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

ever tried to leave Vajrayana, we would suffer unbearable, subtle, continuous anguish, and disasters
would pursue us like furies. Heresy had real meaning in this religion, and real consequences. Doubting
the dharma or the guru and associating with heretics were causes for downfall. In Tibetan literature,
breaking faith with the guru must be atoned by such drastic measures as cutting off your arms and
offering it at the door of his cave in hopes that he might take you back.” – “To be part of Trungpa’s inner
circle, you had to take a vow never to reveal or even discuss some of the things he did. This personal
secrecy is common with gurus, especially in Vajrayana Buddhism. It is also common in the dysfunctional
family system of alcoholics and sexual abusers. This inner circle secrecy puts up an almost
insurmountable barrier of a healthily skeptical mind.” (Butterfield, 1994, p. 11, 100) Trungpa’s
Shambhala Warriors see: http://sealevel.ns.ca/ctr/photo01.html and http://www.shambhalashop.com/
archives/junephoto/june12.html
The inheritance
The immediate inheritance which Trungpa left behind him was catastrophic. Completely in the spirit
of his Tibetan guru, the American, Thomas Rich, who succeeded him under the name of “Vajra
Regent Ösel Tendzin”, continued the carefree permissiveness of his master with a tantric justification.
However, in 1988 there was a scandal from which the organization has not fully recovered to this day.
The “Vajra Regent” had been HIV positive for three years and had infected numerous members with
the AIDS virus in the meantime. He died in 1991. Trungpa’s son, Sawang Ösel Rangdroel, then took
over the leadership.
“From Vajrayana point of view, passion, aggression, and ignorance, the sources of human suffering, are
also the well-spring of enlightenment. Afflictions like AIDS are not merely disasters, but accelrations
toward wisdom, and opportunities to wake up. They can be transformed into buddha-mind. Trungpa was
a Vajra master who had empowered Tendzin to guide students on this path” (Butterfield, 1994, p. 7).
Even if Trungpa’s Shambhala warriors have forfeited quite a deal of their attractiveness in recent
years, thousands still revere the master as the “holy fool” and “indestructible warrior”, who brought
the “Eastern sun” to the West. For this reason he is said to also be prayed to in the whole of Asia as a
great Bodhisattva and Maha Siddha (Hayward, 1997, p. 319). “For ten years he presented the
Shambhala Teachings”, summarizes one of his sadhakas, “In terms of time and history, that seems
insignificant; however in that short span he set in motion the powerful force of goodness that can
actually change the world” (Trungpa, 1986, p. 157). Only rarely does a “deserter” go public, like P.
Marin for example, a strong critic of the Naropa Institute, for whom this western Tibetan Buddhist
organization is “a feudal, priestly tradition transplanted to a capitalist setting” (quoted by Bishop,
1993, p. 101).
On the other hand it goes without saying that the Tantric Trungpa time and again draws attention to
the fact that the warlike figures he invokes are illusionary reflections of the human ego and that even
the Shambhala kings are projections of one’s own consciousness. But if everything really can be
reduced to forms of consciousness, then it remains totally unclear why it is time and again the
phantoms of a destructive black-and-white mode of thought which are summoned up to serve as
examples along the personal initiation path. Wouldn’t it make more sense, indeed be more logical, to
directly conjure up those “peace gods” who have surmounted such dualist thought patterns? What is
the reason for this glorification of an atavistic warrior caste?
It goes without saying that in Trungpa’s system no-one is entitled to even dream of critically
examining the dralas (gods). Although only projections of one’s own consciousness according to the