Author Topic: Dalai Lama Dorje Shugden: By Helmut Gassner  (Read 8993 times)

beggar

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Dalai Lama Dorje Shugden: By Helmut Gassner
« on: July 25, 2012, 04:58:49 PM »
There's been a few mentions of this piece of writing by Helmut Gassner, Dalai Lama's interpreter. I thought of reviving it here, with a link to the full article. Gives many very interesting perspectives to the Dalai Lama's relationship and reliance on Dorje Shugden in the good old days.

Download the full article here: http://www.dorjeshugden.com/articles/HelmutGassner01.pdf

or here: http://www.dorjeshugden.com/articles/HelmutGassner01.docx

A few interesting things to note:

Robert Thurman begged for Dorje Shugden initiation (??)

"For his part, Robert Thurman thought it appropriate to portray for Newsweek magazine a murderous Dorje Shugden cult describing it as "the Taliban of Buddhism." Yet Robert Thurman, presumably before he begot Uma, had been one of the first Western monks with Buddhist vows and had tried twice to obtain Dorje Shugden initiation from revered masters well before the controversy began. Both masters, however, had refused on grounds of his fickle character. Thurman should know quite well what Dorje Shugden actually is
about."


Dalai Lama's escape from Tibet


Another, particularly impressive figure of old Tibet was the Dalai Lama's Chamberlain, Kungo Phala, whom you may vividly remember seeing in the movie Kundun. He was a guest in my home in Feldkirch on several occasions. It was he who in 1959 organized His Holiness' escape from the Norbulingka summer palace. He
sometimes spoke to me about it, perhaps because he was pleasedwith the progress I was making in my Tibetan language studies. The preparations for the escape were made in absolute secrecy and strictly followed instructions received from Dorje Shugden. I asked him what thoughts were on his mind when he had to make his way through the crowds surrounding the Norbulingka with the DalaiLama, disguised as a servant, just behind him. He said that everything happened exactly as the Dorje Shugden oracle from
Panglung Monastery had predicted. (Panglung Rinpoche now lives in Munich.) In particularly dangerous situations, he felt he was moving within a protected space, his feet seemingly not even touching the
ground. I later heard many more accounts about the escape fromother people who were personally involved in it, like Trijang Rinpoche's attendants and monks of Pomra Khamtsen of Sera Mey Monastery, who had been chosen as the Dalai Lama's personal bodyguards."

Dorje Shugden: an integral part of the tradition


" The great master Pabongka was in the first half of the twentieth century the pivotal or key lineage holder of the Oral Geden Tradition. Many other teachers before him mastered certain aspects of the tradition's teachings, but it was Pabongka Rinpoche's particular merit  to locate and find all these partial transmissions, to learn and realize them, and bring them together once again to pass them on through
a single person. In his lifetime there was hardly a significant figureof the Geden tradition who had not been Pabongka Rinpoche's disciple. Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche was the one capable of receiving and passing on the entirety of the Oral Geden Tradition once again. The Dorje Shugden practice is an integral part of that tradition."
« Last Edit: July 30, 2012, 06:20:28 PM by Admin »

Ensapa

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Re: Dalai Lama Dorje Shugden: By Helmut Gassner
« Reply #1 on: July 26, 2012, 05:08:11 AM »
Thank you beggar for posting! This is an extremely invaluable document indeed for us to examine and learn about the whole ban from an inside view. This piece is filled with facts and interesting information that no one else can offer or have. Helmut Gassner is indeed a scholar that has a balanced view of things as opposed to Dreyfus even though they are vajra brothers. I cannot understand at all why someone who is a Geshe Lharampa and someone who is so well learned would betray his Guru, his Lineage and his Vajra brothers and sisters? That's like meeting a rich man that will promise you riches, and then the rich man tells you to go back and kill your parents and even gives you a gun to do that and you actually do it. I am so glad that Helmut Gassner chose Guru devotion than all the fame, fortune and nice things that come with being on the Dalai Lama's camp.

