Creating Schism between Sangha?

The Central Tibetan Administration
Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India
To Whom It May Concern,

Re: Dolgyal (Shugden) Webpage on His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet’s Official Website

First and foremost, I would like to tell you that I am an absolutely avid fan of Buddhism, despite being born and raised in a Catholic family and going to Catholic schools until I was shipped off to America for college. I have been reading various Buddhist literature since I was 18 (that is about 9 years ago) and one of my favourites is “Mind Science – An East – West Dialogue”, written by H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. I believe He is one of the greatest gifts, if not THE best gift that was bestowed upon the West when he was thrown into exile in 1959. The feeling of deja vu surrounds me as I am reminded of how India “lost” Atisha to Tibet, due to the collective karma of the people in the respective countries.

Now, I must confess that whilst I am a big fan of Buddhism, I cannot claim to be a loyal fan of His Holiness. I read books and websites of other Lamas as well, and I find them all very complementary and consistent with each other. I love them all. Compassion, altruism, harmony, loving kindness… this is what all the Lamas, Tulkus, Rinpoches, Gurus etc teach us. I fold my hands to them and wish them all to have long lives and continue creating such delightful websites for the whole world to see.

I love H.H.’s website too. It is like a big juicy Dharma steak for me to chew on. BUT what I found rather intriguing is that of all the Lamas’ websites I have marked as my favourite, it seems that only the website of H.H. has a special section dedicated to Dolgyal or Shugden. Unfortunately, this special section is dedicated to openly criticize and downgrade this deity.

While I am not too sure on who is “wrong” or “right”, who is enlightened and who is not (for who am I to judge, I am a mere deluded being), I do see this as quite inconsistent with what H.H. has been preaching, which includes acceptance of other people’s beliefs. I do wonder why Shugden is being singled out as such a terrible deity or spirit, when there are so many other worldy gods and devils being worshipped by the masses as well? Why is there no mention on the harmful effects of praying to these spirits?

It is very disturbing and disheartening to know that now, even Buddhism is tarnished with internal fighting between so-called Dharma practitioners, and very very openly at that. It is rather embarrasing. Isn’t creating schism between sangha members one of the actions of body which brings the worst karmic consequences? I do not see how this section of the website would make things better or create harmony between practitioners, not to mention budding young Buddhists who have yet to develop strong faith and knowledge in the subject.

With all due respect, I humbly beg your Administration to kindly consider removing the content on Dolgyal from H.H’s website. Not that I am siding anyone here, I just believe that as real Buddhists, we should practice what we preach and respect everybody’s right to practice their own religion. If we can be silent on Muslim and Christian extremist, why not our own Buddhist extremists as well? If the Shugden practice is really cursed, surely it will die out on its own. I am an optimist in the sense that I strongly believe that pure Dharma will prevail all else in the long run. I am on your side as I too, want the Dharma to spread and flourish. But I do not think that having the Dogyal shaming section in H.H’s section would help our cause, as it is very misleading and a source of confusion and misconception.

I thank you for your time in reading this letter, and look forward to seeing an updated website of H.H. (minus Shugden content) soon.

Sincerely,
(YOUR NAME)