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A huge riot erupted in New York City after the Dalai Lama's teachings July 17, 2008 in which an organized mob of the attendees of the Dalai Lama's teaching surrounded the peaceful protesters demonstrating against the Dalai Lama's ban on the mainstream Buddhist practice of the Wisdom Buddha Dorje Shugden.
From the Dorje Shugden Devotees Charitable & Religious Society, July 2008
The justifications the Dalai Lama gives for his ban of the worship of the deity Dorje Shugden vary considerably depending on his audience.
The justification given to the Tibetan public, which destroyed the entire harmony of the Tibetan community, is: "Worshipping this evil deity is a danger for my life and for the freedom of Tibet. If you Tibetans want me to be dammed and don't care at all about the cause of Tibet, then go ahead with the worship of this deity."
On the contrary, to Western audiences the Dalai Lama repeatedly says that he issued this ban "In order to save this pure and profound Tibetan Buddhism from degenerating into spirit worship". And "This ban is applied in order to promote peace and harmony between the four Tibetan Buddhist traditions."
A further justification that the Dalai Lama sometimes mentions, and which he repeated on his recent visit to New York in July 2008: "This is for my personal gaining of religious freedom. I had the wish to ask Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen to give me the transmission of the Sangwa-Nyingpo-Tantra, and I consulted my teacher Ling Rinpoche about it, and he responded negatively, saying there is a lot of discussion about it. Actually my teacher was afraid of Dolgyal (Dorje Shugden). Thus I lost my religious freedom."
What is the reality behind these statements?
Anyone who accepts whatever the Dalai Lama says as literal, infallible, and unquestionable makes no attempt even to question any of these points for a second. However, if an analytical mind investigates the validity of these words of the Dalai Lama, comparing their meaning to reality, a big surprise about the enormous discrepancy between the Dalai Lama's statements and the factual truth will be inevitable.
Continue reading
NKT monks and nuns are authentic and try to show a good and practical example of service, celibacy and humility for our modern world. Buddha Shakyamuni himself said that the Vinaya should be practiced in accordance with what is most acceptable for society. The NKT is following this advice from Buddha.
NKT monks and nuns practice everything that a fully ordained monk or nun in Buddha's tradition would practice, minus the cultural rules that make benefiting others in the West in these modern times almost impossible. Nowadays, most Western monks and nuns are not living in actual monasteries but are out and about helping living beings.
In response to some NKT monks and nuns joining the Western Shugden Society (WSS) to protest against the Dalai Lama's political ban of the worship of Wisdom Buddha Dorje Shugden, the Australian Sangha Association (ASA) recently delivered a statement to say that NKT monks and nuns are not authentic. It is strange that they did not issue similar statements about other any other monastic tradition when Buddhist monks protested in Tibet, Burma, Vietnam, Korea or Cambodia! Their statement stems from their allegiance to the Dalai Lama (which is clear from their website) and is more politically than spiritually motivated.
You can read a direct reply to their statement, clarifying the spiritual reasons for the authenticity of NKT Buddhist monks and nuns.
Please Spread the Truth
The Capital Times: 07-20-08
Dalai Lama's visit sparks protest
Channel 3000 News: 07-20-08
Dalai Lama Begins Six-Day Madison Trip
Public Talk Site Of Protests
Time Magazine: 07-18-08
The Dalai Lama's Buddhist Foes
The Buddhist Channel: 07-18-08
Supporters of Dalai Lama clash with Buddhist sect
A personal first-hand account of the demonstration at Radio City Music Hall, July 17 2008
In the morning I took the subway from my apartment to Radio City Music Hall. Because there are so many Tibetans in my neighborhood I saw some people dressed in traditional Tibetan clothing who were probably headed to the Dalai Lama's teaching.
The first thing I noticed as I approached is that the chanting had already started. I was arriving just at 12noon and it wasn't scheduled to begin until 12:30pm. There was, as is typical for NY at that time of day, huge amounts of foot traffic. But from the direction I was approaching I could only hear the chants from about a block away (because the protesters were directing their chants in the opposite direction). The protesters, a few hundred westerners and a hundred Tibetans, lay and ordained, had started chanting around 11:30 -- they started early!
