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New Kadampa Buddhism
Please can anyone give info on New Kadampa Buddhism. They are the most local group to me. So it would seem to make sense to drop in a have a chat as they seem really friendly and maybe they could demythologise some of the jargon. I did just that today.
I have to say the whole thing smacked of cult. When I say that I mean the lack of reason or counter arguement. When I asked them about putting practise behind belief with regard to social justice they became completely abstract.
The lad that showed me around seemed like a good and kind person but it seemed life for him only to exists in and around this belief system of New Kadampa Buddhism. He confused me was the collection mixed worship towards different gods. I may be very wrong but for me I believed that there was only one Buddha and he was laying down a way to live not a controlled organisation.
This may seem very unfair but the living conditons of the people in residence seem very poor. I left feeling concerned for their welfare and put off by Buddha babble.
I would very much welcome suggestions on more agnostic, practical belief organistions.
I have to say the whole thing smacked of cult. When I say that I mean the lack of reason or counter arguement. When I asked them about putting practise behind belief with regard to social justice they became completely abstract.
The lad that showed me around seemed like a good and kind person but it seemed life for him only to exists in and around this belief system of New Kadampa Buddhism. He confused me was the collection mixed worship towards different gods. I may be very wrong but for me I believed that there was only one Buddha and he was laying down a way to live not a controlled organisation.
This may seem very unfair but the living conditons of the people in residence seem very poor. I left feeling concerned for their welfare and put off by Buddha babble.
I would very much welcome suggestions on more agnostic, practical belief organistions.
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This discussion has been closed.
Comments
There is a rather unpleasant aspect of NKT which is, as you say, HH, the amount of 'deity worship', which has led the Dalai Lama, as spiritual leader of all the Tibetan traditions, to issue warnings against this 'lineage'.
As you say, there is something of the stink of cult about NKT, which is a pity because I think that Geshe Kelsang's aim was to present the Dharma in a practical and 'Western' way.
Nice to see that you are questioning and examining so much. Good for you.... and your 'gut instinct' seems to be working with you and doing you a lot of favours.... Both Elohim and Simon give sound advice.... but always follow your instincts too.
Stick around, there's plenty more.....
If my path is to continue I believe it might possibly be long one. I start with the big issue surrounding trust in someone you is willing to teach or attempt to enlighten me.You must admit its a big ask.
You see my back ground is one of a firm commitment to democratic Socialism. For me it's about doing, not just thinking.Trust those that do.
There are many in and around the Socialism movement that will talk all day and kid themselves that change is just around the corner. It much like the Peoples Judian Front from Monty Pythons "Life of Brian". For me is about social justice and if comprise povides a means to an end, well in most cases, so be it. As you can see it doesn't have to be scientific but it has to be practical.
To improve oneself is not an opportunity to be missed, but surely isn't it time we look further and got off our knee and said enough is enough to world is in a shitty mess and we can do something.
So you see I am looking for more than just a mind movement I am looking for the real thing what ever that is, something that inspires. No pressure their then I hear you say.
I am not prepared to worship fake gods whlie people starve.But I am prepared to search until I exhaust myself to find answers to or should I say a counter balance to self interest, greed and the emptiness that follows.
All hints or tips welcome...?
"The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle..... give it a try.... hire it from your local library.... I advised a friend of mine in the UK to do this, and she said it was already out, but her name would be added to the waiting list.... there were six people in front of her....!!
It's worth the read.
Respect to Kelsang Gyatso...but I'm agnostic, so Tibetan deity thing doesn't appeal to me anyway.
Probably will return - give them the benefit of the doubt. See if I can help a local sangha, sit with them once in a while.
:-/
You are very welcome here.
I, too, had hoped to find useful teaching in our local NKT meditation group. And to avoid the sectarianism so prevalent in religions, philosophical schools, politics, etc.
Neither proved to be the case! The meditation teaching was sketchy at best, unless one was prepared to become some sort of member, and the Dharma teaching was worse than primary. The emphasis of the books by "Geshe-la" turned every session into a sales pitch.
Despite my fondness for Tibetan Buddhism, I take the 'deities' wityh many a pinch of mythic salt, using them as archetypes and focuses for meditation rather than 'persons', so that the whole dispute about this or that deity seems irrelevant to my practice.
I no longer us the group, despite the fact that the NKT members were friendly - but then I imagine Jim Jones's helpers were too!
I am new to this site also and I a have to say these guy's on here are great. They put up with me for a start. I can be very bolshie and not very mindful sometimes. I think you will find there is a broad church here.
From my experience all I can say is I had a gut feeling with these guys NKT. As I have already said they just reminded me of SWP.
Horses for coarses.
into exile by the Communist Chinese since the 1950s in a deliberate, systematic
destruction of a culture and a religion. The pacifist Buddhist monks are about
as innocent and noble as victims can be; the Nobel Prize-winning Dalai Lama is
perceived to be equally wonderful, kind, and heroic. Few are unfamiliar with the
boy-king's narrow escape in 1959 from the Chinese into India, where he still
governs in exile and continues to preach nonviolence. He is one of the most
universally respected religious figures in the second half of the twentieth
century.
This peace-loving image of Tibetan Buddhism sometimes may not be matched by
reality, however. In fact, some observers suspect that internal conflicts --
called by some a feud- resulted in the recent assassination of Tibetan leaders
in India by Buddhists holding a different point of view.* Understanding these
conflicts and how they might have led to assassination requires some history of
Tibetan Buddhism.
History behind the Conflict: Gods and Tantra
A fundamental Buddhist principle is that all phenomena, including people, lack
an inherent "self." We are possessive, greedy, hateful, angry, worried, and
frightened because we think we have a self with needs, desires, and rights that
must be honored and satisfied. Buddhists say we are deluded about this self. Our
clinging to the idea is the cause of all of our problems and the reason we are
reincarnated to lives of suffering over and over again. When we stop clinging to
the notion of self, we can advance spiritually and eventually attain nirvana, an
extinction of all craving that affords blissful release.
