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

By: Shashi Kei

Vor 25 Jahren begann die religiöse Verfolgung von Dorje Shugden-Gläubigen, angeführt von der Zentralen Tibetischen Verwaltung (CTA). Die Folgen dieses religiösen Verbotes des Dalai Lamas und der CTA haben das tibetische Leben maßgeblich geprägt und das tibetisch-buddhistische Terrain im letzten Vierteljahrhundert weltweit gewaltsam verändert. Millionen von Leben wurden in Gefahr gebracht, die Heiligkeit der Linie von Lama Tsongkhapa geriet in Verwirrung und unzählige spirituelle Pfade wurden entgleist. Und das beinhaltet noch nicht die Auswirkungen, die diese Spaltung auf die kollektive tibetische Sache hatte.

Jetzt hat aber Seine Heiligkeit der 14. Dalai Lama zugegeben, dass er sich geirrt hat und er hat klar gemacht, dass diese Misshandlung von Shugden-Buddhisten aufhören soll.

Nach dem Flop, jetzt die Wende

Die religiöse Verfolgung der Shugden-Buddhisten durch den CTA begann 1996 und verschärfte sich 2008. Dorje Shugden-Praktizierende wurden als „Staatsfeinde“; „Anti-Dalai Lama“; „Anti-Dharma“; „Chinesische Spione/Sympathisanten; „Dämonenanbeter“ und andere ähnliche Beschreibungen eingestuft.

Doch die Propaganda und die Verfolgungen des CTAs konnten die Praxis von Dorje Shugden nicht vollständig ausmerzen. Es war immerhin eine angesehene Praxis, die von zentraler Bedeutung für die Gelug-Linie war. Sogar der 14. Dalai Lama hatte diese Gottheit verehrt, ebenso wie seine früheren Inkarnationen, der Große Fünfte Dalai Lama, der 11. Dalai Lama und die angesehensten Lehrer des 20. Jahrhunderts.

Es folgte eine Zeit vergleichsweiser Stille, als Shugden-Buddhisten in den Untergrund und ausserhalb der Reichweite des CTAs vertrieben wurden. Und dann machte der Dalai Lama eine Kehrtwende.

Der Dalai Lama sprach in seiner Live-Unterweisung Zehntausende Menschen an und kündigte an, dass die Misshandlungen von Shugden-Buddhisten beendet werden sollen.

Während der Saka Dawa-Lehre des Dalai Lamas am 26. Mai dieses Jahres machte er unerwartet auf das Thema Dorje Shugden aufmerksam, ein hochsensibles Thema, das ein wichtiges Zerwürfnis für gewaltsame Konflikte darstellt. Aber dieses Mal war die Botschaft des Dalai Lamas ein Widerspruch zu einer Haltung, die er und die CTA vorgeschrieben hatten.

Der Dalai Lama zitierte Passagen aus dem Bodhisattvacharyavatara (Die Lebensweise eines Bodhisattvas) und sagte, dass jede Feindseligkeit gegenüber der Gottheit offenkundig falsch sei, egal wie jemand über Dorje Shugden und seine Praxis denkt. Der tibetische Gottkönig folgerte, dass es gegen den Kodex eines Bodhisattva verstoße, Ärger gegenüber dem Beschützer zu empfinden. Außerdem sagte er, es seien unsere eigene Wut und unsere geistigen Verunreinigungen, die wir untersuchen sollten, anstatt unseren Ärger auf andere zu richten.

VIDEO:Dalai Lama sagt, Dorje Shugden ist ein Gegenstand des Mitgefühls (26. Mai 2021)

Doch das war noch nicht alles.

Eine Woche später, am 2. Juni 2021, gab der Dalai Lama während einer weiteren Belehrung über Je Tsongkhapas Erfülltes Schicksal (Tog jö dün leg ma) zum ersten Mal seit er ein Verbot der Praxis von Dorje Shugden verhängt hatte, zu, dass es ein Fehler war, Dorje Shugden diskriminiert zu haben.

Dies ist eine ganz andere Sprache und Tonlage als die der tibetische Führung, die vorsätzlich Hass gegen Dorje Shugden und Anhänger seiner Praxis schürten. Infolgedessen wurde es als „untibetisch“ und „unbuddhistisch“ angesehen, wenn Sie Shugden-Buddhisten nicht feindselig gegenüberstanden. Daher legten Regierungsbeamte und ehrgeizige Mönche Wert darauf, ihre Verachtung für diese heilige Praxis zum Ausdruck zu bringen, da der Hass auf Dorje Shugden zu einem schnellen Aufstieg in den tibetischen politischen sowie klösterlichen Vierteln verhalf.

VIDEO: Dalai Lama sagt, es ist falsch, Dorje Shugden abzulehnen (2. Juni 2021)

Fehler geschickt rückgängig machen

Das Wandel in der Haltung des Dalai Lama gegenüber Dorje Shugden ist nicht ganz neu. Im Januar 2020, nachdem er Dorje Shugden fast 24 Jahre lang als Feind des tibetischen Volkes bezeichnet hatte, deutete der Dalai Lama eine Umstimmung des Herzens gegenüber dem Beschützer an. Während der Dalai Lama in der Vergangenheit die Praxis von Dorje Shugden unter allen Umständen kategorisch verboten hatte, befürwortete er bei dieser Gelegenheit tatsächlich die Verehrung von Dorje Shugden, aber nur als Geburtsgottheit oder Landgottheit.

Es war ein Fachausdruck, aber in Wirklichkeit zerstörte das, was der Dalai Lama sagte, die Rechtfertigung des CTAs, Shugden-Buddhisten ihr verfassungsmäßiges Recht auf Religionsfreiheit zu verweigern. Die alte Rechtfertigung war, dass die Praxis von Dorje Shugden [in jeglicher Form] das Leben des Dalai Lamas bedroht sowie das Scheitern der tibetischen Bemühungen, ihr Land zurückzugewinnen, verursacht habe.

Dorje Shugden Lamas und Mönche wurden wie Kriminelle behandelt, wurden gejagt und tyrannisiert.

Dennoch dauerte das Verbot der Praxis von Dorje Shugden auf seinem sehr gefährlichen und schädlichen Verlauf weiter an.

Schädlich, weil sie die tibetische Verfassung untergrub, die unter anderem Religionsfreiheit garantierte. Schädlich, weil es die Heiligkeit des tibetischen Buddhismus untergräbt, indem es vier Jahrhunderte von alten Meistern und Weisen verspottet, die die Dorje Shugden-Praxis aufrechterhalten haben, darunter S. H. Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo und S. H. Trijang Dorje Chang. Schädlich, weil es eine ohnehin kleine und schwache Gemeinschaft von Menschen zu einer Zeit zersplitterte, in der sie in Eintracht mit gezielten Bemühungen um die Wiedererlangung ihres Landes zusammenarbeiten sollten. Schädlich, weil es eine irreparable Spaltung innerhalb der tibetischen Klostergemeinschaft geschaffen hat, eine Spaltung, die sich weltweit überall dort auswirkte, wo es Anhänger des tibetischen Buddhismus gab. Schädlich, weil es gegen die grundlegendsten buddhistischen Prinzipien verstößt.

Buddha oder Dämon?

In den letzten 25 Jahren tobten Debatten zwischen Shugden-Buddhisten, die Dorje Shugden als eine Emanation des Weisheits-Buddhas Manjushri betrachten, und denen, die sich dieser Praxis widersetzen. Kritiker argumentierten, dass die Gottheit ein Dämon war, der aus dem Tod eines Mönchs mit gebrochenen Gelübden entstand.

Viele waren gefangen in einem erstaunlichen Netz von Argumenten, die willkürlich von Pseudo-Intellektuellen, selbsternannten Experten des tibetischen Buddhismus und Schmeichlern gesponnen wurden, die das wirkliche oder vollständige Bild nicht sehen konnten.

Tatsächlich ist es ein einfaches Thema.

Aus der Perspektive einer konstitutionellen Demokratie, die der CTA vorgibt zu sein, ist die Verfolgung der Shugden-Buddhisten rechtswidrig und eine Verletzung der Menschenrechte. Einfach ausgedrückt ist es nicht die Aufgabe einer demokratischen Regierung zu entscheiden, welche Religion legitim ist und welche nicht. Es ist die Aufgabe der Regierung, die Religionsfreiheit zu garantieren, was der CTA unterlassen hat.

Allen Shugden-Anbetern wurde der Lebensunterhalt verweigert. Sogar die Mönche wurden nicht verschont. Hier wird der berüchtigte Vorfall mit dem „gelben Stock“ gezeigt, bei dem Mönche gezwungen wurden, ihre Praxis von Dorje Shugden aufzugeben oder aus dem Kloster ausgewiesen zu werden.

Und nun hat der Dalai Lama aus der Perspektive der buddhistischen Religion klargestellt, dass wer auch immer Dorje Shugden ist, nicht von Belang sein sollte, wenn Sie ein wahrer Praktizierender des Buddhadharma sind. Tatsächlich betonte der Dalai Lama dass es in der Bodhicitta-Praxis sogar die Verpflichtung gibt, alle Wesen als “wichtige Gäste” zu betrachten.

Das Argument ist noch einfacher, wenn man es aus der Perspektive des gesunden Menschenverstandes betrachtet. Wenn man nicht an die Heiligkeit von Dorje Shugden glaubt, kann man sich einfach dafür entscheiden, nicht zu dieser Gottheit zu beten. Mit dieser einfachen Logik ist die Welt mit ihren unzähligen Religionen und Glaubensrichtungen in einem relativ friedlichen Zustand geblieben.

Es gab nie eine angemessene Rechtfertigung Shugden-Buddhisten überhaupt zu verfolgen. Diejenigen, die auf der Grundlage von „weil der Dalai Lama es gesagt hat“ gegen Dorje Shugden zu den Waffen gegriffen haben, sollten jetzt damit aufhören, Shugden-Buddhisten zu tyrannisieren, weil der Dalai Lama dies tatsächlich gesagt hat.

Ist das das Ende des Shugden-Verbots?

Leider ist es unwahrscheinlich, dass dies der Fall ist.

Selbst heute, nachdem der Dalai Lama ganz klar gesagt hat, dass es falsch ist, Dorje Shugden zu diskriminieren, gibt es auf der offiziellen Webseite des CTAs immer noch einen Bereich, der Hass gegen die Dorje Shugden Menschen schürt. Klicken um zu vergrößern.

Die absurde Argumentation und das Verhalten des CTAs zur Unterstützung eines rechtswidrigen religiösen Verbots haben den CTA unter gebildeten Tibetern und globalen politischen Beobachtern zum Gespött gemacht. Sie sehen, dass sich hinter der demokratischen und progressiven Fassade des CTAs eine veraltete Verwaltung verbirgt, die immer noch auf Fabeln und Aberglauben zurückgreift, anstatt bei der Regierungsführung gesunden Menschenverstand anzuwenden.

Während es der Dalai Lama war, der das Verbot der Praxis von Dorje Shugden initiierte, dienten die Unruhen den CTA-Beamten gut. Es war viel einfacher, weiterhin Hass gegen Dorje Shugden zu schüren, als sich um dringende Angelegenheiten zu kümmern, wie etwa die adäquate Versorgung einer schwindenden tibetischen Exilbevölkerung oder den Versuch, China in einen sinnvollen Dialog zu verwickeln. Das wäre eine klügere Strategie gewesen, als sich die CTA als Schachfiguren zu missbrauchen, um Chinas Aufstieg einzudämmen. Leider waren es Lobsang Sangays vorherrschende Aufgaben während seiner Amtszeit als Präsident der CTA, Anti-Shugden-Stimmung zu provozieren, China zu verärgern und sich mit Penpa Tsering an politischer Hinterlist zu beteiligen.

Die CTA machte es zu einer Strategie, Feindseligkeit gegenüber Dorje Shugden zu fördern, und ihr wurde das gleiche, wenn nicht sogar mehr Gewicht beigemessen als der tibetischen Sache. Als jedoch der Dalai Lama die Praxis von Dorje Shugden als Geburts-Gottheit oder Land-Gottheit befürwortete, fühlte sich die CTA unter Druck gesetzt, diesen bedeutenden Zusammenhang zu entfernen. Klicken um zu vergrößern.

Als jedoch der Dalai Lama die Praxis von Dorje Shugden als eine Geburts-Gottheit oder Land-Gottheit befürwortete, geriet die CTA unter Druck ein prominentes Banner von ihrer offiziellen Webseite zu entfernen. Dieses Banner führte zu einer Seite, die das tibetische Volk, Regierungsbüros, lokale Unternehmen und Unterstützer der tibetischen Sache ermutigen sollte, die Hexenjagd gegen Shugden-Buddhisten fortzusetzen. Diese Seite ist heute noch vorhanden, wenn auch nicht mehr so auffällig. Und das Mobbing von Shugden-Buddhisten hält weltweit an, wobei die Unterstützer denken, dass ein solches Verhalten vom Dalai Lama sanktioniert wird.

Ob die CTA diese giftige Anti-Shugden-Seite insgesamt entfernt, ist jetzt ein wichtiges Barometer dafür, wie sehr sie den Dalai Lama wirklich verehren. Es wäre ein Widerspruch für den Dalai Lama, Mitgefühl für die Dorje Shugden Anhänger zu empfehlen, während die CTA heimlich weiterhin die anhaltende Verfolgung fördert.

Wie gut werden die CTA und das tibetische Volk diese neue Richtlinie des Dalai Lamas zu Dorje Shugden aufnehmen? Es ist schwer zu sagen. Ein besorgniserregender Hinweis liegt in der Art und Weise, wie der tibetische Übersetzer den Teil der Lehre des Dalai Lama komplett weggelassen hat, als er sagte:

„Ich habe ein Shugden-Verbot durchgesetzt. Aber wenn ich jetzt über [Shantidevas erste Strophe] nachdenke, ist er einfach jemand, den wir lieben müssen, jemand, mit dem wir bedingungslos liebevolle Güte und Mitgefühl praktizieren sollten. Wenn ich mich von ihm distanziere und einige winzige Gründe anführe wie „er ist jemand, der die Lehren verletzt“; dies ist höchstwahrscheinlich ein Fehler.

Es ist ein schwerwiegendes Versäumnis, weil nicht-tibetisch sprechende Personen haben den Teil übersehen, in dem der Dalai Lama klar anspielte, dass das Verbot von Dorje Shugden ein Fehler war. Die Frage ist, war es eine bewusste Unterlassung?

VIDEO: Der englische Übersetzer hat den Rat des Dalai Lamas zu Dorje Shugden ausgelassen (2. Juni 2021)

Mit der tibetischen Führung und ihrer Clique ist alles möglich und wir haben immer wieder gesehen, wie geschickt und manipulativ sie sein können. Ein treffendes Beispiel dafür findet gerade statt.

Während der Dalai Lama Mitgefühl für alle fühlenden Wesen, einschließlich der Dorje Shugden-Anhänger, predigt, hat die CTA den Shugden-Klöstern die Unterstützung bei der Beschaffung dringend benötigter COVID-Impfstoffe für die Mönche verweigert. Hinter all der Mitgefühlsrhetorik hat sich also nicht viel geändert. Die CTA ist in ihrer Verfolgung derer, die sie als Feinde bezeichnen, nur noch besser und subtiler geworden. Und dies geschieht zu einer Zeit, in der die Regierungen der Welt die Notwendigkeit erkannt haben, alle Differenzen beiseite zu legen, um eine Pandemie zu bekämpfen, die die gesamte Menschheit bedroht. Aber nicht die CTA.

Und was nun?

Die Absicht des Dalai Lamas, den Shugden-Konflikt zu beenden, ist deutlich. Er wählte Saka Dawa aus, um seine neue Haltung zum Thema Shugden zu erörtern. Es war eine Gelegenheit, bei der der Dalai Lama wusste, dass er zu genau den Leuten sprechen würde, die diesem vergifteten Kapitel der modernen tibetisch-buddhistischen Geschichte ein Ende setzen könnten – dem Gaden Tripa, dem Sharpa Choje und anderen hochrangigen Mönchen und Regierungsbeamten. Und um sicherzugehen, dass seine Botschaft eindeutig ankam, wiederholte der Dalai Lama in seinen Lehren vom 2. Juni 2021 seine Absicht, die Shugden-Verfolgung zu beenden, und er räumte diesmal ein, dass es falsch war, Dorje Shugden diskriminiert zu haben.

Während der Belehrungen wandte sich der Dalai Lama an bedeutende Meister, darunter (von links oben im Uhrzeigersinn): Seine Heiligkeit Gaden Tri Rinpoche Lobsang Tenzin, S.E. Sharpa Choje Rinpoche Lobsang Dorje, S.E. Gyuto Khenpo Gangkar Rinpoche und S.E. Jampa Choje Gosog Rinpoche Ngawang Sungrab Gelek.