After several days of protesting it felt like we were in a groove. We knew the chants, in Tibetan and English, and it felt as if I had built up a bit of endurance from the previous days of work. The scale of this protest was much larger than any of the ones we had previously done in terms of its impact, as there were literally thousands of people streaming by who heard our chants, read our signs, took our literature, and asked what it was all about. They were typically open-minded for New York, and many professed surprise and then horror at what the Dalai Lama was doing -- professing religious freedom and human rights in Radio City on the street opposite, and denying it to his own people behind the scenes in India. One man said: "I paid over a hundred bucks for this ticket and you're telling me that he does not practice what he is going to preach?" Tickets ranged from around forty bucks to a thousand, for a talk that took not much longer than an hour. Some passers-by tried to grasp the concept of the Dalai Lama using his political power to stamp out a religious tradition -- "Would it be like the Pope saying he has decided to stop worshiping Saint Christopher and that from now on everyone else therefore has to stop worshipping him too, or else be ostracized and pushed out of their monasteries and schools?" (Not a bad analogy, except that the Pope is historically the spiritual leader of all Catholics whereas the Dalai Lama has never been the head of Buddhism.)
Right from the start, we were continuously drawing the ire of Tibetans who were attending the Dalai Lama's talks. We were getting the finger with some outbursts of yelling. Tibetan women would flap their dresses at us (which I've been told means that they are showering us with their menstrual blood...ugh). I said, "Boy those Tibetan women are intense" and my friend replied in jest (I think!), "That's why there are so many monks."
There were groups of young lay Tibetan men who would stop and stare at us for a long time. Their presence was quite ominous and the police were watching them closely. Some of them were taking photos of the Tibetans protesting with us. They were clearly doing so to identify them later and threaten them and their families, as they have done already in coarse and violent language on phayul.com and elsewhere. And they have acted on some threats already -- for example, they boycotted a restaurant of a Dorje Shugden practitioner who had attended the demonstration in Hamilton New York, causing it to go out of business.At one point there were some Tibetan women gathered across the street and I could see the leader instructing the others to get photos of all the Tibetans protesting with us. The Tibetans we are with and who we are supporting are very brave as they face a mob mentality for going against the wishes of the Dalai Lama, but they remained calm and cheerful throughout. Now that they have decided to take a stand after 12 years of persecution, they are resolute; and some of them said it is as if a deep hurt inside, caused by the Dalai Lama's actions, is being resolved.
At the start of the day, the media presence did not seem huge, but I'm not sure. I just didn't see those TV station vans with the transmission antenna on the roof. There were a lot of people taking photos. I think we were near the top list of tourist attractions in the city. There were some professional photographers shooting us and videotaping us. One looked like a Chinese news group but I couldn't tell.
There was another group with about 15 people protesting in the pen next to us. They were spectacularly quiet and were protesting the US government's using Tibet to attack China with CIA funds. They spent quite some time just looking at us.
We chanted for just about the entire time during the Dalai Lama's talk. We gave out thousands of pieces of literature -- a leaflet with the basic facts called "Dalai Lama give religious freedom" and a booklet chronicling the abuses, including the forced signature campaign, called "The Tibetan Situation Today, Surprising Hidden News." Throughout the Dalai Lama's talk, Tibetans were amassing on various corners of the streets and we were told by the police to stay away from our barriers on the sidewalk side to avoid angry confrontations as their mood was getting ugly. They made everyone handing out literature along the sidewalks go back into the pen for safety (throughout the day, those handing out literature were made to go in pairs). When the talk got out at 4pm, that's when things got really intense. The Tibetans gathered in force outside Radio City, all down the sidewalks, and on the northwest corner of 50th and 6th Ave and started their own chants: "Shame on you! Shame on China! and something like, "Go away Dorje Shugden." They were all pumping their hands in unison towards us. At one point I noticed that the entirety of 6th Ave from 51st down to 49th was filled completely with Tibetans who were yelling at us. The side streets were filled too.