Such a principle should, it seems, preclude belief in any kind of deity, since
belief would imply that a deity has independent existence and a self. As
Buddhism came into contact with indigenous religions, however, it found ways to
incorporate local pantheons of gods into, and subordinate to, Buddhism. This is
especially true in Tibet, where the form of Buddhism over which the Dalai Lama
presides draws heavily upon the customs and beliefs of Tibet's native animistic
and shamanistic Bon religion.
The Bon religion divides the world into three realms: Heaven, consisting of gods
and demigods; Earth, consisting of Humans and Animals; and the Underworld,
consisting of Hungry Ghosts and Demons. Bon shamans invited possession by these
spirits in order to access their powers. Buddhism brought to Tibet from north
India the doctrines of tantricism. Buddhist tantric practices involve the
development of subtle powers of energy and mind to accelerate spiritual
development. These practices were as attractive to Bon shamans as they were to
Buddhists.
State-sponsored Buddhism began in the seventh century C.E., when warlord and
Tibetan King Srontsan Gampo married a Nepalese princess, promising her father
that he would become a Buddhist. He also married a Buddhist Chinese princess.
When an outbreak of smallpox occurred, the Bon interpreted it as a sign from the
gods that Buddhism was bad for Tibet and forced the King to expel all Indian
teachers and many of their Tibetan followers from the country. In the eighth
century, an attempt was made to reintroduce Buddhism with the aid of
Shantirakshita, a great Indian teacher. Shantirakshita came and taught at a
palace on the Red Hill in Lhasa. When lightning struck the palace during a
violent storm, the Bon again declared the Tibetan gods had been angered and
demanded the expulsion of Shantirakshita. Shantirakshita later was asked to come
back but is said to have replied that the forces of evil in Tibet were too
strong and had to be exorcized. He recommended that Tibet solicit the services
of a famous tantric monk Padmasabhava, known in Tibet as Lopon Rinpoche (Norbu,
148-49).
Lopon Rinpoche traveled throughout Tibet for fifty years, exorcizing demons and,
it is said, forcing them to work for Tibet, incorporating much of the native
pantheon of gods and beliefs into a Buddhist framework. Many of the deities were
brought into the Buddhist fold as different aspects of the same deity. Thus, the
Buddha or gods may manifest in a variety of forms, in a way roughly similar to
Christianity's god manifesting as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
How is this behavior reconciled with the Buddhist doctrine that nothing has an
inherent self? Since the world as we experience it is a product of our minds,
under Buddhist theory, the gods and hungry ghosts can be thought of in the same
way - not having a self, but existing as phenomena of mind. They are therefore
no less real than anything else we experience; and in the Buddhist framework,
they are subordinate to Buddha whatever their nature. Tibetan Buddhists to the
present day pray to gods and utilize oracles, just like the Bon, and believe the
unseen world is populated with all sorts of powers and forces that must be
reckoned with, even though they are phenomena of mind without an inherent self.
In a way, this view could be compared with Christian belief in devils, angels,
intervention of saints, and god as a Trinity. This is the first fact necessary
to understand the background of the current conflict.
The second fact is that the practice of tantricism has been a recurring issue in
Tibetan Buddhism. As described above, it was tantric monk Padmasabhava who
exorcized Tibet of its demons and paved the way for the establishment of
Buddhism. The form of Buddhism that took hold popularly was heavily influenced
by tantra and the native Tibetan deities. In the eleventh century C.E., another
Indian teacher, Atisha, came to Tibet and taught Buddhist doctrine free of
tantric elements, reinterpreting tantra in a symbolic and philosophical manner,
and advising that only two of the four tantric initiations be utilized. It is
said by Thugmen Jigma Norbu, a former Tibetan monk and brother of the current
Dalai Lama, that Atisha tried to strike a balance between Buddhist scripture and
popular tantric practices. The resulting resistance caused Tibetan Buddhism to
break into separate schools- the Kadampa, which followed Atisha's views; the
Kargyupa and Sakyapa, which wanted to retain more of the traditional Tibetan
deities; and the Nyingmapa, or Old Sect, which did not care at all for Atisha's
reforms and followed tantric-influenced practices associated with Padmasabhava.
Norbu says that the Bon of today in Tibet consider themselves closer to the
Nyingmapa than to any other Buddhist sect.
In the fifteenth century, the monastic reformer, Tsongkhapa, continued the
reforms begun by Atisha - establishing the Gelugpa school, founding the
important monasteries of Ganden, Sera, and Drepung, emphasizing pure Buddhist
teachings and the practice of virtue-but did not attempt to subvert or reform
the older Tibetan Buddhist sects, all of whom coexisted with the Gelugpa and the
native Bon.
The heads of the Gelugpa school were known as Dalai Lama and were believed each
to be the reincarnation of his predecessor. Upon the death of a Dalai Lama, a
search is made among children in Tibet for his reincarnation. Oracles and
prophecies suggest areas to search and candidates to be tested and screened,
often with reference to their ability to recognize acquaintances or belongings
of the previous Dalai Lama. In this way, the head of the Gelugpa school
reincarnates repeatedly to serve as Dalai Lama. The present Dalai Lama is the
fourteenth in succession.
Gelugpa Ascendance and Death of the Great Fifth's Rival
Keeping the foregoing in mind, we turn our attention to events in
seventeenth-century Tibet. In 1642 C.E., the Dalai Lama, head of the Gelugpa
school of Tibetan Buddhism, acquired authority over a politically divided Tibet.
The "Great Fifth," as he is known in Tibet, was shrewd in his dealings with the
Chinese, the Mongols, and with his Tibetans. He consolidated power through an
alliance with Mongol leader Gushri Khan, who defeated the strongest secular
leader in Tibet, King of Tsang, a member of the Nyingmapa order. At the time the
Great Fifth gained power there were both secular and sectarian rivalries. In
addition to various schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the old Bon religion was
reviving its bid for supremacy in Tibet. Rather than use his power to crush the
Nyingma sect, which he easily could have done through his alliance with the
Mongols, the Great Fifth deliberately incorporated Nyingmapa teachings and
practices into his ecclesiastical court (Norbu, 248-49). Some Gelugpa purists
objected.
