ISC & DS.COM: EFFECTIVENESS OF PROTESTS & OTHER EFFORTS

[psylotripitaka]

Regardless of how we view the Dalai Lama, according to worldly conventions the acts of intentional persecution by himself and his supporters are inappropriate and must be stopped.

I understand that the efforts to lift the ban are multifaceted, and multidimensional from the point of view of mind and space. Though I cannot comprehend the skillful actions of Buddhas, I would like to share my humble observations.

Over the years, though much documentation has been established of the human rights abuses, the principal emphasis has continually been on the religious ban of a deity practice. Hence, the main thing that appears during protests by the ISC for example regards Religious Freedom and Dorje Shugden. Now, (smiles), I know it pleases the Gurus that Dorje Shugden is the most popular deity in the world and that his name and image are creating wonderful imprints for people. That is wonderful!

However, please consider the following. Our message is not sticking! Why? We need to get human rights groups, governments, and the general public to actively pressure and force the Dalai Lama and CTA to stop human rights abuses in particular. But who is this audience we're trying to inform? They are people to whom the idea of a Deity being banned typically sounds ridiculous, and because this kind of thing isn't important to them personally, the message doesn't stick.

In all the radio and video interviews, though a little is mentioned about the human rights abuse, what mainly comes across is stuff about a religious ban and that the human rights abuses are secondary. One radio host even laughed when he mentioned an ancient deity was banned - this is precisely the type of perspective the average Joe has, seriously. We need to think outside the box of being Dorje Shugden practitioners or Buddhist and see things from the pov of the general public and ordinary world citizens and what is really important to such people. Seriously, look at how the world gets together when there are natural disasters and major human rights abuses. They do something about it! Because they can relate to it and so it is significant to them because they relate. Therefore, what I feel strongly is that in today's world, we will have more impact if the main emphasis is a passionate presentation of the human rights abuses, and second to this is that this horrible shit is due to a religious ban enforced by the DL and CTA.

I'm not at all saying we are not presenting the evidence, but the emphasis on the ban rather than the human abuses needs to swith! Dorje Shugden and the ban will still get mentioned, but we need to tug at peoples hearts, so to have the greatest impact in the worldly sense we must mainly show them abuse they can relate to!!

Because it is the DL's right to encourage people to stop practicing the Protector, from this point of view it is not really the ban that is the problem, it is the active persecution of others that must stop.

I know that the forced ban is the real problem, but it is just that, a human rights abuse. Once it is reduced from 'forced' to being merely that he encourages people to stop practicing while telling his people and the CTA to stop harming people, this will be a great victory for the Buddhadharma and those suffering human rights abuse.

What I am essentially saying is that I believe what this entire situation really seems to need is for the DL and CTA to actively tell everyone to stop harming Dorje Shugden practitioners and to help them with the basic human needs. I believe that it is mainly through strongly and passionately expressing the human rights abuses that the necessary pressure will finally be tipped and the DL and CTA will themselves be forced to say what I've just said they need to say.

Even though there will likely continue to be some social disharmony between sides, considering how the supporters of the DL do everything he says, if he says to "please stop harming practitioners of Dogyal, but instead follow Buddhas advice on love and compassion and help them with the things they need to sustain their lives" do you not think his followers will (pardon my french but) chill-the-fuck-out and be nice to their fellow humans? I have faith in their good natures despite their delusions and hurtful actions and know if their Guru says to chill the fuck out, they will, especially if human rights groups, governments, and the international public insist the persecution stop.

I believe in my heart that our message will really begin to stick in people's minds if they mainly see the human rights abuse. Religion has a stigma in today's society and a lot of the general public think its ridiculous. They see people in robes with signs about religious freedom and don't think twice, but if it says "Dalai Lama Stop the Human Rights Abuse of Your Own People" people will look twice, put their fist in the air and go "WTF to that"!!

