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

The Shadow of the Dalai Lama – Part I – 11. The Manipulator of erotic love
© Victor & Victoria Trimondi
11. THE MANIPULATOR OF EROTIC LOVE
In this chapter we want to introduce the reader to a spectacular European parallel to the fundamental
tantric idea that erotic love and sexuality can be translated into material and spiritual power. It
concerns several until now rarely considered theses of Giordano Bruno (1548-1600).
At the age of fifteen, Bruno, born in Nola, Italy, joined the Dominican order. However, his interest in
the newest scientific discoveries and his fascination with the late Hellenistic esotericism very soon led
him to leave his order, a for the times most courageous undertaking. From this point on he began a
hectic life on the road which took him all over Europe. Nonetheless, the restless and ingenious exmonk
wrote and published numerous “revolutionary” works in which he took a critical stance toward
the dogmata of the church on all manner of topics. The fact that Bruno championed many ideas from
the modern view of the world that was emerging at the time, especially the Copernican system, made
him a hero of the new during his own lifetime. After he was found guilty of heresy by the Inquisition
in 1600 and burned at the stake at the Campo dei Fiori in Rome, the European intelligentsia
proclaimed him to be the greatest “martyr of modern science”. This image has stayed with him up
until the present day. Yet this is not entirely justified, then Bruno was far more interested in the
esoteric ideas of antiquity and the occultism of his day than in modern scientific research. Nearly all
of his works concern magic/mystic/mythological themes.
Like the Indian Tantrics, this eccentric and dynamic Renaissance philosopher was convinced that the
entire universe was held together by erotic love. Love in all its variations ruled the world, from
physical nature to the metaphysical heavens, from sexuality to heartfelt love of the mystics: it “led
either to the animals [sexuality] or to the intelligible and is then called the divine [mysticism]" (quoted
by Samsonow, 1995, p. 174).
Bruno extended the term Eros (erotic love) to encompass in the final instance all human emotions and
described it in general terms as the primal force which bonded, or rather—as he put it—"chained”,
through affect. “The most powerful shackle of all is ... love” (quoted by Samsonow, 1995, p. 224).
The lover is “chained” to the individual loved. But there is no need for the reverse to apply, then the
beloved does not themselves have to love. This definition of love as a “chain” made it possible for
Bruno to see even hate as a way of expressing erotic love, since he or she who hates is just as
“chained” to the hated by his feelings as the lover is to the beloved. (To more graphically illustrate the
parallels between Bruno’s philosophy and Tantrism, we will in the following speak of the lover as
feminine rather than masculine. Bruno used the term completely generically for both women and men.
According to Bruno, “the ability to enchain” is also the main chacteristic of magic, then a magician
behaves like an escapologist when he binds his “victim” (whether human or spirit) to him with love.
“There where we have spoken of natural magic, we have described to what extent all chains can be