I was asked to do security facing the sidewalk (facing west) and a mob of Tibetans gathered about 15 feet from us and started yelling. Some were giving us the finger, some were flapping their dresses. One woman came up and started spitting at us. I put my body in between and got some spit on me and water (I think someone threw a water bottle at us). She looked at me and told me I would die with blood running out of my mouth. There were no police on our side of the pen as they were completely occupied with the stream of Tibetans pouring out of Radio City and crossing 6th ave on 50thth Street. I could see people getting violent and the police were being very physical defending themselves throwing people on the ground and shoving them away when they started getting violent. My brother who had a better vantage point told me a couple of people were arrested because they hit police officers. One woman went to hit a police officer and he took her down by twisting her arm. Another woman was handcuffed by three police officers but I did not see her being led away so perhaps they let her go. The police maced others who were trying to attack the protesters, some of the protesters on the outskirts of the demonstration pen felt it. The scene was so intense. Crowds of onlookers also were gathering on all corners and 6th Avenue was closed to traffic during rush hour for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, because there were no police on our side, the Tibetans were starting to work themselves into a frenzy. There were two young Tibetans who were getting really agitated and I was really afraid because it looked like they were about to attack us. Some older Tibetans were trying to calm them down but I could tell it was a dangerous situation. I told one of our security people that there were no police on this side and she went off to tell someone...
(One policeman said that the Dalai Lama himself had incited the rage during his talk. As 90 percent of the audience were Tibetan or Nepalese, he might have said something in Tibetan that was not translated. I don't know as I was not in the talk, but they came out with such a sense of purpose that it seems that somewhere along the line they had been incited to do something about us. This would be in keeping with what is happening in India, with Dalai Lama followers being incited to violence against Shugden practitioners by the government in exile, Tibetan youth congress and womens' association etc, all acting on the words of the Dalai Lama. Certainly the Dalai Lama, as usual, showed no inclination to come over and talk to us -- that has been the case for the past 12 years. He is happy to talk to any religious leaders of any faiths, just not Buddhist Dorje Shugden practitioners. Nor did he send a representative. No one in his entourage said anything to calm the angry mood. From what was translated in the talk he gave, he spouted the same reasons for banning the practice, all of which have been answered over and over again on this blog and elsewhere, and shown to be unreasonable.)
.... Finally a HUGE police officer came over (to my relief!) This dude was way taller than me (and I'm 6'1") -- he was diesel with the chiseled jaw and everything. His instincts were right as he walked right over to the two young Tibetans, stood two feet in front of them and rested his nightstick right on his shoulder. As you could imagine those two calmed right down.
The Tibetans on the west side of the pen were still getting rowdy so about 3 other officers came over. The Tibetans were yelling at us and throwing money at us. They were throwing dollar bills and coins at us saying we were paid by the Chinese. The cops told the Tibetans to back up away from the protesters but one man keen on picking up the money he thew at us didn't listen and ran right up to the barrier that the protesters were behind. The 3 officers grabbed this man and slammed him on the ground. They threw him back into the angry mob and they were shocked. The police all whipped out their nightsticks and twirled them around letting them know the consequences of breaking the barrier. Another female police office ran over with some additional metal barriers and they pushed back the Tibetan mob about 100 feet to a safe distance.
See the video of the riot in New York City.
[It made me wonder what it must be like for the monks and lay people in India who have complained now for years about the ostracism and fear they feel in the face of the Dalai Lama's followers who are so against them. They have had rocks hurled at their houses, mobs breaking into their houses and destroying their shrines and statues. Monks have been pushed out of their monasteries, where they have been since they were small boys (the Dalai Lama says they can go back to China and China can take care of them but they've never been to China in their lives!) People have been ostracized and humiliated, wanted posters have been put up, and on it goes. We got a little glimpse of what it is like to be shouted at, spat at and reviled, but the difference is that, luckily for us, we had the New York police force between us and them.]
By this time I could see that the sidewalks on both sides of 6th ave were completely filled with Tibetans. The energy in the air was intense. I've never experienced anything like this. We were surrounded by an angry mob on all sides. The police closed down 6th ave and I could see 4 or 5 police officers on horseback just firmly staring down the throngs of Tibetans. It was an impressive sight. Looking up one would see many people looking out of their office windows gazing at this spectacle. Now all the press were on the scene. People with a phone or camera were calling people and taking photos from the windows of the NBC building. What is amazing actually is how little press coverage there has been considering how much press was there for the riot. It seems to be hard to be the first one to blow the whistle. You need a lot of guts to investigate a story like this. One journalist in Australia wrote an article questioning the persona and theatre of the Dalai Lama, and he received death threats for his efforts.
As WSS spokesperson, Kelsang Pema, said in a press release: "If this intense reaction and mob mentality is the result when a few people publicly question the Dalai Lama's actions on American soil with police present and western laws, imagine how difficult it is for these people to speak up against their unelected leader in the Tibetan community in exile. I hope that the western media will investigate."
