The Dalai Lama's sectarian "non-sectarian" approach

The Dalai Lama makes a great deal of being non-sectarian and claims that those who practise Dorje Shugden are sectarian.  He quotes such 'sectarianism' as one of his main reasons for banning the practice of Shugden:

2. Obstacles to the emergence of genuine non-sectarianism: His Holiness has often stated that one of his most important commitments is the promotion of inter-religious understanding and harmony. As part of this endeavour, His Holiness is committed to encouraging non-sectarianism in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. In this His Holiness is following the example set by his predecessors, especially the Fifth Dalai Lama and the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. Not only is a non-sectarian approach mutually enriching for all Tibetan Buddhist schools, but it is also the best safeguard against a rise of sectarianism that could have damaging consequences for the Tibetan tradition as a whole. Given the acknowledged link between Dolgyal* worship and sectarianism, this particular practice remains a fundamental obstacle to fostering a genuine non-sectarian spirit within the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

(*Dolgyal is a derogatory term for Dorje Shugden)



Bigotry, discrimination, hatred

So how non-sectarian is the Dalai Lama?  This is the definition of sectarianism from Wikipedia:

Sectarianism, according to one definition, is bigotry, discrimination or hatred arising from attaching importance to perceived differences between subdivisions within a group, such as between different denominations of a religion or factions of a political movement.

Identity Card

Trijang Rinpoche

This definition contains many powerful words such as 'bigotry, discrimination and hatred', all of which apply to the Dalai Lama's public pronouncements about the practice of Dorje Shugden.  An enforced signature campaign to stop the practice has led to Tibetans practising bigotry and hatred towards those who disagree with the Dalai Lama's political ban of the practice. Discrimination is exactly what Shugden practitioners are experiencing in Tibetan communities throughout the world (shockingly, even in democratic Western countries such as the USA, France and Switzerland) as they are branded as spirit worshippers by the Dalai Lama.  Paradoxically, this makes the Dalai Lama's own Guru Trijang Rinpoche a spirit worshipper and invalidates the whole Gelugpa lineage; but this unwanted consequence doesn't seem to have dawned on the Dalai Lama.

Considering the evidence of ostracism and discrimination, and the Dalai Lama bringing the subject of Shugden up at every public meeting of Tibetans in an attempt to completely stamp out the practice, how can the Dalai Lama be said to be non-sectarian?

Rime

Another red herring is the Dalai Lama talking about 'Rime' or 'Rigme' (pronounced Reemay).  Here is an example from a talk he gave on 14th January 2011 as reported by Voice of Tibet radio:

Since I, as an ordinary body of Amdo, got the name of fourteen Dalai Lama, I ought to follow the steps of my predecessors.  It is my responsibility to serve the Rigme teachings of Tibet.

Rime is a non-sectarian movement that began in Tibet, prompted by the political infighting between the different traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.  The Dalai Lama is claiming the Rime is non-sectarian and should be followed whereas the practice of Dorje Shugden is sectarian.  By making such false claims, and encouraging discrimination against a religious tradition that was promoted by his own Teacher, the Dalai Lama shows himself to be sectarian.  The approach of Rime is quite different to that of the Dalai Lama.  Ringu Tulku says:

Ris or Phyog-ris in Tibetan means "one-sided", "partisan" or "sectarian". Med means "No". Ris-med (Wylie), or Rimé, therefore means "no sides", "non-partisan" or "non-sectarian". It does not mean "non-conformist" or "non-committal"; nor does it mean forming a new School or system that is different from the existing ones. A person who believes the Rimé way almost certainly follows one lineage as his or her main practice. He or she would not dissociate from the School in which he or she was raised.

Rime therefore doesn't mean practising all traditions.  It also doesn't mean blurring the lines between traditions, as the Dalai Lama is wont to do:

Rimé is not a way of uniting different Schools and lineages by emphasising their similarities. It is basically an appreciation of their differences and an acknowledgement of the importance of having this variety for the benefit of practitioners with different needs. Therefore the Rimé teachers always take great care that the teachings and practices of the different Schools and lineages and their unique styles do not become confused with one another. To retain the original style and methods of each teaching lineage preserves the power of that lineage experience. Kongtrul and Khentse made great efforts to retain the original flavour of each teaching, while making them available to many.

Fourteenth Dalai Lama

This shows that the Dalai Lama is using Rime for his own political purposes of uniting all the schools of Tibetan Buddhism (and even the non-Buddhist Bon school) under his control.  He has distorted the meaning of the teaching.  This is clear from a talk he gave to a Russian audience on 27 November 2010 in response to a question about receiving empowerments from different traditions:

There is no problem. No differences are there at all. You should receive Gelug empowerment; you should receive Nyingma empowerment; you should receive Sakya empowerment; and you should receive Kagyu empowerment. As for me, I receive all of them. Well, all Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu and Geden are students of seventeen Mahasiddas and scholars. Shugden worshippers are saying that if a Gelugpa worship Shugden, it is incorrect to keep a text of Nyingma. That is wrong. In twenty century, because of Shugden, sectarian is developing in Tibet. This is wrong.

Notice that the Dalai Lama uses this occasion to unfairly brand Shugden practitioners as sectarian. He also uses wrong logic to justify eclecticism: 'Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu and Geden are students of the seventeen Mahasiddhas and scholars'. While this is undoubtedly true, there are important differences in their presentation of Buddha's teachings which are appreciated by those who follow Rime but not by the Dalai Lama.  We can therefore see that true Rime celebrates diversity, whereas the Dalai Lama's idea of Rime is to amalgamate the schools by claiming there is no difference and everyone should practice all schools, expressly against the Rime edict that one should follow one lineage as one's main practice and no dissociate from that school.  The Dalai Lama has dissociated himself from the Gelugpa school and from his root Guru through his criticism of Dorje Shugden practice and practitioners.  His actions are therefore sectarian and non-Rime, even though he claims to have banned the practice because he's non-sectarian!

Ask yourself this question:  How is someone non-sectarian by banning a religious practice and outlawing it?  This is clearly contradictory.  It's against the Rime teachings that the Dalai Lama claims to support.

Je Gendundrub, First Dalai Lama

There are further contradictions in the Dalai Lama's position. In his speech of 14th January, the Dalai Lama says he must follow his predecessors by protecting the Rime school, but the First Dalai Lama, Je Gendundrub wrote a beautiful praise to Je Tsongkhapa called Song of the Eastern Snow Mountain in which he says:

From now until enlightenment
I shall seek no refuge other than you.
O Venerable Father and Sons (Je Tsongkhapa and his two spiritual sons, Khedrubje and Gyaltsabje)
Please care for me with your compassion.

The Rime system didn't exist until the nineteenth century, five hundred years after the First Dalai Lama  proclaimed his sole refuge to be Je Tsongkhapa.  Rime is therefore a relatively recent development. The present Dalai Lama seems to have forsaken Je Tsongkhapa's tradition for the sake of following no tradition (he's not following Rime, as clearly explained) and he has also forsaken the kindness of his Gurus by having them branded as spirit worshippers.

