Schisms, murder, and hungry ghosts in Shangra-La

Cross Currents, Spring, 1999 by Mike Wilson

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.