The dark side of the Dalai Lama in his own words

An interesting juxtaposition of words and worlds. 

The Dalai Lama's words to the Western media are the complete opposite to his words to Tibetans.

Judge for yourself.

The unelected God King of Tibet

The Dalai Lama was enthroned age 5 in Lhasa, Tibet in February 1940. Since then there has been over 70 years of unelected rule in which the Tibetan (and since 1959 the Tibetan exile community) has had ONE political and religious leader whose decisions can never be questioned.

Tibetan Democracy Day? If only.

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

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

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

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

On 9 January 2008, the Dalai Lama declared: 

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

Othe same day, he also called for:

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

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

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

Recent developments in 2011

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

  

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

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

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

Some earlier examples of ostracism and persecution

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    

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

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

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

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

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

Our demands

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What is in the book

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

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

From the Preface:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Download the free eBook today to find out more.

The Dalai Lama's Shady Past

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

Part of its write up says:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

14th Dalai Lama inspecting 
troops at Chakrata in 1972

"There will be no change in my stand. I will never revoke the ban. You are right. It will be like the Cultural Revolution. If those who do not accept the ban do not listen to my words, the situation will grow worse for them. You sit and watch. It will grow only worse for them."

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

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

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

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

A Great Deception - freeing Buddhism from political pollution

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

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

From the Preface:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more...

Letter from the CTA and Dalai Lama urging ostracism of Dorje Shugden family

Sadly, these two pieces of information from someone currently staying at Shar Gaden show us nothing new -- Buddhist Dorje Shugden practitioners are still being ostracized for their beliefs due to the immoral and intolerant ban of the 400-year old practice by the 14th Dalai Lama:

"Here is a picture on the gate of Gaden Jangtse warning people about the family in camp 4 that are Dorje Shugden practitioners and people should not go to their shop in camp 4. I took this photo yesterday. Very sad that this is the first thing you see upon entering such a beautiful monastery."


If you look closely, you will see that this notice is issued by the Office of the Representative of the Central Tibetan Administration of the Dalai Lama. A terrible example of using political power to further supposedly religious aims, that of destroying a spiritual tradition passed down through generations of Gelugpa Buddhist masters, including the Teacher of the Dalai Lama himself. Click here for more.

And of course there have been numerous incidences of violence toward Dorje Shugden practitioners over the years, such as:

"Trokhang DechenChog is a Dorje Shugden chapel not far from Shar Gaden and is within feet of the Gaden Shartse debate ground. It is actually closer to Gaden Shartse than Shar Gaden... One monk is in charge of doing the daily pujas there and keeping the chapel safe from harm. He has been beaten up more than once due to his devotion to this chapel."


Tenzin Sungrab originally went over to the monastery to help (as have other Westerners) because, as he put it:

"Being able to be there, standing in solidarity with our dear monks, is an opportunity for me to show support in my own limited way. This is one way for people to directly oppose the ban: cross the line, help the monks, talk to them, support them, encourage them, feed them, share with them... everything the ban says not to do."

And yet he finds that the monks at Shar Gaden are not giving up despite years of ostracism and persecution, refugees amongst refugees:

"These monks have given so much to our lineage and continue regardless of how hard it has been at times. That is the true meaning of Dharma commitment and is a never ending source of inspiration for me. I am really just a nobody, but being amongst so many who work so very hard to practice the pure Dharma has changed me in ways hard to describe. Every day that I wake up here is a gift. I feel that all of this is due to the blessings of Gyalchen Dorje Shugden and my deep faith in him. May he always care for us with love, like a mother for her children. Shar Gaden is a place like no other and everything these monks do here is for the benefit of ALL suffering beings who dwell in this realm."

See his blog.

Court case against the Dalai Lama concludes: no victory, no defeat either

Due to the on-going persecution of Buddhist adherents of the four centuries-old practice of the protective Buddha Dorje Shugden by Tenzin Gyatso, aka the 14th Dalai Lama, and his "Central Tibetan Administration" (CTA), following a ban of that religious practice, the Dorje Shugden Devotees' Charitable and Religious Society took the brave step of filing a Petition to the Delhi High Court, New Delhi, India in 2008.

On 5 April 2010, after more than two years of struggle, the Petition was finally dismissed by Justice S. Muralidhar on technical grounds.

The major reason cited for denying jurisdiction was location. The government of India pointed out that this court has no territorial jurisdiction over a dispute. As they are located in Dharamsala, the state government is to investigate the allegations against the Dalai Lama and Tibetan government in exile. Indian government does not recognize the so-called Tibetan government in exile.

