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BEJING POLITICS VERSUS DHARAMSALA POLITICS: POLITICS IS POLITICS IS POLITICS…
Comment on the Current Tibetan/Chinese Conflict
Excerpted from Gelek Rimpoche’s Sunday Talk, March 16, 2008
Let’s try to understand the current situation in Tibet. This has been going on for fifty years. The Communist Chinese have always been suspicious of monasteries and Buddhism. For example, in Drepung, the monastery where I was educated in Tibet, the Communists openly set up government-sanctioned committees, organizing people to spy on each other. You couldn’t trust anybody - your teachers, friends, students, not even your parents. Kids were spying on their parents, students on their teachers, and disciplinary monk officials on their abbots. That is how it has been functioning for fifty years.
Close to two years ago, communist officials had the idea to ensure that the monks there didn’t respect His Holiness the Dalai Lama. They made up a document that basically said: “The Dalai Lama is evil” and wanted everybody to agree by signing it. The monks refused to sign. They said their refusal had nothing to do with politics, but was purely for spiritual reasons.
The authorities arrested the monks who refused to sign and put them in jail and never released them. A few days ago, some Drepung monastery monks went into the market place to demonstrate their request for these monks to be released. They were beaten, tear gased and jailed. Turn by turn, each day following, monks from Sera, then Ganden monasteries also demonstrated, were beaten and jailed as well as nuns from various monasteries. The sound of their cries and screams were heard all over Lhasa. Everybody was crying.
Eventually, some people got angry and started to throw molotow cocktails into Chinese owned shops, so there was a huge amount of destruction. The central government of China declared martial law at three am on March 14. The whole city of Lhasa is now completely filled with soldiers and para-military that were trucked in and the Chinese government said they would violently suppress any demonstrations. The Chinese claim 10 people were killed. Tibetan sources say that more than 200 were killed -- quite a different picture.
It is very clear that the Chinese authorities have had complete control over Tibet for 50 years but failed to win the heart of the people. That is because their policies are not helping the people much. In particular the local government of Tibet is run by lesser educated officials, many of whom are relics of the Cultural Revolution. They are confused and don’t understand the true situation. Their reports to the Central government in Beijing are confused and incorrect and that is why the Chinese authorities were taken by surprise by the events of the last weeks.
The local Chinese authorities also can never understand the relationship between the Dalai Lama and Buddhism. They can neither separate the two nor put them together. They are completely confused about the role of the Dalai Lama. Vilifying statements like “The Dalai Lama is nothing but a wolf covered by monk’s robes, a demon with human face” clearly show the limit of knowledge and character of those making such statements.
This situation is indeed very, very sad. It really calls for international support. This can be done by people expressing their sympathy and feelings and also urging their representatives, senators and house representatives, as well as journalists, national and local media to pay attention and try to find out the true situation.
© Jewel Heart 2008
COMMENTARY:
CHANGE A FEW WORDS (SEE BELOW) AND YOU GET… QUITE A DIFFERENT PICTURE… OR SHOULD ONE SAY – QUITE THE SAME PICTURE?
HOW SAD THAT DHARMASALA POLITICS RESEMBLE BEJING POLITICS IN SO MANY REGARDS.
WHATEVER ONE CHOOSES TO BELIEVE ABOUT DORJE SHUGDEN, THE SHOCKING SIMILARITIES IN CHINESE AND TIBETAN POLITICS REVEAL PLAINLY THE HUGE DISSERVICE THE PERSECUTION OF DORJE SHUGDEN PRACTITIONERS IS DOING TO THE TIBETAN PEOPLE, THE BUDDHIST TEACHINGS AND HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA.
ONE CANNOT HELP BUT CONCLUDE: DHARAMSALA POLITICS HARM THE CAUSE OF TIBET AND HH THE DALAI LAMA! THE LOSS OF THE POSITIVE IMAGE OF TIBET AND BUDDHISM, WHICH WE OWE SO GREATLY TO HIS HOLINESS, CAN ONLY HAVE FAR-REACHINGLY TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES.
Comment on the Current Tibetan/Tibetan Conflict
Let’s try to understand the current situation in the Gelugpa tradition. This has been going on for three hundred and fifty years. The Tibetan government has always been suspicious of monasteries and Buddhism that do not endorse mixing spirituality and politics. For example, in Drepung, the monastery where I was educated in Tibet, now in India, they openly, just a few months ago, set up government-sanctioned committees, organizing people to spy on each other. You couldn’t trust anybody - your teachers, friends, students, and what’s worst – you were ordered to not even trust your Root Gurus, in case they prayed to a deity that many if not most of the holiest Masters since the 18th century had relied on. Kids were spying on their parents, students on their teachers, and disciplinary monk officials on their abbots. That is how it has been functioning for thirtyyears, at first as a Tibetan ‘internal affair’, and for the last ten years as a global campaign.