As the secular and spiritual leader of all of Tibet, a Dalai Lama would have to
maintain good relations with all sects. Yet, given that the Nyingma sect was
closer to the tantricism whose excessive influence Gelugpa's founder thought was
detrimental to Buddhism, allegiance to Nyingma could have been a basis for
legitimate concern or a rallying point for political opponents of the Great
Fifth. Furthermore, his attraction to Nyingma may have been more than political
expediency, as it is said that Padmasabhava, the Indian tantric who had
exorcized the demons from Tibet, appeared to the Great Fifth in dreams and
visions (Batchelor, 62).
In any event, it is alleged that the conflict between the Great Fifth and the
Gelugpa purists led to the suicide or murder of the Great Fifth's rival, Drakpa
Gyaltsen. Gyaltsen had been one of the candidates considered for selection as
the Fifth Dalai Lama, so in a sense this rivalry had existed since childhood.
One story says that Drakpa Gyaltsen defeated the Dalai Lama in debate and was
found dead the next day with a ceremonial scarf stuffed down his throat. The
spirit of Gyaltsen was said to have returned and brought with it calamities upon
the Tibetan state. After magicians and lamas failed to exorcise the wrathful
spirit, the leaders of the Gulag sect asked the spirit to become a protector. It
"agreed." Those who had opposed the Dalai Lama's involvement with the Nyingma
sect recognized the spirit, called Dorje Shugden, as the reincarnation of
Gyaltsen (Lopez, 68).
One of Dorje Shugden's functions is said to be to protect the purity of the
Gelugpa teachings from pollution by Nyingma doctrines. However, the following
statement also is attributed to the Fifth Dalai Lama: "The so-called Drakpa
Gyaltsen pretends to be a sublime being. But since this interfering spirit and
creature of distorted prayers is harming everything, both dharma and sentient
beings, do not support, protect or give him shelter, but grind him to dust."
The practice of propitiating Shugden and regarding him as a manifestation of the
bodhisattva Manjushri (i.e., a buddha) continues among some Tibetan Buddhist
monks and laypersons to the present day. For some of these practitioners, Dorje
Shugden is the primary focus of their practice and, through the thirty-two
deities of his mandala (different manifestations of the same deity), is said to
embody various qualities and provide all kinds of help to those who take refuge
in him. According to information appearing on a pro-Shugden website referenced
at the end of this article, Dorje Shugden manifests in many different aspects -
peaceful, wrathful, layperson, monk, even nonhuman. Dorje Shugden also is said
to have manifested prior to the seventeenth century dispute with the Fifth Dalai
Lama, incarnating in the person of certain great monks and lamas extending all
the way back to the time of Buddha. However, Dorje Shugden first made his
appearance in Tibet's history as the reincarnated spirit of Drakpa Gyaltsen.
The Dorje Shugden practices have been the subject of controversy in the past. At
the beginning of this century, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama had to forbid Pabongka
Rinpoche, the most influential Gelugpa lama of the time, to invoke the deity on
the grounds that it was destroying Buddhism . The ban was
ineffective and the practice was passed on to Pabongka's disciples. Stephen
Batchelor, author of Buddhism without Beliefs (Tricycle/Riverhead), points out
that the Dorje Shugden dispute has erupted throughout Tibetan history every time
a politically effective Dalai Lama has held office.
Dorje Shugden Returns
The conflict began to resurface this century when, in 1973, a lama published an
account of various illnesses, tortures, and deaths allegedly inflicted as
punishment by Dorje upon Gelugpas who practiced Nyingma teachings. This account
was alleged to have been received orally from Trijan Rinpoche, one of the Dalai
Lama's tutors and a former disciple of Pabongka, the lama whom the Thirteenth
Dalai Lama had forbidden to propitiate Dorje Shugden.
The present Dalai Lama, who himself has engaged in some Nyingma practices,
condemned the publication and in 1976, upon advice of the Nechung oracle, began
discouraging the practice of propitiating Dorje - although he himself had, up to
that point, been in the habit of offering daily prayers to Dorje Shugden. Of the
six categories of beings in Tibetan Buddhism, the current Dalai Lama's brother,
Thubten Jigme Norbu, places Shugden in the "hungry ghost" category, a status
comparable to Western notions of evil spirits that haunt or possess people. By
1996, the Dalai Lama was quoted as saying: "It has become fairly clear that
(Shugden) is a spirit of the dark forces." He announced that he would give no
tantric initiations to those who had not renounced Shugden. It also is alleged
by the Shugden camp that supporters of the Dalai Lama's position destroyed
statues of individual Shugden worshipers.
This is a big deal because some Tibetans have entrusted their lives to Dorje
through initiation ceremonies, believing him to be a bodhisattva, or
manifestation of Buddha. Imagine the uproar in the Catholic Church if the pope
were to declare prayers to Mary a form of Satanworship to have a sense of how
disturbed some Tibetans might be by these pronouncements. According to Shugden
supporters, there were protests by Tibetan monks in India following the Dalai
Lama's statements. In the West, the Dalai Lama was picketed in London in 1996
and accused of suppressing freedom of religion. A few days later, a statement
was issued by the Tibetan government-in-exile strictly forbidding departments
and monasteries under government control from propitiating Shugden. In February
of 1997, three anti-Shugden Tibetan Buddhist monks, including the Dalai Lama's
close friend and confidant, seventy-year-old Lobsang Gyatso (the principal of
the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics), were brutally murdered in Dharamsala,
India, the Tibetan capital in exile. It is alleged that monks loyal to Dorje
Shugden did the killing.
The Murder
The killing is said to have been ritualistic. Newsweek reported that the three
members of the Dalai Lama's inner circle were stabbed fifteen to twenty times
each in a bedroom just a few hundred yards from the Dalai Lama's residence.
