FPMT’s registration form reflects intolerance

The two founders of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), Lama Yeshe (left) and Lama Zopa (right). Both masters propitiated Dorje Shugden strongly but after Lama Yeshe passed away and Lama Zopa became FPMT’s head, Dorje Shugden was banned. This discrimination is clearly evident in FPMT’s event registration forms. By turning against Dorje Shugden, FPMT have gone against the legacy of their extremely compassionate founder who practiced Dorje Shugden his whole life until his death. And the lineage lamas of the two FPMT founders were also all Dorje Shugden practitioners. Not only did the current FPMT people turn against their founder Lama Yeshe, but they also invalidate their lineage masters who practiced Dorje Shugden for their whole lives.

The opinion piece below was sent to dorjeshugden.com for publication. We accept submissions from the public, please send in your articles to [email protected].

 


 

By: Heinrich Hauff

A registration form is a written record of someone’s desire to participate in an event, organization, employment or program. It collects data and provides information and background of a person. Because forms are so common, they are often filled and submitted without any more thought than it being merely a standard process. However, in the hands of the wrong people, forms are a powerful means of manipulation and to bring others under their control.

FPMT’s sinister agenda is exemplified in their registration form. Click to enlarge.

A perfect example of this is Losang Dragpa Center’s (LDC) registration form that people need to fill in before they are allowed to attend the Lama Chopa Commentary by Dagri Rinpoche, during a Vesak event which is supposed to recall the values taught in the Buddha’s Teachings. LDC in Malaysia is the affiliate center of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), one of their various branches around the world. Founded in 1975 by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa, the FPMT is one of the larger Buddhist organizations, whose influence was strong during Lama Yeshe’s time but has waned due to the many political decisions they have become embroiled in.

FPMT has, throughout all its affiliate centers, denounced Dorje Shugden practice in spite of the fact their founder Lama Yeshe was a devoted Dorje Shugden practitioner who kept his practice until his passing in 1984. In fact, the Dalai Lama has said that those who practice Dorje Shugden will go to the Three Lower Realms, so it is uniquely ironic that Lama Yeshe’s incarnation was found, recognized and enthroned by none other than the Dalai Lama himself. The right thing the Dalai Lama should have done was to say there was no incarnation because Lama Yeshe practiced Dorje Shugden. His incarnation, named Lama Osel, has since disrobed and resides in Spain. It is beyond odd that the FPMT have become hypocrites of their own witch hunt because they recognized a lama who practiced Dorje Shugden but did not go to the Three Lower Realms.

Furthermore, FPMT creates Lama Yeshe statues of various sizes and places them on the altars of their various centers throughout the world which should be wrong. Since he practiced Dorje Shugden, Lama Yeshe should be considered evil and should have taken rebirth in the Three Lower Realms. That is their own flawed logic but even they themselves do not follow their own logic. Since FPMT disallows Dorje Shugden practitioners from receiving the blessings of the Dharma within their facilities, would it also not be logical to similarly disallow Lama Yeshe statues in their centers, let alone allow them to be worshipped? Why worship an image of a person who worshipped Dorje Shugden, even if he was their founder?

In fact, if you want to be totally honest in your so-called ‘spiritual correctness’, FPMT should rid their centers of all Lama Yeshe images, including pictures. Lama Zopa, who took over the reins from his guru, was himself a fervent Dorje Shugden practitioner until the Dalai Lama’s notorious order to ban the practice in 1996. Since Lama Zopa practiced Dorje Shugden all those years without knowing Dorje Shugden is evil, then that would show Lama Zopa was not clairvoyant. On the other hand, Lama Zopa is also known to have psychic dreams and consults his divination dice hundreds of times a week, every week. So how is it possible that for decades, his famous divination dice did not tell him that Dorje Shugden is evil?

So Lama Zopa can make mistakes? He is not reliable in his decisions on something as sacred as Protector practice? So are we to believe that for decades, Lama Zopa who has so much meditation under his belt, was praying to something evil (in the form of Dorje Shugden) until the Dalai Lama ‘warned’ him? Does that make Lama Zopa a reliable person to go to ask questions and to request divinations from? Since Lama Zopa backed the Dalai Lama’s decree of the unethical ban on Shugden practice, the FPMT has been at the forefront of the anti-Dorje Shugden campaign and a leader of the witch hunt against Shugden practitioners. This was clearly undertaken to curry favor with the Tibetan leadership because it demeans the spiritual reputation of their founder Lama Yeshe and their lineage gurus, all of whom practiced Dorje Shugden and, eerily enough, all of whose incarnations came back without going to the Three Lower Realms.

Here is a statue of Lama Yeshe in one of FPMT’s centres, remember he was a Dorje Shugden practitioner his whole life, so according to the rule of law of the Tibetan Leadership, Lama Yeshe is instantly invalidated of being a proper Dharma teacher. Yet, not only do they not discard his statue, they turn him into a Buddha Vajrasattva with a consort some more. Now here is a Dorje Shugden practitioner whose statue should be tossed out into the four winds. Instead, he is made into a god, put on the altar and worshiped. Maybe they should have Lama Yeshe fill out a FPMT-LDC registration form. I am sure that Buddha Vajrasattva, a.k.a Lama Yeshe, would not be allowed in! This is not dry, sardonic sarcasm but a direct in-depth insight into FPMT’s hypocrisy. So what right do they have to criticize other Dorje Shugden practitioners and interrogate potential attendees?

FPMT likes to promote that their founder, Lama Yeshe, was highly attained and throughout their writings in books and on websites, FPMT always directly and indirectly recount tales of Lama Yeshe’s clairvoyance and miracles. Is it possible that Lama Yeshe, being such a highly attained meditation master, with clairvoyant abilities arising from meditation, could not detect throughout his entire life that Dorje Shugden was evil? Is that what we are supposed to believe? And so does that mean that Dorje Shugden tricked Lama Yeshe? That would mean Lama Yeshe can be tricked and is unreliable and if Dorje Shugden did trick Lama Yeshe, why then should we receive teachings, read books and trust the practices that Lama Yeshe left behind in FPMT?

If FPMT’s organization now are like the leaves, branches and trunk of the tree, Lama Yeshe and the lineage gurus would be the roots. Since Lama Yeshe and the lineage gurus practiced Dorje Shugden, and according to FPMT now Dorje Shugden is bad, does that mean then the roots are rotten? So how can the tree continue to grow and provide whatever the tree is supposed to provide?

This registration form for people interested to attend FPMT’s event in Malaysia in conjunction with this year’s Vesak Day festivities holds clues to their extremely hurtful agenda.

The teaching, slated for five days from 22nd to 26th May 2019, is due to be conducted by Dagri Rinpoche who, at the time of writing, has been outed as a serial sexual molester. Dagri Rinpoche, a touring lama within FPMT with a packed schedule all year round, gives teachings, confers vows and initiations to large gatherings in FPMT centers worldwide. The sanctity of the teachings and empowerments he has given has been brought into question after he was exposed as a sex predator. Dagri Rinpoche was recently arrested by police and then let out on bail in India after he was reported for molesting a woman on board an Indian flight from Delhi to Gaggal, the airport closest to Dharamsala where the Dalai Lama resides in exile, and which also hosts the seat of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA; Tibetan leadership).

Dagri Rinpoche’s exploits are a direct violation of the fundamental vows of a Buddhist monk and having broken the vows, he should automatically be disqualified as a monk and teacher. That being the case, all the teachings and practices given by him would therefore be invalid. Hence while we were investigating the Dagri Rinpoche incident, we saw that his current teaching schedule takes him to the Far East and Malaysia. We took a look at their website and downloaded the forms for his events, and realized the hypocrisy. Here they are in their registration form with the audacity to interrogate people’s private practices in order to attend a serial molester’s events at their center, where they worship images of Lama Yeshe, the Dorje Shugden practitioner. Now how does all of that grab you?

