My opinion :-
1) There are certainly methods to destroy Gyalpos. The Mindroling Lamas are famous for their methods to destroy Gyalpos; they tired doing it to Dorje Shugden when DS first manifested 400 yrs ago(when he was yet to be worshipped) and every time the Lama put DS in the fire, Yamantaka appeared in the fire. Then the 5th Dalai Lama immediately realised that DS was NOT A SPIRIT but in actual fact the MANJUSHRI Buddha (Yamantaka is Manjushri). The 5th Dalai Lama felt very sorry for making that big mistake and wrote a prayer/praise to Dorje Shugden.http://www.dorjeshugden.org/practice/the-5th-dalai-lamas-prayer-to-dorje-shugden. The 14th Dalai Lama is Chenrezig, if he wanted to destroy DS it would not be impossible. Many others tried to destroy DS but he still stands till today to benefit all sentient beings – please contemplate that there is this great possibility you are wrong about him being a Gyalpo because HE IS NOT.

2. the DS High Lamas DO BENEFIT MANY BEINGS. Do you know anyone of them personally ? have you visited their monasteries to observe how they have spread the Buddha Dharma in all corners of the world to reduce sufferings? Have you spoken to those they have helped? Have you seen their work ? What have you personally done to render your statement here that they do not benefit many beings. I for one, is a very grateful beneficiary of a very kind DS Lama. If you care to know I will share with you what my Lama does to help others. So please, for your own sake do not belittle these High DS Lamas if you are ignorant of their work.

3. ever since the ban on DS practice came about
** Dharma brothers in the same monastery had to split because those who practice DS were ostracized. They had to leave their beloved monastery and stop talking to their dharma brothers who stayed back
** DS practitioner’s families were ostracized. They had to split from family members who held on to their DS practice. They cannot even go home to attend their beloved member’s funerals because they do not want to give problems to their family members. When a DS practitioner goes home, authorities will come to give trouble to the family
** DS practitioners could not go to their local doctors/hospitals/provision shops/restaurants etc . They had to travel further to other towns to seek treatment and help
** DS practitioners who were working with the CTA had to quit their jobs or quit ttheir practice
** DS practitioners cannot attend any teachings held by the Dalai Lama
** DS practitioners was always put in the spotlight for being evil/cult practitioners even though they have done no wrong

Now, dear Trime, is there more segregation/ division/split before or after the ban on Dorje Shugden was implemented ? Please contemplate with wisdom and compassion. I hope you will have realisations and may your delusional perceptions be removed. With folded hands.

What is misleading is the Dalai Lama saying Dorje Shugden is a spirit when he is not. Or that Dorje Shugden people have their religious freedom. That’s what’s really misleading.

By the way, the controversy proper started in the 1970s so your facts are wrong.

I’m not Buddhist and cannot comment on this division one way or the other. But, the photograph of Chogyel Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche in a hospital bed used to illustrate the article dates from 1995, when the Rinpoche was seriously ill. As this predates all the controversy, to use it here seems, somewhat, misleading.

Gyalpo Pehar is a non-Buddhist spirit subjugated by Guru Padmasambhava.
Prayer-requests to Pehar are found in the Longchen Nyingtik practices, for example in a practice text published by Ven. Sogyal Rinpoche ( Rigpa Fellowship ). That text is phonetic Tibetan, not English, so I cannot read it. But it is well known that Padmasambhava bound Pehar to the service of the Buddhists.

See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyalpo_spirits

Dorje Lekpa ( or Dorje Legpa ) is another non-Buddhist spirit subjugated by Guru Padmasambhava. Dorje Lekpa comes from the indigenous Bon tradition, and once again Padmasambhava bound Dorje Lekpa to the service of the Buddhists. Dorje Lekpa is one of the three principal protectors of the Dzogchen tradition established in Tibet by Guru Padmasambhava.

Padmasambhava fought the Bon tradition on several levels in order to establish the Buddhist teachings in Tibet, and this took much time and effort. The Tibetan aristocracy opposed Buddhism and blamed the Buddhists and Padmasambhava for a major plague on the Tibetan plateau at one point. The pro-Buddhist King Trisong Deutsan had to negotiate with the very antagonistic Bonpo ministers.

It is said that the Nyingma lineage holder ( direct student of Padmasambhava ) Yeshe Tsogyel fought the Bonpo, reversed their large scale magic attacks, and thereby killed a fair number of Bonpo. It is said that following the ( temporary ) victory of the Buddhists ( Padmasambhava, Yeshe Tsogyel and King Trisong Deutsan et. al. ), Yeshe Tsogyal then set about reorganizing the Bonpo practice into “Reformed Bon”, which would mean banning animal sacrifice and attacks on Buddhists.

It is also clearly stated that a number of Bonpo practices were brought into the Nyingma school, including prayer flag ceremonies, smoke ceremonies, and Dorje Lekpa. Prayers to Dorje Lekpa are standard in the ritual cycles of Tibetan Dzogchen, but the practice of Dorje Lekpa ( and Mahakala Maning, Rahula ) are secondary to the practice of Ekajati, a fierce manifestation of goddess Guhyajnana. Ekajati may be related to the Buddhist goddess Tara, but she is a Buddhist goddess who oversees ( the secondary ) Dorje Lekpa.

