Part 3 of 3
Dispatching the Messengers (po-nya gyed-pa):
HUNG DZA. The time has come for the great samaya;
The time has come for the great emanations.
The time has come for the great female emissaries;
The time has come for the shonamukha goddesses.
The time has come foar the great dagnyid goddesses;
The time has come for the sadag, the great earth goddesses.
The time has come for your enlightened activity;
The time has come to show your force and energy.
HUNG. For us, the rigdzins,
Who represent the line of the victorious ones of the three times,
There are obstructing forces of dualism that harm us and bear us ill will
And hordes of maras and obstacles
That injure us and rob us of accomplishment.
By the blessing of the supreme wrathful deities,
May they be summoned instantly
And, through the profound purification of their suffering, be liberated
By this direct activity.
OM BENZAR KILI KILAYA DRA GEK DZA HUNG BAM HO SHI GHRAM ANAYA HUNG PHET
Depriving Them of Their Defenses (lha-dang tral-wa):
Burn gugul and so forth as incense, and perform the separating mudra with raven and owl feathers.
HUNG. The time has come for the great samaya;
The time has come for your samaya.
The time has come to show your force and energy.
Those hindrances that obstruct our siddhi
And, through the profound purification of their suffering, be liberated
By this direct activity.
OM BENZAR KILI KILAYA DRA GEK DZA HUNG BAM HO SHI GHRAM ANAYA HUNG PHET
Depriving Them of Their Defenses (lha-dang tral-wa):
Burn gugul and so forth as incense, and perform the separating mudra with raven and owl feathers.
HUNG. The time has come for the great samaya;
The time has come for your samaya.
The time has come to show your force and energy.
Those hindrances that obstruct our siddhi
And the forces of malevolence and anger –
Seize them! Separate them from their allies!
OM BENZAR KILI KILAYA DRA GEK HASA YARA HASA YARA HRI DENDRA HUNG PHET
Casting Them into the Effigy (zuk-la wab-pa):
Scatter mustard seed.
HUNG. The time has come for the great emanations;
The time has come to show your force and energy.
Those hindrances that obstruct our siddhi
And the forces of malevolence and anger –
Cast them down! Overpower them completely!
OM BENZAR KILI KILAYA DRA GEK ABESHAYA ABESHAYA HUNG PHET
Binding Them Into Suppression (jad-du zhug-pa):
Demonstrate binding by rope.
HUNG. The time has come for the great female emissaries,
The time has come to show your force and energy.
Those hindrances that obstruct our siddhi
And the forces of malevolence and anger –
Hold them! Strike them! Bind them completely!
OM BENZAR KILI KILAYA DRA GTEK SHI GHRAM ANAYA HUNG PHET
Rendering Them Mad (nyor-zhug-pa):
Springle dugtrag and rakta.
HUNG. The time has come for the shonamukha goddesses;
The time has come to show your force and energy.
Those hindrances that obstruct our siddhi
And the forces of malevolence and anger –
Summon them swiftly! Render them delirious!
OM BENZAR KILI KILAYA DRA GEK DZOLA PAYA DZOLA PAYA HUNG PHET
Transfixing Them with the Spike (dab-pa’i zer-kha):
Hold the phurba of the excellent son.
HUNG. I am the great Dorje Zhonnu;
The perfection of all Buddhas’ activities is complete within me.
My two hands are the Buddhas of the five families, joined in union.
Born from a blue-black HUNG
The excellent son Yakshakrodha appears.
His upper body is that of a terrifying wrathful deity,
While his lower body is the blade of a phurba of meteoric iron,
Sharp-edged and blazing, a vajra weapon.
Merely to brandish it causes trembling in the three states of conditioned existence;
Merely to roll it demolishes the three realms.
As I rotate it at my crown, I and my retinue are protected;
As I rotate it as my waist, negativity will not return;
As I roll it to my right, the male classes are tamed;
As I roll it to my left, the female classes are tamed;
As I stab with it, even the gods are demolished,
Not to mention the forces of dualistic obstruction.
Aim at the vital energy of harm!
The samaya to liberate with compassion
Is not killing, not oppressing.
Rather, seal their aggregates into the vajra
And meditate that their consciousnesses are vajra nature.
OM LAM HUNG LAM STOM BHAYA NEN. MOHA GHATAYA BHAGAWAN HRI KRISHI BIKRI VAJRA. HUNG KARA HUNG.
BENZAR KILI KILAYA DZA HUNG BAM HO. SARWA BIGHANAN. BENZAR KILI KILAYA HUNG PHET. BENZAR HUNG KARA HUNG PHET. HUNG KARA HUNG AH PHET.
First, absorb their longevity and purify them; then liberate them into basic space. Then, to overcome the basic ground of habitual patterns, hold the activity phurba.
HUNG. Whichever nonvirtuous forces transgress
The secret vajra command,
You great and powerful wrathful deities
Must burst into a hundred fragments the very sources of their intellects!
The forces of malevolence and anger,
Be they devas or maras,
Those hindrances that obstruct enlightenment –
Make their strength and miraculous powers disappear!
OM BENZAR KILI KILAYA DRA GEK MARAYA HUNG PHET
Repeat the wrathful razor mantra while stabbing at the individual points on the effigy and scattering the various power substances.
OM BENZAR KILI KILAYA MA RAKMO YAKMO KALA RUPA NYING TSA LA YAM YAM SOG LA YAM YAM NYING LA TRIL TRIL SOG LA CHUM CHUM TSITTA SOG LA DUNG DUNG NYING TRAG SOG LA SHED DZA TUM RI LI LI NYING TSEG TSEG UR UR SHIG SHIG GUL GUL NYAG NYAG SOD SOD DHATI MA MA KARMA SHI GHRAM KARAYE MARA SENA PRAMAR DHANAYE HUNG PHET
Hold the liberating knife.
HUNG. Hordes of servants, attendants and messengers,
The time has come for your samaya.
As you previously promised and swore to do,
Perform directly your wrathful enlightened activity.
HUNG MAMA PASHAM KURU MATAM NYANA KARA IDEN DHATI MAMA KARMA SHI GHRAM KARAYE HUNG PHET
Chop up the effigy.
Crushing Them to Dust (dul-du lag-pa):
Demonstrate pounding with a hammer.
HUNG. The time has come for the great sadag goddesses;
The time has come to show your force and energy.
Those hindrances that obstruct our siddhi
And the forces of malevolence and anger –
Crush their bodies and speech to fine dust!
OM BENZAR KILI KILAYA DRA GEK DAHAYA HUNG PHET
Feeding Them to the Mouths of the Deities (zhal-du tob-pa):
Transform the flesh and rakta of those liberated into amrita and feed it to the deities with the triangular ladles.
HUNG. Assembly of deities of the majestic one, together with your retinue,
Open wide your mouths as big as the sky and earth,
Bare your fangs as big as snow mountains,
Extend your tongues like forks of lightning
And enjoy the offering of the five aggregates of those who have been liberated.
Complete this direct wrathful activity.
BENZAR YAKSHA KRODHA KHA KHA KHAHI KHAHI HA HA HA HUNG HUNG HUNG PHET PHET PHET
Rinse the triangular ladle with rakta and alcohol and pour this onto the torm for the oath-bound ones.
HUNG. The time has come for the great dagnyid goddesses;
The time has come to show your force and energy.
Those hindrances that obstruct our siddhi
And the forces of malevolence and anger –
As they are under my power,
Make them listen to my commands!
OM BENZAR KILI KILAYA DRA GEK BHINDHAYA BHINDYAYA HUNG PHET
Thus, the oath-bound ones are fed. At this point, enjoy the tsok and perform the remainder ceremony.
Calling Upon the Sacred Bonds (tud-dam kul-wa):
In order to gather the forces that avert negativity, serve the effigy together with a drink of rakta to the main torma.
HUNG. From the three-sided, blazing blue-black mandala
Come the magnificent heruka, the splendid king of wrath,
The mother consort who arises from the basic space of the three gates to liberation,
The sons emanated from the mind of basic space and intrinsic awareness in union,
The ten masculine and ten feminine wrathful deities who tame malevolent forces in the ten directions,
The hordes of messengers who emanate from the forms of skillful means and transcendent knowledge,
The gate-keepers, guardians, goddesses of power and classes of defiant ones –
The assembled deities of Dorje Zhonnu’s mandala.
If I the practitioner supplicate you with longing,
Arise in your forms from the brilliant basic space of E TRAM.
Accept these offerings of the three poisons – flesh, blood nad bones.
Arouse your dynamic energy to send forth great wrathful activity;
Accomplish the averting of negativity.
The time for the sacred bond has come – Samaya!
Enjoining the Enlightened Activity That Averts Negativity (dok-pa):
HUNG JHYO. In the state of utterly pure pristine awareness,
Arise as the form of compassion, O heruka!
Great dorje Zhonnu, drinker of rakta,
In union with your wisdom consort,
And principal deities together with emanations and further emanations,
Around your dynamic energy in unstoppable enlightened activity.
Act to drive back and transform negativity!
For us practitioners and our retinues,
Drive back that which harms and obstructs us!
Avert the four hundred and four diseases!
Drive back the twenty-one thousand malevolent forces!
Drive back the eighty thousand hindrances!
Drive back the fifteen great malevolent forces affecting children!
Avert the three hundred and sixty major dangerous times!
Avert the eighty-one kinds of bad signs!
Drive back the three hundred and sixty yedrog demons!
Avert the eighteen causes of untimely death!
Avert negative signs in dreams and inauspicious circumstances!
Drive back incursions by the eight classes of gods and demons!
Drive back sorcery, black magic, maledictions, imprecations and curses!
Drive back the mantras of extremists and barbarians!
Drive back the machinations of kingly demons, shape shifters and the demonic forces of broken samaya!
Drive back the harm and injuries caused by the senmo demons of ill fortune!
Drive back the teu-rang demons who steal our spirits by stealth!
Drive back the harm from blades and weapons, unnatural death and the demons of recurring calamities!
Drive back the devouring demons, the demons that cause miscarriages and the hidden demons!
Avert gossip, disputes, quarrels and strife!
Avert harm to our harvests and herds, and looses from epidemics!
Avert bad times of armed insurrections and uprisings!
Avert instability and imbalance of the four elements in the outer world!
Avert the blockages and disturbances of the channels and subtle energies that causes disease!
Avert the mental habits of ignorance!
Avert disharmony, estrangement and anxiety!
Avert all obstacles and opposition!
Drive them back! O great, glorious one, drive them back with your force!
Transform them! Transform them through the great red torm!
The blade is sharp! Let is mow down all ignorance and dualism!
Accomplish the enlightened activity of averting!
Avert negativity in this way.
The Clapping of Hands (tal-deb):
Assembly of deities of the exalted one, together with your retinues,
Arouse your grandeur and blessings of wrath, rage and ferocity!
Face outward and let the sound of your mantras
Thunder like a thousand dragons.
From your bodies and mouths come the weapons of annihilation.
Diseases, weapons, poisonous vapors and hordes of messengers
Shoot like stars and fall like hail.
The forces of darkness,
The sharp edges of imprecations hurled by others by means of mantra
And the bad signs and omens that result from disharmony –
Drive back all of these, removing their power!
Fall upon the forces of dualistic obstruction!
Like tongues of fire consuming straw and chaff,
Annihilate them with no trace!
After the condensed wrathful razor mantra, append and repeat many times:
OM BENZAR KILI KILAYA MA RAKMO YAKMO KALA RUPA NYING TSA LA YAM YAM SOG LA YAM YAM NYING LA TRIL TRIL SOG LA CHUM CHUM TSITTA SOG LA DUNG DUNG NYING TRAG SOG LA SHED DZA TUM RI LI LI NYING TSEG TSEG UR UR SHIG SHIG GUL GUL NYAG NYAG SOD SOD DHATI MA MA KARMA SHI GHRAM KARAYE MARA SENA PRAMAR DHANAYE HUNG PHET NOD CHED DRA GEK CHEK MA’I NYING TSA LA MARAYA BED DOK
After the “Power of Truth,” recited as before, append the following:
HOMAGE! Through the power of the truth of the rigdzins, the glorious and sacred root and lineage lamas, and the truth of the Buddhas, and the truth of the dharma, and the truth of the sangha, and the truth of secret mantras and intrinsic awareness mantras and dharani mantras and essence mantras and mudras and states of Samadhi, and the truth of the infallibility of the cause an defect of phenomenal reality, though the reality of dharmata has been empty from the beginnintgless beginning, and especially, through the power of the truth of the yidam Dorje Zhonnu, the glory of samsara and nirvana alike, together with the subduers of Mara, the ten wrathful deities, the traTab deities, the gate-keepers and the vast ocean of oath-bound ones, by the power of the great truths of all of these – for us practitioners, teachers, students, patrons, and our retinues, all disharmoniouis forces arising from our previoius karma or from present conditions – all negativities, anxieties, imbalances, sorcery, hexes, hurled curses, malevolence and obstacles – all will be turned back on the dualistic forces of harm and obstruction. MARAYA JHYO DOK! (Clap hands)
“Power of Truth”:
HOMAGE! Through the power of the truth of the rigdzins, the glorious and sacred root and lineage lamas, the truth of the Buddhas, the truth of the dharma, and the truth of the sangha, and the truth of secret mantras, intrinsic awareness mantras, dharani mantras and essence mantras and mudras and states of Samadhi, and the truth of the infallibility of the cause and effect of phenomenal reality, though the reality of dharmata has been empty from the beginningless beginning, and especially, through the power of the truth of the yidam Dorje Zhonnu, the glory of samsara and nirvana alike, together with the subduers of Mara, the ten wrathful deities, the traTab deities, the gate-keepers and the vast ocean of oath-bound ones, by the power of the great truths of all of these, may the general obstructions to the teachings and to beings, and especially the forces of obstruction to us, the rigdzins, together with our patrons and retinues – those who have raised up against us in the past, those who plot future harm and those who are now in our path, those who have forms and those who have no forms but bring harm – may all of these, wherever they may be in the three states of conditioned existence, wherever they have fled, instantly in a single moment, may they be summoned into this focal point for visualization!
OM BENZAR KILI KILAYA SARWA BIGHANAN SHATRAM AKARKAYA DZA NRI YAM DZA TRI YAM DZA DZA HUNG BAM HO
Offering Torma as Power Substance (tun-tor tong-wa):
Using a red torma, perform the stages of summoning the objects of visualization and dissolving them into the torma.
