CHAPTER SEVEN

ANAGARIKA GOVINDA’S AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL THE WAY OF THE WHITE CLOUDS

Like ’s Th e Wheel of Life: Th e Autobiography of a Western Buddhist, Anagarika Govinda’s autobiographical Th e Way of the White Clouds bears testimony to a growing tacit refl ection upon the discur- sive conditions under which it was produced. However, importantly, in contrast to Blofeld’s text, Govinda’s work also involves discursive attempts to actively transgress the limitations imposed by such con- ditions. Its progression in this regard can perhaps be attributed, at least in part, to the above mentioned authors’ acquaintance with one another’s writings. Th at is, while Blofeld both remarks on Govinda’s sagacity, as discussed in the previous chapter, and refers in particular to Govinda’s Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism (TWL, 237, 245), Govinda, in turn, both valorizes Blofeld’s authorial capacity,1 and refers directly to Blofeld’s Th e Wheel of Life (WWC, 162). Yet, unlike in Blofeld’s work, a transgressive, and indeed aggressive, tone is clearly evident from the outset of Govinda’s Th e Way of the White Clouds, insofar as, in his foreword to the text, Govinda places the work within the context of an intense global confl ict between two radically diff erent discursive domains. Moreover, he advances Tibet as the arena in which this struggle is most salient—that is, the struggle between, on the one hand, the modern world of technology, and, on the other hand, the historical world of spirituality (WWC, 21). Importantly, although in relation to this struggle, Govinda throws his weight behind the latter rather than the former, unlike Blofeld, he does not simply hope to fi nd and gain access to far-fl ung, sacrosanct pockets of traditional culture, in the inter- est of catching momentary glimpses of the transcendent truth that they supposedly harbor. Instead, he indicates that such dwindling domains no longer constitute a source of , that they will never be able to eradicate the consequences of their acquaintance with what amounts to disciplinary/bio-power, and that, as such, what is important is that

1 Anagarika Govinda, Th e Way of the White Clouds (Woodstock: Th e Overlook Press, 2005), 139. 108 chapter seven their spiritual legacy be saved from extinction (WWC, 23). Arguably, all of this is further endorsed in the text through its Prologue in the Red Temple of , in terms of which the fi ve Dhyāni-Buddhas within the ruined temple send out Ngawang Kalzang, later known as Tomo Géshé, as a missionary to save all the peoples of the earth (WWC, 32–33, 36). Th e importance of this, in turn, derives from the fact that Govinda later became a student of the same Tomo Géshé (WWC, 72), which, in eff ect, transforms Govinda’s autobiographical account of his time in Tibet into an important component of discursive resistance within the above mentioned confl ict. Indeed, from the above, it would seem that this piece of discursive resistance has, by implication, even been ordained by the very Dhyāni-Buddhas themselves. It is vital to note both this level of messianic fervor in Govinda’s work, and the extent to which the narrative of Th e Way of the White Clouds plays out against the backdrop of the above mentioned confl ict, because both of these aspects lend an intensity, and indeed a militancy, to the text, in a way that sets it apart from Blofeld’s Th e Wheel of Life. However, as will be discussed, despite Govinda’s attempts to actively transgress the limitations imposed by the discursive conditions under which his text was produced, arguably, the value of his work derives not so much from its partial success in this regard. Rather, its value derives from the important insights that it inadvertently provides read- ers into the immense diffi culty and subtlety that any such transgression requires in order to be both eff ective and enduring. Th is emerges into conspicuousness when one considers the way in which, even though Govinda engages critically with four of the fi ve main disciplinary/bio- power technologies, namely spatio-temporal regimentation, the dossier, panopticism, and the deployment of sexuality, and even though he commits acts of discursive transgression against their respective tran- scendent orientated implicit founding assumptions, in each case, he nevertheless still inadvertently falls prey to such assumptions, insofar as they continue to covertly inform his subjectivity.2 Firstly, with regard to the regimentation of space and time, like Blofeld’s somewhat loft y accounts of the exotic areas of the Orient in which he traveled at a modest pace, Govinda’s descriptions of Tibet

2 As will be discussed, Govinda, like Blofeld, does not in any way draw close to a transgressive consideration of the transcendent orientated implicit founding assumption of secularized/medicalized confession, namely the idea of the existence of an elusive, more primary realm of psychic truth to which authority must always be deferred.