Was just reading FPMT site and came across this (old news, but worthy to share) re Lama Zopa's advice about Shugden practice:
(source:
http://www.lamayeshe.com/index.php?sect=article&id=335)
If you are making a new Dharma connection with a teacher, aside from the other qualities of the teacher that you should check,
you should also examine the teacher to make sure that he or she is in harmony with His Holiness Dalai Lama regarding the practice of what is called döl-gyäl, the protector Shugden. Make sure that the teacher does not do this practice. These days, that is an extra analysis you should make. In that way, you’ll avoid problems in the future.
(I don't recall reading in the 50 verses that one needs to check what kind of protector practice the potential Guru/ Lama does before accepting one as a Guru! How do we check anyway? Email the Lama? Asked in a public discourse: Hello Lama, do you practice Dorje Shugden? Kinda weird for me...)Recently, I also introduced a new guideline for the protection of the Dharma centers and their students, which is not to invite to the center teachers who do the protector practice and are therefore against His Holiness the Dalai Lama. However, this doesn’t include gurus who may have practiced the protector in the past. It doesn’t mean that they’re bad. I’m not saying that.
If you have already made a Dharma connection with such teachers and you criticize them or give them up, that is totally incorrect; that is opposite to lam-rim practice. The lam-rim, sutra, and tantra teachings all explain how to practice guru devotion so that we can avoid creating such heavy negative karmas as criticizing our gurus. It’s for our benefit. Since we disciples want profit, not loss, since we aspire to achieve the highest profit, enlightenment, the complete qualities of cessation and realization, it is crucial to know how to practice guru devotion.
(It means Lama Zopa encourages those who already have the practice to continue and keep their samaya with their Gurus. But why not FPMT? I now start to believe what others have said on this thread, that there is a possibility that FPMT might revert back to Shugden practice after Dalai Lama enters clear light)If those gurus who used to do the practice still had the same aspect now, if they were still alive in that aspect, they would also change. For example, His Holiness himself did the practice in Tibet for a short while, but after extensive analysis, checking many experiences and signs, and
considering the advice of many other high lamas who advised not to do the practice, His Holiness also decided against it.
(I wonder who are these "high lamas" that His Holiness has consulted who advised against the practice)It is not only His Holiness who is saying not to do this practice. Before His Holiness, many other high lamas, holders of the entire Buddhadharma, also instructed their monasteries and students not to do this practice. After checking in many ways, His Holiness came to the conclusion that for the benefit of individual people as well as the world in general, he would stop doing this practice and also advised others to stop. Therefore, if those gurus who did the practice still had the same aspect, they would stop. Also, many gurus, many great teachers who are still living, have stopped as well, even though they used to do the practice before.
Even though many people, groups, and monasteries have asked His Holiness to change his advice on this, he has remained firm. Since he arrived at his decision through many years’ analysis, there has been no change; His Holiness always says the same thing in this regard. As His Holiness has said in many teachings, he will never change his opinion on this matter. If His Holiness the Dalai Lama is not Chenrezig, if he’s not Buddha, who else is there in the world that you can point to as Buddha? If His Holiness is not the Buddha of Compassion, then it’s a mistake to call other lamas Buddha, who are said to be incarnations of a Buddha.
