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

energies, a great cosmic dog-eat-dog. Although early Buddhism gave vent to keen criticism of the
Vedic rites, especially the slaughter of people and animals, the ancient sacrificial mindset resurfaces
in tantric ritual life. The “devouring logic” of the Vedas also controls the Tantrayana. Incidentally, the
word tantra is first found in the context of the Vedic sacrificial gnosis, where it means ‘sacrificial
framework’ (Smith, 1989, p. 128).
Sacred cannibalism was always communion, holy union with the Spirit and the souls of the dead. It
becomes Eucharistic communion when the sacrifice is a slaughtered god, whose followers eat of him
at a supper. God and man are first one when the man or woman has eaten of the holy body and drunk
the holy blood of his or her god. The same applies in the relation to the goddess. The tantric yogi
unites with her not just in the sexual act, but above all through consuming her holy gynergy, the
magical force of maya. Sometimes, as we shall see, he therefore drinks his partner’s menstrual blood.
Only when the feminine blood also pulses in his own veins will he be complete, an androgyne, a lord
of both sexes.
To gain the “gynergy” for himself, the yogi must “kill” the possessor of the vital feminine substances
and then “incorporate” her. Such an act of violence does not necessarily imply the real murder of his
mudra, it can also be performed symbolically. But a real ritual murder of a woman is by like measure
not precluded, and it is not surprising that occasional references can be found in the Vajrayana texts
which blatantly and unscrupulously demand the actual killing of a woman. In a commentary on the
Hevajra Tantra, at a point where a lower-caste wisdom consort (dombi) is being addressed, stands
bluntly, “I kill you, o Dombi, I take your life!” (Snellgrove, 1987, vol. 1, p. 159).
Sati or the sacred inaugural sacrifice
In any case, in all the rituals of the Highest Tantra initiations a symbolic female sacrifice is set in
scene. From numerous case studies in cultural and religious history we are aware that an “archaic first
event”, an “ inaugural sacred murder” may be hiding behind such symbolic stagings. This “original
event”, in which a real wisdom consort was ritually killed, need in no sense be consciously
acknowledged by the following generations and cult participants who only perform the sacrifice in
their imaginations or as holy theater. As the French anthropologist René Girard convincingly argues
in his essay on Violence and the Sacred, the original murderous deed is normally no longer fully
recalled during later symbolic performances. But it can also not become totally forgotten. It is
important that the violent origin of their sacrificial rite be shrouded in mystery for the cult participant.
“To maintain its structural force, the inaugural violence must not make an appearance”, claims Girard
(Girard, 1987, p. 458). Only thus can the participants experience that particular emotionally laden and
ambivalent mixture of crime and mercy, guilt and atonement, violence and satisfaction, shuddering
and repression which first lends the numinous aura of holiness to the cult events.
It thus seems appropriate to examine Tantric Buddhism for signs of such an “inaugural sacrifice”. In
this connection, we would like to draw attention to a Shiva myth, which has nonetheless had an
influence on the history of the Buddhist tantras.
In the mythical past, Sati was the consort of the god Shiva. When her father Daksa was planning a
great sacrificial feast, he failed to invite his daughter and son-in-law. Unbidden, Sati nonetheless
attended the feast and was deeply insulted by Daksa. Filled with shame and anger she threw herself
upon the burning sacrificial altar and died. (In another version of the story she alone was invited and
cremated herself when she heard that her spouse was barred from the feast.) Shiva, informed of the