Here's another interesting piece of information from the article:

Quote
Furthermore, there are several hundred protector deities quite
similar to Dorje Shugden.  Thus in the great monastic universities,
for example, each college has, for historical reasons, its own
protector deity and Dorje Shugden is only one among many.  Also,
the images of these deities look often so much alike that not even
the Dalai Lama can tell them apart at first glance.  In an
embarrassing incident at Sera Mey Monastery, His Holiness got quite
angry at the sight of an image of the protector Thaog (Ta'og), whom he
erroneously mistook for Dorje Shugden. 

The Dalai Lama making a mistake again is interesting in this context. One wonders why does not make mistakes normally, but choose to appear as if he did with regards to this issue. Perhaps even then, HHDL was already trying to send a hint to Sera that they should re-examine his claims on Dorje Shugden?

However, I have also found another interesting piece of information on the ban:

Quote
In spite of it all, I still have difficulties believing the events of these
past three years.  How such things can happen in connection with
such an outstanding figure as the Dalai Lama remains a mystery.
But then, one does not want to leave it at that.  A closer look at His
Holiness' lifestyle might provide some answers.
His Holiness never travels alone and never incognito.  Wherever he
goes, someone will have been there before him to prepare his
arrival.  For almost all of his information he depends on the press
and those who surround him.  The international press seldom reports
on events concerning the Tibetan exile community and the Tibetan
exile community has no free press of its own.  Their publications take
their cue from the official positions or opinions of the government-inexile.  The Dalai Lama can only draw on information provided by his
immediate entourage or outside visitors to get a sense of what is
going on among his people.  Now, someone who succeeds in
controlling the Dalai Lama's entourage will also control the Dalai
Lama in more far-reaching ways.
  During the years I interpreted for
His Holiness, I was time and again surprised to see how the strong
personalities in his entourage became fewer with each passing year
and were replaced by less impressive characters.  It also is common
knowledge that members of the Dalai Lama's family have great
influence on the composition of his entourage

This is what I have been talking about in this forum and elsewhere and this is what I have already known and suspected since the beginning: that the ban was caused by either his entourage or people who influence then to believe that Dorje Shugden is bad. Perhaps, this is the real reason behind the ban? We dont know, but we would after the ban is lifted to see who is behind the ban.

vajratruth

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Re: Dalai Lama Dorje Shugden: By Helmut Gassner
« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2012, 05:40:09 PM »
Thank you Beggar for reviving this remarkable account of the Dalai Lama and Dorje Shugden.  Helmut Gassner’s speech certainly is a gold mine of information.

We can spend more time trying to understand the reasons behind the ban but what is most important is the effect of the ban as Gassner also pointed out:

“It did not expect that many of the persons affected would prove so loyal to their teachers and probably underestimated the willingness of many to stand by the religious convictions of their fore-fathers to the point of enduring complete social ostracism. Thus the controversy became increasingly public and needed to be further justified”.

The ban has made Dorje Shugden famous and the more efforts are employed towards advancing the ban, the more questions are raised. Questions to which ultimately there are no logical and acceptable answers even to an independent observer.  Why? Because while the Shugden affair reeks of political skullduggery and manipulations, there is in fact no religious or spiritual basis to support the claims that (i) Dorje Shugden is the reason behind the failure of Tibetans regaining control of their country and (ii) the deity is harmful to the Dalai Lama.