Thus, the Nyingma school inherits the Bonpo champion Dorje Lekpa and some other Bonpo practices, but historically this is after the open conflict between early Tibetan Buddhists and the more-or-less-indigenous Bonpos who opposed Buddhism.

There certainly are some western Nyingma initiates who are initiated by Bonpo lamas into the Bon tradition, and I know of one, but these individuals are very very few. I do not know whether the Dalai Lama is initiated into Bon, but he inherits the Bon deity Dorje Lekpa from HH Dilgo Khyentse, as I do along with many students of Sogyal Tulku.

I do not know whether Chogyal Namkhai Norbu is initiated into Bon per se. But his teaching and practice of Dorje Lekpa are not new to the Nyingma tradition as it is part of the classical ritual cycle he inherited e.g. through Longchen Nyingtik as I have demonstrated and repeatedly seen.

The Dalai Lama directly supports the free expression of ( reformed ) Bon as an authentic Tibetan dharma tradition. However, the Bon tradition is not Buddhist, and does not employ Vajrasattva nor Buddhist refuge. Bonpos have been and will remain non-Buddhists, even though they took in a lot from Buddhist philosophy.

One of the main Buddhist teachers of Dzogchen is Chinese, and he condemns and disallows the Bon tradition altogether. The mahasiddha Milarepa also condemned the Bon outright as animal spirit worship. ( See the book “Miraculous Journey” by Lama Kunga Rimpoche. )

However, the Kagyu practitioners of Dzogchen and the Chinese practitioners of Dzogchen all inherit the Bon protector Dorje Lekpa. And even though I have no Bonpo teacher, I also inherit this protector. In short, there is some Bonpo inheritance in all Buddhist dzogchen practice, whether one supports or condemns the Bonpo tradition of the past or present.

The same obtains for the Gyalpo Pehar. This is another non-Buddhist deity who plays a supporting role in the Dzogchen and Nyingma traditions, as stated. Anyone who has a Padmasambhava empowerment definitely inherits connections to both Pehar and to Dorje Lekpa.

Many criticisms can be made of Nyingma practice and practitioners, and in fact major Nyingma teachers such as Chogyur Lingpa have made the exact same criticisms! The fact remains that the Karma Kagyu, Drikung Kagyu and Sakya schools rely heavily on Old School Indian mahasiddha practices of Padmasambhava, Vajrakilaya, and so forth, and all make substantial use of Tibetan “terma” or “discovered treasure” teachings and practices.

It is also definitely true – not that I represent these teachers in any way – that Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche and the Dalai Lama actively oppose the practice of Dorje Shugden. I received the high White Tara from the Gelugpa Khensur Jhado Tulku Rinpoche, at which time emphatically forbade ninety White Tara initiates at the initiation from doing any Shugden practice. He was most serious.

This is a restriction I am willing to accept, since I have lots of vajrayana stuff to do anyway. I would not however publically oppose the practice of Dorje Shugden, nor use Vajrakilaya or other dharmapala sadhana to hammer on Shugden people or practice. One reason is that I have high Tara initiation from the late HH Kyabje Zong Rinpoche in 1983, and he was a major proponent of Dorje Shugden. I have not renounced this connection, and I will not work against it.

I am a non-sectarian practitioner. The practice of Dorje Shugden and the Bon lineage are incompatible with my diverse lineages. But then again, so is the other Karma Kagyu school of HH Trinley Thaye Dorje, and his main transmissions come from the late HH Chogyey Trichen Rinpoche, a major teacher for me!
Simply put, I don’t go against any of these. I don’t have to, and it would only cause me serious problems ( in particular with samaya ) that I don’t need.

I am not the opponent of anyone here in any way. At the same time, anyone who goes directly against Padmasambhava is very much my direct opponent, and the direct opponent of most Tibetan Buddhists too. So that is something people will want to be very careful to avoid at all costs, unless they want a very very big brawl. By all means, criticize Padmasambhava, dzogchen, Nyingmas and so forth as much as you want.

But I and others keep life simple and leave aside outright condemnation and hate speech. Those are likely cause for serious regret down the road. And as the saying goes, “He who slings mud generally loses ground.” Like the Brazilian Gelugpa who got kicked off a Kalacakra online forum for claiming that the Indian mahasiddha Padmasambhava “practiced West African voodoo” : the Brazilian apologized and they kicked him off anyway.

I know the theory and practice of dharmapala attacks and defense. In Mahayana the main point of combat magic is to ward off attack, not to initiate it. Making big trouble is really sadomasochistic. I prefer instead to be very diplomatic, and very boring 99.5% of the time. I have enough to deal with. Make sense?

Acarya

I would like to just offer some clarification.
ChNN is a dzogchen practitioner. Dzogchen is a nyingma teaching that was adopted by Bon when Bon become more Buddhist. Bon has been included in the 6 lineage traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. Many years ago before the time of Guru Rinpoche, Bon was a shamanistic tradition but since then it has become Buddhist.