Sorry I'm long winded, but it is my passioned plea that we change it up a bit. Thanks for reading and considering it. I deeply respect what you are doing. Thank you indeed!

[psylotripitaka]

In other words, I believe the emphasis on human rights abuse will shock people out of the DL infatuation stupor they're in enough to start paying closer attention.

[psylotripitaka]

I also wrote this condensed perspective in the thread about the DL losing his cool with peaceful Buddhist nun and figured to share here too:

The DL clearly states his position that our practice is Not Religion.

So, if we know that is his view, it doesn't make sense to keep trying to convince him to 'give Religious freedom'. I understand trying to show the apparent contradiction between his talks and what we're asking publicly, but think about the psychology of communication here. People in general and his supporters especially regard the DL as a Buddhist authority, so by emphasizing religious freedom and Dorje Shugden, we continuously draw ourselves AND the media into the conveluded battle of words on 'who is Dorje Shugden'. It seems to continually distract everyone from what I feel our first and immediate objective should be - to end the human rights abuses such as violent protests, beatings, shrine and home destruction, withholding public services such as school and hospital, posting personal info on walls to incite violence...

Imagine how different the dialogue would have been between these two if she was asking and telling the DL 'you stop abusing the human rights of your own people' 'you must stop the violence and ostracism of your own people'.

Imagine how much more attention and clarity our various audiences would have if they weren't being introduced to a conveluded debate about some intangible unseen deity, but instead shown pictures of beatings, of documents ostracizing and encouraging violence and so on. They would be more open to pay attention, then when they ask why this is happening, we then tell of the ban of our Protector practice.

He won't have dialogue because he believes it is spirit worship and not religious. But if he is forced by the international community to answer for the human rights abuses, this will naturally set the stage for dialogue about why the abuse is taking place to begin with. Then we can explain the even if people worship spirits, he does not have the right to interfere with people's freedoms using human rights abuses as his weapon!

[diamond girl]

"I'm not at all saying we are not presenting the evidence, but the emphasis on the ban rather than the human abuses needs to swith! Dorje Shugden and the ban will still get mentioned, but we need to tug at peoples hearts, so to have the greatest impact in the worldly sense we must mainly show them abuse they can relate to!!" - quote from the post here

As I do understand what you are expressing about emphasis on human rights violations versus the Ban... the point is that it is the point. In the ISC protests and also here on ds.com the emphasis to highlight the Ban is the violation against Human Rights and Freedom. So as much as you have raised some good points which are logical, what I am pointing out is that the emphasis to attract the attention of the masses is about Human Rights and how the CTA and HHDL violates human rights to freedom of religion with this Ban. And so many articles here are to this effect.

Now, how people react and how the news "dilutes" the impact is a different matter. People in general will not react not make a stand when it does not affect them directly and personally. Thus we have the degeneration of the human mind and soul. Then brings me to the essence of this website which is not just about lifting the Ban but also about the practice of Dorje Shugden. In these times of degeneration and accumulated karma, Dorje Shugden is the Protector of Our Time.

Unless you have the "politics" of HHDL in your head, or you are Sangha needing HHDL's approval, I would say embrace DS as your protector and practise faithfully, this too will create the causes for the Ban to come down.

[kris]

There are many ways to touch a person's heart and have him/her to start doing something. Banning-a-deity usually won't touch many people's heart as it is kinda difficult to relate if you are not within the circle. I do agree that human rights angle is a better way to draw people's attention, even people who are not within the circle.

Sometimes I do feel like telling HH Dalai Lama, "I don't care whether you like what I practice, just leave me alone!" and that is the main point here. You may not like or even agree with what I practice, but Buddha has taught us to be kind, accepting and tolerating. Why aren't you doing it?

I also agree that many of the media coverage emphasize on the banning of a deity and didn't mention much about human rights. I would say that is because they are not aware of the whole situation. To many of the media, they don't know the monks are really suffering, they don't know the monks and practitioners are denied basic facilities such as hospitals, water supply, etc. With education towards the media, I can see there are more coverage from human rights perspective.

