Head of the Gelugpa Tradition Breaks Rank with the Dalai Lama

It's oldish news now, but an astounding recent development has been the 'defection' of the 101st Ganden Tripa (Head of the Gelugpa Tradition, the holder of Je Tsongkhapa's throne) Lungri Namgyal Rinpoche to Dorje Shugden worshipping Shar Gaden Monastery following his retirement.

Rinpoche, who is now referred to as the Ganden Trisur, which indicates that he a retired Ganden Tripa, has officially left Ganden Shartse, a monastery under the control of the Tibetan Government in Exile, for Shar Gaden Monastery. Shar Gaden is a new monastery that has recently been formed by those monks and lamas that have been expelled or otherwise made unwelcome at Ganden Shartse. It proudly and openly upholds the tradition of practising Dorje Shugden as a wisdom protector of Manjushri Je Tsongkhapa’s teachings.

In 1999, the Dalai Lama changed the system of selection of Ganden Tripa from one of democratic election within the monastic system to one where the Ganden Tripa is appointed by him, the political leader of Tibet. Perhaps it was so that he could make sure that that future Ganden Tripas wouldn't be Dorje Shugden practitioners. In any event, this move gave the Dalai Lama unprecedented control over who would be the throne holder of Je Tsongkhapa's tradition.

Ganden Trisur Lungri Namgyal Rinpoche waited until his retirement to make this move. It shows that while he held the office, it simply would have been too controversial. The Ganden Tri would likely have been removed from his office by the Government. The fact that he had to wait until he was no longer subject to the Dalai Lama’s control to express his views is indicative of the air of intimidation created by the Tibetan Government in Exile.

It was reported in the forum of www.dorjeshugden.com that news had been received from Ganden Trisur's personal assistant:

HH Trisur Rinpoche had to wait this long until the term of office as Gaden Tripa completed to MAKE THIS MOVE BECAUSE IF HE HAD MADE THIS MOVE EARLIER, THE DALAI LAMA WOULD HAVE REMOVED HIM FROM OFFICE. And that would not be good for the Gelug on the whole. NOW THAT HE HAS FINISHED HIS TERM, HE CAN DO WHAT HE LIKES. NO ONE CAN TOUCH HIM, DISTURB HIM OR DISGRACE HIS POSITION. INCREDIBLE PLANNING. THIS WAS RELAYED BY HIS PERSONAL ASSISTANT!

This shows what control the Dalai Lama has over the Ganden tradition and that he is ruling by fear. There are doubtless many Lamas like Ganden Trisur who must simply keep quiet and do their Dorje Shugden practice in secret for fear of provoking the wrath and censure of the Dalai Lama.

Now that he is retired, with great courage both the 101st Ganden Trisur and his labrang (office) have all moved to Shar Gaden. In this way, they have followed Trijang Tritrul and Domo Geshe Rinpoche who have, with all their disciples, also joined Shar Gaden.

This is a beacon of hope for Dorje Shugden practitioners who have refused to give in to the Dalai Lama's ban as it shows that, no matter how draconian the measures the Dalai Lama may introduce to destroy the practice of Dorje Shugden, the faith and devotion of true Gelugpas cannot be extinguished by politically motivated intimidation.

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.

A Hypocrite

Here is another excerpt from the new Western Shugden Society book, 'A Great Deception', taken from the fourth chapter, 'A Hypocrite'

Although the Dalai Lama talks constantly about love and compassion, his own actions have brought and continue to bring misery and unhappiness. Since 1996, this false Dalai Lama has unceasingly inflicted heavy and unjust punishment on Dorje Shugden practitioners – all of whom are completely innocent of any crime or misdemeanour. Using his people like an army, the Dalai Lama has destroyed many Shugden temples and shrines, caused millions of people to experience inhumane situations and unbearable feelings of pain, and expelled all Shugden practitioners from the Tibetan community. He has caused innocent people to become severed from their families, friends, monasteries and communities. Thousands of Shugden practitioners have been forced into refugee status for the second time in their life, as they try to escape the inhumane treatment by seeking exile in other countries.

On 8 February 2008, this Dalai Lama caused the expulsion of 900 monks from their monasteries in India. Earlier, on January 9^th, he had been invited to inaugurate a Prayer Hall for a large monastic community in South India. At this supposedly spiritual event he publicly announced a 'Referendum on the practice of Dolgyal' (Dolgyal is the false name for Dorje Shugden, which the Dalai Lama uses with a negative attitude), insisting on a collection of votes on this issue by the deadline of February 8^th. Each monk was required to cast his individual vote. But since when did any spiritual practice become the object of a political vote like this?

The voting itself was held in public, in full view of monastery administrators, by casting coloured sticks indicating either 'yes' or 'no', with no possibility of abstention. As a direct result of this so-called referendum 900 innocent monks were then summarily expelled from their monasteries.

Most of the 900 monks were very poor and had no other place to live; many were fearful of the future and actually wept as they were forced to leave. The false Dalai Lama is clearly breaking the law by inflicting such blatant religious persecution. Making this difficult situation worse for the expelled monks is the message now being issued by his representatives to the Tibetan community, that anyone who helps Dorje Shugden practitioners will receive similar punishment. Furthermore, anyone who dares not to follow the orders of the Dalai Lama is publicly denounced by his government ministers and declared a 'Chinese supporter'. Not satisfied with this, his ministers encourage groups within the Tibetan community to humiliate, discredit and ostracise the people denounced, and to distribute 'wanted'-style posters giving their names, addresses and biographical details, and those of their families.

Becoming aware of the international public horror at these recent violations, which clearly stem from the single-minded policy of the Dalai Lama alone, the Tibetan Prime Minister and other officials within the exile Tibetan government then started a campaign to distance the Dalai Lama from this referendum, and from the resulting inhumane victimisation of a whole section of the Tibetan community. Such official deception, hypocrisy and duplicity is truly astounding.

One only needs to hear the speeches of the Dalai Lama and to witness current events within the Tibetan community to understand the truth. It should be clear to the international public, and to world leaders, governments and other organisations that it is the false Dalai Lama himself and no one else who solely initiated and who solely maintains the prevalent discrimination, persecution and intolerance within Tibetan society today.

