harmed by Dorje Shugden?

[Ensapa]

I came across this article, written by a man who wanted to publish a book that supposedly derides Dorje Shugden and NKT but withdrew it, and his wife was harmed by an unknown entity which he quickly matched it to Dorje Shugden without even checking with any Lamas. Psychosis or paranoia? I just find it ridiculous that someone would write something like that without getting proper medical treatment or consulting a Lama that would know better.

I received the following letter with the request to post it on this blog.
Dear xxxxxx
Thank you so much for your kind letter and expression of concern for my family and myself. I must say, the last few months have been trying and the knowledge that others are praying for our well being certainly does help lighten the load considerably.
As to why I found it necessary to withdraw the book, believe me, it was not an easy decision, particularly after the significant amount of time, research and funds I put into the book. ‘Cuckoo’ was three years in the writing, researching and legal scrutiny, and it was not very easy to abandon the project after having learned so much about the history of the deity, and the nature of the NKT.
My principle reasons for withdrawing the book were financial and, more importantly, the effects the impending publication began to have on my wife.I will explain these after outlining the financial constraints of the situation.
I was somewhat surprised at the widespread attempts across the web to suggest that the book had been withdrawn for the reason that it contained libelous untruths. I thought the letter I posted on the web via Dialogue Ireland WordPress made it quite clear that the reason I had withdrawn the book was because, despite the fact that all the information in the book was evidenced and already in the public domain, I came to the conclusion that I could not match the legal costs of a libel case, in particular because the NKT have, in the past chosen Schillings, amongst the UKs most costly and libel law firms, a partnership with a reputation in legal circles of unremitting ruthlessness, to act on their behalf.
As you know, England itself has a notorious reputation in international legal circles because of the huge imbalances in its archaic libel laws. These imbalances facilitate the issue of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation,(SLAPPs) lawsuits served to intimidate and silence opponents by burdening them with the excessive costs of legal defence so that they withdraw any criticism or opposition. This was the background to the famous Mclibel case in 1994 where two individuals, who could not match the legal might of McDonalds were found guilty of libeling the huge multi-national in a leaflet they published.
In the Mclibel case, it took nearly ten years for the European Court of Human Rights to overturn the ruling on the basis of the fact the couple had been denied their freedom of expression under the European Convention on Human Rights. I do not have the time or funds to engage in such a lengthy and expensive legal battle. Nor, as a Buddhist, do I feel that engagement in such embittered wars of words is befitting of my faith.
The content of the legal threat letters, which I have attached for your own perusal, do however throw up some rather interesting issues; I’ll leave you to read the letters yourself and make your own observations on some of the startling contradictions contained therein.
The second, more sinister reason for the withdrawal of the book was, as I said, the effects that began to manifest through my wife.
About two days after it became public knowledge that ‘A Cuckoo in the Peacock Palace’ was to be published, she began to bleed heavily. At first, we thought this might simply be a period but after day five of continuous heavy blood flow,  I began to become more than a little concerned.
The concern increased when, on the morning of day six she awoke to tell  me she had had the strangest dream: ” I dreamt I was being strangled by a bearded demonic figure” she told me. “I managed to struggle free and ran out of the house, where I was approached by a kind looking man, who took me by the hand and began to comfort me”. “But, when I looked down”she continued, “I saw that his nails had grown into claws and that the claws were beginning to penetrate my hand”. At that point, she woke up.
