It's very encouraging and gladdening to see how much Shar Gaden is doing for their new generation of young monks. I very glad to hear of how progressive they are and how much they are doing for their Sangha in the face of so much opposition and so many obstacles coming mostly from their own people. If Dorje Shugden was really quite so bad, why a monastery created and arising from him, be quite so beneficial in producing generations of Dharma teachers and strengthening the learning and spread of Dharma teachings, the lamrim and all the very things that the monks are trying to bring to the world?
What evil spirit would consistently, and for so many hundreds of years, create so much growth in something so good?
Unfortunately, I have also heard that things aren't quite as rosy across the fence in Gaden Monastery, or the other non-Shugden monasteries. Many of the old generation of Lamas, Tulkus and Rinpoches are passing away (or they have moved to Shar Gaden / Serpom!) leaving fewer and fewer of the great masters behind. It is known that much of the administration are more anxious about keeping up appearances with the CTA and the Dalai Lama, and towing the line, than in improving the monastery to move with the times. I'm still not quite sure this is really a fault of the monasteries though, who are so largely controlled by the leading authorities, the CTA etc. Even if they were very wealthy, isn't much of what they do determined by those at the top?
In trying to preserve their religion, the CTA and DL supporters are inadvertently pickling the richest, best "asset" they have - their religion. They're not moving with the times, they're just keeping it locked down and locked out of any progression. So while their monasteries may, for all outward appearances, be "clean" and following all the old, stuffy protocols of old, they're now far more restricted from being able to do what they were originally set up to do, to spread Dharma and bring the teachings to the world in ways relevant to the people.