Verständlicherweise ist es für die tibetische Führung schwierig, ein religiöses Verbot, das sie nicht offen anerkennen können, abrupt aufzuheben. Und es würde einige Zeit dauern, um eine über ein Viertel-Jahrhundert kultivierte kollektive Psyche zu ändern. Aber der Rat des Dalai Lamas lautet eindeutig, genau das zu tun. Und alle Tibeter, Shugden- und Nicht-Shugden-Leute, haben den Dalai Lama immer in ihrem Herzen getragen.

Daher ist es vielleicht für jedermann das klügste, unabhängig davon, auf welcher Seite der jetzt nicht mehr existierenden Kluft sie stehen, vorwärts zu gehen. Diejenigen, die Opfer dieser dunklen Zeit in der tibetischen Exilgeschichte wurden, müssen die Vergangenheit nicht noch einmal durchleben, und diejenigen, die sich aus „winzigen Gründen“ (wie der Dalai Lama es ausdrückte) gezwungen sahen, die schwere Last zu tragen andere tibetische Buddhisten zu hassen, können diese bedrückende Last endlich fallen lassen.

Der neue CTA-Präsident Penpa Tsering hat nun die einmalige Gelegenheit, einen hässlichen Fehler formell auszulöschen und die Menschen wieder zusammenzubringen. Es wäre ein schwerer Fehltritt für Penpa Tsering, dem fatalen Vermächtnis seines Vorgängers von Menschenrechtsverletzungen zu folgen. Schließlich ist die dunkle Phase der CTA-Politik, in der das politische Überleben es erforderte, in der Shugden-Frage zu spuren, jetzt vorbei.

Wir hoffen im Interesse aller Tibeter und aller tibetischen Buddhisten, dass die Worte des Dalai Lamas beachtet werden. In Erinnerung an die jüngsten Lehren des Dalai Lamas, mögen alle Wesen als kostbare Gäste zur Sugataschaft eingeladen werden und mögen wir für das Glück aller Lebewesen handeln.

Videos in Chinesischer Sprache [中文视频]

达赖喇嘛《三主要道》的开示

达赖喇嘛《证道歌》的开示

Video mit Mongolischen Untertiteln

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

By: Shashi Kei

It is now 25 years since religious persecution of Dorje Shugden believers began, spearheaded by the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). The fallout of the Dalai Lama and CTA’s religious ban significantly shaped Tibetan lives and forcibly altered the Tibetan Buddhist terrain globally over the last quarter of a century. Millions of lives were placed in jeopardy, the sanctity of Lama Tsongkhapa’s lineage was hurled into confusion and countless spiritual paths were derailed. And that is not counting the impact this rift has made on the collective Tibetan cause.

But now His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama has admitted that he was wrong and made it clear that this mistreatment of Shugden Buddhists is to stop.

After the flop, now the flip

The CTA’s religious persecution of Shugden Buddhists started in 1996 and intensified in 2008. Dorje Shugden practitioners were classified as “enemies of the State”; “anti-Dalai Lama”; “anti-Dharma”; “Chinese spies/sympathizers; “demon worshippers” and other similar characterizations.

Yet, the CTA’s propaganda and persecutions failed to completely root out the practice of Dorje Shugden. It was after all, a well-regarded practice, central to the Gelug lineage. Even the 14^th Dalai Lama had revered this deity, as did his past incarnations, the Great Fifth Dalai Lama, the 11^th Dalai Lama and the most respected teachers of the 20^th century.

A period of relative quiet followed as Shugden Buddhists were driven underground and out of the CTA’s reach. And then the Dalai Lama did a turnaround.

The Dalai Lama addressed tens of thousands in his live teaching, during which he announced that mistreatment of Shugden Buddhists is to stop.

During the Dalai Lama’s Saka Dawa teaching on May 26 this year, he unexpectedly drew attention to the Dorje Shugden issue, a highly sensitive subject that has been a major fault line for violent conflicts. But this time, the Dalai Lama’s message was a contradiction of a stance that he and the CTA had mandated.

Quoting passages from the Bodhisattvacharyavatara (The Bodhisattva’s Way of Life) the Dalai Lama said that regardless of how anyone felt about Dorje Shugden and his practice, any animosity towards the deity was patently wrong. The Tibetan god-king inferred that it is against the code of a Bodhisattva to feel any anger towards the Protector. And in addition, he said it is our own anger and mental defilements that we should examine instead of directing our resentment towards others.

VIDEO: Dalai Lama says Dorje Shugden is an object of compassion (May 26, 2021)

But that wasn’t all.

One week later on June 2, 2021, during another teaching on Je Tsongkhapa’s Destiny Fulfilled (Tog jö dün leg ma), the Dalai Lama, for the first time since he imposed a ban on the practice of Dorje Shugden, admitted that it was a mistake to have discriminated against Dorje Shugden.

This is a very different language and tone to that which the Tibetan leadership employed when they wilfully acted to incite hatred against Dorje Shugden and adherents of his practice. As a result, it was regarded as ‘un-Tibetan’ and ‘un-Buddhist’ if you were not hostile to Shugden Buddhists. So government officials and ambitious monks made it a point to grandstand their contempt of this sacred practice as hating Dorje Shugden became a rapid career path in Tibetan political and monastic quarters.

VIDEO: Dalai Lama says its wrong to reject Dorje Shugden (June 2, 2021)

Skilfully undoing a mistake

The Dalai Lama’s reversal of attitude towards Dorje Shugden is not entirely new. In January 2020, after almost 24 years of labelling Dorje Shugden as an enemy of the Tibetan people, the Dalai Lama signalled a softening of heart towards the Protector. While in the past the Dalai Lama had categorically forbidden the practice of Dorje Shugden under any circumstances, on that occasion, he actually endorsed the worship of Dorje Shugden but only as a birth deity or a land deity.

It was terminology but in effect, what the Dalai Lama said destroyed the CTA’s justification for denying Shugden Buddhists their constitutional right to freedom of religion. The old justification was that the practice of Dorje Shugden [in any form] threatened the Dalai Lama’s life and caused the failure of Tibetan efforts to regain their country.

Dorje Shugden lamas and monks were treated as criminals to be hunted down and harassed.

Still, the ban on Dorje Shugden practice persisted on its very dangerous and damaging course.

Damaging because it undermined the Tibetan Constitution that guaranteed, amongst other things, religious freedom. Damaging because it undermined the sanctity of Tibetan Buddhism by making a mockery of four centuries of old masters and sages who had upheld the Dorje Shugden practice, including H.H. Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo and H.H. Trijang Dorje Chang. Damaging because it splintered an already small and weak community of people at a time when they should be harmonized in focused efforts to regain their country. Damaging because it created an irreparable schism within the Tibetan monastic community, a split which played out globally wherever there were Tibetan Buddhist adherents. Damaging because it went against the most basic Buddhist principles.

Buddha or demon?

For the last 25 years, debates raged between Shugden Buddhists who regard Dorje Shugden as an emanation of the Wisdom Buddha Manjushri and those who oppose the practice. Detractors argued that the deity was a demon who arose from the death of a monk with broken vows.

Many were caught up in an intriguing web of arguments haphazardly weaved by pseudo-intellectuals, self-proclaimed Tibetan Buddhist experts and sycophants failing to see a real or complete picture.

In fact, it is simple enough a subject.

From the perspective of a constitutional democracy which the CTA claims to be, its persecution of Shugden Buddhists is unlawful and a breach of human rights. Simply put, it is not the business of a democratic government to decide which religion is legitimate and which is not. It is the business of the government to guarantee the freedom of religion which the CTA failed to do.

All Shugden worshippers were denied livelihood. Even the monks were not spared. Pictured here is the infamous ‘yellow stick’ incident where monks were forced to break with their practice of Dorje Shugden or be expelled.

And now, from the perspective of the Buddhist religion, the Dalai Lama has made it clear that whoever Dorje Shugden is, should not be of concern if you are a true practitioner of the Buddhadharma. In fact as the Dalai Lama pointed out, in the practice of Bodhicitta, there is even an obligation to regard all beings as ‘important guests’.

The argument is even simpler when approached from the perspective of common sense. If one does not believe in the sacredness of Dorje Shugden, then one can simply choose not to pray to the deity. It is this simple logic that has kept the world with its myriad religions and beliefs in a relatively peaceful state.

There has never been any proper justification to persecute Shugden Buddhists at all. So, those who took up arms against Dorje Shugden on the basis of ‘because the Dalai Lama said so’, should now stop their bullying of Shugden Buddhists, because the Dalai Lama has indeed said so.

Is this the end of the Shugden ban?

Sadly, it is unlikely to be the case.

Even today after the Dalai Lama has clearly said that it is wrong to discriminate against Dorje Shugden, the CTA’s official website still carries a section dedicated to stoking hatred against Dorje Shugden people. Click to enlarge.

The CTA’s absurd reasoning and conduct in support of an unlawful religious ban has made it a laughing stock amongst educated Tibetans and global political observers. They see that behind the CTA’s democratic and progressive facade is an out-of-date administration that still resorts to fables and superstitions instead of applying common sense when it comes to governance.

While it was the Dalai Lama who initiated the ban on the Dorje Shugden practice, the unrest served the CTA officials well. It has been far easier to keep fanning hatred against Dorje Shugden than to attend to urgent business such as providing adequately for a depleting Tibetan exile population or seeking to engage China in meaningful dialogue. That would have been a wiser strategy than for the CTA to avail themselves as pawns in attempts to curb China’s rise. Unfortunately, provoking anti-Shugden sentiment, antagonizing China and engaging in political skulduggery with Penpa Tsering were Lobsang Sangay’s predominant duties during his tenure as President of the CTA.

The CTA made it a policy to promote animosity towards Dorje Shugden and it was given equal if not more weight than the Tibetan Cause. However, when the Dalai Lama endorsed the practice of Dorje Shugden as a birth deity or land deity, the CTA felt pressured to remove this prominent link. Click to enlarge.

However, when the Dalai Lama endorsed the practice of Dorje Shugden as a birth deity or land deity, the CTA came under pressure to remove a prominent banner on their official website. That banner led to a page dedicated to encouraging the Tibetan people, government offices, local businesses and supporters of the Tibetan cause to keep up the witch hunt against Shugden Buddhists. That page is still present today although not as conspicuous now. And bullying of Shugden Buddhists continues to persist globally with supporters thinking that such behavior is sanctioned by the Dalai Lama.

Whether the CTA removes that toxic anti-Shugden page altogether is now an important barometer of how much they truly revere the Dalai Lama. It would be a contradiction for the Dalai Lama to counsel compassion towards Dorje Shugden followers while the CTA surreptitiously continues to encourage ongoing persecution.

How well will the CTA and the Tibetan people take to this new directive on Dorje Shugden by the Dalai Lama? It’s difficult to tell. A worrying hint is in the way the Tibetan translator completely omitted the part of the Dalai Lama’s teaching when he said:

I have enforced a ban concerning Shugden. But when I reflect on [Shantideva's first verse] now, he is simply someone to be loved, someone with whom we should unconditionally practice loving kindness and compassion. If I distance myself from him giving some tiny reasons like “he is someone who harms the teachings”; most likely this is a mistake.

It is a serious omission because non-Tibetan speakers would have missed the part where the Dalai Lama clearly alluded that the ban on Dorje Shugden was a mistake. 
The question is, was it a wilful omission?



VIDEO: The English translator omitted the Dalai Lama’s advice on Dorje Shugden (June 2, 2021)

With the Tibetan leadership and their coterie, anything is possible and we have seen time and time again how crafty and manipulative they can be. One apt example of this is taking place right now.

Even as the Dalai Lama preaches compassion for all sentient beings including Dorje Shugden followers, the CTA has refused assistance to Shugden monasteries to procure badly-needed COVID vaccines for the monks. So, behind all the compassion rhetoric, nothing much has changed at all. The CTA just got better and more subtle in their persecution of those they label to be enemies. And this is happening at a time when world governments have seen the necessity to put all differences aside to tackle a pandemic that threatens all humanity. But not the CTA.

So what now?

The Dalai Lama’s intention to end the Shugden conflict is clear. He chose Saka Dawa to state his new stance on the Shugden issue. It was an occasion where the Dalai Lama knew he would be speaking to the very people who could put into effect an end to this poisoned chapter of modern Tibetan Buddhist history — the Gaden Tripa, the Sharpa Choje and other senior monks and government officials. And to be sure his message was clearly received, the Dalai Lama repeated his intention to end Shugden persecutions in his June 2, 2021 teachings, this time acknowledging that it was wrong to have discriminated against Dorje Shugden.

During the teachings, the Dalai Lama addressed eminent masters including (from top left, clockwise): His Holiness Gaden Tri Rinpoche Lobsang Tenzin, H.E. Sharpa Choje Rinpoche Lobsang Dorje, H.E. Gyuto Khenpo Gangkar Rinpoche and H.E. Jampa Choje Gosog Rinpoche Ngawang Sungrab Gelek

Understandably it is difficult for the Tibetan leadership to abruptly reverse a religious ban that they cannot afford to openly acknowledge. And it would require some time to turn a collective psyche that has been cultivated over a quarter of a century. But clearly the Dalai Lama’s advice is exactly to do just that. And all Tibetans, Shugden and non-Shugden people alike, have always held the Dalai Lama close to their hearts.

So perhaps the wisest thing for everyone to do, regardless of which side of the now-defunct divide they stand on, is to move forward. Those who have been victims of this dark period in Tibetan exile history need not keep reliving the past, and those who have felt obliged to carry the heavy burden of hating fellow Tibetan Buddhists because of “tiny reasons” (as the Dalai Lama put it) can finally drop this taxing load.

The new CTA President Penpa Tsering now has a golden opportunity to formally wipe out an ugly mistake and bring the people together again. It would be a serious misstep for Penpa Tsering to follow his predecessor’s fatal legacy of human rights breaches. After all, the dark period of CTA politics when one’s political survival necessitated toeing the line on the Shugden issue is now over.

We hope, for the sake of all Tibetan people and all Tibetan Buddhists, that the Dalai Lama’s words are heeded. In remembering the Dalai Lama’s recent teachings, may all beings be invited as precious guests to Sugatahood and may we act to ensure temporal happiness for all sentient beings.

Videos in Chinese [中文视频]

达赖喇嘛《三主要道》的开示

达赖喇嘛《证道歌》的开示

Video with Mongolian subtitle

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

By: Shashi Kei

The Dorje Shugden conflict remains one of the most polarizing issues in Tibetan Buddhism today. The Tibetan leadership has claimed that Shugden practice is an instrument of the Communist government of China, that the Dorje Shugden lineage is devoid of spiritual legitimacy, and indeed nothing more than the work of extreme and exclusivist quarters within the Gelugpa sect.

Throughout the world, Tibetan Buddhist communities have been coerced to pick a side in the Shugden divide. But a fair and educated choice is rarely possible. To disagree with the 14^th Dalai Lama is to be regarded instantly as being anti-Dalai Lama, anti-Buddhism, anti-democracy and therefore pro-Communist China.

As has become standard operating procedure, the Tibetan leadership relies on Dalai Lama sycophants who operate within targeted Buddhist communities to push the Central Tibetan Administration’s (CTA) political agenda. These agendas are often disguised as examination of certain Buddhist beliefs and doctrines.

Within Mongolian communities today, there is again renewed agitations to support the Dalai Lama’s narrative on the Shugden issue. This time, the provocations come from a Mongolian man by the name of Tsend-Ayush Batmunkh who runs a Facebook account under the nickname ‘Hunnu Mongol’. There is in fact nothing fresh in Hunnu Mongol’s charges against Dorje Shugden except to regurgitate the Tibetan leadership’s vitriol, aimed at dislodging the people from their faith in Dorje Shugden, and incite hatred against Shugden followers and China.

The Hunnu Mongol Facebook account is run by a Mongolian man named Tsend-Ayush Batmunkh. Click to enlarge

For the Mongolian people, the stakes are high. To begin with, it is vital for the Mongolian nation to maintain good relations with a powerful China. The last time Mongolia fell into Dharamsala’s trap, it took some repairing to normalize ties with a powerful ally. But looking beyond political common sense, the Mongolian people also have established historic ties with the lineage of Dorje Shugden that if ruptured, would undermine Mongolia’s Buddhist heritage.

Simply put, Hunnu Mongol wants the Mongolian people to believe that there is no legitimacy to the Dorje Shugden lineage. In this, Hunnu Mongol is being mischievous because Mongolian archives brim with evidence of the close relationship between the Dorje Shugden lineage, the spread of Buddhism in Mongolia and the social development of the people.

One doesn’t have to be a Buddhist scholar to recognize this close relationship.