To accept the ban there has to be real religious grounds and no concrete ones has ever been put forward. To the best of my knowledge, the Dalai Lama has never challenged the origins of Dorje Shugden or cast doubts on the Protector’s immediate predecessor, Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen as being anything less than a highly realized master. Surely, that would be the easiest and most effective way to denounce Dorje Shugden or even claim that there was an error in Dorje Shugden’s incarnation lineage.  Instead the Dalai Lama has said this about Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen:

“It is my view that Tulku Dakgpa Gyaltsen’s instinctive behaviour and ways of thinking were good. I have looked at his Collected Works which also contain his secret biography. He seems to have been good in his studies and to have a gentle subdued mind. In his biography there are a few Guru Yoga texts, one of which has Buddha Shakyamuni in the center and around him: Guru Rinpoche [Padmasambhava] (9th century) surrounded by the Guru lineage of the Nyingma Order, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo (1092-1158) surrounded by the Guru lineage of the Sakya order; Marpa (1012-1097), Mila (1052-1135) and Dwagpo (1079-1161) surrounded by the Guru Lineage of Kagyud order; Je-Rinpoche [Tsong Khapa] (1375-419) and his two spiritual sons surrounded by the Gurus of Gelug order;… teachings of past Sakya, Gelug, Kagyud and Nyingma masters are summarized and it is explained that one should pay homage and recite eulogies through recollecting their qualities. At the conclusion, he explains that a boundless crime based on contemporary sectarianism produces causes to be thrown into bad realms and that he had written this Guru Yoga deliberately to avoid such negative results. Having seen that, I thought it was good. Usually, Gyalchen [Dorje Shugden] is considered a biased deity, since there was this account in the Collected Works of Dakpa Gyaltsen, I thought it was good” [The Dalai Lama in 1978]

It is quite clear that the objective of the Dalai Lama in banning Dorje Shugden’s practice is to create great publicity. As they, no publicity is bad publicity and this is something the Dalai Lama understands very well.

Ensapa

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Re: Dalai Lama Dorje Shugden: By Helmut Gassner
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2012, 09:00:26 AM »
Thank you Beggar for reviving this remarkable account of the Dalai Lama and Dorje Shugden.  Helmut Gassner’s speech certainly is a gold mine of information.

We can spend more time trying to understand the reasons behind the ban but what is most important is the effect of the ban as Gassner also pointed out:

“It did not expect that many of the persons affected would prove so loyal to their teachers and probably underestimated the willingness of many to stand by the religious convictions of their fore-fathers to the point of enduring complete social ostracism. Thus the controversy became increasingly public and needed to be further justified”.

The ban has made Dorje Shugden famous and the more efforts are employed towards advancing the ban, the more questions are raised. Questions to which ultimately there are no logical and acceptable answers even to an independent observer.  Why? Because while the Shugden affair reeks of political skullduggery and manipulations, there is in fact no religious or spiritual basis to support the claims that (i) Dorje Shugden is the reason behind the failure of Tibetans regaining control of their country and (ii) the deity is harmful to the Dalai Lama.
There are many loopholes about the whole story about the ban, as well as complete lack of evidence. Most that are being presented are either out of superstition or misquoted texts and historical accounts that have been severely distorted that can be uncovered with just a little bit of investigation. This piece of document has done plenty to debunk them.

To accept the ban there has to be real religious grounds and no concrete ones has ever been put forward. To the best of my knowledge, the Dalai Lama has never challenged the origins of Dorje Shugden or cast doubts on the Protector’s immediate predecessor, Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen as being anything less than a highly realized master. Surely, that would be the easiest and most effective way to denounce Dorje Shugden or even claim that there was an error in Dorje Shugden’s incarnation lineage.  Instead the Dalai Lama has said this about Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen:

