Dear All,
There has been a rising hate culture for all Shugden practitioners and I have sent a few e-mails to different forums and Buddhist chat rooms like the below link to raise awareness of their conduct be it in accordance to the CTA or many a times for their own benefit. Please take a read on my points based on the Refuge vows and also the Perfections of a Bodhisattva in hopes and requests for them to stop their discrimination. In the long run if this goes on uncontrolled, they will evolve to be an uprising Buddhist Taliban. Let's start the awareness now, we don't wanna have DS centres all over the world to suffer in silence like the monks in Shar Gaden and Serpom do we?
Do feel free to add onto the points I've presented or even come up with your own. Remember, diligence is strength!
Harry Nephew
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://sgforums.com/forums/1728/topics/374821A quote from this forum:
“I would also like to state that on account of my moderator's (a Vajrayana practitioner) advice, and the advice of countless great Vajrayana Masters, that one should stay away from all Dolgyal practice, I hereby announce that this forum does not recognize groups affiliated with the practice, and there shall be no links to NKT website and groups that are the proponents of the Dolgyal practice as from today. (Actually this has already been a rule for years, but I so happen to have taken down the old rules and regulations page from the stickied list for just one day in order to write a new one and apparently people start 'hijacking' and flooding the forum with pro-Dolgyal articles)”
Dear forum Admin,
It has come to my disturbed mind that the culture which you are currently implicating onto the world of Buddhism is very sickening and ugly for a practitioner/layman such as myself. What has sprouted from the ban of Dorje Shugden’s practice has led to many other implications whereby Buddhists layman or not have surfaced themselves to be “Buddhist Polices”.
A bit of explanation of this term called the “Buddhist Police”. Emulating officials and aristocrats from the Tibetan Government in Exile(back then) and Central Tibetan Administration(now) who went from one monastery to another to tell off monks and the Sangha against the worship of Shugden, people across the globe who ‘felt’ that it was their duty to do the same in their homeland. Watch this link:
http://dorjeshugden.com/wp/?p=10777What happens outside of the Tibetan Buddhist circle is that people take it onto their own hands by putting up notices and warnings against peaceful practitioners of Dorje Shugden in Buddhist centres, temples and places of worship and also on Buddhist forums and chat rooms online. Please take some time to read my presentation below from a person who is exposed to both worlds within the community and in a modern city where Buddhism of different traditions are flourishing rapidly.
AVOID EVIL
Being Buddhist, our core practice laid down by none other than Lord Buddha Himself is “Avoid Evil, Do Good and Purify the mind.” In order to discern evil from good, the Buddha have spoken lucidly on the guidelines of what is termed to be unwholesome in actions of body, speech and the mind. This is clearly stated in our refuge vows and commitments. Let me write them down here so that we get a good reminder:
1. To avoid killing
2. To refrain from stealing
3. To abstain from sexual misconduct
4. Not to lie
5. Not to use harsh speech
6. Not to use divisive speech
7. Not to cheat
8. To avoid intoxicants
9. To refrain from malice
10. To have right view
Any transgressions of the above ten would render it to be unwholesome from the Buddhist perspective. In my right frame of mind, I feel that by practicing Dorje Shugden, it doesn’t infringe in any of the above ten vows of being a Buddhist. How then is it evil for you “Buddhist Police” to deem it evil? Has he physically made you or any of his practitioners evil in any sense in the Buddhist context? I do not think so. Even during the parades surrounding His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, everything was done in accordance to law and also peacefully. No war was raged in Dorje Shugden’s name and there will not be such claims in future.
In fact, harbouring malice towards other practitioners whether Buddhist or not is definitely NOT BUDDHIST. We are not Lord Buddha Shakyamuni, Guru Padmasambhava, Atisha Dipankara Shrijana, or Manjunatha Tsongkhapa, so how dare we impose such things on others with ill respect for the teachings. Dorje Shugden practitioners are law abiding and holders of the Vinaya too! Inflicting malice and insinuating that you are on the right path does not give you power to put another practice down.
The law of karma revolves around us whether we like it or not. Have you not put deep thoughts into what will come out of this on the long run? We love to be Buddhist party parading people of what is ‘cool’ or ‘in-trend’, this does not mean that we are bad, but shows us the level of our practice. Will we ever grow and mature into people who embody the Buddha’s love and compassion for all living beings? Will we ever host the wisdom which is promised to arise in our mindstream with proper practice and contemplation? Will we develop spiritual powers which will deem us respect from even the gods from holding our vows intact?
Please do consider what I have to say and end all these fiasco of Buddha/Lama bashing. If Dorje Shugden is a spirit, he deserves your compassion. Why? Simply because you are a Buddhist (a practicing one).
