By Ganbu Dorje
February 26,2014
Western followers of the deity Shugden have the right to
worship if they wish, the Dalai Lama
has never told them not to do so. However,
when they are extremely aggressive towards His Holiness the Dalai Lama, it
naturally concerns the six million Tibetans. For example, a few days ago a
white woman in Tibetan Buddhist robes verbally attacked the Dalai Lama, the 78
year-old leader of Tibetan people who had just arrived in San Francisco after
tirelessly traveling from continent to continent, and city to city with no time
to rest. Any other politician would have ignored her, perhaps offering her a
fake smile. Not for the Dalai Lama, faking emotions is not in his blood. He
spoke to her, trying to explain things in a way any Tibetan lama or monk who
went to debating school habitually would, in, what he often calls, his broken
English. Yet, the woman kept reciting her mantra, "you are lying,"
right to his face.
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The Dalai Lama, head of Tibetan Buddhism |
While everyone has the right to protest against anyone,
wearing Buddha's robe and verbally abusing the most reverent Buddhist lama in
the world-the lama who is responsible of bringing the Tibetan Buddhism to the
West-reminds one of the unthinkable actions of religious fundamentalists.
In 1997, a highly respected 69-year-old Tibetan monk named
Lobsang Gyamtso and two of his monk disciples were murdered in his house in
Dharamsala, India, just a block away from the Dalai Lama's residence. The
Indian police later reported that some worshipers of Shugden slaughtered the
monks and then escaped to China. Following this, the Dalai Lama, who is a
strong advocator of unity and peace in the human society, was concerned about
the potential rise of sectarian conflict among Tibetan Buddhists.
Do Western Shugden followers know what Tibetans know about
this spirit? Many Tibetans understand the reasons why His Holiness is against
Shugden worship. As a child, I grew up in the area where Kyabje Phawongka
Rinpoche himself helped build a statue of Shugden in a Monastery. This
monastery became one of the first places in Kham to be introduced to the
Shugden spirit. I knew that people worshipped it out of fear, not out of love
and respect. There was an old man in my village who first told me about it. He
used to be a monk before Chinese came and had worshipped it. He would tell me
that that spirit would "eat" person's soul if he or she practiced
another religion. Although he had worshipped it, he talked about it as
something about which people had to be very careful. It is common knowledge
among Tibetans that if one worships Shugden, one is not allowed to practice
other Tibetan Buddhist denominations, let alone other religions. This belief
hinders the basic mission of His Holiness the Dalai Lama of working toward
unity and respect between religions.
Tibetans inside Tibet adopted His Holiness's philosophy of
unity after he personally showed his sincerity in the belief of equality and
unity of all Tibetan religious sects. Today the people of all three Cholkas (provinces) speak with one voice and engage in the same action. The school of Buddhists,
such as Nyingmapa and Kagyupa, that had felt a sense of marginalization in the
old Tibet because the central government was ruled by the Dalai Lamas who
belonged to Gelugpa sect, are now actively engaging in fighting for the
preservation of the Tibetan culture and political rights in all parts of Tibet.
For Tibetans, this is the unity that we badly need and the Dalai Lama has
created this unity by making room for all of our schools of the Tsampa eaters
and Mani reciters to conduct their birth given duties.
For Tibetan brothers and sisters who worship Shugden, worship
it if you must, in my humble opinion. But here is something I want to ask you
as someone who shares the same source of blood and bones as yours, as Snow
Landers. Never lose the sense of your birth-given responsibility and never
support the campaigns that try to sabotage the health of our only leader, His
Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. In this world, he is the only one who keeps our
people's hope, and holds the sacred authority and the true wisdom of the Land
of Snow. Both in the history and modern time, has there been anyone who has
worked so hard and sacrificed so much for the future of our land and our
children as the 14th Dalai Lama? Just as we don't hate our parents for having
to make tough decisions for the goodness of all family members of ours, please
do not let false words of others turn your hearts from the most basic moral
position to shameful and regrettable directions.
The Dalai Lama's health is the main bridge that we need to
across the time of misfortune in which our people suffer. His good reputation
is source of our dignity and benefits that we get as Tibetans everywhere we go.
His smile and his words of wisdom dispel all the constant weapons of wrongful
accusations fired towards our culture and our civilization.