RAM YAM KHAM (This purifies the torma.)
From emptiness appears the torma vessel, an enormous red conch skullcup, vast and extensive. Inside are the torma substances, which are obtained from the liberation of the forces of dualistic obstruction: mountains of flesh, oceans of blood, heaps of bones, foaming masses of brains and fat and a complete array, with no omission, of all offerings that are pleasing to the senses and worthy of being samaya substances. In essence, these have the nature of the amrita of the inexhaustible wisdom; inconceivable, they fill the extent of space.
OM AH HUNG
(This consecrates the torma.)
The assembled deities partake ravenously of the torma, which in essence is amrita but in appearance has the characteristics of flesh and blood.
OM BENZAR KILI KILAYA HUNG PHET SAPARIWARA SARWA BIGHANAN SHATRUM MAHA MAMA RAKTA KINGNI RITI BALINGTA KHA KHA KHAHI KHAHI
Repeat this three or seven times to offer the torma.
To conclude, visualize the remainder of the torma as a vajra rain of poison and weapons, and send it in the direction of harm with the following.
HUNG. I am the great Dorje Zhonnu,
The splendor of samsara and nirvana alike
None is greater or more severe than I.
You who dwell or move in the ten directions,
You eight classes of gods, nagas and local spirits –
Your minds and bodies will be demolished
By my sending out the great torma, weapons, power substances and rays of light.
Clear the path and stand aside!
My target is the force of dualistic obstruction;
It is not my aim to cut down you who are without blame.
Help me, all of you! Raise your armies!
Having raised your armies, hoist your banners!
Crush to a fine dust the bodies
Of the harmful and weakened forces of dualistic obstruction!
Raise their consciousness into basic unborn space!
The time has come! Show your force and energy!
MARAYA BED JHYO DOK
(Unless it’s the last day, where one expels the torma, here finish the Dam Chen Chi Tor protector, page 28, Daily Recitation Book, and then perform the chedo-do, page 48 of the practice.)
On the final day, when undertaking the activity of expelling the tormas, perform the main ritual of averting (dok-pa), followed by offerings, praises and requests for forbearance to the assembled deities.
The pristine awareness deities depart into the sky in front, the commitment deities dissolve into me.
Once again, the great torma instantly becomes the majestic Dorje Zhonnu, with an army of the eight classes of defiant gods and demons. With wrathful, fierce and fearsome forms, they fill the three states of conditioned existence and bring down a rain of disease, weapons and poison, rapacious in their activity to liberate the forces of dualistic obstruction.
Within this context, repeat the wrathful razor mantra with the additional words appended.
OM BENZAR KILI KILAYA MA RAKMO YAKMO KALA RUPA NYING TSA LA YAM YAM SOG LA YAM YAM NYING LA TRIL TRIL SOG LA CHUM CHUM TSITTA SOG LA DUNG DUNG NYING TRAG SOG LA SHED DZA TUM RI LI LI NYING TSEG TSEG UR UR SHIG SHIG GUL GUL NYAG NYAG SOD SOD DHATI MA MA KARMA SHI GHRAM KARAYE MARA SENA PRAMAR DHANAYE HUNG PHET NOD CHED DRA GEK CHED MA’I NYING TSA LA MARAYA BED DOK
Perform the offering of the torma as before, offering it as appropriate food for warriors.
HUNG. O drinker of rakta, great glorious, terrifying Kilaya,
Tamer of maras, king of wrath, together with your retinue –
Here are the flesh, blood and bones from the liberation of the dualistic forces of obstruction – the three poisons –
The five offerings that please the senses and the amrita, rakta and torma.
As we offer these, accept them and accomplish
Whatever activity we and our retinues may request of you
And increase the force of these wrathful substances, the torzor,
These obstructions, hindrances, broken samaya, sorcery and the classes of maras –
By the power of liberating them forcibly, make them vanish without a trace.
Swiftly accomplish the enlightened activity we have commissioned, driving back and transforming
The disharmony of estrangement, anxieties and attacks.
The time has come for your sacred bond. Samaya!
Enjoin them to act in this way.
Opening the Door (go je-wa):
Cast out the first portion of the drink.
The Three Roots, dharmapalas, oath-bound ones
And you tramen who guard the four gates,
Accept this purely-prepared golden drink
And fling open the door against the forces of dualistic obstruction.
The Three Jewels are present as flawless witnesses.
All but forces of dualistic obstruction, get out of the way!
O drinker of rakta, raise your army of wrathful deities
And accomplish this wrathful activity.
Clear the way for a swath to be cut.
Again perform “Calling Upon the Sacred Bonds.”
HUNG. From the three-sided, blazing blue-black mandala
Come the magnificent heruka, the splendid king of wrath,
The mother consort who arises from the basic space of the three gates to liberation,
The sons emanated from the mind of basic space and intrinsic awareness in union,
The ten masculine and ten feminine wrathful deities who tame malevolent forces in the ten directions,
The hordes of messengers who emanate from the forms of skillful means and transcendent knowledge
The gate-keepers, guardians, goddesses of power and classes of defiant ones –
The assembled deities of Dorje Zhonnu’s mandala.
If I the practitioner supplicate you with longing,
Arise in your forms from the brilliant basic space of E TRAM.
Accept these offerings of the three poisons – flesh, blood and bones.
Arouse your dynamic energy to send forth great wrathful activity;
Accomplish the averting of negativity.
The time for the sacred bond has come – Samaya!
Then recite “Recalling the Contract” (ched-do):
Recalling the Contract (chedo-do tong-wa):
HUNG. Formerly in the great charnel ground,
You vowed to Vajrakilaya;
Subsequently at Parping (Yangleshod),
To the three accomplished Vajracharyas; and
Finally at the solitary place of Red Rock Mountain (Dragmar),
You vowed in the presence of Pedma Tod Treng and Tsogyal
And swore oaths of allegiance
To hold the vow of Dharma protectors.
Partake of this wondrous torma.
According to your former vow,
Accomplish the four miraculous activities.
Next, carry the torzor out to the site selected for disposal, bearing a flag in front of it. Begin with “Offering the Golden Drink.” Then:
Offering the Golden Drink (ser-kyem bul-wa) 2:
This golden drink becomes a treasure mine of inexhaustible wealth, pleasing to the senses.
OM AH HUNG
HUNG. Rigdzins, sacred root and lineage lamas, peaceful
And wrathful sugatas, deities of the entire, vast array of mandalas,
And especially the assembled deities of Dorje Phurba,
Accept this golden drink and marshal the forces of this practitioner’s power.
Masculine and feminine protectors, vast hordes of oath-bound ones,
Defiant generals, samaya-bound guardians of Phurba,
Together with attendants, servants and envoys,
Accept this golden drink and marshal the forces of this practitioner’s power.
As I am a tantric practitioner, O you guardians of my family
And you gods of this locale and you of other regions and places,
As well as you who control the years, months, days, seasons and times,
Accept this golden drink and marshal the forces of this practitioner’s power.
HUNG. Mara was defeated by the Buddha,
Nondharma by Dharma
The extremists were defeated by the sangha
And the demigods by Indra.
The assembled deities of Dorje Zhonnu
Defeat the forces of dualistic obstruction.
May the power of truth of the awareness mantras
Be accomplished without impediment!
Increase your resolve by reciting the “Power of Truth;” then hold up the torzor while reciting HUNG. NGA NI DOR JE ZHON NU CHE …” (page 105) In this way increase wrathful energy. If you wish, perform the ritual of averting. While chanting the wrathful mantra with the appended annihilating words, fling the great torma away as though cutting a swath. The consciousnesses of the forces of dualistic obstruction are extinguished like lamps being snuffed out, while their bodies and wealth are all demolished without a trace. Clap your hands and perform the dulmo dep. To conclude, in order to remove any traces of the zor ritual, meditate on the protection circle as you exit. The vajra master follows at the rear of the procession. In front of the door of the shrine room, make the offering to the tenma sisters with the amrita of rinse water. Perform the dance of suppression, thinking that the forces of dualistic obstruction and the energy of broken samaya are crushed under the overturned torma vessel. Returning inside, summon longevity and accept siddhis. Perform thanksgiving offerings, praises and a request for forbearance. Then request that the wisdom deities appear in the sky to depart, or dissolve them into the sacred representations. Dissolve the self-visualization and arise in the form of the deity for postmeditation activities. If there is a colored sand mandala, dismantle it while reciting the akaro mantra. Conclude the entire ceremony with aspiration prayers and auspicious wishes. Furthermore, if on certain occasions you wish to perform a more elaborate version of the zor ritual, during the preparation phase arrange the following according to the traditional procedure: torzor, tragzor, dazor, yungzor and dugzor. First, increase your resolve with the “Power of Truth;” then, holding the zor implements in turn, fling them out.
JHYO. The great and glorious Dorje Zhonnu’s appointed emissaries,
You masters of the zor ritual,
Carry out your activity to liberate ignorance and dualism.
May the scythe-like energy of the great, red wrathful torma
Flash like lightning and fall like a thunderbolt
At the target of the forms and minds of the obstructing forces!
Cast the torzor while reciting the wrathful razor mantra. Repeat the verse (above), substituting the fourth line:
JHYO. The great and glorious Dorje Zhonnu’s appointed emissaries,
You masters of the zor ritual,
Carry out your activity to liberate ignorance and dualism.
May the scythe-like energy of blood, the churching waves,
Flash like lightning and fall like a thunderbolt
At the target of the forms and minds of the obstructing forces!
JHYO. The great and glorious Dorje Zhonnu’s appointed emissaries,
You masters of the zor ritual,
Carry out your activity to liberate ignorance and dualism.
May the scythe-like energy of stones, the toppling mountains
Flash like lightning and fall like a thunderbolt
At the target of the forms and minds of the obstructing forces!
JHYO. The great and glorious Dorje Zhonnu’s appointed emissaries,
You masters of the zor ritual,
Carry out your activity to liberate ignorance and dualism.
May the scythe-like energy of arrows, sharp, swift and forceful
Flash like lightning and fall like a thunderbolt
At the target of the forms and minds of the obstructing forces!
JHYO. The great and glorious Dorje Zhonnu’s appointed emissaries,
You masters of the zor ritual,
Carry out your activity to liberate ignorance and dualism.
May the scythe-like energy of white mustard, the bristling points of weapons,
Flash like lightning and fall like a thunderbolt
At the target of the forms and minds of the obstructing forces!
JHYO. The great and glorious Dorje Zhonnu’s appointed emissaries,
You masters of the zor ritual,
Carry out your activity to liberate ignorance and dualism.
May the scythe-like energy of poison, the enshrouding darkness
Flash like lightning and fall like a thunderbolt
At the target of the forms and minds of the obstructing forces!
Making these substitutions, append the wrathful razor mantra to each verse; then case the appropriate substance. Finally, cast out the great zor itself. If you wish to perform other stages of activity in connection with this ceremony, such as rituals of suppression or a fire ritual, this elaboration is appropriate, and you should consult elsewhere.
The quintessence of ten million tantras on enlightened activity,
The refined essence of the condensed practice of the Razor,
The blazing weapon of meteoric iron, which destroys at a touch,
Was given to me by the heroine who overcomes maras.
For the ranks of dragon-like practitioners who are skillful at
Bringing down the vajra thunderbolts of wrathful awareness mantras,
I have sent this forth as a joyous feast
Of complete victory in battle with the ranks of Mara.
This, then, was composed for the benefit of myself and a few others who had need of it. Condensing the quintessence of the root text through instructions from direct transmission, I gave it continuity and made it easy to read. This text was composed by Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje, son of an aristocratic family, in his forth-fifth year, on the third victorious day in the waning phase of the first month known as Kundzin. It was composed at the Cool Grove, the charnel ground of Tibet to the east of the central capital of Lhasa. The text was written down by that learned spiritual friend, the holder of awareness mantras Dondam Cho Chog. May this cause the forces thwarting the teachings of the great secret doctrine to be utterly crushed and the banner of complete victory to be raised! Sarwada mangalam!
Vajrakilaya Longevity Sadhana (tse-drub):
If you wish to perform a longevity sadhana in connection with the activity ritual of Vajrakilaya, The Razor That Destroys at a Touch, place longevity symbols within the mandala. For daily practice, visualization alone will suffice.
After the basic mantra repetition, recite:
I am the great and glorious one. In my heart
Is an amule of joined sun and moon disks
With a HUNG surrounded by the awareness mantra of longevity.
Its repetition invokes the sacred bond with the deity’s enlightened mindstream.
Rays of light of the display of pristine awareness
Touch the hearts of the messengers –
The ten wrathful deities, the excellent sons, the gate-keepers and the rest
These fill the entire universe with countless emanations
And these with their further emanations.
All my broken, scattered spirit and longevity
And all the vital essence of samsara and nirvana
Are drawn in as amrita
And dissolve into my three doors.
I become a rigdzin of immortality.
Thinking in this way, append the following to the root mantra:
OM BENZAR KILI KILAYA HUNG PHET BENZAR AYUKA SOHA
Repeat mantra.
Summoning the Longevity (tse-guk):
HUNG. From basic space comes the self-arising deity,
The majestic heruka, the lord of longevity,
The deity connected to us from lifetimes past.
As we now practice the stages of approach and accomplishment,
Through our great, sacred bond, think of us.
The time has come to grant us siddhi.
Having aroused our motivation for supreme enlightenment,
We hold the legacy of the victorious ones of the three times.
For us, the rigdzins,
Repair, restore and reclaim our spirit and longevity.
Amass all virtue, excellent signs and potent purity of samsara and nirvana
Here in this place, without hindrance.
Dissolve them into the indestructible tigle of enlightened mind.
Vajra longevity, without birth or death;
A youthful body, free of aging and decrepitude;
And life force without a thought of change or alteration:
Grant this eternal and sacred excellence.
Request in this way.
BHRUM. Pure potencies of samsara and nirvana coalesce into the life force;
That dissolves into the HUNG, in the indestructible tigle;
This in turn is sealed in the ineffable expanse of pristine purity,
In uncontrived deathlessness.
BENZAR JNANA RAKCHA AH
Thus the seal is applied. Written by Jnana (Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje, Dudjom Rinpoche).
The Abbreviated Offering Prayer to the Phurba Protectors:
RAM YAM KHAM
(Purifies the offering)
OM AH HUNG
(Blesses the offering)
From one’s heart, light rays emanate, inviting the Vajrakilaya protectors and their entourages.