Let’s round that up – I’ve not visited Malaysia but FPMT’s Malaysian branch’s registration form interrogates you on whether you practice Dorje Shugden or not, so that you can attend the teachings being given by a woman-assaulting individual (Dagri Rinpoche) and sit in front of images of Lama Yeshe, who practiced Dorje Shugden, inside their sanctified place of worship. This all sounds very strange but that is exactly what is happening.

Here is another statue of Lama Yeshe and in front is Lama Zopa worshiping him. Why is Lama Zopa and FPMT barring their centre for Dorje Shugden practicing sentient beings but they place a Dorje Shugden practicing Lama Yeshe in a place of honor in their centres? It is like saying, no bank robbers are allowed in my house but I am going to keep a statue of Bonnie and Clyde* on my altar and worship them. (*most famous bank robbing couple in American history).

This registration form from FPMT is an example of their hypocrisy. FPMT’s leaders and members adopt a “holier than thou” attitude, oppressing Shugden practitioners to build a close connection with the Dalai Lama which in turn fuels their centers with donations and sponsorships. Their claim of moral high ground and spiritual policing is clearly evident in the registration form for events such as this one for the Vesak Day teaching with Dagri Rinpoche. Although they say they are acting out of compassion and for the benefit of all sentient beings, the registration form itself is evidence that the opposite is true.

 

Dagri Rinpoche is indeed a serial molester


Or to watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T05xLBZ_1WU

TRANSCRIPT (click to expand)

Hello, everybody. My name is Jaki, my Tibetan name is Kunsang. I’m making this video about the Dagri Rinpoche issue because I don’t have a Facebook account and this is the only way that I know how to make it public. Apologies to the followers of Awakening Project in my other YouTube channel because I owe you a video since so many months, and I’m publishing this one first. But I’m sure you’ll understand why, and sorry also if I’m gonna be reading a bit, it’s just that I have so many things to say but I don’t want the video to be too long, so I just want to stick to the important points.

I’m making this video because I was molested too by Dagri Rinpoche over 10 years ago when I was a Buddhist nun and I was living in Dharamsala, alright. I don’t want to go into detail during this video about what happened because it’s very long and it’s very painful. So, if you want to know exactly what he did to me, you can read my statutory declaration that I made at Kangra police station, it’s 4 pages and I’m sharing that also. So, you can read it if you like. You can see what happened, he put his hands all over me, he tried to take my clothes off, it’s so long, it’s 4 pages so you can read it if you like.

And after that, after I made this statement which it took me a long time to have the courage to do it because during over a year people were trying to convince me that it didn’t happen, or that it was just out of compassion that he was giving me a massage, and all sort of things that you can imagine. I’m sure you can imagine, plus I was a Buddhist nun, and it’s a very very stressful situation. And every time after abuse or molestation, one feels guilty, one feels confused, one is blaming oneself, “Why did I stay?”, “Why did I let him come close to me?”, “Why did I let him touch me?”, and so on and so forth.

So, this was going on for over a year and it’s normal because after abuse you need many years, sometimes all of your life, you know, to start, even start working on it, but some people who were supportive of me, they convinced me to do this declaration and I did it. I got 2 certified copies at the notary, I sent one to His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Office and one to the FPMT’s office and what can I tell you, nothing happened. I mean the Dalai Lama’s Office set up a meeting with me and Dagri Rinpoche, which he tried to prevent. He tried, Dagri Rinpoche tried to prevent that meeting from happening, and so they set up a meeting. I tried to record the meeting with my mp3 player, they told me that I couldn’t do that, that for safety reasons I had to switch it off, so I had to switch it off. I don’t have a recording of that meeting, unfortunately. And during the meeting, Dagri Rinpoche apologized to me. He said that everything he did was out of compassion, that he was not gonna do that again. He was gonna be more mindful in regards to how to behave in front of Western women. It’s all sort of, you know, all that sort of excuses and stuff.

So, I accepted the apology and I didn’t go to the police, alright. And after that, some FPMT centers said that Dagri Rinpoche was saying around that the meeting was for me to apologize to him, and that I was crying and begging for his forgiveness. I can’t believe it, it’s absolutely crazy. That is a lie. So, that means Dagri Rinpoche, on top of being a pervert, he’s also a big liar because I never ever apologized. I have nothing to apologize to him, and he’s the one who should be apologizing to all women he has molested through his life. So, that was the Dalai Lama meeting, he apologized and then he lied about it, so they didn’t do anything at the end, right. And also from the FPMT, I literally got nothing, like “Oh, he’s okay, he was giving your massage out of compassion”, and that’s it, they stuck to that version.

I tried to contact many people. Some people were supportive, but the institutions did absolutely nothing about it. Not only after me but before me, many girls and women – laywomen, nuns, Western, Tibetan, Indians – have been molested by Dagri Rinpoche. I don’t know in which way we have to explain this again and again. In my case, more than 10 years I’ve been saying it, more than 10 years. Many lives have been destroyed, the faith of many Dharma practitioners have been seriously harmed by this. The Dharma life of many people has been seriously affected and many of these victims still have not been able to overcome the trauma of being molested by Dagri Rinpoche, and I’m talking especially about young Western nuns, young Western nuns that I know and that other people know as well. But they still don’t have the courage to come out.

So, after all this happened, it was even worse because when I spoke up, then I became the bad person, alright. When I spoke up, then I was saying, I was told that I was crazy, that I was overreacting, that I wanted to attract attention. Please, seriously, like look at me. Have you seen a picture of Dagri Rinpoche? Why would I want to attract the person, the attention of such man? Come on, seriously! And many people defended him, and still now they are defending him, which I think is absolutely insane. But, I also want to say that I understand, especially monks and nuns that were ordained by him, I understand. And please, I want to ask to the public to forgive them, and to understand them. Because you cannot imagine what it is to think that your entire life is a lie, okay. Imagine the people who have got ordained by Dagri Rinpoche. Imagine, to receive ordination in the Buddhist tradition, in the monastic tradition, it’s very important that you get them from a pure monk, a monk that has pure vows. Imagine that you have been ordained and then after years, you find out that maybe, just maybe, you didn’t even get the vows. You were never a monk or a nun, because you were never given the vows by a pure gelong [note: fully ordained monk]. That’s…I don’t know, if you’re not a Dharma practitioner or a Buddhist monk or nun, I’m not sure you can understand how terrible and traumatic this is, but this is not only about self-liberation vows, also people who took Bodhisattva vows and Tantric initiations with him. They can’t face reality, it’s just too painful. So forgive them if they defend him, it’s just too harmful to see the truth, okay.

So, even now, after the incident, the versions I’ve heard from FPMT centers is that they agreed with the version of Rinpoche, that he just smiled at the woman in the airplane and then she got upset because he smiled at her. Come on, how stupid do you think we are? How stupid, seriously? How stupid do you think people all around the world are? And women that have been molested, how long you think they’re gonna put up with it? He’s already 65 years old. You have any idea how many women he has molested throughout his life, just because he gets away with it, because he’s a Rinpoche? That’s not fair. So, I just want to say to that woman that was molested in the plane by Dagri Rinpoche, thank you, thank you so much for reporting him. You have done what many, many of us didn’t do or couldn’t do, or just didn’t have the courage to. Thank you so much because you’re not a Buddhist, you’re not a Westerner, and you have never seen him before, so you have no reason you know, to have like a, to make this up. Thank you. I’m so sorry what you went through. I know what you went through, and if you need any help in the case in court against Dagri Rinpoche, please contact me. I’ll send you all the information I have. I’m not in India now, but something can be arranged if you want to. I also want to tell to Kangra police, I’ve been trying to get in touch with the journalist who wrote the articles and with Gaggal police and with Kangra police and I haven’t been able to, but if you want, here’s the copy of my statutory declarations. If these can support the case against Dagri Rinpoche, I’ll do anything that’s necessary for that.