DOING GOOD
In accordance with the Mahayana vehicle of putting the welfare of others before ourselves, the Bodhisattva Ideal is a much sought after practice inspiring people from all walks of life. Shouldn’t it be the same when it comes to the Shugden issue? The six mighty practices of a Bodhisattva:
1. Perfection of Giving
2. Perfection of Morality
3. Perfection of Patience
4. Perfection of Rigorous Effort
5. Perfection of Meditative Concentration
6. Perfection of Wisdom
Have we given a chance for Dorje Shugden to come into our mind? Understand how the lineage of this uncommon protector of the Gaden tradition has come into being? Never mind to accept but have we given some time off our busy schedule to listen to what they have to say? Regardless if they are from NKT, Kadhampa etc., as a Buddhist with forbearance, we should have an open mind to what comes before us and compare them with the scriptural facts as passed down from generations from the time of Lord Buddha. It is never good to close our minds to thinking that what is bad is always bad. Even the cousin of Lord Buddha, Devadatta was never condemned but Buddha foretold that he will become a Buddha in a future time.
Morality has been the essence of Buddhist practice. When the Buddha was about to pass into the state of Parinirvana, his last teaching was for his disciples to uphold morality as their teacher in his absence. What is fundamental morality translated in today’s language? Acceptance of others’ flaws, helping people to overcome their shortcomings should be the ethics of the modern day Buddhists. We should not exert our social influence against another’s spiritual practice.
Furthermore, we are lay followers of the Buddha and do not have a spiritual establishment in which we are appointed by our track records to govern the belief and practice of other Buddhists. We have to keep this always in mind. If we have done so, we have already gone against the establishment of the Sangha whereby the Gekuls(disciplinarians) or Acharyas who have special duty to oversee the welfare of the monastic codes within the community of monks.
Patience is becoming a virtue very hard to practice these days. Given the distractions and mental anguish which we face at work, it it even harder for us to practice properly. How do we find harmony within ourselves if we cannot be patient and hold forbearance with other brothers and sisters in the Dharma? Yes, we may not be agreeable with their practice but it doesn’t mean we shove them out from the Buddhist platforms? We need to see them as our mother sentient beings too, no?
Putting our energies where there is a need should be of right action arising from the development of right view. There are so much issues within the Buddhist circle that when we put aside this small difference within ourselves, we are able to bring Buddhism into the fore front and spear head our efforts in achieving a better society for humankind. Don’t you think so?
As this is not a difference by choice due to the fact that these teachings of Dorje Shugden were passed down by highly acclaimed masters whom some of them are His Holiness the Dalai Lamas’ own personal tutors and root gurus. We should not be judgemental to put this onto our jurisdiction based on the fact that we are not at that level. What we can do is to put this aside and it would leave us less room for confusion and more room for our mental concentration. Won’t it be so?
The highest of all Perfections in the Bodhisattva’s way of life is none other than Wisdom. Here, I would like to urge everyone to focus on the teachings of lord Buddha. Regardless of your school of thought, we can read up and understand the Lamrim Chenmo, the sacred works of Je Tsongkhapa which does not discriminate any sect whatsoever. In fact, these teachings have the basis of all 4 schools of Buddhism in Tibet and all tenets of the Indian Buddhist lineage. It is worth a good read and understanding without abandoning your own tradition as I know by my own experience it will help you greatly. It is without prejudice that Lama Tsongkhapa was and is accepted by all schools of Tibetan Buddhism to be the reformer of Buddhist teachings during degenerate times. His works and writings are definitely written for the busy people of today such as ourselves.
PURIFY THE MIND
The distinction of the Buddha’s doctrine when compared with other religions of the world is the works and practices concerning the maturity of the mind. Letting politics and different views distract us from our practice is our loss. The defilements which we’ve collected over time definitely cannot be eradicated in such short span of practice. What we really need to do is to translate what we have learnt into action.
We are our own master of our destiny, please think about what I have to say and make a decision for yourselves today. What we learn and held the oath to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha should be of the same nature as how we hold ourselves as Buddhists and not the other way around. We cannot continue our hypocritical ethics by saying that we are loving compassionate Buddhists and hating Dorje Shugden on the other hand.
I send you my warm greetings and my above stated viewpoints in peace and hopes for change in your mind base on logic and how it is stated in the scriptures. I hope Dorje Shugden practitioners may be given the same chances as all the other members of the public are given to pray and meditate in harmony with hopes for the Buddha Dharma to grow and flourish in this region.
It is also my intention and hope that this ugly culture of “Buddhist Police” of any traditions of Buddhism should face out over time with this understanding.
Much prayers
Harry Nephew
