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

fundamentally differing situations” (Brauen, 1992, p. 109). But that also means that the cosmology of
the Abhidharma would become obligatory for all should the world be converted to Buddhism after the
final Shambhala battle as the Kalachakra Tantra predicts.
The yogi as computer
The Fourteenth Dalai Lama is especially interested in the phenomenon of artificial intelligence. Since
the mind is independent of the body in the Buddhist teachings, a pattern of spiritual synapses so to
speak, he is of the opinion that it is possible for it to be reborn not just in people but also in machines:
„I can’t totally rule out the possibility that,” the god-king says, „that all the external conditions and
the karmic action were there, a stream of consciousness might actually enter into a computer. […]
There is a possibility that a scientist who is very much involved his whole life [with computers], than
the next life [he would be reborn in a computer], same process! [laughter] Then this machine which is
half-human and half-machine has been reincarnated.” (Hayward, 1992, p. 152) (Hayward, 1992, p.
152). In answer to a subsequent question by Eleanor Rosch, a well-known cognitive psychologist
from California, as to whether a great yogi who stood before the best computer in the world would be
able to project his subtle consciousness into it, His Holiness replied enigmatically: „I feel this
question about computers will be resolved only by time. We just have to wait and see until it actually
happens.” (Hayward, 1992, p. 153).
His Holiness casually grounds the possibility of taking the computer as a model for the spirit through
a reference to an ancient magical practice of Tibetan Buddhism. This is known as Trongjug and
involves a yogi transplanting his consciousness into a “freshly” deceased cadaver and then using this
reanimated corpse for his own purposes (Evans-Wentz, 1937, p. 184). „In this case”, His Holiness
says, „there is a total change of the body. [...] It’s very mystical, but imagine a person, a Tantric
practitioner who actually transfers his consciousness to a fresh corpse. His previous body is dead; it
has left and is finished. Now he has entered the new body. So in this case, you see, he has a
completely new body but it’s the same life, the same person” (Hayward, 1992, p. 155). Images of this
kind can be translated into computer terms without father ado: The “fresh corpse” forms the hardware
so to speak, which stores the awareness of the Tantric who uses the dead body for his own ends as
software.
In addition, such Tantric Buddhist speculations can lead one to perceive a subjectivity independent of
humans in the “Internet” and “cyberspace”, a kind of superconscious. Could not the spirit of the
supreme Kalachakra master, independent of a human body, one day control the international network
of all computers from the inside? As fantastic and uncanny as it may sound, it is at any rate a
theoretical possibility within the tantric system that such a question be answered with a yes. For this
reason it is also taken seriously in exile Tibetan lama circles, by the Namgyal institute for example.
The Namgyal monks are essentially commissioned to conduct the Kalachakra Tantra and are under
the direct authority of the Dalai Lama. This institution can also be described as a kind of Tantric
Buddhist “elite university”.
On February 8, 1996, His Holiness’s tantra institute posted a “Curriculum on Cyberspace” online.
This document is of interest in as far as it is about the occult relationship between Tantrism, especially
the Kalachakra Tantra, and the Internet. We would therefore like to cite several lengthier passages
from it: “Cyberspace is a dimension of space sustained by networked computers designed to extend
the power of the mind. Remarkably, the Internet often appears almost mystically to have a life of its
own that is more than the sum of its parts. Mental projections can of course yield both positive and