Robbery was eliminated as a motive because cash and gilded Buddhist statues had
been left at the blood-splattered scene. Robert Thurman, a Buddhist scholar and
author of Inner Revolution (Riverhead Books, 1998) and an old friend of the
Dalai Lama's, has been quoted as saying that he believes Shugden activists are
behind the murders. No one has been arrested and the suspects are believed to be
in Tibet.
Shugden organizations deny any involvement; however, a report appearing in the
Indian press claims that Indian police traced a call the escaped killers made to
a pro-Shugden organization in New Delhi. Seven months prior to the killing, a
threatening letter, the full text of which can be viewed on the official web
site of the Tibetan governmentin-exile, allegedly was sent under the seal of the
Dorje Shugden Charitable and Religious Society to "...the morally degenerated
Lobsang Gyatso, who is a disgrace to the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics....
[We] came to Dharamsala three times. In which nunnery were you hiding then? . .
. Instead of writing warped compositions, you should come down to Delhi (the
locale of Shugden sect headquarters) with courage and meet us like the louse
meets the thumb nails. However, if your guilty conscience does not afford you
the courage to come down, give us a date and we will come to you. Make your
decisions" (The Official Web Site of the Tibetan Government-in-exile:
http://www.tibet.com/). Subsequent to the killing, fourteen persons in the Dalai
Lama's entourage also claim to have received death threats.
The Shugden organization denies any involvement in the murders or threats. They
also claim that the letter quoted above does not constitute a threat and that
the phrase about lice and thumb nails is a common Tibetan idiom for determining
the truth or falsity of a matter. On a pro-Shugden website it is alleged that
threats have been made against Shugden activists by anti-Shugden groups. They
also suggest that the murders could have been committed by people within the
Dharamsala compound, alleging reports that evidence was tampered with and that a
sack filled with several hundred thousand dollars in cash was "missing." The
detention of various Shugden personnel for questioning and attempts to extradite
the suspects through Interpol indicate that the police have focused upon Shugden
activists.
Buddhist Fundamentalists?
The Shugden sect is popular with Tibetans obsessed with doctrinal purity. Robert
Thurman has compared them to the Taliban, Muslim fighters in Afghanistan. The
press in the West has seized upon the occult, wrathful aspect of Dorje Shugden,
describing the deity as a sword-wielding god sometimes wearing necklaces of
human heads. The heads are supposed, however, to be symbols of conquered vices
and transgressions.
The deity is said to ride a snow lion, symbolizing the four fearlessnesses of
Buddha. The mongoose on his arm indicates his power to grant wealth on those who
rely upon him. He has a third eye in his forehead, symbolizing omniscience, and
his wrathfulness shows his power to destroy ignorance and obstacles (Dorje
Shugden Coalition website).
The Shugden movement is organized around Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, a Gelugpa monk
who founded The New Kadampa Tradition in 1991 and set himself up as head of it
in London. (As described earlier, Kadampa was the order founded by
eleventh-century reformer Atisha.) Kelsang's uncle is the medium for Dorje
Shugden. Kelsang describes the NKT as "pure Gelugpas," and the organization
appears to have targeted Westerners for recruitment. The NKT (or one of its
associated organizations) led demonstrations against the Dalai Lama in London
and then later in New York. Kelsang is challenging the Dalai Lama's moral
authority on the international stage.
Spokespeople for the Dalai Lama say that the tradition of Shugden is notoriously
sectarian, disruptive of harmony in the Tibetan community, and on many occasions
during the past 360 years has denigrated other authentic Tibetan traditions. "It
has been an active force of fundamentalist antagonism, intolerance and fear.
Shugden advocates taught that any practitioner who engaged in practices from
other Buddhist traditions would face misfortune or even death" [The Official Web
Site of the Tibetan Government-in-exile: http://www.tibet.com/). The Dalai Lama
said on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday that he was in a dangerous period
in his life. He reportedly declared that Dorje Shugden is a threat to his own
life and to the cause of Tibet. That he has made statements that Shugden is
aligned with dark forces and refused to initiate Shugden followers into tantric
practices suggests that the Dalai Lama fears assassination as well as occult
harm from the Shugden sect.* Although the he has not said so, his followers
reportedly believe that, on an occult level, the hungry ghost Dorje Shugden is
seeking revenge for his own brutal murder back in the seventeenth century (Max,
1997).
The NKT present themselves as attempting to exercise religious freedom in the
face of oppression by the Dalai Lama. People in the West, especially America,
are likely to be receptive to such claims, whether true or not, because of
Western values and history that emphasize religious diversity. On the other
hand, the followers of the Dalai Lama would argue that he has a duty to
discourage spirit-worshiping practices contrary to the fundamentals of Buddhism.
In an interview in Tricycle, Kelsang has challenged the Dalai Lama to state
publicly what evidence he has that Dorje Shugden is an evil spirit who is
harming Tibetan independence and threatening his life. He argues that what
Shugden followers choose to believe harms no one else. Kelsang even denies that
Dorje Shugden harms Nyingma practitioners and calls such beliefs superstitions
(Donald S. Lopez, Jr., "Two Sides of the Same God," Tricycle: The Buddhist
Review 7, no. 3 [Spring 1998]: 76). Nevertheless, a text entitled "Praise to
Dorje-Shugden" (quoted by the lama whose 1973 account of calamities and
punishments befalling Nyingma practitioners provoked condemnation from the Dalai
Lama) suggests some animus. "Praise to you, violent god of the Yellow Hat
teachings, Who reduces to particles of dust Great beings, high officials, and
ordinary people Who pollute and corrupt the Gelugpa doctrine" [excerpted from
"Praise to Dorje Shugden," quoted by Stephen Batchelor in "Letting Daylight into
Magic: The Life and Times of Dorje Shugden," Tricycle: The Buddhist Review 7,
no. 3 [Spring 1998]: 60).
The Dalai Lama's people call NKT a "cult," and the British press has described
it as Britain's biggest, richest, and fastest growing religious sect. Since
1991, it has grown to over two hundred centers in England and about fifty in
Australia, Malaysia, Brazil, Mexico, the United States, and elsewhere in Europe.