The Scapegoating of Dorje Shugden and Dorje Shugden Practitioners

In a recent letter, taking up many pages, Shugden (‘Dholgyal’) is once again blamed for Tibet’s religious and political problems:

Dharamshala, Edition 205, December 3, 2008

The warning that overpowers the dark side of the Three Realms, the self-voice of truth that reveals nakedly the self-embarrassment of the enemy who ambushes Tibetan religion and politics!

Written by some interested persons including Thupten Choepel

With our own eyes, we are observing a matter of life and death, where Tibetan religion and policies, including Tibetan nationals, are on the verge of extinction. This gloomy predicament has not occurred without a cause, nor was it simply due to the invasion by China. It is also not that there is lack of sufficient instruction from qualified gurus and deities, nor something that has taken place suddenly. This is a repercussion of negligence, backward, and many unfavorable conditions in many ways – the most serious of which is the Dholgyal issue… I view that China, Dholgyal, and Dholgyal society are equal in creating obstacles to Tibetan religion and politics.

Which brings us to a series of articles called "The Buddhist Witch", whose author has presented theory and research into how a witch-naming, scapegoating psychology has enabled the superstitious persecution of Dorje Shugden practitioners (induced by the actions of the Dalai Lama). Judging by the comments, people have found these articles thought-provoking, so we include some extracts here. If you are interested, please go to the original blog.

The Buddhist witch: Part one

... it is still apparent to me that there are enormous parallels between the naming and shaming of Shugdenites, particularly in India’s exiled Tibetan community, and the naming and shaming of so-called witchcraft practitioners all over the world.

The Buddhist witch: Part two

Well, let’s remove the Shugden scenario from its current political and religious context and examine it in stark academic terms. The fact is, once you’re familiar with examples of witch persecution around the world, the similarity with the kind of social ostracism and persecution that’s being visited on Shugden practitioners in the Exiled Tibetan Community in India, and indeed in the West too, becomes all too apparent.

Like ‘witches’, Shugdenites are accused of conducting harmful practices. In the language used, the nature of this harm is often vague, but it includes a general harm against other practitioners and against unwitting Shugden worshippers too. And just as with accusations against so-called ‘witches’, actual proof of this harm is rather scant. In fact, there is none. Not even the most ardent detractors of Shugden worship have been able to show any tangible evidence of the harmful and destructive nature of Shugden practice…

Like ordinary witchcraft trials the world over, no evidence has been needed to confirm the guilt of Shugden worshippers in perpetuating what is considered a harmful practice . With witch persecution, the effectiveness of the accusation has never depended on actual or reliable evidence. The same is the case here. For the most part, the claim of harmful practice against Shugdenites is reliant on hearsay and hypothesis, and the same would be true at any witch trial. It is given authority by numerous lamas, including the Dalai Lama, just as once inquisitors and sometimes even the Pope lent weight and authority to allegations of witchcraft and heresy…

And like those accused of being witches elsewhere, Shugdenites are currently being shunned within their communities. More than that, this ostracism is completely socially acceptable to most constituents of those communities.

The Buddhist witch: Part three

Witchcraft cannot be proven. Indeed, no proof is required. The success of any accusation relies entirely on whether or not the accusation can gain popular sanction. This is the basis of another theory: status degradation. If the accuser is able to convince the community that the person he or she has accused really is a witch, then he or she will have managed to reduce the status of that person in the eyes of everyone else. Moreover, they will have elevated their own status considerably….

I think it’s certainly pertinent that the Dalai Lama did not begin his campaign against Shugden in earnest until many of the most influential Shugden practitioners had died or had passed from influence….

It is an interesting fact that it’s taken over 10 years for Shugden to surface as a human rights issue within any degree of credibility. The impregnable reputation and status the Dalai Lama has enjoyed has ensured that the issue has never received popular sanction. And the vilification of proponents of Shugden has ensured that their case has not, until recently, been properly aired.

Moreover, as a consequence of the ban on Shugden, and the claims levelled against Shugden as a practice, lamas such as Trijang Rinpoche and Phabongka Rimpoche, who once enjoyed great status, are now discredited and even widely despised.

The Buddhist witch: Part four

The traitor within the gates: The underlying thesis of this theory is that, in the view of the persecutors, witches can be likened to traitors. It identifies the fact that, in social terms, witches are not generally viewed as an external threat. They are almost always people known to the accusers, and close to them. In truth, in most communities, the witches identified are usually neighbours, friends or family members – not strangers. So they are ‘within the gates’, operating within the confines of the community, part of the fold. And this makes the malicious acts attributed to them even more reprehensible. After all, there’s nothing more despicable than betrayal. And nothing inspires fear quite like the suspicion that someone close to you is out to get you.

Of course, the acts of treachery ascribed to witches are as invisible as they are harmful. And this makes the perceived breach of faith that much more acute….

…. In Dorje Shugden and his practitioners, Tibetans have been able to find the cause for a host of misfortunes that afflict them- from cattle disease to inexplicable deaths.

….. Tibet has found its scapegoats. And so has international Tibetan Buddhism.

The Buddhist witch: Part five

Where a cause to something is not evident, it is readily created. This is the real psychology behind witch naming. It is born from fear. And it is universal.

In many ways, the Yellow Book seems to be where much of the current conflict started. It’s a book of stories. Or, I should say, it’s a catalogue of misfortunes. The same sort of misfortunes I became familiar with in stories relating to witch naming in African, European, North American, Asian and Pacific accounts. Something bad happens, something supernatural is attributed as the cause. This is the pattern…

When you look at the stories above, there is nothing remarkable about the cause of death. These are ordinary deaths, by all accounts. Falling on a bicycle spoke is unfortunate, but it’s not unfathomable, and neither is it mysterious. Well, of course, neither is getting hit by lightning. Neither are any of the multitude of misfortunes generally attributed to witches….

How come these far-fetched accounts seem to have had such a big impact on the Dalai Lama, on lamas in other schools, and on ordinary Tibetans?

The Buddhist witch: Part six

“The danger of Dorje Shugden practice is that it can cause Buddhism to degenerate into a form of spirit worship.”

The above statement by the Dalai Lama was used to explain his stance on Dorje Shugden practice during the first demonstrations on the ban in the late 1990s. It is something he has reiterated several times in 2008 during the most recent demonstrations.

