Dalai Lama welcomes Tibetan Muslims to join CTA

[vajratruth]

This news is over a year old but it is still noteworthy to highlight how ridiculously inconsistent and two-faced the Tibetan leadership is. In asking Tibetan Muslim youths to join the Tibetan government in exile, the Dalai Lama said, “all Tibetans are one irrespective of different religions” but this one-ness that the Dalai Lama often speaks of, does not extend to Tibetans who worship Dorje Shugden. As far as the Dalai Lama is concerned, any religious practice and god is acceptable but not Dorje Shugden. It seems quite personal.

This is very strange because whilst we make no criticism whatsoever of the Islamic faith, the religion has little in common with Buddhism. Muslims believe in a monotheistic god whom they go to for salvation while Buddhists insists that we should only go for refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. The Dalai Lama and CTA expels from their midst Shugden practitioners whom they wrongly accuse of abandoning the Three Jewels, but welcome Muslims who seek refuge in Allah. Therefore even if Shugden practitioners do go to Dorje Shugden for refuge (which they do not and all Shugden practitioners without fail recognize the Three Jewels as the only appropriate refuge), it should not disqualify them from holding public office and positions in CTA-related organizations, seeing that Muslims are welcomed to join the Tibetan administration. Why does the Dalai Lama accept a religion that has considerable doctrinal differences with Buddhism and reject Dorje Shugden which is a main deity of Buddhism as practiced [primarily] by the Gelugpas? Where is the logic in this?

On the face of it, the Dalai Lama's invitation for Muslims to join the CTA seem to be a noble act aimed at cultivating religious tolerance but we already know from the Shugden ban how fanatically intolerant the Dalai Lama is of religious practices that are not aligned to his political ambitions. Calling for Muslims to join the government is therefore another cunning plan by the Tibetan leadership; an unabashed attempt to gain the support of Islamic countries and influential Muslims in the world for the almost-lost Tibetan cause. Be that as it may, this is another obscene show of hypocrisy by the Tibetan leadership.



The Dalai Lama welcomes Tibetan Muslims to join CTA

Jul212012 at 3:06 PM

By Tendar Tsering

Dharamshala: Addressing a group of Tibetan Muslims in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, the Dalai Lama last week welcomed Tibetan Muslim youths to join the Central Tibetan Administration.

The Tibetan spiritual leader, speaking in Tibetan, emphasised on the need for sharing responsibility during difficult times and noted that “all Tibetans are one irrespective of different religions.”

The Dalai Lama is currently on a weeklong trip to Srinagar, the capital of north Indian state, on the invitation of the state Tourism Minister Ngawang Rinzin Jora.

Thousands of people, including Tibetan Muslims and Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, greeted the Dalai Lama at a grand public reception held in honor of the Tibetan spiritual leader at the Tibetan Public School in the capital.

The Dalai Lama said he was glad to see the Tibetan Muslims after a long time and appreciated their hard work and dedication in nurturing the local Tibetan school.
Currently there are no Tibetan Muslims serving in the CTA.

“Earlier, there were two Tibetan Muslims serving in the CTA but later, one got retired and the other resigned. So, as of now, we don’t have any Tibetan Muslim serving in the CTA,” a staff at the Public Service Commission of the CTA told Phayul.

Speaking to the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah at the reception ceremony, the Dalai Lama told the state leader that he has personally known three generations of the Abdullah family.

Calling the Chief Minister as young, energetic, and visionary leader, the Dalai Lama urged him to carry on the work of active service to people in the future.

Omar Abdullah, in his keynote speech, said that his state has seen some violence in the past, but “now with the blessing of the Tibetan spiritual leader, peace and tranquility will prevail in the state.”

Following the reception ceremony, the Dalai Lama visited the mosque of the Tibetan Muslim community.

Most of the Tibetan Muslims in the locality are children of Tibetan women and Kashmiri traders who had settled in Tibet seven centuries ago, and later fled Tibet following China’s invasion in 1959.

Apart from Tibetan Muslims, the northern Indian state is home to hundreds of Tibetan Buddhists who are settled in several camps in the state as refugees since 1959.
The Dalai Lama is scheduled to visit the Tibetan refugee camps in Ladakh and give religious teachings.