NKT's goal is to be the biggest umbrella Buddhist organization in the West.
There is said to be a lot of pressure for members to give money. According to
British press reports, supporters are told that donations will "create enormous
merits" in future lives. Interest-free "loans" from members are also being used
to fund expansion. There appear to be associated organizations, such as the
Shugden Supporters Community and the Dorje Shugden Coalition, controlled or
peopled by NKT members, through which many of the denunciations of the Dalai
Lama are issued.
Kelsang has a reputation as a brilliant teacher of Buddhism and had built up a
following prior to setting up NKT. Sixteen of his books on Buddhism have been
published in English, two of them bestsellers in England. An article in the
British press says that Kelsang tells his followers he believes Buddhism in
Tibet is dead because of the Chinese occupation and that it has already died in
India. If he is right, that leaves the West as the future of Tibetan Buddhism.
Is Kelsang personally ambitious? The British press reports that some of his
former students who are disillusioned with NKT insist that he is an honest,
well-intentioned person of integrity. Some speculate that his followers may be
using him, or that he fails to appreciate the geopolitical consequences of some
of what he says and does.
Some former followers suggest that those around him create an atmosphere that
promotes Kelsang as "the Third Buddha," come to establish Buddhism in the West,
the first and second Buddhas having been respectively Buddha himself and
Tsongkhapa, founder of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism. A story in the
British press reports that followers are told that Kelsang is all-knowing and
all-powerful, answers prayers, does not need to sleep, eat, or go to the
bathroom, and has to put rocks in the pockets of his robe to keep from
levitating during meditation. Kelsang, in response to such stories, describes
himself as "nobody special." It is not uncommon for Western devotees of eastern
gurus to make extraordinary, exaggerated claims with or without a nod and a wink
from the teacher.
Communist Chinese-Connection or Exploitation?
An Indian newspaper published reports that the murderers immediately crossed
over to Tibet after the murders and were safely escorted to their villages by
the Chinese army. The Chinese, who destroyed so many temples and killed so many
monks, reportedly are restoring Shugden temples in occupied Tibet. A report
allegedly appearing in the Chinese official journal, China's Tibet, no. 6, 1996,
which can be viewed at the website of the Tibetan government-in-exile,
repeatedly refers to Dorje Shugden as the holy spirit and guardian of Tibetan
Buddhism and denounces the Dalai Lama as a religious hypocrite. Whether the
Chinese Communists are behind the murders or are simply taking advantage of a
situation to undermine the Dalai Lama is hard to say.
Shugden activists deny opponents' claims that they receive funds from the
Chinese government and claim they support an independent Tibet. Nevertheless,
NKT's apparently systematic campaign against the Dalai Lama is considered by
some to be an attempt to damage the whole sustainability of the exile community.
The Dorje Shugden Coalition web site refers to a story, attributed to The Indian
Express in Chandigarh, reporting allegations that the Tibetan
government-in-exile hides the known previous records of many Tibetan refugees
and manipulates facts about Tibetan refugees involved in crimes to conceal their
guilt. Is the point of including the article to show the murders could likely
have been committed by one of these "hidden" criminals, or simply to malign the
Tibetan government-in-exile? Similarly, included in the Shugden Coalition
website is a quote from an interview with the Dalai Lama which appeared in
Mother Jones, December 1997, stating that to save a person whose death would
cause the whole of Tibet to lose hope of keeping its Buddhist way of life, "it
might be justified for one or 10 enemies to be eliminated." Presumably, this
quote is to suggest to the web site reader that the Dalai Lama, feeling himself
endangered, could justify ordering the murder of his enemies or at least is not
the pacifist we think he is. If one looks up the article and reads the quote in
context, the Dalai Lama is talking about a hypothetical saving of the last
person on earth having knowledge of Buddhism - not himself - and asserts that he
left Tibet in 1959 so that Tibetans would not kill to protect him. Since
Tibetans in exile are guests of the Indian government, information suggesting
that they or Tibetan government-in-exile is potentially dangerous or disruptive
threatens that guest relationship. If the Tibetan exile community were no longer
welcome in India, Communist China's interests would be well-served, but that
does not prove that the Shugden Coalition intends that result.
What's So Bad about Nyingma?
Since Dorje Shugden is supposed to prevent Nyingma teachings from polluting the
Gelugpa order, why is Nyingma so "bad"? Nyingma represents the oldest Buddhist
system in Tibet, tracing its origin back to the Royal Dynastic Period (617-845
C.E.) and to Padmasabhava, the legendary Indian tantric master who exorcized
Tibet's demons at the end of the eighth century. Padmasabhava is said to have
brought "Distant Lineage of the Transmitted Precepts" - the doctrines, rituals,
and meditative practices transmitted from master to disciple since the eighth
century - and the "Close Lineage of the Treasures." The latter are supposed to
be revelations buried by Padmasabhava, either physically in the Tibetan earth or
psychically in the minds of his reincarnating disciples (Davidson, 102). As
described previously, many of the major reforms in Tibetan Buddhism, including
those of the founder of the Gelugpa school, attempted to redact or purify the
tantric and animistic aspects of early Tibetan Buddhism to make them more
consistent with the underlying principles of Buddhism. Nyingma remains closer to
the original, unreformed version of Tibetan Buddhism.
According to Stephen Batchelor, director of the New Sharpham College in Devon,
England, and author of Buddhism without Beliefs (Tricycle/ Riverhead), Nyingma
teaches Dzogchen, the direct and sudden pointing out by a realized teacher of
the experience of the natural or authentic state of mind beyond conceptions.
This state of mind is an innate, selfcognizant, self-existing awareness
underlying both samsara (illusion) and nirvana. The idea of a self-existing
awareness, of course, raises the thorny question of "self."