For those who are aware that the Dalai Lama himself is involved in various forms of spiritism, this has often been a source of tremendous bemusement. That involvement includes personally consulting the Nechung oracle on numerous issues, the nature of Dorje Shugden being just one of those issues…

The Buddhist witch: Conclusion

In Australia in 2008, when members of the Western Shugden Society protested against the Dalai Lama outside Sydney’s Olympic Park, a TV reporter asked a Tibetan supporter of the Dalai Lama what all the fuss was about. Her response was insightful. She said she didn’t really know much about the protesters, but she suspected they practiced some kind of Tibetan witchcraft. These were the words she used. They were in English. Nothing was lost in the translation.

In New York a month or two later, during the most dramatic moment of the protests by far, WSS demonstrators were surrounded by a highly energised and volatile crowd of Tibetan Dalai Lama supporters. I watched footage of the event online later. The most striking thing for me were the many Tibetan women waving their aprons at the protesters. This is a gesture Tibetans use to ward off spirits.

Of course, there was another common reaction that day. Many people waved money, or threw coins at the protesters, indicating that they had been bought off by the Chinese. In other words, they were treacherous. There were perfidious violators of trust. Like witches everywhere, they were traitors within the gates, and objects of utter contempt.

There is a great deal of evidence to support the points I’ve been making in this series - that supporters of Shugden are indeed the ‘witches’ of Tibetan Buddhism. They are the scapegoats of the Tibetan predicament. …

Ironically, China then is not the real problem. The real problem is Shugden. China’s invasion is just the natural consequence of the evil of Shugden worship. Though karma is invoked here, the parallel to accusations of witchcraft elsewhere couldn’t be clearer.

Exiled from Exile

If you are interested in the subject of the Dalai Lama banning the practice of Dorje Shugden, you may find the following scholarly research by Dr Ursula Bernis, who was around all the main protagonists in the 1990s, very helpful. Here is an extract. The whole study can be found on the Dorje Shugden Devotees Website and also elsewhere on the worldwide web.

Exiled from Exile
© by Ursula Bernis, 1996 - 1999

PREFACE
While gathering material for a book on seminal Buddhist masters of this century I became aware in 1996 that because most belonged to the Gelugpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and relied on the religious protector Dorje Shugden, they were suddenly at the center of a raging controversy. Told by the Dalai Lama to renounce ties with that venerable tradition they were put into a position of either breaking their vows or facing ostracism from the community. These greatest of masters who included one of the two tutors of the Dalai Lama had been central to the transmission of Buddhism as it traveled from Tibet to India and the rest of the world after 1959. They ensured the integrity of a living wisdom tradition that had been passed on from one adept to another for millennia. I was shocked to hear the ugly allegations against such venerated and highly respected Lamas. I personally knew many of them, had studied with them, and had had a chance to observe them in close proximity over many years. Like most everyone else, I found their gentle kindness, open-mindedness, and inclusive teachings exemplary.

Since every accusation against them contradicted facts, reason, and my own experience, I felt compelled to get to the bottom of the controversy that had generated such extreme views. It was impossible to continue my project without finding an explanation of how such a dramatic shift from the most revered masters to "devil worshipers" could have occurred and, moreover, how it could so completely possess the Tibetan cultural psyche in such a short time.

In the process of my work on this book I found that open debate about the subject was impossible in the exile community and that the conflict was driven by an emotional zeal for the Dalai Lama beyond all rational considerations, suggesting an identity crisis of unexpected proportions. The conditions of exile, the loss of country, home, family and the threat to the established religious world view certainly contributed to the Tibetans' exaggerated hold onto the one institution left to them, that of Dalai Lamas. However, there seemed something else at work that extended far beyond the Tibetan community to affect Western Tibet supporters as well. They exhibited similarly irrational responses to the conflict. No matter what approach one brought to the subject, all attempts at rational debate became immediately polarized and turned into a series of outlandish accusations none of which held up under scrutiny.

Trouble in Paradise

Journalist Will Spisak reports:

"The political undertones that surround Tibet make this issue all the more sensitive. With political, as well as religious, unity at stake, both sides have begun to ponder what a rift might mean for the future of Tibet. This presents a particular point of interest to the West. For decades, the Dalai Lama has been revered as a champion of peace and, as a result, we have developed a particular soft spot in our heart for him. However, if the claims made by the Western Shugden Society are true, and there is actual religious persecution occurring in Tibet and in the exiled communities, will the West be willing to confront our champion of peace on this issue? I am not suggesting that the claims are definite; however, if the problem persists and persecution becomes an undeniable reality, we will have to decide what is more valuable to us, a united Tibetan community able to reach an agreement with the Chinese or our basic belief in religious freedom."

To read the full article:
The Knight News

'Very hard for us' - Dalai Lama and religious freedom

Taken from Cincinnati City Beat

Tibet Fest supports endangered tradition

BY Gregory Flannery | Posted 09/18/2008

Kuten Lama, who teaches at the Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Colerain Township, hosts Tibet Fest this weekend in Clifton.

When the Dalai Lama fled persecution, he found refuge in India. But where do people persecuted by the Dalai Lama go? Cincinnati.

This weekend the monks of Gaden Samdrupling (GSL) Buddhist Monastery will serve Tibetan cuisine, exhibit elaborate hand-painted silks (thangkas) and talk about peace at Tibet Fest, a two-day celebration at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center. Proceeds benefit a spiritual lineage that's under threat of extinction.

These refugees from a most unlikely oppressor -- the Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize winner -- have found a home in a most unlikely setting. GSL is less than a mile from the hyper-suburban sprawl of Colerain Avenue, a proximity belied by the quietude that reigns over the 8.5-acre monastery.

Given the pressure the GSL monks have faced, a festival might seem surprising. But that hints at the very point that the monks want to make: You can't find peace by trying to change your enemies.

"The true enemy is in ourselves," says Kuten Lama, resident teacher at GSL.

"In our delusions is the true enemy. If you want to defeat the enemy, you need to defeat your delusions and anger."

'Very hard for us'

Myths about the Dalai Lama abound in the West. He is not, in fact, the head of Buddhism around the world; he isn't even the head of Tibetan Buddhism. Before the Chinese invasion, he didn't preside over Shangri-la; Tibet was a feudal society, a place of extreme poverty ruled by a theocracy supported by a wealthy nobility.

While the Dalai Lama smiles beatifically, his policies as head of the Tibetan Government in Exile have suppressed religious freedom.