OM BENZAR ARGHAM PADYAM PUSHPE DHUPE ALOKE GENDHE NEWIDYA SHAB DA PRATITSA SO HA
(General offerings)
MA HA PANTA AMRITA KHAHI MA HA RAKTA KHAHI
(Offering medicine and rakta)
OM BENZAR KILI KILAYA MOHA GHATAYA MAMA SHI GHRAM KARMA KARAYE SAPARIWARA IDAM BALINGTA KHA KHA KHAHI KHAHI
(Offering the torma by repeating three times.)
HUNG. Through the command of drak tung Vajrakumara,
Possessors of the vow to protect the doctrine,
The shonas, dagnyids, sodagmas,
Kyeibus, gingchens and your entourages,
Please partake of this offering torma of pleasing substances.
Remove all unfavorable circumstances and increase favorable circumstances.
Entrusted with this desire,
Accomplish the result of firm activity.
Assigning this activity to the protectors, rest in equanimity. Written by Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje.
Sarwa Mangalam.
The Protectors
The Combined Essence of a Daily Torma Offering to the Three Roots and the Oath Bound Protectors
Namo Guru Vajradhara Ye!
Set out the torma offerings, principally the samaya substances of meat and alcohol, and sprinkle them with amrita. Maintaining the pride of yourself as a yidam, cleanse and purify by reciting:
RAM YAM KHAM
From within emptiness, above wind, fire and a hearth of skulls,
Are the five meats and five nectars in a skullcup.
These boil and dissolve into light, becoming the vital essence of inexhaustible amrita,
Billowing forth as massing clouds of an ocean of sense pleasures.
Consecrate the offerings with:
OM AH HUNG HO
HUNG HRI
From the pure realms of the entire vast array of the victorious ones of the three kayas,
Lamas, yidams, dakinis, dharma protectors,
Nodchin, wealth gods, lords of terma and of localities,
Moved by compassion, all of you please approach this place.
Invite them with:
OM AH HUNG BENZAR GURU PEDMA DEWA DAKINI SARWA DHARMAPALA BASUDEWA NIDHIPATI BHUMIPATI SAPARIWARA BENZAR SA MA DZA
Request them to remain with:
DZA HUNG BAM HO SAMAYA TIK TREN TU
Prostrate to them with the following, and imagine that they grant your request with:
AHTI PU HO PRATITTSA HO
HUNG. Both actual offerings and those that arise from meditative absorption,
The pleasures enjoyed through the senses, medicine, rakta, torma, tsog and so forth,
Form clouds of offerings filling the entire vastitude of space.
Partake of this offering and grant us sublime and ordinary siddhis!
Make the general offerings with:
OM AH HUNG BENZAR GURU PEDMA DEWA DAKINI SHRI DHARMAPALA BASUDEWA NIDHIPATI BHUMIPATI SAPARIWARA
ARGHAM PADYAM PUSHPE DHUPE ALOKE GHENDHE NEWIDYA SHAPDA PRATITSA SO HA
MAHA PANTSA AMRITA KHA HI MAHA RAKTA KHA HI
For the specific offerings, imagine:
The deities draw up the vital essence of the torma through tubes of light rays from their vajra tongues and partake of it. Offer the torma with three or seven repetitions of the following mantra, each time making the offering mudra with vajra palms opening facing upward, ending each with a snap of the fingers.
OM AH HUNG BENZAR GURU PEDMA DEWA DAKINI SARWA DHARMA PALA BASU DEWA NIDHI PATI BHUMI PATI SAPARIWARA IDAM BALINGTA KHA KHA KHA HI KHA HI
HUNG HRI
Vidyadhara lamas who cause the clouds of blessings to amass,
Peaceful and wrathful meditational deities who cause a rain of attainments to descend,
Dakas and dakinis who enact unrivaled enlightened activity –
I praise you with devotion. Grant us sublime and ordinary siddhis!
HUNG
The supreme skillful means of great bliss is Legden Nagpo,
The four-armed Mahakala, the five classes of Gonpo, Maha Deva,
Shenpa, Rahula, Dorje Legpa, Dudgon and son on –
I prostrate to and praise the lordly legions of protectors of the masculine lineage.
The consort of the sphere of wisdom, Ekadzati,
Rangjung Gyalmo, Dur Trod Mamo,
The five Tseringma sisters, Dorje Yudronma, the Tenma goddesses and so on –
I prostrate to and praise the legions of mamos of phenomenal existence.
The powerful Maning of non-dual wisdom.
The thirty generals, the feminine and masculine guardians of Vajrakilaya,
Nodchin, wealth gods and lords of terma and of localities –
I prostrate to and praise all who protect the forces of good.
In accepting this torma and an ocean of desired
Sense pleasures, each of you in accordance with your intentions,
As you were commanded and bound by your oaths to the root and lineage lamas,
Bestow on us yogis and our retinues
The most sublime form of pacifying activity! Give rise to our splendor and charisma through enriching activity!
Subdue the world with your beneficial influence! Tame the forces of dualistic obstruction and harm with wrathful activity.
Cause the holders of the teachings to live long! Spread the doctrine and practice of the teachings.
Enact activities that will increase the bliss and happiness of all beings!
In this way, make offerings and entreat their enlightened activities.
HUNG
In the center of the celestial mansion, within the play of the terrible charnel ground,
Are the wrathful sense offerings that arise from the liberation of the forces of dualistic obstruction,
And substances for offering, support, fulfillment and sadhana practice.
May this inexhaustible wealth of desirables
Fulfill the sacred bond with Legden, the four armed Mahakala, the five classes of glorious Gonpo,
Maha Deva, Shenpa Marnag, Rahula, Dudgon and the rest!
May it fulfill the sacred bond with you hosts of lord protectors of the masculine lineage!
Tame the hordes of mara with the force of the Vajra cannibal!
May it fulfill the sacred bond with Ekadzati, Rangjung Palbarma,
Dur Trod Lhamo, the five Tsering sisters and the rest!
May it fulfill the sacred bond with you, the ten million mamos of the world of phenomenal appearances!
Liberate the forces of dualistic obstruction by the strength of your ardent compassion!
May it fulfill the sacred bond with the glorious lord protector Maning, the thirty generals,
The feminine and masculine guardians of Vajrakilaya and the powerful ones of the world of all phenomenal appearances.
May it fulfill the sacred bond with the whole array of those who protect the forces of good!
Cast down the forces that obstruct the teachings!
May it fulfill the sacred bond with Namtosei, Dzambala, Tsogkyi Dagpo,
Dorje Duddul and the hundreds of thousands of nodchin!
May it fulfill the sacred bond with the oceans of jewel-like treasure-holders,
Extend our lifespans, enrich our splendor, and increase our wealth of sense pleasures!
In brief, may the sacred bond be fulfilled with you hosts of dharma guardians
And wealth deities who have made pledges in the presence of the Vidyadhara lamas of the three lineages!
May our sacred bond be fulfilled to your delight!
At this time, grant us the results to which we yogins aspire!
If you wish to include additional protector prayers, insert there here.
Finally, sprinkle amrita on the offering torma and say:
OM AH HUNG HO
The torma, which is the flesh and blood of the forces of dualistic obstruction, emanates forth as massing ocean-like clouds of sense pleasures, which possess thenature of the amrita of primordial wisdom.
HUNG
Protector Heruka, supreme skillful means of great bliss,
Ekadzati, single essence of the sphere of wisdom,
Their non-duality arising through the central channel as the black Gonpo Maning,
And the hosts of arrogant ones of the three lineages, approach!
This is the torma of the mountains of flesh and oceans of blood of the forces of dualistic hindrance,
A treasury of sense pleasures, by nature the amrita of primordial wisdom.
I offer these superb clouds of offerings, from which fall a rain of everything delightful,
As a great sign of my appreciation for the excellence you have carried out formerly,
Accept it now as a token. To reiterate the activities that I presently request –
Guard the teachings of the buddhas, extend the lifespans of those who hold these teachings,
Protect the communities of sangha and increase benefit and happiness in the world.
In particular, we who are teachers and students, patrons and beneficiaries,
Guard and protect us undistractedly until we attain enlightenment.
Dispel all adverse conditions and bring a rain of supportive conditions!
Whether pacifying, enriching, attracting, or liberating,
Quickly accomplish whatever enlightened activities I entrust to you!
This is an easy-to-use practical beneficial to self and others, compiled from the realizations of many vidyadhara’s into a concise liturgy by Jigdral Yeshe Dorje.
OM SHRI BENZAR DHARMAPALA SAPARIWARA ARGHAM PADYAM PUSHPE DHUPE ALOKE GHENDE NEWIDYA SHAPDA PRATITSA SO HA
In the presence of the glorious Heruka,
Just as you promised in the past, now at this time,
Guard the doctrine and protect the practitioners.
To all the protectors of the doctrine, I render praise!
Thus, make offerings and render praise.
Whatever unwholesome deeds I have unknowingly committed
By not having the ability to act properly, and for
Whatever mistakes I have made at this time,
For all such shortcomings, please grant forgiveness.
Confessing mistakes, recite the one hundred syllable mantra.
Here, inseparable from these objects,
Please remain for as long as samsara exists,
Bestowing upon us health, life, wealth,
Glory, and supreme attainments, and all that is the most excellent and auspicious!
OM SU PRA TI TRA BENZAR YE SO HA
Thus, the commitment being and the primordial wisdom beings dissolve into the support.
If there is no support, then:
OM. You who accomplish the purpose of all sentient beings,
Accordingly bestow spiritual attainments.
Although you return to the Buddha’s pure land,
May you return once again to bestow blessings.
BENZAR MU
The primordial wisdom beings depart and the commitment beings dissolve into oneself.
To dismiss the worldly protectors recite:
GATSA GATSA SOBHAWA NAM
Dedicate the Merit:
By this merit, may I swiftly
Accomplish the glorious Heruka, and
May all beings without exception
Accomplish that very status.
Prayers of auspicious good fortune:
In the past, in the presence of the great teacher from Orgyen,
For the purpose of individuals who aspire to accomplish the dharma,
You vowed to protect them like a mother protects her only child.
May there arise the good fortune of all the dharma protectors and guardians.
Persevering in the activity of protecting the Buddha’s doctrine,
Assisting all yogins to uphold their vajra words of honor and
Accomplishing the orders given by Padmasambhava,
May there arise the good fortune of the ocean of oath-bound protectors!
Close on a note of well-being and excellence, dedicate the virtue, and recite prayers of auspicious wishes.
Both oneself and others benefit from this easy-to-use daily practice, and for this reason I, Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje, compiled the sources of many vidyadhara’s realization into a concise liturgy.
Gya! Dza Yantu!
A Concise Torma Offering to the Protectress of the Secret Mantra, Mamo Ngag Sun Ma -- Ekadzati
OM SO STI
If you wish to make the torma offering to the goddess of primordial wisdom, the dharma protectress of the meditation cycle of the Profound Path of the Heart Drop of the Dakini – the Zab Lam Khandro Thug Tig, then prepare in the following way.
In a clean vessel place a triangular shaped torma adorned with flesh and blood, and carefully arrange the various offering substances of amrita, rakta, and the offerings which please the senses such as flowers, incense, light, perfume and food.
Having performed the preliminary generation of self as the primordial wisdom deity, purify the offering torma with:
RAM YAM KHAM
From a state of emptiness, above wind, fire and a hearth of skulls,
Are the five meats and five nectars in a skullcup.
Boiling and dissolving into light, they become the vital essence of inexhaustible amrita,
Billowing forth as massing clouds of an ocean of sense pleasures.
Consecreate with OM AH HUNG
Purify the in-front support with:
OM SOBHAWA SHUDDHA SARWA DHARMA SOBHAWA SHUDDHO HAM
Before me, in the center of a lake of blood whose rocky shore is of white skeletons and bones,
Is a red and black triangular pillar of fire and wind, in the center of which,
Upon a lotus, sun, moon and corpse seat,
From JHYO arises the glorious protectress of mantra.
Her body is maroon in color. She is holding a corpse club and a heart.
On her forehead is a single eye, in her mouth a single tooth,
On her chest a single breast, and a single lock of iron hair flows upward.
The great terrifying mother delights in the dance of rage.
Inhaling, she steals the life force of enemies, demons and negative obstructing forces.
From her three places, light emanates, inviting the primordial wisdom beings.
Clearly visualizing in this way, recite:
JHYO. The womb of the consort, great bliss Kuntuzangmo,
The realm free of elaboration, self arisen primordial wisdom,
From the dharmakaya mandala beyond concept,
Arises the emanation body of compassion,
The great queen of all dakinis,
The subduer of the three realms of existence, Ral Chig Ma.
Protectress of the Secret Mantra, consort of liberation,
Maroon wrathful mother, please come!
Through our devotion and your samaya vow,
Only mother, please come! Please come!
Invoked by your vajra brother,
Oath-bound sister, come now to this place.
TRAG RAKSHA SAPRIWARA EH HAYA HI BENZAR SAMA DZA DZA HUNG BAM HO
In this way perform the invitation.
Request to remain with:
SAMAYA TIK TREN TU
Make the general offerings with:
TRAG RAKSHA SAPARIWARA ARGHAM PADYAM PUSHPE DHUPE ALOKE GENDHE NEWIDYA SHAPTA PRATITSA SO HA
Give amrita and rakta with:
MAHA PANTSA MARITA KHA HI MAHA RAKTA KHA HI
Offering the torma repeat this three or seven times, then:
HUNG MAMA EKADZATI SAMAYA HRING HRING DZA DZA SAPARIWARA IDAM BALINGTA KHA KHA KHA HI KHA HI
JHYO. From the charnel ground blazing with volcanic fire,
Comes the terrifying slayer, the maroon wrathful mother.
Wearing a scarf of clouds on her sky body,
She drinks the blood and eats the hearts of vow breakers.
Her corpse club shatters the heart of the enemy.
The great terrifying mother has a single lock of hair glowing upward.
With the single eye on her forehead she sees all that is in the three realms of existence.
With her single tooth she kills the enemy.
With her single breast she protects the excellent practitioner as her child.
Accept this red torma – a wealth of flesh and blood.
Through the power of your samaya, execute those who break their vows.
Mamo Ekadzati, because of your delight,
Accomplish the activities entrusted to you.
