Tibetan Democracy Day? If only.

Press release from Shugden Society USA: Sept 1st, 2011     
       

Today we would like to bring to the attention of all those who believe in peaceful coexistence of all faiths and beliefs in this world, and particularly the attention of the people who believe in freedom of religion and human rights.

September 2nd is The Tibetan Democracy Day, but the irony is that we the Tibetan people do not have true democracy due to the policies of the Tibetan government in exile, under the powerful guidance of the Dalai Lama, that undermines the rights to Religious Freedom as embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and other international conclaves. Hence, we, the proponents of equal human rights, are commemorating the date of September 2 to create a global awareness of the plight as the Dorje Shugden believers continue to struggle against the religious persecution and segregation that has been imposed in the Tibetan community throughout the world by the Dalai Lama. (Scroll below for the most recent developments this year.)

Check out this video by Al-Jazeera, which recounts the atrocities committed by Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile.

On 9 January 2008, the Dalai Lama declared: 

"Dorje Shugden devotees are supported by the Chinese and therefore there is no need for them to be in exile, they can go back to Tibet (under Chinese rule)”.  

Othe same day, he also called for:

“holding an open referendum, to decide if the majority of the Tibetans want to coexist with the devotees of the deity”. 

This is an invitation for open segregation in the Tibetan society, in the disguise of practicing democracy.  Furthermore, because of the Dalai Lama’s position and influence, his statements become government policies, and therefore have great consequences. These statements from Dalai Lama’s position, undermine the fundamental rights: the right to exercise freedom of religion, right to peaceful living, and right to equal opportunity for the people. These statements have great potential to cause communal violence in the society and mislead the Tibetan people into believing that the Dorjee Shugden practitioners as the enemy. As a result, the followers of this deity and their family members have been victims of ostracism and violence.

In 2008, we gave a deadline to a Tibetan Government in Exile and Dalai Lama to stop the religious persecution and segregation of the Shugden practitioners and their families, including children at schools. However, the situation is getting worse every day, and now in 2011 things have not improved -- the Dalai Lama has declared a war against the Shugden people, demonizing and segregating Shugden worshippers since 1996. This "war" has been fuelled by outrageous rumors promoted by the Dalai Lama and his supporters that if a non Dorje Shugden follower should kill a believer that is not considered a sin! and furthermore it provides cumulative merit towards the Dalai Lamas long life! Other such "non sins" include destroying Shugden monasteries, stupas and religious documents.

Recent developments in 2011

Following are few of the recent incidents of violence towards Shugden devotees (more details of the atrocities can be found here):

  

The most recent developments occurred this Summer (July 2011) when the Dalai Lama was here in the USA in Washington DC performing the Kalachakra Initiation which he requested that no Dorje Shugden followers attended. His tone seemed edited for the Western audience. Following this meeting,on August 23rd 2011 the Abbot of the Namgyal Monastery (the Dalai Lama's private monastery) in Dharamsala who travelled with him to the USA called an emergency meeting with the Lithang Organization of NY. As a result of this meeting anyone who is caught associating with a Shugden follower is automatically expelled from the organization and subject to persecution. This is religious persecution right here in New York City,  USA right now in 2011!

Also, this year in January the Dalai Lama speaking at a Tibetan Monastery in South India angrily said that  "Dorje Shudgen harms the Tibetan Government of Tibet" and proceeded to expel several High Lamas including  the ex Abbot of Jumay Monastery  who wrote to the Dalai Lama and the prime minister Samdong saying it was illegal as well as morally wrong to segregate and engage in religious persecution, even though he himself is not a practitioner of Shugden.  Because of this repudiation of the segregation and ostracization of the Tibetan people, he was immediately expelled.

On March 10th the Dalai Lama dissolved the "Tibetan Government in Exile" creating the Tibetan Organization of which he is still the head. While the rest of the world believes that he is resigning from political power, he is still in fact making decisions and ruling behind the face of the the Tibetan Organization

Some earlier examples of ostracism and persecution

Another example of an unfortunate development occurred when the Chushi Gangdurk Organisation, New York USA (which is a political association) met with the Dalai Lama on May 2010 and informed him that they had removed the members who believed in Dorje Shugden and vowed to disassociate and remove any Shugden believers in the future for His Holiness' happiness.

