About
About this blog
The traditional Gelugpa practice of Dorje Shugden has been banned by the Dalai Lama, causing a deep schism in the Buddhist community. This blog critically examines the background and issues concerned with this ban with the aim of showing that the Dalai Lama’s actions are deeply flawed and unjustified.
About me – Lineageholder
Welcome! I’ve been happily practicing in the New Kadampa Tradition of Buddhism for many years under my precious Spiritual Guide Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. The views on this blog are mine and I’m not representing anyone else.
Please feel free to comment, however extremely abusive comments will not be posted.
15 Responses to "About"
September 28, 2008 at 3:13 am
Hi Lineageholder!
It’s good to see the friends from the Forum doing well. Wouldn’t it be swell that Beggar could come and post something? I’m sure we are many around here missing him. What he did to bring together the people of the Dharmapala is something that we are never going to be able to repay.
I take it as an hommage to him every time I see one of us from that group continuing this fight for the truth.
Thank you Lineageholder for this perseverance in showing the glory of our Lamas to sentient beings, this effort to make people understand the nature of our most saint and venerated Dharmapala Dorje Shugden.
I wish you the best with this website!
Sincerely, your old
Friend
September 28, 2008 at 7:30 am
Dear friendoftruth,
I’m very, very happy to see you posting again on various forums and I really appreciated the long post you did on the history and motivations of this dispute. You’re doing a wonderful job of upholding the tradition of Manjushri Je Tsongkhapa, the precious jewel given to us by our incomparable Gurus.
It’s a great shame that the Dorje Shugden forum closed down. I think we need something like this and it was a great source of information on the abuses that were happening in India as well as great contributions by Trinley Kalsang and everyone else. I understand Beggar’s reason for closing it down but it’s a shame, nonetheless. It would be good to hear from him again.
Take care my friend, thanks for all your do.
Lineageholder
September 30, 2008 at 2:02 am
Dear Lineageholder,
I’m so glad that you named our friend Trinley Kelsang! Where is he? Is there a way we can reach him? We might ask WisdomBuddha blog to do 2 things:
1-to include in his links your website
2-to start a search for Trinley Kelsang and other friends of the Forum, like Kelsang from Canada and so many others.
I would like very much that we might find each other again here.
Also, you can write to the Charitable Society to request their news, like that you can include the latest from India. Their email is in their website.
Anyway, such a joy to find the old friends! We were together briefly, but the times were so intense it was like a lifetime of friendship!
So thank you for providing this meeting point for us all!
F
October 6, 2008 at 3:13 am
Dear Lineageholder,
In 1912 the 13th Dalai Lama returned to Tibet after several years of exile in India, thanks to the fall of the Manchu Empire and the successful expulsion of 3000 Chinese troops from Tibet by the Tibetans.
In January 1913 he entered Lhasa and returned to the Potala Palace. Three weeks later he issued a manifesto to be proclaimed in all Tibetan districts, possibly the most important document of his reign, considered one of his declarations of Tibet’s independence.
Let’s now remember that the attacks on the holy Protector Dorje Shugden started when the 14th Dalai Lama tried to impose the mixing of practices of all the schools or sects of Tibetan Buddhism, and the Gelugpa Lamas opposed his view, trying to protect the diversity and specificity of these sects.
Let’s remember also that the 14th Dalai Lama has stated more than once that he felt a very close special connection with the 5th and 13th Dalai Lamas.
In this context, I would like to quote just a couple of lines from the 1913′s 13th Dalai Lama’s proclamation, and you tell me where is the logic of the 14th Dalai Lama’s own proclamations and actions.
From the 13th Dalai Lama:
“… I have now allotted the following duties to be carried out without negligence:
(1) Peace and happiness in this world can only be maintained by preserving the faith of Buddhism. It is, therefore, essential to preserve all Buddhist institutions in Tibet …
(2) THE VARIOUS BUDDHIST SECTS IN TIBET SHOULD BE KEPT IN A DISTINCT AND PURE FORM. Buddhism should be taught, learned and meditated upon properly ….. ”
___________________________
This puts in perspective the accusations from the 14th Dalai Lama and his friends from the academic milieu. The Gelugpa Lamas fundamentalists? sectarian? the Taliban of Tibetan Buddhism?
Should these epithets be applied also to the 13th Dalai Lama?
___________________________________
October 6, 2008 at 8:35 am
Dear Friend,
What a wonderful find! I guess the 14th DL would say that the first does not apply because Dorje Shugden practice is not a Buddhist institution (I wonder if he really believe this?)
