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

such events awakened in her, reports Campbell, completely cut her off from the outside world and left
her totally delivered up to the domination of her guru.
This masculine arrogance becomes particularly obvious in a statement by the young lama, Dzongsar
Khyentse Rinpoche, who announced the following in response to Campbell’s commotion stirring
book: “If Western women begin sexual relationships with Tibetan lamas, then the consequence for a
number of them is frustration, because their culturally conditioned expectations are not met. If they
hope to find an agreeable and equal lover in a Rinpoche, they could not be making a bigger mistake.
Certain Rinpoches, who are revered as great teachers, would literally make the worst partners of all —
seen from the point of view of the ego. If one approaches such a great master expecting to be
acknowledged, and wishing for a relationship in which one shares, satisfies one another, etc., then one
is making a bad choice — not just from the ego’s point of view, but also in a completely normal,
worldly sense. They probably won’t bring them flowers or invite them to candlelight
dinners” (Esotera, 12/97, p. 45; retranslation). It speaks for such a quotation that it is honest, since it
quite plainly acknowledges the spiritual inferiority of women (who represent the ego, desire and
banality) when confronted with the superhuman spiritual authority of the male gurus. The tantric
master Khyentse Rinpoche knows exactly what he is talking about, when he continues with the
following sentence: “Whilst in the West one understands equality to mean that two aspects find a
common denominator, in Vajrayana Buddhism equality lies completely outside of twoness or duality.
Where duality is retained, there can be no equality” (Esotera, 12/97, p. 46; retranslation). That is, in
other words: the woman as equal and autonomous partner must be eliminated and has to surrender her
energies to the master’s completion (beyond duality).
“Sexual abuse” of Western women by Tibetan lamas has meanwhile become something of a constant
topic in the Buddhist scene and has also triggered heated discussion on the Internet. “Sexual abuse” of
Western women by Tibetan lamas has meanwhile become something of a constant topic in the
Buddhist scene and has also triggered heated discussion on the Internet. See: www.trimondi.de/EN/
links.htm#SEXABUSE
Even the official office of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama has had to respond to the increasingly common
allegations: “What some of these students have experienced is terrible and most unfortunate”,
announced Tenzin Tethon, a secretary to His Holiness, and admitted that for a number of years there
had already been reports of such incidents (Lattin, Newsgroup 2). Naturally, Tenzin Tethon made no
mention of the fact that the sexual exploitation of women for spiritual purposes forms the heart of the
tantric mystery.
But there are more and more examples where women are beginning to defend themselves. Thus, in
1992 the well-known bestseller author and commentator on the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Sogyal
Rinpoche, had to face the Supreme Court of Santa Cruz, alleged to have “used his position as an
interpreter of Tibetan Buddhism to take sexual and other advantage of female students over a period
of many years” (Tricycle 1996, vol. 5 no. 4, p. 87). The plaintiff was seeking 10 million dollars. It was
claimed Sogyal Rinpoche had assured his numerous partners that it would be extremely salutary and
spiritually rewarding to sleep with him. Another mudra, Victoria Barlow from New York City,
described in an interview with Free Press how she, at the age of 21, was summoned into Sogyal
Rinpoche’s room during a meditative retreats: “I went to an apartment to see a highly esteemed lama
and discuss religion. He opened the door without a shirt on and with a beer in his hand”. When they
were sitting on the sofa, the Tibetan “lunged at me with sloppy kisses and groping. I thought [then] I