Letter from the International Tibetan Shugden Community (English)

The incendiary antics of Hunnu Mongol has caught the attention of Shugden Buddhists who continue to suffer this CTA-sponsored religious persecution. The irony is that the Tibetan exile government that claims to be fighting for democracy should be stifling religious freedom. Click to enlarge.

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Letter from the International Tibetan Shugden Community (Mongolian)

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The Khalkha Jetsun Dhampa Khutuktus

The Jetsun Dhampa Khutuktus are the highest and most esteemed lamas in Mongolia. They are regarded as Bogd Gegeen or supreme spiritual authorities. There is no question of the Jetsun Dhampas’ enlightened nature which is no less than that of the Dalai Lamas.

The first Jetsun Dhampa Khutuktu, Zanabazar who was the spiritual mentor of Emperor Kangxi, a reincarnation of Tulku Dragpa Gyaltsen, based on an old prophesy by Panchen Lobsang Chokyi Gyaltsen.

1. The 1^st Jetsun Dhampa, Öndör Gegeen Zanabazar, was recognized as the reincarnation of the great Jonang Jetsun Taranatha. Zanabazar advanced Gelug Buddhism within Mongolia for over 60 years and was well known to have sought close ties with the Qing Emperor Kangxi. So close was the relationship between the first Jetsun Dhampa with Emperor Kangxi that when he heard of the passing of Kangxi, he immediately travelled to Beijing to conduct the customary Buddhist rites for the great emperor.
    
   According to an old prophecy by Panchen Lobsang Chokyi Gyaltsen, Emperor Kangxi was the reincarnation of Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen who arose as Dorje Shugden. This record is contained in the works of the Mongolian scholar, the most esteemed master, Lobsang Tamdin who gained the reputation of being extremely fastidious in tracing transmissions of Buddhist lineages in order to validate their authenticity.
    
   It was with Kangxi’s support that the first Jetsun Dhampa brought an end to vicious fighting between Dzungar-Qirat Mongols and Khalkha Mongols. The tension between the Dzungar-Qirat and the Khalkha Mongols started because the Qirat warlord Galdan Khan was offended that Zanabazar’s throne was placed at the same height as the throne of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s representative during a religious ceremony. (Mongolia and the Mongols, A M Pozdneev, 1971)
Even then, there were already attempts to reduce Mongolian spiritual authority and render it lesser than that of the Dalai Lamas.
2. The 4^th Jetsun Dhampa Luvsantüvdenvanchug’s era coincided with the spread of Dorje Shugden practice amongst Mongolian Gelugpas. He was recorded as being the first Mongolian to compose propitiation texts to Dorje Shugden. These include a torma offering prayer which supplicates the Dharma Protector to assist in the spread of the Dharma.
   

   OM! Magnificent Buddha of Shambhala,
   Ruler of the three worlds with a brilliant red face,
   Protectors of the most scholarly beings of Loseling,
   Including Dorje Shugden, please come here!

   I offer to you pleasing samaya substances which create harmony,
   Huge palaces, red tormas and white tormas,
   A mountain of flesh and an ocean-wide pile of bones
   And all the objects of desires.


   As you pleasingly and happily partake in these offerings,
   May it cause the increase of study, listening, contemplation and all virtues of theory and practice.
   I request you: Please increase conducive conditions and remove hostile circumstances,
   Guide us as we walk this path of wisdom and compassion.
   Please grant auspiciousness for all Sangha who uphold the three trainings!

   The 4^th Jetsun Dhampa was also a great master of the Kalachakra Tantra and it was he who first alluded to Shambhala being an abode of Dorje Shugden. Shambhala of course is central to the Kalachakra Tantra. It would be absurd to suggest that the Chakravartins or Enlightened Kings of Shambhala would share their abode with a minor demon. And yet that would be the only conclusion to arrive at if one were to believe the accounts served by anti-Dorje Shugden agitators such as Hunnu Mongol.

   Like the 1^st Jetsun Dhampa Zanabazar, the 4^th Jetsun Dhampa’s holy body was enshrined in an important Mongolian monastery, Amarbayasgalant, after his parinirvana. It is not surprising given Dorje Shugden’s historic stature that this deity is also one of the Dharma Protectors of this important Mongolian monastery.

3. The relationship between the Jetsun Dhampa Khutuktus and Dorje Shugden continued with the 8th Jetsun Dhampa Agvaanluvsanchoyjindanzanvaanchigbalsambuu. He would frequently consult the State Oracle, Choijin Lama Luvsankhaidav, who was also his brother. For divine proclamations and guidance, Choijin Lama would take trance of either Nechung, Tsiu Marpo or Dorje Shugden. This itself is evidence that Dorje Shugden was worshipped and well trusted by Mongolian Buddhist authorities. Furthermore, the 9^th Jetsun Dhampa Jambalnamdolchoyjijantsan was a devout student of H.H the 10^th Panchen Lama, H.H. Trijang Dorje Chang and H.H. Ling Dorje Chang, all of whom were the greatest masters of their time who worshipped Dorje Shugden.

Amarbayasgalant, one of Mongolia’s most important temples. Dorje Shugden is the main Dharma Protectors of this temple together with Setew, and Lkham.

Zaya Pandita

Zaya (Jaya) Pandita, who is without question a foundation of Mongolian Buddhism. Zaya Pandita saw the importance of preserving the legacy of his teacher, Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen and his arisal as Dorje Shugden.

It is through the eyes of the renowned Mongolian scholar Zaya Pandita Luvsanprinlei that we see how the Mongolian people historically regarded Dorje Shugden before Dharamsala poisoned the well. Zaya Pandita was a descendant of the great Genghis Khan and commanded a well-respected position amongst Mongolians.

A contemporary of the 1^st Jetsun Dhampa Khutuktu, Zaya Pandita was a disciple of the most prominent Tibetan Buddhist lamas of the time — the 4^th Panchen lama, the 5^th Dalai Lama and Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen. This accorded Zaya Pandita with first-hand opportunity to personally witness the events surrounding the murder of Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen and the fierce efforts to strike his name from the annals of Tibetan Buddhist history.

Zaya Pandita recognized the great importance of preserving the life story and spiritual heritage of Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen whom he regarded to be the holiest of beings. And towards that end, he composed Clear Mirror: A Records of Teachings Received (thob yig gsal ba’i me long).

Zaya Pandita’s writings are key to a recent dissertation by Dr Matthew W. King, Associate Professor of Transnational Buddhism and Chair of Asian Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, UCal. In his paper, Binding Buddhas and Demons to Text: The Mongol Invention of the Dorjé Shukden and Trülku Drakpa Gyeltsen Literary Corpus (1913 – 1919), Dr. King concludes that Mongolian spiritual history does not in fact support anti-Dorje Shugden narratives.

Excerpt from the paper “Binding Buddhas and Demons to Text: The Mongol Invention of the Dorjé Shukden and Trülku Drakpa Gyeltsen Literary Corpus (1913 – 1919)” by Dr Matthew W. King, Associate Professor of Transnational Buddhism and Chair of Asian Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, UCal. Click to enlarge or click here to download the complete PDF.

On the contrary, the Dorje Shugden practice was thriving in Mongolia about a hundred years before H.H. Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo was accused of roguishly sparking the propagation of the Shugden practice, which Dharamsala today views to be fundamentalist and violent.

Dr. King observed that Dorje Shugden was regarded as:
…the wellspring of abundances of [Mongolian] scholastic and political life.

And in addition, that Shugden was:
…very much included within [the] ranks of enlightened beings who helped fashion the Qing-Geluk world.

Other Great Mongolian Masters

Besides Zaya Pandita, the same paper by Dr King evinces historic Mongolian worship of Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen as an enlightened monk and later in his form as the Protector Dorje Shugden. This worship was not of a casual kind by ordinary Mongolian Buddhists but by the spiritual heavyweights of the time.

Dr King cites the great Mongolian mahasiddha Zava Lam Damdin, who compiled Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen’s collected works and assembled the Dorje Shugden be-bum. Zava Lam Damdin was a master of such high caliber that he had very close ties with the 13^th Dalai Lama, and his writings including the Ninj Chimbiin Dodv and Khorchoenjun are regarded by the 14^th Dalai Lama to be important reference texts.

Zava Lam Damdin, a Mongolian Mahasiddha whose birthday is celebrated annually as an Mongolian Buddhist event, and was a key proponent of the Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen and Dorje Shugden lineage.

In the Collected Writings of Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen, Discovered in the Innermost Recesses of Dzaya Pandita’s Library and Newly Complied Under the Title Flower Earrings, Zava Lam Damdin composed a praise to Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen beseeching him to act on behalf of the Buddha’s teachings and sentient beings in his current form as Dorje Shugden.

Zava Lam Damdin was not alone in his zest to preserve Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen’s legacy.

Another Lama, Darva Pandita Agwangchoijurdondubbalsang facilitated Zava Lam Damdin’s Dorje Shugden related works by financing it, urged on by Zava Lam Damdin’s lama, Minjüürdorj.

In the meantime, Zava Lam Damdin sought transmission of Dorje Shugden rituals from Nyongne Tulku as a Khalkha narrative of Dorje Shugden as an enlightened being evolved beyond Tibetan control.

Dharamsala has claimed that the Dorje Shugden practice is the invention of an extreme and fanatical faction of the Gelug lineage. However, based on historical facts, it is clear that if there had been any invention, then that invention lies with the Tibetan leadership who has usurped a holy and legitimate Mongolian practice and turned it into an ideological weapon to serve a political objective.

Will Mongolians deny their own spiritual heritage?

While incitements such as that by Hunnu Mongol are based on absurdities, they nevertheless have the potential to undermine the foundations of Mongolian Buddhism. To believe Hunnu Mongol, the Mongolian people would essentially have to disown their own rich history.

1. The Mongolian people would have to denounce both the great saint Sakya Pandita and their own Godan Khan. Mongolian texts speak of how Godan Khan invited the founder of the Sakya lineage, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo to spread the Dharma in Mongolia but he was unable to fulfil that request.
    
   It was Sachen’s nephew, Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen who agreed to journey to Mongolia. There, he created the first Mongolian alphabet which allowed many precious Buddhist texts to be translated into Mongolian and paved the way for Buddhism to spread in the Mongolian steppes.
    
   Sakya Pandita was of course one of the past incarnations of the Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden.
2. The Mongolian people would have to denounce Panchen Sonam Drakpa, another past incarnation of Dorje Shugden. It was the great Panchen Sonam Drakpa who recognized the first Mongolian, the great grandson of Altan Khan, to be the rightful 4^th Dalai Lama. That, without doubt bestowed tremendous prestige upon the institution of Mongolian Buddhism.
3. The Mongolian people would have to denounce the Jetsun Dhampa Khutuktu line of incarnations because the first, fourth and eighth Jetsun Dhampas were so closely connected with Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen’s lineage.
4. The Mongolian people would have to wipe out the legacy of Zaya Pandita, an undoubted fountainhead of Mongolian Buddhist scholasticism. It was Zaya Pandita after all who kept Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen’s legacy from disappearing from the face of the earth.
5. The Mongolian people would have to turn their backs on the Zava Lam Damdin line, both the past incarnation and the present Zava Damdin Rinpoche who are pillars of Mongolian Buddhism in the past and today.

Sogphu Rinpoche who is also known as Guru Deva Rinpoche, was vital in the reconstruction of the institution Tibetan Buddhism in India and Mongolia. He was a devout practitioner of Dorje Shugden.

6. The Mongolian people would have to deny Lama Lobsang Tamdin’s great works and his tremendous contribution to Mongolian Buddhism. Lobsang Tamdin authored key texts for the propitiation of Dorje Shugden and perpetuated the belief that Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen’s line of incarnations are emanations of Manjushri.
7. Lastly, the Mongolian people would have to turn their backs on Guru Deva Rinpoche, also known as Sogpu Rinpoche. Sogpu Rinpoche was recognized as an incarnation of one of the 84 Mahasiddhas and was extremely significant in the rebuilding of the Dalai Lama’s palace in India, the reconstruction of the three great Gelugpa monasteries of Ganden, Sera and Drepung in India, and also the restoration of temples and monk quarters in Mongolia after Buddhism was revived in the early 1990s.

All these great saints, enlightened beings and living pillars of Buddhism are precisely what the Mongolian people will need to rely on as they rebuild their nation and place it on strong grounds. And yet these pillars are precisely what Hunnu Mongol is indirectly asking the people to disown. Hunnu Mongol has very little at stake. He lives in Chicago, a very safe distance from the hostilities and tensions he is inciting. Therefore the Mongolian people owe it to themselves and to future generations to look beyond rhetoric and propaganda, and see the truth with clear eyes.

The ageing 14th Dalai Lama’s popularity is waning, internationally and within his own community.

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

By: Shashi Kei

In Tibetan folklore, Chenrezig the Buddha of Compassion (Skt.: Avalokiteshvara), is regarded as the main progenitor of the Tibetan people. Naturally, that places the deity, Chenrezig, in a very special position in the Tibetan psyche. And so, when the Dalai Lamas were presented to the Tibetan people to be earthly manifestations of Chenrezig, they instantly commanded unparalleled reverence. It was considered ungodly and a serious spiritual violation not to live in complete worship of the Dalai Lama. It was also treasonous not to comply fully with his proclamations, official or unofficial, which were taken to be the highest laws governing the lives of the Tibetan people.

Of all the Dalai Lamas, the 14^th is considered to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest. Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso (which means ‘Holy Lord, Gentle Glory, Supreme Compassion, Defender of the Faith, Ocean of Wisdom’) assumed complete control over the Tibetan nation in November 1950. For the last 60 years the 14^th Dalai Lama has been the singular embodiment of the Tibetan people’s presence in the world. He is a living representation of the Tibetan people’s culture, language, customs, and religion. In exile, the Dalai Lama has been the most significant emblem of the people’s hope for freedom and indeed the very pulse and breath of all things Tibetan.


Reverence for the Dalai Lama was not an exclusively Tibetan affair. The Dalai Lama commanded the world stage after he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, becoming the global symbol for peace and love. That fame and rising popularity meant that the Tibetan leader also became useful to Western nations, in their efforts to curb China’s rise to power.

Sadly there are clear signs that the preeminence of the 14^th Dalai Lama has outlived its day.

China’s importance to global trade and individual economies of nations mean that ultimately, the world’s governments are better off fostering good relations with China. After all as William Clay, an American politician observed, in politics there are no permanent enemies and no permanent friends, only permanent interests. As China’s economic rise commanded interest, it is not surprising that the Dalai Lama’s position on the world stage has diminished. In recent years meeting with the Dalai Lama has become the kiss of death insofar as maintaining good relations with China is concerned.



But it is the Dalai Lama’s declining esteem amongst his own people, the Tibetans, that is most indicative of his waning appeal. On the face of it, the Tibetan people’s adoration of the Dalai Lama has not lost any of its shine. However, a recent incident tells a different story.

Fake statement purportedly issued by the Dalai Lama’s Office. Click to enlarge.

This incident refers to a September 22, 2020 statement, purportedly made by the Dalai Lama on his letterhead and bearing his official seal. In brief it directed the Tibetan people to support a Sikyong candidate in the upcoming Central Tibetan Administration’s (CTA) elections, who is aligned with the agenda of the current President (Sikyong), Lobsang Sangay.

The Office of the Dalai Lama promptly declared the statement to be fake. Interestingly, this is not the first time the Office of the Dalai Lama has had to dispel fake statements supposedly made by the Dalai Lama. Earlier in March 2020, the Dalai Lama’s Office dismissed a social media post allegedly made by the spiritual leader, claiming to have an effective treatment for COVID-19. The ‘treatment’ being to recite a certain mantra and drinking black tea. It is mockery of the Dalai Lama, of course.

The September fake statement which went viral on social media had a clear objective — to use the Dalai Lama as leverage for certain parties to gain an upper hand in Tibetan politics. What is surprising is the brazenness with which the Dalai Lama’s name was used, which signals that the institution of the Dalai Lama is no longer held sacred as before. Instead, it has become fair game to be deployed as a tool in statecraft and political machinations.

This situation would have been unheard of in the recent past. By spiritual tradition, the Tibetans believe the mere utterance of a high lama’s name to be an act of deification. It would have been unacceptable to even consider using Chenrezig’s emanation in this mundane manner.

As unfortunate as the situation may seem, the Tibetan leadership, and in fact, the Dalai Lama himself, have played significant contributory roles in the disintegration of his stature.

Shanty towns in India that the Tibetans call home. There has been negligible meaningful support given by the CTA to the Tibetans in exile to build a proper future.

To begin with, the architect(s) of the fake letter worked on the presumption that such a ploy might actually work, that the Tibetan people might actually believe that the Dalai Lama would instruct them to forego their democratic right to choose a candidate they trust in, and instead do as they are told.