I was so proud, the WSS chanting was so powerful and loud and continuous, yet peaceful. It carried the weight of the huge blessings of our lineage and I felt this is why so many Tibetans were moved and challenged by our chants. Our group of 400 or so protesters, outnumbered by 10 to 1 (just a guess), really posed a challenge to these thousands of Tibetans.
Finally 5pm came and the police called in the buses -- our own three buses and an extra one they provided. They told us they were concerned for our safety and that no one should leave the demonstration pen on their own -- we all needed to be shipped to a safe spot far away from the Tibetans. Others told me later that the police were impressed by our discipline -- we did what we were told, which made their job much easier. Also, as the protesters were being herded rapidly on to the buses, they were trying to pick up their trash after them, until one officer called through the megaphone: "Leave the trash. Get on the bus. We'll clean up."
As we boarded the buses I noticed that the Tibetans weren't going anywhere. They were cheering that we were leaving but they all stayed and showed no signs of going anywhere. They were definitely there for the duration.
We were so jammed into those buses because none of the New Yorkers had arrived on the buses. So we all squeezed in, and accompanied by a police escort, we were rescued out of the mob scene. The relief was deeply felt. The bus driver of the bus I was on gave me a high five. He said "That was awesome, you guys got federal agents, secret service, and the nypd out there." I looked out the window and saw an escort of at least 10 nypd officers on motorbikes. One of the other bus drivers said: "You guys did a great job out there today. I think they got the message." I hope he is right, but probably we'll have to keep demonstrating for a bit longer yet.
They drove us over to 9th ave where they dropped us off. And we headed back to our Dharma Center where we felt so relieved to do puja and have GP teaching class (on the spiritual potential of this precious human life). As we sang the Migtsema, the praise to Je Tsongkhapa, I just started weeping, the relief was so great. Dalai Lama, give religious freedom.
Thank you.
Posted courtesy of a member of the Western Shugden Society attending the demonstrations
July 18th, 2008 By Pilar Conci and Jamie Schram
Article and video from the New York Post
Followers of the Dalai Lama's nonviolent teachings lost their cool yesterday - tossing coins and water bottles at Midtown protesters.
After the Dalai Lama finished a two-hour speech on human suffering at Radio City Music Hall, his audience of several hundred people stepped onto Sixth Avenue to chants of "Dalai Lama, stop lying!" from the protesters - who claim the Tibetan spiritual leader persecutes Buddhist Shugden practitioners.
Supporters waved money and threw coins at the protesters suggesting they were paid by the Chinese government.
There were no arrests at the protests.
New York, NY (PRWEB) July 18, 2008 -- Approximately 500 Tibetan and Western Buddhists engaged in a peaceful demonstration today outside of Radio City Music Hall as the Dalai Lama gave his public talks. This group, the Western Shugden Society (WSS), say they are demonstrating to question the Dalai Lama's unexamined actions and wishing to be heard since the Dalai Lama has repeatedly refused requests for dialog. The demonstrators spent 6 hours chanting "Dalai Lama Give Religious Freedom" and "Dalai Lama Stop Lying" in Tibetan and English to draw attention to their cause.
Police erected metal barriers to push the crowds back. Some of them had to be physically restrained and forced to the ground as the aggressors began throwing objects, including bags of coins and bottles, spitting at, and yelling at the demonstrators.
The demonstrators remained contained, cooperated with police and agreed at the suggestion of the police to be evacuated with escort from the area while 6th Avenue was blocked off for 20 minutes during rush hour. They were told by police that this was necessary as it would have taken many hours to disperse the crowds.
Kelsang Pema, spokesperson for the WSS, says, "If this intense reaction and mob mentality is the result when a few people publicly question the Dalai Lama's actions on American soil with police present and western laws, imagine how difficult it is for these people to speak up against their unelected leader in the Tibetan community in exile. I hope that the western media will investigate."
