Dorje Shugden

 Would you buy a used ghost from this man?

To the deities, Six Armed Mahakala, Karmaraja and Magzor,  

To the oathbound protectors The Four Faced Mahakala, Chamsing Begtse, etc. Who have been propitiated and whose practice (has been done)

I offer this sublime libation.

The so-called Drakpa Gyaltsen pretends to be a sublime being, even though he is not,

And since this interfering spirit and creature of distorted prayers

Is harming everything - both the dharma and sentient beings –

Do not support, protect or give him shelter, but grind him to dust.

                                  ---The Fifth Dalai Lama

I have been thinking about the Dalai Lama's remarks this past Saturday, regarding the practice of Dorje Shugden. I also did some background research on the matter, with particular emphasis on the incidents of murderous violence, and the techniques used in the various smear campaigns that accompany this controversy.

A hostile foreign intelligence service has within its arsenal a well-known battery of tactics and techniques. Chinese intelligence, in particular, is more than capable of fielding operations of subtle sophistication. They are some of the most darkly talented clandestine operators in the world, and of that I have absolutely no doubt.

When I examine the Dorje Shugden controversy in detail, I see that it has all the hallmarks of a put-up job. I am left with the conclusion that the Dorje Shugden affair is a Chinese clandestine service-run black operation designed to destroy His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Buddhism as practiced in Tibet.

Actually, it is a classic of its type. They teach it in certain schools.

For Westerners, who may feel, rightly or wrongly, that they "don't have a dog in the fight," the matter should be very simple:

(1) On the one hand, we have some sectarian zealots who want to worship a hungry ghost.

(2) On the other hand, we have His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and the heads of every school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Who do you want to back? Who gets your vote? It really is that easy: either you side with the covertly managed ghost-worshippers, or you side with the Dalai Lama.

It makes me sick to my stomach when I see Westerners, dressed up like monks and nuns, protesting against the Dalai Lama in the name of some idiocy that doesn't belong to them.  There's a real arrogance attached to this, wherein these people believe they "know better" simply because they invested themselves in something.

The Soviet clandestine operators used to have a name for dupes like this: govnoed, which freely translates as "shit eaters." How appropriate. These people are allowing themselves to be used by the Chinese intelligence services against the Dalai Lama and Buddhism, and they have convinced themselves they are doing the right thing. There are even some ostensibly Nyingmapa "personalities" invested in this, apparently unaware that Dorje Shugden's true believers have desecrated images of Padmasambhava and put Nyingma lamas to death by murderous plots.

If a Chinese assassin were to harm His Holiness, the backlash would be insurmountable. However, if they could promote an assassin from "within," legitimately or notionally "within," then that would satisfy their operational goals quite handsomely. Similarly, if an external agency launches criticism of Buddhism, that is one thing. But, if they can manufacture dissent, again seemingly from "within," then operational goals are well served.

How convenient to have a hot button issue. How convenient to have a slowly  and carefully established track record of violence. How convenient to have exquisitely targeted smear campaigns. All it takes now is one fringe operator with something to prove, carefully nurtured by a clever handler.

The best way to guard against something terrible happening is by educating people to the threat, and then defusing the rhetoric by isolating the principal organs. We can identify them easily enough. They are running around in Germany quite a bit, and we also see them in the United States, in various guises. It is well within the capabilities of U.S. Department of State's  Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) to preselect these threats.

I think it is high time we take a bright light to these creeps.

It is also high time we understood that this is not a "Dalai Lama issue" per se: rather, he is the one with the moral courage to mention it in public. His comments this past Saturday were balanced and liberal: "If you want to practice Dorje Shugden, you are at liberty to do so, but if you do, don't take vows with me." That is very, very clearly stated.

There is a film documentary, Dorje Shugden, The Spirit and the Controversy, which interviews eminent lamas of the four Tibetan Buddhist schools. They state:

H.E. Tai Situ Rinpoche,  Karma Kagyu Tradition

"We Kagyu followers normally do not mention this name without fear. There is no Shugden practitioner among Kagyu followers. The reason why we fear the one I name just now, is because we believe that he causes obstacles to spiritual practice and brings discord in families and among the community of monks."

H.H. Mindolling Trichen Rinpoche, the late Head of the Nyingma Tradition:

"Shugden is a ghost. We Nyingma practitioner do not follow him. We propagate only those protectors that were bound by Padmasambhava. Shugden came after Padmasambhava. Shugden is a hungry ghost in the human realm."

H.H. Sakya Trizin, Head of the Sakya Tradition:

“In the beginning the Sakya throne holder Sakya Sönam Rinchen bound Shugden to protect Dharma. However, neither Shudgen nor other worldly spirits were depended upon during prayer meeting at Sakya. The statue of Shugden was in some shrine rooms but in the lowest category in the pantheon. No Sakya follower has ever taken life pledging empowerment through the medium of Shugden… Later Shugden worship decreased strongly among Sakyas due to the efforts of three leading Sakya lineage lamas” [including the root Guru of Sakya Trizin who was] “extremely unhappy with Shugden practice and advised on the demerits of Shugden practice. One of his disciples, Ngawang Yönten Gyatso, took strong actions to remove Shugden statues from the Sakya monasteries and to destroy them. Khyentse Dorje Chang Chökyi Lodrö was also very unhappy with Shugden practice, although he didn’t destroy statues, he performed rituals to banish Shugden. Since these three leading Sakya Lamas were against Shugden, this practice declined greatly among Sakya followers.”

H.H. the 100th Ganden Tripa,  late Head of the Gelug Tradition:

[..] Gelug Lamas of the past would have taken notice of Shugden if he was really the embodiment of the three refuges. But there is no historical record to show that they took any interest in Shugden. Therefore I can not accept Shugden as the embodiment of the Three Refuges."

H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama quoting the 5th Dalai Lama:

"In his autobiography the 5th Dalai Lama writes that he performed a fire ritual against Shugden during which he composed a prayer to protect the deities. In the prayer the 5th Dalai Lama says that he is performing this ritual to vanquish Dorje Shugden who is harming the Buddhadharma and sentient beings. He clearly says that Dragpa Gyaltsen’s negative prayer resulted in his rebirth as Shugden."

This makes it clear that orthodox Tibetan Buddhism is united in its condemnation of Dorje Shugden. As His Holiness said this past Saturday, "only somebody with realization equal to the Fifth Dalai Lama should try to modify the Fifth Dalai Lama's words." Similarly, only somebody with realization equal to Tai Situ Rinpoche, Kyabje Mindrolling Trichen, Kyabje Sakya Trizin, Ganden Tripa, and the Fourteenth Dalai Lama should try to second-guess their words.

Our business is to practice the dharma according to the dharma. Our business is not to worship demons or ghosts. Neither is it our business to side with people who are out to harm the Dalai Lama or Buddhism, and we are certainly not about to let ourselves be used by the fun-loving lads from Old Shanghai's well-funded department store kiddie show.

Long live His Holiness the Dalai Lama... and remember who to call...