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

of tradition among the Tibetans (Nyingmapa, Sakyapa, Kagyupa, and Gelugpa) participating. In the
sixties, the American Trappist monk and poet, Thomas Merton (1906-1968), visited the Kundun in
Dharamsala and summarized his experience together as follows: “I dealt primarily with Buddhists ...
It is of incalculable value to come into direct contact with people who have worked hard their whole
lives at training their minds and liberating themselves from passions and illusions” (Brück and Lai,
1997, p. 49).
In 1989 the god-king and the Benedictine abbot Thomas Keating led a gathering of several thousand
Christians and Buddhists in a joint meditation in the West. The Kundun has visited Lourdes and
Jerusalem in order to pray there in silent devotion. There is also very close contact between the
Lutheran Church and the Council for Religious and Cultural Affairs of H.H. the Dalai Lama. At the
so-called Naropa Conferences in Boulder, Colorado, topics such as “God” (Christian) and
“Emptiness” (Buddhist), “Prayer” (Christian) and “Meditation” (Buddhist), “Theism” and “non-
Theism”, the “Trinity” and the “Three Body Theory” are treated in dialog between Christians and
Buddhists.
The comparison between Christ and Buddha has a long tradition (see Brück and Lai, 1997, pp.
314ff.). There are in fact many parallels (the virgin birth for example, the messianism). But in
particular Mahayana Buddhism’s requirement of compassion allows the two founding figures to
appear as representatives of the same spirit. Avalokiteshvara, the supreme Bodhisattva of compassion
is thus often presented as a quasi-Christian archetype in Buddhism and also prayed to as such. This is
naturally of great advantage to the Kundun, who is himself an incarnation of Avalokiteshvara and can
via the comparison (of the two deities) lay claim to the powerful qualities of Christ’s image.
But His Holiness is extremely cautious and diplomatic in such matters. For a Buddhist, the Dalai
Lama says, Christ can of course be regarded as a Bodhisattva, yet one must avoid claiming Christ for
Buddhism. (Incidentally, Christ is named in the Kalachakra Tantra as one the “heretics”.) The
Kundun knows only too well that an open integration of the archetype of Christ into his tantric
pantheon would only lead to strong protests from the Christian side.
He must thus proceed with more skill if he wants to nonetheless integrate the Nazarene into his
system as Padmasambhava once incorporated the local gods of Tibet. For example, he describes so
many parallels between Christ and Buddha (Avalokiteshvara) that his (Christian!) audience arrive at
the conclusion that Christ is a Bodhisattva completely of their own accord.
Just how successful the Kundun is with such manipulation is demonstrated by a conference held
between a small circle of Christians and himself (in 1994), the proceedings of which are documented
in the book, The Good Heart: A Buddhist Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus. In that the god-king
repeatedly and emphatically stressed at this meeting that he had not the slightest intention of letting
Buddhism monopolize anybody or anything, he in fact had the opposite effect. The more tolerant and
respectful towards other religions he showed himself to be, the more he convinced his listeners that
Buddhism was indeed the one true faith. With this Catch 22, the Dalai Lama succeeded in emerging at
the end of this meeting as a Buddhist super monk, who in himself combined all the qualities of the
three most important Christian monastic orders: „He [the Dalai Lama] brings three qualities to a
spiritual discourse,” the chief organizer of the small ecumenical event, a Benedictine, says, „traits so
rare in some contemporary Christian circles as to have elicited grasps of relieved gratitude from the
audience. These qualities are gentleness, clarity, and laughter. If there is something Benedictine about