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

Burning Dakinis
The symbolic burning of “sacrificial goddesses” is found in nearly every tantra. It represents every
possible characteristic, from the human senses to various states of consciousness. The elements (fire,
water, etc.) and individual bodily features are also imagined in the form of a “sacrificial goddesses”.
With the pronouncement of a powerful magic formula they all perish in the fire. In what is known as
the Vajrayogini ritual, the pupil sacrifices several inana mudras to a red fire god who rides a goat.
The chief goddess, Vajrayogini, appears here with “a red-colored body which shines with a brilliance
like that of the fire of the aeon” (Gyatso, 1991, p. 443). In the Guhyasamaya Tantra the goddesses
even fuse together in a fiery ball of light in order to then serve as a sacrifice to the Supreme Buddha.
Here the adept also renders malignant women harmless through fire: “One makes the burnt offerings
within a triangle. ... If one has done this three days long, concentrating upon the target of the women,
then one can thus ward them off, even for the infinity of three eons” (Gäng, 1988, p. 225). A “burning
woman” by the name of Candali plays such a significant role in the Kalachakra initiations that we
devote an entire chapter to her later. In this context we also examine the “ignition of feminine
energy”, a central event along the sexual magic initiation path of Tantrism.
In Buddhist iconography, the tantric initiation goddesses, the dakinis are represented dancing within a
fiery circle of flame. These are supernatural female beings encountered by the yogi on his initiatory
journey who assist him in his spiritual development, but with whom he can also fall into serious
conflict. Translated, dakini means “sky-going one” or “woman who flies” or “sky dancer”.
(Herrmann-Pfand, 1996, pp. 68, 38). In Buddhism the name appeared around 400 C.E.
The German Tibetologist Albert Grünwedel was his whole life obsessed with the idea that the
“heaven/sky walkers” were once human “wisdom companions”, who, after they had been killed in a
fire ritual, continued to function in the service of the tantric teachings as female spirit beings (genies).
He saw in the dakinis the “souls of murdered mudras” banished by magic, and believed that after their
sacrificial death they took to haunting as Buddhist ghosts (Grünwedel, 1933, p. 5). Why, he asked, do
the dakinis always hold skull cups and cleavers in their hands in visual representations? Obviously, as
can be read everywhere, to warn the initiands against the transient and deceptive world of samsara
and to cut them off from it. But Grünwedel sees this in a completely different light: For him, just as