And I also want to say to other women, to all the other women that were molested by Rinpoche, that I know that you were molested by him, and you know that I know. I know that you’re watching this video, and I know that you know that you were molested, and that you didn’t say anything. You know, those of you know who I’m talking about, please. I respected your privacy, everyone has respected your privacy for 10 years, even more. Now is the time to talk. Look, now he’s come out to the public, you don’t need to feel guilty anymore. You don’t need to be ashamed anymore, ok? Speak up, do something, go make a video, make a statement, go to your Dharma center, write a letter to Lama Zopa, start a blog, write a letter to His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Office, protest if Dagri Rinpoche’s going to your center, refuse to go, refuse to go to the Dharma center if he’s there, do something and don’t feel ashamed. Don’t think that telling the truth is going to harm the Dharma, because Dharma is looking for the truth, so there’s no way that you can hurt the Dharma if you’re telling the truth. Tell the truth, do something even if it was 15 years ago, and if it was 10 years ago like me, it doesn’t matter. It’s not too late because the harm that he’s done to you has not still gone away, okay. So, do it, do something. And I want to say something to the FPMT. What are you gonna do now? What are you gonna do now? Are you gonna let him get away with it again? How many more victims? All the suffering of all the students that have been either molested by Rinpoche or whose faith and Dharma life has been hurt because of the actions of Rinpoche, all the suffering of all those people is on you because you kept inviting him to teach in the Dharma centers even after you knew about what he did, and you didn’t believe the women. So all the suffering of all these students, of all these practitioners, of all these women, if you don’t stop him now FPMT, all that suffering is on you.

 

An analysis of FPMT’s registration form:

1. Pre-requisite: Participants must not be Shugden/Dolgyal practitioners

What sort of pre-requisite is this? What gives FPMT the right to judge and discriminate against Shugden practitioners? This shows the extreme prejudice that FPMT has and this attitude goes against the principles of Buddhism which are to love and accept all sentient beings and to view them as our mother. Where is the tolerance, acceptance and compassion? Don’t all sentient beings deserve love, compassion and teachings.

What my religion is or is not, is a personal matter and it is my prerogative to believe what I want and choose what I pray to. Religion is something very personal and no one has the right to question anyone or judge another person based on their religion. My faith is only meant for me. It is personal, it is in my heart. FPMT definitely has no right to ask this sort of question. I should be allowed to attend their teachings and receive blessings, just like any practitioner of any other religion would be allowed to.

 

2. Mandatory personal details

On their form, FPMT requires participants to list out their mobile phone numbers. Why is FPMT asking for people’s mobile number? This should be optional because a person’s phone number, address and even their email are all private information. By listing out these details and not knowing how they are going to be used in the future, participants open themselves up to possibly being harassed, as has happened before in cases of young attractive women and men listing out their personal details.

If FPMT is proven to be unprepared to look after the welfare of its own students and prevent them from falling prey to sex predator teachers (Dagri Rinpoche), what assurance is there that FPMT will not misuse very private and confidential details for other reasons? How do we know their committee members and volunteers possess good reputations? With this registration form, I am not signing up for a credit card but simply for a blessing; does the blessing really require so much interrogation? Since when are the ‘gods’ so paranoid? How can FPMT be trusted that these details will not fall into wrong hands, so that the predators have even more direct access to potential prey? We also live in a world where identity theft is rampant, so what guarantee is there that FPMT will not sell people’s digital identities and details? In any case, it does show that FPMT is interested in building a database that it can mine for donations and other benefits.

Why does FPMT make it mandatory for these details to be given? Just because they are a Dharma organization, it does not mean they are all 100% good and not open to abusing information that the organization holds. Most of the time, people do not actually want to give out their personal contact details because they do not wish to be harassed to donate towards the organization. There have been multiple complaints from people that FPMT keeps calling and harassing them for donations or to join their activities. We have spoken to ex-FPMT and ex-LDC members over Skype who were committee members, who mentioned what we have just related about the organization trawling for donations. Sometimes people are wealthy and these people are harassed even more, because unscrupulous people abuse their contact details.

FPMT’s founding fathers, Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa engaged in rituals. In the background you can see a thangka (Tibetan painting) of Dorje Shugden. Both lamas practiced Dorje Shugden heavily until the ban and now FPMT discriminates against Shugden practitioners all around the world. Lama Yeshe was a life-long practitioner of Dorje Shugden so according to FPMT’s views he should have gone to the Three Lower Realms. But how can the founding lama of FPMT have gone to the Three Lower Realms, and yet they continue to use his teachings and writings?

 

3. Are you a practitioner of Shugden/Dolgyal? Yes/No

There are many world religions such as Jainism, Judaism, Hinduism, Shintoism, Buddhism, Islam, White Voodoo, Christianity, Black Voodoo, Witchcraft, Wicca, Satanism, Amish, Mormonism, Bon, Scientology, Shamanism, Taoism, Sikhism, Spiritism, Bahai, Shirito, Tenrikyo, Neo-paganism and more. Within this bundle of religions, some will say they are the real ones and that theirs is the only true path. And there are some who actually worship ‘dark entities’, as claimed by others, and the adherents of these religions will debate with each other over which path is real and will go so far as saying that the other religions are false and will lead you to hell.

So why then does FPMT not ask these practitioners about their background? The final analysis is that no one has the right to say which religion leads you to heaven or hell. It is better we practice tolerance and acceptance and stop interrogating. A place of worship should be open to all, regardless of your religious background, as that would validate it as a place of sanctity; a sanctified place will not have blessings if they presume to interrogate.

If FPMT are really worried about the safety of their members, why do they not instead ask if participants have criminal records on their forms? What about if they are currently engaged in criminal legal cases or have been to prison before? What about if people have been exposed to contagious diseases, or are in a questionable state of mental health? The question is, why are these sorts of considerations not on FPMT’s forms? After all, being a criminal is a lot worse than simply practicing your peaceful religion.

If FPMT does not ask about other religions, like those listed above, why then does FPMT single out and target only Dorje Shugden practitioners? Who gave them the right and authority to judge and discriminate others in the first place? Who appointed them the Dharma ‘police’? How are they even qualified to do so? Ethically, practically and spiritually speaking, this is not right. It is wrong and so uncalled-for.

There are many times we see high lamas like His Holiness the Dalai Lama and His Holiness the Panchen Lama and so on, give massive initiations such as the Kalachakra to a huge crowd of tens of thousands of people in both Eastern and Western countries. Many people in these crowds are from different faiths and denominations, and some are even atheist. They all come to attend the teachings and initiations without any hassle and problems. Why is it they are allowed to attend the Dalai Lama’s teachings and receive blessings, and there is no need for them to swear their allegiance to anyone or to swear that they do not practice a particular deity? Why are these people allowed to join but Shugden people are not?

In fact, the foundation and lineage of FPMT’s practice comes from great masters who practiced and proliferated Dorje Shugden for over 400 years. FPMT’s very own founding father, Lama Yeshe was himself a Dorje Shugden practitioner. FPMT’s entire organization was built and blessed by Dorje Shugden who assisted Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa when they first started. This is well-known and well-documented, although FPMT like to brush these facts under the carpet.

In light of the current situation where Dagri Rinpoche is scheduled to go to a center in Malaysia (LDC) to teach, and therefore they have this registration form, perhaps plans should be changed because he has been discovered to be molesting women for decades. FPMT/LDC should not be so arrogant and question people’s spirituality about whether they practice Dorje Shugden or not. Instead, they should self-introspect why Dagri Rinpoche was able to get away with this for so long and hurt so many people. Surely, FPMT promoting a teacher of such ill-repute is a much bigger crime than praying to Dorje Shugden. Therefore FPMT should be humble and stop acting like they are above everyone else, when in fact they have been unleashing Dagri Rinpoche on unsuspecting, spiritual-seeking, innocent women. FPMT owes an apology to many people and they must be genuine about it. They also owe an apology for being discriminatory. Anyone holding the Bodhisattva vows should not abandon even one single sentient being in samsara, lest they forfeit enlightenment. Click the image to enlarge.