Finally then:  why doesn't the present Dalai Lama show the example of his ultimate predecessor, the First Dalai Lama and remain within the Gelugpa school of Buddhism while respecting all others, appreciating and celebrating their differences as a true Rime practitioner would?  Instead, he has chosen the path of sectarian intolerance by banning one of the main practices of Je Tsongkhapa's tradition, which he seems intent on destroying, and merging all schools of Buddhism into one by claiming they are all the same. The only explanation can be that Je Gendundrub was a pure spiritual practitioner whereas the present Dalai Lama is, first and foremost, a politician with worldly concerns who is twisting the meaning of non-sectarian and Rime for his political ends: power and influence.

Helmut Gassner on the Dalai Lama and Dorje Shugden

If you have not yet had the chance to read Helmut Gassner's speech at the Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation Hamburg, on March 26th 1999, it is well worth doing so.

Helmut Gassner is a long-term Western Buddhist monk, scholars and practitioner, and he was the interpreter (and chauffeur) for the Dalai Lama for 17 years. He has a unique inside understanding of the Dalai Lama's motives and so on, and personally knew all the original players in this drama.

According to a contemporary:

"Of those of us who had gathered around and subsequently left Geshé Rabten, the outstanding exception was Helmut Gassner. He stood loyally by Geshé and retains his robes to this day. He spends his time between the center in Switzerland and Trijang Labrang in Feldkirch, Austria. Helmut is notable for wading into the shocking Dorje Shugden scandal with his courageous speech to the Friedrich-Naumann Foundation in 1999."

The Legends of the Dalai Lama -- Die Weltwoche Article

Taken from a major Swiss publication Die Weltwoche, with extracts translated from the German. The whole article can be found here:

Die Weltwoche
Die Legenden des Dalai Lama
04.03.2009

The Legends of the Dalai Lama

March 10 this year will see the 50th anniversary of the uprising of the Tibetan people against China. In the West, the spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, is worshipped like a pop star. Strange. The normally romanticized theocracy was a corrupt feudal system that enslaved its subjects.

By David Signer

Recently, in the context of his most recent trip to Europe, the Dalai Lama could receive the German Media Award in Baden-Baden, which has previously been granted to celebrities such as Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton or Bono. On March 10 fifty years ago, the Tibetans rose up against the Chinese hegemony. And it is seventy years since a little farmer's boy became 'His Holiness'.

In winter 1937/38 [the common story of recognition follows].

Everybody loves the now 73-year-old Dalai Lama, and in particular have done so since 1998 when Martin Scorsese brought his autobiography called 'Kundun' into our cinemas. From Richard Gere through to Brad Pitt, from Patti Smith through to Peter Maffay, from Dolly Buster to Robbie Williams: everyone worships the non-stop world jet-setting spiritual leader of the Tibetans. When the Dalai Lama came to Switzerland three years ago, during his eight day visit 30,000 people went onto a pilgrimage to the Zurich stadium to see him. And as is clear with the idolization of the Dalai Lama, whom even people who are not normally fond of personality cults, call 'His Holiness', the same is true for Tibet. There is a common agreement that, before the Chinese marched in, this mountainous region was a paradise of meditating monks and happy farmers living in the midst of splendid mountain scenery -- and that it would be again if it were not for the evil occupiers.

The reality is that until fifty years ago Tibet was a clerical-feudal tyranny. The truth is that a lot of the widespread common knowledge about the country is just wishful thinking. There are also dark sides to the biography of the Dalai Lama, and a lot of obscure stuff is mixed in with the esoteric Lamaism Schwärmerei (excessive sentimentality). However, since there is only little journalism on site, it is not easy to find the truth within the jungle of exile Tibetan and Chinese propaganda.

[Now follows some historical background and how the Dalai Lama, once recognized, lived until his escape.]

In the Dalai Lama's autobiography, however, it sounds like paradise when he mentally travels back to the Tibet of his youth: "No one needs to make too much of an effort in order to earn his living. Existence happens on its own and everything works wonderfully." Accordingly, during his reign, he did not make any effort to reform the country, apart from stopping the legal heritage of tax debts. The fact that political decisions are based upon oracles and astrology is no problem for him, who normally pretends to be democratic and progressive. Even though in his 'five point peace plan' he demands 'respect for the democratic freedoms of the Tibetan people', he himself has not tried until today, not even within the exile communities, to be democratically legitimized. Self-evidently he pretends to be the wholistic leader of the Tibetans, even though, strictly speaking, he is not even the spiritual representative of the whole of Tibet. He is merely the head of the Gelugpa order, the so called Yellow Hats, whose claim for leadership he has been trying to pursue for decades. These contradictions are also true for his ecological engagement. On the one hand, he demands to transform Tibet into a kind of natural reserve park and uses every opportunity to demand more ecological thinking in accordance with Mother Nature. On the other hand, from the first days of his exile onwards, at his seat in Dharamsala, the litter keeps being piled up simply on a large waste dump.

[Some stuff on the 1950’s in Tibet.]

While the Dalai Lama and his entourage went into exile to Dharamsala in India, the Cultural Revolution raged in Tibet. Between 1966 and 1976, thousands of monasteries and cultural monuments were destroyed. Switzerland was the first European country which, in 1961, accepted Tibetan refugees and offered them accommodation and work in Rikon. In 1967, the monastic Tibet Institute was opened. The information from the Dalai Lama and Tibet supporters is often not credible with regards to the Chinese occupancy. Very often it is not mentioned that in the meantime approximately half of the monasteries have been restored and are running again. Also, since the mid-nineties, you can no longer claim that there is a ban on the monastic system. If the Dalai Lama is asked about these things he replies that the monasteries have only been rebuilt for the sake of tourists; thus the Chinese are said to have no interest in maintaining the traditional culture but to re-install it as exotic backdrop and in this way it is being doomed even more. One limitation however has been enforced, undoubtedly against the will of the Dalai Lama: no more children can enter the monasteries. Also in his autobiography, 'His Holiness' claims that, due to resettlement programmes, the Chinese proportion of the population overrides the Tibetans. According to the disputed census in 2000, the proportion of Chinese people within the Tibetan Autonomous Region is 6.1%, with the highest proportion, 17%, being in Lhasa. Again and again the claim has been spread that 1.2 million Tibetans had become victims of Chinese terror, in other words a full fifth of the population. Official statements from Dharamsala even sometimes say that all of these have been Tibetan prisoners who were victims of torture or executions, and very often Chinese concentration camps are mentioned. Without doubt, China is far away from regular constitutional affairs; however the charge of systematic, lethal torture of thousands -- as indicated by the term 'concentration camp' -- is hardly plausible.

Esoteric argy bargy

Towards the end of the 1980s there were again riots in Tibet, and in December 1989 the Dalai Lama received the Nobel Peace Price. About one year before that he became friends with the Japanese Shoko Asahara, who ran a 'spiritual community' with several thousand followers near Tokyo. According to the researches of the publisher Colin Goldner, Ashara visited with the Dalai Lama several times in 1988. This community with their 'appreciated aims and activities' (said the Dalai Lama) was 'Aum', one of the most dangerous and totalitarian cults ever, which performed the Tokyo subway poison attacks in March 1995. The Japanese authorities had been patient with the megalomaniac Guru, despite all warnings, possibly due to the protecting hands of the Dalai Lama. When the Centres after the Sarin attack were finally searched, there were deposits of chemical and other weapons which could have killed millions of people at once. The Dalai Lama however could not even find one single word of regret. Even as late as Summer 1995, when at the Peace University in Berlin, he stated that he would recognize Asahara as a 'friend, even though not necessarily an unmistaken one'.