I didn’t say anything to her at first, but those who know anything about the experiences of those who have offended Shugden will recognize both of these, the strangling and the claws, as being a clear indication that one has incurred the displeasure of the deity. The strangling dreams have been reported frequently by those who have formerly propitiated, then abandoned the deity and are well documented. The claws are reminiscent of a dream the current Dalai Lama had some years ago in which he says “I dreamt that I was sitting on my bed. Beside my bed was a small boy, about seven or eight years old, whom I took to be Dolgyal. This boy was holding my right hand. When I looked again, I saw that where he held my hand the boy’s fingernails were changing into claws and he was extending them.”
The bleeding continued unabated  to the point that I decided to seek urgent medical advice and, within hours of seeing the doctor, my wife was rushed into hospital for emergency transfusions.
They ascertained on arrival, that while the human body ordinarily contains around 5.5 litres of blood, my wife had only around 2.8. She continued to bleed profusely for the next few days, though her symptoms were alleviated somewhat by regular transfusions. She eventually stabilised and the bleeding was stemmed after about a week.Once the bleeding stopped however, my wife had to endure painful and intrusive examinations, initially while conscious. These examinations revealed a small growth in her uterus, which was immediately removed. Fortunately, after making prayers and desisting from further activities in relation to the publication, we have recently learned that the growth was non-malignant.
Of course, some might argue that my wife’s condition was induced by psychosomatic causes, this being a response conditioned by a combination of subliminal fear and a knowledge of the manner in which the wrath of the deity manifests.
However, unlike myself, my wife knew absolutely nothing of the manner in which Shugden’s displeasure manifests; neither is it something that I have ever discussed with her nor is it anything of which she has ever read. Until I finally explained the significance of the dreams, she had no knowledge of, nor interest in such matters and the explanation that there was the possibility that the affliction was the result of my having offended the deity came as a great shock to her.
I’m sure you can see from this why it has been impossible for me to continue with the book; though I would, hopefully, willingly sacrifice my  life for the Dharma, it is certainly not appropriate to consider sacrificing that of my wife, the mother of my children. In short, not only was the future livelihood of my family under threat; circumstances appeared to indicate that their very lives might be under threat. I therefore felt it imperative that I withdraw the publication.
Despite the above, there is a definite bright side to all this. Now that I have abandoned work on the project, as well as my wife’s illness subsiding, I have become aware of the great value of remaining totally detached at all levels from the highly politicized internecine disputes that characterize Western Buddhism and instead, focusing on the Dharma itself.
I believe it was Jamgon Kongtrul the Great who observed that any sense of allegiance to a particular school, sect or view is a massive hindrance to the development of one’s own understanding. This allegiance to a particular faction, combined with the cult of personality endemic in Western Buddhist organizations nowadays, is, in my opinion, the basis of all that is wrong with Buddhism in the West in the 21st century.
At least in my own case, these obstacles have presented me with the opportunity to abandon involvement in endless childish games and instead focus on that which is truly meaningful. I only wish that others involved in this unholy row would realize this and stop fighting. Otherwise, it is only matter of time before naive and inexperienced Westerners, many of whom appear to consider themselves great experts in their faith despite having seen only one face of the jewel, destroy the Dharma. It took the Tibetans 1200 years to screw things up; we Westerners seem to have managed the same in less than 40!
With many, many thanks for you concern and good wishes,
Gary