Now is the time to fulfill your samaya.
Thus, render praise:
Ngag Sun Mamo, having fulfilled the sacred bond with you,
Increase and spread the great secret doctrine.
Pacify our adverse circumstances and increase favorable conditions.
Leaving nothing undone, spontaneously accomplish all that is desired.
Thus, concerned activity is requested.
Having offered the torma, confess all mistakes.
Dissolve the primordial wisdom being into the support and absorb the samaya being into oneself.
Dedicate the merit and generate happiness and excellence with auspicious wishes.
This daily torma offering which is a source of happiness was written by Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje. DZA YANTU
A Brief Supplication Offering to the Three Protectors: Ekadzati, Rahula and Dorje Legpa
HUNG JHYO. Kuntuzangmo, Dharmadhatu Consort,
Ralchigma, great protectress of the secret mantra,
Encircled by your retinue of hundreds of thousands of mamos of existence,
Come here to partake of this offering torma of samaya substances.
Protect and care for all the doctrine of the
Secret Mantra Great Perfection.
Do not forget your compassionate promise.
At this time accomplish your activities.
HUNG. Terrifying Za Dud Rahula
Encircled by your emanations, the eight Za, the four Dongmo,
The twenty-eight constellation goddesses and their armies,
I invite you here. Delight in this torma of flesh and blood.
Don’t be idle, employ your abundantly skillful activity to
Quickly liberate the enemies of the Buddha’s doctrine and those who break their vows.
Guard the supreme practitioners as your own child.
Do not forsake your promise, perform your activity.
HUNG. Great noble, Dorje Legpa,
Encircled by Kongtsun Tenmo and the remaining cheerful Tenma sisters
With their entourages of billions of emanations,
I invite you here to partake of this offering torma of agreeable substances.
Increase the dominion of the Great Secret Doctrine and its upholders;
Do not allow its power to decrease.
Continually befriend and assist.
Don’t be idle but quickly accomplish the four activities.
Written by Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje upon the request of Chogtrul Kunzang Tenpai Gyaltsen.
The Prayer to Activate the Miraculous Activity of Marpo Lha Sum Called: “The Indignant Laugh of Blazing Powerful Wrath”
HRI DZA. The great Lhachen Wang-Chug, power-wielder of phenomenal existence,
Nodchin Shenmar, displayer of unobstructed strength,
And the blazing Tsen-god, taking the lives of the Doctrine’s enemies.
You three, manifest assemblies and messengers,
We invoke you to this place of samaya, please come here.
Authorized and installed to remain as permanent protectors of the doctrine,
We offer outer, inner, and secret substances, and the flesh and blood of enemies and obstructing forces.
By utilizing this exhaustless flow of conducive and desirable substances,
Pray, may these offerings fulfill your heart’s promise.
Pray, forgive us for whatever mistakes have been made due to confusion.
Concerning myself and all other practitioners who rely upon and accomplish you,
Grant us constant security and protection in every situation without wavering.
Clear all non-conducive circumstances, illness, and demonic force possessions.
Through your power and might, increase the dharma in this existence through concerned activity.
Overcoming the mental appearances of humans and non-human spirits,
Overpower all reverted and harmful enemies of the Doctrine.
Liberate the enemies of the lama’s body and the practitioners’ needs.
Fierce protector, now demonstrate your strength and display of your power.
At this time, may all the great qualities of mantra practice be generated.
Do not forget the command and your vow under samaya!
Thus, at the request of Ngagton Pedma Wangchen, this was written by Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje. If this prayer is carelessly propagated, harm will come to the propagator.
The Supplication to Invoke Shenpa Extracted from the Main Terma
KYA. In the charnel ground of Hechen Dalwa,
Nodchin Shenpa and your entire assembly,
Hear this call of faith and pure samaya.
Without exception, swiftly come here.
Remain in this place as the support for accomplishment.
The desirable outer offerings, as well as medicine, rakta and torma,
The five precious materials, brocades and chest of treasures,
The flesh, blood, bones, life essence and breath of the enemies and obstructors,
And multitudes of conducive materials, are presented to you
As offerings to the red-black Nodchin Shenpa
And the supreme consort, the red Sodched,
And to your action messengers, their emanations and assemblies,
As well as to your additional manifestations, to the eight classes of gods and cannibals,
And to their hundreds of thousands of assemblies.
Through these offerings, be fulfilled and recall your heart’s oath.
By constantly guarding me with love and compassion,
Enact your peaceful, expansive, powerful, and wrathful activities
As miraculous action that has no limit in its spontaneous accomplishment.
Do not ignore or postpone your samaya.
Nodchin Shenpa Protector Prayer
KHYA. With pure devotion and pure samaya,
Nodchin Shenpa, consort, and retinue,
Swiftly come forth, without obstruction.
Be seated upon the seat of great samaya.
Authorized and installed as my protector,
Outer, inner and secret offerings are made.
I fully confess all damaged and broken vows and invoke your heart’s promise.
I praise you with the plaintive sound of music and song.
Fully accomplish your extensive miraculous activities.
Do not waver; do not delay. (Maintain) samaya.
The Abbreviated Offering Prayer to the Phurba Protectors:
RAM YAM KHAM (Purifies the offering)
OM AH HUNG (Blesses the offering)
From one’s heart, light rays emanate, inviting the Vajrakilaya protectors and their entourages.
OM BENZAR ARGHAM PADYAM PUSHPE DHUPE ALOKE GENDHE NEWIDYA SHABDA PRATITSA SO HA
(General offerings)
MA HA PANTSA AMRITA KHAHI MA HA RAKTA KHAHI
(Offering medicine and rakta)
OM BENZAR KILI KILAYA MOHA GHATAYA MAMA SHI GHRAM KARMA KARAYE SPARIWARA IDAM BALINGTA KHA KHA KHAHI KHAHI
(Offering the torma by repeating three times.)
HUNG. Through the command of drak tung Vajrakumara,
Possessors of the vow to protect the doctrine,
The shonas, dagnyids, sodagmas,
Kyeibus, gingchens and your entourages,
Please partake of this offering torma of pleasing substances.
Remove all unfavorable circumstances and increase favorable circumstances.
Entrusted with this desire,
Accomplish the result of firm activity.
Assigning this activity to the protectors, rest in equanimity. Written by Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje.
The Inexpressible Absolute Confession
Behold the self-manifest primordial wisdom mandala encompassing space.
OM. The supreme embodiment of primordial wisdom, the natural mandala,
Although without elaboration, just like the full moon,
Appears as the display of compassion, without bias, equally, like the clear light of the sun,
Please come here, listen to me and be seated.
Inexpressible wisdom, the immovable dharmakaya,
The great bliss sambhogakaya, the five Buddhas and their families,
The deities of the play of the vast display of the skillful method of loving kindness,
To the peaceful and wrathful nirmanakaya buddhas I bow down.
Actual material endowments and those mentally manifest,
Like limitless clouds of Samantabhadra’s offerings,
Are perfectly arranged throughout the reaches of the pure sphere of space.
I offer this ocean of outer, inner, and secret offerings.
In the secret womb of Samantabhadri (Kuntuzangmo)
Dwell the vast multitudes of the mandalas of the buddhas without exception.
Within the one taste of changelessness,
Take pleasure in the indivisible awakened mind.
The mind’s nature is the great space of the dharmadhatu.
All phenomena are perfectly pure as the primordial realm of clear light.
The nature of this practice is the sphere beyond thought and speech.
I bow down constantly to this awakened mind in the nature of equality.
Within the great perfection of Samantabhadra, which has prevailed from the very beginning,
Are the great arrangements of outer, inner and secret mandalas.
In the pure display of phenomenal existence as the sphere of male and female deities,
All that appears and transforms is the spontaneous expression of male-female.
Great Mistress, who possesses the form of the ultimate great secret,
In the center of your lotus, the vast expanse of the sphere of space
Is the clear light realm of the great bindu of non-duality,
The embodiment of the essence of the awakened mind, uncontrived without complexity.
All appearances, are the deities of infinite great bliss.
This secret mandala devoid of gathering and dispersing,
Is the great self-nature as the five Buddha families, male and female,
The family of bodhisattvas, the hosts of male and female wrathful deities,
The assembly of vajra goddesses and the lords, masters of the assemblies,
The five glorious herukas of the five Buddha families, the ten wrathful deities and their consorts,
The four gate keepers of the sacred places and countries,
The many assemblies of primordial wisdom emanation deities,
Who are as loving as mothers and as affectionate as sisters,
The dakinis who weigh good and evil and pronounce the judgments of samaya, and
Hosts of outer and inner dakinis and yoginis.
All of you who uphold the vajra commitment, please bear witness to me.
Descendants of the vajra lineage pure-awareness holders, myself and others,
Who generate the awakened mind for the purpose of all beings,
In order to reach the unsurpassed state of awakening,
We practice the various individual disciplines of the ocean of teachings,
Maintain the supreme vow of the union of body, speech and mind, and
The vajra samaya, not lightly transgressed and necessary to maintain.
All general and extraordinary samaya,
That I successively received and swore to preserve,
Were never intended to be lost or transgressed.
With no intention to deviate or abandon them, yet
Due to laziness, I have postponed the practices.
Without achieving accomplishment, my meditation potential is feeble.
Lacking mindfulness and overpowered by carelessness,
I have not persevered in meditation, and have been distracted during mantra recitation.
Concerning the root samaya of body, speech and mind,
Overpowered by my lack of awareness, both knowingly and unknowingly,
I have transgressed my teacher’s words and contradicted the vows.
Any practitioner who has allowed samaya to deteriorate
Should not be associated with, even for an instant.
Although stated in the scriptures, this is difficult to adhere to.
The secret path is difficult to define, and so hard to understand clearly.
Lacking omniscience, it is difficult to discern who is at fault.
I have associated with transgressors in feast and fulfillment restoration ceremonies.
I have spoken about Dharma to transgressors and improper vessels, and
I have failed to be conscientious about deteriorations, their faults and so forth.
I have befriended transgressors. And due to all of this,
These faults of the obscuration of defilement, whatever they may be,
Are the cause of obstructing conditions in this life and will obscure the future.
With a mind of overwhelming regret and remorse I completely confess.
Please pay heed to me with your loving compassion and
Place me firmly in the sphere of non-duality.
Although you abide in the state of equanimity free of conceptualization,
Please bestow perfectly the blessings of absolute non-duality.
If non-conceptual absolute truth is free from elaboration,
Whatever thought formations exist, become non-conceptual.
Due to the power of conventional truth, which is merely illusory,
For the faults committed, with personal remorse I request forgiveness.
This extract is the fourth chapter of the Confession Tantra, The Stainless King. Translated into Tibetan by Vimalamitra and Nyak Jnanakumara. SAMAYA
(Repeat the One-Hundred Syllable Mantra.)
From the Stainless Secret of Vajrasattva: The Doctrine of the King of Purification, the Essence of Confession
OM. Buddha Kuntuzangpo, the primordial ground,
Vajrasattva, the Vajra Tathagata,
Great Daka (Hero), protector of beings,
Look upon me with your gaze of wisdom and loving intent.
AH. Though primordially unborn and pure from the beginning,
In the face of sudden confusion, all discursive thoughts arise.
Through this condition of the appearance of ignorance’s duality, all deteriorations
I confess in the expanse of the great pure consort of the dharmadhatu.
BENZAR. Secret lord, proclaimer of the vajra samaya,
Every broken vow and damaged pledge of the
One-hundred thousand body, speech, mind, and secret samayas,
I confess with absolute shame and remorse.
SATTVA. Having passed the time limit when violations become faults,
Which are the cause of harsh punishment,
At the command of the vajra dakinis, the monitors of karma,
I confess the accumulated causes of the great hells that obscure this life and the next.
HUNG. Great Vajra, Primordial King,
Inconceivable, free of damage and confession,
Kuntuzangpo, the expanse of pure awareness, perfect from the beginning,
Within the expanse of the dharmadhatu, without gathering or separation – AH.
(Repeat the one hundred syllable mantra.)
This King of Confessions, in just a few words, can stir samsara from its depths like alchemy applied to iron. It is an oral instruction to protect beings who have fallen subject to ignorance and thus violations of samaya. This arose from the sphere of the mind of Samantabhadra and was written down in code script for the sake of future generations. May it meet with my heart son, an emanation of myself.
SAMAYA GYA GYA GYA
This was established from code script by Trakthung Pawo. (Do Khentse Yeshe Dorje)
All deteriorated and broken samaya (are purified)
By the power of reciting this king of confessions.
By stirring the depths of the three realms of samsara,
May (all beings) attain the enlightened expanse of the three kayas.
The Protectors (Dharmapalas), by H.E. Shenphen Rinpoche
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Re: The Protectors (Dharmapalas), by H.E. Shenphen Rinpoche
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Re: The Protectors (Dharmapalas), by H.E. Shenphen Rinpoche
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Letting Daylight Into Magic: The Life and Times of Dorje Shugden
by Stephen Batchelor
First Published in Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Vol. 7, no. 3. New York:
Spring 1998.
“A wrathful deity,” announced the London Independent with barely concealed irony on Monday 17 February, 1997 “is the main suspect for three murders in Dharamsala, the Himalayan ‘capital’ of Tibet’s government-in-exile.” Two weeks earlier Gen Lobsang Gyatso, the principal of the Buddhist School of Dialectics, and two students had been stabbed to death. Eight months later, despite exhaustive investigations by the Indian police, the case is still unresolved. Although arrest warrants for two suspects have been issued, the police believe they have gone to ground either in Nepal or Tibet. Interpol has been called in to help find them.
On Saturday 6 July, 1996, another British newspaper, the Guardian, had carried a front-page story under the heading: “Smear campaign sparks safety fears over Dalai Lama’s UK visit.” The article described demonstrations on the streets of London where hundreds of British Buddhists “chanted anti-Dalai Lama slogans and carried placards saying ‘Your smiles charm, your actions harm.’” The Nobel Peace Laureate was accused by an organisation called the Shugden Supporters Community of being “a ruthless dictator” and “an oppressor of religious freedom.”
