The job I had then was heading nowhere and every day felt like a draining day of cyclic existence that was repetitive and robotic. There was no purpose in life and I felt most alone with no one to turn to or trust.

At that time, I was told by my Guru to pray and rely on Dorje Shugden. There have since been many little incidences where I have felt like I was being helped by the Protectors: from car accidents, to finances, career choices, even relationships. The Protectors seem to help when you need them the most.

There have been many cases where I thought I was finished! I’d hit a dead end! Then, always, something would seem to just manifest to help me at that moment so that I could continue doing my Dharma work without too many worries and difficulties.

The most memorable experience I had was avoiding a potentially fatal car accident. I was driving towards my sister’s home when suddenly, my car lost control. It spun 180 degrees and ended up facing the opposite direction of the oncoming traffic. I looked around and realized I was very, very lucky not to have hit other cars or have other vehicles smash into me; there was not a single car in sight on the highway where I was at the time.

Dorje Shugden is certainly no ordinary Protector but an Enlightened one. Sometimes, whatever you wish for may not come out the way you expect because the Buddhas know what is best for each of us. Dorje Shugden is after all Manjushri. My story is not of something miraculous, magical nor of one huge event that changed my life drastically overnight. Instead, it has been the little things that I have noticed, when you are most down or at a dead end.

The most direct benefit I have experienced is that whenever there is anything to do with Dharma, I always have the good fortune to be able to attend the event or activity, be present for a teaching and be close to the Lama, which I feel is the greatest blessing of all.

~ Anonymous ~

When I first encountered the Protector, I prayed only for wealth and fame, hoping that I would get everything I wanted just by praying and making offerings to him. I thought that since he is a Protector, he is supposed to grant all our wishes!
Things became better at the beginning in terms of finance, work and family. But a few weeks later, I was asked to move out from the place I was staying in. I was so angry and felt depressed. I questioned why this was happening to me. I asked why this Protector was not answering my prayers or “doing his job” since I had been praying to him. I didn’t realize then that it was all due to my own karma.

Luckily, I did not stop my practice. One day, my Guru gave a teaching on the Protector. He spoke about the Protector’s qualities and explained clearly to us the reasons for relying upon a Protector. I realized what I had been praying for was so small when in fact the Protector can help us to gain something much bigger: enlightenment.

In Dorje Shugden’s prayers, the main focus is always to practice the teachings of Lama Je Tsongkhapa. Every part of his prayer is a reminder for me to get rid of my bad qualities with confessions (knowing the misdeeds we have done), offering (developing a generous mind), praises (to counter jealousy) etc.

Slowly but steadily, I feel my life improving, as I become more generous, accept karma and praise others’ good qualities. Looking back now, I realize that the Protector manifested a “bad” situation for me as a lesson to learn, understand the Dharma and to be close to my Guru.

~ Kelly ~

Without me even knowing, Dorje Shugden has always watched over me and my family. Since 1996, my mum has been a Dorje Shugden practitioner and even though we had a 3-feet statue in the house, I never knew who it was as my siblings and I were told it was Manjushri!

It was when I was 17 that I had done my first Dorje Shugden retreat and during that period I was in the middle of doing my A-levels at a local college. Studying at that local college was a decision made based on the result of a Dorje Shugden divination. After graduating from an international school, I was given the choice of studying in the school’s 6th form, in a boarding school in England or at a local college. Obviously wanting to remain in the same school (with the same friends) or to jet-set over to England were very favourable choices for me, but at that time my family was not in a good financial situation, and choosing those options would’ve put a heavier strain on my parents.

The divination came out stating that I should pursue my pre-university course in a local college, and so following the words I left the bubble of an international school to a college where half of the student population was on government scholarships. Prior to entering the college, I never had any friends who were from local schools and those that I mixed around with were from the same social circle and social class, where our school fees per month were double the minimum wage.

I entered the college 2 weeks late, as I tried dragging my holiday on for as long as possible, and I walked into a class full of studious faces staring at me as if I had a booger on my face. I was asked to introduce myself in front of everyone and so I shyly muttered, ‘Hi, my name is Lily and I just graduated from the International School of Manila’. I realized that as I spoke, everyone was looking at each other, whispering and looking a little amused.

During lunch, I talked to some of my classmates and they kept asking questions regarding my life as if I was from a different country. After what seemed like an interview, one of the guys asked me politely how much my school fees were and after I told him he replied, ‘My parents don’t even make that much in a year’. His reaction hit me really hard as I realized that every single one of my classmates was not from the city and had worked really hard to get the scholarship to study where I thought was ‘such a piece of crap’.

I spent the next 2 years surrounded by down-to-earth, innocent (in a sense that they haven’t been corrupted by social politics) and really kind people. Those two years took me out of a silver-spoon-fed bubble and showed me people of my generation who reminded me of where my parents came from. Through a paralleled comparison, it reminded me of how hard my dad had to study to be able to provide what he can today.

With all outward things stable (finances, family etc.), I believe that our personal attitude and personality might be an obstacle that would probably be the hardest to overcome. We pray that we might get this car, get this job or get this grade, but never pray that we will be nicer, less angry or less miserly.

Like I wrote above, I feel that my life has been pretty smooth. However, I strongly feel that Dorje Shugden has shaped my personality to what it is today, and had I gone down a different path, I would most probably be someone quite spoilt, arrogant and obnoxious. I might not even be attracted to the Dharma or volunteer in charitable work like I do now.

It might be that some readers of this testimonial will find it silly that such a subtle impact is the one that I’m writing about, but if that divination has influenced me to becoming who I am today, i.e. being open and attracted to Dorje Shugden’s practice and actively promoting it, then I feel that it is worth mentioning.

~ Anita ~