On 26th February 2010, the Central Chushi Gangdurk Organisation's headquarters in New Delhi gave a letter to the Dalai Lama which stated that they hadn’t associated with the Shugden believers since 1996, and vowed to continue disassociating from the Shugden people in the future too. 

On February 20, 2010, 68 of the 100 invited guests as well as performers left the wedding party in New York City because a few Dorje Shugden devotees were invited. Those who left apologized and explained that they did not want to break the oath that they had taken to segregate from the followers of Dorje Shugden.

In July 29 2009, the Tibetan section of Radio Free Asia, with the intention to turn the general Tibetan people against the Shugden devotees, demonized the Shugden devotees of being responsible for the abductions of Tenzing Thakpa, Woeser Rinpoche's father, and a 13-year-old boy along with few goats and sheep in Markham, Tibet. In reality, Woeser Rinpoche's father and the boy were victims of flood and Tenzing Thakpa was seen alive and well, traveling in Lhasa and India. 

In 2008, the oath and signature campaign of breaking off religious and material relationship with Shugden devotees was introduced in the monasteries and Tibetan settlements.

Another example was the shutting down of Tibetan Association of Western Massachusetts, in US on October of 2008 because it had some Shugden believers as its members.

In July 2008, wanted posters of several monks involved in the Western Shugden Society protests appeared in Queens, New York. Al Jazeera reported about the wanted posters saying, "No Shugden worshipper has ever been charged or investigated for terrorism and yet the monks that continue to worship Shugden remain victims of name and shame." 

On 2006, the burning of thousands of autobiographies written by Lamdrim Rinpoche (from Deipung Monastery, Tibet). 

On April 5, 1996, after the Dalai Lama's teaching, Gaden Choeling nunnery in Dharamsala dragged the Shugden statue out, trod on it, and flung into a garbage pit. Throughout India and Nepal, tens of thousands of Dorjee Shugden statues, literature and scriptures were desecrated.

    

Threatening the lives of people who believed in Shugden and ostracizing them from the Tibetan community throughout the world.

An attack on Gaden Shartse monastery in South India by over three thousand Tibetans settlers resulted in 40 people wounded and properties damaged.

In Clement town, there was also an attempt of arson on a Shugden devotee's family house.

These are just a few cases from countless incidents of atrocities involving violence and discrimination towards Shugden followers. Some Westerners are beginning to understand the issues and the plight of the Tibetans people and editorials such as this one "Darkness behind the guru-bubble" by Mike Carlton for the Sydney Morning Herald are popping up here and there in international media. Still, these articles and the truth are few and far between.

"Silliness is one thing. Nastiness is another. The so-called apostle of kindness has been ruthless in crushing a rival Tibetan Buddhist sect known as Dorje Shugden, expelling its monks from monasteries and ostracising or exiling its adherents."

Our demands

In reference to the letter to the prime minister of the Tibetan Government in exile, Samdong Rinpoche and the Dalai Lama, dated April 25, 2008, we had appealed to the Tibetan government to enforce our demands within the deadline of September 2, 2008. Our demands were:

• To entitle us to the fundamental rights of freedom to speech, beliefs, and the rights to live peacefully as guaranteed in the Constitution of Tibetan Government-in-Exile and Democratic countries.
• To lift the ban on Shugden practice and the religious persecution of its practitioners.
• To stop the systematic process of segregation in the Tibetan communities in exile, that has led to the social, psychological and physical torture of Shugden practitioners.

As our demands were repeatedly blatantly ignored, and in addition to the plight:

• The Tibetan government in exile continues to ostracize and segregate the Shugden practitioners from the rest of the Tibetan society.
• Hundreds of monks who worshipped Dorje Shugden were ostracized and expelled from the monasteries.  As a result, a new wall at Ganden monastery in Southern India was built in March 2008 to segregate the Shugden worshippers.
• Monks who worshipped Shugden were denied medical services from the health clinics in the Tibetan communities in exile.
• Students whose parents practiced Dorje Shugden were ostracized in the schools' system.