These tragic and bewildering events have brought to the attention of the world a long-standing, arcane feud within the Tibetan Buddhist community that centers around the protector god Dorje Shugden. While feeding the West’s seemingly insatiable fascination with all things Tibetan, the murders and demonstrations have exposed a dark and troubling underside of a tradition often seen as a beacon of wisdom and compassion in a spiritually confused world. Even if it turns out that the killings were part of a Chinese campaign to intensify discord in the Tibetan community in exile, the fact remains that Beijing has been able to exploit a bitter dispute that the Dalai Lama and his supporters such as Gen Lobsang Gyatso have so far been powerless to resolve.
To understand the complex origins of this dispute, it is necessary not only to trace an outline of Tibetan history since the 17th century, but also to grasp some of the doctrinal and philosophical issues that have divided Tibetans since Buddhism was established in the 8th century.
***
On the 28th day of the seventh lunar month of 1642, the Fifth Dalai Lama had a dream of two Nyingma lamas giving him an initiation in a chapel of his palace at Drepung Monastery. One of the lamas handed him a ritual dagger (phur ba) and at that very moment he had the feeling of being spied on through a window by monks of his own Geluk order. He reflected that if the Geluk monks criticized him for receiving teachings from the Nyingma lamas, he would stab them with the dagger. He rushed out to confront them, but they already seemed subdued. He then woke up.
Earlier the same year, the twenty-six year old Dalai Lama had been conferred with supreme authority over all Tibet by the Mongol Gushri Khan, thus inaugurating the dynasty of the Dalai Lamas. This was achieved when the armies of the Mongol Khan defeated the King of Tsang, the backer of the Dalai Lama’s chief rival for power in Tibet: the Karmapa -- a senior lama of the Kagyu order. While this military victory ended years of civil conflict in Tibet and unified the country under the Geluk order, it also exposed tensions among the Gelukpas themselves -- already hinted at in the Dalai Lama’s dream three months later.
The Geluk tradition had been founded more than two hundred years earlier by the remarkable monk, scholar and yogin Tsongkhapa, who drew from all Tibetan Buddhist traditions of his time to create a compelling new synthesis of doctrine, ethics, philosophy and practice. The first Dalai Lama was a leading disciple of Tsongkhapa, and as the influence of the Gelukpas grew steadily over the next two centuries, the Dalai Lamas emerged as important spiritual figures within the school. When the fifth in the line became head of the Tibetan state, the institution of the Dalai Lama suddenly assumed unprecedented political power.
Although the Fifth was a Geluk monk, as head of state he carried the mantle not only of Tsongkhapa’s reformed Buddhist order but also that of a thousand years of Tibetan history. This would have been particularly poignant for him, since he was born into a family whose ancestral home overlooked the tombs of the early Tibetan kings in the Chonggye Valley and who were still associated with the Nyingma tradition. The Nyingmapas (“Ancients”) had been instrumental in introducing Buddhism to Tibet at the time of those early kings and in first defining the buddhocratic nature of the state. Throughout his life the Dalai Lama maintained a strong allegiance to the Nyingma school (particularly the practice of Dzogchen) and a mystical rapport with its founder Padmasambhava, who appeared to him in dreams and visions.
The Dalai Lama’s assumption of this long and complex historical identity would not have sat easily with the ambitions of a Geluk hierarchy intent on creating a buddhocratic state founded explicitly on the teachings of Tsongkhapa. It seems that this conflict led to the death of the Fifth’s rival Drakpa Gyaltsen, shortly after the Dalai Lama’s return from a state visit to China (suggesting the possibility of a palace revolt during his prolonged absence). Thereafter, Dorje Shugden was recognized by those Gelukpas who opposed the Dalai Lama’s involvement with the Nyingma school as the reincarnation of Drakpa Gyaltsen, who had assumed the form of a wrathful protector of the purity of Tsongkhapa’s teachings. They also regarded him as an emanation of the bodhisattva Manjushri.
After the death of the Fifth Dalai Lama in 1682, the controversy between these factions of the Geluk school slips into the shadows and we hear only occasional references to Dorje Shugden for the next two hundred years. The Sixth Dalai Lama was unsuited to public office and was arrested and killed by the Mongols. After the Seventh Dalai Lama was returned to Lhasa in 1720 by the Manchus, the government of Tibet passed into the hands of a regency composed initially of powerful aristocrats and then, for 113 years, senior Geluk lamas. Of the six Dalai Lamas who lived during this period of regency, the last four died before the age of twenty-one, thus failing to assume leadership of Tibet for more than a year or so.
The Thirteenth Dalai Lama came to power at the age of nineteen in 1895. Having survived an assassination attempt (his former regent concealed deadly mantras in his boots), he found himself charged with the daunting task of leading Tibet into a rapidly changing world. He proved an able leader, who sought to introduce a modest program of reform only to be thwarted by aristocrats and senior lamas. He was also a keen practitioner of Nyingma teachings. He had several teachers from the Nyingma school, practiced with them in the Potala Palace, and wrote commentaries to the Nyingma texts of his predecessor the Fifth.
The Thirteenth’s openness to the Nyingmapa was in marked contrast to that of Pabongka Rinpoche, the most influential Geluk lama of the time, whose authority rivalled that of the Dalai Lama. Pabongka inherited the practice of Dorje Shugden from his mother’s family, and as a young man also received transmissions from Nyingma lamas. After a serious illness he became convinced that the disease was a sign from Shugden to stop practicing Nyingma teachings, which he did. Although he promoted the practice of Shugden, he was ordered by the Thirteenth to stop invoking the deity on the grounds that it was destroying Buddhism. Pabongka then promised “in the core of my heart” never to propitiate Shugden again. He evidently changed his mind, though, and subsequently passed the practice on to his disciples.
The present Dalai Lama, born in 1935, was introduced to the practice of Dorje Shugden by his junior tutor Trijang Rinpoche, a leading disciple of Pabongka. This was a time of great political turmoil in Tibet. The reliability of the State Oracle Nechung had been thrown into doubt and some believed the government should switch its allegiance to the oracle representing Dorje Shugden. The Regent, Reting Rinpoche, was forced to resign, only to return to launch an unsuccessful coup in 1947. The Chinese Communists arrived in Lhasa in 1952. The Dalai Lama, his tutors and 100,000 Tibetans fled to India in 1959, possibly on the advice of the Shugden oracle.
In 1973 a senior Geluk lama called Zemey Rinpoche published an account of Dorje Shugden he had received orally from his teacher Trijang Rinpoche. This text recounts in detail the various calamities that have befallen monks and laypeople of the Geluk tradition who have practiced Nyingma teachings. Those mentioned include the last three Panchen Lamas, senior officials of the Thirteenth’s government, Reting Rinpoche and even Pabongka himself. In each case, the illness, torture or death incurred is claimed to be the result of having displeased Dorje Shugden. The publication of this material was condemned by the Dalai Lama, who was then engaged in Nyingma practices himself under the guidance of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. His views about Dorje Shugden began to shift and led to his first statements discouraging the practice in 1976.
Each time a Dalai Lama has come to hold effective political office, a controversy has erupted around Dorje Shugden. A similar pattern has repeated itself during the rules of the Fifth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dalai Lamas. This conflict has inevitably been articulated in the vivid, yet (to outsiders) bewildering language and imagery of Tibetan culture. It reflects a struggle between two opposing visions of how best to lead sentient beings to enlightenment, preserve the Buddha’s teaching, and maintain the integrity of the Tibetan state. Representatives of both sides have included wise, moral and saintly men, who have led exemplary Buddhist lives. Some, such as Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and Trijang Rinpoche, admired and respected each other. As with everything to do with Tibet, the line between religion and politics is blurred. The dispute over Dorje Shugden is neither an exclusively religious nor a fundamentally political one. It is both.
***
Who are these invisible beings that appear to Tibetan lamas in dreams and visions, speak through oracles, predict the future, inspire awe and terror, bless those who worship them and incur misfortune on those who don’t? The Tibetan term for such beings is lha. Lha means “deity” or “god.” Such gods are both Indian and Tibetan in origin and constitute a pantheon as complex and arcane as that of ancient Greece and Rome. Yet with the advent of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, there appears an altogether different kind of god. These are buddhas and bodhisattvas, awakened beings who have vowed to work ceaselessly and in myriad ways for the welfare of beings. While not mere gods -- who for all their powers are just another class of unawakened sentient being -- they assume the form of gods (lha’i rnam par shar ba) for the benefit of others.
Tibetan Buddhists regard these gods, whether of the unawakened or awakened variety, as conscious, autonomous beings, every bit as real as you or I. The Dalai Lama, who so successfully presents Buddhism in the Western media as rational, pragmatic and compatible with modern psychology and science, appears to believe in the power of these gods. In a statement issued in English by the Tibetan government in exile in 1996, he is quoted from a speech to an audience of Tibetans as saying: “It has become fairly clear that Dolgyal (i.e. Shugden) is a spirit of the dark forces.”
The Dalai Lama is not speaking here as a modern religious leader trying to persuade some of his superstitious flock to relinquish an outdated world view. He is engaged in an emotive debate about whether a particular god is a powerful but deluded sentient being or a buddha who has assumed the form of a god. Such is the perceived power of Dorje Shugden that both Gelukpas who invoke him and Nyingmapas who fear him are told not even to let his name pass their lips. This atmosphere of secrecy and implicit danger serves to affirm for Tibetan Buddhists their view of an invisible polytheistic reality intersecting with the human world.
Although this worldview may be unfamiliar, it is not intrinsically stranger than that of Christians and other religious believers who lack the exotic prestige Tibetan lamas have for Westerners. The main difference between it and other religious worldviews is that Buddhists know all these gods to be empty of any inherent reality. Everything, they would say, is merely an appearance as ephemeral and insubstantial as a dream. Such statements have led some in the West to assume that the gods of Tibetan Buddhism are no more than archetypal symbols: they perform a psychological function in the process of spiritual transformation, but only the naive would say they represent beings independent of the practitioner’s own mind. Yet however useful this kind of Jungian interpretation may be, it is not how most Tibetan lamas understand the world they inhabit.
For gods to be empty of inherent existence does not mean that they cannot be autonomous beings capable of making choices and existing in their own heavenly realms. In this sense they are no different from humans, who are likewise empty but perfectly capable of making decisions and living their own unique and fallible lives. The doctrine of emptiness only teaches us to see ourselves and the world in a way that frees us from the reification and egoism that generate anguish. To say the world is empty neither affirms nor denies the claims of any cosmological theory, be it that of ancient India or modern astrophysics.
To establish an authentic Buddhist state on the basis of this vision, however, requires ensuring that a correct view of emptiness be upheld by those in power. Such responsibility would be a necessary outcome of the bodhisattva’s compassionate resolve. For this reason, the Fifth Dalai Lama’s government proscribed the teachings of the Jonangpa school, who taught that emptiness implied a transcendent absolute reality which inherently exists (gzhan stong). Texts of the school were confiscated and its monasteries turned over to the Gelukpa. It seems other factions in the Geluk order would have liked to have taken similar measures against the Nyingma school.
In order to honor the historical heritage of Tibet, to affirm unity among the diverse communities of the Tibetan nation, even to be true to their own spiritual intuitions, one can understand why the Dalai Lamas would tolerate and even embrace Nyingma views. But however justified this might be in personal or political terms, it should not obscure the real and potentially divisive philosophical and doctrinal differences that exist between the Nyingma and Geluk ideologies.
The Nyingma teaching of Dzogchen regards awareness (rig pa) as the innate self-cognizant foundation of both samsara and nirvana. Rig pa is the intrinsic, uncontrived nature of mind, which a Dzogchen master is capable of directly pointing out to his students. For the Nyingmapa Dzogchen represents the very apogee of what the Buddha taught, whereas Tsongkhapa’s view of emptiness as just a negation (med ‘gag) of inherent existence, implying no transcendent reality, verges on nihilism.
For the Gelukpas, though, Dzogchen succumbs to the opposite extreme: that of delusively clinging to something permanent and self-existent as the basis of reality. They see Dzogchen as a return to the Hindu ideas that Buddhists resisted in India, and a residue of the Chan (Zen) doctrine of Hvashang Mahayana, proscribed at the time of the early kings. Moreover, some Kagyu and Nyingma teachers of the Rime (“Impartial”) revival movement in Eastern Tibet in the 19th century even began to promote a synthesis between the forbidden Jonangpa philosophy and the practice of Dzogchen.
For the followers of Shugden this is not an obscure metaphysical disagreement, but a life and death struggle for truth in which the destiny of all sentient beings is at stake. The bodhisattva vow, taken by every Tibetan Buddhist, is a commitment to lead all beings to the end of anguish and the realization of buddhahood. Following Tsongkhapa, the Gelukpas maintain that the only way to achieve this is to understand non-conceptually that nothing whatsoever inherently exists. Any residue, however subtle, of an attachment to inherent existence works against the bodhisattva’s aim and perpetuates the very anguish he or she seeks to dispel.
Moreover, protectors such as Dorje Shugden exert an enormous power over the minds of Tibetan Buddhists--be they erudite lamas, simple Bhutanese peasants or educated Westerners. While lamas teach that the taking of refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha is the only protection a Buddhist requires, they invariably supplement this with initiations into and practices of a range of protector gods. After all, the “Land of Snows” could be a harsh and frightening place. Tibetans lived in an awesome, sparsely inhabited landscape with a fierce climate, psychically populated by numerous spirits, demons and gods. The very survival of communities required a powerful sense of family, tribal and religious loyalty. In a modern, psychological sense, Dorje Shugden could be seen as the personification of a specific set of fears and loyalties in the form of a god. But for Tibetan Buddhists he is not just a metaphor; he is a real, living god/buddha whose displeasure can wreak havoc on human beings.
At a certain point in their practice, those who rely on Dorje Shugden will ritually “entrust their lives” (srog gtad) to him. This is not a step taken lightly. When the present Dalai Lama (who chose not to take this step himself) requests people to renounce Shugden, he both challenges a deeply felt loyalty and raises the possibility of frightful retribution. “Nothing will happen,” he has had to reassure Tibetans. “I will face the challenge.... No harm will befall you.”
Although some Gelukpas have heeded his advice, others have not. For those loyal to Dorje Shugden could well believe that the misfortunes to have befallen the institution of the Dalai Lama, even the tragedy of Tibet in the 20th century, are all due to a failure to heed the advice of their protector who “reduces to particles of dust great beings, high officials and ordinary people who pollute and corrupt the Geluk doctrine.” For the Dalai Lama to denounce Dorje Shugden may confirm for them that he is simply part of the problem.
