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Did Hitler STudy with Tibetan Lamas?

edited February 2012 in General Banter
They say Hitler's Charisma....was inherited from tibetan lamas...that's what I've heard. Is this true or a myth?
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Comments

  • BonsaiDougBonsaiDoug Simply, on the path. Veteran
    May I ask what your source is for this?
  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran
    Hitler was into the occult. The swastika is a Hindu and Buddhist symbol. Beyond that I would assume it was a myth. I have no actual knowledge about this though. It just sounds like one of those lame conspiracy theories.
  • JasonJason God Emperor Arrakis Moderator
    This can't be a serious question.
  • vinlynvinlyn Colorado...for now Veteran
    I have read, as Person said, that Hitler was into the occult and various religions. You may recall that this is portrayed in the Indiana Jones first film.
  • Its much simpler labelling Hitler and the Nazi's as 'evil' - in this way, any suggestion that they had any other agenda or belief other than in evil is rediculous.

    They were however just humans, they felt love and compassion and hate and anger and confusion and hope and all the rest of it...
  • I take it you find Tibetan Lamas charismatic?
  • DakiniDakini Veteran
    edited February 2012
    I don't think he studied Tibetan mythology out of love and compassion. The regime studied the Kalachakra and other aspects of TB because of its Aryan heritage. I'm sure Berzin explains it quite thoroughly. I wonder--did they study the Vedas as well? Probably.
  • Do you think Hitler took the bodhisattva vow or just refuge? Or did he just get interested?
  • @Peace2012ca Don't believe everything "they" say. Hitler's charisma mainly stemmed from the fact that he played on ethnic nationalism, and he especially targeted a young audience, knowing that the idealism of youth could be easily manipulated. He never met a lama. Rumors and misinformation circulate easily.
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    edited February 2012
    Dakini, are you saying that the audience was the cause of Hitler's charisma?
  • I'm saying that it's easy to project charisma using ethnic nationalism as a basis. It's easy to stir people up on that theme (given favorable conditions), and then it sort of snowballs. Without an audience, charisma has no forum on which to play out. Like a tree falling in a forest where there are no ears to hear it.
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    edited February 2012
    YEs dependent origination. It reminds me of a movie I once saw where they asked if it is better to be loved or feared. Shakespear or the Godfather probably. Maybe it was a classic my mind is kinda toast.
  • A lot of you have learned quite a bit from the Berzin archives. Kudos!
  • From what i know, nazi's were desperately trying to find proof the Germans descended from Aryan ~ pure people. It was said Heinrich Harrer (Seven years in Tibet)" was sent out by Himmler to find "Aryan Brethren"
  • genkakugenkaku Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran
    edited February 2012
    I think Hitler's interest in the occult was based in his desire to have and assert (more and more and more) power over others. The fact that the occult may have had some spiritual connection was a secondary matter, or, more likely, off his self-serving charts entirely.
  • shanyinshanyin Novice Yogin Sault Ontario Veteran
    According to Tibetans I have met they don't like being associated with it
  • DakiniDakini Veteran
    edited February 2012
    According to Tibetans I have met they don't like being associated with it
    With what? Nazism? I don't blame them. Some nut fixates on a supposed "pure" heritage and starts digging up folklore and symbols from an assumed ancestral culture half-way around the world, and suddenly innocent people and ethnicities get their traditions and symbols besmirched in the court of world opinion, due to no fault of their own.

    Nice avatar, Shanyin. Looking very corporate, haha!

  • shanyinshanyin Novice Yogin Sault Ontario Veteran
    There was a presentation, I believe it was the swastica.

    And thank you, it's a new credit card I have coming out. :P
  • RichardHRichardH Veteran
    edited February 2012
    Haven't seen an OP quite that Way Out before on any fora. The Nazis bought into every crackpot golden age mythology of the 19th century. Tibetan Buddhism to Europeans at the time was an occult fantasy filtered through victorian fabulists.


    Cool, got to use the word "fabulist" . :thumbup:
  • DakiniDakini Veteran
    edited February 2012
    There was a presentation, I believe it was the swastica.
    You're saying Tibetans don't like being associated with the swastika? Maybe only Tibetans in the West, those who are aware of its historical misuse. It's a traditional religious symbol, they shouldn't be ashamed of it. The Chinese aren't--it's always been used in Chinese art. Native Americans weren't allowed to use it in public during the war years, and they were annoyed that foreigners had trashed the meaning of their sacred symbol. Everyone's getting over it now. I hope any Tibetans who have qualms about it do the same.