“It is my view that Tulku Dakgpa Gyaltsen’s instinctive behaviour and ways of thinking were good. I have looked at his Collected Works which also contain his secret biography. He seems to have been good in his studies and to have a gentle subdued mind. In his biography there are a few Guru Yoga texts, one of which has Buddha Shakyamuni in the center and around him: Guru Rinpoche [Padmasambhava] (9th century) surrounded by the Guru lineage of the Nyingma Order, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo (1092-1158) surrounded by the Guru lineage of the Sakya order; Marpa (1012-1097), Mila (1052-1135) and Dwagpo (1079-1161) surrounded by the Guru Lineage of Kagyud order; Je-Rinpoche [Tsong Khapa] (1375-419) and his two spiritual sons surrounded by the Gurus of Gelug order;… teachings of past Sakya, Gelug, Kagyud and Nyingma masters are summarized and it is explained that one should pay homage and recite eulogies through recollecting their qualities. At the conclusion, he explains that a boundless crime based on contemporary sectarianism produces causes to be thrown into bad realms and that he had written this Guru Yoga deliberately to avoid such negative results. Having seen that, I thought it was good. Usually, Gyalchen [Dorje Shugden] is considered a biased deity, since there was this account in the Collected Works of Dakpa Gyaltsen, I thought it was good” [The Dalai Lama in 1978]
So what he is telling us here is that Dorje Shugden is NOT a sectarian deity, but the general perception of people is, with this statement HHDL was trying to clear up some misconceptions, but at the end he decided that it would be better and more direct to just "ban" him.
It is quite clear that the objective of the Dalai Lama in banning Dorje Shugden’s practice is to create great publicity. As they, no publicity is bad publicity and this is something the Dalai Lama understands very well.

I'm glad you find this document as useful and helpful as I have. All Dorje Shugden practitioners should really read this because it gives information and it gives a very logical rebuttal to the mysteries that surround the statements that the Dalai Lama has given about Dorje Shugden.

beggar

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Re: Dalai Lama Dorje Shugden: By Helmut Gassner
« Reply #4 on: July 29, 2012, 02:25:25 PM »
Quote
Furthermore, there are several hundred protector deities quite
similar to Dorje Shugden.  Thus in the great monastic universities,
for example, each college has, for historical reasons, its own
protector deity and Dorje Shugden is only one among many.  Also,
the images of these deities look often so much alike that not even
the Dalai Lama can tell them apart at first glance.  In an
embarrassing incident at Sera Mey Monastery, His Holiness got quite
angry at the sight of an image of the protector Thaog (Ta'og), whom he
erroneously mistook for Dorje Shugden. 


The Dalai Lama making a mistake again is interesting in this context. One wonders why does not make mistakes normally, but choose to appear as if he did with regards to this issue. Perhaps even then, HHDL was already trying to send a hint to Sera that they should re-examine his claims on Dorje Shugden?


Now this is interesting. It seems the Dalai Lama has been making an awful lot of "mistakes" hasn't he? And as you've pointed out, it does seem that the only mistakes he's been making rather obviously are those related somehow to Dorje Shugden. Are they really just such "simple" mistakes? Or deliberate ploys that plays at a much bigger picture.

The entire ban itself is supposed to have arisen out of a "mistake" - the Dalai Lama says that his tutors "were wrong" and made mistakes by propitiating Dorje Shugden. (see that clip here:
Dalai Lama and Dorje Shugden - part 2 of 3 Small | Large
)

Then, the Dalai Lama claims he made a mistake too by praying to Dorje Shugden in his earlier days. So the ban arises because of this sudden "realization" that he has been wrong, not just within this lifetime, but across previous lifetimes too which had propitiated DS.

This mistake isn't a small one. It's not just a matter of forgetting your keys. It's a mistake that would imply that an entire school of Buddhism has made a giant mistake... well, all 4s schools actually, as practitioners from the other three sects have also been known to practice DS. That's to say that there are no enlightened masters at all within all of Tibet who would have been able to detect immediately whether this being was an enlightened one or a mere spirit. That's not a mistake to take lightly.

More recently, the Dalai Lama has changed his tune about the ban, telling people publicly that they should examine things  for themselves and decide for themselves whether they wish to practice DS. So does this mean that the initial edict not to practice DS under any circumstances was also a mistake?

All very mysterious, that a being who is meant to have complete control over his death, birth and incarnations can make such a simple mistake about a single practice - something apparently no other attained lama throughout the last 350 year history of the Gelugpas and Sakyas was able to ascertain.


