Robert Thurman Encourages Killing for Recreation

[Drolma]

It is a fact that Robert Thurman is an opportunist and is hungry for money and power. It is very clear he is paid by the CTA, he always follows the footstep of the CTA. When the CTA makes a certain statement, he will always follow. For example, the CTA recognised the Karmapa Ogyen Trinley as the legitimate Karmapa, he then issued a statement to support that.

The CTA is against Dorje Shugden practitioners, we also see that Robert Thurman uses his social media accounts to condemn Dorje Shugden practitioners. Even though he claimed he is a Buddhist, but what kind of benefits has he given to people? He did not set up Dharma centers, the activities he is involved in are always commercial activities.

Robert Thurman sells Dharma for profit. He may be learned but he does not practice. The way he puts down Dorje Shugden followers shows who he is, he just doesn't have compassion and he is not tolerant. Do I want to learn Buddhism from him? Maybe, I can learn from him how not to conduct as a real Buddhist.

[Tracy]

Robert Thurman is very close to the Dalai Lama, there is no doubt. Because of his relationship with the Dalai Lama, people think he is an expert in Tibetan Buddhism and he gets respect. He didn't earn it, he gets it because of the Dalai  Lama.

People who are real Buddhists and have studied under great lamas, most of them will do Dharma work to benefit people. Commercial activity is not their priority. Even if they are involved in commercial activity, the money generated is used to spread Dharma, it does not go into their own pocket.

But look at Robert Thurman, did he do anything to benefit people? All the "Dharma" works he does, somehow are related to money. He has been a Buddhist for the past 50 years but he has not established one Dharma centre or a charitable organisation to help the needy. How Buddhist can he be?

[Drolma]

Robert Thurman is very close to the Dalai Lama, there is no doubt. Because of his relationship with the Dalai Lama, people think he is an expert in Tibetan Buddhism and he gets respect. He didn't earn it, he gets it because of the Dalai  Lama.

People who are real Buddhists and have studied under great lamas, most of them will do Dharma work to benefit people. Commercial activity is not their priority. Even if they are involved in commercial activity, the money generated is used to spread Dharma, it does not go into their own pocket.

But look at Robert Thurman, did he do anything to benefit people? All the "Dharma" works he does, somehow are related to money. He has been a Buddhist for the past 50 years but he has not established one Dharma centre or a charitable organisation to help the needy. How Buddhist can he be?

Robert Thurman was the first American to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk, I think he was also the first one to disrobe after just a couple of years. He said in an interview that he thought to fully understand Buddhism, he had to become a monk. Well, if someone wants to be a good cancer doctor, does it mean he or she has to be a cancer patient? After many years of studying Buddhism, he still does not have any realisation.

If he has realisation of what compassion is, he would not have been so harsh towards Dorje Shugden followers. He did not show any compassion or tolerance, but he shows anger. He even encourages the students to leave their Dorje Shugden lamas. He is creating schisms in the Buddhist community, trying to separate the students from their teachers. He even openly hiring hackers to attack Dorje Shugden followers online.

Not only that, but he also encourages killings. His commercialised retreat centre, Menla Dewa Spa offers fly-fishing activity after a meditation program. How Buddhist is that? After the participants meditate on love, peace and compassion then they proceed to kill fish? So does Robert Thurman has any realisation? I really don't think so. What are the good things he has done ever since he started his spiritual journey 50 or 60 years ago?

[michaela]

I am quite surprised to read this post. The so-called famous Tibetan scholar, Robert Thurman, who acts as a moral compass when condemning Shugden practitioners, is actually encouraging an action that is contrary to the Buddhist teachings - fishing and killing. He is a true hypocrite!

[Alex]

Robert Thurman is no Buddhist scholar. He does not even know the karma for lying about Dorje Shugden and discriminating against Dorje Shugden people.  He even hired trolls to attack Dorje Shugden people online with harsh words and vulgarity to stop them from spreading the Dharma. If he knows the karma of stopping the propagation of Dharma, he would not have done what he had done. Clearly, Robert Thurman knows nothing about karma and even if he does, he chose to ignore it.

[Rowntree]

Robert Thurman is an opportunist and he has gotten his fame, power and wealth all because he tapped onto the Dalai Lama's fame when it was so easily accessible. It is true that timing is very important and our success or failure truly depending on that. Thurman was in the right and met the right time to leech off the Dalai Lama. This is how he got where he is today.

And solely because of that, Thurman is voted one of the 100 most influential spiritual persons in the world by Watkin’s spring issue of Mind Body Spirit. The world is really going crazy for giving recognition to people who leech on others fame, instead of those who really contributed tirelessly to humanity.

