Author Topic: Dalai Lama met with protest over religious persecution  (Read 3602 times)

WisdomBeing

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Dalai Lama met with protest over religious persecution
« on: March 06, 2014, 04:32:49 PM »




I know there have been a few articles on this topic posted in the forum already but why i wanted to include this was that this article was the most pro-Shugden so far yet factual. The journalist starts by acknowledging that "the 14th Dalai Lama although retired since 2011, is still active and influential in Tibetan politics." This candid opening augured well for the article. I also liked the fact that the journalist gave a brief summary of the suffering of Dorje Shugden practitioners under the Dalai Lama's ban and the purpose of the protests.



Dalai Lama met with protest over religious persecution
http://intellihub.com/dalai-lama-met-protest-religious-persecution/
February 27, 2014  10:34 PM EST


The Dalai Lama, who has been considered a voice of peace and understanding for many of us in the Western world, has been doing a series of public talks in California on topics such as compassion, non-violence, and business ethics

By Sharon Schloss

INGLEWOOD, CA (INTELLIHUB) — The 14th Dalia Lama, although retired since 2011, is still active and influential in Tibetan politics.  He was the head of state for the Central Tibetan Administration, the Tibetan government in exile.  The people of Tibet, having lost their homes and freedom after the Chinese takeover, are in a very vulnerable state and rely heavily on the words of the Dalai Lama.

What many don’t know about the Dalai Lama is that how he presents himself is quite different from how he rules over his people.  He has been creating a division between different sects of Buddhism to the point of causing religious apartheid in the Tibetan community.  The Sakya and Gelug traditions of Buddhism worship the deity Dorje Shugden, who is considered to be a Dharma Protector.  The Dalai Lama has ostracized Dorje Shugden practitioners, taking away their basic rights, removing them from their homes, and denying them access to hospital care.  Monks and nuns have been forced from monasteries and nunneries, and in one month alone, in February of 2008, 900 Shugden monks were expelled from the Tibetan community.  Without the help of their friends and family, they were left destitute, and as refugees once again.

Today’s talk took place at the Forum in Inglewood, CA, just south of Los Angeles.  A group of protesters have been following the Dalai Lama during all of his California talks, and today there were around 80-100 people present holding signs demanding religious freedom for Tibetans and chanting in unison, “Dalai Lama, stop lying,” and “Dalai Lama, give religious freedom.”  These protests were organized by the International Shudgen Community, whose demands are quite simple: 1) allow anyone who wants to worship Dorje Shugden the right to do so, 2) completely stop discrimination against Shugden practitioners, 3) allow monks and nuns to return to their monasteries and nunneries and receive the same rights as non-Shugden practitioners, and 4) write to Tibetan communities worldwide to tell them to apply these points.

Len Foley, the organizer of these protests, has been working tirelessly to try to have the ban on Shugden worship lifted.  Not only does it cause great suffering and injustice in Tibet, but Buddhists worldwide are feeling the pressure to stop this essential part of their religious practice or face being ostracized in their communities.  The Dalai Lama has ignored all communication from the International Shugden Community and has not given any valid reasons for banning this practice.  His stated reasons are that the practice harms and shortens his life, harms the Tibetan people, and harms Tibetan independence, none of which can be proven to be true.  As Foley pointed out, “the man is 78 years old.  He has more energy than I do in my mid-40s and he looks like he’s in excellent health.  If this has in any way affected his health in a negative way we would have seen signs for it long ago and there are millions of people who engage in this practice, and unfortunately it is being banned unjustly.”
 
According to Kelsang Rigpa, the resident teacher of the Kadampa Meditation Center in Los Angeles, people have been praying to this deity for 400 years and the Dalai Lama himself prayed to Dorje Shugden for 40 years before banning the practice.  Tibetans are required to sign an oath to stop this practice in order to obtain a government issued card that allows them rights to hospitals, to get a job, or travel.  This highlights the problem of a government that is tied to a religion, unlike the U.S., which has a separation of church and state.  Kelsang Rigpa also sees this ban as being politically motivated and really having nothing to do with religion at all, but ultimately, the Dalai Lama would have to answer this question, as we can only speculate on his reasons for creating this division and injustice.

