Since you started the cruel ban against the 350 year Dorje Shugden practice, how has it benefit your Tibetan society and Buddhism in the world? Things have become worse and most educated Tibetans can see this. They don’t speak out not because they don’t see your ban as wrong, but you instill fear in them and not respect. It is like fear of a dictator. I am sorry to say so. Everyone is divided. There is no harmony. Before your ban there was more harmony and unity.

By enacting the ban, you split the monasteries, split so many families, split regions in Tibet apart, split your disciples from you, split your own gurus from you, split Tibetan Buddhism apart. You have created so much disharmony.

It is not democratic what you have done to ban a religion within your community. You always talk of tolerance and acceptance and democracy and yet you do not accept and tolerate something different from your beliefs. When people practice Dorje Shugden you ostracize them, ban them from seeing you, ban them from using Tibetan facilities. You know you have done that. There are videos that capture your speech and prove this point. You even had people expelled from monasteries just because they practice Dorje Shugden. Some of the monks you expelled have been in the monastery for over 40 years. Many older monks shed tears because of this.

Many young educated Tibetans lost confidence in you as they saw the damage the Dorje Shugden ban created and they lose hope. Many have become free thinkers. They reject what you have done. So many people in the west left Buddhism because of the confusion you created with this ban against Dorje Shugden which is immoral.

You could of had millions of people who practice Dorje Shugden to support, love and follow you, but you scared them away. They are hurt and very disappointed. They loved you and respected you deeply before the ban. It has been 60 years and you have failed to get Tibet back. Your biggest failure is not getting Tibet back after 57 years in exile. Now you are begging China to allow you to return to Tibet to the disappointment of thousands of people who fought for a free Tibet believing in you. So many self-immolated for a free Tibet and now you want Tibet to be a part of China with no referendum from Tibetans. Just like a dictator, you decide on your own. It was your government and you that lost Tibet in the first place. Your policies and style of doing things do not benefit Tibet and Buddhism. You have been the sole ruler of Tibet your whole life and you still have not gotten our country of Tibet back for us. Our families and us are separated. Yet you create more pain by creating a ban to further divide people. Please have compassion.

No other Buddhist leader has banned or condemned any religion except for you. It looks very bad. You are a Nobel laureate and this is not fitting of a laureate. You should unite people and not separate them by religious differences.

You said Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi did not do right to the Rohingya people in Myanmar due to religious differences, but you are doing the same thing to the Shugden Buddhists within your own society. There is a parallel in this. You separate the Shugden Buddhists from the others in Tibetan society.

You have lost so many people who would have loved and supported you. You have lost so much support around the world. The Shugden Buddhists who love you number in the millions. When you are fast losing support from governments and private people, it will not do you well to lose more.

After you are passed away in the future, the rift you created between the Dorje Shugden and non-Dorje Shugden people will remain for a while and that will be your legacy. Disharmony. You will be remembered for this. Not as a hero but a disharmony creator.

Dorje Shugden will spread and further grow, but you will be no more as you are a human. No one wishes you bad and in fact we hope you have a long and healthy life, but we have lost so much hope and have so much despair because of you. All the hundreds of Dorje Shugden lamas, tulkus and geshes are maturing and there are hundreds of Dorje Shugden monasteries in Tibet who will not give up Dorje Shugden. You have made a mistake. These hundreds of teachers and teachers to be will spread Dorje Shugden further in the future.

The gurus that gave us Dorje Shugden as a spiritual practice and you have called these holy gurus wrong and they are mistaken in giving us Dorje Shugden. How can you insult our gurus whom we respect so much? If they can be wrong, then you can be wrong. Then all gurus can be wrong. So no one needs to listen to any guru? You have created this trend. It is not healthy. Your own gurus practiced Dorje Shugden their whole lives. Your own gurus were exemplary and highly learned.

Dalai Lama you have created so much pain with this ban against so many people due to religion. You are ageing fast. Are you going to do anything about it or stay stubborn, hard and un-moving. You show a smile and preach peace and harmony wherever you go. But will you do the same to your own people? Please rectify the wrong you have done. Please before it is too late. You can create harmony again or you can pass away in the future with this legacy of peace. May you live long and think carefully and admit what was a mistake in having this unethical ban against Dorje Shugden religion.

1) WRT the Drukpa Kagyu and Karma Kagyu: if this is true even in part, then I am very sad.

2) Yes, I directly follow the teachings of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye. That is called Rime’.

3)
Re: “How can a protector only protect Drigung Kagyu or just for Drigung Kagyu? Pretty sectarian wouldn’t you say?. So if a Gelug or Sakya follower propitiates her [ Achi Chokyi Drolma ], looks like there is no effect? That is pretty sectarian. Like her [ Achi ], each of the sects of Tibetan Buddhism and sub-sects have special protectors that protect ‘only’ their sect.

This is totally wrong. The original statement says otherwise.
Go to the website cited, and read it, please! It says the opposite of your interpretation:
http://www.rigdzindharma.org/achi-chokyi-drolma.html
and I quote
“Although Achi has a particular commitment to protect the Drikung Kagyu, she is recognized and practiced by all lineages of Tibetan Buddhism.”

Why misinterpret the entire first paragraph? You are claiming that somehow the Drikung protectress Achi is only for Drikung Kagyu, but no one ever said that except you!
I am certain you have no means of backing up your very very strange statement.
Do yourself a big favor Kelsang Jigmed and withdraw this unfounded claim.

