The author of the blog Why Dalai Lama Why is currently refuting some of Tenzin Peljor’s most recent smears of the New Kadampa Tradition and the Western Shugden Society.
From the Why Dalai Lama Why Blog:
I visited Tenzin Peljor’s blog and found an entry that had various quotes from people questioning the WSS’s behavior. I would like to use this post to show that his posting contains many misstatements.
Is Tenzin Peljor leading people to make these misstatements, influencing them, urging them to say things that fulfills his wish to continue to smear the WSS and NKT?
He is also repeating statements that have been disproved over and over again. Like the Dalai Lama quote saying “there is no ban”.
There is plenty of evidence that shows there is real religious discrimination happening due to the ban of Dorje Shugden practice by the Dalai Lama. There is plenty of evidence showing that the Dalai Lama is enforcing the ban. Even the FPMT has outcast Shugden practitioners from their teachings, classes, etc. due to following the requests of the Dalai Lama.
Another baseless accustion is that the WSS is funded by the Chinese. There is NO evidence that WSS has been funded by the Chinese. These are just negative accusations that have no evidence supporting them.
Read the full refutation on the blog Why Dalai Lama Why
Below was an email sent to Tenzin Paljor the most vehement critic of Shugden practitioners and of the NKT. He will not post it. He will not answer these questions nor other important ones. He is very selective it what he chooses to respond to. These are some of the most important questions concerning the Dalai Lama and yet remain completely ignored. If you (Tenzin Peljor) are so confident in your beliefs why are you afraid to answer these questions?
Dear Tenzin,
Since you have taken it upon yourself or been asked to represent the views of the Dalai Lama, I wish to submit six important questions that hopefully you can provide clear replies to. Since you have gone to great lengths to accommodate the questions of a concerned citizen in Brighton, then in fairness please show the same willingness to address the questions below – they to come from a concerned citizen.If you are fair and open minded as the people visiting your blogs indicate, demonstrate these qualities by providing the appropriate answers. There is no valid reason not to post these questions and let your readers draw their own conclusions.
Sincerely,
Ron Cook
1) If it is appropriate for the Dalai Lama to decide what spiritual practices are appropriate, and seeing clearly that such a decision causes divisiveness, why are the reasons he cites for the ban on Dorje Shugden not being supported by the teachings of Buddha? What sutras specifically dictate the need for invoking spiritual bans? If the ban is not politically motivated there must be an authentic spiritual basis for this action. The teachings of Buddha address all possible delusions that sentient beings are capable of generating, therefore, please cite the sutras that necessitate imposing the ban on Dorje Shugden.
2) Why is the Dalai Lama consistently patient, apologetic, and conciliatory toward the Chinese and not Dorje Shugden practitioners? The Dalai Lama has never acknowledged any email, petition, fax, phone call, telegram, or verbal request, nor has he ever granted an audience to anyone wishing to try and solve the Shugden controversy. However, he makes effort to engage the Chinese at virtually every opportunity. Please explain this double standard of engagement.
3) The Dalai Lama says that Dorje Shugden practitioners are free to ignore his ‘advice’ and continue to practice their faith. How is this possible when his government, his siblings, his personal friends, and representatives of Buddhist traditions that he controls, at every opportunity, disparage and attack Dorje Shugden practitioners? What basis is there to believe that Shugden practitioners have freedom? The Dalai Lama has said:
“Everyone who is affiliated with the Tibetan society of the Ganden Phodrang government, should relinquish ties with Dhogyal. This is necessary since it poses danger to the religious and temporal situation of Tibet. As for foreigners, it makes no difference to us if they walk with their feet up and their head down. We have taught Dharma to them, not they to us…
‘Until now you have a very good job on this issue. Hereafter also, continue this
policy in a clever way. We should do it in such a way to ensure that in future generations not even the name of Dhogyal is remembered.”
(From a speech delivered July 14th 1996, in Caux Switzerland)
Since the Dalai Lama has expressed an intention to utterly destroy the practice of Dorje Shugden, please explain the nature and type of freedom such practitioners shall enjoy.