There is in fact, basis for such presumption because the Dalai Lama has habitually involved himself in both domestic and worldly political affairs, despite declaring that he had relinquished all secular powers and ‘retired’ from politics in 2011. History has recorded occasions when the Dalai Lama overtly flouted the Tibetan Constitution which he himself promulgated, when it suited his agenda. In addition, at various points throughout the Tibetan people’s 60 years in exile, the Dalai Lama who belongs to the Gelug school, has not been shy to exert himself on the spiritual affairs of the other Tibetan Buddhist schools where he has no authority, apart from being the most famous Tibetan monk. The Dalai Lama has also been known to have bullied (even to the extent of imprisoning) religious leaders of other Tibetan schools only to release them after they have bowed to his will. He has even gone on record to instruct the Tibetan people to regard followers of a certain religion to be enemies of the state.

In other words, it would not be out of character for the Dalai Lama to seek to influence the outcome of a supposedly democratic election. It has become common knowledge that behind the media-savvy appearance of “a simple Buddhist monk” the 14^th Dalai Lama is interventionist by character, highly divisive and extremely political.

However, being political does not on its own necessarily diminish one’s status in the eyes of the people. Both Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela were impassioned political agitators. Both had their fair share of critics and even enemies. Yet, both were able to command overwhelming devotion and the respect of their respective communities and the world populace.

The difference between Gandhi, Mandela and the Dalai Lama is that Gandhi and Mandela delivered on their promises to the people whereas the Dalai Lama failed. Gandhi and Mandela were able to demonstrate their care and devotion for the people who formed their power bases. And again, this is where the Dalai Lama and his government failed. This failure can in large part be attributed to the Tibetan government-in-exile’s ineptitude and self-serving culture.

Generations of Tibetans have aged and passed on while waiting for the Dalai Lama’s government to deliver on their countless promises.

From its formation, the Tibetan government-in-exile enjoyed global moral and political support. Untold millions of financial aid poured in as the world rallied to its cause. This went on for decades but the Dalai Lama’s government squandered it all away. It wasted countless opportunities to engage China in meaningful dialogue and watched as a weak China pulled herself out of a disastrous post-Mao era to become an economic juggernaut. It is also unknown where all the money that poured in under various vague auspices of ‘Tibetan aid’ actually ended up.

The Tibetan leadership’s lackadaisical attitude towards the Tibetan people can be seen in the way they have casually reneged on their many promises to return them to the homeland. It is a given that the CTA is up against a very powerful nemesis. But the unkindest blow to the Tibetan people was not inflicted by their common enemy but by their own government. And that blow was to neglect to provide for those who followed their beloved god-king into exile, despite having received hundreds of millions of dollars over the decades.

From 1959 up until 2008, waves of Tibetans made their way out of the Tibetan plateau to be with the Dalai Lama. These Tibetans lived predominantly in squalid settlement camps believing that the Dalai Lama would soon return them as rightful citizens of Tibet. At its peak, it is estimated that up to 128,000 Tibetans readily gave up their homes in Tibet choosing instead to be near the Dalai Lama. However, it soon became obvious that not only was the Tibetan Cause a pipe dream but the Tibetan leadership had not even planned adequately to provide for those who had followed the Dalai Lama into statelessness.

Dhardhon Sharling, the ex-Head of the CTA’s Department of Information and International Relations, who abandoned the Tibetan Cause, choosing instead to move to the United States to start a new life.

Today, while the CTA claims that over 150,000 Tibetans remain with the Dalai Lama in exile, the reality is, only an estimate of 85,000 still live in various Tibetan settlements in India. Most remain there because they are trapped in a state of flux, neither equipped by the Tibetan leadership to build a proper future in exile, nor able to secure the necessary papers to travel abroad to greener pastures.

The successful Tibetans in the diaspora are those from the aristocratic stock who were somehow able to move their wealth out of Tibet. Otherwise they are the Tibetans who were wise enough to realize that they could not depend on their government, and left the settlements to seek citizenship and a new life in other parts of the world. A number have even opted to return to the Tibet Autonomous Region under China’s governance.

Simply put, the Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile failed its people miserably. As a result, loyalty to the Tibetan Cause is no longer deemed by the Tibetan people to be acceptable currency to get by with. Nor are the CTA’s ongoing promises acceptable as collateral. And as we have seen, neither is adoration of the Dalai Lama suitable prize for the Tibetan people to stake their livelihood and future against.

The Tibetan leaders assumed that centuries of serfdom would have imbued the Tibetan psyche sufficiently to enable them to command endless servitude. It did for a long time until the Tibetan people saw and experienced for themselves what it meant to live as free people. They realized very quickly once they were exposed to the world, that they could sooner achieve this freedom without the traditional shackles and without having to subject themselves to the archaic ways of the Tibetan leadership.

The Tibetan people pay lip service to the struggle for freedom but most have abandoned the cause in reality, relegating the sentiment to an annual show of patriotism, whilst moving on with their new lives overseas.

For all intents and purposes, the Tibetan cause is past its ‘use by’ date. Today, which Tibetan in his or her right mind would give up a free, stable, prosperous and self-sufficient life in Canada, or Australia, or Switzerland or France, or the United States to return to Tibet with the Dalai Lama, assuming the Tibetan leadership somehow regains the country? Which Tibetan parent would yank their third-generation-in-exile children from good education and a promising future and repatriate them to what is essentially a foreign country in the Himalayan plateau? Which parent would deny their children freedom under real democratic governments, choosing instead to subject them to life under an ageing theocrat, supported by a corrupt and inept ‘government’ that has proven incapable of providing for 68,000 people?

Today as the world grapples with the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, and refugee crises triggered by conflicts in Syria, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Somalia dominate headlines, and nations of the world enter a period of great uncertainty, the Tibetan Cause has become irrelevant. Similarly the Dalai Lama is fast losing relevance even to the Tibetan people.

What dominates the Tibetan-in-exile landscape today is internal politics and bickering, corruption and scandals. No official of the CTA seems to sincerely believe in the possibility of regaining the country. And hence there have been no concerted efforts to re-engage China in dialogue. China’s reluctance to come to the table has provided a convenient alibi for the Tibetan politicians to do absolutely nothing.

But the business of running a government-in-exile is still a lucrative one. It is the only ‘government’ in the world that enjoys a constant stream of income from donations, grants and subsidies from the West, without having to produce anything apart from rhetoric and being a thorn in China’s side. It is a ‘government’ that is not required to establish a vibrant economy, provide public service, build infrastructure, protect its borders, maintain law and order, or administer a platform for its people to thrive on. It is the only ‘government’ that has zero accountability to its people, and the only ‘government’ that has willingly commodified its god-king, the Dalai Lama. Nothing spells the commodification of the Dalai Lama more than the fake statement. And so, the Tibetan leadership is ultimately their own worst enemy.

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

By: Shashi Kei

During a teaching in January this year, the Dalai Lama very casually overturned the ban on the practice of Dorje Shugden which he had instigated over twenty-three years ago. It was easy to miss the significance of what he said because of the incidental manner in which the Dalai Lama addressed the subject. However, to those attuned to the subtleties of the Dalai Lama’s manner of speaking, it was clear that the campaign which the Tibetan leadership had unleashed against Shugden Buddhists was at an end.

When the Dalai Lama decided to smother the practice of the Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden, he was well aware of the power of his words over the Tibetan people. They regard him as a Buddha and every word he utters, even mere suggestions, are taken as decrees. And so, in 1996 when the Dalai Lama gave what he termed an ‘advice’ against the practice of the Dharmapala Dorje Shugden, the Tibetan exile government known as the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) immediately took aggressive measures that culminated in laws condemning the religious practice as a “crime against humanity”.

Dorje Shugden on Tibet.net: The Assembly of Tibetan People’s Deputies’ Resolutions (June 1996). Click to enlarge.

A prominent section of the CTA’s official website was dedicated to condemning Shugden Buddhists, indicating that it was official policy to oppose the belief. Within that section, the CTA posted anti-Dorje Shugden Parliamentary Resolutions, government notices and a slew of articles that demonized the deity. Even the failure of the Tibetan people to regain their homeland was attributed to the practice of Dorje Shugden. To further spur the Tibetan people to turn against the ancient practice, the Dalai Lama claimed that worshipping Dorje Shugden would shorten his life. Ironically, the same website boasted of the CTA’s democratic values and its guarantee of religious freedom for all Tibetan people.

The Dalai Lama’s global influence meant that the campaign against Shugden believers extended well beyond the Tibetan exile community in India. Non-Tibetan Dalai Lama supporters joined in the anti-Shugden sentiment in the mistaken belief that the Dalai Lama was the most competent Buddhist monk in the world and, therefore, uniquely qualified to endorse or discredit the validity of any Buddhist practice. Others fell for the CTA’s ruse that framed the Shugden practice as a political ploy of the Chinese government aimed at undermining the Dalai Lama. It was a sly but extremely effective scheme.

In short, the Dalai Lama and the CTA painted the Dorje Shugden practice as categorically evil and to be avoided at all costs. There was no misunderstanding about this – the Dalai Lama repeatedly reminded the Tibetan people of how the practice would harm him and ruin their chances of regaining their country. Scores of sycophantic pro-Dalai Lama writers and monks ranted about how evil Dorje Shugden was. Some, like the FPMT’s Dagri Rinpoche (who has been arrested by Indian police and is now under investigation for decades of sexual harassment against nuns and female practitioners), made a grandstanding show of support for the Dalai Lama by leading powerful rituals to supposedly kill this ‘demon’. Under the directive of the Dalai Lama, Shugden-worshipping monks were expelled from their monasteries. This sentiment dominated the Tibetan socio-political landscape from the mid-1990s when the Dalai Lama’s campaign against Dorje Shugden started.

So, it came as a complete surprise when the Dalai Lama casually remarked in his January 2020 teaching that it was fine to worship Dorje Shugden as a birth deity (kye lha) or a land god (yul lha). Although the Dalai Lama persisted in questioning the historic status of Dorje Shugden as the Protector of Lama Tsongkapa’s lineage, his consent for the worship of the deity was a drastic reversal of official Tibetan policy that had stood for over two decades. The Dalai Lama had just ended a ban on the practice of Dorje Shugden that the Tibetan leadership had pursued aggressively since 1996.

Some have suggested that the Dalai Lama made an error and did not, in fact, intend to lift the prohibition on Dorje Shugden. However, there were three other hints to indicate that the Tibetan leader’s attitude towards Dorje Shugden has actually changed:

1. The Dalai Lama raised the subject on his own. There were no new developments on the Dorje Shugden front that made it necessary for him to address this very sensitive issue. Nor was his mention of Dorje Shugden in response to questions about the subject. So, it is clear that the Dalai Lama intended to convey a point specifically with regard to the Shugden issue.
2. The Dalai Lama referred to the deity by the proper name, ‘Dorje Shugden’, which means ‘the adamantine force that protects the Gelug’. For over twenty-three years, the Dalai Lama had called the deity by the derogatory name ‘Dolgyal’, which translates to ‘angry spirit of the river Dol’. By addressing the deity respectfully on this occasion, the Dalai Lama signaled that it is time to stop disparaging Dorje Shugden.
3. The Dalai Lama’s tone was amiable and gentle when he spoke about Dorje Shugden. This, too, was a departure from the scathing, derisive manner which the Dalai Lama had previously employed to refer to ‘Dolgyal’ whenever he wanted to perpetuate public animosity against Dorje Shugden.

The prominent ‘Dolgyal’ banner on the Tibetan government’s official website has been removed since the Dalai Lama announced that it is acceptable for Dorje Shugden to be worshiped. Whilst the section that condemns Dorje Shugden still exists, it has been discreetly moved to an inconspicuous section. Click to enlarge.

We must remember that the Dalai Lama is a master politician and an eloquent orator. He is deliberate in his actions and extremely masterful in his ability to move an audience with mere words. Without any military or economic might to speak of, the Dalai Lama has been able to keep world leaders and citizens focused on the Tibetan issue for over sixty years and tip the balance against China, an extremely powerful rising force. A grandmaster such as the Dalai Lama would not carelessly and accidentally revoke a ban on a supposedly evil activity that harms the Tibetan cause, puts his own life at peril and jeopardizes the sanctity of the Buddhist religion.

Perhaps the best evidence that the Dalai Lama intended to end the persecution of Shugden believers is the sudden disappearance of the prominent ‘Dolgyal’ banner on the CTA’s website. That banner served as an ongoing official warning for Tibetans to not practice Dorje Shugden and to not associate with Shugden Buddhists. The simultaneous disappearance of the banner indicates that the Dalai Lama’s words were no mistake.

Given the seriousness of the Dorje Shugden ban, the large number of lives it affected, and the seismic consequences it had on the Tibetan Buddhist community worldwide, one would have expected the Tibetan leadership to make a very public announcement about this drastic change of stance on such an important issue. However, this is not the Tibetan way, especially when it comes to the 14^th Dalai Lama.

It is not in the 14^th Dalai Lama’s nature to admit that he has made a mistake. There have been many instances that attest to this. One clear case was the Dalai Lama’s overreach of his authority to endorse Ogyen Trinley Dorje as the 17^th Karmapa, overriding the protocol of the Karma Kagyu sect. It was not the Dalai Lama’s right to interfere in the spiritual affairs of the Karma Kagyu, whose tradition precedes the Dalai Lama line.

His Holiness the 14^th Shamarpa who pointed out the Dalai Lama’s error in meddling with the recognition of the 17^th Karmapa. Click to enlarge.

The 14^th Shamarpa Mipham Chokyi Lodro, the second-highest ranking lama of the Karma Kagyu sect pointed out the Dalai Lama’s error, which had turned the Karma Kagyu on its head. The Dalai Lama should have acted immediately to correct his mistake after the Shamarpa pointed it out. It would have saved the Karma Kagyu from the carnage that it suffered for twenty-seven years as the result of the Dalai Lama’s unwarranted meddling. But the Dalai Lama did not. Instead, the Dalai Lama reportedly replied that he had already made the decision and could not withdraw his endorsement.

This episode indicates that it would be completely out of character for the Dalai Lama to publicly announce that he made a mistake with regards to Dorje Shugden. So, instead of officially overturning the Tibetan leadership’s ruling on the Shugden practice, the Dalai Lama suggested an exception to the ban on the worship of Dorje Shugden that renders the prohibition against the practice practically meaningless.

The classification of Dorje Shugden as kye lha or yul lha is a relatively insignificant detail. The list of gods and Buddhas in the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon is inexhaustible and covers lhas or gods who are often accepted as emanations of enlightened beings. The Great 5^th Dalai Lama wrote rituals popularizing the inclusion of worldly gods, including yul lhas in formal prayers. Lamas of all Tibetan Buddhist sects over the centuries did the same. So, to regard Dorje Shugden as a kye lha or yul lha is to restore the practice as an acceptable part of mainstream Tibetan Buddhism.

What could have led to this sudden, albeit rather coy, reversal? No one can say for sure. To do so would require insight into why the Dalai Lama implemented the ban to begin with. This is problematic because the Tibetan leadership has never actually presented any real evidence or sound reasons to justify its infringement on the religious freedom of Shugden Buddhists.

Over the decades, a number of postulations have emerged. The Dorje Shugden conflict has been said to be:

• A scheme of the Dalai Lama’s clique to consolidate power by forcing all the different Tibetan Buddhist schools to merge into a single one under the Dalai Lama, achieved by weakening opponents to the design;
• A strategy to distract the restless Tibetan refugee populace from focusing on the Tibetan leadership’s failure to deliver on decades of promises;
• A ploy to create chaos within the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) to gain bargaining power with the Chinese government;
• The machinations of rival sects jealous of Gelug supremacy and who had the ear of the Dalai Lama.

Click to enlarge

Whatever the Dalai Lama’s reasons were to suppress the Dorje Shugden practice, it appeared on the surface to be a success when it was actually a complete disaster. Outwardly, some Tibetans obeyed the Dalai Lama’s persecution of Shugden Buddhists because they believed in the absurd accusations. Most did so to avoid being accused of going against the Dalai Lama, which is typically hazardous. Then, there were those who seized the opportunity to curry favor with the Dalai Lama establishment by supporting the Shugden oppression. But behind closed doors, many Tibetans and confused supporters of the Tibetan cause were beginning to lose faith in him.

Gyalchen Dorje Shugden was, after all, a four-hundred-year-old practice advocated by the greatest luminaries and pandits of the Gelug and Sakya schools, including the Dalai Lama’s tutors. Also, regardless of how the Dalai Lama personally felt about the practice, isn’t the Tibetan leadership a democracy that upholds the basic principles of human rights, including the right to worship? If so, then the oppression of Shugden Buddhists’ rights go against the very essence of freedom and democracy.