I recently found out that there is a new section on dorjeshugden.com about the mailout awareness campaigns that have been sent out to educate many about the issue of this ban. You may find what is appropriate there and download the document, print and send to the media for the purpose of bringing even more awareness.

[Big Uncle]

I think that the protests have a role to play especially if they are held peacefully like what they had been doing all along. The protest brings direct media attention to the Dorje Shugden ban and when more people find out about, they would inadvertently find out about Dorje Shugden. That's really good. This is spreading the validity of the Dorje Shugden lineage and the more that spreads out, the more pressure would mount on CTA on releasing this unfounded ban. 

[Kim Hyun Jae]

I agree with Big Uncle. Protests will and can bring the attention to media. When these type of news go online in circulation, regular readers would be curious as to what BAN is it about in relation to the Dalai Lama and will question the validity of the issue. Some may go further online to find out more about the DS ban and educate themselves the pro and cons of Dorje Shugden, hence promotes education.

[psylotripitaka]

As I've said, I realize there are many angles to our efforts, and that we are presenting evidence, so yes, of course the protests are educating. My point is, a much greater impact might take root more quickly if we strongly emphasize the beatings etc.

We have been saying the same thing to the DL for many years and the brief moments in which our pleas hit the news does not seem to have carried as much weight as it could. To the general viewer, a headline/statement 'Dalai Lama Abusing Human Rights' will definitely draw more curiosity and research than 'Dalai Lama Give Religious Freedom' due to the reasons I've shared.

[DharmaSpace]

As the issue of the ban is something that Gelug practitioners are mostly aware of, and in general Tibetan Buddhists usually have come across this issue. Tibetan Buddhism is still quite small compared to the total population of Buddhist in the world which is about 5-10% of the total number of Buddhists in the world. All buddhist have heard of His Holiness the dalai lama even though they may not practice his teachings or Tibetan Buddhism, they still have respect for what he represents to the Buddhist World and the world. And buddhism is the smallest of the main religions of the world lying in fourth place. 

So the protest in my opinion is letting the Buddhist world and the world know about this issue, about the ban, the people affected by the ban and negative effects of such a ban. Awareness needs to be created within the Buddhist world and also to let the rest of the world know about this draconian ban. it is commonly known that probably out of 100 person who knows about such a ban only 1-2 will go about to find out further and understand more about the ban thats where the website comes in. The protests are making it impossible for CTA to hide behind the Dalai Lama, and for CTA to garner support they have to answer to the leaders of the world who surely are waking up to such protests. So it is very good constant pressure on the CTA.  And other buddhist will ask the CTA and Dalai Lama about such a ban.

[psylotripitaka]

True, and I hear the venues he's giving talks at are having their reputation tarnished and strongly considering if not definitely deciding to no longer host the DL!

[lotus1]

Yes, agreed that human rights can be the angles to focus on when we create the awareness of how bad the effect of the ban towards the Dorje Shugden practitioners.
Regardless of monks or lay person, Dorje Shugden practitioners are denied basic facilities such as education, medical, buying food from shop, water supply, etc, as well as not able to meet their family. In Serpom monasteries, the monks are not allowed to share the water and would need to build their own water pump as they were told that the Dorje Shugden practitioners will contaminate the water supply. What kind of logic is that??!!
Recently, I happened to meet with a monk who is a Dorje Shugden practitioner and was told that due to the ban, his mother was harassed and forced to sever all relations with him. When his mother passed away, he could not even return to see her because the Tibetan authorities were waiting to catch him. How could CTA do this to split families just because of practicing Dorje Shugden?
Watching the video of monks being harmed is making me very angry too!
http://www.dorjeshugden.com/all-articles/features/tibetan-leadership-organizes-violence/
Please CTA, please be kind and compassion if you are truly a Buddhist!

