Goose-Stepping To God

A recent commenter, named "Secret", said:

"Your strained attempts to somehow connect 'Eastern mysticism' with the Third Reich are of course beyond the pale and laughable."

From today's Wall Street Journal Opinion Page about this story:

"Before it was the symbol of National Socialism, the swastika was a Hindu emblem of good luck."

Seems to me "secret" is making strained attempts not to see a connection,....

"Tibetan Buddhism is not a values-free system oriented around smiles and a warm heart. It is a religion with tough ethical underpinnings that sometimes get lost in translation. For example, the Dalai Lama explicitly condemns homosexuality, as well as all oral and anal sex. His stand is close to that of Pope John Paul II, something his Western followers find embarrassing and prefer to ignore. His American publisher even asked him to remove the injunctions against homosexuality from his book, ''Ethics for the New Millennium,'' for fear they would offend American readers, and the Dalai Lama acquiesced."

- From Patrick French's essay Dali Lama Lite, Published: September 19, 2003 in the New York Times.

"This study begins with the question, “What is Tibetan music in the United States?” It then examines Tibetan music in the United States from a historical, political, spiritual and economic perspective to answer that question. As part of this investigation, historical sources, marketing sources, New Age religion, the New York Times, and over one hundred recordings are examined.

This work also applies marketing theory to demonstrate that “Tibet” has become a term in American culture that acts as a brand and is used to sell music and other products. It also uses semiotics to address the prevalence of certain sounds in music marketed as Tibetan in the United States, finally demonstrating that sounds referencing New Age representations of Tibet have become a symbol representing Tibet as a whole in America."

- From Darinda J. Congdon's “TIBET CHIC”: MYTH, MARKETING, SPIRITUALITY AND POLITICS IN MUSICAL REPRESENTATIONS OF TIBET IN THE UNITED STATES, 2007

(Photo of the Dalai Lama with Tokyo subway gas attack mastermind, Aum Shinrikyo - or ‘supreme truth’ - cult leader Shoko Asahara, above. Determined to bring about Armageddon so that he could rule everyone, Aum Shinrikyo became a mixture of Buddhism, occultism and fascism. His cult was rounded up by armed police following a series of major crimes, the most infamous being his Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo underground on 20 March 1995, killing twelve and injuring thousands. The Japanese authorities later discovered that his cult was based on his committing sexual and physical atrocities on his own members.)

"China, in its latest tirade against Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, on Tuesday accused the exiled Nobel peace prize laureate of supporting "evil cults" like Falun Gong and Japan's Aum Shinrikyo."

- From a recent Reuters News Agency article titled "China labels Dalai Lama a supporter of 'cults'".

"Although some Westerners imagine that the Dalai Lama is an absolute pacifist, the teachings of the present Dalai Lama and of his predecessor, as well as the traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, all legitimize the use of deadly force against killers and would-be tyrants.

This may come as news to certain anti-American pacifists in the United States and Europe who are guilty of “Shangri-La-ism” — of what Jane Ardley (in her book The Tibetan Independence Movement) describes as the “idealized, romantic vision of Tibet as a land of enlightened, non-violent, happy and exotic people.” She observes, “For those in the West who look to Tibetan Buddhism for all the answers to their insecurities, the image of ‘violent’ Buddhists is uncomfortable particularly where Buddhism itself can be offered as a justification for their actions,...Many Westerners are familiar with the non-violent teaching of the current Dalai Lama, such as “The basis of all moral teaching ought to be nonresponse to attacks.” But before Westerners take such sayings as categorical imperatives, it is essential to remember that, as the Dalai Lama emphasizes, Buddhism does not operate on the binary terms of Western thought,..."

How could Tibetan Buddhists engage in violence? Jampa Tenzin, a former guerilla and monk, explained, “Generally, of course, non-violence is good, and killing is bad…But each and every thing is judged according to the circumstances of the situation, and, particularly in Buddhism, according to the motivations….In order to save a hundred people, killing one person may be acceptable…Individual, or self, motivation is obviously not allowed….“…unless we did something sooner or later we couldn’t practice religion…Dharma [had to] prevail and remain…even by violent means.”