Until the Dalai Lama stops religious segregation and and admits his horrific mistakes, we will continue to fight for the peaceful coexistence of all faiths and beliefs in this world, and particularly the attention of the people who believe in freedom of religion and human rights. 

*************

 

Free eBook, A Great Deception, by the Western Shugden Society

If you would like to help raise awareness in order to bring all this to an end, please share this free eBook, A Great Deception, with your friends and family.

The Dalai Lama's Secret Life -- now available as a free eBook

 
A Great Deception, explaining the secret life of the 14th Dalai Lama, is now available as a free eBook on the Western Shugden Society website.

Wherever you stand on the issue of the Dalai Lama and Dorje Shugden, or the Dalai Lama and other controversies, this book is certainly worth reading. It is well-researched and contains a great deal of documentation from third-party sources.

There is also a letter that is being sent along with the paperback version of A Great Deception to people around the world. 

Read the Open Letter to Everyone
Read the Open Letter to British Political Leaders

What is in the book

This book shows that the Wisdom Buddha Dorje Shugden is the manifestation of Je Tsongkhapa, who is the embodiment of the wisdom of all Buddhas. It also brings to light the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso's actions in banning this traditional spiritual practice and causing its followers to be persecuted.

It also highlights other controversies, including the mixture of church and state for political and personal ends, the Dudjom Rinpoche affair, the assassination of Gungtang Tsultrim, the Karmapa affair, the politics of the Kalachakra initiations, the defamation of revered Buddhist masters, the Dalai Lama's being on the payroll of the CIA, the Dalai Lama's involvement with Tibetan Guerillas and the Tibetan arms trade, the attempted coup in Bhutan, the Dalai Lama's fascination with Nazism, the friendship with Shoko Asahara, the strange and somewhat sordid history of all the Dalai Lamas, and how the Dalai Lama really "won" the Nobel Peace Prize.

From the Preface:

The purpose of this book is to achieve the following four aims:

• to liberate millions of innocent practitioners of the Buddhist Deity Dorje Shugden and their families from suffering;
• to restore peace and harmony between Shugden and non-Shugden practitioners;
• to re-establish the common spiritual activities of Shugden and non-Shugden practitioners; and
• to free Buddhism from political pollution.

Achieving these aims depends solely upon whether the present Dalai Lama will accept the four points set out at the conclusion of Chapter 4 of this book.

The Dalai Lama wishes to ban Shugden worship in general; and in particular to remove Tibetan Shugden worshippers from their communities, and Western Shugden worshippers from the international Buddhist community. Since 1996 the Tibetan exile government has continually applied effort to fulfil these wishes. In February 2008 alone, 900 monks who are Shugden practitioners were expelled from their monasteries in India.

In 1996 the Tibetan exile government publicly decreed to the Tibetan communities of each country, including Tibet, that Shugden practitioners were their national enemies and were against the Dalai Lama's wishes. The decree stated that unless Shugden practitioners promised to stop Shugden worship they would not receive any official position or job, nor any help or support, even medical assistance, either from the Tibetan exile government or from individual members of the Tibetan community. Further, any connection at all with Shugden practitioners should be cut. Children of Shugden practitioners were no longer permitted to attend Tibetan schools, and Shugden practitioners themselves could not join community meetings, social events and so forth....

(... and the situation has gone from bad to worse.)

Download the free eBook today to find out more.

The Dalai Lama's Shady Past

There is another book out about the previous Dalai Lamas, called
Secret Lives of the Dalai Lama: The Untold Story of the Holy Men Who Shaped Tibet, from Pre-history to the Present Day

Part of its write up says:

His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama is known to the world for his efforts to preserve Tibetan culture and for his inspiring spiritual teachings. Often unnoticed, however, is the long, colorful history from which this most beloved of holy men has emerged. In Secret Lives of the Dalai Lama, Alexander Norman tells this story in full for the first time, from Tibetan Buddhism’s foundational narratives to the present-day crisis faced by Tibet.

And what a story it is. Along with dedicated monks selflessly serving the Tibetan people, among His Holiness’s spiritual forebears there are a Dalai Lama who waged wars, a womanizing and inebriated poet, and several who wound up dead following disputes over temporal power. Also, while Western practitioners focus on Tibetan Buddhism’s liberating vision of enlightenment, it simultaneously contains ritual practices of prophecy and magic, as well as a vivid pantheon of deities and demons.