Hindu Vedantists, similar to what is implied by Dzogchen, teach that there is a
real self, what Westerners might call God, that is selfexisting, though
everything else, including our separate lives until we attain self-realization,
is illusory. Buddha broke from Hindu thought by teaching that neither the gods
nor any phenomena have an inherent self. The Gelugpa purists' view (the purity
of which Dorje Shugden is bound to protect) considers Dzogchen a delusive
clinging to a type of self-existence and a backsliding to Hindu ideas that
Buddhism was supposed to refute. Nyingmas might reply by characterizing Gelugpa
purists as nihilists. Batchelor says the dispute is not academic hair-splitting
to those involved but the struggle for truth in which the salvation of sentient
beings hangs in the balance. Thus, different views on esoteric philosophical
questions with important, they believe, practical consequences fortify each
side's position.
Precedent exists in otherwise heterodoxic Tibetan Buddhism for suppressing wrong
views regarding the existence of a self. The Fifth Dalai Lama, after
consolidating his power in the seventeenth century, proscribed teachings of the
Jonangpa school, which taught that emptiness, an idea important to understanding
that all phenomena are without a self, implied the existence of a transcendent
absolute reality (Batchelor, 65). Jonangpa monasteries were taken over by
Gelugpa monks. If the Great Fifth had done the same to the Nyingmas, perhaps the
Dorje Shugden schism never would have arisen.
Why Is Dorje Shugden So Important?
If Shugden purists object to Nyingma tendencies toward acknowledging a
self-existing reality, why do they cling so strongly to Dorje Shugden? Does that
change Buddhism to Shugdenism and make Shugden a self-existing reality and those
who take refuge in Shugden part of a sectarian cult? As Buddhism syncretized
with the native Bon religion, an important distinction between Buddhists and Bon
practitioners was that Buddhists supposedly understood that the gods, although
real in the sense that anything is real, were just mind, without inherent
existence. To what degree can one become attached to or take refuge in deity
protectors without in fact attributing to that deity an inherently existing
self? Even worse, in the view of the Dalai Lama, would be to take refuge in a
"hungry ghost."
How does any of this deity-worshiping, or the factors of emotion, politics, and
tradition underlying it, really square with the tenets of Buddhism? The two
sides would give different answers to those questions. Both sides see Dorje
Shugden as a "real" entity, whether an aspect of the Buddha or a hungry ghost,
and as real as any one of us - not just a form of worship or technique of
meditation.
*See David Van Biema, "Monks vs. Monks; Devotees of a Ferocious Buddhist Deity
Are Seeking to Put a Dent in the Dalai Lama's Aura of Sainthood," Time, May 11,
1998, 70(1); The Christian Science Monitor; John Zubrzycki, special to The
Christian Science Monitor, May 18, 1998. These articles, as well as a series
appearing in the spring 1998 issue of Tricycle: The Biddhist Review, describe
what Tricycle calls "Tibet's 'unmentionable' Feud."
*In a statement appearing on the Tibetan government-in-exile's website, however,
it is explained that the danger to His Holiness is not that he will be attacked
by an evil spirit but that the bond between the Dalai Lama and his people will
be broken.
Sources
Batchelor, Stephen. "Letting Daylight into Magic: The Life and Times of Dorje
Shugden." Tricycle: The Buddhist Review 7, no. 3 (Spring 1998).
Bunting, Madeleine. "Shadow Boxing on the Path to Nirvana." The Guardian,
London, July 6, 1996.
Clifton, Tony. "Did an Obscure Tibetan Sect Murder Three Monks Close to the
Dalai Lama?" Newsweek, April 28, 1997.
Dorje Shugden Coalition Website, URL http://www.shugden.com/indxnofr.htm.
Lopez, Donald S., Jr. "Two Sides of the Same God." Tricycle: The Buddhist Review
7, no. 3 (Spring 1998).
Max, Arthur. "Dalai Lama Fighting Ghost in Religious Dispute." Seattle Times,
August 21, 1997.
Norbu, Thubten Jigme, and Colin M. Turnbull. Tibet. London: Chatto & Windus,
1969.
Davidson, Ronald M. Review of The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its
Fundamentals and History. Parabola 18, no. 1 (Spring 1993): 102(3).
Official Website of the Tibetan Government-in-exile, URL http://www.tibet.com/.
Simms, Laura. "Compassion's Flower: An Interview with Orgyen Kusum Lingpa."
Parabola 22, no. 4 (Winter 1997): 20(8).
"Two More Shugden Activists Identified as Murderers." The Tribune, Indian
Englishlanguage daily, Chandigarh edition, November 29, 1997.
Van Biema, David. "Monks vs. Monks; Devotees of a Ferocious Buddhist Deity Are
Seeking to Put a Dent in the Dalai Lama's Aura of Sainthood." Time, May 11,
1998.
MIKE WILSON, a member of the Society for Utopian Studies, is a lawyer and
long-time student of religion and spiritual disciplines.
Copyright Association for Religion and Intellectual Life Spring 1999
©1999 UMI Company; All Rights Reserved. Only fair use, as provided by the United
States copyright law, is permitted. UMI Company makes no warranty regarding the
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----
The Journal (UK), Jan. 26, 1999
EXCLUSIVE By Gareth Walsh Chief Reporter
A BUDDHIST sect at the centre of complaints from concerned families is seeking to strengthen its North powerbase.
Followers of the New Kadampa Tradition, once linked with allegations of a plot to overthrow the Dalai Lama, already boast a string of UK properties including two country houses, one of them their headquarters and home of their spiritual leader.
Overseas worshippers of the deity Dorje Shugden have been questioned over the brutal murder and mutilation of one of the Nobel Prize-winning Dalai Lama's closest confidants and two other monks.
And devotees in the NKT have been accused of putting family relationships under strain as their acolytes follow a fast track into the faith.
The NKT is now planning to open a new residential centre in Newcastle. In addition to the sect's HQ in a neo-gothic mansion in Ulverston, Cumbria, the NKT has an established residential centre in Milton Street, Darlington, County Durham, and a Georgian mansion near York.