 

4. Asking who you received refuge and teachings from

FPMT even wants to know personal details regarding one’s spiritual life. Why does FPMT need to know who you have taken refuge from? This is actually none of their business. One’s spiritual bond with one’s teacher is extremely personal and sacred, and FPMT has no right to ask who one’s guru is. Additionally, they ask whether you have received certain teachings and who from. Are they wondering if you have the necessary prerequisite knowledge to attend the teachings? Or are they making sure that you have not received teachings from a lama they do not approve of? It is most likely the latter, given the rest of the wholly inappropriate questions on their form. And once again, they are policing.

When you have taken Buddhist refuge, what should it matter who performed the physical ceremony? What is important is that you have actually taken refuge and that this refuge is heartfelt, not who you took refuge with. In fact, it is clearly stated in many Buddhist texts that undergoing the outer ceremony is useless without the internal generation of refuge. So why does FPMT want to so fervently know who you took refuge with?

 

5. Listing down the name of your Vajra Master

When taking Highest Yoga Tantra initiation, the lama whom you receive the initiation from is known as the Vajra Master. Asking someone to list down their Highest Yoga Tantra initiations and who gave them the practice is against tantric code, which states that this information is to be kept secret and private. When one engages in a tantric deity’s practice (yidam), one is not allowed to reveal the identity of the yidam and practice to anyone. It is said keeping one’s tantric practice secret safeguards the blessings so that one can gain attainments. One does not run around writing on forms, revealing to people who you may or may not know, who your secret tantric practice is.

FPMT and LDC, who sponsor these programs should know better, which leads you to believe they have another hidden agenda. What is more, Dorje Shugden practitioners would definitely not want to go to FPMT to receive teachings and initiations. Dorje Shugden practitioners have their own teachers and monasteries. So why does LDC have the audacity and arrogance to think that Dorje Shugden practitioners would want to sneak into their centers to receive teachings? Dorje Shugden practitioners have many teachers they can go to so FPMT does not need to be paranoid and act as if they are the only ones selling diamonds, when Dorje Shugden practitioners can get bigger and better diamonds elsewhere.

People are not allowed to reveal what initiations they have received in order to keep the blessings of the empowerment intact and to gain attainments. By FPMT asking such questions, they are breaking the tantric code. So why is FPMT asking this on their form? Is this not just another way to interrogate applicants to find out if someone is a Dorje Shugden practitioner? This serves to make them look holy, good and obedient to the Tibetan leadership which will, in turn, make it easier for them to snuggle up to the celebrity Dalai Lama and reap the rewards from that.

How dare FPMT ask people who their Guru is and what initiations they have received? In fact, they should be honored that someone has the Dharma imprints to enter their center, pray, make donations, and perhaps volunteer, offer their time and expertise and contribute to their growth. They should be honored that someone can be a potential member and practice the Dharma, after all their marketing efforts. They should be fulfilled when they encourage another sentient being to listen to the Dharma, because it is a method for them to increase their own merit.

Instead of treating potential students as criminals, they should treat them as honored guests. The more sentient beings listen to Dharma, the more they are able to collect merits and fulfill the very purpose of having a Dharma center. Therefore, they should look at all sentient beings with eyes of love, a feeling of compassion, and an appreciative dedication in honoring potential people coming to their center. After all, every person they help is one step closer to enlightenment for themselves. For a person who practices Dharma, and especially one who has taken the Bodhisattva vows, you cannot abandon even one sentient being, regardless of the reason for in the Bodhisattva vows, it clearly says that by abandoning even one sentient being, the practitioner cannot gain full enlightenment. That Dharma principle encompasses all sentient beings including Dorje Shugden practitioners. So it is good advice for FPMT to wake up and smell the Tibetan tea.

All these points make their registration forms discriminatory. Many other Buddhist centers and organisations do not have such discriminatory forms, or even no forms at all. They never ask so many sensitive and personal questions of anyone because they know it is none of their business. It is very clear that many other centers do not have such rules when it comes to their registration forms but FPMT does. Why is this so? Because FPMT always wants to look holy, look good and portray themselves to be above all other Dharma centers. They do so that they can be close to the Dalai Lama, to rub shoulders with him, to brag about their closeness with him and attend his teachings, and publish their pictures with the Dalai Lama all over the internet. And why do this? To validate and empower them that what their Dharma center is doing is correct and in doing so, they believe it gives them the right to bully other Dharma centers and Buddhist practitioners. This is nothing more than a type of ‘spiritual racism’.

Lama Zopa and 27 other FPMT geshes who serve as resident teachers at their various centres, are always taking pictures with the Dalai Lama, in order to legitimize themselves. This is more than just a nice photo, it shows their sinister motive to acquire fame, power and money.

The real issue here is not about anyone’s spiritual practice. The real issue is FPMT needs to survive and cover the overheads of hundreds of their centers around the world. Hence, they need to constantly curry favor with the Dalai Lama because to be seen with the Dalai Lama infers that they are good and above everyone, and that they are “better” than the rest. Let’s face it – the truth is that FPMT is treating spirituality like a business, because they compete with other centers to grab sponsors and gain donations for themselves. FPMT wants more members, which means more manpower to endorse themselves, so that they can fulfill their ultimate main objective: to get more money and power. Hence being ‘close’ to the Dalai Lama has benefited them in this way since he is a big celebrity and the method to gain this closeness is by showing on their registration forms that they are so obedient in barring Dorje Shugden practitioners from their centers. What FPMT should really do is scrap politics and welcome all sentient beings into Buddha’s fold. Whether you are a saint or sinner, a practitioner of Krishna, Buddha, Witchcraft, Voodoo or atheist, you are a human being and deserve equal respect, and you should be allowed into the house of Buddha, which is a Dharma center. No discrimination necessary. Give peace a chance.

Perhaps FPMT should consider this – close down some centers so the pressure to get money and fame is reduced, and therefore they do not have to be discriminatory and look good with the Dalai Lama, and they can get back to practicing the real Dharma.

When we get to crux of the matter, what else is there in samsara? Why else would they be so disgustingly judgemental and prejudiced? Why discriminate against others because of their faith? That in itself is against the Buddhist tenet of compassion for all sentient beings. So where has their compassion gone? What kind of Dharma organization puts others down because of their religion and forbids them from receiving the Buddha’s blessing? Would Buddha shun Dorje Shugden practitioners? Did he discriminate against people? So where did FPMT learn their form of Buddhism from? Buddha had great compassion for Angulimala, and taught him the Dharma, helped him to regret and reform his ways and brought him to arhatship. Although Angulimala killed 999 people before he met the Buddha, the Buddha still looked upon him with great love. Just to entertain FPMT for one moment, let us pretend FPMT is the Buddha and Dorje Shugden practitioners are Angulimala. What do you think Buddha FPMT should do? Embrace Angulimala with love and tolerance or make him fill out a registration form, find out he is a criminal and kick him out?

The price FPMT pays for being politically correct, is that they become spiritually-arrogant and think they have the right to judge, bully and interrogate others, and ask them extremely intimate questions. When they do this, they sound like the KGB of the USSR or the Stasi of East Germany. Why are they collecting and keeping all of this information? FPMT has lost the objective of being Buddhist which is to have compassion, tolerance and love for all beings. Instead, they have replaced them with arrogance, prejudice, intolerance, jealousy, greed, inequality and self-righteousness, everything that is the opposite of Buddhism itself…and this is clearly reflected in their registration form! No one has the right to interrogate, judge and convert others!

According to the Dalai Lama, those who commit sexual crimes should have their faces shown in public and in the media. If they do not actually follow the teachings of the Buddha, he says that perhaps public pressure will make them stop acting in harmful ways.

