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The Shadow of the Dalai Lama – Part II – 17. Conclusion
© Victor & Victoria Trimondi
17. CONCLUSION
We have now reached the end of our detailed treatise on the Dalai Lama, Tantric Buddhism, and
Tibetan history. The first part of our study (Ritual as Politics) was centered on the theme of gender,
especially the sexual magic exploitation of the woman in the androcentric system of Vajrayana for the
mytho-political accumulation of power. The derivation of Tibetan history and the Dalai Lama’s
politics from the cultic mysteries of Buddhist Tantrism (especially the Kalachakra Tantra) forms the
content of the second part of our book (Politics as Ritual). In general, we have attempted to show that,
in the world view of the Lamaist, sacred sexuality, magic, mysticism, and myth are united with his
understanding of politics and history.
Tibetan Buddhism primarily owes its success in the West to two facts: first, the charm and brilliant
self-presentation of its supreme representative, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, and second, the promise to
lead people on the way to enlightenment. Although the tantric path to enlightenment explicitly
involves a dissolution of the ego, it is at first the I of the pupil which is addressed. “I would like to
overcome the senselessness and suffering of my earthly existence. I would like to experience
liberation from samsara (the world of illusion).” When a western sadhaka is prepared to sacrifice his
“little self”, he certainly does not have the same understanding as the lamas of the “greater self” (the
higher self or Buddha consciousness) which the tantric philosophy and practices of Vajrayana offers
him as a spiritual goal. The Westerners believe that enlightened consciousness still has something to
do with a self. In contrast, a teacher of Tantric Buddhism knows that the individual identity of the
pupil will be completely extinguished and replaced by a strictly codified, culturally anchored army of
gods. It is the Tibetan Buddhas, herukas, Bodhisattvas, deities, demons (dharmapalas) and the
representatives of the particular guru lineages who take the place of the individual pupil’s
consciousness. One must thus gain the impression that an “exclusive club” of supernatural, albeit
culturally bounded, beings (Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, gods, etc.) has managed to survive by time and
again occupying human bodies anew (until these wear out). Tibetan Buddhism is not aimed at the
enlightenment of individuals but rather at the continuing existence of a culture of superhumans (yogis,
gods) in the form of possessed people (the pupils). It is concerned here to perpetuate a priestly caste
that does not need to die because their consciousnesses can be incarnated into the human bodies of
their followers again and again. This caste and their deities are considered sacrosanct. They live
beyond all criticism. Their symbols, deeds, and history are set up as exemplary; they are the cultural
inheritance which may not be analyzed but must be taken on blind faith by believers.
For these reasons Tibetan Buddhism’s entire promise of enlightenment forms a trap with which
intimate and religious yearnings can be used to magically push through the politico-religious goals of
the monastic clergy. (We are not discussing here whether this is really possible, rather, we are talking
about the intentions of the Lamaist system.) This corresponds exactly with what the Renaissance
philosopher Giordano Bruno describes as “manipulation”. Bruno, it will be recalled, indicated that a