From PR Web
This Saturday, 600 Buddhists with one voice will protest against the Dalai Lama claiming a campaign of religious intolerance and immoral discrimination against the Buddhist community who practice the protective deity Dorje Shugden. This Western Shugden Society organized demonstration hopes to expose what they categorize as abuse of the Dalai Lama's dual political and religious status, by which all Tibetan-exiles must take a public oath to abandon this spiritual practice as well as association with anyone who practices this 400 year old Buddhist Deity, in order to receive a state issued identity card. Without this identity card it is difficult and sometimes impossible to purchase food in many stores, receive medical treatment, and obtain travel documents. The protests is scheduled to take place Saturday, July 19th and promises to be colorful and lively event, with passionate Tibetan and English changt and bright placards spotting the crowd.
Through utilizing the free press unavailable in the Tibetan Exile communities, Tibetan and western Buddhists have come together in Madison during the Dalai Lama's week of teaching to speak out against this discrimination and persecution.
Kelsang Pema, Western Buddhist nun and spokesperson for the Western Shugden Society (WSS) will be available on sight for interviews and questions and in an unprecedented act, DVDs of first-hand testimonial's of Tibetans and westerners around the world speaking out about their victimization at the hands of this celebrity monk, the Dalai Lama, will be available.
"The Dalai Lama will come to Madison and talk about peace and compassion, but he is not practicing what he is teaching. In India, thousands of innocent monks have been expelled from their monasteries, supporters denied food and travel visas, families are being ostracized from their communities and countless Shugden Temples and statues destroyed.
We need to demonstrate because none of the other methods we have tried have succeeded in bringing about a meaningful discussion with him. Our only aim is to have this ban lifted so that millions of innocent people can continue with their spiritual life in peace and harmony."
From PRWeb
At first the wall was planned to be just five feet tall like all the other walls on the property. But many monks complained. They argued that the Shugden practitioners could still be seen from the windows of the higher floors of adjacent buildings. They should not be able to be seen—none of them. No-one wanted even to breathe the same air as them. So higher the wall became—reaching nine feet—an ugly reminder of religious apartheid spreading through Tibetan society due to the Dalai Lama's actions.
New York, NY (PRWEB) July 15, 2008 -- This Thursday, from 12:30-5:00 p.m., 600 Tibetan and western Buddhists from around the world, including 200 monastics, join with one voice to demonstrate against the Dalai Lama outside of Radio City in NYC where he will be speaking. In this unprecedented event, more than 100 Tibetans will participate in the Western Shugden Society (WSS) organized protest to speak out against the man who has been touted as an icon of peace and tolerance.
The demonstrators hope to bring to the attention of the West the hidden persecution taking place in the Tibetan community in exile and increasingly in the west through the newly imposed oath and identity card campaign.
Kelsang Pema, western Buddhist nun and spokesperson for the Western Shugden Society (WSS), an umbrella organization made up of Shugden practitioners from many Buddhist traditions and countries, explains: "By decree of the Dalai Lama, with political motivation, exile Tibetans are being asked to sign an oath promising to give up a 400-year old mainstream daily prayer to the Buddhist deity Dorje Shugden, and state that they will not give spiritual or material assistance to anyone remains a practitioner. Without signing this oath, they are refused an identity card, without which they are denied basic human rights such as food and travel documents. Thousands of monks have been segregated within, or expelled from, monasteries without resources, supporters have been denied medical treatment, families are being ostracized and segregated within their communities."
"Since this enforced ban by the Dalai Lama is causing so much spiritual, emotional and physical harm to practitioners both in India and now in the West, and for years he has refused to engage in dialog around this issue, we have no choice but to ask for the help of fair-minded citizens of the west to rectify this inhumane action by drawing attention to it with demonstrations and hoping that the press will investigate," Pema continues.
The only aim of the WSS is to have the Dalai Lama lift the ban on this prayer so that millions of practitioners across the world can live again without fear or harassment.
For further information, visit www.westernshugdensociety.org.
From PRWeb
Dorje Shugden practitioners chant for religious freedom
Dorje Shugden practitioners pray for religious freedom
1) Chronical of events 2008: April - July
2) Chronical of events 2008: January - March
3) Dalai Lama's acts don't match words
4) Make a donation to support the Shugden practitioners in India
6) What would Thomas Jefferson think of the 14th Dalai Lama?
7) The Dalai Lama and Guru Devotion Video
1. July 7, 2008: Appeal from Save Tibet Group
It is apparent that Dorje Shugden organization, whose face is as thick as elephant’ skin, is engaged in sinful actions of criticism and so on against His Holiness the Dalai Lama who is the eye and soul of Tibetan people, when he travels to the western countries. On this crucial time, the organization keeps evil touch with Chinese government, the chief culprit of all Tibetan. And the Dalai Lama is our sole object and a leader, to whom we share our plight.