We highly encourage FPMT to change their registration forms and stop being so discriminatory towards other people’s religion. We downloaded this registration form because the current issue surrounding the sexual abuse that Dagri Rinpoche has committed is very worrying. In fact, during the writing of this article, a second woman came forth with a video claiming she was the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of Dagri Rinpoche when she was a nun 10 years ago. She was told to be silent by FPMT and the men in maroon who interrogated her. Despite all of this, FPMT have Dagri Rinpoche scheduled to give teachings at their centers all over the world.

The public need to be made aware of this sexual predator. FPMT think it is their right to interrogate people coming to their centers, but the fact is that the very teachers at these centers are sex offenders and should be interrogated. They are people who have broken vows, and are not even qualified in an ethical or karmic sense to teach. The saddest part is that it has been revealed that Lama Zopa was aware of Dagri Rinpoche’s abusive behavior of women and told people who approached him to be silent.

From the looks of it, what FPMT is doing is simply running their organization like a business rather than an institution of a spiritual nature. All they care about is getting more business and more people to join their teachings, because they are from a so-called high lama who has been seen with and works for the Dalai Lama.

I have come out with my own registration form, which is a form based on compassion and should be an example of what a loving Dharma center’s registration form should be like. See below:

This is what FPMT’s registration form should look like, minus Dagri Rinpoche. The “so and so” refers to a genuine and qualified lama. This is a more compassionate, practical and Buddhist form. Click to enlarge.

In conclusion, this is not an attack on Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa, FPMT or towards some of their dedicated students. All Gelugpas were very united prior to the ban of 1996 against Dorje Shugden. All Gelugpas shared teachings together, went to each others’ teachers for practices and there was total harmony. The Dorje Shugden ban has torn the Gelugpa world apart, separated families, monasteries, and samaya-bound students. It is time that organizations such as FPMT reach out and heal the divide and embrace all beings, both Dorje Shugden practitioners and non-Dorje Shugden practitioners. Stop creating prejudice, discrimination and bias. Let us get back to harmony, compassion and tolerance, as that is what our Lord and Savior taught. And FPMT can start right now by amending their registration forms.

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  1. I had donated my time, energy, personal life and money to FPMT and was with them for over 7 years. In the end I saw through their facade and the extreme culture of silence to hide things when things go wrong. They don’t talk about it and only a few ‘top handlers’ are privy to confidential information. There were many hypocritical policies they had and it was designed to make themselves look good and I couldn’t be a part of that anymore. This article is powerful and painful. i don’t like to read it but much of it was accurate.

    DagriOffender-1

    DagriRinpoche-111

  2. Buddhism is an open religion and never forces conversion. Why does this ‘FPMT’ restrict someone of the Shugden faith to come for their prayers. That is really not in the Buddhist spirit. I would never join ‘FPMT’ if I had read that in this day and age. That is really horrible. Everyone can enter a Buddhist temple to pray. That is the spirit of Buddhism.

    discrimination-MIN

  3. Source:
    http://www.taooflightyoga.com/index.php/blog/will-the-fpmt-stand-by-its-code-of-ethics

    Will the FPMT Stand by its Code of Ethics?

    Saturday, 11 May 2019
    By Joanne Clark

    For those of us who have held hope that the Foundation For the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) might provide some leadership in resolving troubles of abuse within Western Tibetan Buddhist Centres, this has been a hard week. We have held hope because the FPMT’s code of ethics, signed by all teachers teaching at FPMT centres, has demonstrated a clarity about students’ needs not seen in other Tibetan Buddhist institutions.

    Here is an example:

    “FPMT is committed to promoting safe environments wherein the dignity of every individual is respected. Everyone participating in FPMT-related activities has the right and shall be free from harassment of any type, be it sexual harassment, intimidation, bullying, or other forms of harassment. Everyone coming into contact with the FPMT network shall be treated with dignity and respect.”

    And this:

    “Sexual relationships between Dharma teachers and students while a student is attending the teacher’s teachings, course or retreat are prohibited, and are strongly discouraged at all other times as long as there is a Dharma teacher-student relationship. Please see below for a policy specific to Dharma teachers. Others in positions of authority are also strongly discouraged from entering into sexual relationships in situations where there may be a real or perceived power imbalance. As well, no teacher, volunteer, staff member, or other representative of the hosting center shall make sexual advances to any participant during a teaching, course or retreat.”

    This is the clear language students have been seeking from other Buddhist organizations. Sadly, however, a woman has recently claimed that the FPMT failed to honestly and appropriately address her allegations that Dagri Rinpoche, a teacher at FPMT centres, sexually assaulted her while she was a nun at Thosamling some years ago. This claim followed a recent allegation made to police in India by a woman who claimed that Dagri Rinpoche molested her while on a plane. According to The Tribune Newspaper (India), “the Gaggal police detained him before he was released on bail.” There are also claims that more women have been abused by him, though these have not been made public or verified.

    In the first testimony, that given by Jakaira Perez Valdivi on Utube video, there is a disturbing description of the effort made by Dagri Rinpoche and the FPMT institution to undermine her story, effectively silencing her. She claims that Dagri Rinpoche lied to others about having apologized to her and that the FPMT labelled his actions as “compassionate massage” and not sexual at all. According to Jakaira’s story, his actions included fondling her breasts and pushing his genitals against her—not something that can be called “compassionate massage.” According to her, he apologized to her, but then lied and claimed that she apologized to him.

    At best, the FPMT has failed to validate her concerns and failed to resolve a situation that has badly damaged her wellbeing and spiritual path. At worst, they are covering up a crime. At best, Dagri Rinpoche’s actions, as described by Jakaira and the recent allegation from the woman on the plane, disqualify him from ever teaching in an FPMT centre. At worst, they are criminal. Will he continued to teach at FPMT centres? Why has nothing been done to resolve the situation for Jakaira and why has he continued to teach at FPMT centres?

    The FPMT say that these two incidents did not occur at an FPMT facility, project or institution and so the ethics policy does not apply. However, he has continued to teach at FPMT centres and the failure of this institution to act responsibly in the context of carefully screening their teachers and hearing the needs of survivors demonstrates a lack of fiduciary care and due diligence in my opinion. These problems are not fixed by simply finding loopholes.

    And this is the big problem. In the current climate, with students from Rigpa, Shambhala and other Buddhist institutions still traumatized from disclosures of sexual abuse by their leaders, every Buddhist institution is called upon to be diligent regarding the behaviours of teachers. There should be no compromising on this, no finding loopholes or making excuses or quick fixes. It is one thing for a student to come to terms with the fact that a well-respected Dharma teacher is abusive. However, when the harm becomes institutionalized, when Tibetan Buddhist institutions fail to come forward with appropriate measures of validation, compassion and resolve, and continue to validate the integrity of that teacher, then the situation turns critical. This has happened in Rigpa, Shambhala and too many other Buddhist centres who are scrambling only now to put together flimsy codes of ethics.

    The following letter from within the FPMT, from the Center Services Director of the FPMT International Office in Portland Oregon, reflects this sentiment. It appears that there is little appetite within the International Office for simply finding those loopholes in the Ethics Policy:

    Dear Friends,

    It has come to our attention that there are newspaper stories and social media accounts circulating stating that a lady in India has made a report to the Indian police accusing Dagri Rinpoche of molesting her on a flight in India.

    As Dagri Rinpoche is currently an FPMT registered teacher, we at International Office are following this story closely and awaiting any additional updates and reports about the outcome of the accusation.

    We understand that Dagri Rinpoche believes he is innocent of the accusation and is preparing a personal statement in response to the accusation.

    Although the alleged event did not take place at an FPMT center, if the investigation results do determine that the accusation is correct, then we would follow the guidelines described under Administering the ETHICAL POLICY, in the ETHICS AND ETHICAL POLICY section of the Affiliates Area and it could impact Dagri Rinpoche’s inclusion on the FPMT registered teachers list, as per the FPMT Ethical Policy.

    While we are awaiting any conclusions on this story, we send our prayers for all parties involved in and affected by this story.

    We are sure that this will remind all of the importance of our responsibility to uphold ethical behaviour, especially by those of us who manage and teach at FPMT centers, projects and services.