Ensapa

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Re: Dalai Lama Dorje Shugden: By Helmut Gassner
« Reply #5 on: July 29, 2012, 03:34:45 PM »
Now this is interesting. It seems the Dalai Lama has been making an awful lot of "mistakes" hasn't he? And as you've pointed out, it does seem that the only mistakes he's been making rather obviously are those related somehow to Dorje Shugden. Are they really just such "simple" mistakes? Or deliberate ploys that plays at a much bigger picture.
No matter how you wanna see it, it seems that HHDL is being very fickle and very unstable about this topic. Perhaps he is trying to see who is really listening to him and who is just taking him on a surface level. Which Dalai Lama in history would make such an embarrassing mistake? has it ever been recorded in history? If not, perhaps this is a hint on something?

The entire ban itself is supposed to have arisen out of a "mistake" - the Dalai Lama says that his tutors "were wrong" and made mistakes by propitiating Dorje Shugden. (see that clip here: Dalai Lama and Dorje Shugden - part 2 of 3)

Then, the Dalai Lama claims he made a mistake too by praying to Dorje Shugden in his earlier days. So the ban arises because of this sudden "realization" that he has been wrong, not just within this lifetime, but across previous lifetimes too which had propitiated DS.
Apart from the 13th and the 14th Dalai Lama, no other Dalai Lamas have been documented to go against Dorje Shugden. the 5th was at first, but changed his mind later after he found out that Dorje Shugden is not a spirit but an enlightened being. It is quite odd how the current HHDL quotes the part before the 5th Dalai Lama realizes instead of after, or both at once.

This mistake isn't a small one. It's not just a matter of forgetting your keys. It's a mistake that would imply that an entire school of Buddhism has made a giant mistake... well, all 4s schools actually, as practitioners from the other three sects have also been known to practice DS. That's to say that there are no enlightened masters at all within all of Tibet who would have been able to detect immediately whether this being was an enlightened one or a mere spirit. That's not a mistake to take lightly.
or, it could be a huge social experiment by the Dalai Lama on who is practicing Guru devoton and who is just doing everything to suck up to him. Remember, he is the Dalai Lama. He does not need people to suck up to him and he knows who is doing it. And perhaps by doing this, he can filter those people out as he has given so many teachings on checking things out before believing.

More recently, the Dalai Lama has changed his tune about the ban, telling people publicly that they should examine things  for themselves and decide for themselves whether they wish to practice DS. So does this mean that the initial edict not to practice DS under any circumstances was also a mistake?
Apparently, there are recent reports of Chinese people visiting the Dalai Lama for Kalachakra recently, and reporting that the Dalai Lama allowed them to continue practicing Dorje Shugden during a brief audience after the teaching. Is this also an impending sign that the ban will be lifted very soon. This is a far cry from the declaration that practicing Dorje Shugden will shorten his life a few years ago.

All very mysterious, that a being who is meant to have complete control over his death, birth and incarnations can make such a simple mistake about a single practice - something apparently no other attained lama throughout the last 350 year history of the Gelugpas and Sakyas was able to ascertain.
What's more mysterious is that this same being also claims that doing some sort of protector practice will make him die faster, as if it is his Achilles heel of sorts. It is illogical by all means and no matter how you want to see it.


Soon, the Dalai Lama will apologize and declare the ban a mistake. It seems to be heading in to that direction right now as HHDL has been prepping the stage for that to happen with all the mistake talk and all the allowance and his loosening of his grip and stance on the ban. It feels like he will lift the ban any time as it seems to be gearing towards that direction. Who else feels that way too?