The essence of Vajrakilaya is not to literally destroy but to manifest enlightened activity where there is confusion, which destroys the effects of Mara. It seems like in ChNN point of view, Gyalpo spirits can cause Mara to attack (this is a metaphor). When Mara attacks our vision becomes cloudy and so on, and we make the wrong choices, nonvirtuous decisions. ChNN sees that worshiping a Gyalpo that is manifesting confusion and not enlightened activity is definitely something that could be effected by Vajrakilaya practice, as it could help manifest some enlightened activity instead.

ChNN has not broken his “refuge vows” by doing this. Vajrakilaya DOES NOT HARM OTHERS. Kilaya only manifests enlightened activity where there is none through karmic connections.

The fact that some people on here actually think that a yidam can cause harm like that is very peculiar – and then to say, with this ignorant point of view, that a Vajra Master has broken samaya and so on…

What these high lamas are saying is that Gyalpo cannot be destroyed while others are worshiping them. In order to attempt to destroy the Gyalpo, some practices are done to help deter worshippers from their wrong actions, which are harming others. When you worship a gyalpo, you increase its strength, it may even be so strong and fulfill some of your wishes so that you think it is enlightened but it is not since it is doing so for its own good – to become more powerful – and not to help you become a Buddha. Therefore, some lamas have done rituals to help gyalpo worshippers overcome this fault, but the strength of the gyalpo due to many centuries of worship has overcome the minds of the gyalpo worshippers. It is so sad, these gyalpo puja practitioners could be great vajrayana students who benefit many beings, instead they worship a worldly spirit as if it were a Buddha – when it is obviously not. If Shugden were a Buddha, would Shugden have caused a split in the community of practitioners?

If gyalpo practices are dangerous why had Samye Monastry allowed it? Why had Padmasambhava even taught the Gyalpo practices? If Galpo is provocative and dangerous why would Padmasambhava kept him as the protector at Samye? Padmasambhava could have eliminated Gyalpo immeditately and not left him to remain until now to harm more people!

His Holiness the 5th Dalai Lama wanted to eliminate Gyalpo and not succeeded? How can a powerful lama like him not able to destroy Gyalpo?

CNNR had offended other practitioners like the Sakyas and Gelugs. It is the religious freedom of others and anyone to propitiate Dorje Shugden. Why critise others’ religious beliefs and create disharmony among the Buddhists? Very unbecoming of a lama like CNNR!

How could it be for a lama like CNNR to desperately want to destroy Dorje Shugden (DS) when high lamas from the Gelug tradition like HH Trijang Choktrul Rinpoche, or even HH the 14th Dalai Lama had never even thought of such drastic actions against DS? Why aren’t the Spiritual leaders of the four major Tibetan Schools do something to DS if DS is really dangerous to mankind?

Buddhism is about compassion for all beings and not to harm or destroy them!
CNNR had even critised H. E. Gangchen Rinpoche, Nechung and even Padmasambhava indirectly. Is this how a lama should behave? Instead of promoting harmony and love on all beings, CNNR was promoting hatred, disharmony, wrong views to others about Buddhism and the enlightened beings like Buddha Dorje Shugden and Padmasambhava. Very heavy negative karma for someone like GNNR to even ask his students to do the Vajrakilaya practices against Dorje Shugden.

Chogyel Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche is clearly wrong in his actions and accusation about Dorje Shugden!

Anyway, my point is, Buddhism is about cultivating patience, compassionate, acceptance, tolerance, etc. If Dorje Shugden practitioners are evil, selfish, etc, then may be you can show us your compassionate and love so that we can become good; not by condemning others to make yourself look better.

Also, Norbu Rinpoche commented that Guru Padmasambhava is wrong about giving the task of protecting the Samye temple to Pehar (because it caused confusion for him when he includes Pehar in his puja). So, does it mean texts/teachings by Guru Padmasambhava are wrong too? Since HH Dalai Lama also rely heavily on Pehar on many important decisions, does it mean HH Dalai Lama is wrong as well?

I am sensing much confusion from Norbu Rinpoche…

If Chogyel Namkhai Norbu is true to his practice, he would not go all out to criticize any religious worship unless he is an attention seeker or look to be in favor of Dalai Lama or the CTA. He is also an open Bon practitioner and associate with spirits openly.

As it is written, there are 8 classes of Gyalpos who were previously monks who broke their vows, did not practice correctly and return to be harmful and Nechung is a high level Gyalpo Pehar and Dalai Lama consults this Nechung oracle. It is logical to say Namkhai Norbu practices Nechung too as he criticizes Gyalpo Shugden.

Gyalpos are also known to be provocative and we can become nervous, create conflict, illness related to negative provocations and confusion which were the signs and result of what Namkhai Norbu practices ie. Nechung.

Need we say more that Namkhai Norbu was incorrect to criticize Gyalpo Shugden, was religious biased and created disharmony due to his provocation.

May Namkhai Norbu rest and get well soon. Since motivation counts the most to reach highest enlightenment, may he be able to see the “truth” of Dorje Shugden.