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

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<strong>The</strong>re are a number of depictions of Gaut<strong>am</strong>a as a “pillar of fire” from as early as the third century B.<br />

C.E. (Coomarasw<strong>am</strong>y, 1979, p. 210). <strong>The</strong> column of fire is both a symbol for the axis of the world<br />

and for the human spine up which the Kundalini ascends. It further has a clear phallic character. A<br />

Nepalese text refers to the ADI BUDDHA as a “linga-shaped [phallic] fl<strong>am</strong>e” which rises from a<br />

lotus (Hazra, 1986, p. 30). This close relation of the Buddha figure to fire has induced such<br />

discriminating authors as the Indian religious studies scholar, Ananda Coomarasw<strong>am</strong>y, to see in<br />

Shaky<strong>am</strong>uni an incarnation of Agni, the Indian god of fire (Coomarasw<strong>am</strong>y, 1979, p. 65).<br />

Yet the power of fire is not only positively valued in Indian mythology. In the hot subcontinent,<br />

destructive forces are also evoked by sun and fl<strong>am</strong>e. Notorious demons, not just gods, laid claim to be<br />

descended from Surya, the sun god. Hence, the Indologist, Heinrich Zimmer, recounted several<br />

traditional stories in which demonic yogis reached for divine power through the generation of inner<br />

heat. He calls this fiery yogic force tapas, which means roughly “inner blaze”.<br />

Throne and Foot of the Buddha with sun symbols and swastikas<br />

In contrast, L<strong>am</strong>a Govinda completely represses the destructive force of the tapas and simply declares<br />

them to be the main principle of Buddhist mysticism: “It is the all-consuming, fl<strong>am</strong>ing power, the<br />

inner blaze which overwhelms everything, which has filled the religious life of the people in its thrall<br />

since the awakening of Indian thought: the power of the Tapas ... Here, Tapas is the creative principle,<br />

which functions in both the material and the spiritual [domains] ... It is 'enthusiasm', in its most lowly<br />

form a straw fire fed by blind emotion, in its highest, the fl<strong>am</strong>e of inspiration nourished by<br />

unmediated perception. Both have the nature of fire” (Govinda, 1991, p. 188). With this citation<br />

Govinda leaves us with no doubt that Tantric Buddhism represents a universal fire cult. [1]

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