Justice Muralidhar pointed out:

"It is however clarified that the dismissal of this petition will not preclude any individual member or members of the [Dorje Shugden Society] to seek appropriate remedies as may be available to them in law" before the police in Karnataka and its state government.

It was further stated that worshippers of Dorje Shugden have a right to freedom of religion as enshrined under Article 25 of the Constitution.

Predictably, the website of the Central Tibetan Administration on April 20 claimed this as a victory for them, falsely stating on their website that “Justice Muralidhar's decision had the effect of closing the doors on the possibility of similar complaints in the future.” In fact, Justice Muralidar clearly stated that by dismissing the case in its present form he would not express any opinion on the merits or demerits of the case, and he clearly pointed out in paragraph 12 of the Order (as mentioned above): "It is however clarified that the dismissal of this petition will not preclude any individual member or member of the Petitioner No. 1 Society [i.e., the above named Dorje Shugden Society] to seek appropriate remedies as may be available to them in law before the appropriate forum…".

The court noted that the Shugden Society's harassment and maltreatment accusations had not yet been lodged in a formal complaint to the local police authorities. This has led the CTA to take the Justice’s comments out of context, stating that the Petition had been dismissed due to 'vague averments' regarding cases of harassment and persecution against Shugden devotees. The actual order in fact reads that they were vague statements because "the criminal law remedies available to the Petitioners has not been availed of by them" (para 8), i.e. the victims. This of course is likely due to intimidation and fear of further persecution.

Despite the CTA propaganda, it is clear from studying the judgment that there was no victory, but nor was there a defeat. The dismissal was mainly for two reasons. (1) The Justice did not see a territorial jurisdiction of the Delhi High Court pointing towards the law and order institutions of the States of Himachal Pradesh (the seat of the Tibetan leader) and Karnataka (the site of the large Tibetan settlements Mundgod and Bylakuppe). (2) He mentioned the lack of records in the local police files due to the absence of complaints by victims of the Dalai Lama's actions.

This ruling in fact lights the way for future court cases in the coming years to be tried in the appropriate state forums, especially as and when individual victims garner the courage to make official complaints to the local police and the records of those complaints pile up. As the persecution continues and monks are still expelled en masse from their monasteries, there is sadly no shortage of evidence to bring against the Dalai Lama and his CTA.

As the Dorje Shugden Society said on April 22:

"There is no question of win - lose here. The dismissal of the case is disappointing. On the other hand, this experience has given us a second chance to approach it in a better and more efficient way. Moreover, it also implies that collaboration and fraternity are priorities. Also, our lawyer said that the Society can file a Suit and individuals who are affected can file individual Petitions. The society tried its best according to its ability. Of course the society is poorly funded. But this is not end of our struggle for religious freedom, human dignity and equality, since our cause is just. And it goes without saying that those who walk on the path of truth often face challenges. Despite hindrances we ought to make effort that no one live through the deprivation of their basic rights, and pledge to promote love, compassion and tolerance in lieu of merely preaching them."

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 Sufferings Caused by Lama Policy

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

Lama Policy

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

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

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

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

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

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

The chapter concludes with:

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

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

Dalai Lama supporters attack young monks

Two young tulkus (reincarnate Lamas) recently had to leave Gaden Jangtze Monastery as a result of the Dalai Lama's ban on their spiritual practice. They joined the newly formed and fast-growing Shar Gaden Monastery so that they could openly practice Dorje Shugden without fear of reprisal.

It didn't work. On the night of May 30 these two young monks, Lobsang Damchoe and Lobsang Choekyi Gyaltsen, were severely beaten up by six monks from Gaden Jangtze. The six attackers are all supporters of the Dalai Lama's ban, and have admitted to planning and carrying out the attack, which was completely unprovoked. There is no news yet from the monastery as to whether or not they will receive any discipline for this premeditated crime.

Shar Gaden Monastery is just 10 minutes walk away from Gaden Jangtze Monastery.

The two young tulkus have been admitted to hospital and are now recuperating.

Once again, the Dalai Lama's ban on Dorje Shugden practice has caused hard-line anti-Shugden supporters -- even Buddhist monks -- to act out unlawfully and in violence against their own kind who practice Dorje Shugden.

Please write in to Gaden Jangtze Monastery to let them know the world is watching:

Attention: Abbot, Gaden Jangtze Monastery, P.O. Tibetan Colony-Mundgod, Lama Camp No. 1, N. Kanara, Karnataka State, India 581411

See also the report on the Western Shugden Society Website.