The last time that the Tibetan spiritual leader visited Srinagar was in 1988.

[Source:http://www.indianmuslimobserver.com/2012/07/the-dalai-lama-welcomes-tibetan-muslims.html]

[lotus1]

I do support a government should consists of various parties from different religions so that voices from different group especially the minority will be able to be heard. However, the act of inviting Muslim but at the same time banning and restricting Dorje Shugden practitioners is so contradicting! To me, all these are just political talks! If CTA is so open as to accepting a different religion such as Muslim, then they should have better reasons to accept Dorje Shugden practitioners who are following the same religions, i.e. Buddhism, but just worship an additional deity/Buddha – Dorje Shugden! Furthermore, Dorje Shugden are passed down by high lamas such as Pabongka Rinpoche, Trijang Rinpoche, Song Rinpoche, etc, who are also the teachers of HH Dalai Lama, how can them be wrong? If CTA can accept Muslim, they should accept Dorje Shugden practitioners or their claims on "all Tibetans are one irrespective of different religions" is just lies... 

[Freyr Aesiragnorak]

The sentiments by Vajratruth and Lotus1 are mirrored in my own opinion. The hypocrisy and blatant contradiction is apparent  is His Holiness Dalai Lama's actions. How is it OK to embrace other religions while yet suppressing his own religion and own lineage/tradition. This just seems to me to be an effort in shifting the world’s attention from the issues surrounding his own tradition, which HH Dalai Lama himself increased, by promoting himself as a man who promoted religious tolerance. Even though this is the case and it is praise worthy and definitely a step forward for everyone involved that HH Dalai Lama, it just seems half-hearted when HH Dalai Lama cannot even unite his own lineage.

[Manisha Kudo]

Mmm... The point is that by admitting the Muslim faction into the CTA, HHDL's actions of banning Dorje Shugden seems justifiable.  If the CTA, which is the beacon of Tibetan Buddhism since it is the home of its spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, can accept and allow a monotheistic religion to be part of its administration, there must be something very "wrong" with the Shugden. Or else why would HHDL so adamantly spoke against it when he was going all one-ness with the Muslims and is seen taking pictures with the Pope, political leaders and what have you. This is the dangerous mind game that is being played by the CTA.  And they must be exposed. 

[dondrup]

It simply cannot be emphasized enough the inconsistent practice of religious tolerance by HH Dalai Lama and CTA accorded to all Tibetans other than Tibetans who practise Dorje Shugden!

For someone who is the symbol of compassion and an ambassador of Buddhism, HH Dalai Lama baffles many with his actions! For a government who adopts democracy, the voice of the Tibetans who follow Dorje Shugden is never heard or represented in the government!

This is clearly injustice and inequality for the oppressed Shugden followers.  For the sake of the happiness of future generations of Tibetans and the world at large, the ban on Dorje Shugden must be abolished now!

[Tenzin Malgyur]

Hmmm...this is getting to be very inconsistent. The Tibetans in-exiled in India are being split into Shugden practitioners and non Shugden practitioners after the ban was imposed by His Holiness. Shugden practitioners are being turned away from getting medical treatments from clinics and their children are not allowed to attend schools. All because of their decision to continue with their DS practice. And now, HHDL is preaching religion tolerance and oneness. Now that the Muslims are invited to join the CTA , should the DS practitioners also be represented in the government?

[Rinchen]

It is just so inconsistent. If they can accept Muslims, then why can't they accept Dorje Shugden practitioners? Some more Dorje Shugden practitioners are also Buddhists. Is just that they take refuge in another deity/protector as well.

So why hate Dorje Shugden practitioners when you can accept Muslims when they are so different? Shouldn't they accept Dorje Shugden practitioners as well if they were being "fair" to all religions?

They words and actions are just all so contradicting.

