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First allow me to introduce myself. My name is Sulmaya, I have been a practitioner within the New Kadampa Tradition for twelve years and have studied Buddhism and Vedanta-Dharma in general, both in other centers and organisations, as well as at University.
On behalf of myself and many Sangha friends, I am writing this letter which I was hoping to post on a respectable website dealing with the Dorje Shugdän issue, but alas, I was not able to find a suitable place for it. Unfortunately your site does not allow for the public to engage in dialogue.
I would like to begin by questioning your organisations motivations and the results you hope to achieve. You have gone from being a necessary and brave response to an unfounded religious ban, to a zealous, political and separatist group of missionaries. Please allow me to list the following points to explain my reasons for saying this:
1. Your book, ‘
A Great Deception’, while highlighting many interesting facts, is hell-bent on proving that the Dalai Lama supported Mao. You base this on a poem of praise he wrote to the chairman when he was a child. You therefore fail to understand impermanence and emptiness: a) You insist that the Dalai Lama of today holds the same sentiment, and b), you do not consider the milieu around the young Lama which surely influenced his writing.
2. You claim to harbour no ill will towards the Dalai Lama. Yet you claim in your book that he is one of the most evil and deceptive people ever to have lived within the religious system of Tibet. You therefore contradict yourself according to worldly view and even more so according to the Buddhist view: You allow no freedom for the practitioner to chose, if he or she wishes, Dalai Lama as a Guru.
3. You make sweeping statements, such as on your website:
Throughout his life the Dalai Lama has had close associations with many Nazis, including Bruno Beger, who was convicted for his ‘scientific research’ at Auschwitz; and Miguel Serrano, head of the Nazi Party in Chile and the author of several books that elevate Hitler to a god-like status. As a child he was under the tutelage of Heinrich Harrer – a former sergeant in the SS, Hitler’s most loyal soldiers – who for some years in Tibet before the Chinese occupation taught the young Dalai Lama about the outside world
Did not Buddha claim that we should love all living beings and have equanimity? Is therefore your allegation not a bit of a shot in the foot, for it seems to illustrate that perhaps Dalai Lama had such equanimity. Furthermore, could it not very well be possible that any monk in Tibet, including Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, met and possibly befriended SS or other Nazi-affiliated personnel, who happened to be travelling through the region? If such a fact came to light, would you use it to back up an unfounded argument that Geshe Kelsang is a Nazi sympathiser?
4. You claim to be an entirely independent organisation made up of many Shugden practitioners from varying traditions and countries. Yet you have been criticised for being a fringe-group of the NKT. So far there is nothing to suggest that this is not so: Most of your Buddhist background information and Buddhist quotes come from Geshe Kelsang Gyatso’s books, the Thangkas you use for your website are all NKT thangkas, and your book has recently been made forcibly available in NKT centers – no other centers, as far as I’m aware of. Are you not doing exactly what you criticise Dalai Lama of doing: Mixing Dharma with politics? What is a book that aims at accusing a person of tremendously horrific crimes and that dwells in intrigues within the CIA, SS and Tibetan Government in Exile doing next to ‘Heart of Wisdom’ ??
5. If it is so important to keep Buddhism pure and free of politics, and equally important to keep each tradition pure, why are you continuing in your actions of segregation? Do you not see the very obvious separatism your continuous actions are causing?
I would like to mention, that we believe Geshe Kelsang’s request to demonstrate against the ban was a very positive and purely motivated one. Much attention was raised to many hidden problems within the Tibetan community and the Dalai Lama’s office. Please understand: This is not what you are doing. In religious philosophy, one often comes across the concept of ‘self-righteous pity’ and ‘attachment to view’. What you are doing (and much of the same can be said about NKT Truth) is as follows:
You are identifying yourselves very strongly with a group. Any group identification needs an enemy. Your enemy is forcefully imputed upon the Dalai Lama & co. Then, like any fan would do for their idol, you radically and aggressively defend your group, your god; In doing so, you have created an absolutist regime, in which no criticism, no middle way and no alternative methods of points of views are allowed. In short, you have become your imputed enemy.
After thought
One of the most controversial and outspoken western lamas of the Karma-Kagyu tradition Diamond Way, Lama Ole Nydahl, was also faced with outside interference from the Dalai Lama regarding the true identity of their Karmapa. What they did was they continued with their practice and belief in their path, pointed out the erroneous involvement of the Dalai Lama in a respectful way, and mentioned nothing more of it. Even Lama Ole recognises that, to hundreds of thousands of people, the Dalai Lama is important and should be appreciated, cherished and above all, understood.
You, a far larger organisation, with generally more publicly respected teachers, have failed in this matter. You have put a logo on NKT and WSS and claim it as your own business, that like any other, needs to be protected, shunned from ‘evil doers’ and controlled absolutely.
Have you no faith in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha?
Thank you. Many wishes and best regards.
about 5 months ago[
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