At least the scary experience reminded him to practice the Dharma instead of focusing on the controversies. Perhaps, it is the negative karma that came from writing something of this nature manifesting and affecting his wife. Biased information and misinformation creates very heavy negative karma when spread around and this karma could come back to harm our loved ones. I do not think it is Dorje Shugden because they simply lack the karma to perceive him. It could also be him despite that, because the conclusion of the author is that he should have just focused on the Dharma instead.

[michaela]

I do not have any knowledge of the content of the book so I have no material to justify what Gary said about NKT and the impending lawsuit should he proceed with the book publishing.  However, there is one statement that intrigued me from his letter:

"However, unlike myself, my wife knew absolutely nothing of the manner in which Shugden’s displeasure manifests; neither is it something that I have ever discussed with her nor is it anything of which she has ever read. Until I finally explained the significance of the dreams, she had no knowledge of, nor interest in such matters and the explanation that there was the possibility that the affliction was the result of my having offended the deity came as a great shock to her."

According to Mr. Gary, his wife has no knowledge of DS.  According to law of karma, one’s Karma cannot ripen in another.  I am sure that what happened to his wife is not the result of any involvement of DS, but the result of her own karma. 

Regardless, I hope Mr. Gary could continue to investigate about DS and clear whatever doubt or misconceptions that he has about this enlightened deity.

[Zach]

Piss off a protector, Attempt to harm or deride his practitoners or Dharma center's then they are bound to show their displeasure. Setrap struck the victory banner of the top of Shartse for their actions of harm.

[Ensapa]

I do not have any knowledge of the content of the book so I have no material to justify what Gary said about NKT and the impending lawsuit should he proceed with the book publishing.  However, there is one statement that intrigued me from his letter:

"However, unlike myself, my wife knew absolutely nothing of the manner in which Shugden’s displeasure manifests; neither is it something that I have ever discussed with her nor is it anything of which she has ever read. Until I finally explained the significance of the dreams, she had no knowledge of, nor interest in such matters and the explanation that there was the possibility that the affliction was the result of my having offended the deity came as a great shock to her."

According to Mr. Gary, his wife has no knowledge of DS.  According to law of karma, one’s Karma cannot ripen in another.  I am sure that what happened to his wife is not the result of any involvement of DS, but the result of her own karma. 

Regardless, I hope Mr. Gary could continue to investigate about DS and clear whatever doubt or misconceptions that he has about this enlightened deity.

Karma may not directly affect the wife, but it can definitely manifest as negative energy and negative conditions that will affect the wife. As his motivation for writing the book was out of hatred and contempt on NKT, needless to say that he would have generated a lot of negative energy in the course of his research and in the course of his investigations and it would all culminate in him.  When a person is filled with negative energy, needless to say that he or she will affect people around them or their surroundings and they might attract negative entities that will harm them, or incur the wrath of other beings that are not of this realm to harm them as they can be provoked by such actions and they cannot stand it anymore and decide to do something. To blindly attribute the harm they receive to Dorje Shugden is nothing short of being superstitious and being blinded by fear and ignorance.

Actually Setrap struck the victory banner of Drepung monastery:

6. Ten years back, Drepung Loseling was printing anti-Shugden material. They have their own printing press in the Monastery itself. They were all excited about this. Then one day while the abbot was in his room (upstairs on top of the prayer hall), there was lightning and it struck the cement victory banner (see pic below). This one single victory banner toppled down and hit right near the abbot's room. It had a loud crash. It damaged the flooring (roof of the Monastery). No one was hurt. It was late at night and many monks ran to see what happened and saw the fallen victory banner after hearing a loud crash and lightning.

On top of every Monastery you have Victory banners representing victory over mara (negative mind). When this topples down, it is a very inauspicious sign. These victory banners have been up for years and are a permanent fixture, and no such thing has every happened. It was a very bad omen.

The disciplinarian (Gekul) of Drepung Loseling ordered the monks not to speak about this. If they do, it will be expulsion. The Drepung Monastery was very embarrassed about this incident hence the Gekul's issued this warning. They hushed it up. But many Drepung monks quietly spoke about it and it leaked out into the Tibetan communities.

A few weeks later, Setrab took trance in Delhi through the Kameng Kuten and said Dulzin (Dorje Shugden) is very patient but I am not. I struck the victory banner down to let them know they are doing the wrong actions. I am displeased.

Remember Setrab and Shugden abide within the same mandala. Or same divine palace.

It is sad that these scholars are motivated  and blinded by hatred and they chose religion as the topic, and then reap the unfortunate consequences on themselves. I have a feeling that the story does not end here for this guy. There might be more to come.

[ilikeshugden]

I believe that Dorje Shugden did not harm this man's wife at all. Dorje Shugden is an enlightened Dharma protector. He would not harm anyone, especially just because that someone had badmouthed him. Maybe, a worldly spirit was offended that someone was talking badly about an Enlightened Being and a means for the spread of the Dharma. Sometimes, negativities can be manifested in a form that does not directly harms the wrongdoer but the person/people who are close to the wrongdoer. Because it would hurt the wrongdoer more. However, the wife could also have her own amount of negative karma that required purification.