At issue is a devotional practice the Dalai Lama once followed but has now decided to stamp out. This involves honoring Dorje Shugden, a wisdom Buddha who is an important part of the lineage that GSL Monastery and millions of Tibetans follow.

The Dalai Lama hasn't simply discouraged honoring Dorje Shugden. Declaring the deity an evil spirit, he's vowed to crush the tradition.

The Tibetan Government in Exile denies identity cards to Tibetan nationals who refuse to sign oaths renouncing the deity, leaving them unable to travel, hold jobs or receive aid, according to Lisa Farnsworth, a law professor at Indiana University. Monks who hold fast to their loyalty to Dorje Shugden have been expelled from monasteries, she says, and others have been denied food or barred from participating in prayer rituals.

"We're talking about basic human rights -- being able to eat, being able to have housing, (not) having your life threatened," Farnsworth says. "You can talk about love and compassion all you want, but people are being hurt by the Dalai Lama's actions."

The issue attracted attention earlier this summer when a crowd leaving the Dalai Lama's lecture in New York City started heckling Dorje Shugden followers who held signs saying, "Dalai Lama, Give Us Religious Freedom." Police officers urged the protesters to leave the scene for their own safety.

"There were 50 police officers there who said, 'We can't protect you. You've got to get on the buses and get out of here,' " Farnsworth says.

Farnsworth is a lay student at Dagom Tensung Ling Monastery in Bloomington, Ind., GSL's "sister" monastery.

"There was one primary reason why we established our monastery: to preserve our lineage," Kuten Lama says. "The hardship is because (the Dalai Lama) took our religious freedom, our human rights. But it is very hard for us ordinary persons to explain to the world because he is so powerful and famous and our words are not too important."

Taming the monkey

The spirituality and culture that GSL will celebrate this weekend at Tibet Fest are rich in color and flavor. The monks prepare the meals, featuring Tibetan vegetables, noodle threads and momos.

"Momos are dumplings with meat or with potatoes and cheese, but it tastes different from the dumplings that you get in Chinese restaurants," says Jamyang Lama, a monk, translator and teacher at GSL. "They contain secret Tibetan spices and a lot of love."

The festival includes a photography exhibition documenting a 2007 pilgrimage to Mongolia by monks and students from Cincinnati and Bloomington. The photos of shrines in the Gobi desert, like the prayer room at GSL, capture something of the paradox of Buddhism -- a tradition that employs an intricate iconography while holding that all phenomena are essentially empty.

"Tibetan culture is very intricate, very ancient, very colorful and very symbolic," Jamyang Lama says. "The most important is how art and culture connects with the mind and happiness. When you study the Tibetan culture and heritage, you learn how to cultivate happiness and be kind."

The festival includes lectures such as "Taming Monkey Mind."

"'Monkey mind' is a metaphor," Jamyang Lama says. "Our mind is like a monkey, always jumping and striking things. It never sits still. In this lecture, we talk about meditation so everything you do can be more productive and beneficial."

Tibet Fest is part of a fundraising effort for construction of a new monastery in traditional Tibetan architectural style. Students at UC's College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning helped create the concept for the new building.

The expansion bodes well for a lineage experiencing a double persecution.

"We are hoping to build a monastery and heritage center that will be a great asset to Cincinnati," Jamyang Lama says. "It will be very special for the city because there are few cities in this country that have this kind of presence. There is a growing interest in studying our beliefs and traditions in the community. Therefore our space in the monastery is too small."

TIBET FEST will be held 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center, 3711 Clifton Ave. Admission is free.

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

Fifth and final part of setting the record straight on Pico Iyer's book, Open Road, The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.

On the false view of non-sectarianism

p 121

In effect, he seemed to be bringing out into the world two sometimes unrelated treasures, each of them explosive, one was Tibet and it’s particular culture, often hard to translate into other tongues, and the other was his brand of Buddhism. To mass general audiences, he always stressed “on crazy wisdom,” as you could call it, because philosophy seemed a way to cut through all the divisions to some universal human core. (“Sectarianism is poison,” he writes in an unusual violent statement in his second autobiography.) When he spoke of Nalanda Buddhism, “in honor of ancient Buddhism University in India from which his tradition’s great philosophers had emerged, he was essentially suggesting that reason and universality could offer places where Gelug practitioner and Kagyu, eastern Tibetan and central, American and Chinese could come together.

“His brand of Buddhism” is a very interesting phrase because that's what it is. What the Dalai Lama is promoting is his very own version of Buddhism, a sort of amalgamation of the traditional Tibetan Buddhist schools of Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya and Gelugpa. He has referred to it a couple of times now, most recently in Nottingham in May 2008.

What is 'Nalanda Buddhism'? In this context, it is quite simply the Dalai Lama's break with tradition. He advertises it as tradition by using the name of a famous monastic university in India and quoting the names of great Masters such as Nagarjuna, but the truth is that the Dalai Lama is now his own tradition. He wasn't the Head of any school of Tibetan Buddhism so he created his own tradition. He calls it 'rigme' or “non-denominational”. It seems that to arrive at this tradition you pick which bits of Tibetan Buddhism you like (principally Dzogchen teachings) and graft on a bit of philosophy. You also throw out any unique quality of each existing Tibetan Buddhist tradition (such as the traditionally chosen Karmapa or the Buddhist Deity Dorje Shugden), and that is when the problems start.

Divide and rule is the method of this tradition, producing a non-denominational mish-mash of the Dalai Lama's making, masquerading as mainstream Buddhism through the power of his celebrity.

The Dalai Lama has a very strange idea of non-sectarianism. He says “sectarianism is poison” but his idea of sectarianism is practising one spiritual tradition purely. Therefore, to be non-sectarian, one has to receive teachings from all Buddhist schools and practise each one. In an interview in Nottingham in May 2008 he said:

“My approach is promotion of non-sectarian. I myself receive teaching from all different Tibetan Buddhist sect”

If each tradition of Tibetan Buddhism has a complete path to enlightenment, why do we need to receive teachings from all of them? Surely it is fine to practise one while maintaining respect and good relationships with the others? This is true non-sectarianism.

What the Dalai Lama calls non-sectarianism is mixing traditions. What the Dalai Lama calls the “Nalanda Tradition” is his attempt to merge all the schools of Tibetan Buddhism together under his leadership. Therefore, for “Nalanda Tradition” read “tradition of Buddhism created by the Dalai Lama by merging the present traditions of Tibetan Buddhism under a false premise of non-sectarianism that allows the Dalai Lama to do as he pleases.”

