My first encounter with Dorje Shugden was after I met my spiritual guide, who took Dorje Shugden as his main Protector. Dorje Shugden thus also become my main Protector. In the beginning, I was not very attracted to the Protector practices as I was more interested in the Yidams.
However, I later realized the importance of Protector practice. Buddha taught us 84,000 teachings to gain enlightenment and Protector practices like that of Dorje Shugden’s is one method of helping us to gain merits and purify our negativities quickly. If I focused on my Yidam practice alone without doing the Protector practice, attainments would be harder to achieve. This was what my spiritual guide had taught me.
Dorje Shugden – who is inseparable from my Guru and Yidam – has been helping me along the spiritual path until today and I know that he has come to my rescue many times. For example, whenever I travelled around the world to attend teachings and retreats, I would pray to Dorje Shugden for a safe journey, to arrive at the intended destination safely. I did not experience many obstacles during those journeys, and even if I did, many people I met while travelling, even complete strangers, would come to my assistance if anything went wrong.
I strongly believe that Dorje Shugden has played a part in ensuring that I fulfilled my spiritual goals and created the above-mentioned conditions for me to experience this. Even when I slip in my practice, Dorje Shugden never fails to protect and create the conditions for me to persevere and apply effort to get back on track again.
~ Ted M ~
