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 Cult of Dorje Shugden or the Cult of the Dalai Lama?

The Dalai Lama’s big lie

“In an interview with NEWSWEEK earlier this month, the Dalai Lama expressed his worries about the Dorje Shugden. "That cult is actually destroying the freedom of religious thought," he said.”

- Newsweek April 1997

“The problem with Dolgyal practice is that it presents the spirit Dolgyal (Shugden) as a Dharma protector and what’s more tends to promote the spirit as more important than the Buddha himself. If this trend goes unchecked, and innocent people become seduced by cult-like practices of this kind.”

- The Dalai Lama’s Advice Concerning Dolgyal (Shugden), June 2008

This shows that in ten years, nothing has changed. The Dalai Lama is consistently using this derogatory term in relation to Dorje Shugden practice and practitioners, throwing mud that he hopes will stick so that Buddhists who have faith in him will also share this view. He uses the term 'cult' to dismiss the practice and humiliate those who practise it, but -- as with most of the Dalai Lama's pronouncements – few of his fervent followers have checked to see if there is truth in what he is saying.

What is a cult?

Let's examine objectively the claim that Dorje Shugden practice is a cult.

Firstly, a definition from the Chambers Dictionary:

Cult: a an unorthodox or false religion; b the people adhering to such a system.

For the practice of Dorje Shugden to be a cult, it would have to be unorthodox and/or a false religion.

The practice of Dorje Shugden and the pure Gelugpa tradition is not unorthodox.

• It is estimated that before the Dalai Lama began forcing Tibetans to give up the practice of this Deity 30 years ago, two thirds of Tibetan Buddhists were sincere Gelugpas who practiced Je Tsongkhapa’s tradition without mixing it with other traditions and relied upon Dorje Shugden as the main Dharma Protector of this tradition. Shugden practice was never regarded as heretical before the Dalai Lama began criticising it. It was a mainstream practice.

• The Dalai Lama himself practised it until he was in his forties and his eminent Teacher Trijang Rinpoche -- the greatest Gelug Master of the twentieth century, who was the Throne Holder of Je Tsongkhapa's tradition -- also practised it and promoted it widely until his death. Most Gelug Lamas relied upon Dorje Shugden.

• Before the Dalai Lama's ban, Shugden practice was relied upon as the main Dharma Protector of the Gelug tradition. If the practice of Dorje Shugden is cult-like, it follows that the Gelug tradition he has protected for the last 400 years must be a cult.

The practice of Dorje Shugden and the pure Gelugpa tradition is not a false religion.

• This authentic spiritual practice was transmitted and practiced by great Gelug Spiritual Guides such as Tagpo Kelsang Khedrub Rinpoche, Phabongkha Rinpoche, Trijang Rinpoche, Song Rinpoche, Geshe Rabten, Geshe Ngawang Dargye, Domo Geshe Rinpoche, Lama Yeshe and Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, to name but a few -- not to mention many Sakya Masters such as Morchen Dorjechang Kunga Lhundrup. The integrity of these Masters is beyond reproach -- one has only to check their life stories to see their qualifications and their teachings to see that they taught the genuine Dharma of Buddha Shakyamuni. These great Masters are therefore completely trustworthy.

• Dorje Shugden is an incarnation of the Wisdom Buddha Manjushri because he comes from a long line of enlightened Masters starting with Manjushri himself. The proofs by Trijang Dorjechang are irrefutable and are given here.

• The spiritual benefits of relying upon Dorje Shugden are well known by those who sincerely pray to him with compassion. In his praise to Dorje Shugden, the 14th Dalai Lama says:

Especially pacify all harm to us, the yogis and entourages,

That arises because of previous karma and immediate conditions,

And spontaneously accomplish, just as we wish,

All good things, both spiritual and temporal!

These are precisely the results of practising this Dharma: all obstacles are pacified and all good conditions for quick spiritual progress are gathered through this Dharma Protector's blessings.

Why is the Dalai Lama getting away with this big lie?

In summary, there is no valid reason whatsoever for the Dalai Lama to keep using the word 'cult' in relation to Dorje Shugden practice. Dorje Shugden practice was in the mainstream of the Gelugpa tradition before the Dalai Lama's ban. It is neither heretical nor extreme, as can be seen by the way in which people rely upon this Buddha and the prayers they make to him.

How the Dalai Lama can get away with making such statements without valid reasons is astounding. No other leader's words would be accepted just because of who he is.

(And, even if some people agree with his view, it is still entirely wrong for the Dalai Lama to impose his view on those who do not agree through political and secular means, backed up by the Tibetan Government in Exile.)

The cult of the Dalai Lama

Buddha himself advised those who wanted to follow him not just to accept his words but to check them carefully for the truth. Buddha's words of wisdom have benefited this world a great deal and are worthy of veneration and trust. However, the Dalai Lama's non-Buddhist words on the issue of Dorje Shugden have caused nothing but disharmony, division and suffering to the Buddhist community and are therefore not to be trusted.

Perhaps it is more appropriate to talk about the cult of the Dalai Lama, who is not the head of any spiritual tradition but who expects people to follow his spiritual diktats blindly, without checking the truth of what he is saying.

It is characteristic of a cult to unquestioningly follow a charismatic leader and to have no freedom as to what to practice. The Dalai Lama's ban gives people no freedom to follow the completely orthodox Buddhist practice of the Gelugpa tradition, symbolized by its Protector Dorje Shugden. He alone dictates what is Buddhist and what is not; and others -- assuming that he is a genuine religious authority rather than a self-appointed one -- blindly believe what he says despite hundreds of years of evidence to the contrary.

Posted courtesy of Lineage Holder.