DharmaDefender

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Re: Dalai Lama Dorje Shugden: By Helmut Gassner
« Reply #6 on: July 29, 2012, 03:54:51 PM »
Just been reading the article and came upon these paragraphs:

Quote
His Holiness never travels alone and never incognito. Wherever he goes, someone will have been there before him to prepare his arrival. For almost all of his information he depends on the press and those who surround him. The international press seldom reports on events concerning the Tibetan exile community and the Tibetan exile community has no free press of its own. Their publications take their cue from the official positions or opinions of the government-in-exile.

The Dalai Lama can only draw on information provided by his immediate entourage or outside visitors to get a sense of what is going on among his people. Now, someone who succeeds in controlling the Dalai Lama’s entourage will also control the Dalai Lama in more far-reaching ways. During the years I interpreted for His Holiness, I was time and again surprised to see how the strong personalities in his entourage became fewer with each passing year and were replaced by less impressive characters. It also is common knowledge that members of the Dalai Lama’s family have great influence on the composition of his entourage.

So really, there is every potential that the wankers that are the CTA are feeding him information thats absolutely not true. Theres two ways you can see this:

1) The Dalai Lama is enlightened therefore it doesnt matter what the CTA tell him. He knows what is REALLY going on, so when the CTA lie to him, he KNOWS they are lying to him...so why does he keep liars on as members of his cabinet? (or rather, his former cabinet)

2) The Dalai Lama is not enlightened and therefore, the ban isnt really his fault because the CTA are feeding him lies. Probably along the lines of "oh ALL the Tibetan people are really happy you are putting this ban in place"

Either way, why blame the Dalai Lama?

Ensapa

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Re: Dalai Lama Dorje Shugden: By Helmut Gassner
« Reply #7 on: July 30, 2012, 07:14:53 AM »

So really, there is every potential that the wankers that are the CTA are feeding him information thats absolutely not true. Theres two ways you can see this:
This is also the case with many high lamas, actually. It is not just an isolated problem with the Dalai Lama. Many high lamas also have this problem of having assistants and attendants that feed them the wrong information. Out of compassion, he cannot challenge their delusions directly so they often play along with it, until these people part from the lama slowly as it does break their samaya with the lama.

1) The Dalai Lama is enlightened therefore it doesnt matter what the CTA tell him. He knows what is REALLY going on, so when the CTA lie to him, he KNOWS they are lying to him...so why does he keep liars on as members of his cabinet? (or rather, his former cabinet)
This actually includes his entourage of secretaries and attendants who might feed him the wrong information of the situation and of things. It could also be his translator, Thutben Jinpa who might have misled him. In fact, Thutben Jinpa is one of the key people I think, to have incited this ban and cause it to go full force as he was the one who wrote down the yellow book, which was transcribed by Zemey Rinpoche and he made it clear that it was not to be published.

2) The Dalai Lama is not enlightened and therefore, the ban isnt really his fault because the CTA are feeding him lies. Probably along the lines of "oh ALL the Tibetan people are really happy you are putting this ban in place"
I wouldnt really want to go that far, but there is a very clear possibility that the entourage around him might also do actions that contradict his advice and statements directly at the same time, or misrepresent him for whatever reasons that they may have. This can be observed very clearly in the case of Sangye Gyatso, who started a war despite the Dalai Lama's protests. If they can do it then, why not now?

Either way, why blame the Dalai Lama?
No matter what, he is still somewhat responsible for the ban. He could have spoken up against it but there are probably other factors that come into play...

On this account, we should really find out what statements could have been written by the assistants with other motives, and which statements would have come out from the Dalai Lama's own mouth. Sometimes they are hard to spot, but at other times, it is easy. For example, there are many factual and spelling errors on the Dalai Lama's own website alone. Would the Dalai Lama have been that careless to leave those lying around, or would he had gotten it checked beforehand? Also, some statements dont tally with what he had said before. We need to be discerning these days about teachings as sometimes it could not have been from the Lama's mouth himself.

