The Real Enemy Of The State

[vajratruth]

What is stoking Iraqi rage?
Al Jazeera: We ask what really lies behind the prevailing unrest and if the president will be able to contain the sectarian anger. 28/12/2012

The Iraqi government is dealing with the anger of thousands of protesters this week.

"Certain elements of Iraqiya are resorting to sectarian[ism] trying to mobilise for the upcoming local elections, and it's very apparent that those who have been very negative in pushing for the services to the people or assisting parliament with new laws, are the same people polarising the population."

- Saad al-Muttalibi, a member of the State of Law Coalition

Mass rallies are taking place in Ramadi and Fallujah against what is seen as an unfair crackdown on Sunnis.

What are the challenges facing the Nouri al-Maliki administration, a government of national unity formed in 2010?

The unrest is part of a broader sectarian tension that threatens the stability of the war-torn country, a year after the last US troops left.

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2012/12/2012122883152380385.html#disqus_thread
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Hardly a year after the last of US troops left Iraq, we see the country at risk of being plunged into civil unrest again fuelled by an age-old argument between the Sunni and Shia Muslims. Today the Sunni and the Shia differ in theology, doctrine, ritual and application of the Fiqh but tracing the dispute to its roots, it appears that the quarrel began not as a religious issue but merely due to a disagreement on who should succeed the Prophet Mohammed as the next leader of the Islamic Community.

From that, a schism started and the failure to address a fracture allowed it to escalate to a 1000-year old conflict that has often been played out in the battlefields. It split the people and allowed nations to be divided and easily conquered as we have seen in the case of Iraq, never mind what we have all been fed by the biased media.

Today, the same unresolved issue threatens the Iraqi people who are already badly beaten up by endless conflict and struggling to get back on their feet. The lesson here is that the most lethal enemy of a nation is not so much a foreign imperialist power eyeing what they deem valuable on the nation’s shores,  but politically motivated schisms introduced from within the midst of the people’s own community, by their own leaders, that divide people based on faith.

The Dorje Shugden ban that the Central Tibetan Administration has imposed on a large group within the Tibetan exiled community since 1996, is one such lethal enemy that, left unchecked, will throw an entire nation of people who are already stateless, into complete extinction.

The Shugden issue is no more a religious issue than the Sunni-Shia conflict when it started but it can evolve into one if not remedied quickly. To draw an analogy, the Shugden affair is as if a self proclaimed and unelected head of the Islamic Community who happened to favor the Shia Muslims for political reasons, suddenly declared that all Sunnis must stop their traditional practice and now become Shias or they will be deemed enemies of Allah and a jihad will be declared against them as also enemies of Islam. Can anyone imagine this? It is difficult to see how anyone can or should get away with such dangerous political play and yet this is what is happening within the Tibetan diaspora.

The CTA may think that it has got the better of the Shugdenpas but if the ban “appears” to be effective, it is only because the peaceful Shugden practitioners are loyal to the Dalai Lama and will not oppose His Holiness openly. But seeds of discontent and bitterness have been planted deep. They are also afraid to be labeled enemies of Free Tibet as is the propaganda against them.

But the Dalai Lama must one day pass, perhaps even soon (although all Buddhists pray for His Holiness to live long), and as younger generations of exiled Tibetans become more educated and made aware of their rights, they will rise, they will organize themselves and they will oppose a morally bankrupt and incompetent CTA. That day is near but today the focus seems to be in protests against China but soon, they will realize what is actually splitting the people is not a foreign power but a corrupt government. Schisms don’t go away. They grow and quickly mutate into something unrecognizable and uncontrollable as we see in Iraq today. A situation so torn it is virtually irreparable. That is why the Lord Buddha warned against it but the CTA have thought better.

http://youtu.be/vcGsVc5Opug
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[samayakeeper]

It's sad that many political protests and unrest around the world involve some elements of spiritual practice that one group uses it to gain control and power over another group. And many of them, politically motivated, are cloaked behind the name of spirituality and vice versa.

Such is in the case of the ban against Dorje Shugden practice by the CTA who assumed the role as big brother. They have turned the holy dharma into a laughing stock to the peoples of the world where Buddhism and its philosophy teaches good virtues but now seen as otherwise. It really is the time of spiritual degeneration where Buddhism will be weakened from the enemies within.

[DharmaDefender]

What is stoking Iraqi rage?
Al Jazeera: We ask what really lies behind the prevailing unrest and if the president will be able to contain the sectarian anger. 28/12/2012

The Iraqi government is dealing with the anger of thousands of protesters this week.

"Certain elements of Iraqiya are resorting to sectarian[ism] trying to mobilise for the upcoming local elections, and it's very apparent that those who have been very negative in pushing for the services to the people or assisting parliament with new laws, are the same people polarising the population."