Pico Iyer says:

....he was essentially suggesting that reason and universality could offer places where Gelug practitioner and Kagyu, eastern Tibetan and central, American and Chinese could come together.

No, he was essentially suggesting that there could be a tradition of Buddhism that the Dalai Lama has created and is the supreme leader of, and that encompasses all Buddhists. This is what the Dalai Lama has worked for: supreme religious and political power. He's a politician in the robes of a monk, causing confusion by that very dichotomy; posing as a religious authority when he is not the head of any school of Buddhism, speaking words like 'religious freedom' and 'harmony' while he destroys both.

For Buddhist practitioners to come together is very simple. We don’t all need just one tradition of Buddhism that everyone can subscribe to – we simply need to be left alone with the religious freedom to practise our individual traditions as our Gurus have taught us, while respecting without discrimination the differences and uniqueness of the different sects of Buddhism.

We also need a certain Dalai Lama to stop sowing words of disharmony in the Buddhist community and creating schisms where they ought not to be.

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

Posted courtesy of Lineage Holder.

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

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

Religious Harmony?

Page 138.....
On and on the passionate tirade went, like nothing so much as a prosecuting lawyer’s final summation. Some people began to look at their watches. Always he was working for harmony between the schools for Tibetan Buddhism the Dalai Lama said. Yet a Shugden teacher had said that if a Gelug practitioner follows a Nyimgma teaching, he will be killed by the Shugden deity. What did this have to do with the clear philosophy laid out by Lord Buddha? And if you looked at the Nalanda teaching, the great work of the Indian philosophers Shantideva and Nagarjuna, which he was explicating now, what did that have to do with propitiating deities?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted courtesy of Lineageholder.

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

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

The Dalai Lama's personal feelings about Dorje Shugden

pp 135-138

One hot day in August 2005 in Zurich, at an eight day set of teachings on compassion the Dalai Lama was offering, the public address system suddenly declared- in German, Tibetan, and English- that followers of Shugden should take care not to attend the following morning, when the Dalai Lama was going to be offering some special initiations. Flyers were handed out to the same effect, and the announcement was broadcast again. Then, as he was nearing the end of his daily explication of the text, at 4pm, the Dalai Lama suddenly said “Today I am going to speak for 30 extra minutes. If that makes problems for you, please feel free to go. But I hope you will not mind my going on a little late today.” The audience, which could never get enough of him- many of its members had travelled across the world for these teachings- was clearly delighted.

Slowly at first, in long and forceful Tibetan sentences- rendered into German by a scholarly man on stage next to the Dalai Lama (and into other languages by unseen translators speaking into our transistor radios)- the Dalai Lama began to explain why he did not wish any followers of Shugden, to attend the special initiations, even if some of them had chosen, in spite of requests, to attend the other days teachings. For them to be present during these esoteric ceremonies would potentially impede the progress of everyone else, he said, and even do harm to the person giving the initiations, himself.

His voice began to rise, and soon he was speaking like thunder. Argument after argument followed as to why Shugden supporters should not come, and his bearing was as wrathful as I had ever seen him public. Occasionally his words would trail off, and the mild mannered Swiss professor in jacket and tie by his side would start translating the sentences; then, before the man could continue the Dalai Lama would start up again, drowning him out.

The audience laughed at such moments, but not with delight.

This is another oft-repeated lie from the Dalai Lama: Dorje Shugden harms himself and others. How can this be? One of the benefits of Buddhist refuge is that we are protected from harm inflicted by humans and non-humans, so if the Dalai Lama is a follower of Buddha Shakyamuni, how can he be harmed? Furthermore, how can others be harmed? This is a very irrational statement. The bogeyman under the bed is alive and well, appearing in the form of Dorje Shugden as far as the Dalai Lama is concerned. “Watch out, he is coming to get you....!”

I challenge the Dalai Lama to explain clearly and with logical reasons how and why he and others are being harmed by Dorje Shugden. He has been challenged on this before by Geshe Kelsang and other great Lamas, but has never replied.

This passage also clearly shows the strong negative feelings that the Dalai Lama has towards Dorje Shugden. What has Dorje Shugden even done to him except to save his life (by helping him to escape from Tibet)? How can you trust someone whose judgement is so erratic? One minute the Dalai Lama is your friend, the next he's seeing you as his worst enemy! This is completely contrary to everything that Buddha taught.

The Dalai Lama has a right to believe whatever he wants about Dorje Shugden, but he has no right to enforce his view in Tibetan society or elsewhere. Here Pico Iyer shows that the Dalai Lama is a religious dictator, getting on his soapbox and subjecting an unsuspecting audience who came to hear about compassion to a thirty-minute tirade about his hatred of a Buddhist Deity and its followers.

The Dalai Lama is always smiling for the Western media but here he showed his true colours, inducing nervous laughter from an audience who had never seen this man act so extremely in public before. The smiley mask had slipped and what they saw was not very pleasant.

Part Four coming soon.

Click here to read Part One and Part Two.

Posted courtesy of Lineageholder.

Dalai Lama's Reasons for the Ban of Dorje Shugden

About the Dalai Lama’s Advice Concerning the Wisdom Buddha Dorje Shugden

The Dalai Lama has given three main reasons for banning the practice of Dorje Shugden. Before we reply to those, we should point out that although he says he “strongly discourages” it, there is an increasing body of evidence to show he has banned it. Witness the ID card – Tibetans are forced to swear that they will never venerate Dorje Shugden nor have any spiritual or material relationship with those who do or they will not be given an ID card (effectively making them refugees amongst refugees). The resulting ostracism and denial of basic human rights such as food, shelter and companionship has created great suffering in the Tibetan community and is clearly documented.

Even if the Dalai Lama’s views on the practice were reasonable or true, which they are not, it would still be unacceptable to force these views on others in this way, using his political power to impose his religious will. Imagine if any other leader forced this signature campaign on Muslims, or Jews, or Shamans? There would be a huge outcry and people would be reminded of Germany in the 1930s.

As for his reasons, they are refuted in detail by the words and experiences of thousands and thousands of practitioners past and present – for example, see www.WesternShugdenSociety.org and www.WisdomBuddhaDorjeShugden.org. In particular, look at the article Replies to the three reasons for the Dalai Lama’s ban on the practice of Dorje Shugden.