Time became the most proficient interlocutor for the case against the Tibetan leadership’s campaign to eliminate the Dorje Shugden practice. The unpopular religious ban was tolerated because it was believed that doing away with Dorje Shugden would strengthen the Tibetan people’s efforts to regain their country. Instead, the Tibetan cause deteriorated even further as the Tibetan leadership became embroiled in a series of internal rivalries, corruption charges and sex scandals.

The Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje (left) whom the Tibetan leadership did not endorse and the Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje (right) who is the Dalai Lama’s choice of Karmapa, in a show of unity, a subtle but firm message to the Tibetan government.

In the meantime, the Tibetan exile populace languished. Dwindling numbers in the refugee settlements indicate that most no longer believe in the Tibetan leadership’s ability to adequately provide for them, let alone take on the powerful Chinese government.

The Dalai Lama’s subtle reversal of the ban on the practice of Dorje Shugden may well be a silent acknowledgment that he made a mistake. Or, it could be the Dalai Lama’s attempt to curb the speed with which his power is diminishing. Besides countless failed promises to return the Tibetan people to their homeland and failure to provide the necessary economic infrastructure for exiled Tibetans to sustain meaningful livelihoods, the Dalai Lama also miscalculated the strength of his dominance, not only over his own Gelug sect but also over the other Tibetan Buddhist schools.

The 17^th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje, who was endorsed by the Dalai Lama, absconded and closed ranks with the rival Karmapa, Trinley Thaye Dorje, who was never acknowledged by the Dalai Lama and CTA. The coming together of the two Karma Kagyu leaders delivered a very firm message to Dharamsala – that the Karma Kagyu no longer accepts the Dalai Lama’s self-proclaimed authority over them. This is confirmed by their snub of the Dalai Lama in subsequent major religious ceremonies such as the recognition of Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje’s newborn son as the reincarnation of Shamarpa Mipham Chokyi Lodro, who had passed into clear light not long after his confrontation with the Dalai Lama. In the past sixty years, such an important event would only be regarded as having legitimacy if it carried the Dalai Lama’s seal of approval. This time, the Dalai Lama was not consulted and, in fact, not even invited to attend the ceremony.

Going against Nyingma tradition, Dudjom Rinpoche was appointed as the supreme head of the Nyingma sect. He was previously imprisoned by the Tibetan government for not toeing the Tibetan Government’s line.

Other Tibetan Buddhist schools appear to have also taken drastic steps to insulate themselves from any machinations of the Tibetan leadership. The Sakya sect made changes to its succession system. The Nyingmas announced that they would do away with the selection and appointment of a single spiritual leader to preside over the Nyingma sect. That, too, was a subtle but clear rejection of the Dalai Lama’s interference in Nyingma affairs. It was never a Nyingma tradition to have a single spiritual leader until the Dalai Lama appointed one during the period of exile.

The Dalai Lama’s new proclamation on the worship of Dorje Shugden may be lamentably late. Still, it is a welcome step and one that is necessary to heal the deep fracture that has afflicted the holy lineage of Je Tsongkapa. Today, the Gelug sect is still divided into two groups – one that embraces the worship of Dorje Shugden, and another group that condemns the deity as an anti-dharma entity. This division has severely damaged the credibility of the Gelug and confused countless spiritual seekers. Perhaps, it is now time for the Gelug to reconcile.

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

Hate Crimes

When we consider how the earth’s resources are dwindling quickly, how wars have plagued mankind for centuries, how incurable diseases have become more virulent and how melting Arctic ice threatens to destroy vast habitable lands, we may begin to understand that there is more that binds human beings together than separates them. Humankind is fragile and increasingly so in such a dangerous climate, and there is now a desperate need for the people of the world to come together and try to turn things around. However, before we can even hope to fix the problems looming before us, there is one thing we must get command of – our mentality.

Everything we do is determined by our minds and thoughts, and therefore what shapes our thinking is something we must all watch, to ensure that it is the kind of thinking that leads to solving problems not creating new ones. There has never been a more important time in history to foster thoughts that promote solidarity and peace and the creation of an environment where reasoning, logic and rationality pervades. And the bedrock for this culture of reasoning and logic leading to peaceful coexistence, is ‘tolerance’.

Unfortunately, as progressive nations of the world gather to take steps that foster peaceful, inclusive societies, there are those who have chosen instead to cultivate extremism. One example of this is how the Russian people seem to have become more intolerant towards gays and lesbians. A recent news piece published by an online site for the LBGTI community reported that nearly half of Russians polled said that the Russian authorities should take steps to ‘exterminate the phenomenon’ of gay people in the community, meaning to say that the Russian authorities should persecute people with ‘untraditional’ sexual orientations. The same news report revealed that the percentage of people who did not care about other people’s sexual orientation has dropped from 10 years ago; and at the same time there is an increase in the percentage of those who regard members of the LBGTI community dangerous and should be isolated and dealt with.

An anti-gay activist disrupts a gay event in St. Petersburg

Corresponding to this report, there has been an increase in incidences of gay people being assaulted, beaten and even murdered at record rates. If anyone wonders how this ill-will towards the gay community has come about, the answer is very simple – it is state-sponsored. In 2013, Russian lawmakers proposed an anti-gay law that essentially strips same-sex couples of their parental rights in conjunction with a myriad of other draconian laws that essentially rob a gay person of his legal rights.

This is essentially a reversal of the decriminalization of homosexual relationships in 1993 after the fall of the Soviet Union, which saw Russia taking small but assured steps towards liberalization. That is, until the openly homophobic Vladimir Putin assumed the Russian presidency in 2000. It is no coincidence that in the 15 years that Putin has been in power, negative sentiments and hate-crimes against the LBGTI community have risen. Clearly a government does effectively shape the mentality of the community and can effectively influence it towards a culture of tolerance or intolerance.

But Putin is not the only perpetrator of hate crimes against people based on their sexual orientation, race, color, nationality or religion. We see the same vicious intolerance being practiced, ironically, by the government of a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, the 14th Dalai Lama.

In 1996, for reasons that have never been adequately explained, the Dalai Lama all but outlawed the practice of Dorje Shugden, a Tibetan Buddhist deity held sacred by the majority of the Yellow Hat sect, the Gelugpas, to which the Dalai Lama is also an adherent. Following the Dalai Lama’s pronouncement, monks and laypeople who had kept up the monastic and familial tradition of propitiating Dorje Shugden for over three centuries, were forced to make the unenviable choice of either denouncing the deity as a demon or face expulsion from the monasteries and ostracization from the community. Neither was a palatable choice. To denounce a deity and abandon the practice bestowed onto the practitioner by his spiritual teacher is to commit karmic suicide. Neither can they as refugees live away from the settlements allocated them.

Soon after the Dalai Lama’s diktat, his ‘government’ the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) declared a jihad against Shugden Buddhists, stating amongst other things:

“…that the departments, their branches and subsidiaries, monasteries and their branches that are functioning under the administrative control of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile should be strictly instructed, in accordance with the rules and regulations, not to indulge in the propitiation of Shugden. We would like to clarify that if individual citizens propitiate Shugden, it will harm the common interest of Tibet, the life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and strengthen the spirits that are against the religion.”

At the same time, the Cabinet of the CTA declared,

“…The inclination of this spirit is to harm, rather than benefit, the cause of Tibet. However, some people have continued to propitiate Dolgyal [derogatory name given to Dorje Shugden, meaning spirit], either because they failed to appreciate the threat it poses to the Tibetan cause or because they have decided to disregard it. There are yet others who not only propitiate Dolgyal themselves, but also actively encouraged others to follow suit. This has impaired the sacred relationship between the people of Tibet and their protector-deities. Today, this is one of the greatest dangers to the cause of Tibet and the life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama…”

In essence, the CTA had declared practitioners of a benign and compassionate deity to be enemies of the Tibetan people wishing their beloved Dalai Lama an early death. Both Putin and the Dalai Lama have clearly imposed their personal prejudices onto the people and forced their compliance. The difference is, the Dalai Lama’s CTA, as a beneficiary of asylum, is not regarded as a proper government and therefore does not possess the legal and administrative tools that it can bend to serve its will. The CTA does not have law enforcement forces nor penal facilities that it could use against Shugden worshipers. And so, it leveraged instead on the unquestioned authority of the Dalai Lama as the Tibetan people’s God-King to turn the people against the population of Shugden Buddhists that it had declared to be the enemy.

While Vladimir Putin persecutes Russians based on their sexual orientation, the 14th Dalai Lama attacks Shugden Buddhists for their beliefs

This strategy proved more effective than Putin’s in a few ways:

• First, it turned the populace of the Tibetan settlements into mobs that are free to do as they wish without having to remain within the confines of legality.
• Second, the CTA, by not having and therefore not using state-owned facilities to violently punish its victims, found itself outside the ambit of Amnesty International and other international human rights bodies who, by their governing charter, could only act on governments and regimes.

Hence, eventually when the Shugden community organized itself and filed a complaint to Amnesty International, AI responded by stating that whilst it had received large amounts of complaints, it could not act as the material it received did not “fall within AI’s mandate for action — such as grave violations of fundamental human rights including torture, the death penalty, extra-judicial executions, arbitrary detention or imprisonment, or unfair trials”. Clearly, for AI to intervene, state vehicles and systems need to have been involved but in the case of Shugden practitioners, the violence and persecutions took place in the streets and in homes, inflicted by Tibetans against their own, spurred on by their government. However, there is no question that it is the Dalai Lama’s war executed by his government declared on a segment of the Tibetan people because he dislikes of their choice of deity.

The sufferings of these victims cannot be underestimated as vigilante groups formed to conduct door-to-door searches for Shugden practitioners, smashing statues of the deity as they found them and punishing his worshippers. During the early days of the ban, a Tibetan parliamentarian who questioned the credibility of the reasons given for the ban was stabbed outside his home. Homes belonging to worshippers of this deity were padlocked from the outside, stoned and then set on fire. An octogenarian monk who served in the household of a prominent Dorje Shugden lama was attacked.

More recently, it was reported that a Tibetan man was attacked just for wearing a pendant with the image of Dorje Shugden. Private businesses denied service to those suspected to be Shugden worshippers and government hospitals forbade Shugden practitioners from entering to receive medical treatment. The CTA casually amended its constitution to block the appointment of Shugden practitioners into governmental positions. Anyone with Shugden practitioners in the family would similarly be denied employment in anything the CTA controlled.

This 84 year old monk was attacked for being a Dorje Shugden practitioner. These hate crimes follow the anti-Shugden sentiments promoted by the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA)

Just as Putin’s government likened homosexuality to alcoholism and drug addiction, CTA officials compared being a Shugden worshipper to disease.

When privately owned restaurants and stores carry signs that say the Dholgyal worshippers are not welcome, then that is the freedom of the owners. That is their Fundamental Human Rights. […] Let alone that, in the hospitals, people infected with contagious diseases are quarantined and not allowed to meet with other people.- Samdhong Rinpoche, former Prime Minister of the Central Tibetan Administration, 26 July 2014, India.

Soon, it was a crime even to have Shugden practitioners as friends. Later on, fearing that anti-Shugden hatred might lose traction, especially after the Dalai Lama was seen to be celebrating one birthday after another despite the “Dalai Lama-killing-Shugden-practice” prevailing, the CTA changed tack and claimed that Shugden practitioners were in fact paid ‘agents’ of the enemy Chinese government. That riled the Tibetan people even more and enrolled all those who had sympathized with the Tibetan people’s loss into anti-Shugden campaigns. How exactly a religious practice that preceded the Sino-Tibetan conflict by some three centuries can be equated to political activism has never been explained.

There are many similarities between Putin’s scorn of homosexuals and the Dalai Lama’s despise of Dorje Shugden practitioners. However, in many ways, the Dalai Lama’s campaign is far more sinister. Whilst it cannot be said that Putin introduced hatred against gay people into the Russian people’s minds, it CAN be said that the CTA planted the seeds of malignance towards Dorje Shugden worshippers in the minds of the Tibetan people, when there was none to begin with. This is, after all, a religion that had been practiced peacefully for 360 years without incident until the Dalai Lama decided that Dorje Shugden was a viable target for persecution. And worst of all, whilst it is clear that there are willful acts of violence and discrimination against worshippers of this deity, the language of the CTA’s official resolutions justify such criminality as acts of loyalty in defense of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan cause.

Both the Dalai Lama and CTA attempt to deny that Dorje Shugden practitioners are being systemically persecuted. Although the CTA has acknowledged that Shugden people are being harassed and discriminated against, the CTA contends that these are acts of individuals and not the policy of the government. If this is true, then it is surprising that the Dalai Lama, who has cultivated an image of peace and tolerance and has travelled the world advocating dialogue and acceptance of different religions, has not once spoken against the abuse and aggression directed at Shugden practitioners as a result of his government’s proclamations. On the contrary, he was heard congratulating monasteries that had wrongfully expelled monks simply because they were practitioners of the deity.

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Neither has the CTA intervened to mollify anti-Dorje Shugden sentiments. Instead they remain the only government in the world that has purposefully allocated space on their official website to publish anti-Dorje Shugden propaganda material.

There is yet another aspect to the Shugden persecutions. The Dalai Lama represents a valuable asset to both India and Western nations who are eager to curb the rising influence of China as a world economic power. So, whilst global human rights groups have voiced their concerns over the plight of the gay population in Russia, those who could have intervened to alleviate the suffering of Tibetan Shugden people have stayed mum over the tragedy. As the old adage goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The interests of these nations in such a high-stakes geopolitical play demands their complicity, and the misery of Dorje Shugden practitioners is dismissed as acceptable attrition. So it looks like we have to wait a while yet before we can (to paraphrase Martin Luther King) judge a person not by the color of his skin, or his race, nationality, sexual orientation or religion, but by the content of his character.

Meanwhile we continue to live in a world suffocated with farcicality, prejudice, bias, distortions, lies, deceptions, manipulations, short-sightedness, close-mindedness, righteousness and superficiality. So, what is it like to be a gay person living in Russia? Well, just like a Shugden Buddhist living under the Dalai Lama, it means to be silent, to be afraid, and to not expect the same rights that world wars have been fought to protect.

Disclaimer: This article was submitted by a third party author and does not necessarily reflect the official opinion of DorjeShugden.com. We accept submissions from the public, please send in your articles to ds@dorjeshugden.com.

How much has Sikyong Lobsang Sangay received over the years that is undeclared, unaccounted for, and untracked? Has all of the financial contributions reached their intended recipients i.e. the Tibetan people? Who really knows?

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

By: Kay Beswick

Although it attempts to function as a democratic governing body, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA; the Tibetan leadership based in Dharamsala) is in actuality a privately-funded administration that derives most, if not all, of its income from government grants and private donors all over the world. A large portion of these funds is received and channelled through non-governmental organisations (NGO). One such NGO is the Tibet Fund, whose stated mission is to “preserve the distinct cultural and national identity of the Tibetan people”.

Since 1981, and under the patronage of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Tibet Fund has been a primary funding organization for programs which are touted to benefit the Tibetan refugees living in India, Nepal and Bhutan. Not only does the Tibet Fund receive the bulk of its income from US federal grants, but as a 501(c)(3) organisation, this non-profit organisation is also exempt from some federal income taxes.

While it all sounds very impressive from the outside, over the years, the Tibetan leadership has in fact faced many accusations of financial misappropriation and mismanagement. More often than not, these accusations involve the “power players” at the many institutions built around the Dalai Lama and the “Free Tibet” movement. Most recently for example, The Guardian reported that the Dalai Lama’s “personal emissary” Tenzin Dhonden had been suspended over corruption claims. This follows news last year that one of the Dalai Lama’s closest allies, Lodi Gyari and his son-in-law Phakchok Rinpoche were implicated in a money laundering scandal. They had even had their accounts frozen.

Penpa Tsering, the former donjo (Dalai Lama’s representative) of North America who was dismissed from his post for asking too many questions about the US$1.5 million loan, and for trying to hold the Sikyong accountable for the expenditure.

Evidently news of these financial discrepancies have reached the American leadership. It may be one of the reasons why the United States shocked the Tibetan leadership in March this year, proposing a 2018 budget which saw a substantial cut in American government’s aid to Tibet. It is a situation that appears to be irreversible considering US President Donald Trump’s total lack of interest in meeting with any Tibetan representatives. Why does the Tibetan leaders still depend on free money handouts from US and other governments? Why can’t they produce their own money and stop being so parasitic after being independent for 60 years in democratic India? Why talk so big when they have no money of their own? How many more years does the governments of the free world need to still donate in the millions to the Tibetan leadership? What does the Tibetan leadership give back in return for the generous billions they have siphoned from various governments, private organizations and donations? Why does any government in the free world even need to donate to the Tibetan leadership?