"Holy men"??! Upon reading the history of the previous Dalai Lamas, the only "holy men" amongst them would appear to be the first four and the Seventh, none of whom had political power or abused their position as spiritual teachers.

It is a stretch to call the rest "holy men". That is unless you call womanizing drunks (the Sixth), violent power-hungry people (the "Great Fifth" and the "Great Thirteenth") and political dictators (the current Fourteenth) "holy men". The Eighth handed over his political power to regents, and the Ninth, Tenth and Twelfth died too young for anyone to make their mind up about them.

During a rebellion of the Karmapas in Tsang, the Fifth Dalai Lama (the 14th Dalai Lama's favorite "spiritual forbear") issued orders:

[Of those in] the band of enemies, who have despoiled the duties entrusted to them:
Make the male lines like trees that have had their roots cut;
Make the female lines like brooks that have dried up in winter;
Make the children and grandchildren like eggs smashed against cliffs;
Make the servants and followers like heaps of grass consumed by fire;
Make their dominion like a lamp whose oil has been exhausted;
In short, annihilate any traces of them, even their names.

The "Great Thirteenth" (1876-1933) (the current Dalai Lama's other favorite "spiritual forbear") was also a cruel leader. As chief judge he commanded severe punishments to be meted out to trouble-makers, including floggings, amputations and exile. His friend Sir Charles Bell gave the damning verdict:

He loved the work... and he liked the power which the work gave him.

Doesn't sound very holy to me. Nor does the current Dalai Lama's current ban of a beloved spiritual practice and the threatening language he uses to back it up, such as (to monks in India who questioned the ban on practicing Dorje Shugden):

14th Dalai Lama inspecting 
troops at Chakrata in 1972

"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."

As for the 14th Dalai Lama's "inspiring spiritual teachings", they come from the kindness of his precious Spiritual Guides. Yet he superseded and denigrated all of them as he assumed more and more temporal power.

Sometimes cliches hit the mark: Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

This all sounds incredible. It is true though. To find out more, including all the sources for this information, read A Great Deception.

Here is a very good article on why we feel it is okay to criticize the Dalai Lama.

Dalai Lama messes with Tibetans' minds

The Dalai Lama continues to spread pain throughout the Tibetan communities. Recently a speech given to his followers during teachings in the Himalayan region of India were reported on the Tibetan radio station 'Voice of Tibet'. Here is a transcript:

Pachen Dorje (reporter): Today on the second day of his teaching in Varanasi, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, public jewel and supreme leader of Tibetan religion and politics, was kind to deliver a special advice to over six thousand devotees from Bhutan, Nepal and Indian Himalayan regions, who came to receive his teachings. On the occasion His Holiness explained he knew that some people of Shugden society recruited children in the name of education in Himalayan regions, and that if parents send their children with full awareness of the Dalai Lama's ban on worship of Shugden, he does not question and oppose. However, he also explained that there would be problems in future if children are sent without any knowledge.

Dalai Lama: I heard that the so-called Geshe-la of Shugden society comes there, and they take children, saying that children would have good education. Similarly this is possible in Gashar; it is possible in Monpa; it is possible in Nepal. I do not oppose if the guardian parents send their children after knowing everything about Gyalpo Shugden; everything about the reasons of the ban imposed on it, and that the Shugden society is opponent of the Dalai Lama. Do you understand? If you do not know, are deceived, and say that there are good facilities and education, later your children have no way to meet the Dalai Lama.

Here the great Prayer Festival is held. Many monks from Sera, Drepung and Gaden monasteries came here. Down there, the monks from Dhokhang Khamtsen of Gaden and Dholgyal worshippers of Pomra in Sera Mey have no way to come here. (slight laugh) When I went to the seats down there (South India), they have no way to come to my teachings, except that they stay performing puja separately.

I clearly state that Guru and disciple require uncontaminated commitment. If someone with degenerated commitment receives teaching, it rather harms Guru; it doesn't help disciple.

Therefore it is unnecessary that you send your children to Dholgyal worshipping organizations, and you regret later when you come to realize. First you need to know. When Tibetan monks come and say you have place to go, you must ask their affiliation.

