Part Four: Disputing Pico Iyer's version of events regarding the Dalai Lama and Dorje Shugden

Part Four of setting the record straight on Pico Iyer's book, Open Road, The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.

Religious Harmony?

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On and on the passionate tirade went, like nothing so much as a prosecuting lawyer’s final summation. Some people began to look at their watches. Always he was working for harmony between the schools for Tibetan Buddhism the Dalai Lama said. Yet a Shugden teacher had said that if a Gelug practitioner follows a Nyimgma teaching, he will be killed by the Shugden deity. What did this have to do with the clear philosophy laid out by Lord Buddha? And if you looked at the Nalanda teaching, the great work of the Indian philosophers Shantideva and Nagarjuna, which he was explicating now, what did that have to do with propitiating deities?

The Dalai Lama is lying again. In what way is he working for harmony between the schools of Tibetan Buddhism when he has split the Kagyu tradition because of his interfering in the traditional choice of Karmarpa and split the Gelugpa tradition over the Dorje Shugden issue? It seems that whenever the Dalai Lama takes an interest in something, it is disharmony, not harmony, that follows.

He created disharmony between Nyingmas and Gelugpas within the Tibetan diaspora, and between the NKT and other Buddhist groups in the West, by demonizing Dorje Shugden practitioners and dismissing them as a cult. The story of monks being expelled from their monasteries and the segregation wall at Ganden is now well documented.

Now even the FPMT, a supposedly Western Buddhist organization that should know better, has banned Dorje Shugden practitioners from receiving teachings from Lama Zopa. This is blatant discrimination and a horrible mix of religion and politics. How can this new “Restriction”, as they call it, possibly lead to harmony between schools of Buddhism?

It is completely superstitious to say that if a Gelugpa practitioner follows a Nyingma teaching that Dorje Shugden will harm them! He's not some jealous guardian but a Buddha who helps all living beings. How can a Buddha harm others? The present problem in Tibetan society with Dorje Shugden has been created by the Dalai Lama who believed the infamous Yellow Book written by Zemey Rinpoche. This book -- written 50 years ago by just one Dorje Shugden practitioner and denounced by many others -- was simply a collection of superstitious Tibetan folk tales; but the supposedly rational Dalai Lama believed these and began systematically destroying Dorje Shugden practice. If he had not, there would be no problems of disharmony.

The Dalai Lama seems to believe whatever he reads, whether it's the early pronouncements of the 5th Dalai Lama that Dorje Shugden is a harmful spirit (the 5th Dalai Lama later changed his mind) or the contents of the Yellow Book. It's a great shame that he doesn't believe his ownSpiritual Guide's book, Music Delighting the Ocean of Protectors, in which Trijang Rinpoche gives clear, logical reasons why Dorje Shugden is a Buddha. If he believed this book, there would be no problems!

Finally, on the note of the Buddhist philosophers, what does the great work of Shantideva and Nagarjuna have to do with propitiating spirits like Nechung, which the Dalai Lama does whenever he needs guidance on a political decision?

The fifth and final part of this book review coming soon.

Click here for Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.

Posted courtesy of Lineageholder.

Part Two: Disputing Pico Iyer's version of events on the Dalai Lama and Dorje Shugden

Part Two of setting the record straight on Pico Iyer's book, Open Road, The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.

Nechung, the unreliable oracle spirit who is treated like a Buddha

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The Dalai Lama uses oracles (of which the most prominent is Nechung, whose trance we have just witnessed) as he might his left hand, he says, and he uses his Cabinet as he might his right, balancing visible and invisible worlds- the conscious and the subconscious realm- much as the Middle Way would suggest (though he also admits that he regards the medium who speaks for Tibet’s protector deity as his “upper house” and his regular political counsellors as his “lower’, perhaps because the oracle speaks for a wisdom that is beyond the human, and beyond the reach of human meddling. It was Nechung, after all, who told him when he was only fifteen that he had to assume temporal power early, as the Chinese advanced into Tibet; and it was Nechung who told him in 1959 that he had to flee Lhasa- and gave him the route to do so- that very night).

