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

commentator describes 21- to 30-year-olds as “goddesses of wrath” and gives them the following
names: The Blackest, the Fattest, the Greedy, the Most Arrogant, the Stringent, the Flashing, the
Grudging, the Iron Chain, and the Terrible Eye. 31- to 38-year-olds are considered to be
manifestations of malignant spirits and 39- to 46-year-olds as “unlimited manifestations of the
demons”. They are called Dog Snout, Sucking Gob, Jackal Face, Tiger Gullet, Garuda Mug, Owl
Features, Vulture’s Beak, Pecking Crow (Naropa, 1994, p. 189). These women, according to the text,
shriek and scold, menace and curse. In order to get the yogi completely off balance, one of these
terrible figures calls out to him in the Kalachakra Tantra, “Human beast, you are to be crushed
today”. Then she gnashes her teeth and hisses, “Today I must devour your flesh”, and with trembling
tongue she continues, “From your body I will make the drink of blood” (Grünwedel, Kalacakra III, p.
191). That some radical tantras view it as especially productive to copulate with such female
“monsters” is a topic to which we shall later return.
How does the yogi find a real, human mudra? Normally, she is delivered by his pupil. This is also true
for the Kalachakra Tantra. “If one gives the enlightened teacher the prajna [mudra] as a gift,”
proclaims Naropa, “the yoga is bliss” (Grünwedel, 1933, p. 117). If a 12- or 16-year-old girl cannot be
found, a 20-year-old will suffice, advises another text, and continues, “One should offer his sister,
daughter or wife to the ‘guru’”, then the more valuable the mudra is to the pupil, the more she serves
as a gift for his master (Wayman, 1977, p. 320).
Further, magic spells are taught with which to summons a partner. The Hevajra Tantra recommends
the following mantra: “Om Hri — may she come into my power — savaha!” (Snellgrove, 1959, p.
54). Once the yogi has repeated this saying ten thousand times the mudra will appear before him in
flesh and blood and obeys his wishes.
The Kalachakra Tantra urges the yogi to render the mudra pliant with intoxicating liquor: “Wine is
essential for the wisdom consort [prajna]. ... Any mudra at all, even those who are still not willing,
can be procured with drink” (Grünwedel, Kalacakra III, p. 147). It is only a small step from this to the
use of direct force. There are also texts, which advise “that if a woman refuses sexual union she must
be forced to do so” (Bhattacharyya, 1982, p. 125).
Whether or not a karma mudra needs special training before the ritual is something which receves
varying answers in the texts and commentaries. In general, she should be familiar with the tantric
doctrine. Tsongkhapa advises that she take and keep a vow of silence. He expressly warns against
intercourse with unworthy partners: “If a woman lacks ... superlative qualities, that is an inferior lotus.
Do not stay with that one, because she is full of negative qualities. Make an offering and show some
respect, but don’t practice (with her)” (quoted in Shaw, 1994, p. 169). In the Hevajra Tantra a onemonth
preparation time is required, then “the girl [is] freed of all false ideas and received as though
she were a boon” (Snellgrove, 1987, vol. 1, p. 261).
But what happens to the “boon” once the ritual is over? “The karma mudra ... has a purely pragmatic
and instrumental significance and is superfluous at the finish” writes the Italian Tibetologist Raniero
Gnoli in the introduction to a Kalachakra commentary (Naropa, 1994, p. 82). After the sexual act she
is “of no more use to the tantrik than husk of a shelled peanut”, says Benjamin Walker (Walker, 1982,
pp. 72–73). She has done her duty, transferred her feminine energy to the yogi, and now succumbs to
the disdain which Buddhism holds for all “normal” women as symbols of the “supreme
illusion” (maha maya). There is no mention of an initiation of the female partner in the codified