Also the so-called 'Shugden affair' gives rise to doubts about the much-praised wisdom of the Dalai Lama. In Summer 1996, upon the advice of his state oracle, he banned the worship of the protector Deity Dorje Shugden for his people. A number of abbots and monks protested against this ban. They accused the Dalai Lama of violating religious freedom, who reacted to this insubordination by systematic searches of houses and monasteries in the exile community. Shugden statues were destroyed and renitent monks bashed and beaten. Supporter committees even claimed that the Shugden movement was hand in glove with China.

[Mentions the triple murder. More information about that can be found here: Defamatory accusations of murder repeated over and over again for ten years]

Monks armed with iron bars

Generally, the riots before the Olympic Games were presented by the Western media in a way that they fitted into the image of 'peace-loving Tibetans'’ -- either any violence was supposedly coming from the side of the Chinese, or, if not, claims were made to the effect that Tibetan protesters had only acted in self-defence. Footage documentation and reports from eye-witnesses however give evidence of how monks armed with iron bars and bats went marauding through the historic quarter of town. Buses and cars were pushed over and set on fire, and Chinese shops and houses were pillaged. Molotov cocktails were even thrown into kindergartens, schools and hospitals. The Dalai Lama later claimed that the monks had been Chinese soldiers in disguise. This is because, by definition, Tibetans are non-violent. Around the world, demonstrations of solidarity took place.

[The rest is about the Dalai Lama’s right-wing tendencies and the stories about the liaisons between Tibetans and the Nazis and how the Tibetan regent wrote a letter to 'King Hitler'. The final paragraph is on the question why it is that the Dalai Lama is so popular in the West in spite of all the facts mentioned; and the main conclusion is that it is because Westerners are so naive.]

Tibetan Youth Congress Enforces Dalai Lama's Ban on Dorje Shugden

"The Monasteries Have Been Cleaned!"
Report from an Eyewitness
Date: Early September 2008

A monk aged around 30 came from a Gelug monastery in Manali to Tibetan Children's Village's (TCV) vocational training center for Tibetans, Patikuhl in Kulu Manali.

He had been invited by the local Manali Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) to persuade students to give their signatures and oaths rejecting the practice of Dorje Shugden.

[The TYC is an NGO that functions as the covert mouthpiece and enforcer of the government and the Dalai Lama.]

The monk gave a speech to the gathering of students and teachers:

"Drepung, Sera and Ganden monasteries have been cleaned. Our monastery is cleaned too. There is not the slightest doubt about it. … You should not worship the demon Shugden."

The monk brought a thangka painting depicting a Protector stamping on Dorje Shugden, who was lying down. He showed it to the students and teachers, saying:

"The reason why Shugden is being stamped on is because he is a demon. It is not because the painter drew whatever he liked.

Many people no longer worship this Deity. However, some organizations and people of Chating province dislike the Dalai Lama and so they do still worship Shugden. Therefore, you should cut all ties with the people from Chating province."

Everybody must follow the words of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who is telling us not to worship this Deity. . .

I was invited here by the Manali Tibetan Youth Congress, who requested me to explain to you how bad the worship of Shugden is. Along with giving us your signatures, you must all swear in front of Palden Lhamo and the Three Jewels that you will not worship the Deity."

The staff and teachers first gave their oaths and signatures that they would not worship Shugden. Then the students were called in to give their signatures and oaths. Many students didn't know anything about it, but they were told:

"The Dalai Lama said that Shugden is a demon and you should not worship him; so you must come up here to sign your name and swear not to worship him."

Students then stood in line to sign their names and declare their oaths.

The monk and members of the Manali TYC left in the afternoon, saying that they had a signature and oath campaign to go to somewhere else.

Manali TYC also told the owners of shops and restaurants to come to the monastery to give their signatures and oaths not to worship Shugden nor maintain spiritual or material ties with Shugden followers.

A restaurant's owner spoke to the witness:

"If you worship Shugden you will have success and happiness in this life, but when you die you will go directly to hell!"

At around 5pm, the Manali TYC members came back to TCV and asked those who had not already signed and made their oaths to do so.

A Spanish journalist came to the Dorje Shugden Society to interview its members about the Shugden Issue. He was in Manali when the incident happened. He reported that the Manali TYC had forced the public to come to the monastery for their signatures and oaths, telling them that they needed to close their shops and restaurants and that, if any of them did not come, the public would be asked to boycott their businesses.

The journalist was shocked at hearing this.

"Tibetans are saying that they are proceeding on the path of democracy; but they are using coercive force.

I did not know much about Dorje Shugden. When I heard about the ban on Shugden, it made me want to find out more."

The journalist asked people in Manali who had organized this campaign what was the benefit of banning this Deity? He did not get an answer, and he said they sounded hostile towards him. He said he had discovered that Tibetan religion and politics are completely mixed.

Human rights violations of Dorje Shugden practitioners

In her well researched book of the late 1990s, Exiled from Exile, Dr Ursula Bernis explains how the ban of Dorje Shugden and resulting persecution came about. An extract:

"In the summer of 1996, the Tibetan government in exile was accused of human rights violations by many Tibetans and some of their Western supporters. Since then most critics have been pressured into silence. Although two prominent human rights organizations expressed their concerns privately to the exile government, they refused to do so publicly for several reasons including that it could be seen as undermining the efforts of the Dalai Lama and the much larger and more serious issue of improving human rights in Tibet under Chinese control. I have seen one of the letters shown to me on condition I not disclose it and its source."

Here is one of many examples of the human rights violations Dr Bernis is talking about. For more first-hand interviews of people conducted at that time -- chronicling abuses that continue right through to the present day -- see Detailed reports of discrimination from inside India and elsewhere.

Extracts from An Interview with Jamphel Yeshe

"For all my life in exile, I have had the welfare of Tibetans and the idea of freedom constantly on my mind. As is well known in the Tibetan community, I worked towards that end in many different ways. All of this is destroyed now by the defamation campaign against me and my family. Because of death threats, I cannot go anywhere alone. I have to live in constant fear of losing my life, my family, my community, my access to religion, my livelihood, -- in short, everything that is dear to me and makes my life worth living....

Q: How has the ban affected you personally?
A: Since the ban we have endless inner turmoil, day and night. My situation is not exceptional. Each and every Tibetan Buddhist who is not able to relinquish faith in his or her Guru is in the same situation. Since the ban was imposed by the Tibetan exile government, families have broken down in every Tibetan community. Children broke relations with their parents and teachers and students have stopped speaking with each other.

These things happened because the Tibetan exile government started a signature campaign against our faith. We were asked to sign a list swearing that we will give up our reliance on the Dharmapala (Dorje Shugden) for this and all future lives. These lists were passed around very publically so everyone could see who signed and who not. When the government stopped the Women's Association and Youth Congress continued to push people to sign. Through the public nature of this campaign we have been completely marginalized. As the president of the Dorje Shugden Society, it was my duty to inform all Tibetans about the situation.