Note: The Dalai Lama was number 2 in the list last year as well as the year before (2018 and 2017) and number 1 from 2016 to 2012.

http://www.tibetanjournal.com/his-holiness-dalai-lama-third-most-influential-living-person/

His Holiness Dalai Lama is Third Most Influential Living Person
February 24, 2019 TJ editor   

The Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama is listed as one of the most spiritually influential living people in the year 2019. The Watkins’ 2019 list of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People as published by the London based bookshop, His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the top third in the list.

Watkin’s spring issue of Mind Body Spirit published the list of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People. According to the official report of the magazine, the Watkin’s list considered those Living People who are spiritual teachers, activists, authors and thinkers that change the world.

While the number 1 spot of the list is Pope Francis, the second most influential person according to the list is Oprah Winfrey and the third most influential person in the world of 2019 is His Holiness the Dalai Lama, followed by Eckhart Tolle and then Desmond Tutu.

The 100 most influential people’s list consists of the likes of Russel Brand, Thich Nhat Hanh and Paulo Coehlo in the top 20 list. The list further also included Sadhguru (Jaggi Vasudev), Alice Walker, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Robin Sharma, Robert Thurman, Pema Chödrön as well as Andrew Forrest and so on.

According to the official report, the Watkins bookshop in London has been encouraging spiritual discovery and providing seekers with esoteric knowledge for over 120 years. In 2011, it started publishing the 100 list with the goal of celebrating the world’s living spiritual teachers.

[daka]

I am quite surprised to read this post. The so-called famous Tibetan scholar, Robert Thurman, who acts as a moral compass when condemning Shugden practitioners, is actually encouraging an action that is contrary to the Buddhist teachings - fishing and killing. He is a true hypocrite!

Robert Thurman is a renown buddhist professor who is also:
1. a disrobed ex-monk
2. known to have “begged” very prominent high Lamas for Dorje Shugden initiation, but now criticising Dorje Shugden practice
3. encourages students to break samaya with their guru
4. promote killing
5. hires trolls to sabotage people
6. what else?

[Tracy]

Robert Thurman is selling Dharma for a living, he does not put Buddhist teachings into practice. If he does, he will not encourage people to kill for fun. How can a Buddhist encourage killing? I don't understand. Just because he is close to the Dalai Lama, it does not make him an expert or someone who deserves respect. His actions say he is an opportunist and he doesn't deserve the expert title.

[daka]

I just read this from Wikipedia: Time chose Robert Thurman as one of the 25 most influential Americans of 1997. The more influential he is,  the more harm he is creating. I believe this is what it means by during the degenerative ages, dharma is destroyed in the hand of so-called dharma practitioners. He is such a dharma killer. 

[Tracy]

I just read this from Wikipedia: Time chose Robert Thurman as one of the 25 most influential Americans of 1997. The more influential he is,  the more harm he is creating. I believe this is what it means by during the degenerative ages, dharma is destroyed in the hand of so-called dharma practitioners. He is such a dharma killer.

He is the most influential American of 1997? There must not be much talent in America at that time. On what basis Robert Thurman was awarded the title? Well, he might be very influential in the past, but I think not anymore now.

He has ruined his own reputation with his dealing in the Dorje Shugden controversy. He was not neutral, he wanted to hire hackers to attack Dorje Shugden followers on social media platforms. In addition, he openly criticises Dorje Shugden practice just to be politically correct so he can be in the Dalai Lama's good book.

What makes him lose more credibility is the fish flying activity his retreat centre offers to the participants of his meditation programme. He claims he is a Buddhist, an expert in Tibetan Buddhism but yet he encourages killing. I don't know about other people but I really cannot accept that. He should promote peace and harmony not promoting hatred and killing.

[SabS]

I just read this from Wikipedia: Time chose Robert Thurman as one of the 25 most influential Americans of 1997. The more influential he is,  the more harm he is creating. I believe this is what it means by during the degenerative ages, dharma is destroyed in the hand of so-called dharma practitioners. He is such a dharma killer.

This is sad. Choosing Robert Thurman who knows nuts about Dharma nor is he a real practitioner, is really telling of the state the world is in. All he does is pretentious Dharma and some photo opportunities with the Dalai Lama. Running a wellness center based on Buddhist values and yet encourage killing painfully in fly fishing. Encouraging online abuse of Dorje Shugden practitioners which is totally against Religious Freedom and against Buddhist tenets. He even turned against his Guru for refusing him the initiation into Dorje Shugden practice. Now we know why his Guru did not give him the practice. Such is the wisdom of his Guru. So it is sad that Robert Thurman is an influential person given his easy betrayal and nastiness when he does not get his way.

[Rowntree]

Professor Jeffrey Hopkins was one of the most respected Tibetan Buddhist scholars since the 70's. He has translated many oral teachings of the Dalai Lama but you see no news about him and he didn't make it to the influential American list. This is very simple logic because Professor Hopkins is only interested in preserving true dharma.