To make things worse, in the past week, political rivalry between two Tibetan leaders exploded into the public eye. Sikyong (Prime Minister) Lobsang Sangay and Penpa Tsering have been bickering since the 2016 Sikyong campaign. When Penpa Tsering lost and, as a consolation prize, was assigned to be the donjo (Dalai Lama’s representative) in North America, everyone thought this new cushy diplomatic post signalled an end to their rivalry. At least, until this week when their spat blew up again, leading to Penpa Tsering being summarily dismissed from his post on 7th November. It came not long after Penpa Tsering alleged financial discrepancy at The Office of Tibet in Washington D.C. which Phayul (see attached article) calls “loan-gate”.

This begs the following questions:

• If Lobsang Sangay and Penpa Tsering can fight tooth and nail over the status of a “mere” US$1.5 million loan, what else are they fighting about?
• For most governments around the world who earn in the billions, US$1.5 million is an insignificant amount. Yet the Tibetan leaders make such a huge fuss over it, which reflects the narrow-mindedness and low level of governance. And if the government cannot keep track of such an amount, how will they ever be able to govern or administer anything bigger? What else has the CTA lost track of, if they can bicker and argue over this amount?
• US$1.5 million is the amount audited by external auditors as a loan, which Lobsang Sangay insists is an amount that the Tibet Fund contributed and did not expect to be paid back. The fact Lobsang Sangay is trying to change the status of this money from a loan to contribution should concern all Tibetans, especially since Lobsang Sangay moved to dismiss Penpa Tsering once he began asking questions about the CTA’s finances. If “only” US$1.5 million led to Penpa Tsering’s dismissal, what else is being hidden that no one else knows about? How much other funds have been conveniently shuffled around and reassigned in the last few decades, that no one has asked questions about, audited or been held accountable for? The US$1.5 million must be only the tip of a financial scandal iceberg which is much, much, much larger.

The moral of this story for the US government and the many charity trusts and individuals who contribute to the “Tibet cause” is to be wary and hold back contributions until everything is properly investigated and explained, not leaving any stone unturned. The Tibetan public and the concerned donors who gave their financial support to the Tibetans deserve nothing less than this.

PHAYUL: Case No. 20 sees its first witness on the $1.5 million “loan” issue

Click to enlarge (Source: http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=41650)

PHAYUL: NA rep. row depends with ‘loan-gate’ while Kashag cites trust, performance deficit

Click to enlarge (Source: http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=39815)

TIBETAN JOURNAL: Does Kashag Ousting Representative Penpa Tsering Land Upon $1.5 Million?

Click to enlarge (Source: http://www.tibetanjournal.com/index.php/2017/11/16/kashag-ousting-north-america-representative/)

The audited accounts of the Tibet Fund shows a loan of US$1.5 million. This has appeared in their accounts since the year end 2015 as a “loans receivable”. Why is the Sikyong Lobsang Sangay trying to get this changed to a gift or contribution? As per US government laws, these documents are available in the public domain for download.

The Tibet Fund’s audited accounts notes confirms that the said US$ 1.5 million loan was provided to the Tibetan Community Development Fund. There is no denying that the US$1.5 million was a loan and yet Sikyong Lobsang Sangay’s instruction to treat it as a gift goes against proper accounting practice. As per US government laws, these documents are available in the public domain for download.

As recently as last year, the Tibet Fund’s accounts still reflect the said US$ 1.5 million loan. As per US government laws, these documents are available in the public domain for download.

Although the Tibetan President Lobsang Sangay proclaims democracy, in reality his actions are very much the contrary, as he upholds segregation and discrimination against a segment of the Tibetan populace based purely on their religious faith.

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

By: Shashi Kei

How can you tell if a government is a good one?

Common sense would say that a good government carefully deliberates on issues that affect the people it represents and behaves responsibly to safeguard their rights and interests. It obeys its own laws and works to ensure that the state apparatus is free of prejudice and discrimination. A good government acts morally and is prepared to be held accountable for its actions and decisions.

Perhaps most importantly, the fruits of its actions are positive and beneficial. By the same logic, a government that does the opposite and brings harm to the community is not a good government.

The Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) based in Dharamsala, claims to be a good government that is guided by Buddhist principles. It insists that it is a far better alternative for the people of Tibet (today called the Tibet Autonomous Region or TAR) than the Chinese Communist Party and has asked the world to support its struggle for independence.

For decades, publicity campaigns commissioned by CTA-related organisations like the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) and Tibet House, which has branches around the world, have extolled the virtues of the CTA. And yet, evidence points strongly to the contrary.

In 1996, the CTA’s Department of Health issued this chilling memo to all doctors and staff associated with them. The memo states that all Dorje Shugden practitioners should immediately resign from their positions. Click to enlarge

One chilling example is a 1996 memorandum issued by the CTA’s Department of Health (their equivalent of a Ministry) to all doctors and staff of organizations associated with them. In a few short passages, the memo manages to reveal the CTA’s true colors and expose how far removed the Tibetan government-in-exile actually is from even the most basic principles of democracy.

The document was, in fact, a ministerial order to discriminate against a segment of the Tibetan community purely because of their religious beliefs. Since 1996, Tibetan Buddhists who worship the ancient Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden have had to bear the brunt of the CTA’s persecution and this memo, calling for the resignation of all Dorje Shugden practitioners, was no different.

In truth, Shugden Buddhists have not been the only victims of the authoritarian Tibetan leadership. While it is unheard of in progressive societies, especially those that claim to be liberal and democratic, the alienation, subjugation and destruction of segments of the population were common in old feudal Tibet.

Gaden Phodrang, the political base of the Dalai Lamas, frequently used religious pretexts to excommunicate those they perceived as threats or political rivals. For example, the spiritual lifelines of Tibetan Buddhist luminaries would be unilaterally banished, effectively extinguishing their existence and, hence, the supposed threat to the Dalai Lamas. Such was the case with the 10^th Shamarpa, one of the highest incarnations in the Karma Kagyu lineage. Similarly, in the 17^th Century, the 5^th Dalai Lama’s response to a territorial dispute with the Jonang lineage was to ban the Jonangpa’s religious tradition and force its practitioners to embrace the Gelug school of Buddhism.

Jonang monks protesting in front of the Tibetan Parliament (Dharamsala) on 15th September 2015 for their right to parliamentary representation. In the end, the Jonangpas were forced to go on a hunger strike. Click here to find out more.

Most people are unaware of this dark history and fewer still know that the culture of oppression and bullying continues today in exile. The same ruling class that has bullied and discriminated against so-called ‘threats’ to the historical Dalai Lamas, today dominates the present Dalai Lama’s exile government; the CTA’s 1996 ban on Dorje Shugden worship is simply a modern manifestation of the Tibetan leadership’s old feudalistic ways.

The only difference is that this oppression is now practiced under the cloak of democracy. According to the Dalai Lama and the heads of the Tibetan government-in-exile, the CTA is a democratic government with a Charter that guarantees religious freedom. However, the memo from the CTA Department of Health proves that this is not the case.

Who Is Calling the Shots?

The very first line of the memo itself reveals that the CTA is neither a progressive nor a responsible government. Its entire premise is a decision given by State Oracles who are unseen, unelected and unaccountable individuals that reveal information under possession by spirits.

The simple fact is that the CTA’s elected representatives do not actually want to take responsibility for their decisions. By consulting Oracles, if things go awry, it is easier for the CTA to direct their people’s ire towards unseen spirits who cannot be held accountable.

Why else would the CTA take its cues from oracles? Why would it not instead carefully deliberate the pros and cons of key government decisions that impact lives, livelihoods and social harmony?

Nechung oracle in trance

It is well known in Tibetan circles that the Dalai Lama and the CTA habitually consult oracles for answers. The Dalai Lama even regards the State Oracle that takes trance of a fierce spirit, Nechung (also known as Pehar or Dorje Drakden) as his closest and most trusted adviser.

In his memoirs, the Dalai Lama wrote,

“I seek his (Nechung’s) opinion in the same way as I seek the opinion of my Cabinet.”

In fact, the Nechung Oracle is given the standing of a deputy Cabinet Minister although, as we can see, his sway over Tibetan affairs is far more potent. This would explain why CTA officials tend to take the Oracle’s proclamations as equivalent to, if not higher than, Acts of Parliament.

It is alarming that an elected government would take instructions from a spirit. This is especially so when the instructions are not only brazenly unlawful but also excessively punitive to a large segment of the Tibetan populace, serving to undermine the unity and fellowship of an already disenfranchised community.

To put the Department of Health’s directive into perspective, Dorje Shugden Buddhists were denied employment and livelihood not because they were unqualified or incompetent, nor for breaking any laws or breaching conditions of their employment. It was solely because the CTA’s Oracles said so.

A certificate that CTA requires attendees to sign, to the effect that the holder does not share anything with Shugden devotees. Those who do not have this certificate are denied participation in important religious events central to the Tibetan community.

This raises many questions. Who really controls the Tibetan government? Can Tibetans trust a government that is steered by invisible forces with an unknown agenda?

For certain, the CTA is the only ‘democratic’ government today that carries out the instructions of a supernatural entity. If there was ever any doubt that this is a recipe for disaster, then the invasion of Tibet, the plight of Tibetan refugees that is now in its 60^th year, and the many false and unfulfilled promises made by the CTA should provide the answer.

An alternative explanation is that the CTA is a counterfeit democracy that uses superstition to bypass its own laws when this suits its purpose. If so, then there is merit to allegations that the CTA is neither an authentic democratic government nor a genuine keeper of the Buddhist faith.

Instead, both religion and politics are merely tools the Tibetan leadership employs interchangeably and inseparably to accomplish its objectives, unlike any other government or spiritual body in the world. The Dalai Lama’s CTA does not operate as a democracy should, and certainly not as the democracy the Dalai Lama appears to have attempted to set up in the 1960s.

The Democracy Charade

In 1963, the Dalai Lama pushed for a draft democratic Constitution to provide governing principles for his people. On its official website, the CTA declares that the Tibetan Parliament adopted the Tibetan Charter (democratic Constitution) in 1991 and that it is “the supreme law governing the functions of the CTA”.

However, it appears that this outward embrace of libertarian principles is merely a charade to persuade the global community to support the Tibetan leadership’s political ambitions. In reality, the Dalai Lama continues to wield unfettered power.

During a religious event in 1996, the Dalai Lama expressed how he “personally feels strongly about how negative this (Dorje Shugden) practice is”. The Dalai Lama went on to strongly discourage Tibetan Buddhists from propitiating ‘Dolgyal’ (a derogatory term that disparages Dorje Shugden).

The ban has even come to the extent of expelling monks who practice Dorje Shugden. Click here to watch the video.

Not only was it improper for the head of a democratic government to attack a religious practice, but it was also disingenuous for him to have done so after proclaiming to uphold religious freedom.

The CTA took the statements of the Dalai Lama, who is regarded as both a god and a king, and turned them into an absolute law with no room for negotiation. The Tibetan Parliament, an institution whose role it is to uphold democratic principles, passed official resolutions which effectively turned Shugden Buddhists into outcasts and outlaws.

Similarly, the Tibetan Cabinet-in-exile issued official statements declaring that:

…rejecting Dolgyal has become a matter of the highest importance to the cause of Tibet… It is the duty of the Tibetan Government-in-exile to encourage compliance with any advice given out of concern for the cause of Tibet, the security of its head of state and the honor of all Tibetan Buddhist traditions including the Geluk tradition. Consequently, it has initiated a programme to be prevailing upon those still following Dolgyal to make a break with it.

In effect, the Tibetan Parliament and Cabinet made it a crime to worship Dorje Shugden and sanctioned what has become a witch-hunt. The Department of Health memo was simply one of many expressions of this religious persecution. Similar directives were issued by all CTA Departments, monasteries under the Dalai Lama’s control and community bodies eager not to be seen to be disagreeing with the Dalai Lama for fear of being accused of colluding with the enemy.

After all, if a segment of society can be summarily branded as traitors and criminals purely on the basis of their religious faith, what safeguards are there to prevent the CTA from falsely accusing other groups as being enemies of the state?

These actions are reminiscent of a feudal theocracy, not a democracy.

The great Democracy Charade. The CTA celebrates ‘Democracy Day’ annually and at the same time behaves more like a totalitarian state.

In a barefaced attempt to escape any kind of backlash or financial repercussion, the CTA has made many attempts to explain away this abuse of power and unabashed breach of the human rights of Dorje Shugden Buddhists.

For example, it has claimed that there is no ban on the Dorje Shugden practice itself and that the Dalai Lama was merely giving advice. However, the CTA has thus far failed to explain why there was a need for the Tibetan Parliament and Cabinet to pass laws against the practice of Dorje Shugden on the back of the Dalai Lama’s “advice”. It has also failed to explain why they had to “initiate a programme” (as per their statement) against the practice, if the Dalai Lama was only giving advice.

Neither has the CTA explained why its elected representatives breached its own Charter on the orders of an unelected spirit in trance. If it is so easy to breach the Charter, it is questionable how dedicated the CTA really is to the principles of democracy. Where the American government and people, for example, holds their Constitution sacrosanct, the same cannot be said of the CTA’s attitude towards their own Charter.

At the time of this writing, the CTA’s official website still proclaims the Tibetan Charter as the supreme law. And yet the same official website carries material that encourages the persecution of Dorje Shugden practitioners.

This should serve as a constant reminder of the CTA’s faux democracy. It is a testimony to how closely the CTA resembles the Chinese regime it accuses of breaching human rights.

There is no other democracy in the world where worshipping the right god is a condition for keeping one’s job and where one is required to denounce one’s faith to remain in the community. Nowhere else is it a “stringent responsibility” for government staff to “urge relatives” to abandon their religion.

23 years after it implemented this disastrous campaign that has wreaked havoc on Tibetan unity and undermined the Tibetan Cause, the CTA still refuses to desist. Perhaps it is a means of distraction from the CTA’s failures.

The CTA argues that the Chinese Government is oppressive and unfair. They point to the Chinese government making it an offence for anyone in the TAR to be in possession of the Dalai Lama’s picture. But the Chinese have never claimed to be democratic. It is the CTA which is the pretender as it makes it a crime to merely exercise one’s basic human rights because the Dalai Lama said so.

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

By: Shashi Kei

Declassified US Dept Cables showing that the Dalai Lama was ready to embrace Communism had the US failed to meet his conditions for financial aid. Click to enlarge.

There are clear signs that world leaders are losing interest in the Tibetan struggle. For over half a century, it captured the world’s imagination and presented itself as an opportunity for the global community to make a stand for what is right and noble. In any public dialogue, both the Dalai Lama and the Sikyong (President) of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA, based in Dharamsala, India) refer to themselves as guardians of the Buddha’s teachings and portray the Chinese Government as a force that seeks to destroy the Buddhadharma. When asked how the Tibetan leadership intends to deal with China’s rising power, the CTA Sikyong Lobsang Sangay likes to say that Communism is only 100 years old whereas Buddhism is 2500 years old. The inference is clear: the Tibetan leadership has claimed to be synonymic with the religion of Buddhism. And yet, recently declassified US State Department documents reveal that the Dalai Lama is not beholden to any particular ideology apart from what serves him personally, and will lean towards any system or power base that could help him regain his fiefdom.

The Dalai Lama it seems was just as open to his government becoming a part of the Communist bloc had the Americans not agreed to his demands for funding. This came through clearly in a 1969 US Department of State communiqué, which reported a discussion between a US official and Lodi Gyari, who represented the Dalai Lama. The Tibetans were negotiating with the US for financial assistance but at the same time, they were entertaining overtures made by the Soviet Union.

The communiqué read:

“It will be recalled that during a public lecture at the Indian School of International Studies given in October, the Dalai Lama emphasized that he did not oppose communism, or for that matter ‘isms’ in particular. He [Lodi Gyari on behalf of the Dalai Lama] declared that an independent Tibet could have a communist government or any other form supported by the majority of the people”.

In short, the Dalai Lama was making it clear that if the US did not acquiesce to the Tibetan leadership’s demands, he would not hesitate to turn to Moscow for help and willingly embrace Communist principles.

Indeed, the Dalai Lama has never denied his admiration for Marxist and Communist thoughts and codes of governance. On a number of occasions, he has openly criticized Capitalism, which lies at the heart of democratic systems.

In a 2009 interview, the Dalai Lama was quoted as saying, “Communists care most about equality and the rights of the destitute” ⁱ.

At a lecture in Kolkata entitled ‘A Human Approach to World Peace’, the Dalai Lama clearly stated his preference for Marxist theories, claiming that Capitalism creates socio-economic inequality. He said, “As far as socioeconomic theory, I am Marxist”. The Tibetan spiritual leader partly blamed Capitalism for inequality and said he regarded Marxism as the answer: “In capitalist countries, there is an increasing gap between the rich and the poor. In Marxism, there is emphasis on equal distribution.” ⁱⁱ

Ironically, one of the crudest displays of social and economic inequality was the feudal system that characterized the reign of the Tibetan spiritual monarchs before Chinese troops marched into Tibet in 1959, forcing the 14^th Dalai Lama to flee. It is suspicious that the Tibetan leaders only began to display concern for the emancipation of subjugated groups after the ruling class lost its feudalistic control over the people and had to turn to Western liberal nations for support. Their embrace of liberal and democratic values might perhaps be merely a means to an end.