If a Tibetan speaks out, the automatic reaction now is to find out whether or not he relies on Dorje Shugden. If he does, then as a Tibetan I should not have any contact with him, according to the Tibetan exile government. Because of the atmosphere of distrust created this way, I have lost many of my former friends and business contacts. They all know I rely on Dorje Shugden. It has become a trend within the Tibetan exile community for people to declare openly that they want to go after me and finish me. Threats are also made openly against my colleagues in the Society and we experience this prevailing atmosphere of fear and distrust as a great burden.

I am a family man, I have three children. My oldest son is twelve years old, the second son nine years, and my daughter is six years old. The two older children were in school at the Tibetan Children's Village (TCV) in Dharamsala. I and my family received many explicit death threats. I found out through reliable sources -- I can't tell you who -- that an ex-military man and a member of the Tibetan parliament from Rajpur was discussing my two sons and their whereabouts in school in Dharamsala and my involvement with the Dorje Shugden Society with other Tibetans from a military background. Many Tibetans have joined the Indian army as part of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police after the CIA supported Khampa resistance ceased to be active. They have their own units, their own uniforms with their symbols but do not wear them publically.

He said they were well trained and that he and his colleagues would do whatever was necessary and whatever the Tibetan exile government wanted them to do against the Dorje Shugden people. For Tibetans who firmly believe that the Dalai Lama's life is threatened by those who rely on Dorje Shugden, these sentiments, and the willingness to act on them, are completely credible. So I took my children out of the school in Dharamsala and sent them to a safe place in another country. The perception was that anyone who wanted to attack us was free to do so.

The threat letters I received included statements like, "We will not spare your wife and children." One such letter says (in translation):

"To Tashi Dolma [Jamphel Yeshe's wife], from D.P. Gyatso. According to what I heard, your president husband, Chatreng Yeshe, has engaged in many plans regarding the Dalai Lama. Moreover, it is also said that you are going on a film shooting about the Dalai Lama, [Seven Years in Tibet] This being the case you are not permitted to participate in this filming. If you go, I will not spare you easily. We are youths of Darjeeling Voluntary Youth. If you don't believe it, you can come to Darjeeling anytime. Do you understand, slut. Secretary of Youth Group, Darjeeling, Kalimpong. P.S. Some of us are now in Delhi. You have to inform Chatreng Yeshi."

My wife and I received many threatening phone calls, and even our six year old daughter. When asked for a name, the answer was only "I am a man." Once, when they called, the child answered the telephone, as she often did, and the person on the other end told her, "There are fifteen of us here in Delhi and we will kill you and we will kill your father. We will destroy you." My daughter was very upset. She went to close all the doors and told me to stay inside. Early in the morning she would come to my bed and touch me. When I moved, she shouted, overjoyed, "Daddy is still alive."

A Critique of 'Why the Dalai Lama Matters' by Robert Thurman, Part 2

Chapter 1: Who is the Dalai Lama?

Here Thurman continues the work of expounding on the Dalai Lama's good qualities. As this chapter proceeds, superlative is piled upon superlative. It is like being at a banquet where one rich course after another is served, but each new course is received with less and less enthusiasm until it's not possible to eat another morsel.

At a certain point, you become aware that you're had your fill and are feeling a little nauseous. Is any living being on the planet truly worthy of such transcendent praise? Especially a politician?!

Thurman begins:

In the forty-three years that I have known the Great Fourteenth Dalai Lama, he has never failed to impress me with his sincerity, his compassion, and his commitment to purpose.....

....The Dalai Lama is a giant of spiritual development – a living exemplar of the best qualities of a Buddhist monk, an inspired practitioner and teacher of the ethical, religious and philosophical paths of the bodhisattva, a Sanskrit term suggesting a cross between a wise saint and a compassionate messiah. He is believed to be a conscious reincarnation of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of universal compassion. (page 3)

Let's critically examine Thurman's claims. We can all agree that the Dalai Lama has commitment to purpose. For example, he is very committed to destroying the spiritual tradition of his root Guru, Trijang Rinpoche. From the Dalai Lama's speech on the Al Jeezera News Report:

“Recently monasteries have fearlessly expelled Shugden monks where needed. I fully support their actions. I praise them. If monasteries find taking action hard, tell them Dalai Lama is responsible for this.”

From a talk in Caux, Switzerland in July 1996:

“Until now you have a very good job on this issue. Hereafter also, continue this policy in a clever way. We should do it in such a way to ensure that in future generations not even the name of Dhogyal (Dorje Shugden) is remembered”

The Dalai Lama has single pointedly pursued the persecution of Dorje Shugden practitioners, banning the practice at home while lying to the Western media abroad:

“So then it is my duty or moral responsibility to make clear, but whether listen or not, up to them. So some people criticise me, I banned that sort of spirit worship, that is not true...” (From an interview in Nottingham, UK, May 2008)

More calumnies from the Dalai Lama: (Al Jazeera news report)

“Shugden followers have resorted to killing and beating people. They start fires. And tell endless lies. This is how the Shugden believe. It is not good."

Where is the evidence of the violence and arson? The only violence for which monks have been sent to jail is the bombing a Shugden practitioner’s residence by Dalai Lama followers. Who is telling endless lies? The Dalai Lama has told hundreds of lies over the years to justify his persecution and ostracism of Shugden practitioners. Can a liar exemplify the best quality of a Buddhist monk? Do the Dalai Lama's lies qualify him as a Teacher of Buddhist ethics? Do they make him worthy of Thurman’s extravagant praise?

Strangely for a Buddhist scholar, Thurman reverts to biblical language to express his emotions, and in doing so sounds like he is gearing people up to believe in the Second Coming! He really does seem to see the Dalai Lama as a messiah or saviour of the world, even though this is not a Buddhist understanding of what a Bodhisattva is (that is, a person striving for enlightenment motivated by compassion for all living beings.)

As to the claim of being the bodhisattva or Buddha of universal compassion, let's hear from some of the victims of the Dalai Lama:

"If he is really Buddha, if he's really God, he would not create so much problem. He won't give us so much trouble. If he is the Buddha, he would not give any problem to any human being."

"Dalai Lama is being unfair and selfish. He is doing his own wish."
(Al Jazeera report)

From the same report:

(Reporter:) 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.

(Shugden monk:) "What the posters say is that we are related to the Chinese government. We don't have anything to do with China. There is no proof, yet many people are harassing us and threatening us."

(Reporter:) Fearing for their lives, these Shugden monks are now living in hiding in a monastery in southern India where they sought refuge after being told they must leave their monastery.

And from a recent report by popular French documentary channel, France 2, quoting one of the Dalai Lama’s faithful, old bodyguards:

(Lobsang Yeshe:) The Dalai Lama, I don't want to hear about him any more. He is no longer the Buddha of Compassion. He is a traitor. The Dalai Lama has commited the gravest crime. He has divided all the Tibetans. He is against our deity, Dorje Shugden. He has forbidden us from venerating him. Because of him, I had a heart attack. Today, I am a broken man.