    Warmly,
    Claire

    Claire Isitt
    Center Services Director

    Statements such as this from within the FPMT’s establishment are encouraging. Indeed, the FPMT statement on the need for centres to take strong measures in instances of abuse is clear and strong within their ethical policy, though perhaps it can be amended to account for this situation. If it had been followed, Jakaira might have received the validation she needed. Here is how they describe those measures:

    Misconduct on the part of persons in positions of power or trust can undermine the integrity of the organization, causing demoralization and loss of faith. Hence, the behaviours described in the Ethical Policy below are prohibited, and a center, project, or service’s grievance procedures should be put into effect if a breach occurs.

    Each individual in a position of authority, within their area of responsibility in the FPMT organization, is also required to act on any appearance or complaint of misconduct. It is crucial that such individuals identify and express concerns about conduct that may be harmful, so that procedures for dealing with problems can be implemented.

    FPMT’s Ethical Policy applies to all activities, interactions, or communications including those on-line, on social media, by telephone, in person, or by any other means as long as the activity, interaction, or communication in question concerns or pertains to FPMT-related actions, duties, or responsibilities.

    We also need to be clear that we should have very little reason to doubt Jakaira’s story. In fact, if we hear FPMT make such a statement as to the “compassionate massage” of a monk alone with a nun (as she alleges they said), that should be enough to cause us to question their viewpoint! And statistics show that false allegations of sexual assault are rare and that most victims of sexual assault choose not to report — because they fear not being believed and becoming re-traumatized by a brutal system. These statistics are important because until women are believed and validated, there will be no change to a very widespread culture of abuse in institutions both East and West. We are in a “MeToo” movement where the problem will simply not go away without institutional change, without acknowledgement from all concerned that there is a systemic, serious problem.

    Last November, some 130 former and current students of Tibetan Buddhism signed a letter addressed to over forty lamas from all four lineages. We translated this letter into Tibetan. Attached to this letter was a translation into Tibetan of another letter, that written by eight former senior students of Sogyal Lakhar, in which they outlined his serious physical, psychological and sexual abuses over decades. We asked only one question in the letter. We simply wanted to know whether or not lamas found these behaviours acceptable—e.g. behaviours of beating and sexually abusing students, using student donations to live a lavish lifestyle etc. As of this writing, six months later, we have had only two responses.¹

    We wrote that letter with the intention of receiving better clarity on how we, as long-time Dharma students, could move forward on our spiritual paths after abusive situations—and how we could insure better safety within Western Dharma Centres. We neither want to be abused on our spiritual paths nor do we not want to practice in an environment of abuse. Many of us sat silent while Sogyal Lakhar spent hours of his teaching time viciously maligning and insulting students. We are horrified that we turned our back on harm as we sat through these tirades. The letter was written sincerely, from our hearts, with no ulterior motive other than stopping harm and knowing where safety lay. To many of us, the lack of response from forty lamas is in fact a very brutal and non-compassionate response. A lack of caring.

    Tahlia Newland and I also wrote a letter to HH Dalai Lama in which we told him that we had written these letters to lamas and why. We explained also that the Vajrayana had been used to justify abusive behaviors and to silence students with threats of hell if they objected. We explained that many were questioning the Vajrayana now and many needed better clarity. We asked him to please bring the matter up at the meeting scheduled for Tibetan Buddhist leaders last November. We received a response from his office two days later, asking us to forward the matter to the Kalon of Religion and Culture and to CC His Holiness. We did that. Shortly after, the meeting was postponed and we fear that now, there will be little hope of this topic being raised if the meeting is ever held. The kalon has not responded to us either.

    I believe that abusive behaviors within the context of the Vajrayana make this situation particularly critical—and particularly in need of strong leadership that can provide clarity. Though some FPMT teachers are amongst those who haven’t replied to our letter, many of us have nonetheless held out a hope for this organization because of its strongly worded ethics code—and because of the responsible and thorough approach to Dharma in the FPMT educational programs, their responsible approach to the Vajrayana.

    I would like to add to this my desire that FPMT seek now to sincerely and compassionately reach out with support to Jakaira Perez Valdivi and others who might have made similar claims of harm from FPMT teachers that are not known to us. Publicly, a statement from the FPMT on how they intend to address this situation and others like it would be very helpful towards insuring that a growing group of disillusioned Dharma students do not lose trust in the good intentions of the FPMT. Trust demands better transparency and this has been lacking. Most of all, I truly believe that the code of silence that has ruled within Tibetan Buddhist culture in the West needs to end if the Dharma in the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition is to thrive.

  4. Sometimes I find FPMT’s ways of doing things is like a joke.

    1. They stop Dorje Shugden’s practitioners from going to their centres, but in fact, their founder is Dorje Shugden Practitioners.

    2. They requested the attendees to fill up who is their Vajra Master, which means they are forcing people to break their vows as their Tantra practice is suppose to be P&C, it is a personal practice between them and their Buddhas, how come FPMT people can be so insensitive?

    3. Buddha is teaching us about all sentient beings are equal, every beings also has the Buddha Nature in them and everyone can also gained enlightenment, but how come a Buddhist centre is practicing discrimination and yet, they are teaching Buddha’s teaching???

    4. Lama Yeshe entered into clear light while he was still practicing Dorje Shugden, as a student, Lama Zopa has also received Dorje Shugden practice from Lama Yeshe, so since Lama Yeshe has entered into clear light, how can Lama Zopa return his practice when his guru is no longer around? Then is Lama Zopa has broke his samaya with his guru, how can he come out to teach again?

    5. When the people are practicing Dorje Shugden, they are labelled as traitors, because they betrayed what the Dalai Lama said, then what about Dagri Rinpoche? isn’t him a traitor too? unless you tell me that Dalai Lama is ok for him to molest the other women. Then why is FPMT not spit out a single voice about Dagri Rinpoche?

    6. (Echoing the article) There are so many people practicing the real Devil, some practice are even more dangerous, but why FPMT never stop these people from entering their centre? Why from all of these, they choose to stop ppl who practicing Dorje Shugden from going in?

    7. I remember reading somewhere that Dalai Lama has allowed Dorje Shugden practice, then how come FPMT is still discriminating Dorje Shugden practitioners? Erm? Does this means FPMT is a traitor now since they don’t follow what the Dalai Lama said?

    Since the very first day, I have never like FPMT people because I met a few of them, the way they talk is arrogant, just because they are close to Dalai Lama and they can be like a ‘big boss’ of Buddhism?

    • Your 7 points are really well said. I am in agreement. 👍

  5. Dude!
    Haven’t seen this sort of thing since Apartheid and the Holocaust.

  6. Look like LDC only allow sex offender to participate their event. Shugden practitioners never harm anyone but not allow to attend buddhist event by LDC but sex offender LDC would like to invite.

    Really funny how LDC operate where there follow things blindly and never checked before hand.

  7. This is how Tibetan leadership discriminate and create separation for their people which affect the Tibetan Buddhism around the world. I don’t see any dharmic reasoning here but just creating suffering, wrong view and broken Samaya with their guru.

    Look at this centre where they ban Shugden practitioners to join their event but invited a sex offender to do prayer and teaching on the event. Shugden practitioner has not created any harmful act to anyone but being ban, where else Dagri Rinpoche a sex offender which being custody by the police in India for sexual harassment and he has been doing so since 10 years ago. This is how polluted FPMT and LDC is.

  8. Sexual harassment is a crime. It’s against the law. This is never allowed. If this issue is not being taken seriously means we are allowing others to take away human rights and abuse law. That also means anyone can touch anyone or rap anyone!

    How can FPMT called themselves holy and pure by protecting the Rinpoche and lamas that have hurt others in this way? What message did FPMT sent out to the students and public? Means whenever you come to see for dharma you got to let the teacher touch you and convince yourself to think this is to purify your karma of blessings?