We appeal you to cut any ties of buying and selling foods in restaurants and shops with whoever has connection to this Dorje Shugden organization that chooses enemy and forsakes friend.
Save Tibet Group
2. March 19, 2008: Mundgod oath
All the people of Mundgod Tibetan Village No 5 never practice Dorje Shugden and have taken the oath. My name from now, from my side, never worship Dorje Shugden, am taking this oath generally in front of the Three Jewels and especially Mahakali.
3. February 2, 2008: Monastery Identity Card Form
All the residents of Geden Jangtse Thoesam Norling Monastery will be issued a fresh Identity Certificate (ID Card). However, before issuing the Identity Card the resident monk has to fill the necessary Forms and sign stating that I am not a practitioner of Dorje Shugden. If resident monk does not agree to sign the form, the Monastery will not issue Identity Card to him what-so-ever.
Over 400 Tibetan and western Buddhist monks, nuns and other practitioners who have traveled from 16 countries are gathering this weekend to stage an impassioned protest against the Dalai Lama at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, where he is scheduled to give a five-day teaching. The demonstrators hope to bring the attention of the West to the hidden, intensive persecution by the Dalai Lama of thousands of Tibetan-exile citizens who practice a 400-year old mainstream tradition of making prayers to the Buddhist Deity Dorje Shugden.
Through his power as head of the Tibetan government-in-exile and with political motive, the Dalai Lama has imposed an aggressive, forced ban on this practice (which he himself engaged in for over 40 years), claiming these prayers harm his personal health and the cause of Tibet.
Buddhist nun Kelsang Pema, spokesperson of the Western Shugden Society (WSS), an umbrella organization made up of Shugden practitioners from many Buddhist traditions, explains:
"Since this enforced ban by the Dalai Lama is causing so much spiritual, emotional and physical harm to practitioners both in India and now in the West, and for years he has refused to engage in dialog around this issue, we have no choice but to ask for the help of fair-minded citizens of the West to rectify this inhumane action by engaging in demonstrations and discussions with the Press."
"The Dalai Lama is coming to Lehigh University to talk about love, compassion and tolerance, but the great irony is that as a political and supposed religious leader he does not practice these himself. In India, because of his personal political agenda, thousands of monks have been segregated within or expelled from monasteries without resources, supporters have been denied food and travel visas, families are being ostracized and segregated within their communities, and countless Shugden Temples and statues destroyed."
"The only aim of the WSS is to have this immoral ban lifted so that millions of innocent people throughout the world can continue with their spiritual life without harassment or fear. Should we expect any less from this supposed man of peace?"
From Press Release Web
The following is a transcript of a Swiss national television's evening news (SF1) series of news reports on the conflict in Tibetan society concerning the worship of the deity Dorje Shugden. Many questions have been raised by these reports, which are of interest for everyone interested in Tibetan politics and religion in general. Grave questions have been raised as to how the Dalai Lama and his government deal with minorities.
The first two programs dealt mainly with the people, lay and ordained, who have been directly influenced by the Dalai Lama's ban on the practice of Dorje Shugden. Worshippers of Dorje Shugden have been ousted from society, their houses burnt down, property destroyed, families torn apart, people have been threatened, stoned and stabbed by fanatical Dalai Lama supporters. The interviews of these individuals were heart moving due to the obvious distress in which they now have to live under the Dalai Lama's ban.
In the third program this evening the Dalai Lama explained his views. His explanations for the ban are: " Tibetan Buddhism is such a profound tradition, that there is a danger of spirit worship, that Buddhism could degenerate into spirit worship by practicing Dorje Shugden."
After this statement footage was shown of the writhing Nechung State Oracle (Nechung is recognized by the Dalai Lama as a worldly deity or spirit), one of the oracles, who the Dalai Lama frequently consults and who suggested the ban on Dorje Shugden worship. "The worship of Dorje Shugden is of great harm to the Tibetan cause and a danger to the life of the Dalai Lama."