The mainstream press, surprisingly, was present to document the protest.  The Dalai Lama has been living an opulent life and making a lot of money on Buddhist teachings while his people live in great poverty.  He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a globalist organization set on world domination through the elimination of national sovereignty of nations.  Now he is beginning to be exposed as the dictator that he actually is.  This is very new information for Westerners, who know little of the politics of the Tibetan people.  These protests will continue to follow the Dalai Lama to Washington D.C., where a large turnout is expected.  The goal of these demonstrations is very simple, to restore freedom of religion to the people of Tibet and allow equal rights for all Tibetan Buddhists.  All he would have to do is say he is lifting the ban, according to Foley, and then religious freedom would be restored.

(Photo: Intellihub News/Sharon Schloss)
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diamond girl

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Re: Dalai Lama met with protest over religious persecution
« Reply #1 on: March 07, 2014, 07:58:16 PM »
Thank you for sharing this, though I think it is a bit too condemnatory of the Dalai Lama. i mean i get that the Dalai Lama is the cause of the Dorje Shugden ban and all the sufferings of those who are under the ban, especially the Tibetans in the Indian refugee camps.

But i think that the following is a bit strong: "The Dalai Lama has been living an opulent life and making a lot of money on Buddhist teachings while his people live in great poverty.  He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a globalist organization set on world domination through the elimination of national sovereignty of nations.  Now he is beginning to be exposed as the dictator that he actually is."

The journalist should know that the so-called opulence of the Dalai Lama is nothing unusual for Tibetan high lamas, where opulence is not for the lama per say but for the dharma which the lama represents. So i think that was just a cheap shot at the Dalai Lama. Let's be fair.

prodorjeshugden

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Re: Dalai Lama met with protest over religious persecution
« Reply #2 on: March 15, 2017, 02:11:51 PM »
I really wonder how the Dalai Lama is considered a figure of peace when he is the one of the few behind the violence in the Dorje Shugden ban. The Dorje Shugden ban has caused a large sum of violence, every once in awhile mobs will gather outside Shugden monasteries and hurl bricks, rocks and stones inside and in some slightly rarer cases the mobs will go into temples compound and injure those within.  To make matters worse the Dalai Lama does not come and say hey stop all the violence, instead he just remains silent and sometimes he also indirectly encourages those mobs.

I really hope that all forms of violence against Dorje Shugden practitioners will stop instantly and may the unjust and un-Buddhist Dorje Shugden ban come down.

Tenzin K

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Re: Dalai Lama met with protest over religious persecution
« Reply #3 on: March 15, 2017, 04:54:58 PM »
Dorje Shugden ban indeed created many suffering to many people around the world especially the Tibetan. No one can understand how the ban can help the Tibetan government with the baseless reasoning given. It doesn’t make sense at all that the Dalai Lama health will be harm if we see Dalai Lama is the emanation of Chenrezig which is  an enlightened being. How could a Buddha being harm? In term of the Tibetan cause and their independence, how would a spiritual practice create such problem to the Tibetan leadership? From the ban until now what had the Tibetan leadership achieved? What is the improvement that the Tibetan leadership made to help their people? And now with the ban they just create more suffering to their own people.

How can the Tibetan leadership tell the world that they want freedom but on the other hand they take away the freedom of their people? What example are they showing to the world?

Tibetan leadership would rather spend money to highlight the ban instead of helping the tibetan welfare. The fund that they received aren’t it suppose to help their people? Why don’t they focus on uniting their people and make them much stronger than ostracise and separate them? Why spend time and effort to create more suffering to the tibetan than helping their welfare and for their future?

Any successful country give respect and freedom for their people. Every country will have different ethnic, background and belief. Their government unite all this differences by respecting them and give freedom for their spiritual growth to help the country to grow. Every leader of their country do their very best to create harmony and peace for their people.

If Dalai Lama still do not speak up to stop the ban instead of helping their people they will definitely fall completely.

Rowntree

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Re: Dalai Lama met with protest over religious persecution
« Reply #4 on: March 17, 2017, 10:39:35 PM »
Yes, the Dalai Lama is still ruling the Tibetans, at least those in exile, to a certain degree but the focus of the article is inevitable a propaganda of the NKT group and how much they have done. I am not against NKT and appreciate all that they have done for Dorje Shugden in the past 20 years but you cannot deny the subjective view presented. It is a piece that is designed to put down the Dalai Lama while flattering all that NKT has done.