Here, we answer them briefly.

1.“The danger of Tibetan Buddhism degenerating into a form of spirit worship”. The practice of Dorje Shugden is not spirit worship because Dorje Shugden is viewed as the embodiment of Manjushri, the Buddha of Wisdom, arisen in this form to protect Buddha’s teachings. All Wisdom Buddha Dorje Shugden practitioners, including the Dalai Lama’s teachers and millions of Gelugpa Lamas and practitioners of past generations, are actual Buddhists who practice the complete Dharma of Buddha Shakyamuni. It is untrue, patronizing and insulting to say that they are not. It would also mean that the teachings that the Dalai Lama himself is giving are non-Buddhist as these come from his teachers who were Dorje Shugden practitioners.
2. “Obstacles to the emergence of genuine non-sectarianism”. The Dalai Lama allegedly promotes interreligious understanding and harmony, just so long as Dorje Shugden practitioners can be the exception to the rule. Even today, for example, everyone can attend the “formal religious teachings” by the Dalai Lama – come along if you are a Muslim, a Catholic, or an actual spirit worshipper, everyone is welcome! But a Buddhist Dorje Shugden practitioner? You will be asked to leave. That the Dalai Lama says he is a man of peace and tolerance makes this Buddhist apartheid even more intolerable. There is absolutely no evidence to support the claim that it is Wisdom Buddha Dorje Shugden practitioners who promote sectarianism; they are simply asking for the freedom to practice their ancient tradition without being persecuted and shunned. The Dalai Lama hides behind his celebrity status and blames the victim for the crime.
3. “Especially inappropriate in relation to the well-being of Tibetan society”. Imagine if President Bush were to declare that someone’s spiritual practice was affecting his life and ability to govern and so it should be stopped? He would be considered dictatorial and idiotic. The idea that those who do their peaceful prayers to Wisdom Buddha Dorje Shugden for the protection of positive minds of compassion and wisdom is somehow detrimental to the government headed by the Dalai Lama and therefore should be stopped is likewise dictatorial and embarrassingly superstitious. The Dalai Lama is now 73 years old, in fine health, and he gave up the idea of Tibetan independence years ago. Scapegoating Dorje Shugden practitioners for the failure to win a free Tibet is a political ploy and, if it were not the popular charismatic Dalai Lama who was saying these things, this would have been laughed out of court a long time ago. It is not Wisdom Buddha Dorje Shugden practitioners who are destroying Tibetan unity, it is the Dalai Lama’s controversial and divisive actions of splitting families and communities down the middle.

The Dalai Lama has urged people to consider this and “to act accordingly”. We are confident that if you do take the time to critically examine his reasons and do some research, you will agree that they make no sense and that, even if they did, he has no right to impose these religious views on others through political processes such as the ID card.

Why would so many Tibetan and Western practitioners take all this time and expense to travel to demonstrate against one of the world’s most famous religious leaders if there were not some very urgent and compelling reason for doing so? We are here because there is a major problem in Tibetan exile society and it is just going to get worse if we do not have the courage to point it out.

For 30 years, Lamas and practitioners have tried to communicate with the Dalai Lama on this subject, and for 30 years he has either ignored or insulted us.

To say we are demonstrating because we are being paid by the Chinese is a lazy and laughable excuse – firstly because there is not a shred of evidence for this because it is not remotely true; and secondly because why would employed, educated and free citizens need Chinese money to make their voices heard?

Dalai Lama's ban affects children

The Dalai Lama's Words in the Mirror of Reality

From the Dorje Shugden Devotees Charitable & Religious Society, July 2008

The justifications the Dalai Lama gives for his ban of the worship of the deity Dorje Shugden vary considerably depending on his audience.

The justification given to the Tibetan public, which destroyed the entire harmony of the Tibetan community, is: "Worshipping this evil deity is a danger for my life and for the freedom of Tibet. If you Tibetans want me to be dammed and don't care at all about the cause of Tibet, then go ahead with the worship of this deity."

On the contrary, to Western audiences the Dalai Lama repeatedly says that he issued this ban "In order to save this pure and profound Tibetan Buddhism from degenerating into spirit worship". And "This ban is applied in order to promote peace and harmony between the four Tibetan Buddhist traditions."

A further justification that the Dalai Lama sometimes mentions, and which he repeated on his recent visit to New York in July 2008: "This is for my personal gaining of religious freedom. I had the wish to ask Khunu Lama Tenzin Gyaltsen to give me the transmission of the Sangwa-Nyingpo-Tantra, and I consulted my teacher Ling Rinpoche about it, and he responded negatively, saying there is a lot of discussion about it. Actually my teacher was afraid of Dolgyal (Dorje Shugden). Thus I lost my religious freedom."

What is the reality behind these statements?

Anyone who accepts whatever the Dalai Lama says as literal, infallible, and unquestionable makes no attempt even to question any of these points for a second. However, if an analytical mind investigates the validity of these words of the Dalai Lama, comparing their meaning to reality, a big surprise about the enormous discrepancy between the Dalai Lama's statements and the factual truth will be inevitable.

Continue reading

Mobs supporting the Dalai Lama clash with Western Shugden Society demonstrators in NYC

A personal first-hand account of the demonstration at Radio City Music Hall, July 17 2008

In the morning I took the subway from my apartment to Radio City Music Hall. Because there are so many Tibetans in my neighborhood I saw some people dressed in traditional Tibetan clothing who were probably headed to the Dalai Lama's teaching.

The first thing I noticed as I approached is that the chanting had already started. I was arriving just at 12noon and it wasn't scheduled to begin until 12:30pm. There was, as is typical for NY at that time of day, huge amounts of foot traffic. But from the direction I was approaching I could only hear the chants from about a block away (because the protesters were directing their chants in the opposite direction). The protesters, a few hundred westerners and a hundred Tibetans, lay and ordained, had started chanting around 11:30 -- they started early!