    @RichardH re: "Way Out there" OP's--we're fearless! ;) Crazy-fearless.

  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    edited February 2012
    What is the origin of the swastika in Buddhism? The Native American origin, which I could not find a wiki to, would also be interesting. Like does it mean something like Buddha's hand, palm outwards, means 'no need to fear'?
    primarily as a tantric symbol to evoke 'shakti' or the sacred symbol of auspiciousness. The swastika is also a Chinese character used in East Asia representing eternity and Buddhism.

    The word swastika came from the Sanskrit word svastika, meaning any lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote auspiciousness. It is composed of su- meaning "good, well" and asti "to be" suasti thus means "well-being." The suffix -ka either forms a diminutive or intensifies the verbal meaning, and suastika might thus be translated literally as "that which is associated with well-being," corresponding to "lucky charm" or "thing that is auspicious."[1] The word in this sense is first used in the Harivamsa.[2] As noted by Monier-Williams in his Sanskrit-English dictionary, according to Alexander Cunningham, its shape represents a monogram formed by interlacing of the letters of the auspicious words su-astí (svasti) written in Ashokan characters.[3]
    .......................................

    The Sanskrit term has been in use in English since 1871, replacing gammadion (from Greek γαμμάδιον). Alternative historical English spellings of the Sanskrit phonological words with different meanings to include suastika, swastica and svastica.
    ...........................................

    One hypothesis is that the cross symbols and the swastika share a common origin in simply symbolizing the sun. Another hypothesis is that the 4 arms of the cross represent 4 aspects of nature - the sun, wind, water, soil. Some have said the 4 arms of cross are four seasons, where the division for 90-degree sections correspond to the solstices and equinoxes.The Hindus represent it as the Universe in our own spiral galaxy in the fore finger of Lord Vishnu. This carries most significance in establishing the creation of the Universe and the arms as 'kal' or time, a calendar that is seen to be more advanced than the lunar calendar (symbolized by the lunar crescent common to Islam) where the seasons drift from calendar year to calendar year. The luni-solar solution for correcting season drift was to intercalate an extra month in certain years to restore the lunar cycle to the solar-season cycle. The Star of David is thought to originate as a symbol of that calendar system, where the two overlapping triangles are seen to form a partition of 12 sections around the perimeter with a 13th section in the middle, representing the 12 and sometimes 13 months to a year. As such, the Christian cross, Jewish hexagram star and the Muslim crescent moon are seen to have their origins in different views regarding which calendar system is preferred for marking holy days. Groups in higher latitudes experience the seasons more strongly, offering more advantage to the calendar represented by the swastika/cross.
  • It's not really accurate to say Tibetans have an "association with Nazis" just because Heinrich Harrer managed to stumble into Tibet. Harrer was not an architect of National Socialist theory or planning; he just joined the party like thousands of other young adults because at the time, it was the thing to do. Simon Wiesenthal (Nazi researcher) cleared Harrer of war crimes.

    From LA Times:

    Harrer, who had never publicly discussed or written about his past, conceded in response to the article that he had joined the Nazi Party and the SS as an athletic coach after Germany took control of Austria in 1938. But he said he did so only to gain membership in a teachers' organization, enabling him to join a government-financed Himalayan expedition.

    He also initiated a meeting on June 30, 1997, with Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, who died last year. Afterward, Wiesenthal gave Harrer something of a stamp of approval, saying Harrer had not been involved in politics and was innocent of wrongdoing. Harrer publicly denounced his Nazi membership as a "stupid mistake" and an "ideological error."


    http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jan/10/local/me-harrer10

    The Chinese government works very hard to say that Harrer's friendship with the young Dalai Lama equates to a "Tibetan connection to Naziism."
  • Ironically, someday former members of the Chinese Communist Party will likely be following suit to distance themselves from their Party past.

