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

The Shadow of the Dalai Lama – Part II – 1. The Dalai Lama: Incarnation of the Tibetan Gods
© Victor & Victoria Trimondi
1. THE DALAI LAMA:
INCARNATION OF THE TIBETAN GODS
The two principal divine beings who act through the person of the Dalai Lama are the Bodhisattva,
Avalokiteshvara (in Tibetan, Chenrezi), and the meditation Buddha, Amitabha. Spiritually, Amitabha
is on a higher level (as a Buddha). He does not “lower” himself directly into the “god-king” (the Dalai
Lama), but appears first in the form of Avalokiteshvara. Only Chenrezi then takes on the bodily form
of the Dalai Lama.
Buddha Amitabha: The sun and light deity
The meditation Buddha, Amitabha, rules –according to a point of doctrine of Mahayana Buddhism —
as regent of the current age. Even the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, was considered his earthly
emanation. The sun and light are assigned to him and summer is his season. The peacock, a classic
animal of the sun, adorns his throne. The red color of Amitabha’s body also signals his solar
character. Likewise, his mantra, “HRIH”, is referred to as a “sun symbol”: “It possesses not just the
warmth of the sun, that is, the emotional principle of kindness and of pity — but also the brilliance,
the quality of clarification, the discovery, the unmediated perception” (Govinda, 1984, p. 277).
Amitabha is the Buddhist god of light par excellence and his followers thus pray to him as the
“shining lord “. As the “unbounded light” he shines through the whole universe. His luminance is
described in ancient texts as “a hundred thousand times greater than the radiance of gold” (Joseph
Campbell, 1973, p. 315).
The opulent sun symbolism which is so closely linked to the figure of this Buddha has led several
western oriented scholars to describe Buddhism in total as a solar cult. For example, the tantra
researcher, Shashibhusan Dasgupta, even sees an identity between the historical Buddha (the
incarnation of Amitabha), the Dharma (the Buddhist doctrine) and the Indian solar deity (Surya)
(Dasgupta, 1946, p. 337). The Dharma (the teachings) are also often referred to as the “sun” in
traditional Buddhist writings, since the words of Buddha “radiate like sunshine”. Sometimes even the
principle of “emptiness” is identified with the sun: “Dharma is Shunya [emptiness] and Shunya has
the form of a zero”, writes Dasgupta, “Therefore Dharma is of the shape of a zero; and as the sun is
also of the shape of a zero, Dharma is identified with the sun. Moreover, Dharma moves in the void,
and void is the sky, and the sun moves in the sky and hence the sun is Dharma” (Dasgupta, 1946, p.
337).
Amitabha and the historical Buddha are not just associated with the sun, but also with the element of
“fire”. “As for the Fiery-Energy,” Ananda Coomaraswamy tells us, “ this is the element of fire present
as an unseen energy in all existences, but preeminently manifested by Arhats [holy men] or the
Buddha” (Coomaraswamy, 1979, p. 10).