    On the other hand, FPMT chose to stand with Dalai Lama, strongly condemn Dorje Shugden practice, going against their Guru Lama Yeshe, pretend to be pure and holy, covering up and allowing their lamas going around to sexual harass their students.

  9. What Lama Zopa said in his statement is quite disappointing. He is still saying Dagri Rinpoche is a highly regarded Buddhist master and his students should rejoice because they have received higher practice or teachings from him. Lama Zopa is saying what Dagri Rinpoche it is ok to molest the students because they are molested by a Buddha.

    So, Lama Zopa is also a high lama, even higher than Dagri Rinpoche, why doesn’t he touch the female students or nuns’ breasts in order to give them blessings? If Lama Zopa thinks it is not appropriate, why is it appropriate for Dagri Rinpoche to do that? Because Lord Buddha had sexual misconduct in his previous lives so it is ok for Dagri Rinpoche to do that too? If Buddha has to suffer from that, Dagri Rinpoche has to face the consequence also.

    It is not right for FPMT to cover Dagri Rinpoche up, he harms female students and also gives a bad name to Buddhism. People come to a Dharma center for refuge but instead, they receive pain. Many women are traumatised. They thought they were the wrong one and they feel guilty of it when it is Dagri Rinpoche who has seriously violated them.

  10. Have you guys seen this?

    I have been reading up with all that had happened with the latest Dagri Rinpoche molestation case. I cannot believe there is so much going on, especially with the way FPMT, their spiritual head, Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the monastery had responded. They are clearly downplaying the abuse, which is uncalled for in this day and age.

    You guys should read what Jakaira, one of the victim’s responded to these parties. It is obvious that she is quite upset with the way they had dismissed her and the other abuse victims. This is quite shocking to read about and does not put FPMT, Lama Zopa or the monastery in good light. As Jakaira has said, they are all liable to the damages inflicted on the victims because they choose to side with the abuser, Dagri.

    Very shocking and sad…

    Do read her letter….

    Spanish rebuttal1

    rebuttal2

  11. So disappointing to hear this, that FPMT, discriminates against Dorje Shugden so clearly and even on their application forms within FPMT.

    It is really illogical that, FPMT were to pay homage and felicitations to their guru/teacher who was a devout Dorje Shugden practitioner.

  12. Look at how LDC which affiliate with FPMT discriminate and segregate Buddhist practitioners just because of different preferences of protector practice. Dorje Shugden practitioners didn’t harm anyone but being ostracised. But Dagri Rinpoche a sex offender since 10 years ago which has harmed many people are allow to travel and visit all their centers and ordained hundreds of monks and nuns over the last decade. How valid are their vows now, and are they really monks and nuns given that they received their ordination from someone who has been breaking his monk vows all this while?

    Which is more crucial here? Think!

  13. Even though FPMT seem to break all the samaya with their Founder, Lama Yeshe, it also seem to be flourishing. It is because falsity is what current human beings strived on so that they can live in harmony with their negativities and have a good samara existence.

    I am not judging FPMT but even not a buddhist, how can one be alright to be taught the holy text by a woman molester and the person in charge, Lama Zopa to be so power driven to forsake the practice of Lama Yeshe on Dorje Shugden in order to gain favour from the ruling elite of the office of the Dalai Lama and CTA.

    Saddening that even though the reincarnation of Lama Yeshe is anointed by Dalai Lama, Lama Osel has chosen to give up his robes and live away on his own.

    LDC is obnoxious, the very fact that they prevent religious freedom contradictory to Malaysian’s constitution and discriminate against Dorje Shugden practitioners, is unlawful and uncivilised.

  14. This is so heartbreaking. Hardworking of Lama Yeshe to bring Dharma into worldwide is collapsing due to bad influences and political issues by his students. As far as I know, to be into Dharma will never be easy and there’s no short cut to Dharma. Dharma is like a highway for us to go forward as long as we follow our Guru advice and believe his teaching thoroughly. Therefore, FPMT should STOP discriminating on religious freedom, mend up their samaya with their Guru, else this will be another religious resolution.

  15. Practicing Dorje Shugden, doesn’t harm anyone, they publish a book to state how bad the practice is and ban the practice. A monk who molested women, didn’t even got arrested, but didn’t even got discriminated but continue giving teaching??? Where is law? Since the Tibetan leadership claim themselves are the leaders of all Tibetans, why did they cover this? Why did’t they shut down FPMT and let Dagri Rinpoche continue giving teaching and run the centre? Don’t even talk about a monk who hold vows, even it’s a layman, who breaks law and molest women, what right does he have to talk about banning banning Dorje Shugden practice, and discriminate their practitioners? This doesn’t only make Tibetans and Tibetan leadership look ugly, this will even directly make Tibetan Buddhism look ugly! FPMT, CTA, even The Dalai Lama should attend to this issue immediately! Or else, they don’t even have the right to ban Dorje Shugden practice.

  16. This is totally absurd. Forms are used to gather some basic information and not until like this FPMT’s form asking whether the person is a Dorje Shugden practitioner and also who is the person’s Guru. Does it really matter? What are they going to do if the person really a Dorje Shugden practitioner? 😠😠

  17. Such hypocrisy!! How can you even call them Buddhist when they discriminate and segregate other Buddhists? Where is compassion and wisdom? At the end of our prayers, we do dedication for all sentient beings. So does this mean only certain sentient beings will receive the merits because they practice Dorje Shugden. How silly can that be. I can’t even bring myself to explain these circumstances to other Buddhists who wants to know or learn about Buddhism.

  18. The FPMT form should include : participants must not be followers and students of Dagri Rinpoche.

    It is only befitting that not only Dagri Rinpoche be banned from giving teachings but also for his followers and students to be not allowed into other centers around the world. If Dorje Shugden practitioners are not allowed, then why Dagri Rinpoche’s students can? 

  19. This is not Dharma, hence don’t do things by using the name of Dharma. 😔

    Dalai-Lama-on-Healers

  20. Looks like lots of things of FPMT against Buddha teaching. First is the discrimination against Dorje Shugden Practitioners. Dorje Shugden is the emanation of Manjushri, how can they do that? Second, why allow a monk molested women continue giving teaching, what is the vows for? It make the Buddhists confused and this is very bad.

  21. Well is early to annouse that who practice Dorje Shugden should not join FPMT any their event rather then create such discrimination form. Just to let FPMT or LDC center know. Your guys are not dharma police checking everyone coming to seek for spiritual path. Your has broken samaya with Lama Yeshe who is the founder of FPMT a Dorje Shugden practitioner. This is the truth. Many people know. so don’t pretent so holy in front of public.Good luck for yours.

  22. When a so called Dharma center who accepts a clearcut case of a monk molesting women while banning an Enlightened Protector who’s autenthicated practice are practiced by 80 percent of the Buddhism community, including Highly Attained Masters. Boooo to FPMT for such hippocratic behaviour.

  23. Unlike 5 years ago, Tibetan leader Lobsang Sangay is not invited to Prime Minister Modi’s swearing-in ceremony this time. It is clear that PM Modi of India snubs the Tibetan leadership once again in favour of deeper ties with China. The Tibetan leadership finds itself increasingly isolated as nobody wants to offend China by lending any support to the ungrateful Tibetans.