[Positive Change]

Harmed by Dorje Shugden? Oh my... I don't know whether I should laugh or actually slap this person (if the is no karma for one short moment in time! hehehe).

When I saw the title of this new topic, I was thinking to myself, should I even bother writing to clarify something which is downright preposterous? I got off my soap box and basically went on the basis that this is after all an open forum and any form of discussion, debate and sharing IS healthy (no matter how ridiculous I seem to think the topic at hand is).

Well, let me not be biased as my views can certainly differ from others. First and foremost, given the lineage of Dorje Shugden (http://dorjeshugden.com/wp/?page_id=32), there is no doubt that he is an enlightened being. Based on my understanding of enlightened beings, I do not think they go out there and punish the wrongs one has done... they just leave it up to Karma because, pardon my language, Karma IS a BITCH!.

If there are any repercussions at all to our negative actions/thoughts/words towards an enlightened being such as Dorje Shugden, it is the vast amounts of negative karma one will accumulate... perhaps to a point where it even fruitions in this very lifetime. It is NOT Dorje Shugden that creates the negative karma and hands them to us.... we did it all by OURSELVES!

[michaela]

Karma may not directly affect the wife, but it can definitely manifest as negative energy and negative conditions that will affect the wife. As his motivation for writing the book was out of hatred and contempt on NKT, needless to say that he would have generated a lot of negative energy in the course of his research and in the course of his investigations and it would all culminate in him.  When a person is filled with negative energy, needless to say that he or she will affect people around them or their surroundings and they might attract negative entities that will harm them, or incur the wrath of other beings that are not of this realm to harm them as they can be provoked by such actions and they cannot stand it anymore and decide to do something. To blindly attribute the harm they receive to Dorje Shugden is nothing short of being superstitious and being blinded by fear and ignorance.

Dear Ensapa

If the wife does not have the karma to be harmed, she will not be harmed.  This is in accordance with the law of cause and effect.  Whatever illness and sufferings that the wife experienced is the result of her karma and not the result of her husband's karma.

[biggyboy]

“......those who know anything about the experiences of those who have offended Shugden will recognize both of these, the strangling and the claw..”

Offended Shugden??? Oh my, either he has misunderstanding or being misguided that Dorje Shugden can be easily offended and “take revenge”?! Very unlikely and he won’t, for Dorje Shugden is an enlightened dharma protector having the same nature of a Buddha Manjushri, Je Tsongkhapa, Mahakala and Kalarupa. 
http://www.dorjeshugden.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=734&catid=1&Itemid=30

Gyara Tulku Rinpoche from Drepung Loseling Monastery wrote a prayer of gratitude, whose sentiments are shared by Dorje Shugden practitioners worldwide:

"First you gave me a highly qualified Spiritual Guide ?
Under whom I studied and practised Dharma. ?
When through following misleading advice I came close to entering wrong paths,
You immediately hooked me back into the correct path.

O Duldzin, King of the Dharma, I thank you for your kindness. ?
Your body is the synthesis of all Sangha Jewels, ?
Your speech is the synthesis of all Dharma Jewels, ?
And your mind is the synthesis of all Buddha Jewels."

Well, Karma is the name of the game here and not Dorje Shugden.   

[dsiluvu]

Oh dear Dorje Shugden is so vengeful! That must be why all those Lamas and people who dislike Dorje Shugden, renounced his practice and Banned him - why are they not dead and still alive and saying nasty things about Dorje Shugden then??? Why are they not having horrible experiences.... must be because Dorje Shugden is selective hahaha. Hilarious!

It is obvious that people are extremely superstitious and it also shows how easily they listen to others without checking... such is the mind sets of peasant followers unfortunately.

In regards to Karma... I would say Yes to a certain degree unless you are highly attained master/mahasiddha? So Yes, it is possible for one person to take on another’s karma to a certain extend, not fully though. Especially if you and the other person have some kind of close relationship, I think it does have an effect.

I would apply the logic of dedication/dedicating ones merit to another the same I would here. But I do not agree that one person can completely experience or take away another person's karma.