[Galen]

I couldn't agree more that the Dalai Lama has been inconsistent over the years. The Dalai Lama goes around the world to promote peace and compassion but just could not do it for his fellow citizens. There must be a split between the community where the Dorje Shugden practitioners are being discriminated on. Why can he accept the Muslims and not Buddhist of the same fate? Do not get me wrong, i am for all into the practice of racial and religious tolerance. I do think that Tibetans of any faith should join the CTA so that more views can be taken into consideration. But do you see any Dorje Shugden practitioners in CTA? It is totally illogical……

[samayakeeper]

Well, they might as well throw in all the other religions into the melting pot. But Dorje Shugden has to stay out of it because he's a demon. Or it could be Dorje Shugden may be the cook that stirs the ladle in the melting pot. What other surprises could be in store for us?

[Manjushri]

I wonder if His Holiness had Dorje Shugden practitioners in his mind when he said this statement: 
“all Tibetans are one irrespective of different religions.”

What's more is that DS practitioners aren't even from a different religion..it's from the same Gelug lineage HH practises. So, from which part of the sentence are DS practitioners omitted from? They aren't Tibetans? No..many of them are. One tick for the statement being applied to them. DS practitioners aren't practising a religion? No, they are all Tibetan Buddhists.. Another tick for the statement applying to them. So Does that mean Tibetan DS practitioners are also considered as "one" in your terms, HH? If so, then shouldn't they be allowed to participate freely in everything, including being part of the CTA? Another contradiction there, your Holiness. tsk tsk. 

[Blueupali]

This news is over a year old but it is still noteworthy to highlight how ridiculously inconsistent and two-faced the Tibetan leadership is. In asking Tibetan Muslim youths to join the Tibetan government in exile, the Dalai Lama said, “all Tibetans are one irrespective of different religions” but this one-ness that the Dalai Lama often speaks of, does not extend to Tibetans who worship Dorje Shugden. As far as the Dalai Lama is concerned, any religious practice and god is acceptable but not Dorje Shugden. It seems quite personal.

This is very strange because whilst we make no criticism whatsoever of the Islamic faith, the religion has little in common with Buddhism. Muslims believe in a monotheistic god whom they go to for salvation while Buddhists insists that we should only go for refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. The Dalai Lama and CTA expels from their midst Shugden practitioners whom they wrongly accuse of abandoning the Three Jewels, but welcome Muslims who seek refuge in Allah. Therefore even if Shugden practitioners do go to Dorje Shugden for refuge (which they do not and all Shugden practitioners without fail recognize the Three Jewels as the only appropriate refuge), it should not disqualify them from holding public office and positions in CTA-related organizations, seeing that Muslims are welcomed to join the Tibetan administration. Why does the Dalai Lama accept a religion that has considerable doctrinal differences with Buddhism and reject Dorje Shugden which is a main deity of Buddhism as practiced [primarily] by the Gelugpas? Where is the logic in this?

On the face of it, the Dalai Lama's invitation for Muslims to join the CTA seem to be a noble act aimed at cultivating religious tolerance but we already know from the Shugden ban how fanatically intolerant the Dalai Lama is of religious practices that are not aligned to his political ambitions. Calling for Muslims to join the government is therefore another cunning plan by the Tibetan leadership; an unabashed attempt to gain the support of Islamic countries and influential Muslims in the world for the almost-lost Tibetan cause. Be that as it may, this is another obscene show of hypocrisy by the Tibetan leadership.