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Re: Dalai Lama Dorje Shugden: By Helmut Gassner
« Reply #8 on: July 30, 2012, 11:35:59 AM »
Soon, the Dalai Lama will apologize and declare the ban a mistake. It seems to be heading in to that direction right now as HHDL has been prepping the stage for that to happen with all the mistake talk and all the allowance and his loosening of his grip and stance on the ban. It feels like he will lift the ban any time as it seems to be gearing towards that direction. Who else feels that way too?

How do you know that the Dalai Lama would apologize and declare the ban that he made everyone enforce, just a mistake? I don't believe anyone has ever talked about it that way. Everyone has talked about the ban being lifted in 4-5 years time by a Lama, according to a senior member of this forum.

How the ban would be lifted is still a mystery. Personally, I don't think the ban would be lifted by the Dalai Lama. That would undermine all the efforts that he had laid out over the years. There must be another way or he would make an open declaration about Dorje Shugden that wouldn't undermine his work all these years.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

michaela

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Re: Dalai Lama Dorje Shugden: By Helmut Gassner
« Reply #9 on: July 30, 2012, 02:35:31 PM »
Dear Big Uncle

HHDL in one way or another has undermined DS.  He made everyone chose whether to follow him or DS.  I think though, the most effective way to give DS credibility is by he admitting himself.  However, I would imagine that if he died without declaring that DS is indeed a Buddha, some people will still be in doubt and the argument continues.  If this happens, it would have taken sometimes before the argument fades away, depending on the appetite of his successor as well.

Ensapa

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Re: Dalai Lama Dorje Shugden: By Helmut Gassner
« Reply #10 on: July 30, 2012, 03:26:26 PM »
How do you know that the Dalai Lama would apologize and declare the ban that he made everyone enforce, just a mistake? I don't believe anyone has ever talked about it that way. Everyone has talked about the ban being lifted in 4-5 years time by a Lama, according to a senior member of this forum.

How the ban would be lifted is still a mystery. Personally, I don't think the ban would be lifted by the Dalai Lama. That would undermine all the efforts that he had laid out over the years. There must be another way or he would make an open declaration about Dorje Shugden that wouldn't undermine his work all these years.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

The Dalai Lama has so far consistently made mistakes and contradictory statements regarding Dorje Shugden of late. Does anyone not find that unusual to be done by someone of the Dalai Lama's calibre? He went to as far as making up his own method for Guru devotion that deviates from the standard texts on that subject, misinterpreting historical documents to make Dorje Shugden appear to be bad and asking people to keep checking the Buddhas teachings whenever he brings Dorje Shugden up. And from Helmut Gassner's article, he apparently slipped when he misidentified Dorje Ta'og as Dorje Shugden in Sera. Why would he want to do that? or rather, is someone of his calibre able to make such a silly mistake? Or all of those were deliberately done to send a deeper message to people around as a wake up call for everyone? Also earlier this year, he appeared to be very happy when he talked about the increase of Dorje Shugden practitioners in Singapore and Hong Kong. He could not control his happiness. Now why would he react in this way? perhaps, it is an indication that he will do away with the ban soon?

Well, nobody can say for sure if it is going to be Dorje Shugden's emanations that will work hard to lift the ban simply because many people actually need his help and the ban is only preventing these people from receiving it. The ban also causes Dorje Shugden practitioners to suffer needlessly and this will cause the people ionvolved to collect incredible amounts of negative karma for creating schism since the way that the Dalai Lama meant for it to be implemented is very different from the way that these people are implementing the ban with. Therefore the ban must end as soon as it has served its purpose, whether or not it is to cause China to warm up to Buddhism and Dorje Shugden, or to distract the Tibetans from waging a losing war against the Chinese and become the first Buddhist terrorists in history. The Dalai Lama being shaky and contradictory in his statements against Dorje Shugden is a very clear sign that he is not firm about the ban anymore as he once was in 2008 and 1996. This is good news, no matter how you want to see it.

dsiluvu

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Re: Dalai Lama Dorje Shugden: By Helmut Gassner
« Reply #11 on: July 30, 2012, 08:36:51 PM »
Dear Big Uncle

HHDL in one way or another has undermined DS.  He made everyone chose whether to follow him or DS.  I think though, the most effective way to give DS credibility is by he admitting himself.  However, I would imagine that if he died without declaring that DS is indeed a Buddha, some people will still be in doubt and the argument continues.  If this happens, it would have taken sometimes before the argument fades away, depending on the appetite of his successor as well.