Close to thirty years ago, Tibetan officials had the idea to ensure that the monks there didn’t respect His Holiness Dorje Shugden. They made up a document that basically said: “Dorje Shugden is evil” and wanted everybody to agree by signing it. The monks refused to sign. They said their refusal had nothing to do with politics, but was purely for spiritual reasons. (……………!!!)
The authorities arrested the monks who refused to sign and threw them out of their monasteries, after excommunicating them. A few months ago, some Dorje Shugden-practicing monks went into the debate court do do what one does in a debate court – debate about philosophical topics. They were thrown eggs and other objects at. Turn by turn, each day following, monks from Sera, then Ganden monasteries also demonstrated against them, attempting to force them to give up the practice transmitted to them by their Root Gurus (who in thousands of cases was the enlightened Master who tutored theDalai Lama for decades and who did more for Tibet than anyone else during the Chinese communist invasion )which in Vajrayana Buddhism is tantamount to throwing oneself into the darkest hell. The sound of their cries and screams were heard all over the world. Everybody who cared about human rights and religious freedom – and most of all those who cared about the fundamental principles of Buddhism: compassion, logic, reason – was crying.
Eventually, this annual debate session was shut down, for the first time in Tibetan history, so there was a huge amount of spiritual, psychological and physical destruction. The central government of Tibet declared martial law. Indian police had to be trucked in to ensure ‘the accused’ monks were allowed to sit in the same prayer hall as everyone else, and watch their fellow monks eat their meals while they received none, and the Tibetangovernment said they would violently suppress any further propitiation of this deity that hundreds of attained and saintly Masters recognize as an emanation of the Buddha of wisdom, Manjushri. The politicians claim the ‘demon’ was killed. Tibetan and international spiritual sources say that more likely the Gelugpa school of Buddhism was killed -- quite a different picture.
It is very clear that the Tibetan authorities have had complete control over Tibet for 350 years but failed to win the heart of the people. That is because their policies are not helping the people much. In particular the local government of Tibet is run by lesser educated officials, many of whom are relics of the 5th Dalai Lama’s Revolution/forced takeover. They are confused and don’t understand the true situation. The reports of the self-declared government in Dharamsala to their people and the worldare confused and incorrect and that is why many – but not everyone – were taken by surprise by the events of the last months.
The local Tibetan authorities also can never understand the relationship between Dorje Shugden and Buddhism. They can neither separate the two nor put them together. They are also completely confused about the role of the Dalai Lama. Vilifying statements like “Dorje Shugden is nothing but a demon covered by monk’s robes, a demon with divine face that harms the Dalai Lama and Tibet” clearly show the limit of knowledge and character of those making such statements.
This situation is indeed very, very sad. It really calls for international support. This can be done by people expressing their sympathy and feelings and also urging their representatives, senators and house representatives, as well as journalists, national and local media to pay attention and try to find out the true situation.
© Heart Jewel (??...) 2008
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SHORT SADHANA
OF
DORJE SHUGDEN
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PANCHEN & SHUGDEN
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THE 'LIBRARY OF TIBETAN WORKS AND ARCHIVES' (LTWA) PUBLISHED TEXTS AUTHORED BY DORJE SHUGDEN'S PREVIOUS INCARNATION
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WHO MADE LAMA ZOPA A RINPOCHE?
Lama Zopa Rinpoche was recognized as a reincarnation of Lawudo Lama by DORJE SHUGDEN himself.
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ARE GREAT LAMAS FICKLE???
If the Dalai Lama can say that other lamas including his own lamas can be wrong, he is leading us onto a path, to believe he can be wrong also. That is a dangerous path we are choosing. Then in the end, no lamas has basis or can be right.
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LIBERATION STORIES
One can be an "Enlightened Being" and simultaneously have broken one's refuge vows...ROLL YOUR EYES...
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SUPPRESSION STORIES
How the Tibetan Government uses His Holiness and history to suppress Dorje Shugden in the name of "Free Tibet" and "non-sectarianism".
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SANCTIFIED SECTARIANISM
The reason why dharmapala Dorje Shugden was asked by Nechung to arise was so that these teachings can be preserved, kept alive, and realized in the future, more and more degenerated times to come, in a word – for us.