- Saad al-Muttalibi, a member of the State of Law Coalition

Mass rallies are taking place in Ramadi and Fallujah against what is seen as an unfair crackdown on Sunnis.

What are the challenges facing the Nouri al-Maliki administration, a government of national unity formed in 2010?

The unrest is part of a broader sectarian tension that threatens the stability of the war-torn country, a year after the last US troops left.

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2012/12/2012122883152380385.html#disqus_thread
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hardly a year after the last of US troops left Iraq, we see the country at risk of being plunged into civil unrest again fuelled by an age-old argument between the Sunni and Shia Muslims. Today the Sunni and the Shia differ in theology, doctrine, ritual and application of the Fiqh but tracing the dispute to its roots, it appears that the quarrel began not as a religious issue but merely due to a disagreement on who should succeed the Prophet Mohammed as the next leader of the Islamic Community.

From that, a schism started and the failure to address a fracture allowed it to escalate to a 1000-year old conflict that has often been played out in the battlefields. It split the people and allowed nations to be divided and easily conquered as we have seen in the case of Iraq, never mind what we have all been fed by the biased media.

Today, the same unresolved issue threatens the Iraqi people who are already badly beaten up by endless conflict and struggling to get back on their feet. The lesson here is that the most lethal enemy of a nation is not so much a foreign imperialist power eyeing what they deem valuable on the nation’s shores,  but politically motivated schisms introduced from within the midst of the people’s own community, by their own leaders, that divide people based on faith.

The Dorje Shugden ban that the Central Tibetan Administration has imposed on a large group within the Tibetan exiled community since 1996, is one such lethal enemy that, left unchecked, will throw an entire nation of people who are already stateless, into complete extinction.

The Shugden issue is no more a religious issue than the Sunni-Shia conflict when it started but it can evolve into one if not remedied quickly. To draw an analogy, the Shugden affair is as if a self proclaimed and unelected head of the Islamic Community who happened to favor the Shia Muslims for political reasons, suddenly declared that all Sunnis must stop their traditional practice and now become Shias or they will be deemed enemies of Allah and a jihad will be declared against them as also enemies of Islam. Can anyone imagine this? It is difficult to see how anyone can or should get away with such dangerous political play and yet this is what is happening within the Tibetan diaspora.

The CTA may think that it has got the better of the Shugdenpas but if the ban “appears” to be effective, it is only because the peaceful Shugden practitioners are loyal to the Dalai Lama and will not oppose His Holiness openly. But seeds of discontent and bitterness have been planted deep. They are also afraid to be labeled enemies of Free Tibet as is the propaganda against them.

But the Dalai Lama must one day pass, perhaps even soon (although all Buddhists pray for His Holiness to live long), and as younger generations of exiled Tibetans become more educated and made aware of their rights, they will rise, they will organize themselves and they will oppose a morally bankrupt and incompetent CTA. That day is near but today the focus seems to be in protests against China but soon, they will realize what is actually splitting the people is not a foreign power but a corrupt government. Schisms don’t go away. They grow and quickly mutate into something unrecognizable and uncontrollable as we see in Iraq today. A situation so torn it is virtually irreparable. That is why the Lord Buddha warned against it but the CTA have thought better.




http://youtu.be/vcGsVc5Opug

Vajratruth I read what you wrote and as much as I agree with a lot of it, I have to disagree with your use of "seeds of discontent". It implies we will one day retaliate violently, when we never will. On the contrary, the majority of us (as well as our teachers) are and continue to be silent sufferers of this ban.

But the thing is, silence is often regarded as approval. So whats the middle ground? We cannot remain silent because we do not approve of the ban, and our teachers have taught us to respect ALL lamas so we cannot criticise them, protest against them or otherwise harm them.

So the only conclusion is, if we cannot pick up arms then we should bring down the ban with our words, our writings, and our constant reminders to the CTA that Dorje Shugden will continue to exist long after they (as a man-made entity) have dissolved. That shouldnt be interpreted as a threat, we are not here to bring down the CTA I dont think. Its just a natural course of life - governments come and go, and one day the CTA will go too. A small part of me also believes that the CTA KNOWS they are impermanent which is why all of their actions always smack as being power-grabbing.

[vajratruth]

Vajratruth I read what you wrote and as much as I agree with a lot of it, I have to disagree with your use of "seeds of discontent". It implies we will one day retaliate violently, when we never will. On the contrary, the majority of us (as well as our teachers) are and continue to be silent sufferers of this ban.