The Dalai Lama spooks the Tibetan community with his heavy-handed language. For example: “later your children have no way to meet the Dalai Lama” and "if someone with degenerated commitment receives teaching, it rather harms Guru; it doesn't help disciple."

When he first introduced the ban on Dorje Shugden, the Dalai Lama used similar rhetoric, claiming that the practice of Shugden harmed his health and shortened his lifespan. In this way, the Dalai Lama plays on the spiritual fears and superstitions of his audience.

The Dalai Lama, “supreme leader of Tibetan religion and politics”, is using this self-proclaimed status within Buddhism to enforce his own biased view. He demands compliance from an audience who may have a Guru-disciple relationship with him and/or who fear dire consequences if they do not fit in with the crowd.

Such use of Buddhism for political aims is distasteful. The Dalai Lama’s bigoted views and oppressive actions are also contrary to the love and compassion with which Buddha originally gave his teachings.

Sadly, there is only one source of religious disharmony in the Tibetan community, and it is the Dalai Lama. He uses his position to split the Tibetan community by spreading his wrong views about Protector Dorje Shugden, bringing pain to his people who are torn between loyalty to the Dalai Lama and their heartfelt commitments to their other precious Gurus who gave them this practice.

Many bravely continue to practise in secret, waiting and hoping, fearing the witchhunt should they reveal their true feelings.

It is sad that someone who preaches love, compassion and religious tolerance should continue to be the source of division, disharmony, and fear. Particularly someone who wears the robes of a Buddhist monk.

For more information, see A Great Deception.

A Great Deception - freeing Buddhism from political pollution

The latest edition of A Great Deception has just been printed, with some additions.

This book will be distributed widely by the Western Shugden Society. It clearly shows that the Wisdom Buddha Dorje Shugden is the manifestation of Je Tsongkhapa, who is the embodiment of the wisdom of all Buddhas. It also brings to light the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso's unconscionable actions in banning this beloved spiritual practice and persecuting its followers.

From the Preface:

The purpose of this book is to achieve the following four aims:

• to liberate millions of innocent practitioners of the Buddhist Deity Dorje Shugden and their families from suffering;
• to restore peace and harmony between Shugden and non-Shugden practitioners;
• to re-establish the common spiritual activities of Shugden and non-Shugden practitioners; and
• to free Buddhism from political pollution.

Achieving these aims depends solely upon whether the present Dalai Lama will accept the four points set out at the conclusion of Chapter 4 of this book.

The Dalai Lama wishes to ban Shugden worship in general; and in particular to remove Tibetan Shugden worshippers from their communities, and Western Shugden worshippers from the international Buddhist community. Since 1996 the Tibetan exile government has continually applied effort to fulfil these wishes. In February 2008 alone, 900 monks who are Shugden practitioners were expelled from their monasteries in India.

In 1996 the Tibetan exile government publicly decreed to the Tibetan communities of each country, including Tibet, that Shugden practitioners were their national enemies and were against the Dalai Lama's wishes. The decree stated that unless Shugden practitioners promised to stop Shugden worship they would not receive any official position or job, nor any help or support, even medical assistance, either from the Tibetan exile government or from individual members of the Tibetan community. Further, any connection at all with Shugden practitioners should be cut. Children of Shugden practitioners were no longer permitted to attend Tibetan schools, and Shugden practitioners themselves could not join community meetings, social events and so forth....

(... and the situation has gone from bad to worse.)

Read more...

Is 'A Great Deception' a Political Book?

Some critics of the Western Shugden Society have claimed that its agenda is a political one and that the new book, 'A Great Deception' is a political book.

So, is this the case? The answer is, quite simply, 'no'. The reason is that the stated aims of the book are spiritual:

• To liberate millions of innocent practitioners of the Buddhist Deity Dorje Shugden and their families from suffering

• To restore peace and harmony between Shugden and non-Shugden practitioners

• To re-establish the common spiritual activities of Shugden and non-Shugden practitioners

• To free Buddhism from political pollution
  

The book functions spiritually like a Dharma Protector, protecting not only Dorje Shugden practitioners from slander, ostracism and persecution by exposing the Dalai Lama's lies and 'setting the record straight' but also protecting the Gelugpa tradition whose reputation has suffered greatly through the Dalai Lama's arrogant statement that all his Teachers and Lineage Gurus were 'wrong'.

