This is interesting.
I actually like that Thai monk is “forcing” to giving a different way of looking at how we look at teachers out there. Sure, every Lama has his faults (or so we perceive) but he also has his fair and good points. I don’t think it is healthy to only keep going on and on about any lama’s negative points.
Sure, the Dalai Lama has been responsible for many actions that we do not agree with. But by the same token, he has also been responsible for many tens of thousands of people joining the Dharma. He is still someone’s teacher – how are we potentially destroying someone’s faith by just always using very strong words against him? “Liar, hypocrite, dictator” etc
I don’t see the recent posts about GKG as a smear campaign – it is a different way to look at how we react to posts about different teachers. Why is it okay to always bang on and on about what the Dalai Lama is doing wrong; but become so edgy when some questions are asked about other teachers? It is has certainly made me think about how I would feel if someone had posted something up about my own teacher – it’s not a nice feeling, I can assure you!
I don’t believe the things that have been said about GKG. Whether or not they are true, I choose instead to look at all the thousands of centres he has around the world and all the thousands of people who are being connected to the lamrim, taking ordination and learning dharma, inspired by his GOOD qualities. Imagine if there was another forum set up where a whole bunch of people just got together and bitched about all the things he did wrong, as a “call for justice” to “simply point out what is not being done right.” Imagine if we all did that within our own centres! Where we think that our guru is not being fair to one or two people in the centre, so we set up a tribunal to question and trial him! This is essentially what we are doing.
If you don’t agree with what is being said about GKG, then think: this is exactly what you have been doing to the Dalai Lama forever now! Why is it fair to have a smear campaign about the Dalai Lama but get antsy when some questions are asked about GKG/NKT? Note that there hasn’t actually been anything bad said against GKG – just information extracted from another site and some general questions looking for clarification about the facts. Nothing near the kind of language used to describe the Dalai Lama.
