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

While the “grand sorcerers” of India still enjoyed supreme spiritual authority, before which abbots
and kings had to bow, the holy fools only acted as a social pressure valve. Everything wild, anarchic,
unbridled, and oppositional in Tibetan society could be diverted through such individuals, so that the
repressive pressure of the Buddhocracy did not too much gain the upper hand and incite real and
dangerous revolts. The role of the holy fools was thus, in contrast to that of the Maha Siddhas,
planned in advance and arranged by the state and hence a part of the absolutist Buddhocracy. John
Ardussi and Lawrence Epstein have encapsulated the principal characteristics of this figure in six
points:
1. A general rejection of the usual social patterns of behavior especially the rules of the
clerical establishment.
2. A penchant for bizarre clothing.
3. A cultivated non-observance of politeness, above all with regard to respect for social
status.
4. A publicly proclaimed contempt for scholasticism, in particular a mockery of religious
study through books alone.
5. The use of popular poetic forms, of mimicry, song, and stories as a means of preaching.
6. The frequent employment of obscene insinuations (Ardussi and Epstein, 1978, pp. 332–
333).
These six characteristics doe not involve a true anarchist rejection of state Buddhism. At best, the holy
fools made fun of the clerical authorities, but they never attacked these as such.
The roaming yogis primarily became famous for their completely free and uninhibited sexual morals
and thus formed a safety valve for thousands of abstinent monks living in celibacy, who were
subjected to extreme sexual pressure by the tantric symbolism. What was forbidden for the ordained
monastery inmates was lived out to the full by the vagabond “crazy monks”: They praised the size of
their phallus, boasted about the number of women they had possessed, and drifted from village to
village as sacred Casanovas. Drukpa Kunley (1455–1529) was the most famous of them. H sings his
own praises in a lewd little song:
People say Drukpa Kunley is utterly mad
In Madness all sensory forms are the Path!
People say Drukpa Kunley’s organ is immense
His member brings joy to the hearts of young girls!
(quoted by Stevens, 1990, p. 77)
Kunley’s biography begins with him lying in bed with his mother and trying to seduce her. As, after
great resistance, she was prepared to surrender to her son’s will, he, a master of tantric semen
retention, suddenly springs up and leaves her. Amazingly, this uninhibited outsider was a member of
the strict Kadampa order — this too can only be understood once we have recognized the role of the
fool as a paradoxical instrument of control.
An anarchist erotic: The Sixth Dalai Lama
At first glance it may appear absurd to include the figure of the Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso
(1683-1706), in a chapter on “Anarchism and Buddhocracy”, yet we do have our reasons for doing so.
Opinions are divided about this individual: for those who are sympathetic towards him, he counts as a