***
Speaking of the British monarchy more than a hundred years ago, Walter Bagehot warned of “letting daylight into magic.” This happens today as the media peer into events that formerly only a handful of lamas and their advisors would have been privy to. The arcane wrangling and intrigue surrounding the reincarnations of the Karmapa and the Panchen Lama are disseminated through newspapers, web sites, television and radio within hours of having taken place, while grisly murders in Dharamsala lead to Dorje Shugden being dissected on the pages of Newsweek. The Dalai Lama in particular has used the media to great effect, but the fascination he has both drawn upon and stimulated now threatens to turn the magic of Tibet into mere spectacle.
If we strip away the exotic veneer of this Tibetan Buddhist dispute, we are confronted with questions which concern the very nature of the dharma and its practice. In the West we are fond of portraying Buddhism as a tolerant, rational, non-dogmatic and open-minded tradition. But how much is this the result of liberal Western(ized) intellectuals seeking to construct an image of Buddhism that simply confirms their own prejudices and desires?
Historically, Buddhists everywhere have tended not to exhibit the pluralist, postmodern values we might imagine them to possess. All Buddhist traditions make claims to truth, and when those claims have contradicted one another, then passionate, prolonged, even violent disputes have ensued. All the more so is this the case in the polytheistic buddhocracy of Tibet, where a very human dispute between different doctrinal camps has also inevitably been a struggle among the gods. Each side has invoked its own invisible beings for blessing and protection, summoned its own oracles for guidance from them, and been convinced that it was acting out of compassion for the welfare of all beings. Tibetan lamas take their disputes seriously not merely because of short-term political gain. Many of them act out of deep and sincere passion for what they hold to be true.
Yet history also teaches us that Buddhism possesses a remarkable capacity to re-imagine itself in response to the challenges posed by new historical and cultural situations. Its protean forms are testimony to the survival of a way of life that has travelled throughout Asia and is now taking its tentative first steps in America and Europe. If it is to survive, it will have to find a way of preserving the heartfelt, single-minded commitment at its core within multicultural societies that reject the totalizing and potentially repressive demands of any single claim to truth.
by Stephen Batchelor
First Published in Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Vol. 7, no. 3. New York:
Spring 1998.
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 Fifth Dalai Lama
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 Geluk doctrine.
-- From “Praise to Dorje Shugden” quoted by Zemey Rinpoche
“A wrathful deity,” announced the London Independent with barely concealed irony on Monday 17 February, 1997 “is the main suspect for three murders in Dharamsala, the Himalayan ‘capital’ of Tibet’s government-in-exile.” Two weeks earlier Gen Lobsang Gyatso, the principal of the Buddhist School of Dialectics, and two students had been stabbed to death. Eight months later, despite exhaustive investigations by the Indian police, the case is still unresolved. Although arrest warrants for two suspects have been issued, the police believe they have gone to ground either in Nepal or Tibet. Interpol has been called in to help find them.
On Saturday 6 July, 1996, another British newspaper, the Guardian, had carried a front-page story under the heading: “Smear campaign sparks safety fears over Dalai Lama’s UK visit.” The article described demonstrations on the streets of London where hundreds of British Buddhists “chanted anti-Dalai Lama slogans and carried placards saying ‘Your smiles charm, your actions harm.’” The Nobel Peace Laureate was accused by an organisation called the Shugden Supporters Community of being “a ruthless dictator” and “an oppressor of religious freedom.”
These tragic and bewildering events have brought to the attention of the world a long-standing, arcane feud within the Tibetan Buddhist community that centers around the protector god Dorje Shugden. While feeding the West’s seemingly insatiable fascination with all things Tibetan, the murders and demonstrations have exposed a dark and troubling underside of a tradition often seen as a beacon of wisdom and compassion in a spiritually confused world. Even if it turns out that the killings were part of a Chinese campaign to intensify discord in the Tibetan community in exile, the fact remains that Beijing has been able to exploit a bitter dispute that the Dalai Lama and his supporters such as Gen Lobsang Gyatso have so far been powerless to resolve.
To understand the complex origins of this dispute, it is necessary not only to trace an outline of Tibetan history since the 17th century, but also to grasp some of the doctrinal and philosophical issues that have divided Tibetans since Buddhism was established in the 8th century.
***
On the 28th day of the seventh lunar month of 1642, the Fifth Dalai Lama had a dream of two Nyingma lamas giving him an initiation in a chapel of his palace at Drepung Monastery. One of the lamas handed him a ritual dagger (phur ba) and at that very moment he had the feeling of being spied on through a window by monks of his own Geluk order. He reflected that if the Geluk monks criticized him for receiving teachings from the Nyingma lamas, he would stab them with the dagger. He rushed out to confront them, but they already seemed subdued. He then woke up.
Earlier the same year, the twenty-six year old Dalai Lama had been conferred with supreme authority over all Tibet by the Mongol Gushri Khan, thus inaugurating the dynasty of the Dalai Lamas. This was achieved when the armies of the Mongol Khan defeated the King of Tsang, the backer of the Dalai Lama’s chief rival for power in Tibet: the Karmapa -- a senior lama of the Kagyu order. While this military victory ended years of civil conflict in Tibet and unified the country under the Geluk order, it also exposed tensions among the Gelukpas themselves -- already hinted at in the Dalai Lama’s dream three months later.
The Geluk tradition had been founded more than two hundred years earlier by the remarkable monk, scholar and yogin Tsongkhapa, who drew from all Tibetan Buddhist traditions of his time to create a compelling new synthesis of doctrine, ethics, philosophy and practice. The first Dalai Lama was a leading disciple of Tsongkhapa, and as the influence of the Gelukpas grew steadily over the next two centuries, the Dalai Lamas emerged as important spiritual figures within the school. When the fifth in the line became head of the Tibetan state, the institution of the Dalai Lama suddenly assumed unprecedented political power.
Although the Fifth was a Geluk monk, as head of state he carried the mantle not only of Tsongkhapa’s reformed Buddhist order but also that of a thousand years of Tibetan history. This would have been particularly poignant for him, since he was born into a family whose ancestral home overlooked the tombs of the early Tibetan kings in the Chonggye Valley and who were still associated with the Nyingma tradition. The Nyingmapas (“Ancients”) had been instrumental in introducing Buddhism to Tibet at the time of those early kings and in first defining the buddhocratic nature of the state. Throughout his life the Dalai Lama maintained a strong allegiance to the Nyingma school (particularly the practice of Dzogchen) and a mystical rapport with its founder Padmasambhava, who appeared to him in dreams and visions.
The Dalai Lama’s assumption of this long and complex historical identity would not have sat easily with the ambitions of a Geluk hierarchy intent on creating a buddhocratic state founded explicitly on the teachings of Tsongkhapa. It seems that this conflict led to the death of the Fifth’s rival Drakpa Gyaltsen, shortly after the Dalai Lama’s return from a state visit to China (suggesting the possibility of a palace revolt during his prolonged absence). Thereafter, Dorje Shugden was recognized by those Gelukpas who opposed the Dalai Lama’s involvement with the Nyingma school as the reincarnation of Drakpa Gyaltsen, who had assumed the form of a wrathful protector of the purity of Tsongkhapa’s teachings. They also regarded him as an emanation of the bodhisattva Manjushri.
After the death of the Fifth Dalai Lama in 1682, the controversy between these factions of the Geluk school slips into the shadows and we hear only occasional references to Dorje Shugden for the next two hundred years. The Sixth Dalai Lama was unsuited to public office and was arrested and killed by the Mongols. After the Seventh Dalai Lama was returned to Lhasa in 1720 by the Manchus, the government of Tibet passed into the hands of a regency composed initially of powerful aristocrats and then, for 113 years, senior Geluk lamas. Of the six Dalai Lamas who lived during this period of regency, the last four died before the age of twenty-one, thus failing to assume leadership of Tibet for more than a year or so.
The Thirteenth Dalai Lama came to power at the age of nineteen in 1895. Having survived an assassination attempt (his former regent concealed deadly mantras in his boots), he found himself charged with the daunting task of leading Tibet into a rapidly changing world. He proved an able leader, who sought to introduce a modest program of reform only to be thwarted by aristocrats and senior lamas. He was also a keen practitioner of Nyingma teachings. He had several teachers from the Nyingma school, practiced with them in the Potala Palace, and wrote commentaries to the Nyingma texts of his predecessor the Fifth.
The Thirteenth’s openness to the Nyingmapa was in marked contrast to that of Pabongka Rinpoche, the most influential Geluk lama of the time, whose authority rivalled that of the Dalai Lama. Pabongka inherited the practice of Dorje Shugden from his mother’s family, and as a young man also received transmissions from Nyingma lamas. After a serious illness he became convinced that the disease was a sign from Shugden to stop practicing Nyingma teachings, which he did. Although he promoted the practice of Shugden, he was ordered by the Thirteenth to stop invoking the deity on the grounds that it was destroying Buddhism. Pabongka then promised “in the core of my heart” never to propitiate Shugden again. He evidently changed his mind, though, and subsequently passed the practice on to his disciples.
The present Dalai Lama, born in 1935, was introduced to the practice of Dorje Shugden by his junior tutor Trijang Rinpoche, a leading disciple of Pabongka. This was a time of great political turmoil in Tibet. The reliability of the State Oracle Nechung had been thrown into doubt and some believed the government should switch its allegiance to the oracle representing Dorje Shugden. The Regent, Reting Rinpoche, was forced to resign, only to return to launch an unsuccessful coup in 1947. The Chinese Communists arrived in Lhasa in 1952. The Dalai Lama, his tutors and 100,000 Tibetans fled to India in 1959, possibly on the advice of the Shugden oracle.
In 1973 a senior Geluk lama called Zemey Rinpoche published an account of Dorje Shugden he had received orally from his teacher Trijang Rinpoche. This text recounts in detail the various calamities that have befallen monks and laypeople of the Geluk tradition who have practiced Nyingma teachings. Those mentioned include the last three Panchen Lamas, senior officials of the Thirteenth’s government, Reting Rinpoche and even Pabongka himself. In each case, the illness, torture or death incurred is claimed to be the result of having displeased Dorje Shugden. The publication of this material was condemned by the Dalai Lama, who was then engaged in Nyingma practices himself under the guidance of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. His views about Dorje Shugden began to shift and led to his first statements discouraging the practice in 1976.
Each time a Dalai Lama has come to hold effective political office, a controversy has erupted around Dorje Shugden. A similar pattern has repeated itself during the rules of the Fifth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dalai Lamas. This conflict has inevitably been articulated in the vivid, yet (to outsiders) bewildering language and imagery of Tibetan culture. It reflects a struggle between two opposing visions of how best to lead sentient beings to enlightenment, preserve the Buddha’s teaching, and maintain the integrity of the Tibetan state. Representatives of both sides have included wise, moral and saintly men, who have led exemplary Buddhist lives. Some, such as Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and Trijang Rinpoche, admired and respected each other. As with everything to do with Tibet, the line between religion and politics is blurred. The dispute over Dorje Shugden is neither an exclusively religious nor a fundamentally political one. It is both.
***
Who are these invisible beings that appear to Tibetan lamas in dreams and visions, speak through oracles, predict the future, inspire awe and terror, bless those who worship them and incur misfortune on those who don’t? The Tibetan term for such beings is lha. Lha means “deity” or “god.” Such gods are both Indian and Tibetan in origin and constitute a pantheon as complex and arcane as that of ancient Greece and Rome. Yet with the advent of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, there appears an altogether different kind of god. These are buddhas and bodhisattvas, awakened beings who have vowed to work ceaselessly and in myriad ways for the welfare of beings. While not mere gods -- who for all their powers are just another class of unawakened sentient being -- they assume the form of gods (lha’i rnam par shar ba) for the benefit of others.
Tibetan Buddhists regard these gods, whether of the unawakened or awakened variety, as conscious, autonomous beings, every bit as real as you or I. The Dalai Lama, who so successfully presents Buddhism in the Western media as rational, pragmatic and compatible with modern psychology and science, appears to believe in the power of these gods. In a statement issued in English by the Tibetan government in exile in 1996, he is quoted from a speech to an audience of Tibetans as saying: “It has become fairly clear that Dolgyal (i.e. Shugden) is a spirit of the dark forces.”
The Dalai Lama is not speaking here as a modern religious leader trying to persuade some of his superstitious flock to relinquish an outdated world view. He is engaged in an emotive debate about whether a particular god is a powerful but deluded sentient being or a buddha who has assumed the form of a god. Such is the perceived power of Dorje Shugden that both Gelukpas who invoke him and Nyingmapas who fear him are told not even to let his name pass their lips. This atmosphere of secrecy and implicit danger serves to affirm for Tibetan Buddhists their view of an invisible polytheistic reality intersecting with the human world.
Although this worldview may be unfamiliar, it is not intrinsically stranger than that of Christians and other religious believers who lack the exotic prestige Tibetan lamas have for Westerners. The main difference between it and other religious worldviews is that Buddhists know all these gods to be empty of any inherent reality. Everything, they would say, is merely an appearance as ephemeral and insubstantial as a dream. Such statements have led some in the West to assume that the gods of Tibetan Buddhism are no more than archetypal symbols: they perform a psychological function in the process of spiritual transformation, but only the naive would say they represent beings independent of the practitioner’s own mind. Yet however useful this kind of Jungian interpretation may be, it is not how most Tibetan lamas understand the world they inhabit.
For gods to be empty of inherent existence does not mean that they cannot be autonomous beings capable of making choices and existing in their own heavenly realms. In this sense they are no different from humans, who are likewise empty but perfectly capable of making decisions and living their own unique and fallible lives. The doctrine of emptiness only teaches us to see ourselves and the world in a way that frees us from the reification and egoism that generate anguish. To say the world is empty neither affirms nor denies the claims of any cosmological theory, be it that of ancient India or modern astrophysics.
To establish an authentic Buddhist state on the basis of this vision, however, requires ensuring that a correct view of emptiness be upheld by those in power. Such responsibility would be a necessary outcome of the bodhisattva’s compassionate resolve. For this reason, the Fifth Dalai Lama’s government proscribed the teachings of the Jonangpa school, who taught that emptiness implied a transcendent absolute reality which inherently exists (gzhan stong). Texts of the school were confiscated and its monasteries turned over to the Gelukpa. It seems other factions in the Geluk order would have liked to have taken similar measures against the Nyingma school.