Indirectly the book protects ALL schools of Tibetan Buddhism. By exposing the Dalai Lama's plan to create a new school of Buddhism by merging all the schools together, with him as the head, it will avert the destruction of Tibetan Buddhism. If the Dalai Lama were to succeed with his plan, it would destroy the precious and unique enlightenment-giving qualities of each tradition but the Dalai Lama doesn't care about Buddhism - this is his plan to consolidate and protect his personal power over the Tibetan people and to ensure a position as a religious leader if he should ever return to a Tibet that is governed as an autonomous region within China.

In a review of Buddha’s Not Smiling: Uncovering Corruption at the Heart of Tibetan Buddhism Today, by Erik D. Curren, Lama Karma Wangchuk wrote:

Curren’s account of the United Party initiative will be shocking to many readers. The United Party was a plan run by the Dalai Lama’s brother Gyalo Thondup to unite all Tibetans, regardless of their region or religious affiliation, into a coherent group able to stand together against the Chinese. The most controversial part of the plan was a scheme to combine the four Buddhist schools and the Bon religion—governed separately for more than five hundred years back in Tibet —under a single administration led by the Dalai Lama. “When word of the United Party’s religious reform got out in 1964, the exiled government was unprepared for the angry opposition that leaders of the religious schools expressed. To them, this unification plan appeared as a thinly disguised scheme for the exile government to confiscate the monasteries that dozens of lamas had begun to re-establish in exile with funds they had raised themselves.”

Although the Dalai Lama's plan failed when he tried to do this in the early 1960's, thanks mainly to opposition by the 16^th Karmapa and the Thirteen Tibetan settlements, he never gave up on his plan. His banning of Dorje Shugden is part of this plan. This ban has two main purposes - to divert attention from his failure to obtain any good results for the Tibetan people in terms of Tibetan independence or even autonomy within China, and to weaken the Gelugpa tradition so that he can merge all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism together and guarantee himself religious power as head of this new school. Since his intentions are completely self-serving and worldly, it can be seen that he is not a valid spiritual leader or spiritual guide. The faults of mixing religion and politics are there for all to see.

The purpose of 'A Great Deception' is similar to that of 'Buddha's not Smiling' – an attempt to uncover corruption at the heart of Tibetan Buddhism, that heart being the Dalai Lama's 'lama policy' of mixing politics and religion. Just as 'Buddha's not Smiling' is an expose of the Karmapa controversy, so 'A Great Deception' is an expose of the Dorje Shugden controversy.

One reason why 'A Great Deception' might be mistaken for a political book is that, in order to highlight the hypocrisy and deception of the Dalai Lama, it investigates his political actions, subsequent failures and the devastating effect that these religiopolitical actions are having on Buddhist practitioners and society at large. As the book states, the only person who can put an end to this is the Dalai Lama himself:

In Tibetan society, anyone who has views and intentions that are different from those of the Dalai Lama is immediately accused of not being Tibetan; they are criticised, threatened and ostracised. This happened in the past and is happening to Dorje Shugden practitioners today. From this alone we can see that Lama Policy continues to have a devastating effect on society. This problem cannot be solved unless the lama himself changes his own attitude. (p18)

The hope of publishing a book such as 'A Great Deception' is that it will bring pressure to bear on the Dalai Lama to change his disastrous policy. Sadly, being self-serving, this will only happen if his reputation and power are affected. Until now, he has arrogantly refused to discuss the Dorje Shugden issue with concerned practitioners.

We can see that all the problems of division and disharmony in the Buddhist community these days, whether due to the Dorje Shugden issue or the Karmapa issue, are due to the power and ambitions of one person: the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet and it is he and he alone who can solve these problems. Let us hope that as public awareness of 'Lama Policy' grows the Dalai Lama will be forced to abandon it in favour of a separation between 'church and state' in Tibetan society. Only this will remove the political pollution in Tibetan Buddhism and enable it to function as a pure path to liberation and enlightenment for all living beings.

