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

master requires a substance, which we term “gynergy” (female energy), and which we intend to
examine in more detail in the following. As he cannot, at the outset of his path to power, find this
“elixir” within himself, he must seek it there where in accordance with the laws of nature it may be
found in abundance, in women.
Vajrayana is therefore — according to the assessments of no small number of Western researchers of
both sexes — a male sexual magic technique designed to “rob” women of their particularly female
form of energy and to render it useful for the man. Following the “theft”, it flows for the tantric adept
as the spring which powers his experiences of spiritual enlightenment. All the potencies which, from a
Tibetan point of view, are to be sought and found in the feminine sphere are truly astonishing:
knowledge, matter, sensuality, language, light — indeed, according to the tantric texts, the yogi
perceives the whole universe as feminine. For him, the feminine force (shakti) and feminine wisdom
(prajna) constantly give birth to reality; even transcendental truths such as “emptiness” (shunyata) are
feminine. Without “gynergy”, in the tantric view of things none of the higher levels along the path to
enlightenment can be reached, and hence in no circumstances a state of perfection.
In order to be able to acquire the primeval feminine force of the universe, a yogi must have mastered
the appropriate spiritual methods (upaya), which we examine in detail later in this study. The wellknown
investigator of Tibetan culture, David Snellgrove, describes their chief function as the
transmutation of the feminine form into the masculine with the intention of accumulating power. It is
for this and no other reason that the tantric seeks contact with a female. Usually, “power flows from
the woman to the man, especially when she is more powerful than he”, the Indologist Doniger
O’Flaherty (O’Flaherty, 1982, p. 263) informs us. Hence, since the powerful feminine creates the
world, the “uncreative” masculine yogi can only become a creator if he appropriates the creative
powers of the goddess. “May I be born from birth to birth”, he thus cries in the Hevajra Tantra,
“concentrating in myself the essence of woman” (Snellgrove, 1959, p. 116). He is the sorcerer who
believes that all power is feminine, and that he knows the secret of how to manipulate it.
The key to his dreams of omnipotence lies in how he is able to transform himself into a “supernatural”
being, an androgyne who has access to the potentials of both sexes. The two sexual energies now lose
their equality and are brought into a hierarchical relation with each other in which the masculine part
exercises absolute control over the feminine.
When, in the reverse situation, the feminine principle appropriates the masculine and attempts to
dominate it, we have a case of gynandry. Gynandric rites are known from the Hindu tantras. But in
contrast, in androcentric Buddhism we are dealing exclusively with the production of a “perfect”
androgynous state, i.e., in social terms with the power of men over women or, in brief, the
establishment of a patriarchal monastic regime.
Since the “bisexuality” of the yogi represents a precondition for the development of his power, it
forms a central topic of discussion in every highest tantra. It is known simply as the “two-in-one”
principle, which suspends all oppositions, such as wisdom and method, subject and object, emptiness
and compassion, but above all masculine and feminine (Snellgrove, 1987, vol. 1, p. 285). Other
phrases include “bipolarity” or the realization of “bisexual divinity within one’s own
body” (Herrmann-Pfand, 1992, p. 314).
However, the “two-in-one” principle is not directed at a state beyond sexuality and erotic love, as