    Here's a classic example of the CCP using the swastika in an attempt to connect Tibetans to Naziism:

    http://www.revivethedream.cn/Revive_the_dream/blog/Entries/2008/3/27_The_Secret_Truth_about_The_Dalai_Lama.html

  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    edited February 2012
    The swastika always meant chaos to me ironically given the context of the Nazi party. It looks like chaos harnessed to me. To evil or to good.
  • You've probably seen some of these, but here are some swastikas as used by various cultures:

    image
  • shanyinshanyin Novice Yogin Sault Ontario Veteran
    @Dakini

    No, the just don't want to be associated with nazism

    hehe
  • vinlynvinlyn Colorado...for now Veteran
    Isn't the Buddhist "swastika" facing in the opposite direction of the Nazi swastika?
  • That Hindu one is quite the mind-bender.
  • Isn't the Buddhist "swastika" facing in the opposite direction of the Nazi swastika?
    Both directions are used in Buddhism, though I think Chinese/Japanese traditions (in my experience) are more likely to use both directions.

    image
  • image

    Burma
  • The opposite-facing one to the HIndu and TB one in some parts of Asia denotes shamanism.
    @Dakini

    No, they just don't want to be associated with nazism
    Why would they be associated with Nazism? It's only a handful of people here in the US who are aware of that history.
  • Sile's picture to me looks like it could be a branding iron. Painful. It is hard to see the symbol on a buddhist temple. A numb sadness.
  • The opposite-facing one to the HIndu and TB one in some parts of Asia denotes shamanism.
    @Dakini

    No, they just don't want to be associated with nazism
    Why would they be associated with Nazism? It's only a handful of people here in the US who are aware of that history.
    Many of the Tibetans referred to (as not wanting to be associated with Naziism) were born in Tibet where, for 60 years and counting, the Chinese government has made a huge deal of "the Dalai Lama's Nazi past." Every schoolchild coming out of China or Tibet has been taught from age five or so that the Dalai Lama was practically a Nazi himself. Heinrich Harrer is called a "Nazi Death Squad Leader" who came to Tibet to "teach the Dalai Lama" and other lamas how to "kill Chinese people."



  • Sile's picture to me looks like it could be a branding iron. Painful. It is hard to see the symbol on a buddhist temple. A numb sadness.
    Well...that symbol existed long before Hitler, and has existed long after him. It really wasn't his to hold hostage. There are several groups devoted to "reclaiming the swastika," and educating people on the fact that the swastika itself really has nothing to do with Hitler. No need to stop using this symbol, any more than we'd stop drinking water simply because Hitler drank water.

  • vinlynvinlyn Colorado...for now Veteran
    Sile's picture to me looks like it could be a branding iron. Painful. It is hard to see the symbol on a buddhist temple. A numb sadness.
    Well...that symbol existed long before Hitler, and has existed long after him. It really wasn't his to hold hostage. There are several groups devoted to "reclaiming the swastika," and educating people on the fact that the swastika itself really has nothing to do with Hitler. No need to stop using this symbol, any more than we'd stop drinking water simply because Hitler drank water.

    And I have seen the symbol is Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, and none of the locals seemed to have the slightest concept of the Nazi aspect.

  • image

    Red Swastika Society, China, 1930’s.

    The Red Swastika Society (世界紅卍字會) is a voluntary association founded in China as the philanthropic branch of the Daodeshe (道德社) “Society of Dao and Virtue”, a syncretist Daoist school, which changed at the same time its name to Daoyuan. It was one of a number of new transnational world redemptive societies founded at the time in China, drawing on Western examples such as the Red Cross to build charitable institutions grounded in religions such as Buddhism and Daoism. (The swastika is a Buddhist/Hindu religious symbol.)
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    The opposite-facing one to the HIndu and TB one in some parts of Asia denotes shamanism.
    @Dakini

    No, they just don't want to be associated with nazism
    Why would they be associated with Nazism? It's only a handful of people here in the US who are aware of that history.
    'A handful of people here in the US'.... :rolleyes:

    Forgive me, but this illustrates exactly why other countries think that the USA is utterly clueless about political matters outside their confines....
    Unlike this 'handful of people there in the US', there are three generations of Europeans who still smart at the word, 'Nazi', still have dreadful, spine-chilling memories of the atrocities perpetrated by Germans in Prisoner-of-War camps, and countless millions of jews who came to view the swastika with fear and dread... and many still do.

    The name 'Hitler' doesn't exist in either Germany or Austria (you know Hitler was Austrian, and not German, right....?) and the Nazi salute is punishable by imprisonment.

    Memories are long, in Europe.... and all too many people here, are still painfully aware of history.
  • DakiniDakini Veteran
    edited February 2012
    How many of those people who smart at the word "Nazi" are aware there was a connection with Tibet, though? That's what I was referring to. Few people in the US know the Nazis studied the Kalachakra, Shambala and other Tibetan lore. It's a specialized field.