The Tibetan leaders’ campaign would not have gotten far had the Sino-Tibetan conflict been framed correctly as a tussle between a feudal theocracy and a Communist regime over who has authority to oppress the Tibetan people. Sikyong Lobsang Sangay was right about one thing – if Communism is a repressive system, then its draconian laws have been felt for only 100 years. The tyranny of the Tibetan ruling elite that the Dalai Lama belongs to on the other hand has trodden on the Tibetan people for centuries.

However, it was not only Communist and Marxist principles to which the Dalai Lama was drawn. The Tibetan leader also personally admired Mao Zedong. In 1954, the Dalai Lama authored a poem to the Communist leader referring to him as a “cakravarti (universal monarch) born out of boundless fine merits” ⁱⁱⁱ. In essence, the Dalai Lama regarded Mao as the secular counterpart of a Buddha, which is extremely high praise indeed.

The Dalai Lama’s poem to Mao Zedong praising him for ‘liberating’ Tibet.
Click to enlarge.

In sharp contrast, Western nations on which the Dalai Lama has depended for the survival of the Tibetan cause for the past 60 years and whom the Dalai Lama today refers to as friends and allies, were adjudged in the same poem as, “Our foe, the blood-thirsty imperialists, are poisonous snakes, and messengers of the devil furtively crawling”. Some observers may insist that the Dalai Lama was under duress when he wrote the poem praising Mao. However, this places the Dalai Lama at risk of being accused of having no particular loyalties, and as someone that would bend whichever way suits his purpose.

While there is no question that Buddhism has been an inextricable part of Tibetan culture, it is also indisputable that religion has been leveraged for centuries as a tool to keep the ruling elite in power. Before the 1959 Chinese invasion of Tibet that led to the Dalai Lama’s escape to India, Tibet was a feudal theocracy where the majority of its people languished in serfdom and slavery. The tool of that oppression was none other than Buddhism or, more accurately, Buddhism as wielded by the Tibetan ruling class, at the top of which was the Dalai Lama himself. The political author Michael Parenti wrote in his 2003 essay “Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth” that:

“The theocracy’s religious teachings buttressed its class order. The poor and afflicted were taught that they had brought their troubles upon themselves because of their wicked ways in previous lives. Hence they had to accept the misery of their present existence as a karmic atonement and in anticipation that their lot would improve in their next lifetime. The rich and powerful treated their good fortune as a reward for, and tangible evidence of, virtue in past and present lives.

The Tibetan serfs were something more than superstitious victims, blind to their own oppression. As we have seen, some ran away; others openly resisted, sometimes suffering dire consequences. In feudal Tibet, torture and mutilation — including eye gouging, the pulling out of tongues, hamstringing, and amputation — were favored punishments inflicted upon thieves, and runaway or resistant serfs.”

The Dalai Lama admired Mao Zedong and regarded the architect of the disastrous Cultural Revolution, as a father.

The Dalai Lama’s Tibet was surely not the Shangrila that the West has fantasized.

Convincing the world that the Sino-Tibetan conflict is a battle between Buddhism represented by the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people, and Communism, as represented by the Chinese government, has been a supremely deft maneuver by the Tibetan leadership. It glosses over the Tibetan people’s brutally forced servitude under the country’s leadership; it sidesteps the fact that there is not a single true liberal element in the CTA’s governance behind its façade of democracy (the CTA remains a single-party government that does not tolerate opposition and the Dalai Lama’s word is still arbitrary law that overrides even the Tibetan Constitution); and it ignores the fact that the Tibetan leadership uses Buddhism as a weapon much the same way that medieval Popes wielded Christianity to enforce the supremacy of spiritual authority over temporal power and even the law. The religious apartheid that the Dalai Lama and CTA imposed on Dorje Shugden Buddhists is one apt example.

In truth, the Dalai Lama and his government are neither duty nor honor-bound to Buddhism, neither to Capitalism nor indeed to Democracy, Marxism and Socialism. Neither are they loyal to the principles of Communism or any other “ism”. The only thing that steers the Tibetan leadership is whatever opportunity they can muster to keep mesmerizing the world populace and keep the Dalai Lama and Lobsang Sangay in power. And herein lies the paradox and one of the biggest miscalculations by the people of the Western liberal world. In their zest to oppose Communism, they have provided all the necessary means and justifications for the latest ruler from a line of theocrats to remain in power.

In fact, in the modern-day scenario, there is little significant difference between a Marxist-Communist regime and a Capitalist-Democratic government that justifies the condemnation of China. The Communist government is shaped by Party ideology while the interests of big corporates steer policies of the so-called Democratic government. In both cases, it is not the interests of the people that are served primarily.

Nevertheless, both Communism and Democracy have certain built-in checks and balances. The Communist leader is accountable to his Party. The head of the Democratic nation has to be watchful of Opposition parties who act as watchdogs making sure that the government does not stray too much out of line.

The Dalai Lama, on the other hand, has no such encumbrances. No other leader of State today comes close to wielding the same amount of whimsical power over his people as the Dalai Lama does. Yet the lord of what was a very brutal regime has somehow bewitched the world into regarding him as the personification of peace and morality. Since 1959 when the Dalai Lama burst into the world scene, there have been 12 different US Presidents, 5 changes of guard in the now-defunct Soviet Union followed by 2 different Russian Presidents, 15 Indian Prime Ministers and even China has seen 6 changes to its ‘absolute leadership’ in that period. And all that time, the Dalai Lama has remained in power unelected, unchallenged and unaccountable. Having successfully sold the world the idea that he is the merely a “simple Buddhist monk” who is the supreme sentinel of Shangrila, he continues to rule with an iron fist of an autocrat. Publicly, this immense and hard power is cloaked by the soft image of Buddhism. The reality is somewhat different.

Tibetan Buddhism lies severely fractured today courtesy of a series of conflicts instigated by the Dalai Lama to keep the Tibetan people divided and throw their attention away from the failure of his governance. The Two Karmapa Controversy and the Dorje Shugden Conflict are two that continue to ravage the fabric of Tibetan Buddhist communities worldwide. The Dalai Lama likes to quote the Buddha’s teachings that state among other things that nothing is permanent. This sadly is true, especially of his allegiance and steadfastness to any political ideology, system, philosophy and movement apart from his own.

• i. https://journeyonline.com.au/queensland-synod-news/dalai-lama-praises-aspects-of-communism-and-marxism
• ii. https://www.newsweek.com/i-am-marxist-says-dalai-lama-299598
• iii. https://www.dorjeshugden.com/all-articles/the-controversy/my-friend-mao/

护持大乘法脉联合会（FPMT）的创办人耶喜喇嘛（左）和梭巴喇嘛（右）。两位大师都是多杰雄登修持的虔诚追随者，但在耶喜喇嘛圆寂而梭巴喇嘛接管FPMT后，多杰雄登修持就突然被禁止。这种歧视明显体现在FPMT的活动登记表上。FPMT转而反对多杰雄登，已经违背了其极度慈悲的创始人一生忠诚修持多杰雄登的做法。这两位FPMT创始人的传承上师们也都是多杰雄登修持者。由此可见，FPMT成员们不仅违背了他们的创始人耶喜喇嘛，也连带否决了他们那些一辈子都修持多杰雄登的传承上师们。

以下评论为投稿稿件，供dorjeshugden.com刊登。我们接受投稿。请将您的作品电邮至ds@dorjeshugden.com。

Heinrich Hauff著

登记表是某个人有意参加某项活动、组织、就业或计划时所填写的书面记录。它收集数据，并提供相关人员的信息和背景。由于表格十分普遍，人们常视它为标准程序，往往不经思索就填写和提交。然而，当落在错误的人手中时，表格就成了强有力去控制他人的操纵手段。

FPMT的险恶议程体现在他们的登记表上。 点击放大。

 
善慧称佛法中心（Losang Dragpa Center）的登记表就是一个完美例子。卫塞节活动理应让人忆念佛陀教诲的价值，但这却是人们获准出席帕立仁波切于卫塞节给予的《上师荟供释义》开示前，所必须填写的表格。马来西亚的善慧称佛法中心是护持大乘法脉联合会（FPMT）全球众多分支中的其中一个附属中心。FPMT在1975年由耶喜喇嘛和梭巴喇嘛共同创办，它是其中一个较大的佛教组织。在耶喜喇嘛的时代，该中心具有相当大的影响力，但由于卷入许多政治决定，目前该中心的影响力已大不如前。

FPMT和其属下的所有佛法中心都谴责多杰雄登修持，尽管他们的创始人耶喜喇嘛一直到1984年圆寂为止都是多杰雄登的虔诚修持者。事实上，达赖喇嘛曾说过，修持多杰雄登者将堕入下三道。所以，达赖喇嘛本身去寻找、认证和为耶喜喇嘛现任转世安排坐床礼这件事就显得格外具有讽刺意味。达赖喇嘛该做的事，其实是宣布耶喜喇嘛没有转世，因为他修持多杰雄登。耶喜喇嘛的现任转世名奥瑟喇嘛，目前已经还俗，居住在西班牙。FPMT在本身的猎巫行动中，认证了一个修持多杰雄登，却没堕入三恶趣的上师，这简直是太奇怪也太虚伪了。

此外，FPMT还在他们全球各地的佛法中心的佛坛上供奉了他们制造的耶喜喇嘛的不同大小塑像，这理应是错的。既然耶喜喇嘛修持多杰雄登，他应被视为是邪魔，并投生在三恶趣。这是他们本身错误百出的逻辑，但即便是他们自己也都无法跟从自己的逻辑。既然FPMT不允许多杰雄登修持者到他们的佛法中心接受加持，那么把耶喜喇嘛的塑像安奉在他们的佛法中心内不一样是不符合逻辑吗？更何况还要去供奉他？为什么要去供奉一个多杰雄登修持者的塑像，即便他是他们的创始人？

事实上，如果你真要全然符合你所谓的“信仰正确”，FPMT应该将他们佛法中心内所有的耶喜喇嘛像，包括图像，也都一拼去除。直到1996 年达赖喇嘛颁布禁令前为止，继承上师事业的梭巴喇嘛本身也是虔诚的多杰雄登修持者。既然梭巴仁波切那么多年来修持多杰雄登，却全然不知多杰雄登是邪灵，那就表示梭巴喇嘛并不具有神通。另一方面，梭巴喇嘛的通灵梦是十分著名的，他每个星期也用骰子进行上百次的占卜，怎么可能说在长达几十年的时间里，他那著名的占卜骰子竟没告诉他多杰雄登是个邪灵？

由此可见，梭巴喇嘛也会犯错？而他在如同护法修持这般神圣事情上的决定也是不可靠的？所以我们是否要相信，梭巴喇嘛几十年来做了那么多禅修，却一直向（以多杰雄登形式出现的）邪灵祈祷，直到被达赖喇嘛“警告”为止？这种情况下，梭巴喇嘛会是一个我们可以咨询意见，或请求占卜的人吗？既然梭巴喇嘛支持达赖喇嘛对多杰雄登的不合理禁令，FPMT自然就站在反多杰雄登运动的前线，也成了猎捕多杰雄登修持者的领袖。此举很显然是为了讨好西藏领导，因为它一举贬低了他们的创始人耶喜喇嘛及传承上师们、所有修持多杰雄登的人，以及那些很诡异地不投生三恶趣却反而转世回来的人。

这是在其中一个FPMT中心内的耶喜喇嘛像。别忘记他一辈子都是多杰雄登修持者，所以根据藏人领导的逻辑，耶喜喇嘛立刻就不具备作为佛法老师的资格。然而，他们不仅不丢弃他的塑像，还把他变成一个拥有明妃的金刚萨埵。所以现在这里有一个多杰雄登修持者，他的塑像原本应该被抛得远远的，然而，情况不但不是这样，他反而还被当成神，放在佛坛上让人膜拜。也许他们该让耶喜喇嘛也填写一份FPMT-LDC登记表。我肯定金刚萨埵或耶喜喇嘛将不被允许进入！这不是一个无聊兼充满挖苦意味的讽刺，而是直接而深入地洞悉FPMT的虚伪。所以，他们有什么权力批评其他多杰雄登修持者并审问潜在的参与者？

FPMT喜欢宣传他们的创始人耶喜喇嘛，在他们的书籍和网站上，FPMT总是直接和间接地叙述耶喜喇嘛的神通和奇迹故事。作为修行成就如此高的禅修大师，耶喜喇嘛从禅修证神通，他可能一辈子都看不出多杰雄登是邪恶的吗？这就是我们应该相信的吗？这是否意味着多杰雄登欺骗了耶喜喇嘛？这意味着耶喜喇嘛可以被欺骗且不可靠，而且如果多杰雄登确实欺骗了耶喜喇嘛，为什么我们还要接受耶喜喇嘛的教诲、阅读他的书籍并相信他在FPMT留传下来的修持？

如果目前的FPMT像一棵树的叶子、树枝和树干，耶喜喇嘛和传承上师们就是树根。既然耶喜喇嘛和传承上师们修持多杰雄登，而根据FPMT的说法多杰雄登是邪恶的，这是否意味着这些树根已经腐烂了？那么这棵树怎么可能继续生长并提供一棵树所该提供的？

这份让有兴趣参加马来西亚FPMT今年卫塞节活动的人士填写的登记表，为他们的具有伤害性议程提供了线索。

这场2019年5月22日到26日举行，为期五天的教学计划，原本应由帕立仁波切负责。但作者在撰写此文的时候，帕立仁波切已被揭发为连环性侵罪犯。作为FPMT的巡回弘法上师，帕立仁波切全年的行程都十分紧凑，他到处为全球FPMT佛教中心的大型聚会给予开示、授戒和灌顶。在他作为性侵罪犯的身份曝光之后，他所给予的教诲和灌顶的神圣可靠性已经收到质疑。帕立仁波切最近因在从德里前往加戈的印度航班上性侵一名妇女，而被印度警方逮捕，随后保释在外。加戈机场是最靠近达赖喇嘛府邸兼藏人行政中央所在地达兰萨拉的机场。

帕立仁波切的做法直接违背了佛教僧侣的基本戒律，在这种情况下，他理应自动丧失作为僧人和教师的资格。既然如此，他所提供的所有教学和修持都将是无效的。当我们调查帕立仁波切事件时，我们看到他目前的教学时间表已被安排在远东和马来西亚。我们看了一下他们的网站并下载了其活动的表格，发现了这项虚伪。在他们的登记表格中，他们胆敢向有意在他们的中心参加由一位性侵罪犯主持的系列教学的人士审问他们的个人修持。而他们的中心内则供奉了多杰雄登修持者耶喜喇嘛的塑像。这一切让你想到了什么？

让我们总结一下——我不曾拜访过马来西亚，但FPMT马来西亚分会的登记表格却盘问你是否修持多杰雄登，以让他们审核你是否具备资格在他们神圣的大殿，在修持多杰雄登的耶喜喇嘛塑像前，参加由性侵女性者（帕立仁波切）给予的教学。这一切听起来尽管十分诡异，但那却是真实发生的情况。

这是耶喜喇嘛的另一尊塑像，梭巴喇嘛正在面前供奉他。为什么梭巴喇嘛和FPMT禁止多杰雄登修持者前去他们的中心，但他们却将修持多杰雄登的耶喜喇嘛供奉在他们的中心内让人们供佛祈愿的地方？这就好像说，银行盗窃者都不允许进入我的房子，但我却要将邦妮和克莱德*的塑像摆在我的佛坛上供养（*美国史上最著名盗窃银行的雌雄大盗）

这份FPMT的登记表就是他们虚伪的例子。FPMT的领导和成员都采取了“我比你神圣”的态度，压迫多杰雄登修持者，以便跟达赖喇嘛建立亲近的关系，这反过来为他们的佛法中心注入了善款和赞助。他们站在道德高地及扮演信仰警察的做法，清楚显现在他们的这种诸如出席帕立仁波切开示共庆卫塞的活动登记表格上。虽然他们说他们的所为都是为了众生的福利，但他们的登记表上却清楚显示他们相反的做法。

帕立仁波切其实是个连环性侵犯

或在YouTube上观赏：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T05xLBZ_1WU

 
FPMT登记表的分析：

1. 先决条件：参与者不得是雄登/朵杰修持者

这是什么先决条件？谁赋予FPMT审判和歧视雄登修持者的权利？这显示了FPMT的极端偏见，而这种态度违背了佛教的爱和接受所有众生并将其视为母亲的原则。他们的宽容、接纳和慈悲去了哪里？一切众生不都应该得到爱、慈悲和教诲吗？