The Dalai Lama welcomes Tibetan Muslims to join CTA

Jul212012 at 3:06 PM

Hi VajraTruth,
   At a teaching by Khen Khen Tsewang Rinpoche in Maryland (Paylul Nyingma: Penor Rinpoche's school), shortly after 9-11-2001, Khen Khen Tsewang said "Buddha, God, Allah--- same."
  I think he is making the point that we all have different ways of seeing what we call Buddha.  This is consistent with the idea that in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, if we are reading to a Buddhist, we read it with Buddha, if we are reading to a Hindu, we pick their main diety such as Shiva or whichever one they practiced, a Christian Christ surrounded by angels, or whatever is appropriate to how the people see what Buddhists call Buddha.
  That's fine, in that different people have different karmas and therefore different paths and ways of seeing things.
  Of course, I want to agree that it wouldn't make sense that the Dalai Lama would say that only people who go to refuge to the three Jewels this life would be allowed to hold positions in government, because Islamic people worship a monotheistic god this life.
  Of course, people from any religion should be welcome in government.
  As you rightly state, Dorje Shugden followers only go to refuge to the three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
  However, I disagree that we aren't going to refuge to Dorje Shugden.  He is an aspect of Buddha; since I go to refuge to Buddha Dharma and Sangha, I necessarily go to refuge to Dorje Shugden, since he is one of the Buddhas.  Though I had not heard of Dorje Shugden when I first took the Bodhisattva vow, I took that in the presence of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.  Since Dorje Shugden is a Buddha, he along with all the other Buddhas heard my vow.
  But of course, the Dalai Lama is pretending we are not Buddhists and has an advantage in confusing the west that most of them have no idea about Buddhism at all--- which is how he got away with trying to say he was the Buddhist 'pope.'
  Had anyone noticed the history of Tibet, they would have noted that the Dalai Lama's claim was completely absurd, as his school is a newer school of Buddhism; in Christianity, as far as I understand it, the Pope was in charge of the church, and then other churches broke off.  It is widely recognized that they have a right to do this.
  However, in the case of the Dalai Lama, his office was well after the other schools had formed, and they were never under the auspices of any one lama--- there was no concept of a Pope.  The Karmapa incarnations precede the Dalai Lama recognitions by 300 years, so how would Karmapa have been under the auspices of the Dalai Lama.
  Basically, we have a politician who canonized himself, and a western community who has no idea what is going on, and hasn't bothered to find out.
 

[Lineageholder]

This is simply more hypocrisy from the Dalai Lama, but it is hardly surprising as he himself is a muslim.  As it says in The False Dalai Lama book

Although Lhamo Dondrub is a Muslim, throughout his life he has maintained the pretence of being a Buddhist holy being, giving Buddhist teachings that he stole from his root Guru Trijang Rinpoche. In this way he has cheated people throughout the world.

http://falsedalailama.com/

It is a very little known fact that Lhamo Dondrub, who became the 14th Dalai Lama, is from Taktser, a muslim village and he was born into a muslim family.  How likely is it that the 13th Dalai Lama would chose to incarnate into a muslim family?  You can draw your own conclusions about the authenticity of the present Dalai Lama not only from his own actions but the story of how he was found.

[Lineageholder]

I just want to correct any misunderstanding about what I said.  What I meant was that it is hardly surprising that the Dalai Lama would invite Tibetan Muslims to join the CTA as he himself is a Muslim.  I did mean to imply, as my words could be read, that the Dalai Lama practises hypocrisy because he's a Muslim.

[Blueupali]

This is simply more hypocrisy from the Dalai Lama, but it is hardly surprising as he himself is a muslim.  As it says in The False Dalai Lama book

Although Lhamo Dondrub is a Muslim, throughout his life he has maintained the pretence of being a Buddhist holy being, giving Buddhist teachings that he stole from his root Guru Trijang Rinpoche. In this way he has cheated people throughout the world.

http://falsedalailama.com/

It is a very little known fact that Lhamo Dondrub, who became the 14th Dalai Lama, is from Taktser, a muslim village and he was born into a muslim family.  How likely is it that the 13th Dalai Lama would chose to incarnate into a muslim family?  You can draw your own conclusions about the authenticity of the present Dalai Lama not only from his own actions but the story of how he was found.

That's a good point, though I'm still not clear why we are bothering to look for successor since the time of the 5th.  Check the lower realms....

[Lineageholder]

That's a good point, though I'm still not clear why we are bothering to look for successor since the time of the 5th.  Check the lower realms....

You're right, the 'Great 5th' started a war and seized political power supported by the Mongols. He built the Potala Palace which was the start of him being regarded as an emanation of Avalokiteshvara and he mixed spiritual traditions, contrary to the first Dalai Lama, Gendundrub, who said of Je Tsongkhapa "I shall seek no refuge other than you".

As it says in the False Dalai Lama:

The Fifth Dalai Lama always showed two faces. One was that of a Nyingmapa and the other was that of a Gelugpa. In fact, he did not follow either tradition, but remained between them without ever finding a pure spiritual path. In this he was like the present Dalai Lama, the Fourteenth, who also shows two faces and likewise has never found a pure spiritual path.

The seventh Dalai Lama was quite different though, a pure spiritual practitioner.