The programme clearly shows the actions of the Dalai Lama's Government in Exile which were observed by the Swiss documentary team directly, the devastating effect on Dorje Shugden practitioners living in India and the curt denials of the Dalai Lama himself. For example, when the Dalai Lama was asked why he would not simply advise against the practice and then otherwise be tolerant, advising against violence, he repeated his statement that no one was being harmed. When confronted by the reporter about the announcements advocating violent action in newspapers and wall postings his answer was: "No, No, I think rumour." When asked "All the great masters who have worshipped the deity for centuries, was all of that wrong?" the Dalai Lama replied simply "Wrong! Yes! Wrong!". This is all the Dalai Lama had to say about his great Teachers.
Since these master who practised Dorje Shugden were his very own spiritual masters, and these are now discredited, where is his validation as a spiritual master and what happened to his lineage? This means that his own spiritual practice was wrong for over 40 years.
Please draw your own conclusions from the following transcript.
Dalai Lama: Discord in Exile - Swiss Documentary Transcript
"There will be no change in my stand. I will never revoke the ban. You are right. It will be like the Cultural Revolution. If those who do not accept the ban do not listen to my words, the situation will grow worse for them. You sit and watch. It will grow only worse for them."
The Dalai Lama to monks in India who questioned the ban
There are three key political reasons behind the Dalai Lama's ban.
1. The Dalai Lama seeks to consolidate all power under him to strengthen his hand in his negotiations with the Chinese.
2. Dorje Shugden provides a convenient scapegoat for all the problems faced by Tibetans, thus deflecting blame away from the Tibetan government in exile.
3. Persecution of Dorje Shugden practitioners distracts attention away from painful concessions being made by the Dalai Lama in the negotiations with the Chinese.
The website layout has changed to make it easier to navigate, with the links now divided into sections: (1) Brief summary (2) The Dalai Lama's position (3) Why is this happening? (4) Efforts to restore religious freedom (5) Analysis of situation (6) Evidence and first-hand accounts (7) Ongoing persecution 2008.
Do drop in and take a look.
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
Page 114:
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
For over 10 years Kadampa Buddhism in the West in the form of the New Kadampa Tradition ~ International Kadampa Buddhist Union (NKT-IKBU) has been subject to a great number of false allegations. The purpose of this website is to try and respond to these with facts and the truth.
New Kadampa Truth
Setting the record straight on Pico Iyer's book, Open Road, The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.
In a few postings on this blog, we shall examine some of the statements about the Dorje Shugden and the Dalai Lama included in Pico Iyer's book, which are at best incorrect hearsay and at worst irresponsible lies.
First the same old calumny about the murders:
The Murder of Lobsang Gyatso, the Director of the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics
From p 60:
He stands, for every Tibetan and Tibetan Buddhist (those in Mongolia, say, and now Korea and Taiwan and elsewhere, too), as a visible embodiment of their faith and, quite literally, a god – an incarnation of Chenrezig, deity of compassion- so beyond the common realm that Tibetans are too awestruck even to address him directly; and yet in recent years, those who propitiate a Tibetan deity called Dorje Shugden, sometimes known as Dolgyal have taken to picketing his public events because they felt he was discriminating against their particular corner of Tibetan Buddhism. Like many of the debates within the Tibetan world, this one goes back centuries, and yet, like many of them too, it is hardly and abstract or remote affair: seven years before, three members of the Dalai Lama’s private monastery, including the head of his Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, were found murdered in their beds only a couple of hundred yards away from the Dalai Lama’s home, and it was generally assumed that the killings were connected in some way with a string of bloody threats from the followers of Shugden.
“A string of bloody threats” sounds dramatic but has no basis in reality and thus is a shamefully irresponsible piece of writing. The one piece of evidence the Indian Police originally linked to the Dorje Shugden devotees, a letter in the room of the victim, was found upon translation to contain no threat whatsoever and was immediately dropped. And there were no other threats, let alone bloody ones. “Generally assuming” that someone is responsible for murder is quite an assumption! Aren't people innocent until proven guilty by dint of evidence? There simply is no evidence, which is why the Indian police dropped the case years ago. See the posting on this subject on this blog for details.
If the Dalai Lama were the deity of compassion, why would he be causing suffering to so many Dorje Shugden practitioners and eviscerating the tradition of his own teachers? One thing is certain, due to people’s blind faith in the Dalai Lama, when he insinuates that there is a connection between the murders and Dorje Shugden practitioners -- despite a complete lack of proof and the fact that the victim had many fierce enemies in Tibetan society -- people jump to believe it and this terrible allegation has been repeated ad infinitum.