After several days of protesting it felt like we were in a groove. We knew the chants, in Tibetan and English, and it felt as if I had built up a bit of endurance from the previous days of work. The scale of this protest was much larger than any of the ones we had previously done in terms of its impact, as there were literally thousands of people streaming by who heard our chants, read our signs, took our literature, and asked what it was all about. They were typically open-minded for New York, and many professed surprise and then horror at what the Dalai Lama was doing -- professing religious freedom and human rights in Radio City on the street opposite, and denying it to his own people behind the scenes in India. One man said: "I paid over a hundred bucks for this ticket and you're telling me that he does not practice what he is going to preach?" Tickets ranged from around forty bucks to a thousand, for a talk that took not much longer than an hour. Some passers-by tried to grasp the concept of the Dalai Lama using his political power to stamp out a religious tradition -- "Would it be like the Pope saying he has decided to stop worshiping Saint Christopher and that from now on everyone else therefore has to stop worshipping him too, or else be ostracized and pushed out of their monasteries and schools?" (Not a bad analogy, except that the Pope is historically the spiritual leader of all Catholics whereas the Dalai Lama has never been the head of Buddhism.)

Right from the start, we were continuously drawing the ire of Tibetans who were attending the Dalai Lama's talks. We were getting the finger with some outbursts of yelling. Tibetan women would flap their dresses at us (which I've been told means that they are showering us with their menstrual blood...ugh). I said, "Boy those Tibetan women are intense" and my friend replied in jest (I think!), "That's why there are so many monks."

There were groups of young lay Tibetan men who would stop and stare at us for a long time. Their presence was quite ominous and the police were watching them closely. Some of them were taking photos of the Tibetans protesting with us. They were clearly doing so to identify them later and threaten them and their families, as they have done already in coarse and violent language on phayul.com and elsewhere. And they have acted on some threats already -- for example, they boycotted a restaurant of a Dorje Shugden practitioner who had attended the demonstration in Hamilton New York, causing it to go out of business.At one point there were some Tibetan women gathered across the street and I could see the leader instructing the others to get photos of all the Tibetans protesting with us. The Tibetans we are with and who we are supporting are very brave as they face a mob mentality for going against the wishes of the Dalai Lama, but they remained calm and cheerful throughout. Now that they have decided to take a stand after 12 years of persecution, they are resolute; and some of them said it is as if a deep hurt inside, caused by the Dalai Lama's actions, is being resolved.

At the start of the day, the media presence did not seem huge, but I'm not sure. I just didn't see those TV station vans with the transmission antenna on the roof. There were a lot of people taking photos. I think we were near the top list of tourist attractions in the city. There were some professional photographers shooting us and videotaping us. One looked like a Chinese news group but I couldn't tell.

There was another group with about 15 people protesting in the pen next to us. They were spectacularly quiet and were protesting the US government's using Tibet to attack China with CIA funds. They spent quite some time just looking at us.

We chanted for just about the entire time during the Dalai Lama's talk. We gave out thousands of pieces of literature -- a leaflet with the basic facts called "Dalai Lama give religious freedom" and a booklet chronicling the abuses, including the forced signature campaign, called "The Tibetan Situation Today, Surprising Hidden News." Throughout the Dalai Lama's talk, Tibetans were amassing on various corners of the streets and we were told by the police to stay away from our barriers on the sidewalk side to avoid angry confrontations as their mood was getting ugly. They made everyone handing out literature along the sidewalks go back into the pen for safety (throughout the day, those handing out literature were made to go in pairs). When the talk got out at 4pm, that's when things got really intense. The Tibetans gathered in force outside Radio City, all down the sidewalks, and on the northwest corner of 50th and 6th Ave and started their own chants: "Shame on you! Shame on China! and something like, "Go away Dorje Shugden." They were all pumping their hands in unison towards us. At one point I noticed that the entirety of 6th Ave from 51st down to 49th was filled completely with Tibetans who were yelling at us. The side streets were filled too.

I was asked to do security facing the sidewalk (facing west) and a mob of Tibetans gathered about 15 feet from us and started yelling. Some were giving us the finger, some were flapping their dresses. One woman came up and started spitting at us. I put my body in between and got some spit on me and water (I think someone threw a water bottle at us). She looked at me and told me I would die with blood running out of my mouth. There were no police on our side of the pen as they were completely occupied with the stream of Tibetans pouring out of Radio City and crossing 6th ave on 50thth Street. I could see people getting violent and the police were being very physical defending themselves throwing people on the ground and shoving them away when they started getting violent. My brother who had a better vantage point told me a couple of people were arrested because they hit police officers. One woman went to hit a police officer and he took her down by twisting her arm. Another woman was handcuffed by three police officers but I did not see her being led away so perhaps they let her go. The police maced others who were trying to attack the protesters, some of the protesters on the outskirts of the demonstration pen felt it. The scene was so intense. Crowds of onlookers also were gathering on all corners and 6th Avenue was closed to traffic during rush hour for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, because there were no police on our side, the Tibetans were starting to work themselves into a frenzy. There were two young Tibetans who were getting really agitated and I was really afraid because it looked like they were about to attack us. Some older Tibetans were trying to calm them down but I could tell it was a dangerous situation. I told one of our security people that there were no police on this side and she went off to tell someone...

(One policeman said that the Dalai Lama himself had incited the rage during his talk. As 90 percent of the audience were Tibetan or Nepalese, he might have said something in Tibetan that was not translated. I don't know as I was not in the talk, but they came out with such a sense of purpose that it seems that somewhere along the line they had been incited to do something about us. This would be in keeping with what is happening in India, with Dalai Lama followers being incited to violence against Shugden practitioners by the government in exile, Tibetan youth congress and womens' association etc, all acting on the words of the Dalai Lama. Certainly the Dalai Lama, as usual, showed no inclination to come over and talk to us -- that has been the case for the past 12 years. He is happy to talk to any religious leaders of any faiths, just not Buddhist Dorje Shugden practitioners. Nor did he send a representative. No one in his entourage said anything to calm the angry mood. From what was translated in the talk he gave, he spouted the same reasons for banning the practice, all of which have been answered over and over again on this blog and elsewhere, and shown to be unreasonable.)

.... Finally a HUGE police officer came over (to my relief!) This dude was way taller than me (and I'm 6'1") -- he was diesel with the chiseled jaw and everything. His instincts were right as he walked right over to the two young Tibetans, stood two feet in front of them and rested his nightstick right on his shoulder. As you could imagine those two calmed right down.