我的宗教信仰是什么或不是什么，都是个人的事情，而且去相信我想要的东西并选择我想要祈愿的对象也是我的特权。宗教是非常个人的事情，没有人有权质疑任何人或根据他们的宗教来加以判断。我的信仰只适合我。这是个人的，它在我心中。FPMT绝对没有权利提出这类问题。我应该被允许参加他们的开示并获得加持，就像任何其他宗教的任何修持者都被允许的一样。

2. 强制性个人资料

在他们的表格上，FPMT要求参与者列出他们的手机号码。FPMT为何要询问人们的手机号码？这应该是可选项，因为一个人的电话号码、地址甚至电子邮件都是私人信息。提供这些细节，却不知道它们将被如何利用，让参与者面对被骚扰的可能性，就像之前发生在年轻富有吸引力的男士和女士列出个人资料后的案例一样。

如果已证实FPMT没有准备好去照顾自己的学生们的福利，并防止他们成为性犯罪教师（帕立仁波切）的牺牲品，FPMT能如何保证自己不会为了其他原因而滥用这些十分私密和机密的细节？我们怎么知道他们的委员会成员和志愿者都拥有良好的声誉？我填写这份登记表，只是为了得到加持，而不是为了申请一张信用卡；要得到一份加持真的需要面对那么多审问吗？“众神”自何时起变得那么偏执？人们该如何相信FPMT能确保这些资料不落入错误的人手中，让性掠夺者能更直接地获取潜在猎物的资料？与此同时，我们生活在一个身份盗窃十分猖獗的世界，FPMT如何保证他们不会出售人们的数码身份和资料？无论如何，它确实表明FPMT有兴趣建立一个数据库，好让他们可以去挖掘善款和获取其他好处。

为何FPMT强制要求人们提供这些细节？单凭他们是一个佛法组织，并不意味着他们都是百分之百的好人，且不会滥用组织所持有的信息。多数时候，人们实际上并不想透露他们的个人联系方式，因为他们不希望受到被逼向组织捐款的骚扰。人们多次抱怨FPMT不断打电话和骚扰人们要求捐款，或要人参与他们的活动。我们已经通过Skype与前FPMT和前LDC委员会成员进行了交谈，他们亦提到我们刚提起的，关于组织以拖网方式寻求捐款的事情。有时候富有的人会面对更多骚扰，因为他们的联系方式已被不道德的人滥用了。

FPMT的创始人——耶喜喇嘛和梭巴喇嘛正参加仪式。在背景中，你可以看到多杰雄登唐卡（西藏绘画）。这两位喇嘛都积极修持多杰雄登，直到禁令开始，而现在FPMT更是歧视全球各地的多杰雄登修持者。耶喜喇嘛终生修持多杰雄登，根据FPMT的看法，他应早已投生三恶趣。然而，怎么可能说FPMT的创始人去了三恶趣，但他们却继续使用他的教诲和著作呢？

3. 你是雄登/朵杰修持者？ 是/否

世界上有许多宗教，如耆那教、犹太教、印度教、神道教、佛教、伊斯兰教、白巫毒、基督教、黑巫毒、巫术、威卡、撒旦、阿米什、摩门教、苯教、科学教、萨满教、道教、锡克教、通灵术、巴哈教、天理教、新异教主义等等。在这一系列宗教中，有些人会说他们的才是真实的，他们是唯一真正的道路。有些人实际上崇拜“黑暗实体”，正如其他人所声称的那样，这些宗教的信徒将相互辩论哪一条道路才是真的，并且甚至会说其他宗教都是假的，且会引导你下地狱。

那为什么FPMT不询问这些修持者的背景呢？最后的分析结果是，没有人有权说哪个宗教将把你引向天堂或地狱。我们最好能实践宽容和接受，并停止审判。无论你的宗教背景是什么，礼拜或祈愿的场所都应向所有人开放，因为这会使其成为一个神圣的地方; 一个神圣地点将不会有加持力，如果他们要面对审问。

如果FPMT真的担心其成员的安全，他们为何不在表格上询问参与者是否有过犯罪记录？ 他们目前是否正涉及刑事案或曾被监禁？为何不问人们是否接触过传染病，或心理健康状况有问题呢？问题是，为什么这些考量不出现在FPMT的表格上？毕竟，作为一个罪犯远比单纯修持你和平的宗教来得糟许多。

如果FPMT没有询问其他诸如上面所列出的宗教，为什么FPMT唯独挑出，并仅针对多杰雄登修持者？谁给了他们权利和权力来判断和歧视他人？谁任命他们为佛法’警察’？ 他们如何有资格这样做？无论在道德、实践和灵修上，这都是不对的。这是错误和没有必要的。

很多时候，我们看到如达赖喇嘛和班禅喇嘛等高僧们向东、西方国家成千上万人提供诸如大型的时轮金刚灌顶，这群人中有许多都来自不同的信仰和教派，有些甚至是无神论者。 他们都来参加开示和灌顶，没有面对任何麻烦和问题。为什么他们就被允许参加达赖喇嘛的开示并获得加持，而无需宣誓他们将对任何人效忠，或宣誓他们将不会修持某个特定的神灵？为什么这些人可以参加，而雄登修持者却不能？

事实上，FPMT的修持基础和传承均来自400多年来修持和推广多杰雄登的大师们。FPMT本身的创始人耶喜喇嘛本身就是多杰雄登修持者。FPMT的整个组织最初都是由协助耶喜喇嘛和梭巴喇嘛的多杰雄登所建设和加持的。这一切都是众所周知且记录在案的事实，虽然FPMT喜欢将之一笔抹杀。

鉴于目前帕立仁波切计划前往马来西亚中心（LDC）进行教学，因此他们有了这种登记表格，或许是时候应该改变计划，因为他被揭发几十年来都在性侵妇女。FPMT / LDC不应该如此傲慢，质疑人们是否修持多杰雄登。相反地，他们应自我反省为什么帕立仁波切能够侥幸长时间逃脱并伤害这么多人。当然，FPMT宣传这样一个声名狼藉的教师，其罪名远比向多杰雄登祈愿来得大许多。因此，FPMT应该谦虚，且应停止表现得高高在上，因为他们事实上一直任由帕立仁波切自由面对那些毫无戒心、追求信仰且无辜的女性。 FPMT欠许多人一个道歉，而他们必须对此表现真诚。他们也还欠一个道歉，针对他们的歧视态度。任何持菩萨戒的人都不应该放弃娑婆世界的任何一名众生，否则将无证悟可言。点击图片放大。

4. 问你从谁那里接受皈依戒和教诲

FPMT甚至想知道关于一个人信仰生活的细节。为什么FPMT需要知道你从谁那里受皈依戒？这实际上跟他们没关系。一个人与上师之间的精神联系是十分个人与神圣的，FPMT无权过问一个人的上师是谁。此外，他们还问你是否接受某些教诲，而又是从谁身上取得教诲。他们是为了要知道你是否具备参加某些教诲的先决知识？或他们只是想确保你不曾从他们所不认同的上师那里接受教诲？根据他们所提出的一系列不恰当的问题看来，答案极有可能是后者。所以，他们再度扮演警察角色。

当你在接受佛教的皈依时，由什么人进行形式上的仪式又有什么关系呢？重点在于你实际上已经皈依，而你的皈依是发自内心的，而不是那个你向他寻求皈依的人。事实上，许多佛教文献中都明确指出，如果内心没有皈依，外在的皈依是没有用的。那么为什么FPMT如此热切地想知道你向谁寻求皈依？

5. 列出你的金刚上师的名字

在接受无上瑜伽密续灌顶时，传授你灌顶的上师就是你的金刚上师。要求某人列出他们的无上瑜伽续灌顶及相关的金刚上师，是有违密续中要求行者对自己的修持保持秘而不宣之规定的。当一个人参与密续本尊修持时，他不允许向任何人透露其本尊的身份和修持。据说，对自己的密续修持秘而不宣，才能确保得到加持和取得修行成就。一个人不会到处填表格，向你认识或不认识的人透露你的密续本尊是谁。

赞助这些计划的FPMT和LDC对此是更为清楚的，这不禁让你相信他们其实有另一些隐藏的议程。更重要的是，多杰雄登修持者肯定不想去FPMT接受教诲和灌顶。多杰雄登修持者有本身的上师和寺院。那么为什么LDC竟如此傲慢地认为多杰雄登修持者想潜入他们的中心接受教诲？多杰雄登修持者有许多他们可以寻求教诲的上师，所以FPMT无需偏执地表现到仿佛他们是唯一销售钻石的人，而实际上多杰雄登修持者可以在别处得到更大更好的钻石。

人们不得透露他们接受了什么灌顶，以确保灌顶拥有完整的加持，继而才能取得成就。 FPMT询问这些问题，就是违背了密续的规定。那为什么FPMT还在他们的表格上提出这个问题？这难道不是另一个审问申请者并企图知道他们是否是多杰雄登修持者的方式吗？这么做有助于使他们看起来神圣、善良、顺从西藏领导层，反过来，这有助他们更容易透过攀附达赖喇嘛这个名人而从中取得回报。

FPMT怎能如此大胆地质问人们他们的上师是谁，还问他们曾接受过什么灌顶？事实上，他们应感到荣幸，有人拥有能进入他们的中心祈祷，捐款，当志工，付出时间和提供专业知识，并为自己的成长做出贡献的佛法印记。他们应该感到荣幸的是，在完成所有的营销工作之后，有人可以成为他们的潜在成员并实践佛法。当他们鼓励另一众生倾听佛法时，他们应该得到满足，因为这是他们为自己累积功德的其中一种方法。

他们应该把潜在的学生视为尊贵的客人，而不是将他们视为罪犯。越多众生聆听佛法，他们就越能够累积功德，并实现设立佛法中心的目的。因此，他们应该用充满爱的眼睛，慈悲的感受来看待一切众生，并珍惜回向给那些前来他们中心的人。毕竟，他们帮助的每个人都朝证悟踏进了一步。对于一个修持佛法，尤其是一个接受了菩萨戒的人来说，你不能放弃任何一个众生，无论原因是什么，因为菩萨戒中清楚说道，即便只是放弃一个众生，行者也无法证得圆满证悟。这个佛法原则涵盖了一切众生，包括多杰雄登修持者在内。 因此，这是唤醒FPMT的一个很好的建议。

所有以上这些要点都使得他们的登记表具有歧视性。许多其他的佛教中心和组织并没有这种具有歧视性的表格，有些甚至根本没有表格。他们从不向任何人提出这么多敏感和个人问题，因为他们知道那与他们无关。很显然，许多其他中心在登记表格上并没有这样的规则，但FPMT却是有的。为什么会这样？因为FPMT总是希望自己看起来很神圣、美好且地位高于其他佛教中心。他们这样做，希望能更靠近达赖喇嘛，与他勾肩搭背，并张扬他们与他的亲密关系。他们参加他的开示，并在互联网上刊登他们与达赖喇嘛的合照。为什么这样呢？那事为了确保和证实他们的佛法中心所做的是正确的，而且透过这种做法，他们相信这赋予了他们欺负其他佛法中心和佛教徒的权利。这不外乎是一种“信仰种族主义”。

梭巴喇嘛和其他27名在各FPMT中心担任驻寺教师的格西们，总是与达赖喇嘛合照，以使自己合法化。这不仅仅是一张漂亮的照片，它还显示了他们求取名望、权力和金钱的险恶动机。

这里真正的问题不在于任何人的信仰修持。真正的问题在于FPMT需要生存，并负担全球数百个中心的管理费用。因此，他们需要不断地讨好达赖喇嘛，因为跟达赖喇嘛一起，意味着他们是善良、高人一等，并比其他人都“更好”的。让我们面对现实——事实上，FPMT将信仰视为一种企业，因为他们与其他中心竞争，以获取赞助商并为自己获得捐款。 FPMT需要更多的会员，这意味着有更多人为自己背书，好让他可以实现他们的最终目标：获得更多的金钱和权力。因此，与达赖喇嘛“亲近”让他们从中取得好处，因为他是一个大名人。而跟他保持亲密的方法就是在登记表上显示他们是多么服从达赖喇嘛，所以禁止多杰雄登修持者进入他们的中心。FPMT真正该做的是放弃政治，并欢迎一切众生成为佛陀的信徒。无论你是圣人还是罪人，无论你是克里希纳、佛陀、巫术、伏都教或无神论的修持者，你都是一个人，应该享有平等的尊重；你也应该获准进入佛陀之家，也就是佛法中心。无需歧视。给和平一个机会。

也许FPMT应该考虑这一点——关闭一些中心，以减少获得金钱和名望的压力，因此他们可以不带有歧视性，企图看来跟达赖喇嘛关系良好，并可以重新修持真正的佛法。

当我们找到问题的症结时，娑婆世界还会有什么？为什么他们会如此令人恶心地武断和富有偏见？为什么因为信仰而歧视他人？这本身就违背了佛陀慈悲对待众生的教诲。那么他们的慈悲心去了哪里？什么样的佛法组织才会因他人的信仰而放弃他们，并禁止他们接受佛陀的加持？佛陀会避开多杰雄登修持者吗？他会歧视他人吗？那么FPMT从哪里学习到他们本身的佛教形式？佛陀对央掘魔罗有很大的慈悲，教导他佛法，协助他忏悔，重新塑造他的道路，并把他带到阿罗汉果位。尽管央掘魔罗遇见佛陀之前杀死了999人，但佛陀仍然以大爱看着他。暂且娱乐FPMT一下，让我们假设FPMT是佛陀，而多杰雄登修持者是央掘魔罗。您认FPMT佛应该怎么做？用爱和宽容拥抱央掘魔罗或者让他填写一份登记表，发现他是一名罪犯并将他踢出去？

FPMT在表现政治正确的代价是，他们变得在灵修上显得傲慢，认为自己有权审判、欺负和审问他人，并向他们提问十分私密的问题。当他们这样做时，他们听起来就像苏联的克格勃（KGB）或东德的斯塔西。他们为什么要收集并保存所有这些信息？FPMT失去了作为佛教徒的目标，即对所有众生慈悲、宽容和慈爱。相反地，他们用傲慢、偏见、不宽容、嫉妒、贪婪、不平等和自以为，一切与佛教相反的品质作为取代……这在他们的登记表中已清楚地反映出来！没有人有权审问、裁断和改变他人的信仰！

根据达赖喇嘛的说法，应透过媒体将那些涉及性侵行为者的样貌公诸于世。即便他们对佛陀的教法置之不理，但群众的压力还是会阻止他们继续进行有害行为。

我们强烈鼓励FPMT改变他们的登记表格，并停止对其他人的宗教带有歧视性。我们下载了这份登记表，因为目前围绕帕立仁波切的性侵问题非常令人担忧。 事实上，在写这篇文章的时候，已经有第二位女士发布了一个视频，声称她10年前还是一名僧尼时，曾经是帕立仁波切性侵案的受害者。FPMT和审问她的身穿藏红袍的男人叫她保持沉默。尽管如此，FPMT还是让帕立仁波切在他们全球各地的中心提供教学。

公众需要被告知这位性侵犯者。FPMT认为他们有权审问前往他们中心的人，但事实上，他们中心内作为性侵罪犯的教师，才是应该接受审问的对象。他们是破戒之人，甚至不具备道德或业力上的教学资格。 最悲哀的部分是，据透露，梭巴喇嘛明知帕立仁波切对女性的性侵行为，却还叫告知他的人保持沉默。

从它的外观来看，FPMT正在做的只是将其组织企业化，而不是像个灵修组织般来运行。 他们所关心的只是吸引更多的企业和个人加入他们的教诲，因为他们是所谓为达赖喇嘛工作的高僧。

我拟定了自己的登记表，这是一份以慈悲心为根据的表格，它应该作为佛法中心登记表的一个范例。 见下文：

这就是FPMT的登记表该有的样子，减去帕立仁波切。“某某”是指真正具格的上师。 这是一种更富有慈悲心，更实在和更佛教的表格。 点击放大。

 
总而言之，这并不是针对耶喜喇嘛、梭巴喇嘛、FPMT或他们的一些忠诚弟子的攻击。 在1996年多杰雄登禁令之前，所有格鲁传承上下都非常团结。所有格鲁人都在一起分享教义，为了修持而去找对方的老师，并且气氛完全和谐。多杰雄登禁令让格鲁世界产生分裂，让家庭、寺院和三昧耶弟子被逼分开。现在是FPMT等组织伸出援手，填补分裂，拥抱多杰雄登修持者和非修持者和一切众生的时候了。不要制造歧视和偏见。让我们回到和谐，慈悲和宽容的时代，因为这是我们的世尊和佛陀的教义。 FPMT现在就可以通过修改他们的登记表来作为开始。

点击放大