In order to honor the historical heritage of Tibet, to affirm unity among the diverse communities of the Tibetan nation, even to be true to their own spiritual intuitions, one can understand why the Dalai Lamas would tolerate and even embrace Nyingma views. But however justified this might be in personal or political terms, it should not obscure the real and potentially divisive philosophical and doctrinal differences that exist between the Nyingma and Geluk ideologies.
The Nyingma teaching of Dzogchen regards awareness (rig pa) as the innate self-cognizant foundation of both samsara and nirvana. Rig pa is the intrinsic, uncontrived nature of mind, which a Dzogchen master is capable of directly pointing out to his students. For the Nyingmapa Dzogchen represents the very apogee of what the Buddha taught, whereas Tsongkhapa’s view of emptiness as just a negation (med ‘gag) of inherent existence, implying no transcendent reality, verges on nihilism.
For the Gelukpas, though, Dzogchen succumbs to the opposite extreme: that of delusively clinging to something permanent and self-existent as the basis of reality. They see Dzogchen as a return to the Hindu ideas that Buddhists resisted in India, and a residue of the Chan (Zen) doctrine of Hvashang Mahayana, proscribed at the time of the early kings. Moreover, some Kagyu and Nyingma teachers of the Rime (“Impartial”) revival movement in Eastern Tibet in the 19th century even began to promote a synthesis between the forbidden Jonangpa philosophy and the practice of Dzogchen.
For the followers of Shugden this is not an obscure metaphysical disagreement, but a life and death struggle for truth in which the destiny of all sentient beings is at stake. The bodhisattva vow, taken by every Tibetan Buddhist, is a commitment to lead all beings to the end of anguish and the realization of buddhahood. Following Tsongkhapa, the Gelukpas maintain that the only way to achieve this is to understand non-conceptually that nothing whatsoever inherently exists. Any residue, however subtle, of an attachment to inherent existence works against the bodhisattva’s aim and perpetuates the very anguish he or she seeks to dispel.
Moreover, protectors such as Dorje Shugden exert an enormous power over the minds of Tibetan Buddhists--be they erudite lamas, simple Bhutanese peasants or educated Westerners. While lamas teach that the taking of refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha is the only protection a Buddhist requires, they invariably supplement this with initiations into and practices of a range of protector gods. After all, the “Land of Snows” could be a harsh and frightening place. Tibetans lived in an awesome, sparsely inhabited landscape with a fierce climate, psychically populated by numerous spirits, demons and gods. The very survival of communities required a powerful sense of family, tribal and religious loyalty. In a modern, psychological sense, Dorje Shugden could be seen as the personification of a specific set of fears and loyalties in the form of a god. But for Tibetan Buddhists he is not just a metaphor; he is a real, living god/buddha whose displeasure can wreak havoc on human beings.
At a certain point in their practice, those who rely on Dorje Shugden will ritually “entrust their lives” (srog gtad) to him. This is not a step taken lightly. When the present Dalai Lama (who chose not to take this step himself) requests people to renounce Shugden, he both challenges a deeply felt loyalty and raises the possibility of frightful retribution. “Nothing will happen,” he has had to reassure Tibetans. “I will face the challenge.... No harm will befall you.”
Although some Gelukpas have heeded his advice, others have not. For those loyal to Dorje Shugden could well believe that the misfortunes to have befallen the institution of the Dalai Lama, even the tragedy of Tibet in the 20th century, are all due to a failure to heed the advice of their protector who “reduces to particles of dust great beings, high officials and ordinary people who pollute and corrupt the Geluk doctrine.” For the Dalai Lama to denounce Dorje Shugden may confirm for them that he is simply part of the problem.
***
Speaking of the British monarchy more than a hundred years ago, Walter Bagehot warned of “letting daylight into magic.” This happens today as the media peer into events that formerly only a handful of lamas and their advisors would have been privy to. The arcane wrangling and intrigue surrounding the reincarnations of the Karmapa and the Panchen Lama are disseminated through newspapers, web sites, television and radio within hours of having taken place, while grisly murders in Dharamsala lead to Dorje Shugden being dissected on the pages of Newsweek. The Dalai Lama in particular has used the media to great effect, but the fascination he has both drawn upon and stimulated now threatens to turn the magic of Tibet into mere spectacle.
If we strip away the exotic veneer of this Tibetan Buddhist dispute, we are confronted with questions which concern the very nature of the dharma and its practice. In the West we are fond of portraying Buddhism as a tolerant, rational, non-dogmatic and open-minded tradition. But how much is this the result of liberal Western(ized) intellectuals seeking to construct an image of Buddhism that simply confirms their own prejudices and desires?
Historically, Buddhists everywhere have tended not to exhibit the pluralist, postmodern values we might imagine them to possess. All Buddhist traditions make claims to truth, and when those claims have contradicted one another, then passionate, prolonged, even violent disputes have ensued. All the more so is this the case in the polytheistic buddhocracy of Tibet, where a very human dispute between different doctrinal camps has also inevitably been a struggle among the gods. Each side has invoked its own invisible beings for blessing and protection, summoned its own oracles for guidance from them, and been convinced that it was acting out of compassion for the welfare of all beings. Tibetan lamas take their disputes seriously not merely because of short-term political gain. Many of them act out of deep and sincere passion for what they hold to be true.
Yet history also teaches us that Buddhism possesses a remarkable capacity to re-imagine itself in response to the challenges posed by new historical and cultural situations. Its protean forms are testimony to the survival of a way of life that has travelled throughout Asia and is now taking its tentative first steps in America and Europe. If it is to survive, it will have to find a way of preserving the heartfelt, single-minded commitment at its core within multicultural societies that reject the totalizing and potentially repressive demands of any single claim to truth.
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Re: The Protectors (Dharmapalas), by H.E. Shenphen Rinpoche
by admin » Fri Feb 03, 2023 5:50 am
The War of the Oracle Gods and the Shugden Affair, an excerpt from "The Shadow of the Dalai Lama"
by Victor and Victoria Trimondi
© 2003 by Victor and Victoria Trimondi
THE WAR OF THE ORACLE GODS AND THE SHUGDEN AFFAIR
The Tibetans can be described without exaggeration as being “addicted to oracles”. The most varied methods of augury and clairvoyance have been an everyday presence in the Land of Snows since time immemorial. The following types of oracle, all of which are still employed (among the Tibetans in exile as well), are described on an Internet site: doughball divination, dice divination, divination on a rosary, bootstrap divination, the interpretation of “incidental” signs, clairvoyant dreams, examining flames, observing a butter lamp, mirror divination, shoulder-blade divination, and hearing divination (HPI 10). When the “Great Fifth” seized worldly power in Tibet in the 17th century, he founded the institution of a state oracle so as to be able to obtain divinatory advice about the business of government. This is a matter of a human medium who serves as the mouthpiece of a particular deity. Still today, this form of “supernatural” consultation forms an important division within the Tibetan government in exile. The opinions of oracles are obtained for all important political events, often by the Fourteenth Dalai Lama in person. He is — in the accusations of his opponents — all but obsessed by divinations; it is primarily the prophecies of the state oracle which are mentioned. But before we examine this accusation, we should take a closer look at the history and character of this “state oracle”.
The Tibetan state oracle:
In the Tibet of old, the state oracle (or rather its human medium) lived as one of the highest ranking lamas in the Nechung residence. “It” had at its command a considerable “court” and celebrated its liturgies in a temple of its own. The predominant color of the interior temple was black. On the walls of the gloomy shrine hung mysterious weapons, from which great magical effects were supposed to emanate. In the corners lurked stuffed birds, tigers, and leopards. Pictures of terror gods looked back at the visitor, who suddenly stood in front of a mask of dried leather feared across the whole country. Among the chief iconographic motifs of the temple was the depiction of human ribcages.
At the beginning of an oracle session, the Nechung Lama is sent into a trance via all manner of ritual song and incense. After a while his eyes close, his facial muscles begin to twitch, his brow becomes dark red and glistens with sweat. The prophet god then visibly enters him, then during his trance the medium develops — and this is confirmed by photographs and western eyewitness reports — almost superhuman powers. He can bend iron swords and, although he carries a metal crown weighing over 80 pounds (!) on his head, perform a wild dance. Incomprehensible sounds come from his foaming lips. This is supposed to be a sacred language. Only once it has been deciphered by the priests can the content of the oracle message be recognized.
The deity conjured up by the Nechung Lama is called Pehar or Pedkar. However, often only his adjutant is invoked, Dorje Drakden by name. This is because a direct appearance by Pehar can be so violent that it threatens the life of his medium (the Nechung Lama). Pehar has under his command a group of five wrathful gods, who together are called the “protective wheel”. It seems sensible to make a few thoughts about this prophesying god, who has for centuries exercised such a decisive influence upon Tibetan politics and still continues to do so.
In iconographic representations, Pehar has three faces of different colors. He wears a bamboo hat which is crowned with a vajra upon his head. In his hands he holds a bow and arrow, a sword, a cleaver, and a club. His mount is a snow lion.
Pehar’s original home lay in the north of Tibet, there where in the conception of the old Tibetans (in the Gesar epic) the “devil’s country” was to be found. In earlier times he reigned as war god of the Hor Mongols. According to the sagas, this wild tribe was counted among the bitterest opponents of the pre-Buddhist Tibetans and their national hero, Gesar of Ling.
Old documents from Tunhuang describe the Hor as “flesh-eating red demons” (Stein, 1993, p. 36). Their martial king had laid waste to the Land of Snows and stolen its queen, the wife of Gesar of Ling. After terrible battles the Tibetan national hero defeated the rapacious Hors, to whom we are indebted for the word horde, and won their commitment and that of their chief god, Pehar, with an eternal oath of loyalty. Over the centuries the term Hor was then used to refer to various Mongolian tribes, including those of Genghis Khan. Hence, Pehar (the principal oracle god of the Dalai Lama) was originally a bitter arch-enemy of the Tibetans.
Where Gesar had rendered the Mongol god harmless, it was the Maha Siddha Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) who brought Buddhism to Tibet who first succeeded in actually putting Pehar to work. The saga tells how Guru Rinpoche pressed a vajra upon the barbaric god’s head and thus magically mastered him. After this act, Pehar was able to be incorporated into the Buddhist pantheon as a servant. For seven hundred years his chief residence was the founding monastery Samye, by the construction of which he had to assist as a “forced laborer”. About 900 years later the “Great Fifth” transported him (i.e., his symbol) to Nechung in the vicinity of the Drepung monastery and advanced the former war god of the Hor to state oracle. Since, after his “Buddhization”, he did not want to be reminded of his former defeat (by the national hero, Gesar), not a single verse from the Gesar epic was allowed to be cited in the Drepung monastery or at any other location where he had stayed.
The question soon arises as to why of all gods Pehar, the former ferocious and cruel opponent of the Land of Snows, was given the delicate office of being a supernatural governmental advisor to the Tibetan “god-king”. Surely this would have sooner been the entitlement of a Bodhisattva like Avalokiteshvara or a national hero like Gesar of Ling.
With this question too, the key is to be sought in the “political theology” of the “Great Fifth”. We may recall that both the conferring of the title of Dalai Lama and the establishment of the hierarch’s secular power were the actions of the Mongolians and not of the Tibetan people. In contrast, as we have reported, in the 17th century the national forces of the country were actually gathered under the kings of Tsang and around the throne of the Karmapa (the leader of the “red” Kagyupa sect). Thus, it does not take much fantasy to be able to sketch out why Pehar was chosen as the advisor of the “yellow” Buddhist state (then represented by the Fifth Dalai Lama). It was expected of the former Mongolian god and opponent of Tibet that he tame the recalcitrant Tibetans (who supported the Karmapa). In this his interests were in complete accord with those of the “god-king”. Additionally, the “Great Fifth” himself was a descendant of an aristocratic family which traced its lineage back to the Hor Mongols. Pehar, the later state oracle, is thus a foreign deity imposed upon the Tibetan people.
It is true that the oracle god has sworn an oath of loyalty, but it is — in the lamas’ opinion — by no means ruled out that he may one day break this and unleash his full vengeance upon the Tibetans who defeated him in times gone by. He has in his own words explained to Padmasambhava what will then happen. He will destroy the houses and the fields. The children of the Land of Snows will have to endure famine and will be driven insane. The fruit of the land will be destroyed by hail and swarms of insects. The strong will be carried off and only the weak shall survive. Wars shall devastate the roof of the world. Pehar himself will interrupt the meditations of the lamas, rob their spells of their magic power, and force them to commit suicide. Brothers will rape their sisters. He will make the wisdom consorts (the mudras) of the tantra masters bad and heretical, yes, transform them into enemies of the teaching who emigrate to the lands of the unbelievers. But first he shall copulate with them. “I,” Pehar proclaims, “the lord of the temples, the stupas and scriptures, I shall possess the fair bodies of all virgins” (Sierksma, 1966, p. 165).
In the sphere of practical politics the recommendations of the Mongolian martial god have also not always been advantageous for the Tibetans. For example, he gave the Thirteenth Dalai Lama the catastrophic advice that he should attack the British army under Colonel Younghusband which led to a massacre of the Tibetan soldiers.
Current politics and the oracle system:
One would think that the Tibetans in exile would these days have distanced themselves from such a warlike deity as Pehar, who constantly threatens them with bloody acts of revenge, especially after their experiences at the hands of the Chinese occupying forces. One would further assume that, given the Kundun’s strident professions of democracy, the oracle system as such would be in decline or have even been abandoned. But the opposite is the case: in Dharamsala the divinatory arts, astrology, the interpretation of dreams, and even the drawing of lots still have a most decisive (!) influence upon the politics of the Tibetans in exile. Every (!) politically significant step is first taken once the mediums, soothsayers, and court astrologers have been consulted, every important state-political activity requires the invocation of the wrathful Mongolian god, Pehar. This tendency has increased in recent years. Today there are said to be three further mediums (who represent different deities) whose services are made use of. Among these is a young and attractive girl from an eastern province of Tibet. Some members of the community of Tibetans in exile are therefore of the opinion that the various oracles misuse His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama for their own ends and force their will upon him.
