By: TK
Over the last two decades, the Dalai Lama has strongly maintained the stance that the Protector Dorje Shugden is an evil spirit who causes terrible damage to the individual practitioner, threatens the Dalai Lama’s life and creates obstacles to the cause for Tibet’s freedom. Practitioners are discouraged from praying to Dorje Shugden because they are told that propitiating him will be harmful to themselves and their practice.
However, upon further investigation we find that the Dalai Lama himself used to write very favorably and positively about Dorje Shugden, often with references to his enlightened, attained nature. How can his view then change so drastically to one that now proclaims Dorje Shugden to be a spirit?
The following is an extract from the Dorje Shugden Devotees’ Charitable & Religious Society website revealing what Dalai Lama has said before about Dorje Shugden’s immediate preceding incarnation as Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen:
Buddhist ontology distinguishes between different levels of existence, between gross and subtle material bodies. While human beings and most animals have gross material form, the majority of beings have subtle energy bodies invisible to common perception of the material senses. All Buddhist protectors and most other helpful beings in the Buddhist pantheon are believed to have such subtle mental energy bodies invisible to the physical eye. Dorje Shugden is one of those materially invisible forces believed by those who rely on him to be in the same continuity as Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen, the accomplished master whose actions were considered beyond evil intent.
See for example the Fourteenth Dalai Lama’s statement, [from a talk on July 13, 1978]:
“It is my view that Tulku Dakpa Gyaltsen’s instinctive behaviour and ways of thinking were good. I have looked at his Collected Works which also contain his secret biography. He seems to have been good in his studies and to have a gentle subdued mind. In his biography there are a few Guru Yoga texts, one of which has Buddha Shakyamuni in the center and around him: Guru Rinpoche [Padmasambhava] (9th century) surrounded by the Guru lineage of the Nyingma Order, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo (1092-1158) surrounded by the Guru lineage of the Sakya order; Marpa (1012-1097), Mila (1052-1135) and Dwagpo (1079-1161) surrounded by the Guru Lineage of Kagyud order; Je-Rinpoche [Tsong Khapa] (1375-419) and his two spiritual sons surrounded by the Gurus of Gelug order;…. teachings of past Sakya, Gelug, Kagyud and Nyingma masters are summarized and it is explained that one should pay homage and recite eulogies through recollecting their qualities. At the conclusion, he explains that a boundless crime based on contemporary sectarianism produces causes to be thrown into bad realms and that he had written this Guru Yoga deliberately to avoid such negative results. Having seen that, I thought it was good. Usually, Gyalchen [Dorje Shugden] is considered a biased deity, since there was this account in the Collected Works of Dakpa Gyaltsen, I thought it was good.”
(Extracted from http://www.shugdensociety.info/Bernis2EN.html)
We see clearly from Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen’s writings that he was not sectarian or biased in anyway. He wrote guru yogas for all four traditions. The 14th Dalai Lama himself mentions that Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen had good instinctive behavior, was well-studied, gentle in the mind and had good ways of thinking.
We can see from his writings and secret biography that Tulku Dakpa Gyeltsen was a great being. Since this is the case, how can his successor, the incarnate emanation of Dorje Shugden, become the opposite of his previous mindstream? (i.e. a low being or a spirit). That would oppose the law of cause and effect and also the truth of the nature of the mind. A negative mind cannot spring from a positive mind.
When we study the evidence deeper, it is very interesting to see the contradictions that the Dorje Shugden ban is based on.
This opinion piece has been extracted from the DorjeShugden.com forum. Please add to the discussions on the forum if you have further perspectives, comments and thoughts. We always welcome debate and exchange. The original thread can be viewed at: http://www.dorjeshugden.com/forum/index.php?topic=598
English
Indonesia
Tibetan