However, the second most definitely does apply. We can therefore say that the 13th DL would be opposed to the 14th DL’s present policy of mixing traditions. According to his present view, the 14th DL would definitely label the 13th as sectarian and fundamentalist. What if the 14th DL said though that the various sects of Tibetan Buddhism should be preserved as distinct but one should receive teachings from all of them? This would be tantamount to destroying the distinct and pure form of each because, then, how would you identify yourself? If you receive empowerments in many different traditions, who is your root Lama and what tradition are you practising?
The sects of Tibetan Buddhism would not remain in a distinct and pure form for longer than a generation, is my guess.
Much love,
Lineageholder
October 8, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Dear Friend
I had some brief contact with Jeff R who was on the old forum, he is contactable through the Dorje Shugden supporters group on yahoo:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Dorje_Shugden_Supporters/
He said he had seen Trinley K recently, so it may be possible to contact him through Jeff.
Thanks
Dunc
October 8, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Dear Dunc,
Thank you so very much for this tip.
I’ll try to do as you suggest.
F
October 28, 2008 at 2:34 am
I’m here, watching: kalsang at comcast.com
Dear TK, thank you for your Protector-like actions, it’s good to see you are still active and supporting the cause!
November 2, 2008 at 3:47 am
Trinlay Kelsang,
Are you there?
How are you, what’s new in your research?
It’s great to know you are still around.
Best to you,
a Friend
November 5, 2008 at 5:28 am
Dear A Friend,
Nice to hear from you.
There is a treasure trove of history and rituals not even known to most Shugden practictioners, thanks to Lobsang Tayang, a contemporary of Pabongkha Rinpoche for preserving this. His contributions to this protector were arguably greater than those of Pabongkha, but there is little point making such comparisons between great people.
Fortunately much of this material has been collected and published independently so there is little reason to doubt its authenticity. Focusing on these 18/19th century works has been my focus in this 70 page paper which should be done in the next month or two called:
“Among Shugden Texts: A recovered history: a presentation of various works from the 17th to the 19th centuries with a refutation of the Shugden Affair”
Many have complained the Shugden Affair is biased and it is, but this actually refutes the fallacious ideas and mistakes head on with citations. It fundamentally refutes the assertion that Pabongkha Rinpoche made up the Dorje Shugden practice with a sectarian agenda, which is a very prominent negative idea that is also the same strategy Dharamsala has taken to discredit the practice.
The fact is Pabongkha didn’t make up this practice and examining this material reveals it was quite widespread before the end of the 19th century. Pabongkha was important in propogating a particular transmission coming from Tagphu Padmavajra, but many of the aspects of the rituals and epithets were already present in different parts of Tibet and Mongolia. Pabongkha’s overall strength was in assimilating various traditions at a critical point in history as he did with rare lam-rim and other traditions. Moreover there is separate transmission that came about in Amdo and Mongolia which is where Lobsang Tayang got the initiation.
Anyways at some point soon I would like to have some people critically review it, because sometimes we only get one chance to make a case… Looks like the email address I typed above is wrong, it should be:
kalsang at comcast.net
November 5, 2008 at 6:30 am
Trinley Kelsang,
I don’t know how to thank you for your extraordinary work. Please advice where and when are you publishing it and how to get it.
If I can be of help please let me know.
Any news from Beggar? How we miss him!
Best
af
November 13, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Trinley Kelsang,
How wonderful that you are translating this text. (Did you already use it as a source on Wikipedia? I thought I noticed something.)
Let me know if there is anything I can do to help. Mainly, please keep us informed as to your progress and when we might be able to see this precious translation.
For now, I guess we can keep posting questions and comments here on Dorje Shugen Truth! Like we did on Beggar’s forum.
November 15, 2008 at 4:42 am
Lineageholder, thank you for all you do.
Trinley Kelsang, thank you for your translation and all your scholarly research. It is so helpful for all of us.
Friend of Truth, thank you for all your great contributions too.
I help run the Wisdom Buddha Dorje Shugden blogspot and would like to invite you: please feel welcome to submit your comments often, as they are always very useful and thought-provoking:
http://www.wisdombuddhadorjeshugden.blogspot.com
This is now quite well read and so your points will be seen and heard. The blog comments are unmoderated.
Friend of truth, I received a lot of verbal feedback from people who loved the blog article we put up from you (taken from the New Statesman with your permission).
December 3, 2010 at 6:59 am
Now it is 2010 and almost 2011 with over 15 years of this schism and reading the post, I wonder how things really are
September 13, 2008 at 3:54 am
Thank you LineageHolder. I look forward to your posts in this blog.