No matter what you do, our brotherhood and sisterhood can
never be vanished because you and I were all born from Tibetans in or from the
Land of Snow. I say again, that I don't hate you who continue to worship
Shugden, but love you as brothers and sisters. My first wish for you is to
listen to our sacred guide for this and future lives, for he has the deepest
knowledge of what spiritual practice is all about and knows what is the best
for our future, both politically and spiritually. If you choose not to do that,
please at least don't support those who attack our sacred leader who is now in
the 78 year-old human body. I hope you shared my pain when you saw the 14th
Dalai Lama, our leader, being grossly and disrespectfully mistreated in public.
This reminds us of our Panchen Lama being humiliated in public during the
Cultural Revolution.
We need to be aware of how religious fanaticism can blind
the basic wisdom of human beings and make us do unthinkable things. But
remember, my brothers and sisters, no matter how immature the lion cubs might
be, they never attack their aged lion mother for whose deeds has kept the cubs
alive.
From a sincere brother of yours who deeply feels the love
for you like any older brother would for his younger siblings.
NOTE-- Gangbu
Dorje is a Tibetan from Tibet, currently residing in San Francisco,
U.S.A. and views expressed in the article are that of the writer, not necessarily an endorsement of the site.
"Do Western Shugden followers know what Tibetans know about this spirit?"
ReplyDeleteLet me answer this, unlike the author, answer it honestly. WE DON"T KNOW SH!T!! What you think you know about this spirit is probly as right as it is wrong, because, the deity is completely made up just like the toothfaerie, easter bunny, manjushri, avalokiteshvara, gandalf, etc
While Ganbu Dorje la is seemingly civil, let me be blunt. This author and his fatuous titles, I have read few of his holier than thou articles tsk tsking rangzen proponents, or else, he is against those who want to talk about genuine democracy in exile, or Middle Way.
For this fundementalist Tibetan, there are no right and wrong, there is only the Dalai Lama and wrong. Well, I take umbrage with your attitude sir, as if you speak for all the Tibetan people everywhere. You don't speak for me, and what is more, you will never speak for those Tibetans who love democracy and free thought.
Here he is, going on about some Western Shugden inji woman who is yelling at His Holiness, then he segues into the inevitable and banal admonition, "Never forget (or, let me remind you all), that as HH is the sun and the moon, that without him, we Tibetans would all be doomed, would all be just worthless pangos, so be good dogs and obey your master blindly. "
FYI, there have been documented persecution of poor Tibetans in dharsa which was reported by Al-Jazeera, the name and shame campaign instigated by HH and SR, it is all there. And who indoctrinated Tibetan people to the efficacy of deity worship in the first place?
Tibetans like this author and HH need to seriously take full responsibility for creating and maintaining such childish controversies like the Shugden, or the two Dalai Lama scenario coming up.
Imagine if we Tibetans did away with our superstitious Buddhism, flush it down the toilet where it belongs, then we would at least be free from such mind numbing crap. But this isnt likely to happen, not when I read that the world, and especially the chinese people are going crazy for Tibetan Buddhism, so please forget everything I said and tell me again, why His Holiness is incapable of faking a smile? :roll:
So, you suggest not to reply to these Shugden protestors when we all know they are totally wrong? I understand that sometime our community go too far to shame these cult followers. Leave them alone and do not dare to mix middle way politics with this cult shugden issue to make this look more uglier and mess.Did you see how they have protested in CA? Thanks to this author G. Dorjee for replying and indeed his is the only piece out there!
DeleteGangbu Dorje la,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thoughts. 99.9% of Tibetans from out and in side of Tibet will support you and be grateful those whose voice can not be heard.
An amazing relevant title! I am not amazed to see westerners protest against His Holiness but what hurts me more is our own people behind this ugly drama. Tibetan shugden followers need to understand and learn more about this cult and consequences of worshiping such cult. Our community shouldn't be so bias to these followers in general. It is not His Holiness but our own community who bring so much discrimination to these followers. Just leave them alone, let them pray whatever cult they wanted to worship.
ReplyDeleteDecades ago, when I was a teanager, I still remember how RTWA and RTYC initiated signature campagne program through out Tibetan settlements in India - collected thousands of signatures from our community approving and swearing not to follow Shugden. This was done very harshly and in inhumane way! His Holiness name was used for such campagne.
His Holiness have facts and reasons for not worshiping such cult and lets leave this simple and plain. Politicians out there, please do not make this more complicated in the name of His Holiness. I know as a Tibetan, it hurts to see these protestors' behavior but if we act to their tune we are fulfilling their wishes. Their wishes is nothing more than Chinese wishes!