Bhikku Yeshe Sangye speaks up against FPMT

[kris]

Bhikku Yeshe Sangye:

“We of FPMT, especially the people who joined after Lama Yeshe’s passing, should think of the future from a wide scope. Our founding father was a sound Dorje Shugden practitioner, and his legacy was passed to Lama Zopa, who was invested as a Tulku by Dorje Shugden. Our lineage lamas all practiced Dorje Shugden as their principal protector. We must not criticize this protector in any way.”

"Many, many, many of the older Lama Yeshe students have gone underground with their practices of Dorje Shugden. Some like me do not really go to the centers here in the USA anymore. They will not abandon their practice of Dorje Shugden because of their great devotion to Lama Yeshe and are somewhat flabbergasted at the direction that some new FPMT centers’ are going with their arrogant witch hunts. What is important to remember is JUST BECAUSE YOU ATTEND THE DALAI LAMA’S TEACHINGS, OR HAVE TAKEN PHOTOS WITH HH DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY VALIDATE YOU AS A SPIRITUAL POLICEMAN AND GO ON WITCH-HUNTS. We must practice the essence of what HH teaches as did Lama Yeshe, which are tolerance, compassion, forgiveness and not ever slandering any lama, dharma, lineage or practice. As the karmic retributions will fall onto us. We should never mislead new FPMT students toward this line of thought. We are destroying our organization slowly if we do so."

"We shouldn’t practice or not practice what the current political situation pressures us to or not to. We should do what our lama says. So during Lama's life Dorje Shugden is good and now Lama is dead, so Dorje Shugden is bad??? Wouldn’t that infer that lama was wrong, had bad degenerate practices, lacking in wisdom, had no refuge, had no attainments and wasted his life praying to a spirit?? So if lama gave us Heruka initiation and practice, then it had no blessings because lama's refuge degenerated due to his practice of Dorje Shugden?? Since Dorje Shugden is a spirit and Lama kept up his ‘sogtae’ (Dorje Shugden’s initiation) or life entrustment practices his whole life, then all of the other practices lama did was degenerated and ineffective when passed to us.

So any practices Lama Zopa received from Lama Yeshe and passes it to others would logically be degenerate also??? Wouldn’t it?

The implications are quite big if we choose to believe that way....So that would mean many of the practices that Lama Zopa does now and gives others that are directly from Lama Yeshe are degenerated because Lama Yeshe was degenerated?? Of course not. Very dangerous line of thought. Very ruinous direction we are heading toward. I watched Lama Zopa get brow-beaten into ‘giving’ up his Dorje Shugden practices."

Source: http://wisdombuddhadorjeshugden.blogspot.com/2008/10/does-lama-zopas-closeness-with-hh-dalai.html

[Vajraprotector]

I do not understand why Lama Zopa Rinpoche chose to think that those who practise Dorje Shugden is against the Dalai Lama and at the same time, Rinpoche also negate the holy practice and lineage from his Guru, Lama Yeshe.

Rinpoche is not only advising people to not practise, but went to the extent of firstly, explicitly stating that potential students should check whether their teacher is against the Dalai Lama in terms of practising Dorje Shugden, and secondly, implemented the policy of not inviting any teachers who practice Dorje Shugden (Sorry, but Lama Yeshe practices Dorje Shugden, so does it mean he (and incarnation) is NOT welcomed at FPMT centers?).

I'd like to quote a teaching of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Guru Devotion and His Holiness the Dalai Lama given at Munich, Germany in April 2001:

"It is important, therefore, at the beginning, before making a Dharma connection with a teacher, to analyze that person well. After thinking well, then establish a Dharma connection. The tantric teachings explain that in degenerate times such as these, it is difficult to find a teacher that has all the qualities as they are explained in the teachings. If that is so, still, your teacher should have eight of them, or five, or at least four. At least the teacher should possess the basic qualities that I mentioned before. This will help you avoid trouble in future, avoid creating very heavy negative karma, such as rising heresy, anger, many negative thoughts, and also, after having made a connection, giving up. Checking carefully will help you avoid all these dangers.
 
Then, I want to specify one extra point, on the basis of the usual examination that is explained in the teachings. I want to add that, if you are making a new Dharma connection with a teacher, you should examine to make sure that that teacher is not someone who is against His Holiness Dalai Lama with respect to the practice of what’s called döl-gyäl, the protector Shugden. Make sure that that person does not do the practice. These days, that’s an extra analysis you should make. In that way, you’ll avoid problems in future.

Recently, I also introduced a new guideline for the protection of the centers and their students, which is not to invite to the center teachers who do the protector practice and are therefore against His Holiness the Dalai Lama. "

It is this mixing of real Dharma from the scriptures and text with some "opinion" or political stands that confuses new Buddhists and non-Buddhists. I have never read in scriptures that we need to check whether the teacher is someone who is against the Dalai Lama, nor a teacher who does any particular practice. I have never read anything that explicitly state nor hint this in Gurupancashika (50 Verses of Guru Devotion) by Ashvagosha, The Fulfillment of All Hopes by Tsongkhapa, nor in the Mahayanasutralamkarakarika where Maitreya Buddha explained the ten qualities of a Mahayana guru. 

Morever, in this degenerate age, it is already very difficult to find a teacher and study Dharma, now we have to even consider whether he practises Dorje Shugden. Isn't it better to practise with an "evil" Lama than not to practise at all? We are living in the degenerate age, hence any connection with Dharma is better than none?

[DharmaSpace]

From wikipedia -
Lama Zopa of the FPMT praised the enlightened qualities of Je Phabongkhapa (Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo):
My root guru, His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche; Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s guru’s root guru; His Holiness Zong Rinpoche, from whom many of the older students received the initiation of Shugden; and the previous incarnation of Gomo Rinpoche, who has a strong connection with Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, here in Italy, all promoted the practice of Shugden. They were all aspects of the Dharmakaya.[24]

Could Lama Zopa be going underground with the Dorje Shugden practise because he wants to allow a place for people to practise who do not subscribe to Dorje Shugden until the ban is lifted. You can either see je Pabhongka as deluded and a DS practitioner or he is enlightened. You cant be possibly believing in both things.

[triesa]

It is very encouranging to see Bhikka Yeshe Sangye speaking up so rightously on FPMT's discrimination on Shugden practitioners being forbidden to attend teachings at their center. He only speaks up because the situation has gone way too far out of hand by the members running FPMT.

Again, does the closeness of Lama Zopa with HHDL justify the FPMT members to become like spiritual police against all other practitioners?

I beg FPMT members to contemplate what Yeshe Sangye said in the letter and practice the esscense of buddhism, which is harmony, acceptance, tolerence and never tread on the path of schism or stopping others to connect with their own guru or any dharma teachings.

It is very easy for degenerated people like us  these days to follow the "wind" of politics just to look good and to be on the save side. If you want to look good, then why follow a guru who has trasmitted so many precious teachings to you and you simply rejected the DS practice just because HHDL said it is bad.

This show how our "samsara" minds work ......if we do this, we cant even talk about guru devotion, which is the esscense of vajrayana.

[Ensapa]

Someone should really give these members a wake up call already. Tenzin Osel's failure to manifest properly is directly related to the disciples betraying their founder's main practice for the sake of being politically correct. Just because the Lama is dead, the disciples betray their own Lama and not only that, they even went against their Lama's main practice.

I guess insecurity and lack of firm grounding is very detrimental to Dharma practice after all.