It already holds teachings in 16 other North-East towns or cities, and plans new sessions in Hexham, Northumberland, and Whitley Bay, North Tyneside.
Ian Howarth, of the support group the Cult Information Centre, said: "We have certainly had complaints about NKT activities, and we are very concerned about them."
The centre has been approached by families and friends of some NKT members worried about personality changes among a number of people who join the group putting strain on relationships.
Concerns have also been expressed about the depth of commitment members make within a relatively short time of contacting the NKT, and about the group's opposition to the Dalai Lama.
The NKT is believed to be Britain's fastest-growing Buddhist sect with more than 3,000 members, and a publishing business.
Jim Belither, NKT secretary, says his organisation as a whole is no longer involved in the Dorje Shugden controversy, although he admits individual members may be.
"Individuals are free to be linked, but as an organisation, we are not involved."
Of complaints to the Cult Information Centre he said: "Sometimes people can get over-enthusiastic about the NKT, but then that rubs off, and they get back to everyday life. It's true some go over the top - but we try to encourage them to have a sensible long-term view.
"I do not believe the criticisms are borne out when you look at them properly. We do not encourage the break-up of families. We encourage people to keep up contact with families.
"We do say we alter minds, because we believe all problems arise from the mind. But that comes from individuals, from their own side, not brainwashing."
Power Play Plot
Were monks pawns in power play plot? - As an espionage thriller it would stretch the limits of credibility. But, as Gareth Walsh reports, truth may be stranger than fiction in the story of a North-based sect.
Centre of attention: Conishead Priory, once a home for Durham miners, is now the base of the New Kadampa Tradition.
AMID mature woodland, at the end of a driveway running through Cumbrian pasture, nestles Conishead Priory.
For more than 20 years the former Durham miners' home has played host to an unlikely resident, Tibetan Buddhist monk Geshe Kelsang.
From the mansion, the New Kadampa Tradition, of which Kelsang is spiritual head, has spread its influence across the UK overseeing the setting up of residential centres for devotees, and is now pouring hundreds of thousands of pounds into overseas groups.
Among its latest targets is Newcastle, where the NKT hopes to open a permanent centre.
On a superficial level the charity looks like an increasingly successful fringe religious group playing to the spiritual dissatisfaction with '90s materialist society - though with a few hiccups along the way.
The NKT's total assets almost doubled from £141,555 in 1993 to £228,663 in 1997. From an income of £367,042 around 65pc went in charitable donations, much to its centres in the UK and overseas.
In its literature, the NKT asks supporters to give interest-free loans, tax-free deeds of covenant or gifts of more than £250, or to be included in supporters' wills. The purchase of NKT centres is largely facilitated by using residents' rents to cover mortgages.
The NKT supporters have been offered, and accepted, more than £90,000 in grants from English Heritage to renovate their Cumbria headquarters, although only £15,718 has so far been taken up.
South Lakeland District Council has previously taken enforcement action following unauthorised work on the grade two-listed priory but says the owners are now complying with regulations.
On a more profound level however, the NKT may have inadvertently stepped into a Communist plot affecting the lives of millions of Tibetans.
Despite the tranquillity of the priory, renamed the Manjushri Centre, all has not been well in Buddhaland.
For not only has Kelsang been at odds with the Nobel Prize-winning Dalai Lama, leader of Tibetans exiled by the invasion of their homeland, he may also have unwittingly played straight into the hands of Chinese agents aiming to sow havoc among the Lama's followers.
The quarrel between the two holy men broke out over the worship of a centuries-old Tibetan deity Dorje Shugden. The Dalai Lama insists Shugden worship is crass, commercial and damaging. Kelsang says the Lama is trampling human rights by trying to ban an important religious practice.
Had their dispute been played out in India, seat of Tibet's exile government, it would have made at most a few column inches in the West. It was when NKT supporters - Western Buddhists - took to European streets that the schism made headlines.
Following protests in May 1997 the Dalai Lama eventually entered the fray and criticised Dorje Shugden worshippers for praying to the deity for success in business.
Concern about Shugden supporters grew following the bloody murder of the Dalai Lama's close friend, 70-year-old Lobsang Gyatso,and two young monks, a few hundred yards from the Lama's northern Indian home.
Shugdens in India were questioned about the killings but were not charged.
The NKT says it has stopped its campaign against the Dalai Lama. But the damage may already have been done in the playing out of a covert political plot featuring unwitting NKT members.
For since China invaded Tibet more than 40 years ago and began to flood it with a Han Chinese population, the Dalai Lama has developed a positive image for himself in the West, creating a thorn in Beijing's side and an urgent need for the Chinese party PR apparatus to discredit him.
And in "classified documents" allegedly leaked from a Beijing government meeting in 1993 doing the rounds on the Internet, Chinese officials discuss how best to create schisms among the Dalai Lama's followers as an important means of destabilising him.
The Tibetan government-in-exile believes the Chinese are using Shugden supporters in order to destabilise the Dalai Lama by exploiting the rift.
One exile in the UK said: "We know that the Chinese are encouraging Shugden supporters both inside and outside Tibet. But we have no specific proof - particularly in the West - of how they are being funded."
Yet in Cumbria NKT secretary Jim Belither says: "We feel Dorje Shugden practice is a valid Buddhist practice. There is no harm to it at all. But for reasons which are a little bit obscure the Dalai Lama is against it.
"I should say we are not in opposition to him in general. The Dalai Lama had effectively banned the practice, then we took up the cause of the people who practise it in India. But it all became very controversial and we have decided to stop our involvement. Most of our people are no longer involved.
"Tibetan Dorje Shugden practitioners are certainly not sympathetic towards China. They are as much seeking independence for Tibet as any other Tibetan, and we would be totally behind Tibetan independence.
"If this controversy gives strength to the Chinese, then why did the Dalai Lama open up a rift by banning the practice? Which action gives the Chinese support - his initial action, or the reaction to it?"
