Many of us tend to see Buddhism in a somewhat sanctimonious light; I've heard people say "there's never been a Buddhist holy war!", which isn't really accurate.
Anyway, here's an example of how anything, even the Dhamma, can be corrupted... This is food for thought, not an assertion of position by me.
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(excerpt from: Fascist Occultism and its Close Relationship to Buddhist Tantrism (www.american-buddha.com/fascis...lt.htm)
"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 androcentric 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:
Anyway, here's an example of how anything, even the Dhamma, can be corrupted... This is food for thought, not an assertion of position by me.
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(excerpt from: Fascist Occultism and its Close Relationship to Buddhist Tantrism (www.american-buddha.com/fascis...lt.htm)
"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 androcentric 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 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
The Austrian mountain climber and competition skier joined the SS on April 1, 1938 and in the same year received instructions to climb Nanga Parbat in the
Dr. Ernst Schäfer, a specialist on
But let us return to Heinrich Harrer. War broke out while he was still in
The adaptation to film of Harrer’s autobiographic bestseller, Seven Years in
Reinhold Messner, the famous mountain climber, found such an admission of guilt from
It is a fact that Harrer — in his own account -- first turned against the Chinese invaders at the end of the fifties, after he had already left
The journalist Gerhard Lehner also pursued a second lead: on September 13, 1994 eight veterans who had visited and reported from
The racialist, who was the last survivor of the “SS Schäfer Expedition” (dying in 1998), met His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama at least five times (in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, and 1994). The meetings were all very hearty affairs. The former SS member dedicated a small brochure entitled “My Encounters with the
The Dalai Lama (worshipped by his followers as the “
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