Since the Dorje Shugden devotees have not engaged in any violent activity despite being persecuted and ostracized, and since they are committed to trying to change the Dalai Lama’s mind through peaceful non-violent methods, it is particularly cynical to keep repeating that they are actual murderers just in order to discredit them.
From a talk by Helmut Gassner, a Buddhist monk and the translator for the Dalai Lama for seventeen years:
The Director of the Dialectics School was well known for his slanderous writings in which he would drag through the mud anything that veered even slightly from the course established by the government-in-exile: famous masters, the big monastic universities and even the Tibetan guerillas were his targets. In one of his last articles he wrote, "...these people will not cease to criticize the Dalai Lama until blood flows from their bodies...."
Given the character of the assassination and the humiliations the Tibetan guerilla movement had been subjected to in earlier years, one could have assumed that the search for the murderer would eventually also lead to them. But that obviously did not occur; already the next day, Dharamsala's local newspaper claimed that the murderer would certainly be found among the Dorje Shugden Society in Delhi. Aside from who committed the murders, this gruesome act was exploited to the hilt by the government-in-exile with only one aim in mind: Resorting to all possible means they tried to incriminate the Dorje Shugden Society in Delhi in order to put its leading monks behind Indian bars.
pp135-138
Meanwhile the world of protective deities and spirits, of rival groups within Tibetan Buddhism and ancient enmities that had always cast shadows over Tibet now came out into the global order. In 1996, the Dalai Lama began, as I’d seen in Vancouver, to tell audiences not to propitiate a particular deity called Shugden, because he felt that it was proving harmful, and that certain tenets involved in its propitiation went against the principles of Buddhism and the very tolerance and reason he was trying so hard to promote. In response, the followers of the spirit, gathered in the West around a rinpoche in England who ran an organization he called the New Kadampa Tradition, started protesting the Dalai Lama’s talks (hence the warning that had greeted me in British Colombia), claiming that he was violating the principle of freedom of religion; they even allowed themselves to be co-opted to some degree by the Chinese.
Again, one only had to tiptoe across the threshold of the dispute to find oneself in a furious, febrile world of curses and threats and almost medieval intrigue. In the letters certain Shugden supporters sent the Dalai Lama’s government in exile (released in a brochure put out by that government) the sentences polluted with references to “donkey officials and poisonous and shameless” rivals. At one point, a package had been sent to a monastery in India containing a knife and the message “We were unable to meet you this time but we hope to get you next time.” A senior monk was beaten up and a barn and granary went up in flames. Then the head of the Dalai Lama’s own Institute of Buddhist Dialectics was found stabbed in his bed, along with two younger monks, apparently cut up as if for exorcism.
This is embarrassingly bad journalism on many levels. The implication of these paragraphs is that the New Kadampa Tradition is a rallying point for all Shugden practitioners, that the NKT is responsible for threats sent to the Tibetan Government in Exile and that the NKT has been co-opted by the Chinese. All of this is nonsense. When the Shugden Supporters Society (not the NKT) demonstrated against the Dalai Lama's ban in 1996/97 there were no Tibetans among them. Although at that time Geshe Kelsang was a figurehead for the opposition to the Shugden ban (no one else was brave enough to speak out against the Dalai Lama), he was hardly a rallying point for all Shugden practitioners’ unrest.
Whatever individual Shugden practitioners do, such as sending death threats, is up to them – but in truth there is no evidence nor research behind any of Pico Iyer’s implications that Dorje Shugden practitioners were responsible for the knife or the barn or the beating. This is just hearsay, very likely from the Dalai Lama who was consulted on this book (certainly no Dorje Shugden practitioner was consulted!) Of course, the Dalai Lama has shown many times that he is capable of slandering Dorje Shugden practitioners. Repeating the unproven murder story again just for dramatic effect is unconscionable in someone who is supposed to be a respected journalist.
The NKT is a Western Buddhist tradition that completely eschews politics – NKT is not sympathetic to the Chinese Government or any other political body. It is a tired accusation that is always fired at anyone who disagrees with the Dalai Lama. It is a lazy accusation because if you label someone 'a Chinese sympathizer' you can just dismiss them as extreme; you don't have to think about what they are saying and whether there is a grain of truth in it.
Posted courtesy of Lineageholder