 

[Carpenter]

It is very funny that how people can put the blame onto some other being just because they couldn’t get what they want, every time when the problem comes, the blames always will be others not themselves.

If Dorje Shugden is so revengeful, I’m sure today many people will not be breathing any air already, especially those people that hurts Dorje Shugden practitioner, those who destroy his statue, why not Dorje Shugden take revenge onto them? Does this make any sense?

For such a revengeful deity, I wonder what happened to the nuns mentioned below:

With His Holiness' displeasure being deliberately kept in growth for 20 years by some in his close circle, it finally culminated in public denouncement of the deity and its devotees on March 1996 during the spring session of public teachings at Dharamsala with most blunt phrases like: "If you people want me to be damned and do not care about Tibetan freedom, you go ahead worshipping that evil spirit."

This provocation immediately triggered an unprecedented discord in the Tibetan community. After that very teaching-session two young nuns from the Tibetan Gelug nunnery in Dharamsala took first action to destroy a holy statue of this very deity in their own temple, by tearing the earthen image filled with many dharanis and sacred blessings received from His Holiness and his two most venerable tutors to ground, stamping on it and throwing it in the garbage.

[jessicajameson]

I would not trust the sanctity of a man who believes that his wife's dreams and growth in the uterus were caused by Dorje Shugden. I REALLY do think that Dorje Shugden has better things to do than to spite a man who's attempting to write a book.

Why not shoot down Dzambala for not providing him with the funds to pursue his legal case? WHY PICK ON SHUGDEN?

This man is truly exemplary; he illustrates most of modern society who believe that they are so important in this world. Would that book have really made an impact in this degenerate age? Considering the number of beautifully translated Tibetan scriptures and texts out there, lets all get real now.

I agree with what michaela says, "If the wife does not have the karma to be harmed, she will not be harmed.  This is in accordance with the law of cause and effect.  Whatever illness and sufferings that the wife experienced is the result of her karma and not the result of her husband's karma."

As a Buddhist perhaps he should reassess his faith on enlightened beings and the Buddha Dharma. "Nor, as a Buddhist, do I feel that engagement in such embittered wars of words is befitting of my faith." *scoff.

I implore him to read this: http://dorjeshugden.com/wp/?p=4213.

[Big Uncle]

This is just so incredibly ridiculous and I just find it hard to believe that it's real. How could he be the only person in whole of Merry England that has abandoned Dorje Shugden's practice and have to suffer the consequences? There are quite a number of disgruntled ex-NKT people out there but this is the first time, I hear that Dorje Shugden has decided to show his wrath. So, either he is lying or there's something more to the story that was not mentioned.

If it's true, then there must be a rational explanation for his wife's affliction. It could be due to broken samaya or that he has left the protected Mandala of NKT and that's why he has real malevolent supernatural beings following him and his wife. Broken samaya is one of the ways that supernatural beings come through to disturb us. These malevolent, tormented by their karma want nothing but to torment us because they are jealous and they would want nothing but to disturb and harm us because their own suffering is many times more.

However, I honestly think that the story was fabricated and I think he did it because he hoped that it will spread and bring a bad name to NKT, especially with the practice of Dorje Shugden. He is talking about the realm of the supernatural and no one can really check if the dreams were real of not. It is really sad because he gets nothing out of this except perhaps, a chance to air his frustration.

[Ensapa]

I would not trust the sanctity of a man who believes that his wife's dreams and growth in the uterus were caused by Dorje Shugden. I REALLY do think that Dorje Shugden has better things to do than to spite a man who's attempting to write a book.

Why not shoot down Dzambala for not providing him with the funds to pursue his legal case? WHY PICK ON SHUGDEN?

This man is truly exemplary; he illustrates most of modern society who believe that they are so important in this world. Would that book have really made an impact in this degenerate age? Considering the number of beautifully translated Tibetan scriptures and texts out there, lets all get real now.

