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

cook, but emotionally the strongest bond was with him” (Craig, 1997, p. 326).
In a discussion which the Dalai Lama later conducted with academics, he showed a keen interest in
the maternal warmth and tender touching of the child as an important element in the development of
personality. He became reflective as one (female ) speaker explained that the absence of such bodily
contact in childhood could result in serious psychic damage to the person affected (Dalai Lama XIV,
1995, p. 319).
All young tulkus must do without all motherly contact in the purely masculine society of the
monasteries and this may be an unspoken psychological problem for the whole Lamaist system. The
Tibetan guru, Chögyam Trungpa has unintentionally captured this longing for contact with the family
in the moving words of his „defiant poem”, Nameless Child: „Suddenly,” it says there „a Suddenly, a
luminous child without a name comes into being. ... In the place where metal birds croak
instantaneously born child can find no name... Because he has no father, the child has no family line.
He has never tasted milk because he has no mother. He has no one to play with because he has no
brother and sister. Having no house to live in, he has no crib. Since he has no nanny, he has never
cried. There is no civilization, so he has no toys. ... Since there is no point of reference, he has never
found a self” (quoted and Italics by June Campbell, 1996, p. 88). The poem is supposed to glorify the
“instantaneously born child”, but it more resembles the despairing cry of a being who had to renounce
the joys of childhood because it was tantrically turned into the vessel of a deity.
The introduction of the doctrine of incarnation to the West
These days, the West is downright fascinated by the idea of reincarnation. In the last twenty years it
has like lightning seized the awareness of millions. A large percentage of north Americans today
believe in rebirth. Books upon the topic have become legion in the meantime. People are also
fascinated by the idea that in the figure of a Tibetan lama they are face to face with a real “deity”.
Thus, the concept of being reborn has become a powerful instrument in the Lamaist conquest of the
West. Earlier, a few Europeans had already formed the idea that they were the reincarnation of former
Tibetans or Mongolians. In theosophical circles such speculative incarnations were en vogue. A
Tibetan lama also drew Alexandra David-Neel’s attention to the fact that she came from the race of
Genghis Khan.
In 1985 it was discovered that the honorable Lama Yeshe had incarnated as the child of two Spanish
parents. His Holiness commented upon the spectacular event in the following words: “[Buddhism]
also provides many different methods to practice, understand and meditate, so it has the attraction of
the supermarket. So the fact that Lama Yeshe, whose main work was in the West, should be born in
Spain, seems quite logical. Actually there are quite a few western reincarnated lamas
now” (Mackenzie, 1992, p. 155).
The idea of western reincarnations is also cultivated by Bernardo Bertolucci’s film, Little Buddha.
The plot involves a lama who simultaneously embodies himself in a white boy from Seattle and,
amazingly, in a girl as well.
An amusing anecdote, likewise from the world of film, brought the Tibetan doctrine of incarnation
into discredit a little. Namely, the famous Aikido fighter and actor Steven Seagal announced he was
the reincarnation of an important lama (Chung-rag Dorje), who had live several centuries earlier and
had made his name as a treasure hunter (terton). [7] It was not at all the case that Seagal had