DharmaDefender, you may not and I may not and most Shugden practitioners who are guided by the Dharma that Dorje Shugden protects may not. But the fact that we may not retaliate does not mean that discontent has not been sowed by the CTA. What the Tibetan government has completely failed to appreciate is that the ban has affected not only Shugden practitioners but the entire Tibetan community, including themselves. People on both sides of the ban have lost friends and families because of it. Discontent is a poison that spreads across the community like toxic gas in the air.

Friends and families of Shugden practitioners witness their suffering under the unjust hand of their own leaders. They lose trust. The younger generation see how Sangha members are being treated and the message of the community is to say that it is fine to treat monks like criminals. They lose appreciation of the Sangha and in the process the Dharma. Monks are forced to make impossible choices between their guru and their spiritual leader. Some disrobe in frustration and others in disgust. They lose faith. The community is completely split. They lose unity. The general community stay silent about something they know is wrong. They lose integrity to fear.

What comes out of all these and is it not the entire community who has to bear the consequences when these dark seeds sprout? So many of the self immolators who have died begging for unity amongst the Tibetan people must know that the ban contributed largely to the disunity. They see their hopes dashed by a government who picks on its own people instead of working on a real problem. Those who can afford it leave the community to make a new life abroad giving up the Tibetan cause for dead.

[Ensapa]

DharmaDefender, you may not and I may not and most Shugden practitioners who are guided by the Dharma that Dorje Shugden protects may not. But the fact that we may not retaliate does not mean that discontent has not been sowed by the CTA. What the Tibetan government has completely failed to appreciate is that the ban has affected not only Shugden practitioners but the entire Tibetan community, including themselves. People on both sides of the ban have lost friends and families because of it. Discontent is a poison that spreads across the community like toxic gas in the air.

Friends and families of Shugden practitioners witness their suffering under the unjust hand of their own leaders. They lose trust. The younger generation see how Sangha members are being treated and the message of the community is to say that it is fine to treat monks like criminals. They lose appreciation of the Sangha and in the process the Dharma. Monks are forced to make impossible choices between their guru and their spiritual leader. Some disrobe in frustration and others in disgust. They lose faith. The community is completely split. They lose unity. The general community stay silent about something they know is wrong. They lose integrity to fear.

What comes out of all these and is it not the entire community who has to bear the consequences when these dark seeds sprout? So many of the self immolators who have died begging for unity amongst the Tibetan people must know that the ban contributed largely to the disunity. They see their hopes dashed by a government who picks on its own people instead of working on a real problem. Those who can afford it leave the community to make a new life abroad giving up the Tibetan cause for dead.

The ban has far reaching effects around the globe actually and amongst Buddhist communities. Those estranged from NKT uses him as a blame and there are many people here in the west who openly attack Dorje Shugden and everyone else that is associated with him elsewhere on the internet while knowing information only from the Dalai Lama's side and not knowing the full story. So we get white knights who think they know all about the whole affair and they demonize Dorje Shugden, and they swarm internet forums and other online avenues and attack anyone who talks positively or even mention about Dorje Shugden.

It would be interesting to see what would happen to them when the ban is lifted. Mental crash coming in 3 - 2- 1

[Big Uncle]

This comparison is a very interesting one because in Islam, war is romanticized and idealized as the holy struggle between the infidel and the perfect Islamic warrior. I guess, in some ways this is very much similar to certain ideals of Shambala teachings. However, I digress there.

As for the Dorje Shugden problem, segregation between practitioner and non-practitioner is pretty much the order of the day. It's a thin line that is drawn between segregation and stamping out of the practice because people just don't see the difference and the worse thing is that this ban has caused the very fabric of society to be torn. Family members and life-long friends have to part ways and sometimes pitted against each other. It's become a sort of civil strife, a civil war of sorts. All this in the name of banning a deity.

[Ensapa]

This comparison is a very interesting one because in Islam, war is romanticized and idealized as the holy struggle between the infidel and the perfect Islamic warrior. I guess, in some ways this is very much similar to certain ideals of Shambala teachings. However, I digress there.

As for the Dorje Shugden problem, segregation between practitioner and non-practitioner is pretty much the order of the day. It's a thin line that is drawn between segregation and stamping out of the practice because people just don't see the difference and the worse thing is that this ban has caused the very fabric of society to be torn. Family members and life-long friends have to part ways and sometimes pitted against each other. It's become a sort of civil strife, a civil war of sorts. All this in the name of banning a deity.

There's always time for crusades and holy wars because people would always wanna fight something. The battle between good and evil is something that everyone likes as it is the way of samsara: dualism so naturally people are drawn to the idea  of attacking something evil in religion. We have Satan in Christianity and Islam, and sometimes the hate is diverted to heatens, and the Dorje Shugden ban would easily provoke anyone who is restless and unstable and immature enough to be part of the crusade. After all, it is more fun to be a crusader than to be someone that quietly practices.