Perhaps on the year of his passing we will hear this wonderful good news? Perhaps His Holiness will compose another apology praise to Dorje Shugden??? It would certainly be the way to go given past history and record how HHDL has done this mistaken conception yet again lol.

But if His Holiness passes on without saying a word about this huge mistake... it will definitely leave a lot of unfinished business and wrong views that will take some great amount of work and time to rewrite. It will be leaving the Vajrayana Buddhist world in disharmony and disunity as there will be two different mind sets and views and somehow I think the aggression would come from those anti-shugden more the the shugdenpas. So yeah I do hope and pray that His Holiness will leave us with some proper closure to this matter! 

Ensapa

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Re: Dalai Lama Dorje Shugden: By Helmut Gassner
« Reply #12 on: July 31, 2012, 02:06:05 PM »
This is another interesting bit from the document that I found out:

Quote
After the Thirteenth Dalai Lama passed away, Lungshar tried to
establish a constitutional monarchy in Tibet.  He was charged with
involvement in a Bolshevist conspiracy and to be executed while his
sons were to have their hands cut off.  Pabongka Rinpoche
interceded and then he was pardoned. Nonetheless, some time later,
Lungshar's eyes were gouged out.  Demo Rinpoche, the regent
during the days of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama's youth and his friend
Nyagtul, a Nyingma master, were accused of resorting to black
magic against the Thirteenth Dalai Lama.  Demo Rinpoche died in a
prison cell so small, one could not lie down in it.  Nyagtul had the
skin torn from his chest, the chest ripped open while still alive, and
tied to a post on the circular path for circumambulating Lhasa, he
was left there exposed to people's mockery and to die a slow
excruciating death.  Close to the end, Nyagtul is said to have
uttered, "This government has killed me although I am free from
guilt.  I shall take my revenge on it, just wait and see!"  Thus arose
the belief that occasionally, during the invocations of the State
Oracle, Nygtul's spirit enters the oracle's body instead of the deity
Nechung to give the government disastrous advice.  The story is still
very much alive today.  There are important people nowadays
among Tibetans who associate the State Oracle's repeated fateful
pronouncements  also at the origin of the Dorje Shugden defamation
with Nyagtul's tragic assassination.

Perhaps, this could explain in "Nechung" being contradictory in his advice and statements to the Kashag, especially those that are regarding that Dorje Shugden is bad? That this is the revenge of Nyagtul's spirit that is causing all this problems with Dorje Shugden because it is illogical for Nechung to endorse and request the rise of Dorje Shugden and now speak against him. But my question is, is he that powerful to impersonate Nechung to the point where enlightened masters who are present at every trance session fail to recognise him? This is what I have been thinking about for a long time. If he is evil and a fake spirit that pretends to be Nechung (the series of disastrous advice started after Nyagtul's death, where Nechung seems to be giving the wrong advice over and over again such as telling HHDL to stay in Tibet and to wage war against the British that was a losing battle) so this rumor does hold water, and could very well be true.

What is interesting about this case is that why has the CTA choose to erase this from its history? Also, this highlights the common practice of the CTA during that era of how officials get rid of their political enemies: by accusing them of something they did not do, and have them put to death or severe punishment as a result. I personally wonder how many people died due to the political machinations of the CTA, and with what is happening to Dorje Shugden practitioners now, it seems to be the same thing happening all over again. It is sad to see the way that the CTA handled the Dorje Shugden issue because it shows their backwardness once again.