The Sufferings Caused by Lama Policy

Here are some extracts from the first chapter of the new Western Shugden Society book A Great Deception. This chapter concerns the problems that come from mixing religion and politics:

Lama Policy

The explanations given in this book are to encourage people not to follow or be influenced by 'Lama Policy', which like a drug causes people to be confused about the real nature of Buddhist practice. In this context, 'Lama' refers to the Fifth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dalai Lamas of Tibet. The policy of these lamas has been to use religion for political aims, thus causing suffering to millions of people from generation to generation. Because of the Fifth Dalai Lama's policy of mixing religion and politics, the Nyingma, Sakya and Kagyu traditions of Tibetan Buddhism rapidly declined and, as a result, for hundred of years, millions of people who followed these traditions experienced great difficulties. Today, some people from these traditions say that it was the followers of the Gelug tradition who caused their tradition to decline, but this is untrue. The Gelugpas themselves had no political power. It was the Fifth Dalai Lama who alone used his political power to destroy the development of these traditions, both spiritually and materially.

The Fifth Dalai Lama always showed two faces. One was that of a Nyingmapa and the other was that of a Gelugpa. In fact, he did not follow either tradition, but remained between them without ever finding a pure spiritual path. In this he was like the present Dalai Lama, the Fourteenth, who also shows two faces and likewise has never found a pure spiritual path.

There then follows an explanation of how the Fifth Dalai Lama achieved his political power with the support of the Mongols by waging war against the King of Tibet. Then there is an extensive section concerning the hypocrisy of the political lamas:

In their teachings, the Fifth and Thirteenth Dalai Lamas talked about compassion, but they behaved like dictators, creating so many problems for their society. This is also true of the present Dalai Lama. Despite this hypocrisy, many people because of their extreme religious view and blind faith still believe that these lamas are holy beings. In Tibetan society, anyone who has views and intentions that are different from those of the Dalai Lama is immediately accused of not being Tibetan; they are criticised, threatened and ostracised. This happened in the past and is happening to Dorje Shugden practitioners today. From this alone we can see that this Lama Policy continues to have a devastating effect on society. This problem cannot be solved unless the lama himself changes his own attitude.

The Fifth Dalai Lama was the founder of Lama Policy which he called 'the union of religion and politics'. The nature of Lama Policy is deceptive; its function is only to mislead people and to use religion for political aims. It is like a rainbow, which from the distance looks beautiful but upon closer examination is seen to be completely empty and hollow. The lamas who have principally upheld the policy established by the Fifth Dalai Lama are the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dalai Lamas, and of these two the policy of the present Dalai Lama is the worst.

The chapter continues with a discussion of the murder of Lama Ngatrul Dragpa Gyaltsen (who was opposed to Lama Policy) by the Fifth Dalai Lama and his ministers out of jealousy and fear, and Ngatrul Gyaltsen's subsequent incarnation as Dorje Shugden. Because of his rivalry with Ngatrul Dragpa, initially the Fifth Dalai Lama was opposed to Dorje Shugden, but later he changed his view and developed faith in this Deity, even going as far as being the first to write a praise to Dorje Shugden and establishing the Trode Khangsar Temple in Lhasa. The point is made that, because of the change of heart of the Great Fifth, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama's claim to be following the Fifth Dalai Lama by rejecting Dorje Shugden is clearly a lie. It is revealed that his real intention in banning Dorje Shugden is to weaken the Gelugpa tradition so that he can become the supreme head of Tibetan Buddhism.

The chapter concludes with:

What the present Dalai Lama really wants is to become the leader of all traditions of Tibetan Buddhism by making all the practitioners of these traditions throughout the world follow only one tradition that he has newly created. Doing this would naturally destroy the pure lineage and blessings of the Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu and Gelug traditions. This would be a very great loss to the world, when people more than ever need access to the Buddha's supreme methods of finding true peace and happiness, and it is for this reason that the Western Shugden Society is encouraging people to stop being deceived by the drug of Lama Policy.

How ironic it is that the Dalai Lama is whipping up hysteria around the supposed sectarian dangers of Dorje Shugden practice when, in actuality, it is his personal ambition for power that is the biggest threat to the continued existence of the four traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. It's like putting a wolf in charge of the sheep.