I agree with what michaela says, "If the wife does not have the karma to be harmed, she will not be harmed.  This is in accordance with the law of cause and effect.  Whatever illness and sufferings that the wife experienced is the result of her karma and not the result of her husband's karma."

As a Buddhist perhaps he should reassess his faith on enlightened beings and the Buddha Dharma. "Nor, as a Buddhist, do I feel that engagement in such embittered wars of words is befitting of my faith." *scoff.

I implore him to read this: http://dorjeshugden.com/wp/?p=4213.

Well, we cannot stop delusional people from manifesting right? This is another case of the crusader syndrome: they believe that they are doing a service to the world if they get rid of something or if they fight for a certain cause. In this case, this man believes that the purpose in his life is to "get rid" of Dorje Shugden and that by doing this, he is doing a service to the world. There are many of these people around, they usually end up in unfortunate situations not because they were harmed by Dorje Shugden, but because they were losers in their lives  in their first place, they have not achieved much in their lives and they are insecure, therefore they use a cause as a cover for their insecurities. They do not really believe in it as if they did, they would do more investigations and also not be so touchy and angry whenever they are challenged and they will not display the signs of someone with blind faith because they dont have real, factual basis to support their cause.

Dear Micheala, the wife does not have karma to be harmed, but like what i have explained, she can get influenced by the negativity from the husband as they share the same bed and the same living space. Also, if she is aware of the husband's activities and she did nothing to stop them, she would collected negative karma as well as she could have done something but she did not. Last but not least is, we can never be sure if she did because the husband is already delusional, and during this time and age it is very common for people to lie. But for her to experience that, it could only mean that she is also guilty in some way or created the causes for her to experience the misfortune and it could be not related to our protector at all. It could be that or it could be a condition she already had BEFORE he started the whole thing and he just found it convenient to blame it on Dorje Shugden because he does not have enough Dharma to understand what is going on, and perhaps, blinded by ignorance or just plain delusional.

To be honest, I think what happened to him was a good thing because it made him rethink what is he really doing? Deriding on someone's protector does not benefit him even one bit, nor does it benefit him because he is not focusing on Dharma practice. It is wonderful that he came to this conclusion because perhaps, it would finally be now that he would actually start his journey in proper Dharma practice instead of getting involved in things that does not benefit anyone but him publicizing it may cause more misunderstandings in the minds of others. After all, there are many people out there who prefer to listen to an internet story rather than use their logic and actually take time to investigate before making conclusions.

[bambi]

Oh my! Such weird and unDharma thing to do, Mr Gary. If you say that you understand Dharma, then how can you be saying and publishing something you are not well versed in? What about wrong view and wrong perception? And the karma created from having it? What about your wife's karma? To have the karma ripening at the 'right time' is also Dorje Shugden's fault? An Enlightened protector is going around clawing people?

Well said everyone. How on any earth can 1 protector do so such a thing? If so, all those who have harmed Dorje Shugden should all be dead already! Come on, let's talk some common sense here. Any man with a beard is Dorje Shugden? As usual, lets look at the bigger picture of spreading His practice! 

[samayakeeper]

Dear Gary,

While I may understand your financial constraints I think you may have not been doing the practice of Dorje Shugden for long and probably do not have the faith and conviction or maybe you do not have a lama to guide you.

As for me, I am most fortunate to receive the beneficial practice from my enlightened lama, been practicing and receiving numerous benefits from my lama and Dorje Shugden. I could probably write pages and pages of the benefits I had received and am still receiving that it may make up a thin book.

I have never thought Dorje Shugden is a demonic spirit and that the practice would harm anyone. In fact, it benefits people on so many levels. How can my enlightened lama be wrong? If I faced obstacles, it is my negative karma ripening. How could an enlightened dharma protector, practiced by so many highly attained lamas, be a spirit and cause harm? Then all those lamas are wrong and their lamas are wrong and so on. And I agree with Carpenter, a spirit would not allow an image of his/hers to be treated in such degrading manners and would have wreaked harm to the two nuns. Please check this out:

http://www.dorjeshugden.com/forum/index.php?topic=2114.0