The Dalai Lama's persecution of Shugden practitioners is the source of these sufferings. For all the sweet words plucked from his Guru's teachings, he displays no compassion whatsoever for his enemies, who were his erstwhile closest friends and supporters -- the practitioners of Dorje Shugden. In this respect at least, he is acting like an ordinary, deluded person, not an exemplar of the holy qualities of a Buddha or a bodhisattva.

Wake up, Robert Thurman. You look complicit or at least foolish writing a book of such high praise to someone who is now being publicly revealed as persecuting others like this. It is only a matter of time before everyone knows what the Dalai Lama has been up to in his own backyard, and then how will you defend your words?

The next section is 'Personal Encounters' -- a misty-eyed trip down Memory Lane in which Thurman recounts his meetings with the Dalai Lama. What he seems to be describing is how he gradually came under the Dalai Lama's power. He recounts firstly how he ordained and then abandoned his ordination for a worldly life:

“...I had firmly expressed my lifetime determination only later to change my mind” (page 7)

and later:

“I spent the next eight years in the sword dance of overachievement required to get tenure as a college professor” (page 8)

Thurman abandoned his meaningful spiritual life as a monk within just a couple of years to seek the position of a college professor. Yet his ordination as the first Western monk ordained by the Dalai Lama is still heralded as a credential in all his biographies and profiles, despite it being totally undermined by the fact that he was also one of the first Western monks to disrobe!

Thurman openly admits that he felt the Dalai Lama was strongly disappointed with him for disrobing. However, in some ways it is not Thurman's fault because the Dalai Lama does not seem anyway to have much respect for Westerners who practice Dharma. Certainly, the liberal and seemingly open-minded speeches to Westerners abroad are at stark variance in tone and content to the authoritarian speeches to his Tibetan faithful at home. From a talk in Caux, Switzerland in 1996 by the Dalai Lama:

...As for foreigners, it makes no difference to us if they walk with their feet up and their head down. We have taught Dharma to them, not they to us. ...

Moreover, the Dalai Lama has said that it is only in getting Tibet back that Dharma can really flourish again – in other words, Westerners are not capable of carrying on Buddhist traditions without Tibetans. This belief is also plain to see from the hierarchy of Western Buddhist Centers under the Dalai Lama’s patronage, where Tibetan teachers always come first.

In reading this section, it becomes clear that Thurman became more and more enamored with the Dalai Lama, falling under his charismatic power. First he had a dream of the Dalai Lama as a giant Kalachakra Buddha towering over the Waldorf Astoria where he was staying during a visit to New York (the Dalai Lama doesn't stay in modest accommodation) and then he says:

During that trip and the following year, I couldn't get over the rich power of his charismatic energy. He had always had charisma of office; now he had ten times more charisma of person. (page 9)

In a Newsweek article in 1998, Thurman vilified Dorje Shugden practitioners as a cult:

“Shugden appeals to crazies by offering instant gratification,” says Thurman. “Once you get involved, you’re told you have to devote your lives to the cult, because the god gets very angry if you don’t attend to him every day.

He did not back these wild statements up with any evidence or examples. No one who practices Dorje Shugden recognizes what he is talking about.

Here, by leaving reason and truth outside the door in a desperate attempt to defend the Dalai Lama in the national press, Thurman appears to be the one who has been brainwashed. He has fallen under a spell that makes him feel he can describe holy beings and sincere Buddhist practitioners of the past 400 years, including the Dalai Lama’s own teachers, as “crazies” – with no seeming fear of censure. He has devoted his life to the Dalai Lama, to fulfilling his wish to exert power and control over Tibet once again; and his entire career is bound up with the Dalai Lama. Therefore, he must defend him at all costs, even if it means telling lies to the public. The whole purpose for writing this book is to serve the Dalai Lama and to accomplish his goals. Who has been swept up by the charisma, who is behaving like someone in a cult?

Thurman praises the Dalai Lama's talks on various topics:

Especially since around the time he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, his general talks – on kindness, the common human religion; on non-violence, even disarmament; on science, focusing on the ecology of the environment; and on comparative religion, focusing on Buddhist-Christian dialogue in particular – have gotten better and better, more moving, lucid and powerful in understanding and passion (page 10)

Actions speak louder than words. The Dalai Lama is full of words, but his actions speak differently. Talk of kindness is cheap – one has to act kindly to make a difference.

The great Indian Buddhist teacher Nagarjuna says that spiritual practitioners are like mangoes – some are ripe on the outside but unripe on the inside, some are unripe on the outside and ripe on the inside, some are both ripe on the outside and ripe on the inside, and others are unripe on the outside and unripe on the inside. Based on his divisive and harmful actions, the Dalai Lama is clearly very ripe on the outside but unripe on the inside. Like many politicians, he's good at saying one thing and doing the opposite. He knows the effect he is looking for and how to achieve it with his speech.

The next section is entitled 'The living embodiment of the Buddha' in which, amazingly, Thurman argues that the Dalai Lama has grown so close to Shakyamuni Buddha that they are indistinguishable.

This is a clear case of double standards. Bob Thurman and other Dalai Lama devotees think nothing of praising him to the high heavens because they know that no one will lift an eyebrow, yet the phrase "third Buddha", used precisely once about Geshe Kelsang 15 years ago, is quoted again and again by the Dalai Lama's supporters to prove that Geshe Kelsang's disciples are cultishly enslaved by him.

Later on in the book is a picture by the artist Alex Grey, depicting the Dalai Lama as Avalokiteshvara. What if someone painted a similar picture of Geshe Kelsang as Buddha? NKT would never hear the end of the accusations of being a cult, brainwashed by a charismatic leader. What hypocrisy!

In the next section, 'What the Dalai Lama Represents Today', Thurman begins:

It is not merely that the Dalai Lama represents Buddhism. He is much more than a nominal leader of an organization. (page 11)

The Dalai Lama does not represent Buddhism for everybody. He is a political leader who has received a religious education and who happens to be a monk. He may be regarded as the leader of Tibetan Buddhism but in reality he cannot speak for any of the individual schools of Tibetan Buddhism because he is not the head of any school of Tibetan Buddhism, let alone any other Buddhist tradition in the world. The Dalai Lama is, in fact, the nominal leader of the Tibetan Government in Exile, nothing more. That is really as far as his authority goes; his spiritual authority is self-assumed.

Usually Dharma Teachers are appointed by senior Teachers in their tradition. Who appointed the Dalai Lama and gave him spiritual authority? Who gave him permission to give Buddha's teachings throughout the world?

It is precisely the use of the Dalai Lama's self-assumed spiritual authority to interfere with the individual schools of Tibetan Buddhism that is the root of both the Karmapa and Dorje Shugden controversies. In 2001, the International Karma Kagyu Organization wrote an open letter to the Dalai Lama completely rejecting his interference in the matters of the Kagyu tradition:

Up until Your Holiness' interference in 1992, no other Dalai Lama has ever played a role in the recognition of a genuine Karmapa. As Your Holiness well knows, the Karmapa incarnations precede the Dalai Lama line by over three hundred years. There is no historical precedent for Your Holiness' current involvement.