[psylotripitaka]

Lotus1, I understand your feelings. When we hear and see such things though, the lojong teachings encourage us to harness the energy that arises and use it to empower our virtuous views and intentions. Please try to turn that anger into fierce renunciation and bodhichitta, since the appearance of intense suffering to your subjective mind is the creation of your own contaminated aggregates. This is a real quick path in these degenerate times and you have the opportunity and power to follow it.

[dondrup]

Quoting psylotripitaka: " ... to have the greatest impact in the worldly sense we must mainly show them abuse they can relate to!!  Because it is the DL's right to encourage people to stop practicing the Protector, from this point of view it is not really the ban that is the problem, it is the active persecution of others that must stop. ..."

I do agree with your emphasis on highlighting human rights abuse to the world.

To further add to the effectiveness of lifting the ban, in my opinion, for any activity to lift the ban, a consistent and repeated approach must be adopted just like what the successful commercial organizations do with their advertisements. It is a continuous programming of the minds until consumers are only familiar with their brand of products.

Hence the public and the targeted audience who has the power to help lift the ban must be educated and updated repeatedly with all the relevant information about the ban (i.e. they must be fed with evidences of human right abuses due to the ban) until they are touched and motivated to take a personal action to help lift the ban.

When more and more influential, powerful and famous personalities step out to voice their concerns about the ban, they could garner more support to help lift the ban.

[dsiluvu]

As I've said, I realize there are many angles to our efforts, and that we are presenting evidence, so yes, of course the protests are educating. My point is, a much greater impact might take root more quickly if we strongly emphasize the beatings etc.

We have been saying the same thing to the DL for many years and the brief moments in which our pleas hit the news does not seem to have carried as much weight as it could. To the general viewer, a headline/statement 'Dalai Lama Abusing Human Rights' will definitely draw more curiosity and research than 'Dalai Lama Give Religious Freedom' due to the reasons I've shared.

Hey Psylo... thanks for "another" angle  and approach to get more attention. I am sure ISC and Dorjeshugden.com could do these angles as well as the angle they've been doing.

Yes I do agree it has to "pull" people's heart strings to show the abuses... in which they are, we are... and like what dondrup said as he has a point, for any "campaign" to become highly impactful, we need to keep drumming in the same message for a wee while, basically flooding the entire media with the same message will also work.

However, your idea and point on focusing about the human rights abuses is good as well and yes possibly create a better chance for dialogue with the DL or for UN to ask these hard questions to the Tibetan Leadership.

It is something we can sure start tweaking and talking about when we post in our social media and letters we write to the UN and authorities.

[dsiluvu]

Basically everyone can do many angles. People can talk about the ban, the abuse, and show the evidences of this inhuman persecution of Tibetans amongst the Tibetan community in exile. It is mind blowing and many do not know it exist. So many pictures and videos are a good start to show the world it exist.

Also what ds.com does which is to always use logic to question back the Tibetan Leadership in their statements, posts and articles. It help new people to think more, to understand the logic behind it all and it allows people to make their own decision without having to "force" it down their throat because we are not CTA. We are Dharma practitioners so we must abide in the laws of karma and not break any vows... it would be better than we know our conscious is clear... also following Trijang Rinpoche and Protector's advice to not "take sides" and talk negatively on both the Dalai Lama and of course Dorje Shugden. If they do it, they break their vows, samaya and degenerate, it does not mean we have to break our vows, our samaya too. So we should not get "sucked" in to the moment and get too emotional till we lose our focus and wisdom and dig our own graves.

So yes... we definitely need more creative writers like yourself Psylo to write more, to write to the authorities and perhaps you could even contribute an article or two here to Ds.com? Write to the admin. Write how the BAN has affected you per say and your encouters and experiences with it This will also inspire others to do more, to also write and for the new to see true accounts and stories. Testimonials are always good in helping people understand better and to create that special warm human touch