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

the saints display the instruments of their martyrdom in Christian iconography, so too the tantric
goddesses demonstrate their mortal passing with knives and skulls; like their European sisters, the
witches, with whom they have so much in common, they are to be burnt at the stake (Grünwedel,
Kalacakra III, p. 41) Grünwedel traces the origin of this female sacrifice back to the marked
misogyny of the early phase of Buddhism: “The insults [thrown at] the woman sound dreadful. ... The
body of the woman is a veritable cauldron of hell, the woman a magical form of the demons of
destruction” (Grünwedel, 1924, vol. 2, p. 29).
One could well shrug at the speculations of this German Tibetologist and Asian researcher. As far as
they are understood symbolically, they do not contradict tantric orthodoxy in the slightest, which even
teaches the destruction of the “external” feminine as an article of faith. As we have seen, the
sacrificial goddesses are burnt symbolically. Some tantras even explicitly confirm Grünwedel’s thesis
that the dakinis were once “women of flesh and blood”, who were later transformed into “spirit
beings” (Bhattacharyya, 1982, p. 121). Thus she was sacrificed as a karma mudra, a human woman in
order to then be transformed into an inana mudra, an imaginary woman. But the process did not end
here, then the inana mudra still had an existence external to the adept. She also needed to be
“sacrificed” in order to create the “inner woman”, the maha mudra. A passage from the
Candamaharosana Tantra thus plainly urges the adept: “Threaten, threaten, kill, kill, slay slay all
Dakinis!” (quoted by George, 1974, p. 64)
But what is the intent behind a fiery dakini sacrifice? The same as that behind all the other tantric
rituals, namely the absorption of gynergy upon which to found the yogi’s omnipotence. Here the
longed-for feminine elixir has its own specific names. The adept calls it the “heart blood of the
dakini”, the “essence of the dakini’s heart”, the “life-heart of the dakini” (Herrmann-Pfand, 1992, p.
342). “Via the ‘conversion’ the Dakinis become protectors of the religion, once they have surrendered
their ‘life-heart’ to their conqueror”, a tantra text records (Herrmann-Pfand, 1992, p. 204).
This “surrender of the heart” can often be brutal. For example, a Tibetan story tells of how the yogini
Magcig declares that she is willing for her breast to be slit open with a knife — whether in reality or
just imagination remains unclear. Her heart was then taken out, “and whilst the red blood — drip, drip
— flowed out”, laid in a skull bowl. Then the organ was consumed by five dakinis who were present.
Following this dreadful heart operation Magcig had transformed herself into a dakini (Herrmann-
Pfand, 1992, p. 164). As macabre as this story is, on the other hand it shows that the tantric female
sacrifice need not necessarily be carried out against the will of woman to be sacrificed. In contrast, the
yogini often surrenders her heart-blood voluntarily because she loves her master. Like Christ, she lets
herself be crucified for love. But her guru may never let this love run free. He has a sacred duty to
control the feelings of the heart, and the power to manipulate them.
In the dakini’s heart lies the secret of enlightenment and thus of universal power. She is the “Queen of
Hearts”, who — like Diana, Princess of Wales — must undergo a violent “sacrificial death” in order
to then shine as the pure ideal of the monarchy (the “autocratic rule” of the yogis). Lama Govinda
also makes reference to a fiery sacrificial apotheosis of the dakini when he proclaims in a vision that
all feminine forces are concentrated in the sky walkers, “until focused on a point as if through a lens
they kindle to a supreme heat and become the holy flame of inspiration which leads to perfect
enlightenment” (Govinda, 1991, p. 231). It need not be said that here the inspiration and
enlightenment of the male tantra master alone is meant and not that of his female sacrifice.