It doesn't matter that Thurman views the Dalai Lama as being Buddha Shakyamuni -- the Dalai Lama has no authority to interfere in the spiritual matters of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The Dalai Lama has similarly interfered with the Gelugpa school, but he has no authority to brand Dorje Shugden practice as 'a cult' and 'spirit worship', and he certainly has no authority to pass a law to ban the practice. The Dalai Lama's ban is unlawful and immoral. There is currently a case against the Dalai Lama in the High Court in Delhi for his breach of the Indian law of Deity discrimination, which will be heard in November 2008.

Thurman concludes:

What is the Dalai Lama? I have come to see him as a living Prince of Peace, a teacher of intelligence, an inspirer of goodness of heart, a reincarnation of the Buddha of universal compassion. He comes to join us in our world today, offering us hope in our stressed-out lives and calling upon us to take up our own wild joy of universal responsibility.

The Dalai Lama does not offer hope to Dorje Shugden practitioners, he just makes them more stressed-out:

‘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 they (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.’ (January 1999)

If the Dalai Lama really was as pure as Thurman has portrayed him, by practising the love, compassion, tolerance and religious freedom that he espouses, there would be no problems: no Karmapa controversy, no Dorje Shugden issue, no Western Shugden Society and no demonstrations. Buddhists of all traditions could continue their practice in peace and harmony with all other Buddhists.

However, all the problems that the Dalai Lama blames on Dorje Shugden are of his own making, principally because he's acting as a politican and not practicing what he preaches. It's about time he started to act responsibly and put Buddha's teachings into practice if he really wants to solve everyone's problems.

Later on, more hyperbole:

The Dalai Lama has been called a “Buddhist Pope”, a “bodhisattva” a “head of state” in exile, and so on. Each of these is incomplete but has a grain of truth. He describes himself as a “simple Buddhist monk”, though he is not aware of the other dimensions of his being. (page 13)

Maybe the Dalai Lama has been called a “Buddhist Pope”, but only by those who do not understand Buddhism. There is no supreme head of Buddhism like there is a supreme head of the Catholic Church. There are some who believe that the Dalai Lama does have ambitions in this direction. We can certainly say that the Dalai Lama is the most well-known Buddhist in the world, but that's due to his tireless self-promotion, aided and abetted by Bob Thurman, more than anything else.

How do “simple Buddhist monk” and “head of state” go together? Does Thurman not see some contradiction in some of these roles? Later on he says that the Dalai Lama is “a statesman, a politician, a diplomat, a personal manager, and a chief executive officer”. Again, more contradiction with being a “simple monk” who traditionally practises renunciation and has no interest in power, politics, diplomacy or being a statesman because he understands that they are the nooses of samsara. Nagarjuna, for, example, used to pray never to be reborn as a politican because it is an obstacle to pure spiritual practice.

Furthermore, the Dalai Lama's more 'commercial' interests do not sit well with being 'a simple Buddhist monk'. In the article om “money” padme hum? on the Dalai Lama's book on leadership “The Leader's Way” he is quoted as saying some very strange things:

Buddhism also values free enterprise. “Buddha recognized entrepreneurship as a valuable activity,” the Dalai Lama writes. “He encouraged entrepreneurs to be successful by being reliable and having an eye for what should sell.”

The article concludes:

Free marketers will be happy that the Dalai Lama - with his moral stature - has unequivocally backed capitalism and globalization, with the usual riders about mitigating its excesses.

Is it really right for a 'simple Buddhist monk' -- who has taken vows to not even handle money or obtain profit through business, and who regards wealth and worldly attainments as deceptive -- to advise big business on how to make more?

Clearly the Dalai Lama can't be all things to everyone, despite what Thurman says.

It is a concern that when Thurman attempts to explain various aspects of Buddha's teaching, his casual use of language can actually lead to misconceptions. I understand that he is trying to be 'populist' and is appealing to an audience that is not necessarily Buddhist but he does take considerable liberties. For example, using the word 'soul' for the root mind that transmigrates from life to life will quite possibly evoke an understanding in the minds of Christian readers that is not what Buddha intended.

There are other examples too. When describing karma, Thurman says:

According to this Buddhist view, the effects of these actions become encoded at a super-subtle energy level in a “mental gene” or “soul gene” which then shapes the experience and quality of the individual's gross mind and body as it evolves through many lifetimes.

Huh? This raises more questions than it answers. Where is the 'super-subtle energy level' – is it the ether?, what encodes the action? What does the encoding look like? Actually, all these questions are spurious because Thurman's initial explanation is inaccurate and, as we know, there's no meaning in trying to refine your understanding of something that's wrong in the first place. Karmic actions leave an imprint on the mind – no encoding! This imprint is not a gene in the sense the most people understand genes because it's non-physical; it's not made of DNA. There's no 'super-subtle energy level', just the very subtle mind, and so on.

I think that Thurman has gone too far in trying to adopt scientific language and concepts in his attempt to make Buddhism acceptable to people who view science as a religion in itself. Perhaps the lack of clarity will pique their curiosity and they will start reading about Buddhism, who knows? I'm used to Geshe Kelsang's explanations where he gives clear definitions for all his terms and never uses pseudo-scientific language to explain Buddha's teachings. The muddiness of Thurman's explanations suffer in comparison.

I'm disappointed with Thurman: I would have expected a more accurate and careful explanation from a Buddhist scholar. It would have been better not to include this material at all rather than to present it badly with the possibility of causing serious misunderstandings in his readership. There are enough problems in this world without people misunderstanding the path that leads away from problems!

The rest of the chapter continues in this vein, highlighting the good qualities and achievements of the Dalai Lama in the same sycophantic manner as before. There's nothing new to say. The material is too much and too monotonous to warrant further examination. One thing that Thurman says is

“The present Fourteenth Dalai Lama has already earned the title “Great Fourteenth”, due to his profound inner development and his magnificent works of teaching, writing, political leadership, and prophetic engagement with global society.” (p 32)

Who confered this title on him? There's no committee like the Nobel committee in Buddhism to bestow such honours. This smells of something introduced either by Thurman or the Dalai Lama. Perhaps they hope that such an honorific will become common currency, like “the Pope of Buddhism” and that it will be widely accepted and held to be true. Here Thurman seems to be disingenuously attempting to write history. He has an eye to the Dalai Lama's 'legacy', just as many politicians are concerned with how they are seen by history. He's a good servant!

And Thurman's final, convoluted description of who the Dalai Lama is:

The Dalai Lama is something more and something less than a pope of Tibetan Buddhism. He is more than a pope because he is not merely a vicar of the Buddha; in messianic form as the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, he is actually seen as the returning presence of the Buddha himself. He is like Jesus returned, not just for the second time but always returning. (p 34)

(Hmmm, Sarah Palin anyone?) What a stew of mixed religious terms! It's difficult not to poke fun at this final over-the-top comparison. He's a Catholic, Church of England, bodhisattva messiah Buddha, multiple Jesus kind of guy! Just remember that the next time someone asks you who the Dalai Lama is!

He's not just a politician with delusions of grandeur then?

