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The Shadow of the Dalai Lama – Introduction
© Victor & Victoria Trimondi
INTRODUCTION
Light and Shadow
For centuries after Buddha had died,
his shadow was still visible in a cave
a dreadful, spine-chilling shadow.
God is dead: but man being the way
he is for centuries to come there
will be caves in which his shadow is shown
and we, we must also triumph over his shadow.
Friedrich Nietzsche
The practice and philosophy of Buddhism has spread so rapidly throughout the Western world in the
past 30 years and has so often been a topic in the media that by now anybody who is interested in
cultural affairs has formed some sort of concept of Buddhism. In the conventional “Western” notion
of Buddhism, the teachings of Buddha Gautama are regarded as a positive Eastern countermodel to
the decadent civilization and culture of the West: where the Western world has introduced war and
exploitation into world history, Buddhism stands for peace and freedom; whilst Western rationalism is
destructive of life and the environment, the Eastern teachings of wisdom preserve and safeguard them.
The meditation, compassion, composure, understanding, nonviolence, modesty, and spirituality of
Asia stand in contrast to the actionism, egomania, unrest, indoctrination, violence, arrogance, and
materialism of Europe and North America. Ex oriente lux—“light comes from the East”; in occidente
nox—“darkness prevails in the West”.
We regard this juxtaposition of the Eastern and Western hemispheres as not just the “business” of
naive believers and zealous Tibetan lamas. On the contrary, this comparison of values has become
distributed among Western intelligentsia as a popular philosophical speculation in which they flirt
with their own demise.
But the cream of Hollywood also gladly and openly confess their allegiance to the teachings of
Buddhism (or what they understand these to be), especially when these come from the mouths of
Tibetan lamas. “Tibet is looming larger than ever on the show business map,” the Herald Tribune
wrote in 1997. “Tibet is going to enter the Western popular culture as something can only when
Hollywood does the entertainment injection into the world system. Let’s remember that Hollywood is
the most powerful force in the world, besides the US military” (Herald Tribune, March 20, 1997, pp.
1, 6). Orville Schell, who is working on a book on Tibet and the West, sees the Dalai Lama’s