Personally I'll be continuing to put my energy into trying to promote the healing nectar of Buddha's teachings. From the kangso sadhana it's apparent this is what delights the Protector most. When people have discovered the liberating wisdom of the Four Noble Truths, the Bodhisattva's path, emptiness, moral discipline and especially Lamrim, Lojong and Mahamudra, then there is something in their minds for glorious Dorje Shugden to protect. Promoting the Dharma Protector without the Dharma is like promoting the blue of the sky without the sky itself - totally out of context and hard to relate to.
I appreciate living beings are very diverse with diverse sets of needs but from my small experience of helping at a Dharma Centre, almost everyone is attracted first to the practical, logical inner science of Dharma. Only a handful come because they are attracted to the more esoteric practices, and those that do so without being motivated by renunciation invariably encounter problems. Teachings on renunciation, bodhichitta and emptiness can be hard for some people to relate to at first, but in that case at least taking an initial interest in inner peace is surely the best starting point.
If they can't do that, they won't be ready for protector practice and will be disappointed and put off when they find out what it's really about (the heart commitment of practising, teaching and promoting Kadam Dharma without mixing it).
The Dorje Shugden who bestows good college study, wealth and other worldly attainments bears little resemblance to the Dorje Shugden my Teachers have introduced me to, whose primary function is to protect the Dharma. It does however sound a little like the worldly deity the TGIE and their cronies accuse us of relying on as our main practice.
Is there a danger that, in attracting people to an abstract characterised version of DS, we also unintentionally present a characterized version of ourselves which doesn't do us any favours? Isn't it possible that when people check out the various Buddhist traditions, some of whom are presenting very logical, beneficial Dharma instructions, they will see Shugden practitioners, due to the brochures they've come across, as 'the ones who think a 17th century guy in a hat is going to make them rich' ?
Presumably we're all trying to protect the lineage from destruction. But what does it mean for the lineage to remain, and does this have anything to do with the public popularity of Dorje Shugden? Even if as a result of the leaflets, he ends up right up there with Dora the Explorer and Michael Jackson, does that mean the lineage survives in terms of pure practice?
Not questioning the intention behind this venture, only questioning the possible results. I've no doubt the blessings and imprints will be helpful for people, but isn't there more to consider than that?
love and respect
Spacelike
