So, it has begun…
The Dalai Lama will face protests from the Western Shugden Society at all of his talking events in the UK. The reason is for the perceived persecution and ostracization of Dorje Shugden practitioners in the Tibetan communities in exile and in the Buddhist community at large. I have researched extensivly into this, there is much propaganda and noise from all sides in the debate, but the voices that we must pay attention to are those of HH Dalai Lama, HH Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso.
The conclusion I have reached is the following: the Dalai Lama cannot enter into debate with the people holding opposing views about this matter. The reason as I see it is that either view of Dorje Shugden is difficult to prove conclusively, and students need to rely upon their teachers – it is fundamentally a matter of faith. Therefore, there is no valid reason to impose a ban on this practice. Its very difficult to deny that there is not persecution of Dorje Shugden practitioners happening, one only needs to check the videos on youtube.com to see what is happening. Furthermore, it seems that all letters and petitions to the government in exile have been completely ignored, if ever there were a time for open dialogue, this is it, I have read my full quota of negative comments written by people trying to discredit Geshe Kelsang Gyatso and the Dalai Lama. The way I see it, the ball is very much in the Dalai Lama's court, and its up to him to make some changes. My fear is that he is simply going to wait for Geshe Kelsang to pass away…