    PM Modi snubs Tibetan leadership for swearing-in ceremony
    By Tenzin Dharpo
    May. 30, 2019
    DHARAMSHALA, May 30: The Indian Prime Minister who is fresh off of a massive win in the Indian Lok Sabha elections has done a U-turn by not inviting exile Tibetan government’s President to the swearing in ceremony due to be held later today, in a bid to not anger Beijing.
    The President of the exile Tibetan government, known officially as the Central Tibetan Administration, Dr. Lobsang Sangay’s absence today at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi marks a stark contrast to 2014 when the elected Tibetan leader was seated in the former rows at the ceremony when PM Modi was sworn into office the first time around.
    The invitation to Dr. Sangay in May 2014 drew strong objection from the Chinese government who lodged an official protest censuring New Delhi’s disregard for the so-called ‘One-China policy’. Many said at the time that the invite was posturing at most, of Modi’s intent to India’s neighbor and biggest rivals both in Asia and global arenas.
    The New Delhi-Beijing relations post the Doklam stand off and Wuhan summit has meant that India has given a cold shoulder to the exile Tibetan set up, thereby taking a step back in using the much-touted ‘Tibet card’. The shift in policy has markedly been seen on the ground with New Delhi issuing an advisory to senior leaders to avoid His Holiness the Dalai Lama or pushing the CTA to shift the “thank you India” ceremony from New Delhi to Dharamshala last year.
    The head of the Tibetan polity who extended pleasantries to PM Modi on his win, however may have anticipated the snub. Days after Modi’s historic election win, Sangay flew to the United States and is scheduled to return on June 5 to India next week.
    http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=41474&article=PM+Modi+snubs+Tibetan+leadership+for+swearing-in+ceremony

  24. I first joined a New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) centre in Malaysia before there was a ban on my faithful and truthful Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden was banned by the Central Tibetan Administration in India. After my son was born, my husband bought a bigger house closer to his work so we moved. Our new house at that time was close to LDC FPMT so I have decided to join them thinking it is the same Gelug lineage.

    To my despair, they asked me to leave after finding out that I used to go to NKT and who my teacher was. They said I am from a devil-worshipping centre and that I was not welcome there. I was shocked that I was being treated in such a rude and unreasonable way just because I am a practitioner of a peaceful protector.

    I didn’t return, of course, and later found that LDC has been bad mouthing about centres that practise Dorje Shugden or they suspect them to. This is one of the many rumours they spread among the Tibetan Buddhism community to secure their memberships and donations. Their action is totally against the core teachings of Buddhism and this explains why they create such kind of registration form. They will call those rich people to pester them for donations by getting them to fill in their sinister form.

    I am seriously surprised that they are still around after damaging the dharma for so long and also covering up for sex predator like Dagri Rinpoche. They have invited Dagri Rinpoche at least twice to their centre and I wonder how many young and pretty women were molested and sexually abused and were forced to just shut up.

    LDC FPMT in Malaysia is known for its discrimination and biased approach to fellow human beings. They are a bad representation of Buddhism. I wish I didn’t go to them at all!

    • I found this summary about LDC FPMT. So true leh! I ade know they are like this one. Just I don’t say onli. They look up to rich ppl but look down on poor ppl. They oso good fren with Vajrayana Buddhist Council of Malaysia (VBCM) that cover sex monk Shi Zhao Liang. LDC oso cover sex monk Dagri Rinpoche. Really good fren, do things oso da same.

      Shame Buddhists like this, you know. They dunno hurt how many people dy. Better LDC and VBCM close shops. Open for wat? Never bring benefit to ppl oso, only benefit sex monks.

      DagriMemeLDC-SexMC

  25. Discrimination is very common in the Tibetan communiyt, Look at the CTA, they say they are a democratic government but yet they imposed a ban on Dorje Shugden practice and segregated Dorje Shugden practitioners from the Tibetan community. If you are known to be a Dorje Shugden followers, the Tibetans will refuse to talk to you and sometimes despise you.

    It happened in a nunnery that as soon as the Dorje Shugden ban was imposed, the nuns took the Dorje Shugden statue down from their altar to destroy it. They stepped the statue on their feet before discarding it. Tell me, is that what Buddha Shakyamuni taught?

    FPMT as the mother monastery has given a specific instruction not to allow Dorje Shugden to enter their temples, attend their teachings and programs, LDC naturally has to follow the rule. FPMT is too corrupted to follow what Buddha Shakyamuni had taught. Being in the good book of the Dalai Lama is more important than keeping their integrity. This is very disappointing.

  26. Why such Buddhist organization show selectiveness instead of compassion to open their door for all that need help and suffer from their negative karma. Why segregate people that didn’t do anything harm but cover people that bring harm to others like Dagri Rinpoche?

    Where in Buddha’s teaching show us to discriminate?

  27. The moment FPMT gave up Dorje Shugden practice and started to say negative things about Dorje Shugden, it was the time they become non-spiritual. They might be an institute that teaches Dharma but they don’t put Dharma in practice. No real Dharma practitioner will try to wipe away their history or their lineage teacher just to be politically correct.

    By giving up Dorje Shugden practice, FPMT gets an endorsement from the Dalai Lama. With the endorsement of the Dalai Lama, many people think FPMT has a certain authority in Tibetan Buddhism and people give their support to them. What they don’t know is FPMT has already broken their Samaya and they have lost the blessings from their lineage teachers.

    Dagri Rinpoche’s sex scandal might be the manifestation of the negative karma accumulated by FPMT since the day they gave up Dorje Shugden practice. In order to look good and to protect their reputation, FPMT rather let Dagri Rinpoche continue to abuse female students and nuns. What kind of Dharma centre is this? It is very disappointing.

  28. It is amazing that it is supposed to be practice of what Buddha taught, which is tolerance and to gain enlightenment to benefit others. But instead, the Tibetan Leaders play discriminations, segregation, persecution and abuse with threats of death for the DS lamas. How could they be so delusional as to disparage attained beings as most of the lamas who retained DS pracitce were. They are the bravest to withstand the threats of death for not giving up on a protector practice given by their own Gurus, to keep their promises. They proved their integrity and pure practice. I won’t trust anyone who could break their samaya so easily to look good.

  29. FPMT is not the same anymore and they are going in the wrong direction. I miss the times where Lama Yeshe is around and everything is fine and they are in a good direction.

    Since Lama Yeshe passed away and the implementation of Dorje Shugden ban, the senior students of FPMT decided that they would abandon Dorje Shugden practice to be politically correct and on the Dalai Lama’s side. I wonder if the senior students in FPMT read 50 Stanza on Guru Devotion at all. Since they broke their Samaya with their guru by abandoning the sacred practice, there will be no attainments of improvement in their spiritual practice.

    The broken samaya can be seen clearly and the current incarnation of Lama Yeshe, Lama Osel has been manifesting signs such as straying away from dharma and FPMT. He prefers a secular life over monk hood and also shows signs that he is not interested in Dharma. If FPMT continues like this, they will soon lose their teacher and the organisation will not have lineage blessings from the guru.

  30. The forms are very bias and discriminative. Until today, what is the result of the Shugden ban? Someone has to voice it up and question CTA what is the difference after the ban and what have they achieve from the ban?

    If they have not achieved much then why continue to ostracise Shugden practitioners?

  31. I read that FPMT charges thousands for people to attend their Dharma course. It looks like they are selling Dharma for money. Dharma is very holy and it should not be used to make money. Many people need Dharma, including poor people. Perhaps poor people need Dharma even more to help them get through the difficulty they are experiencing.

    FPMT’s mission is to preserve Buddhism, how are they going to preserve Dharma when everything is about the money? It is such a shame that FPMT has become like a business. When Lama Yeshe established Kopan Monastery, he was going to make it a learning institution for everyone. Ever since Lama Yeshe passed away, thing has changed.

    Before Lama Yeshe passed away, he emphasised a lot on harmony. I believe there must have been a lot of politics within the organisation. Those who wanted to follow Lama Yeshe’s wishes left because they become the minority in the organisation. I hope one day this will change and Lama Oser will go back to FPMT and lead FPMT to where it should be.

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.…Instead of turning away people who practise Dorje Shugden, we should be kind to them. Give them logic and wisdom without fear, then in time they give up the ‘wrong’ practice. Actually Shugden practitioners are not doing anything wrong. But hypothetically, if they are, wouldn’t it be more Buddhistic to be accepting? So those who have views against Dorje Shugden should contemplate this. Those practicing Dorje Shugden should forbear with extreme patience, fortitude and keep your commitments. The time will come as predicted that Dorje Shugden’s practice and it’s terrific quick benefits will be embraced by the world and it will be a practice of many beings.

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