    Even in Germany it wasn't well-known until a couple of blockbuster books were published in the last few years, outlining the DL's involvement with Nazi researchers who went to Tibet.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    Not many, I would say. But there was little reason to seek references when the war broke out, and people had no internet to google.
    I would imagine most people were otherwise preoccupied....
    Information travelled more slowly then, and given that an enormous amount of educational literature was deliberately destroyed, access to such information was to all intents and purposes, non-existent....

    controlling governments have done this throughout history. Destroyed educational and informative literature, they felt was divisive and contra to what they wished to control....
  • How many of those people who smart at the word "Nazi" are aware there was a connection with Tibet, though? That's what I was referring to. Few people in the US know the Nazis studied the Kalachakra, Shambala and other Tibetan lore. It's a specialized field.

    Even in Germany it wasn't well-known until a couple of blockbuster books were published in the last few years, outlining the DL's involvement with Nazi researchers who went to Tibet.
    But...he was like, 10 years old, correct? "Involvement with Nazi researchers" makes it sound like an adult knowingly scheming with bad guys.

  • Hurling is an Irish sport (like violent field hockey) - the sticks used are called "hurleys." One of the most famous brands of hurley stick is "Collins."

    image

    The maker's full name is "Hitler Collins" - his mother so resented the English, that she (and many other Irish) hoped fervently that Hitler would win. Many people were not really aware of the full extent of the Nazi Horror until after the war.
  • I know. He was a child. All he knew about geography and world politics was whatever he learned from Harrer. Apparently he maintained some of those contacts as an adult, meaning that when some of those (former) Nazis contacted him, he didn't turn them away. I forget where I read this. I don't have the details.
  • Well, the Dalai Lama isn't known for turning people away. It's not really the function of a spiritual teacher, counselor, psychiatrist, or others whose vocation centers on helping people, to turn anyone away. I'd have to know the specifics of his alleged post-war Nazi associations to comment much further; suffice it to say, if Simon Wiesenthal, Elie Wiesel and others who research this topic for a living haven't had any problem with it, I'm not likely to.
  • Also have to add that (from my obviously biased perspective) I can't imagine anything better for a former Nazi to do than be exposed to some dharma and have some chance of undergoing a radical change in perspective.
  • Also have to add that (from my obviously biased perspective) I can't imagine anything better for a former Nazi to do than be exposed to some dharma and have some chance of undergoing a radical change in perspective.
    Haha, dream on!

    I think it's unfair that all Tibetans would be stigmatized just because of some crazy Nazis latching onto some of their traditions. It's hard to believe they are, aside from in China.

  • SileSile Veteran
    edited February 2012
    Assigning labels like "Nazi" is actually pretty useless. It doesn't matter whether someone joined a political party, it matters what they as a human did and didn't do during their tenure as a "Nazi" or during any other period in their lives.

    I remember during one teaching when Geshe Sopa said "No matter what you have done in life, you can work to address it. Anything. Even if you have killed someone." At the moment he said that, he looked at someone in the class who was silently crying. It was a very heavy and unforgettable feeling, but also left me pondering the depths of Buddhist forgiveness--or what Christians might call forgiveness.

    But even if the "Nazis" who may have visited Tibet were murderers themselves, which I'm not sure they were, if they learned even a tiny bit about dharma, that could have been a good thing.

    From another perspective, if the "Nazi" climber Harrer was in any way responsible for the Dalai Lama's character, then I sincerely hope Harrer went on to influence other students!
  • vinlynvinlyn Colorado...for now Veteran
    Assigning labels like "Nazi" is actually pretty useless. It doesn't matter whether someone joined a political party, it matters what they as a human did and didn't do during their tenure as a "Nazi" or during any other period in their lives.

    Oh, I disagree completely.

    In fact, this was one of the key points often brought up in the era of the post-WWII Nazi trials. At what level should Germans who were Nazis be held responsible, and in what way should those people be punished?

    Should Hitler and his immediate deputies be held responsible?
    Should the workers who were in the concentration camps who turned on the gas showers or tortured prisoners or cremated corpses be held responsible?
    Should those who enthusiastically attended mass rallies and those who supported Hitler in newspapers be held responsible?
    Should those who simply turned their backs and pretended not to know be held responsible?

  • The representatives of the Nazi regime weren't in Tibet to look into the Dharma. They were there to study Aryan mythology.
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    edited February 2012
    @Vinylyn, do you believe that the Nazis created no positive karma whatsoever? I think the thread involves Buddhism in the thread title and thus a Buddhist perspective surfaces in this thread eventually. I would synthesize your two views with the observation that joining the Nazi party WAS one of the things done in their life.
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