I have the highest respect for H.E. Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche (CNNR) and I bow down to this eminent master. But at the same time I am confused by quite a few things CNNR has written here, and therefore feel compelled to clarify so that I do not misunderstand Rinpoche.
First, in the 5th paragraph of CNNR’s article, Rinpoche alluded to the fact the Dorje Shugden is a sectarian protector and infers that Shugden harms practitioners of other sects:
"Some Gelugpa Lamas continued to do pujas and particularly some very sectarian Gelugpa lamas believed that this Gyalpo was a very good guardian because he only protected the Gelugpa school and eliminated and controlled all the other schools”
However, in 1979, during a talk in New York about the Classes of Protectors, CNNR had this to say instead:
"For example, in the Sakyapa and Kagyupa Schools there are many guardians of the so-called class of rgyal.po. rGyal.po means King. It is a category or class of protectors. And in the Nyingma school there are also these, and one of the principal gyalpos is Pehar. And among the Gelugpas there is the famous Shugden, and Shugden also exists in the Sakypa school. And there are other forms of Gyalpos. It was considered in all schools that these protectors of the Gyalpo class function quite well, not only among the Gelugpas and the Sakyapas”
So the obvious question to Rinpoche is, which is it? Is Dorje Shugden only a Gelugpa protector that seeks to eliminate other schools, or is he also a Sakya protector and generally “functions quite well” in all schools?
Then in the 1st and 3rd paragraphs of the same article CNNR wrote this:
“In general one cannot say that the class of Gyalpo are always negative. There are also some important Gyalpo guardians. For example, Guru Padmasambhava gave the task of protecting the temple of Samye to Gyalpo Pehar. So it is not negative at all”
And this, alluding to Dorje Shugden,
“There also exists a Gyalpo, not of a high level like Gyalpo Pehar, but a bad spirit.(One can become a bad spirit particularly when one has received Vajrayana teaching and created some heavy samaya problems, then something bad happens and they become a bad spirit.) This kind of spirit becomes dependent on the class of Gyalpo”
But in a 1996 account by a disciple of CNNR by the name of Dorje Guryme, he had this to say about what he learned from Rinpoche:
“Like all masters educated in the Sakya tradition, Norbu Rinpoche says that Shugden is a worldly deity. He further states that Gyalpos in general are very difficult protectors to control, and advises it is perhaps best to avoid them. Norbu Rinpoche also levels this criticism at Pehar, etc. This is not to say that Norbu is critical of all wordly protectors, like the Tenma, Tsiu Marpo, etc., but mainly those of the Gyalpo class. They have bad track record, so to speak. This is what I have heard from the mouth of Rinpoche himself. So you see it is Gyalpos in general that Norbu is critical of, and not Gyalpo Shugden in particular"
So, now even the State Protector Of Tibet, that has been advising the Dalai Lama is also bad, not only Dorje Shugden. In Rinpoche’s estimation, it is best to avoid all worldly protectors except those Rinpoche likes.
CNNR also wrote in paragraph 4 that:
“Later the 5th Dalai Lama and Minlig Terchen, an important Nyingmapa lama, found out about this and said that this was a very bad spirit which shouldn't be considered as a guardian, but should be eliminated. They performed many pujas in order to eliminate him but maybe they did not succeed very well”
Not only did the emanation of Avalokiteshvara and a powerful lama fail to subdue Dorje Shugden (which makes complete sense since you cannot subdue or eliminate a Buddha), CNNR told his students this:
“Just for the record, when the famous Khyentse Choskyi Lodo, the tulku of Khyentse Wangpo, used went to do daily pujas, he used to specficially stop at the statue of Shugden on the protector chapel and cross his vajra on Shugden's head to keep him bound. He did this every day he was in residence at Dzongsar, or so I heard from a Tibetan tulku who resided at Dzongsar for a spell”
So this sometime worldly deity, sometime effective protector and some time “bad spirit” can be controlled and bound after all! Only CNNR never shared this secret with the Dalai Lama and everyone who have been trying to subdue this evil spirit. You see, my problem with Rinpoche’s article is that I cannot fully grasp Rinpoche real position on Dorje Shugden
But the best of all is this:
“That is true, because I know at least three or four people in my country, in particular one of my uncles at the Sakyapa monastery, who also did the Gyalpo practice. One of my uncles was a lama there and performed pu¬jas in the Gyalpo temple for two or three years. In the end he had a very strong illness, his energy became disordered and he had a great many problems. I know three other lamas who performed pujas in the same temple and one after another each of them went mad”
CNNR repeated this claim in 1996 when he said this about Dorje Shugden:
“In general, it has been found that almost everyone who practices the guardians of the Gyalpo class finish insane.....This means that guardians can backfire. In general, if one is practicing with that type of guardian, as a minimum he must have finished a certain kind of mantra practice with great precision. Even so, many monks who complete the practice of mantra quite well sometimes are driven insane”
And this is where Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche totally lost me. I am asked to believe that anyone who practices Dorje Shugden will become seriously ill and/or insane. That to me means that if you refrain from doing the Protector practice, you will never become seriously ill. It also means that every mental asylum and hospital in the world is full of Dorje Shugden practitioners. Is Rinpoche aware that in the world over there are seriously ill and mentally unstable people who pray to Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Krishna, and some even to Winnie The Pooh? Illness and insanity arise as the result of our karma, not as the result of worshipping a Buddha.