The Dalai Lama stresses that the oracle is in fact a healer and a protector, something more than just a spirit that can divine the future, but the fact remains that the spirit clearly lives in a domain very different from that of the lucid, analytical, doctor’s logic that marks the Dalai Lama’s mass public talks around the world.

Nechung never told the Dalai Lama to flee Tibet; in fact, when consulted the oracle for this spirit didn't say much, only that the Dalai Lama “should remain in the land”. If he had listened, it would have been a disastrous course of action. Why does the Dalai Lama constantly rely on a worldly spirit who makes mistakes and gives bad advice? In everyday life, if you have something that doesn't work, it's sensible to get rid of it; however, the Dalai Lama's irrational and non-Buddhist reliance on Nechung continues year after year. It's completely mystifying.

It is a downright lie that Nechung drew the map that showed the Dalai Lama to safe route to escape to India. It was the oracle of Dorje Shugden that drew the map. This is confirmed by Lobsang Yeshe, the assistant of the Abbot of Sera Monastery at the time. It was Lobsang Yeshe's job at that critical time to consult the oracle of Dorje Shugden. In 1998 when he was told that the Dalai Lama didn't acknowledge the help of Dorje Shugden in his escape from Tibet, he said: “That contradicts the law of truth. Actually, how can he speak like that? If it had not been for Dorje Shugden's help at that time, an escape would have been really difficult”

Pico Iyer says “...but the fact remains that the spirit clearly lives in a domain very different from that of the lucid, analytical, doctor’s logic that marks the Dalai Lama’s mass public talks around the world.”

This clearly shows that the Dalai Lama is being hypocritical. On the one hand, he is claiming to rely on logic and reasoning when talking to Western audiences and 'having made an investigation' with respect to Dorje Shugden, but behind closed doors he's engaging in all kinds of superstitious practices that are not Buddhist, such as consulting oracles and throwing dough balls to make decisions! This is like examining chicken entrails to discover the future.

The Dalai Lama takes decisions with doughballs

It seems that the Dalai Lama is also rather fond of using dough balls to decide what spiritual practice someone should do. The following is from his own website, where he is talking about whether the reincarnation of his Guru,Trijang Rinpoche, should be allowed to engage in the practice of 'Dholgyal' (Dorje Shugden):



"Dholgyal is something with whom Rinpoche has a connection from past lives, and when the time comes, when Rinpoche's personal realization reaches maturity, I will decide through dough-ball divination whether he should take up the practice."

Why does the Dalai Lama, as the 'Buddha of Compassion' need to throw dough balls or seek the counsel of a worldly spirit to make decisions? Je Tsongkhapa, the founder of the tradition he is trying to destroy, is an emanation of the Wisdom Buddha and it is said that faithful followers of Je Tsongkhapa never have any difficulty in increasing their wisdom. This clearly goes to show that the Dalai Lama is not relying on Tsongkhapa and has no wisdom because he needs to rely on oracles, divinations and dreams. Did Buddha Shakyamuni rely on oracles, throw dough-balls or talk about his dreams? Apparently 'Chenrezig' needs these things! It's like going to a pier-end fortune teller or Tarot reader every time you want to make a major decision.

Everyone acknowledges that Nechung is a worldly spirit but the Dalai Lama makes no major decision without consulting him. The Dalai Lama even treats him like a Buddha! Nechung is the only spirit that has a monastery dedicated to him. Why dedicate a Buddhist monastery to a spirit? It is ironic that the Dalai Lama upbraids Dorje Shugden practitioners for relying upon a spirit when he himself seeks the counsel of a ghost and treats him as if he were a Buddha. Even so, Nechung is notoriously unreliable and there is a long history of his disastrous pronouncements, such as there would be a free Tibet by the year 2000.

Once again, if Nechung is a 'healer and protector' and the Dalai Lama is a Buddha, does the Dalai Lama need healing by a spirit? Does he need protection from something? Does he need protection by something other than the Three Jewels? If so, then he is behaving like a non-Buddhist, even though he constantly goes on about how 'the Nalanda tradition' doesn't worship spirits.

Posted courtesy of Lineageholder