Death threats to Dalai Lama blamed on rival Bhuddist sect
Sydney Morning Herald, November 15 2002
by Umarah Jamali
In the northern Indian town of Dharamsala, where the Tibetan government-in-exile has its headquarters, posters threatening to kill the Dalai Lama have appeared. They say he and his followers in India will face death if they do not leave the country.
Police suspect a Tibetan cult, Shugden, is behind the threats against the Dalai Lama, who fled to Dharamsala from Tibet in 1959, and have tightened security around him.
The New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) branch of the Shugdens, established by Kelsang Gyatso in 1991, has its headquarters in Britain. For some years relations between it and the Dalai Lama have been strained.
The cult worships a 350-year-old wrathful Tibetan deity, Dorje Shugden, often depicted wearing a necklace of 50 severed human heads and having four fangs. With three blood-red eyes he is a sword-wielding warrior figure, riding a snow lion through a sea of boiling blood.
His followers consider themselves guardians of Tibetan Buddhism, and some have described them as the Taliban of Buddhism because of their extremism.
Shugdens from the Gelukpa (Yellow Hats) sect do not like the Nyingmapa (Red Hats) sect, and consider it a sin even to talk to Red Hats or touch their religious works. They have branded the Dalai Lama, 67, a traitor to the Yellow Hats for befriending other branches of Buddhism.
Kelsang Gyatso and his followers in NKT accuse the Dalai Lama of selling out Tibet by promoting its autonomy within China rather than outright independence, of expelling their followers from jobs in Tibetan establishments in India, and of denying them humanitarian aid pouring in from Western countries.
The Dalai Lama says Shugdens pose a serious threat to Tibetan unity in exile. He has urged Tibetans not to worship Dorje Shugden, saying it fosters religious intolerance and turns Buddhism into a cult of spirit worship.
Many followers of the Dalai Lama believe that the Shugdens have links with Chinese intelligence, and suggest China is exploiting the controversy to undermine the Dalai Lama's influence and weaken support for Tibet's independence.
The chairman of the Tibetan parliament, Toma Jugney, said: "It's a deliberate attempt to create differences, not just between Indians and Tibetans, but amongst Tibetans too."
However, he did not say the cult was behind the death threats.
In September in Kathmandu, NKT members held a news conference at which they said: "The Dalai Lama and his soldiers in Dharamsala are creating terror in Tibetan society by harassing and persecuting people like us. We cannot take it lying down for long."
However, an official who handles Tibetan affairs in India's Home Ministry in New Delhi said: "We don't think that there is any Chinese conspiracy behind this death threat against the Dalai Lama.
"Probably it is fallout from infighting among the exiled Tibetans. However, we have beefed up the security cover around the Tibetan leader."
I guess I have tons more questions now.....
Didn't HHDL and Geshe Gyatso have the same teacher...[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Trijang Rinpoche[/FONT]?
Why would HHDL have written the forewards in several of GKG's books if he believed he was incorrect and as a living Buddha, wouldn't he have know this all along? Should I now ignore that which he once endorsed?
Didn't HHDL engage in Dorje Shugden worship?
How can "enlightened" beings make such huge mistakes, and why do they need oracles, superstition etc when they supposedly understand the true nature of reality......
It all smacks of power, money, and politics, which I was naive enough to believe one could overcome with a well intentioned practice.
I would also like to say for the record, I have never been pressured for money and while they do feature books written by GKG, when I was at Shambhala Int'l, all they did was push books by Sakyong Mipham and Chogyam Trunpa. They offered no books by anyone outside of their tradition.
Classes at NKT are 35 bucks, at Shambhala 60 bucks.
I have also never been asked to foresake my family and move into the woods or drink poison, so maybe the use of the term "cult" and references to Jim Jones may be a bit overzealous, especially when you consider you may be harming the psyche of thousands of good hearted, well intentioned people.
I am fortunate enough living in Atlanta,GA to have several choices of traditions, training, etc...but now I am awash in a sea of doubt....anyone living in ATL have any suggestions.....
Herman,
I find that it's not tiring to repeat basics all the time. I'm glad people do. It just provides more food for thought, more information, and more grounding in following the Path.
Just keep asking...I do.
-bf
Palzang
http://pss.sagepub.com/content/20/5/645.abstract
But just take a deep breath, realize that the flaws are human ones, and not necessarily systematic. Finding that a local medical clinic has human problems, for example, shouldn't necessarily cause us to give up on the idea of medicine altogether.
Personally, I would not choose to participate in an organization that encourages students to read only one teacher's books, and discourages them from reading others. However, if you feel good about your local NKT center, there's no reason you can't try to find out more--just keep your eyes very, very open. If your particular center, against all odds, is shedding some of the problems that dog NKT (taking advantage of students, promoting devotion to only one teacher), there's no reason to throw it out without further research, especially if you like the people.
I would strongly recommend, however, to any and all people considering NKT that they read the New Kadampa Survivors newsgroup: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newkadampasurvivors. You will find a lot of discussion about both NKT's good and bad points, and will be better equipped to recognize NKT-specific problems arising in your group (for example, subtle increased pressure to stop reading other teachers' books).
I'd advise the same thing of people choosing Adventism, for example--it could be for you, but know that it is NOT a hands-off, pressure-free religion; educate yourself on the particulars and make an informed choice.
The HHDL and Shugden issue is huge and complicated; it cannot be written off as political, as at its root, it is theological in nature. There are various parties attempting to co-opt the theological debate for political reasons, including most notably the Chinese government. Don't believe anyone that tells you there's a "ban" on Shugden worship; there isn't. This whole thing has only to do with one, specific "protector" practice and whether or not it is theologically sound. It does not affect Buddhism as a whole.
It would be great if you could find one or two more Buddhist groups/centers/temples in your area, and visit them, too--see what feels right. I know it's hard if there's only one nearby.
Personally, from all I have seen, I would not join NKT. I'm sorry if that offends anyone here, but there are simply too many ruined lives at this point to justify mincing words--I would say the same thing about my former religion (Adventism). I hope your NKT center is an exception; that would be wonderful in many ways.
if appropriate, begin a new one.