CNNR wants me to believe that a practice that is over 350 years old has been transmitted over the centuries by mad men! Mad lamas who nevertheless were able to elucidate the Dharma perfectly, teach the Lamrim perfectly and attain one-ness with Vajrayogini, Yamantaka and Heruka. Pabongkha Rinpoche was mad, the erudite Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche was mad (and there Trijang Choktrul Rinpoche must be insane as well), Zong Rinpoche was made, Lama Yeshe was mad and for that matter, so is His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In summary, to CNNR the entire Gelugpa sect is filled with insane people.
It cannot be right and there must have been a misprint or misquote somewhere. A learned master such as Rinpoche cannot in the fullness of his mental capacity ask me to believe that all the Gelugpas are mad or critically ill, as I should be now as I write this. CNNR must know that one of Dorje Shugden’s form Pema Shugden, the Great Wangze’s primary function is to help us tame and subdue our wild, difficult and maddening mind. Not the opposite.
I do however strongly agree with one thing that Rinpoche said, which is:
“In general, if one is practicing with that type of guardian, as a minimum he must have finished a certain kind of mantra practice with great precision”.
And isn’t this where the purity of the lineage comes in? Doesn’t this reflect what a lot of high lamas have been advising (and got nailed as being sectarian) that is for us to follow a prescribed set of teachings with precision and to its completion? This is only logic and there is nothing supernatural about it. The same applies to ordinary medication prescribed by doctors, and mixing of chemical compounds based on very strict formulas. It is such basic logic. Even a bartender knows this rule.
And finally, this paragraph is just plain disappointing:
“In Italy this group is very influential because the second most important person who is against the Dalai Lama lives in Milan and it is the place where the practice of Gyalpo is being developed. If you have had some connection with these people you should do the practice of Guru Dragphur. By doing the practice of Guru Dragphur, you won't receive the negative influence of the Gyalpo. But those who have already had a relationship with them should stop this relationship and should do the practice of Guru Dragphur otherwise they will find themselves with many problems later on. Or if somebody feels that these problems are already there come to me and I give you a kind of protection for not receiving these negativities”
That might as well come out of a Dan Brown novel. It would be funny if it weren’t downright schismatic and damaging. CNNR has always claimed to be non-sectarian and of course Rinpoche is not sectarian, apart from claiming that virtually all Gelugpas are insane and the there is a devil worshipper in Italy, but its ok because CNNR is there.
Perhaps, the true motivation behind such articles is accidentally given a way by CNNR’s own disciple when he said: “Norbu Rinpoche is completely non-sectarian in his approach, and frequently recommends to his students who have a Gelugpa background that they integrate Dzogchen teachings into their devotion to Tsonkghapa”.
Is he saying the Tsongkhapa’s lineage teaching is incomplete? Did we not see CNNR caution that a practice must be done with “great precision” as prescribed by own our Guru? This is a seriously depraved world we live in and I thank the supreme kindness of Manjushri to come in a worldly form to protect me from all this distractions.