You don't see him going around condemning others' religious practice and you don't see him attending all the Dalai Lama's events to take pictures. He does not sell his book by leeching the Dalai Lama's fame. He presents his work. There is nothing more to it.

Thurman is everything opposite about it. This is why Thurman is on the list. People in the secular world do not know much. They just share what they think they saw. Often, what they see didn't reflect the truth.

He is the most influential American of 1997? There must not be much talent in America at that time. On what basis Robert Thurman was awarded the title? Well, he might be very influential in the past, but I think not anymore now.

He has ruined his own reputation with his dealing in the Dorje Shugden controversy. He was not neutral, he wanted to hire hackers to attack Dorje Shugden followers on social media platforms. In addition, he openly criticises Dorje Shugden practice just to be politically correct so he can be in the Dalai Lama's good book.

What makes him lose more credibility is the fish flying activity his retreat centre offers to the participants of his meditation programme. He claims he is a Buddhist, an expert in Tibetan Buddhism but yet he encourages killing. I don't know about other people but I really cannot accept that. He should promote peace and harmony not promoting hatred and killing.

[Alex]

I just read this from Wikipedia: Time chose Robert Thurman as one of the 25 most influential Americans of 1997. The more influential he is,  the more harm he is creating. I believe this is what it means by during the degenerative ages, dharma is destroyed in the hand of so-called dharma practitioners. He is such a dharma killer.

This is sad. Choosing Robert Thurman who knows nuts about Dharma nor is he a real practitioner, is really telling of the state the world is in. All he does is pretentious Dharma and some photo opportunities with the Dalai Lama. Running a wellness center based on Buddhist values and yet encourage killing painfully in fly fishing. Encouraging online abuse of Dorje Shugden practitioners which is totally against Religious Freedom and against Buddhist tenets. He even turned against his Guru for refusing him the initiation into Dorje Shugden practice. Now we know why his Guru did not give him the practice. Such is the wisdom of his Guru. So it is sad that Robert Thurman is an influential person given his easy betrayal and nastiness when he does not get his way.

Robert Thurman is really good at branding and promoting himself. He is all about promoting his fame and how good he is. That is why he is the first person to get ordained by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. By doing so, he gains instant fame and then he quickly disrobed after that. He does not really want to be a monk and it is very clear that he did it for fame.

Being a disrobed monk is a shameful thing for a real Dharma practitioner. When we go to places like Nepal or India, being disrobed is shameful and it is not something that we always talked about. Robert Thurman used it as a plus point in promoting himself to convince ignorant people of how good he is that he got the training of a monk last time.

Everything he does is for money and fame. He uses Dharma to gain fame and when it does not serve his purpose, he will forget about it. An example, he promoted fly fishing at his dharma spa to get more customers. He is willing to break his vow of not killing just to get more business for his spa. That is very un-Buddhist like at all.

[Tenzin K]

No mater how many books your wrote, how many classes you attend, how many session of Dharma you shared, if. if you didn't put into practice it doesn't mean anything at all.

Robert Thurman is a classic example that able to tell the entire sutra but doesn't belief in it. If he walk the talk we will not see him promoting fly  fishing. In fact we should see him voice up and protest such activities around his holy area and with his fame he can use it for a right cause. Unfortunately Robert is just interested in more fame and more money. Such celebrity will miss used Buddhism just for their interest and this is what we should highlight and discourage them.

[Alex]

No mater how many books your wrote, how many classes you attend, how many session of Dharma you shared, if. if you didn't put into practice it doesn't mean anything at all.

Robert Thurman is a classic example that able to tell the entire sutra but doesn't belief in it. If he walk the talk we will not see him promoting fly  fishing. In fact we should see him voice up and protest such activities around his holy area and with his fame he can use it for a right cause. Unfortunately Robert is just interested in more fame and more money. Such celebrity will miss used Buddhism just for their interest and this is what we should highlight and discourage them.

Robert Thurman is known to be the Dalai Lama's man in the west. He is very knowledgable, and he knows a lot about Buddhism. However, he did not put those teachings in to practice when he promoted fly fishing at his spa at Catskills, which is against the vow of not killing in Buddhism. He promoted animal cruelty to get more business, which shows that he is not a man with a kind heart.

All he sees is profits and money, and he is willing to kill to get to his goals. That is not the conduct of a Buddhist and let alone, His Holiness's man in America. This brings a bad name to His Holiness's name. He is not doing something that a Buddhist should do, especially someone influential like him.

His actions will affect the mind of others, and it may cause a detrimental effect on their minds. It is essential to protect the mind of others because the influence on the mind will have a long-lasting impact on the person's future and what they will do next.