The History of Dorje Shugden

In the commentary Heart Jewel, Geshe Kelsang explains the spiritual history of the Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden -- a short account that is deeply inspiring to practitioners and that evokes great faith. It is enough history for many who have faith in their spiritual teachers, lineage and Protector.

Now a new website has been completed, which gives more detail and historical context through which everyone, even the most skeptical, can hopefully start to see that Dorje Shugden has always been relied upon as a Buddha.

This website uncovers the texts, rituals, historical works and art dedicated to the practice of the Wisdom Buddha Dorje Shugden. As the author, Trinley Kalsang, explains:

"Although there are many texts that reveal the gradual development of the system of ritual for this deity, much of this has not been brought out in the open for examination."

Much of this material in fact has been deliberately suppressed because it proves that Dorje Shugden has been considered an enlightened being and the Protector of the Gelug lineage for several hundred years, since he first arose in this form; and this quite obviously undermines the 14th Dalai Lama's pronouncements of Dorje Shugden being a spirit of the dark forces, a Chinese demon, and so on.

Trinley Kalsang, a scholar of Tibetan, focuses on works from the time period before the 20th century. He leaves aside the works of Pabongkha Rinpoche and Trijang Rinpoche with the exception of various references to how these have drawn upon these earlier works. In particular, it can now be seen how the basic components of the practice were originally developed within the Sakya tradition and then incorporated into the Gelug tradition.

In particular, these translations and essays naturally disprove many of the fallacious ideas written in The Shuk-den Affair by Georges Dreyfus, who put the onus of the development and spread of Dorje Shugden on the individual figure of Pabongkha Rinpoche in the 20th century. He was not the first to do so, but he lent the Dalai Lama's claim Western academic credibility and enabled copy cat commentators, altogether doing a great deal of damage to the reputation of Dorje Shugden and his followers.

As Trinley Kalsang explains, the presentation of The Shuk-den Affair follows the same approach as that found in polemical Tibetan works, including the Brief History of Opposition to Shugden by the Tibetan Government in Exile's “Dolgyal Research Committee", the main thrust of which is to discredit the Dorje Shugden practice by discrediting Pabongkha Rinpoche. With this approach, the existing practice is presented as a whimsical device of one person rather than as a true spiritual practice with precedence. With The Shuk-den Affair, Dreyfus took this same pre-existing presentation and wrapped it in a seemingly scholarly package.

Dreyfus therefore got behind the Dalai Lama and his Government in Exile in discrediting the practice of Dorje Shugden and falsely accusing the highly revered Gelugpa Lama Je Phabongkhapa of possessing a sectarian agenda. Regrettably, some later Western commentators such as David Kay relied upon Dreyfus's work as the basis for their own inaccurate and defamatory accounts of the Wisdom Buddha without doing the original research that would have shown them that Dreyfus's work was full of problems and political bias to begin with. Consciously or not, these commentators' omission in doing decent research, relying so heavily on accounts by the Dalai Lama, TGIE and Dreyfus, seems to have arisen from trying to stay on the right side of the Tibetan power structure. It appears that they took as their starting point the assumption that the Dalai Lama must be right and skewed the history to fit with this. Had they found these collected works, and used them, they might have been able to tell a more accurate story.

The main sources for this website were originally collected by the Mongolian scholar and master Lobsang Tamdin (1867-1937), who gathered a number of earlier texts written by Mongolian and Tibetan masters. Regardless of where individuals stand on whether or not people should be allowed to continue their practice of Dorje Shugden, the translations on this website prove that Pabongkha Rinpoche did not invent any aspect of this practice, but merely absorbed and propagated it.The translations speak for themselves -- not a lot of added interpretation or polemics are required to challenge the views of the Dalai Lama, the TGIE, Dreyfus, and other detractors.

As the author says:

"In short, it has been revealed from historical sources that Dorje Shugden is the Three Bodhisattvas: Avalokiteshvara, Vajrapani and Manjushri. He is the sole protector ever to bear the title Protector of the Conqueror Manjunatha, having the responsibility to protect and promote the doctrine of the Second Buddha Jamgon Lama Tsongkhapa. "

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.]

Pabongka Rinpoche and the Gelugpa Tradition

Pabongka Rinpoche (1878-1941AD) was one of the greatest Gelugpa Lamas of the past century. He possessed many spiritual realizations and was highly revered. He was the root Guru of both the 14th Dalai Lama's own principal teachers, Trijang Rinpoche and Ling Rinpoche; therefore, almost all the Dalai Lama's Dharma knowledge comes from Pabongka Rinpoche.