Postcript: I am not pointing out Bob Thurman’s and the Dalai Lama’s flaws just for their own sake and especially not for political reasons, but because they are having an adverse effect on Buddhism and Buddhists. If people believe all the hype about the Dalai Lama perpetrated by Thurman, the Dalai Lama will be able to continue to persecute Dorje Shugden practitioners with impunity, and succeed in destroying a priceless spiritual tradition.

All I am aiming for is to allow people to see Thurman's and the Dalai Lama’s actions more clearly. Then they may question them about the Dalai Lama's ban of Dorje Shugden, and maybe even urge the Dalai Lama to lift that ban. Once he has lifted the ban and met the aims of the Western Shugden Society, there will be no further need for book reviews.

TV documentary by France 24: The Dalai Lama's Demons

Recently, France 24 sent journalists to India to investigate the claims of religious persecution by Dorje Shugden practitioners at the hands of the Dalai Lama and his supporters. This is what they found. Please read on for comments to this TV documentary.

Introduction

First of all, it is wonderful that France 24 has taken the time to investigate what is actually going on within the Tibetan community in exile. In public, the Dalai Lama is the global champion of religious freedom, yet at home in secret he is persecuting his own people. It is almost unthinkable that the Dalai Lama would blatantly betray that which is he most known for. It would be like finding out that Santa Clause abuses children, so people just think 'it can't be.' But as this documentary shows, there is truly spiritual apartheid.

Our fear is that such hypocrisy will destroy the Dalai Lama's moral authority much in the same way that the US engaging in torture has destroyed any remaining US moral authority. In the end, all Dorje Shugden practitioners are asking for is for the Dalai Lama to practice at home what he preaches abroad.

These comments will first indicate what the documentary got right, and then in Part Two it will clarify some issues that were misleading.

What the documentary got right

In general, except for the clarifications mentioned below, this documentary demonstrates beyond any doubt the types of things taking place within the Tibetan community against Dorje Shugden practitioners.

In particular, the report shows clear evidence of 'spiritual apartheid'. Widespread persecution of Dorje Shugden practitioners includes:

1. Dorje Shugden practitioners are denied entry into stores, shops and even hospitals. So they cannot get access to food, basic social services or medical care in their own community due solely to their religion.

2. The Tibetan people have taken an oath to the Dalai Lama swearing that they will deny material or spiritual support to any Dorje Shugden practitioner. And the Tibetan people are carrying out this oath.

3. Dorje Shugden practitioners are treated as outlaws. Their portraits are posted on the walls, like they are criminals.

4. Dorje Shugden practitioners have been shunned from their community, essentially being driven into exile from the exile community. They live in fear of people harassing them, threatening them, etc. Many Dorje Shugden practitioners have been forced to flee their community and live in exile.

5. Dorje Shugden practitioners are accused of being against the Dalai Lama, traitors, rebels and Chinese spies and collaborators.

6. The report shows that the persecution of Dorje Shugden practitioners is politically motivated. The report correctly calls it a witch hunt motivated by fear of Chinese infiltration within the Tibetan community. It shows that opposition to Dorje Shugden practitioners is taking place at the highest political levels within the Tibetan community, including the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Prime Minister, Samdhong Rinpoche.

7. It shows that people are forced to choose between Dorje Shugden and the Dalai Lama, and if they choose to maintain their religion, then they are expelled from their monasteries and community.

8. The report shows it is extremely taboo to criticise the Dalai Lama. Since he is supposed to be a God, anything he says automatically becomes the rule of law. If somebody criticises the Dalai Lama, then it is taken as automatic 'proof' that they are a Chinese spy or collaborator who is against the cause of Tibet.

9. The report shows that Dalai Lama is a hypocrite – preaching tolerance and religious freedom around the world, but at home practicing persecution.

10. It shows that any reporting of what is going on receives a hostile response. Cameras are smashed, those speaking out against the ban are harrassed, etc. If this takes place with the cameras rolling, imagine what takes place when nobody is looking…

11. The report shows clearly how all of this comes from the Dalai Lama himself. The Dalai Lama is the one who is the origin of all of this persecution, and it is he who ordered that all Dorje Shugden practitioners be expelled from their monasteries and the Tibetan community at once.

12. The report shows the number of people who have been affected by this ban – more than 4 million Tibetans.

a. Some argue that this number is exaggerated, saying that there is currently only a small minority of people practicing Dorje Shugden. However, it is historically undeniable that prior to the Dalai Lama beginning his crusade against Dorje Shugden practitioners 30 years ago, upwards of 60% of the 8 million total population of Tibet relied upon Dorje Shugden. So 4 million is actually a conservative estimate of the number of people affected by this ban.

b. To say that this number is exaggerated and that there is only a small number of people who are (currently) affected by this ban is very misleading. The reason why there is only a small minority currently affected by the Dalai Lama's actions is precisely because the Dalai Lama has been so successful over the last 30 years in systematically destroying the practice. The very fact that there are currently so few Dorje Shugden practitioners left today is itself the proof of the effect of the Dalai Lama's actions. There are currently very few Jews left in Eastern Europe because Hitler almost succeeded in wiping them out, but this does not mean that the holocaust did not affect many people.

c. There are two possibilities. Either there is a large number of Dorje Shugden practitioners, at which point the persecution being committed by the Dalai Lama is widespread; or it is a small number, at which point Dorje Shugden practitioners are not a threat, so they should be left alone to practice in freedom.

Posted courtesy of Dspak.

Dalai Lama's political ban of a religious practice extends to Switzerland

Will it ever stop? This mixture of politics and religion is already destroying the spiritual lives of many thousands of people in the Tibetan exile community in India, and is spreading its tentacles into the West.

Swiss Resolution regarding the worshipping of Dholgyal

On August 16, 2008, in the local assembly of Tibetan people in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, their Deputies discussed thoroughly with great responsibility. After that, the Local Assembly’s Deputies extended their appreciation to the Resolution (1996) adopted by the majority regarding the worshipping of Dholgyal (Shugden). Due to necessity there is now no option but to add three new resolutions on top of the existing five resolutions. We request all Tibetans who are above 18 years old in Switzerland and Liechtenstein to fully follow the content of these resolutions.

A The five resolutions passed unanimously by the Local Assembly’s Deputies on July 6, 1996 were:

1. The Dholgyal worshipper must completely give up [the practice] henceforth.

2. Those who do not worship Shugden must follow the instruction without falling into the trap of others.

3. You all must invite only those who do not worship Dholgyal, when you need to perform puja for oneself or for the Dalai Lama’s well-being.

4. Be it in private or a group, when you make offerings to the monasteries in Nepal, India, etc, you must do these offerings to those monasteries which do not worship Dholgyal.

5. You must bear in mind the instructions of politics and religion and abide by them without any contradiction.

B Three additional resolutions adopted on August 16, 2008 by the majority during the Second Session of Local Assembly were:

1. Recently a few Dholgyal followers have engaged in baseless criticism against the Dalai Lama in public. This we recognize as a conspiracy to spread rumors through gossip.

2. Those few Tibetans who criticize the Dalai Lama, we recognize them being in the category of Chinese government’s politics, directly, indirectly and thoroughly.