Living in exile in India, the Dalai Lama professes his admiration of Mohandas Gandhi. Yet, like Gandhi, the Dalai Lama is not as inflexibly pacifist as some Westerners imagine. Indeed, the Lama defended what he calls India’s “right to nuclear weapons.”



According to the Dalai Lama, “If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.” (Seattle Times, May 15, 2001). Elsewhere, the Dalai Lama said: if the situation was such that there was only one learned lama or genuine practitioner alive, a person whose death would cause the whole of Tibet to lose all hope of keeping its Buddhist way of life, then it is conceivable that in order to protect that one person it might be justified for one or 10 enemies to be eliminated—if there was no other way. I could justify violence only in this extreme case, to save the last living knowledge of Buddhism itself.

Sometimes the Dalai Lama states that non-violence is the most important thing. Sometimes he offers broad justifications for violence — such as national defense against Communist imperialism, or individual self-defense against deadly attack. Sometimes he allows only an extremely narrow justification for violence — namely, saving his own life. To puzzle over the contradictions is to miss the non-binary spirit of Tibetan Buddhism."

- From Dave Kopel's article, The Dali Lama's Army

"The New York Times review of [the movie "Seven Years in Tibet"] by Janet Maslin was headlined, "A challenge for Brad Pitt: Making a Nazi charming."

The movie is based on a book by Heinrich Harrer (above) about his time in Tibet in the 1940s when he and the Tibetan ruler - the Dalai Lama - became good friends. The book never really mentions Harrer's background, which was only recently exposed. Harrer always denied he was a Nazi until there was so much evidence that he had to admit it last spring.

Harrer was a member of the Nazis' elite SS who was sent to Tibet, probably by Hitler himself,...According to a lengthy investigative story in the October issue of a magazine called Men's Journal, the Nazi-Tibet connection is much deeper than anyone is talking about.

"Harrer's presence in Tibet may have been related to a terrible but little-known Nazi campaign" to join forces with "Aryan Tibetans" to rid the country of the British - and eventually wipe out non-Aryan Eastern races, especially Asian Jews, the Men's Journal reports.

The magazine also reports that Harrer had been preceded into the country years before by a Nazi reconnaissance team sent by SS chief Heinrich Himmler. (The "chicken farmer", above - CMC) Evidently the Dalai Lama was aware of Harrer's Nazi assignment and goals.

Most of the other information put into the Hollywood Tibet propaganda is just as reliable as Harrer's denials that he was a Nazi.

- From That's entertainment? It's propaganda (Tibet as it never was) Reprinted from the Oct. 23, 1997 issue of Workers World newspaper.

FASCIST OCCULTISM AND IT’S CLOSE RELATIONSHIP TO BUDDHIST TANTRISM

(Notorious con woman - and the so-called "Mother of New Age Thinking" - Madame Blavatsky, above)

"Visionary fascism was, and indeed still is, exceptionally deeply fascinated by the Buddhocratic form of state. In the late thirties (as the various fascist systems bloomed in Europe and the whole world) Spencer Chapman, a traveler in Tibet, wrote that even in the days of the dictators one can only be amazed at what uncontested power the Dalai Lama possesses” (Chapman, 1940, p. 192). The idea of kingship of the world, the uniting of spiritual and secular power in a single person, the ideology of war in the Shambhala myth, the uncompromisingly andocentric orientation, the tantric vision of the feminine, the whole occult ambience and much more besides were specifically adopted by several fascist ideologists and welded together into an aggressive myth. As we shall soon see, entire fascist systems are based upon the adoption of Tibetan/tantric doctrines."

The Fourteenth Dalai Lama’s National Socialist Friends

"As depressing as it may be for the Nobel peace prize winner’s followers, there has been continuous contact between the Dalai Lama and the far right wing and former national socialists (Nazis). His close friendship with his German mentor, Heinrich Harrer (above) has become the most well-known of these. It caused a small scandal in 1997-1998 when, after years of research, the Austrian journalist, Gerald Lehner, succeeded in making public Harrer’s “brown-shirt” (i.e., German fascist) past, which the latter had been able to keep secret for many years. Harrer is not just anybody. He is one of the best-known international authors and has sold over four million books in 57 languages (mostly about Tibet and the Fourteenth Dalai Lama)."

- From The Shadow of the Dalai Lama: © Victor & Victoria Trimondi.