His reputation is currently being besmirched by some detractors of Dorje Shugden, but there is an increasing amount of information about him becoming available on the Internet to show that this criticism is unfounded. This includes the new blog called "Scholars and Yogis Please Check!", which has recently run a series of articles on Pabongka Rinpoche.

As the translator of his famous text Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand explains, Je Phabongkhapa had a profound and far-reaching influence on the Gelug tradition:

Pabongka Rinpoche was probably the most influential Gelug Lama of this century, holding all the important lineages of Sutra and Tantra, and passing them on to most of the important Gelug Lamas of the next two generations; the list of his oral discourses is vast in depth and breadth. He was also the root guru of the Kyabje Ling Rinpoche (1903-83AD), Senior Tutor of the Dalai Lama, Trijang Rinpoche, and many other highly respected teachers. His collected works occupy fifteen large volumes and over every aspect of Buddhism. If you have ever received a teaching from a Gelug Lama, you have been influenced by Pabongka Rinpoche.

Zong Rinpoche, also a highly regarded Gelug Lama, says on the blog mentioned above:

Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and Kyabje Ling Rinpoche were tutors to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. They taught His Holiness everything from basic teachings to advanced levels.

Kyabje Phabongka passed all of his lineages to Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang. He often said this in discourses. The purpose of this detailed exposition is to affirm the power of the lineage. If we lose faith in the lineage, we are lost.

We should remember the biographies of past and present teachers. We should never develop negative thoughts towards our root and lineage gurus."

Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People (including Shugden practitioners?)

Theoretically, there is much to recommend in this recent Memorandum (which came out prior to the recent meeting about Tibet in Dharamsala). However, the stumbling block in practice is the section on "Religion", where the Central Tibetan Administration (Tibetan Government in Exile) is asking the Chinese for something that they and the 14th Dalai Lama are not prepared to give themselves.

Religion
"Religion is fundamental to Tibetans and Buddhism is closely linked to their identity. We recognise the importance of separation of church and state, but this should not affect the freedom and practice of believers. It is impossible for Tibetans to imagine personal or community freedom without the freedom of belief, conscience and religion. The Constitution recognises the importance of religion and protects the right to profess it. Article 36 guarantees all citizens the right to the freedom of religious belief. No one can compel another to believe in or not to believe in any religion. Discrimination on the basis of religion is forbidden."

If everyone was indeed allowed "the freedom of belief, conscience and religion", it might would be possible to imagine once again "personal and community freedom" for all Tibetans in exile and even back in Tibet, as opposed to the division and confinement caused by the unconstitutional ban on Dorje Shugden (which breaks Article 36) and ostracism of Shugden practitioners.

How is the forced signature campaign compliant with this ideal "No one can compel another to believe in or not to believe in any religion"?

It is really hard to see how the TGIE can justify speaking these noble words when their deeds go in the opposite direction, away from the "freedom of religious belief" and right toward "discrimination on the basis of religion".

This is a telling and somewhat ironic statement:

"We recognise the importance of separation of church and state, but this should not affect the freedom and practice of believers."

The fact that church and state in the exile community are not separate is precisely what has "affected the freedom and practice of believers". This constitutional violation of religious freedom would never have happened if the Dalai Lama were not both a religious and political leader.

A patriotic Tibetan woman who is not a Shugden practitioner comments on the recent meeting in Dharamsala in He Has Got it Wrong. (This is based on Eliot Sperling's article of the same name.) Here are some extracts:

This meeting could have been both special and historic, if we had taken the bold and painful step that I believe is unavoidable: To allow the Dalai Lama to retire into the religious sphere, and set the stage for the separation of religion and politics.

We all know that Buddhism doesn’t claim to answer the world’s problems. And yet we are expecting the Dalai Lama to solve our political problems. We even elected another Lama, Samdong Tulku, to be our Prime Minister. But by having religious leaders doing political work, we have also been limiting ourselves in ways to struggle for the freedom of our country, which in essence is a worldly problem.

There were specific historical events which led to the emergence of a theocratic form of government in Tibet 500 years ago. But in the last 50 years, since external forces made us join the modern world, the geopolitical situation has become so complex, the demands to government so overwhelming that one guy alone at the top cannot deliver.

In our hearts, we know that worldly problems should be dealt with by worldly measures and by worldly people. As a consequence, let our Lamas return to their monasteries and resume their roles as spiritual teachers. This will clear the way for capable laypeople, men and women, to come forward and eventually, from their midst, a new leader will emerge who will unite and lead us in our struggle for freedom and justice.

In Dharamsala this month, we missed the opportunity to take charge. Now that would have made the meeting not only special but truly historic.