The protectress Achi has a PARTICULAR commitment to the Drikung Kagyu, but that need not mean anything like an EXCLUSIVE commitment.
Achi is Mahayana, meaning universal. Any good and decent Mahayana practitioner of any lineage who receives a major Drikung empowerment automatically receives some connection to Achi.

The core practice of the Drikung Kagyu is standard Sarma/ New School, and they do lots of Nyingma. I have lots of both from them, e.g. from HH Kyabgon Chetsang Tulku and HE Kyabje Garchen Rinpoche, among others.
I also have many Sarma and Nyingma transmissions from the Karma Kagyu and from the Sakya.
These protectors are NOT “exclusive” in serving members of only one school or another.

Protector Vajrakilaya is originally Nyingma, but Vajrakilaya is Very important in the Sakya and Kagyu schools. I have many Vajrakilaya transmissions, and the first was Kagyu.
It is evident that Vajrakilaya is big in three of the Tibetan schools. And Vajrapani is THE protector of the Medicine Buddha teachings for ANY Mahayana school.
It is wrong to say there is a specifically “Sakya Vajrapani” or “Gelugpa Vajrapani” or “Chinese Vajrapani”.

I have well over one hundred high Vajrasattva / Vajrapani empowerments from all Tibetan schools plus a Chinese school, so I know what I am talking about.
Someone has to know how this stuff works!

Kelsang Jigmed, you need to learn to be more careful, especially when making serious charges of this kind against a whole lineage. Recklessness does not work, especially in vajrayana!
Humility and patience and diagnostic queries are better.

I have spent many hours over many years examining sectarian issues in Buddhism for several countries, not to mention inter-religious strife.
All these issues are very complicated and simple judgements do not work.
Instead they backfire. You have been warned.

So do not accuse the Drikungpas in this way. It will only cause you problems, not them.
And the Drikungpas don’t care what you say about them. They don’t argue, they just practice.
Clear?

The only reason I believe why we are even participating in this website is because we are fighting for religious freedom. We want the world to know how a large number of Tibetans are ostracized because of their religious choice. This is not acceptable as it infringes on human rights.

Whether a person chooses to practice Dorje Shugden or not is a personal choice. Whether a person chooses to follow the Gelug lineage is also a personal choice. But to criticize a lineage lama is disrespectful.

My message to Brian Jones is, “Please choose another religion or lineage if you find HH Pabongka Rinpoche not credible. Please do not criticize based on your own findings. In my opinion, you are not an accomplished Buddhist master and hence, are not qualified to pass any judgment on our lineage guru. If your opinions are credible and you are so learned and highly realised, I believe we would have heard of you in the Buddhist scene and you would have attained students under your tutelage.

Many things we read can easily be taken out of context. That’s why we need a qualified teacher to guide us. As spiritual practitioners we practise respect, tolerance, compassion and kindness. We don’t go around criticising other lineages and religions.

If you truly want to have any spiritual attainments, choose a lineage or religion and go all the way with it. At the end of the day, we’ll die and what really matters is our karma and spiritual development.”

2 factors that is impressionable in this post is Geshe Sopa’s practice of Dharma.

1) Despite his own accomplishment as a revered “teacher of scholars”, Geshe Sopa remains humble and continues to practice pure Guru devotion as reflected in his view, words and writings. The ways Geshe Sopa respects Pabongka Rinpoche as reflected in the pages from his book (pages 178-182) that the website team so helpfully shared above. This reinforces the principal that the Guru is fundamental to form a strong foundation in our Dharma journey for our Dharma attainments and the ultimate liberation.

2) The truly neutral and respectful stand he takes in relation to the Dorje Shugden controversy. Each and every individual has the basic human right to freedom of religion and Geshe Sopa openly states that he chooses not to practice Dorje Shugden. However, what I appreciate about Geshe Sopa is that he does not criticize Dorje Shugden or the practitioners in any manner. This is aligned to the Dalai Lama’s statement in the foreword of Like a Waking Dream: Geshe Sopa is truly scholar and practitioner who possesses “a deep and vast understanding of the Buddha’s teachings…” to protect and uphold the purity and authenticity of the Dharma.

His Holiness also states that Geshe Sopa is exemplary and this would mean that if we respect his words, we would make effort to follow Geshe Sopa as an example of our own spiritual practice.

The other lesson I learn from Geshe Sopa’s approach to the Dorje Shugden controversy is the lack of importance to be “right”. Instead of engaging in heat disagreements with focus on rights and wrongs, harmony is most important especially during this degenerate age. If we are the lucky few who have the merits and karma to have awareness of the Dharma and the fortune to actually learn and practice it, we must truly cherish it by show of action.

I appreciate the quote below very much.

As the glorious Chandrakirti said:
Any time you have freedom and your state is favorable,
If you do not take their advantage
And lose your freedom by falling to the lower realm,
Who will then raise you up again?
- Pabongka Dorje Chang, Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand
http://www.dorjeshugden.com/all-articles/dharma-readings/a-guide-to-spiritual-practice/

What Geshe Lhundub Sopa writes here is so true that nowadays so much violence is made in the name of religion, that religion should not be used to harm people or justify discrimination and hatred toward others, and these are not times for division for the Tibetan people.

Just look at what the ban is doing now.