4) Johan Candelin, director of the World Evangelical Fellowship’s (WEF) Religious Liberty Commission, invited the Dalai Lama to meeting in Helsinki on June 20, 1998. One of the topics discussed was the persecution of Christians in Sri Lanka by Buddhists. The Dalai Lama said that any Buddhist who persecutes Christians “misunderstands the true nature of Buddhism.” Persecution is defined in the Random House College Dictionary (def. 3) to mean:
“A program or campaign to exterminate, drive away, or subjugate a people because of their religious or moral beliefs or practices.”
If persecution of Christians is inappropriate and contrary to the true nature of Buddhism, why is the persecution of Shugden practitioners been not only acceptable, but advocated by the Dalai Lama? How can any reasonable person not consider the Dalai Lama’s words and actions to be hypocrisy in the extreme? Please clarify that persecuting Shugden practitioners is not hypocrisy.
5) The Dalai Lama freely admits that previous to his ban he was a practitioner of Dorje Shugden. He also composed a prayer to the deity entitled, Melody of the Unceasing Vajra, which is subtitled: ‘A Propitiation of Mighty Gyalchen Dorje Shugden, Protector of Conqueror Manjushri Tsongkhapa’s Teachings, by the Supreme Victor, the Great 14th Dalai Lama.’ Since the Dalai Lama is considered to be infallible and a fully enlightened being, how can these completely opposite beliefs be reconciled? Should we understand that the Dalai Lama was a faulty being when he practiced this deity in the past? If so, how is it that he can be considered to be faultless now? Enlightened beings cannot become more enlightened with time, nor can their perfect state degenerate. Moreover, such a pure being is omniscient, and would know indubitably that such a reversal of belief would cause tremendous confusion and problems. A flawless being should be able to provide a coherent, logical, and plausible explanation for this contradiction. The Dalai Lama has yet to provide such an explanation. Please explain how the Dalai Lama’s reversal on Dorje Shugden can be considered anything other than the confused and mistaken action of an ordinary being.
6) For nearly four centuries the deity Dorje Shugden has supposedly caused harm to many people. The Fourteenth Dalai Lama claims that since the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama, Dorje Shugden has caused not only a consistent degeneration of Buddhism, but many other serious problems. If this is true, why is it not possible for any of the reincarnations of the Dalai Lama to subdue this being? It is claimed that each of the Dalai Lamas are successive manifestations of the Buddha of Compassion (Chenrezig). There are many accounts of high Lamas subduing malevolent spirits in Tibet, yet the succession of ten Dalai Lamas cannot accomplish a similar feat. Practitioners of Dorje Shugden claim that he is an enlightened being, and therefore impossible to subdue. Please explain the failure of these ten Dalai Lamas to subdue Dorje Shugden. Please explain the failure of thousands of high Lamas to do the same.
Cincinnati City Beat
http://citybeat.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid:146102
This article disproves one of Tenzin Peljor’s most persistent smears, that the NKT is the WSS (or vice versa).
“The Dalai Lama hasn’t simply discouraged honoring Dorje Shugden. Declaring the deity an evil spirit, he’s vowed to crush the tradition.
The Tibetan Government in Exile denies identity cards to Tibetan nationals who refuse to sign oaths renouncing the deity, leaving them unable to travel, hold jobs or receive aid, according to Lisa Farnsworth, a law professor at Indiana University. Monks who hold fast to their loyalty to Dorje Shugden have been expelled from monasteries, she says, and others have been denied food or barred from participating in prayer rituals.
“We’re talking about basic human rights — being able to eat, being able to have housing, (not) having your life threatened,” Farnsworth says. “You can talk about love and compassion all you want, but people are being hurt by the Dalai Lama’s actions.”
The issue attracted attention earlier this summer when a crowd leaving the Dalai Lama’s lecture in New York City started heckling Dorje Shugden followers who held signs saying, “Dalai Lama, Give Us Religious Freedom.” Police officers urged the protesters to leave the scene for their own safety.
“There were 50 police officers there who said, ‘We can’t protect you. You’ve got to get on the buses and get out of here,’ ” Farnsworth says.
Farnsworth is a lay student at Dagom Tensung Ling Monastery in Bloomington, Ind., GSL’s “sister” monastery.
“There was one primary reason why we established our monastery: to preserve our lineage,” Kuten Lama says. “The hardship is because (the Dalai Lama) took our religious freedom, our human rights. But it is very hard for us ordinary persons to explain to the world because he is so powerful and famous and our words are not too important.” “