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LETTER OF THE DAY
If Dorje Shugden is the cause for Tibetans not getting independence up till now..then that would mean Dorje Shugden’s powers are greater than the combined powers of all the Dharma protectors of Tibet and all the four schools of Buddhism..could that be so?
Marc (USA)
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MIDDLE WAY
In a nutshell’s nutshell, the middle way is the harmony of emptiness – the ultimate nature of everything, and dependent arising – the appearance of everything. As Je Tsongkhapa pointed out, unless grasping at even the most subtle concept of inherent existence is overcome, enlightenment can not happen, which has been misunderstood as nihilism.
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UNIVERSAL PROTECTOR OF FUTURE BUDDHISM
“The southern gate is held closed in accordance with an old tradition that the chokyong Dorje Shugden is waiting at this entrance for the day to come on which he will be allowed to enter the monastery, to succeed Pehar as the chief dharmapala of Tibet…”
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WHY NOT JUST KILL HIM?
In recent times again, such an attempt was again made and Dorje Shugden was declared ‘dead’. The very next day, he took trance and said this:
“They can bury me in earth,
drown me in water,
burn me in fire
but they cannot destroy
what is not object to destruction.
Do not worry – soon the sun will shine.”
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GURU YIDAM PROTECTOR
The practice of analytic meditation should begin with the topic of how to serve a spiritual teacher.
If you contemplate skillfully for about seven days the benefits of serving a teacher and for about seven days also the faults of failing to serve a teacher, you will produce a mental transformation.
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SUPRAMUNDANE AND MUNDANE DHARMA PROTECTORS
Like we stated earlier, his Holiness has to please many people. But it is hard to believe that the Dalai Lama would do something out of ignorance, and that He had to do further investigations to know what His famous predecessor thought. And to say that the unmistaken reincarnation of Panchen Sonam Drakpa – the only Lama in Tibetan history to have served as abbot of all three main Gelukpa monasteries, as well as Gaden Tripa – could have arisen as “malevolent force as result of misguided aspirations”, amounts to saying that a Buddha can become a demon...
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PURPOSES OF THE CONTROVERSY – SPREADING DHARMA WITHOUT AND WITHIN
As Buddha Shakyamuni did with his “evil” cousin Devadatta, to subdue the dualistic minds of their students and to strengthen the Buddhadharma’s roots in this world, enlightened masters have always enacted dramas of “good versus evil”, acted as if insane, and appeared in any form they knew suitable for the various dispositions of people, from hedonistic priests to holy prostitutes, from winos to demons. As we can check with the scriptures, a Buddha can even manifest as a chair, and only a Buddha can know what’s what and who’s who.
We’d be very smart not to judge...
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THE DALAI LAMA’S AND TIBETAN BUDDHISM’S WAY INTO OUR WORLD
Quite literally, His Holiness’ way from isolated Tibet onto the stage of the world at large was paved by Gyalchen Dorje Shugden.
In 1959, in Tibet ’s besieged capitol, Lhasa , as HH Trijang Rinpoche writes in his autobiography, he was increasingly worried about His Holiness’ safety. The state oracle’s advice having not been clear so far, Trijang Rinpoche consulted with Dorje Shugden via Panglung Monastery’s oracle, who urged His Holiness to leave immediately, giving precise instructions for a safe escape. For example, Dorje Shugden aviced to use the southern route out of Lhasa, which turned out to be the only one not fully taken by the Red Army. Kungo Phala, the Dalai Lama's Chamberlain, said later that everything happened just as the Dharmapala had predicted...
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WHAT GYALCHEN DORJE SHUGDEN WANTS
Dorje Shugden wants us to practice authentic Dharma and gain authentic attainments. He wants us to get onto a valid path and keep us from straying from it; from falling into the abysses of eternalism and nihilism and the unfortunate karma created by doing so.
Does he feel only Lozang the Victorious One’s Teachings – Je Tsongkhapa’s Geluk tradition – are authentic and valid?
We don’t think so! An enlightened being is, of course, universal...
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SECTARIANISM
A few thoughts on sectarianism. Names are just conventions, and Je Tsongkhapa or Gelukpa are not about a person or a club, but about an enlightened presentation and transmission of Buddha’s teachings. It is all so far removed from sectarianism when the holy Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu and Geluk schools praise their lineage and do whateverer they can to prevent it from degenerating, which is so very hard in today’s world where self-cherishing is the god we worship, and where the easiest way is always the best...
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