3. We will collect signatures as a truth witness which represents the volunteer support to the above-mentioned points.

For a copy of the original Tibetan document, please see www.WesternShugdenSociety.org

Wanted Posters of Tibetan Western Shugden Society supporters

On the bus from New York City to Madison, on the way to the Western Shugden Society Demonstrations in Madison, Wisconsin, July 19, 20, 21

I had the good fortune to be on the bus from New York to Madison with over 30 Tibetans. They were part of the Tibetan WSS contingent going there to protest the Dalai Lama in order to protect their spiritual lineage from his unpopular political ban.

After journeying for a few hours deep in the woods of Pennsylvania, the Tibetans in the front of the bus began to sing a folk song. Upon its conclusion the Tibetans in the back of the bus reciprocated with another folk song. After much whooping, hollering and applauding, the Tibetans in the front of the bus then came back with yet another folk song -- and so it went for over an hour.

We the Westerners felt quite culturally deprived as we realized that we would hardly be able to pull together even two complete songs before running out. The Tibetans were easily demonstrating the richness of their culture as well as their joie de vivre even in these trying times. It was a poignant and touching moment to hear these beautiful voices celebrating their culture. As Lobsang (not his real name) later said to me:

"They accuse us of being Chinese agents and against Tibet, but we love our country. Of course we want a free Tibet. This is why we bring the Tibetan flags to our demonstrations. It is because of the Dalai Lama's words that we have been thrown out of Tibetan exile communities. Now we are like refugees among refugees.”

All of a sudden, the atmosphere in the bus changed and the Tibetans began speaking amongst themselves in hushed tones. Some of them started texting and making phone calls. Clearly something had come up.

One of the Tibetans who spoke good English came and sat down next to me and explained that they had just received a text. All their photos had been posted on the wall of a Tibetan restaurant in Queens, wanted posters, along with sentences such as: "These people are paid by the Chinese", "These people are bad", and other implicit and explicit threats.

For a while the Tibetans discussed what to do, but then they decided that they could not run from this.

As Lobsang explained to me: “Where am I going to go now? I've already left India for America. There is no place else to run. Now is the time for me to make my stand. I have to do this even though I have a mother in India and they have threatened her, and told her that she must stop all contact with me, her son. My wife and children don't want me to do this but I feel I have no choice. The Dalai Lama and his government and security forces are destroying our lineage. They are killing our Gurus.

We have to take these threats in Queens very seriously. They have killed people. For example, it is an open secret -- everyone in the Tibetan community talks about this -- that Dagom Rinpoche was quite possibly poisoned in 2006. Two or three days afterward, one of the oracles of Dorje Shugden was killed in similarly mysterious circumstances. They can use sophisticated poisons; after all they are trained by the CIA. When two young and healthy pro-Shugden leaders die for such unexplained causes, this is a strange coincidence. [NB No autopsy was performed and the cause of death remains unknown.]

Lobsang continued: “Most of the Tibetans on this bus do not have family in India. Their families are in Tibet. Most Dorje Shugden practitioners in the West who still have families in India feel that they are not able to stand with us in public demonstrations because it puts their families in danger. However, they call me and thank me for what we are doing. They say they want to help, for example with money.

There are hundreds of Tibetan Dorje Shugden practitioners in the New York area. There are hundreds in the Madison area. All of them are behind us, but mostly they cannot show their support in public.

In Tibet, there are still whole regions where people practise Dorje Shugden and so there is no danger in those areas at this time. However they have begun to bring the oath swearing to Tibet as well.

They are very skilful. They have one piece of paper that is kept hidden and the other one that is legal. The secret one is the Dalai Lama's saying that you have to sign this. The legal one is how would you like to have a vote in which you decide whether to do this or not?

Most of the Tibetans here used to be monks. We were all forced to leave our monasteries after what happened in 1996 when the Dalai Lama first implemented and enforced the ban on Dorje Shugden.

For example, for one of the Tibetans, what took place during the New York demonstrations [when thousands of Tibetans started shouting and pelting us with spit, water bottles and coins] was nothing in comparison to what happened to him in India. He said: "Oh that was nothing. When the monks demonstrated against the ban in 1996 in India, we were pelted with stones and sixty monks had to be taken to hospital."

All we want to do is practice our lineage in peace. Lately the Dalai Lama has been giving a new justification. He says: "I give religious freedom and they take it away." This is completely untrue. We don't want to restrict anyone's right to practice their religion. Why should we? We are just trying to protect our own lineage from being destroyed. Now we need to make a stand. We had a big meeting in which we decided this and now we will see it through. What else can we do?

All of us on this bus and elsewhere have had to flee India for America. Now that they are bringing in the signature campaign and destroying our lineage even here in America, I have nowhere else to run to. When you know that they are destroying your lineage and killing your Gurus, you have to make a stand. I have no choice. I don't care if I myself die. Of course I am worried about my wife, children and mother. But I have taken out life insurance so then I don't need to worry.

Many of these people here don't have a wife or children because they used to be monks until they were expelled from their monastery and home. I used to run my own monastic community. A small monastery that practiced Dorje Shugden. Now I work twelve hours a day, six days a week, in a restaurant.”

[Another Tibetan, who was actually a Rinpoche, laughingly told me that he used to debate for twelve hours a day in a monastery. Now he spends twelve hours a day cutting vegetables.]

Lobsang continued: “We were very happy to come to America because at least we have freedom here to do our spiritual practice. But even now here in America we are completely ostracized from our communities. My child cannot go to a school where there are other Tibetan children because they have been told to ignore any child connected with a Dorje Shugden practitioner.

We have been discussing these threats against us in Queens. And we have made a decision. We will contact Radio Free Asia and let them know that these threats have been issued and let them know that if anything should happen to any one of us, it will be the Dalai Lama's responsibility. Previously we would never have said it like this but now we have no choice. It is his responsibility to protect his people but instead he is doing the opposite.”

I reflected to myself on the reasons articulated in the recent New York Times article for the Dalai Lama's defence of his position on the practice of Dorje Shugden, where he had said that 99 percent of his people are with him and only 1 per cent against him. He said: "I am for freedom of expression so let them have freedom of talk."

It is considerably more than 1 percent of his people who are against him. Once upon a time, the practice of Dorje Shugden was relied upon by almost every Gelugpa, which was the largest of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. However, even if it was only 1 percent, any normal Western politician would actually have said that the 1 percent is very precious to our democracy and that they need to be protected. They wouldn't just be given freedom to talk but freedom to practice.

The Dalai Lama's statement "give them freedom to talk" was actually patronizing and dismissive and clearly did nothing to curb the anger of the Tibetans listening to him, who came out in New York and promptly attacked us. It is amazing how people are bedazzled by his words and overlook his contradictory actions.

I thanked Lobsang for his explanation and first-hand stories. He replied: "I know it is useful to hear personal first-hand accounts. When you just read the various words, it is easy to develop doubts and therefore we feel the need to tell our stories.”

An increasing number of stories are coming to light. See the Western Shugden Society website for more videos and testimonies, including the recent documentary by the French news team.

Published by Western Shugden Society demonstrator and kind courtesy of Lobsang.