but not that it thereby disappears. Applying
this concept to the example mentioned above results in the following simple statement: the
Shambhala war takes place internally and externally. Just as the mystic body (interior) of the ADI
BUDDHA is identical with the whole cosmos (exterior), so the mystic body (interior) of the
Shambhala king is identical to his state (exterior).
The Shambhala myth and the ideologies derived from it stand in stark opposition to Gautama
Buddha’s original vision of peace and to the Ahimsa politics (politics of nonviolence) of Mahatma
Ghandi, to whom the current Dalai Lama so often refers. For Westerners sensitized by the pacifist
message of Buddhism, the “internalization” of the myth may thus offer an way around the militant
ambient of the Kalachakra Tantra. But in Tibetan/Mongolian history the prophecy of Shambhala has
been taken literally for centuries, and — as we still have to demonstrate — has led to extremely
aggressive political undertakings. It carries within it — and this is something to we shall return to
discuss in detail — the seeds of a worldwide fundamentalist ideology of war.
Footnotes:
[1] In the thirties, Jean Marquès Rivière worked on the journal Voile d'Isis, in which the occult elite of Europe
published. The editor was René Guénon. During this period Rivière performed a tantric ritual ("with blood and
alcohol”), which left him possessed by a Tibetan deity. Only through the intervention of a Catholic exorcist
could he be freed of the possession. In gratitude he reconverted to Christianity. But several years later he was
once again to be found in the Buddhist camp (Robin, 1986, p. 325).
[2] In another version of the prophecy the barbarians at first succeed in penetrating into the wonderland and
storming the palace of the king. Rudra Chakrin then extends the offer of ruling Shambhala together with his
opponents. The barbarian king apparently consents, but then tries to seize control alone with an attempted
assassination. But the attempt fails, and the Shambhala king escapes. Only now does the bloody final battle of
Good versus Evil occur.