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

The political impotence of the country the hierarch had to flee has a similarly powerful and disturbing
effect. The image of the innocent, peaceful, spiritual, defenseless, and tiny Tibet, suppressed and
humiliated by the merciless, inhumane, and materialistic Chinese giant has elevated the “Land of
Snows” and its monastic king to the status of a worldwide symbol of “pacifist resistance”. The more
Tibet and its “ecclesiastical king” are threatened, the more his spiritual authority increases and the
more the Kundun becomes an international moral authority. He has succeeded in the impossible task
of drawing strength from his weakness.
The numerous speeches of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, his interviews, statements, writings,
biographies, books, and his countless introductions and forewords to the texts of others deal almost
exclusively with topics like compassion, kindness, sincerity, love, nonviolence, human rights,
ecological visions, professions of democracy, religious tolerance, inner and outer spirituality, the
blessings of science, world peace, and so on. It would take a true villain to not agree totally with what
he has said and written. Training consciousness, achieving spiritual peace, cultivating inner
contentment, fostering satisfaction, practicing awareness, eliminating egoism, helping others — what
responsible person could fail to identify with this? Who doesn’t long for flawless love, clear intellect,
generosity, and enlightenment?
Within Western civilization, the Dalai Lama appears as the purest light. He represents — according to
former President Jimmy Carter — a new type of world leader, who has placed the principles of peace
and compassion at the center of his politics, and who, with his kind and winning nature, has shown us
all how the hardest blows of fate can be borne with perseverance and patience. By now he symbolizes
human dignity and global responsibility for millions. Up until very recently hardly anyone, with the
exception of his archenemies, the Chinese communists, has dared to criticize this impotent/
omnipotent luminary. But then, out of the blue in 1996, dark clouds began to gather over the bright
aura of the “living Buddha”.
Charges, accusations, suspicions and incriminations began to appear in the media. At first on the
Internet, then in isolated press reports, and finally in television programs (see Panorama on ARD
[Germany], November 20, 1997 and 10 vor 10 on SF1 [Switzerland], January 5-8, 1998). At the same
time as the Hollywood stars were erecting a media altar for their Tibetan god, the public attacks on
the Dalai Lama were becoming more frequent. Even for a mundane politician the catalogue of
accusations would have been embarrassing, but for a divine king they were horrendous. And on this
occasion the attacks came not from the Chinese camp but from within his own ranks.
The following serious charges are leveled in an open letter to the Kundun supposedly written by
Tibetans in exile which criticizes the “despotism” of the hierarch: “The cause [of the despotism] is the
invisible disease which is still there and which develops immediately if met with various conditions.
And what is this disease? It is your clinging to your own power. It is a fact that even at that time if
someone would have used democracy on you, you would not have been able to accept it. ... Your
Holiness, you wish to be a great leader, but you do not know that in order to fulfill the wish, a
‘political Bodhisattva vow’ is required. So you entered instead the wrong ‘political path of
accumulation’ (tsog lam) and that has lead you on a continuously wrong path. You believed that in
order to be a greater leader you had to secure your own position first of all, and whenever any
opposition against you arose you had to defend yourself, and this has become contagious. ...
Moreover, to challenge lamas you have used religion for your own aim. To that purpose you had to