The Tibetans on the west side of the pen were still getting rowdy so about 3 other officers came over. The Tibetans were yelling at us and throwing money at us. They were throwing dollar bills and coins at us saying we were paid by the Chinese. The cops told the Tibetans to back up away from the protesters but one man keen on picking up the money he thew at us didn't listen and ran right up to the barrier that the protesters were behind. The 3 officers grabbed this man and slammed him on the ground. They threw him back into the angry mob and they were shocked. The police all whipped out their nightsticks and twirled them around letting them know the consequences of breaking the barrier. Another female police office ran over with some additional metal barriers and they pushed back the Tibetan mob about 100 feet to a safe distance.

See the video of the riot in New York City.

[It made me wonder what it must be like for the monks and lay people in India who have complained now for years about the ostracism and fear they feel in the face of the Dalai Lama's followers who are so against them. They have had rocks hurled at their houses, mobs breaking into their houses and destroying their shrines and statues. Monks have been pushed out of their monasteries, where they have been since they were small boys (the Dalai Lama says they can go back to China and China can take care of them but they've never been to China in their lives!) People have been ostracized and humiliated, wanted posters have been put up, and on it goes. We got a little glimpse of what it is like to be shouted at, spat at and reviled, but the difference is that, luckily for us, we had the New York police force between us and them.]

By this time I could see that the sidewalks on both sides of 6th ave were completely filled with Tibetans. The energy in the air was intense. I've never experienced anything like this. We were surrounded by an angry mob on all sides. The police closed down 6th ave and I could see 4 or 5 police officers on horseback just firmly staring down the throngs of Tibetans. It was an impressive sight. Looking up one would see many people looking out of their office windows gazing at this spectacle. Now all the press were on the scene. People with a phone or camera were calling people and taking photos from the windows of the NBC building. What is amazing actually is how little press coverage there has been considering how much press was there for the riot. It seems to be hard to be the first one to blow the whistle. You need a lot of guts to investigate a story like this. One journalist in Australia wrote an article questioning the persona and theatre of the Dalai Lama, and he received death threats for his efforts.

As WSS spokesperson, Kelsang Pema, said in a press release: "If this intense reaction and mob mentality is the result when a few people publicly question the Dalai Lama's actions on American soil with police present and western laws, imagine how difficult it is for these people to speak up against their unelected leader in the Tibetan community in exile. I hope that the western media will investigate."

I was so proud, the WSS chanting was so powerful and loud and continuous, yet peaceful. It carried the weight of the huge blessings of our lineage and I felt this is why so many Tibetans were moved and challenged by our chants. Our group of 400 or so protesters, outnumbered by 10 to 1 (just a guess), really posed a challenge to these thousands of Tibetans.

Finally 5pm came and the police called in the buses -- our own three buses and an extra one they provided. They told us they were concerned for our safety and that no one should leave the demonstration pen on their own -- we all needed to be shipped to a safe spot far away from the Tibetans. Others told me later that the police were impressed by our discipline -- we did what we were told, which made their job much easier. Also, as the protesters were being herded rapidly on to the buses, they were trying to pick up their trash after them, until one officer called through the megaphone: "Leave the trash. Get on the bus. We'll clean up."

As we boarded the buses I noticed that the Tibetans weren't going anywhere. They were cheering that we were leaving but they all stayed and showed no signs of going anywhere. They were definitely there for the duration.

We were so jammed into those buses because none of the New Yorkers had arrived on the buses. So we all squeezed in, and accompanied by a police escort, we were rescued out of the mob scene. The relief was deeply felt. The bus driver of the bus I was on gave me a high five. He said "That was awesome, you guys got federal agents, secret service, and the nypd out there." I looked out the window and saw an escort of at least 10 nypd officers on motorbikes. One of the other bus drivers said: "You guys did a great job out there today. I think they got the message." I hope he is right, but probably we'll have to keep demonstrating for a bit longer yet.

They drove us over to 9th ave where they dropped us off. And we headed back to our Dharma Center where we felt so relieved to do puja and have GP teaching class (on the spiritual potential of this precious human life). As we sang the Migtsema, the praise to Je Tsongkhapa, I just started weeping, the relief was so great. Dalai Lama, give religious freedom.

Thank you.

Posted courtesy of a member of the Western Shugden Society attending the demonstrations

Apartheid at Ganden Monastery due to the Dalai Lama's ban of Dorje Shugden

This new wall at Ganden monastery in Southern India was built in March of this year. It has no gate, no entryway along its entire length. It is designed only to separate, to divide monk from monk. It stands nine feet tall.

At first the wall was planned to be just five feet tall like all the other walls on the property. But many monks complained. They argued that the Shugden practitioners could still be seen from the windows of the higher floors of adjacent buildings. They should not be able to be seen—none of them. No-one wanted even to breathe the same air as them. So higher the wall became—reaching nine feet—an ugly reminder of religious apartheid spreading through Tibetan society due to the Dalai Lama's actions.

Read more of The Segregation Wall at Ganden Monastery

New Reports of the Dalai Lama's Persecution of Dorje Shugden Practitioners

1. July 7, 2008: Appeal from Save Tibet Group

It is apparent that Dorje Shugden organization, whose face is as thick as elephant’ skin, is engaged in sinful actions of criticism and so on against His Holiness the Dalai Lama who is the eye and soul of Tibetan people, when he travels to the western countries. On this crucial time, the organization keeps evil touch with Chinese government, the chief culprit of all Tibetan. And the Dalai Lama is our sole object and a leader, to whom we share our plight.

We appeal you to cut any ties of buying and selling foods in restaurants and shops with whoever has connection to this Dorje Shugden organization that chooses enemy and forsakes friend.

Save Tibet Group

2. March 19, 2008: Mundgod oath

All the people of Mundgod Tibetan Village No 5 never practice Dorje Shugden and have taken the oath. My name­­­ from now, from my side, never worship Dorje Shugden, am taking this oath generally in front of the Three Jewels and especially Mahakali.

3. February 2, 2008: Monastery Identity Card Form

All the residents of Geden Jangtse Thoesam Norling Monastery will be issued a fresh Identity Certificate (ID Card). However, before issuing the Identity Card the resident monk has to fill the necessary Forms and sign stating that I am not a practitioner of Dorje Shugden. If resident monk does not agree to sign the form, the Monastery will not issue Identity Card to him what-so-ever.

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

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

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

Page 114:

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Dalai Lama takes decisions with doughballs

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



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

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

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

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

Posted courtesy of Lineageholder