Now, how does the “god-king” see this through his own eyes? “Even some Tibetans,” we learn from the Kundun, “mostly those who consider themselves 'progressive', have misgivings about my continued use of this ancient method of intelligence gathering. But I do so for the simple reason that as I look back over the many occasions when I have asked questions of the oracle, on each one of them time has proved that his answer was correct” (Dalai Lama XIV, 1993 I, p. 312). “I not only believe in spirits, but in various kinds of spirits!”, His Holiness further admits, “... To this category belongs the state oracle Nechung (Pehar). We consider these spirits reliable, then they have a long history without any controversy in over 1000 years” (Tagesanzeiger (Switzerland), March 23, 1998). Pehar determined the point in time in which the Dalai Lama had to flee Tibet and with the statement “that the shine of the 'wish-fulfilling jewel' [one of the Dalai Lama’s names] will light up in the West” predicted the spread of Buddhism in Europe and North America. (Dalai Lama XIV, 1993a, p. 154).
Even the aggression of his oracle god is not denied by the Kundun: “His [task], in his capacity as protector and defender, is wrathful. [!] However, although our functions are similar, my relationship with Nechung is that of commander to lieutenant: I never bow down to him. It is for Nechung to bow to the Dalai Lama” (Dalai Lama XIV, 1993 I, p. 312). This statement confirms once again that from a tantric viewpoint, the politics of the Tibetans in exile is not conducted by people, but by gods. As Avalokiteshvara and the Kalachakra deity, the Dalai Lama commands the Mongolian god, Pehar, to make predictions about the future. [1] The Kundun’s comment in this quotation that his functions and the “functions” of Pehar are “similar” is ambiguous. Does he want to allude to his own “wrathful aspect” here? On September 4, 1987 a new Nechung medium was enthroned in Dharamsala, since the old one had died three years before. His official confirmation was attained following a demonstrative trance session at which the Kundun, cabinet members of the Tibetan government in exile and the parliamentary chairman were present. About two months later another séance was held before the Council of Ministers and a number of high lamas. This illustrious assembly of the highest ranking representatives of the Tibetan people shows how the political prophecies and instructions of the god Pehar are taken seriously not just by the Dalai Lama but also by the “people’s representatives” of the Tibetans in exile. Thus, in political decisions neither reason nor the majority of votes, nor even public opinion have the last word, but rather the Mongolian oracle god.
Dorje Shugden—a threat to the Fourteenth Dalai Lama’s life?
Since 1996 at the latest, Pehar and his Nechung medium have met with embittered competition from among the Tibetan’s own ranks. This is a matter of the tutelary and divinatory deity, Dorje Shugden. In pictures, Dorje Shugden is depicted riding grim-faced through a lake of boiling blood upon a snow lion. It is primarily conservative circles among the Gelugpas (the “Yellow Hats”) who have grouped around this figure. They demand the exclusive supremacy of the yellow sect (the Gelugpas) over the other Buddhist schools.
This traditional political position of the Shugden worshippers is not acceptable to the Fourteenth Dalai Lama (although he himself is a member of the yellow sect) because he is working towards an integration of all Tibet’s religious orientations, including the Bonpos. With the same resolve as the “Great Fifth” he sees a one-off chance to multiply the power of his own institution in a collective movement involving all schools. It is therefore not surprising that even the early history of Dorje Shugden features an irreconcilable confrontation between the protective god and the Fifth Dalai Lama, which appears to be repeating itself today.
What took place on that occasion, and what has been the history of the recalcitrant Shugden? The “pan-Buddhist” program of the “Great Fifth”, but especially his occult tendency towards the Nyingmapa sect, led the abbot of the powerful Drepung (Yellow Hat) monastery, Drakpa Gyaltsen, to organize a rebellion against the ruler in the Potala. The conspiracy was discovered and was not carried out.
The two oracle gods at daggers drawn: Shugden [l] and Nechung [r]
Most probably at the command of the in such matters unscrupulous god-king, the rebel was murdered first. Whilst the corpse was being burned on a pyre, a threatening cloud which resembled a huge black hand, the hand of the avenger, was formed by the ascending smoke. After his death the murdered lama, Drakpa Gyaltsen, transformed into a martial spirit and took on the fearsome name of Dorje Shugden, which means the “Bellower of the Thunderbolt”. He continued to pursue his political goals from the beyond.
Shortly after his death — the legend reports — all manner of unhappy incidents befell the country. Towns and villages were afflicted with sicknesses. The Tibetan government constantly made wrong decisions, even the Fifth Dalai Lama was not spared. Every time he wanted to have a meal in the middle of the day, his victim (Dorje Shugden) manifested himself as an invisible evil force, up-ended the dinner tables and damaged “His Holiness’s possessions”. [2] Ultimately it proved possible to subdue the vengeful spirit through all manner of rituals, but he did not therefore remain inactive.
With the assistance of a human medium, through whom he still today communicates with his priests, the abbot who had transformed into a protective god organized (from the beyond, so to speak) a oppositional grouping within the Yellow Hat (Gelugpa) order, who wanted (and still want) to enforce the absolute supremacy of their order by magical and practical political means. For example, at the beginning of the 20th century the invocation of Shugden by the powerful Yellow Hat lama, Pabongka Rinpoche, was used to suppress the Nyingmapas and Kagyupas in eastern Tibet. An outright ritual war was fought out: “... whenever this [Shugden] ritual was practiced in the Gelugpa monasteries, the surrounding monasteries of the other schools [performed] certain practices so as to check the negative forces again” (Kagyü Life 21-1996, p. 34).
Nonetheless the “reactionary” Shugden movement constantly gained in popularity, especially among members of the Tibetan nobility too. Later, this “sub-sect” of the Yellow Hats came to understand itself as a secret nest of resistance against the Chinese occupation force, since the traditional protectors of Tibet (Palden Lhamo or Pehar, for example) had allegedly betrayed and left the country. One of the chief representatives of the secret conservative alliance (Trijang Rinpoche) was a teacher of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, who himself initiated his divine pupil into the Shugden cult.
The reverence for Shugden is likewise high among the Tibetans in exile, and is well distributed worldwide (everywhere where Gelugpas are to be found). A fifth, in some other versions even two-thirds, of the yellow sect are said to pray to the reactionary dharmapala (tutelary spirit). But in the meantime the movement has also spread among Westerners. These are primarily from the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT), an English-based grouping around the lama Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. The declaration of exclusion from his former monastery says of the latter that, “this demon with broken commitments, Kelsang Gyatso, burns with the flame of unbearable spite toward the unsurpassed omniscient XIV Dalai Lama, the only staff of life of religious people in Tibet, whose activities and kindness equal the sky” (Lopez, 1998, p. 195). His supporters provide online information about their conflict with Dharamsala under the name of the Shugden Supporters Community (SSC).
The Kundun and Shugden:
It is true that in the year 1976 the Fourteenth Dalai Lama had already declared that he did not wish for his person to associated in any way with Dorje Shugden, especially because the worship of this “reactionary” spirit had come into conflict with three other dharmapalas (tutelary gods) which he revered highly, the oracle god Pehar, the terrible Palden Lhamo, and the protective god Dharmaraja. Rumors report of a dream of the Kundun in which Shugden and Pehar had fought with one another. On a number of occasions Pehar prophesied via the Nechung Lama that Shugden was attempting to undermine the sovereignty of the Kundun and thus deliver Tibet into the hands of the Chinese. The Mongolian god received unexpected support in his accusations through a young attractive female medium by name of Tsering Chenma, who, during the preparations for a Kalachakra initiation (!) in Lahaul Spiti announced that 30 members of the Dorje Shugden Society would attack the Dalai Lama in the course of the initiation. Thereupon the Kundun’s security staff searched all present for weapons. Nothing was found and not a single representative of the Shugden society was in attendance (Burns, Newsgroup 1).
Yet another, female (!) oracle was questioned about the Shugden affair. During the session and in the presence of the Dalai Lama, the woman is supposed to have fallen upon a monk and whilst she tore at his clothes and shook his head cried out: “This Lama is bad, he is following Dorje Shugden, take him out, take him out” (Burns, Newsgroup 9).
The majority of the Tibetans in exile were naturally not informed about such incidents, which were more or less played out behind closed doors, and were thus most surprised at the sharpness and lack of compromise with which the Kundun repeated his criticisms of the Shugden movement in 1996.
On March 21, during the initiation into a particular tantra (Hayagriva) he turned to those present with the following words: “I have recently said several prayers for the well-being of our nation and religion. It has become fairly clear that Dolgyal [another name for Shugden] is a spirit of the dark forces. ... If any of you intend to continue to invoke Dolgyal [Shugden], it would be better for you to stay away from this authorization, to stand up and leave this place. It is unfitting if you continue to sit here. It will be of no use to you. It will in contrast have the effect of shortening the life of the Gyalwa Rinpoche [of the Dalai Lama, that is, his own life]. Which is not good. If there are, however, some among you who want that Gyalwa Rinpoche [he himself] should soon die, then just stay” (Kagyü Life 21-1996, p. 35).
At another location the Kundun announced his fear that Shugden was seeking to spoil all his pleasure in life via psychic terror: “You should not think that dangers for my life come only from someone armed with a knife, a gun or a bomb. Such an event is extremely unlikely. But dangers to my life may arise if my advice is constantly spurned, causing me to feel discouraged and to see no further purpose in life” (Kashag, HPI 11).
Such statements by His Holiness may imply that the Dalai Lama (and behind him the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara) is very fearful of this vengeful spirit, which induced the Indian Associated Press to make the mocking comment that, “a 350-year old ghost is haunting the Dalai Lama” (Associated Press, August 21, 1997, 2:54 a.m.). At any rate, the god-king’s security service which protects his residence in Dharamsala in the meantime consists of 100 police officers.
The following statement by the Kundun has been leaked from a secret meeting of influential exiled Tibetan politicians and high lamas which the Dalai Lama called to discuss the Shugden case in Caux (Switzerland): “Everyone who is affiliated with the Tibetan Society of Ganden Phodrang government (Tibetan Government) should relinquish ties with Dhogyal (Shugden). This is necessary since it poses danger to the religious and temporal situation in 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. ... We should do it [carry out this ban] in such a way to ensure that in future generations not even the name of Dholgyal [Shugden] is remembered” (Burns, Newsgroup 1).
Numerous Tibetans who had in the past been initiated into the Shugden cult by the personal teacher of the Kundun, Trijang Rinpoche, and believed that through this they enjoyed His Holiness’s favor, saw themselves all at once betrayed after the ban and felt deeply disappointed. For the sophisticated Dalai Lama, however, the sectarian position of the “yellow fundamentalists” and “sectarians” was no longer bearable and quite obviously a significant obstacle on his mission to compel all sects to accept his absolute control and thus limit the supremacy of the Gelugpas. “This Shugden spirit”, the Kundun has said, “has for over 360 years created tensions between the Gelug tradition and the other schools. ... Some may [because of the ban] have lost trust in me. But at the same time numerous followers of the Kagyupa or Nyingma schools have recognized that the Dalai Lama is pursuing a truly non-sectarian course. I believe this Shugden worship has been like an agonizing boil for 360 years. Now like a modern surgeon I have undertaken a small operation” (Tagesanzeiger (Switzerland), March 23, 1998).
He then also branded the Shugden cult as “idolatry” and as a “relapse into shamanism” (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 1997, No. 158, p. 10). On March 30, 1996 the ban on the worship of Shugden was pronounced by governmental decree. The “mouthpiece” of the Kundun in the USA, Robert Thurman, emotionally denounced the “sectarians” and publicly disparaged them as the “Taliban of Buddhism”.
In the meantime the accusations coming out of Dharamsala against the Shugden worshippers fill many pages: they were cooperating with the Chinese and received funding from Beijing; they were fouling their own nest; they were playing “Russian roulette”, because they dragged the whole exile Tibetan case (and thereby themselves) into the depths. They were trying to kill the Kundun.
The accusations made by the Shugden worshippers:
On the other hand, the Shugden followers, whose leader has meanwhile been officially declared to be an “enemy of the people”, speak of a true witch hunt directed against them which has already been in progress for a number of months. They accuse the Dalai Lama of a flagrant breach of human rights and the right to freedom of religion and do not shy from drawing comparisons with the Chinese occupation force and the Catholic Inquisition. Houses belonging to the sect are said to have been illegally searched by followers of the Kundun, masked bands of thugs to have attacked defenseless Shugden believers, images of and altars to the protective god to have been deliberately burned and thrown into rivers. Lists of the names of Dorje Shugden practitioners ("enemies of the people”) are said to have been drawn up and pictures of them and their children to have been hung out in public buildings so as to defame them. It is said that followers of the protective deity have been completely refused entry to the offices of the government in exile and that the children of their families no longer have access to the official schools. Following a resolution of the so-called Tibetan Cholsum Convention (held between August 27 and 31, 1998) Shugden followers were unable to travel internationally or draw pensions, state child assistance, or social security payments. In it, Tibetans are forbidden to read the writings of the cult and they were called upon to burn them.
A militant underground organization with the name of the “secret society for the destruction of internal and external enemies of Tibet” threatened to murder two young lineage holders, the lamas Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche (13-years-old) [3] and Song Rinpoche (11-years-old), who (under the influence of their teacher) performed rites in honor of Dorje Shugden: “… we will destroy your life and your activities” (Swiss Television, SF1, January 6, 1998). In a document from this group tabled by Shugden followers, it says: “Anyone who goes against the policy of the government must be singled out one-pointedly, opposed and given the death penalty. ... As for the reincarnations of Trijang and Song Rinpoche, if they do not stop practicing Dhogyal [Shugden] and contradict with the word of H.H. the Dalai Lama, not only will we not be able to respect them, but their life and their activities will suffer destruction. This is our first warning” (Burns, Newsgroup 1). Whilst a Western television crew were filming, a Tibetan monk who cooperated with the reporters received a death threat: “... in seven days you will be dead!” (Swiss Television, SF1, January 6, 1998).
In addition Dharamsala has exerted vehement psychological pressure on Buddhist centers in the West and forbidden them from performing Shugden rituals. In a word — the worshippers of the protective god had become the “Jews of Buddhism” (Newsweek, April 28, 1997, p. 26).
In London, where the sect has around 3000 members, there were protest demonstrations at which pictures of the Kundun were held high with the slogan, “Your Smiles Charm, Your Actions Harm”. He was referred to here as a “merciless dictator, who oppresses his people more than the Chinese do” (Kagyü Life 21, 1996, p. 34).
However, in an official communiqué from May 14, 1996, the government in exile denied all accusations. In contrast — they announced that death threats had been sent from Shugden to the offices of His Holiness and the Tibetan Women's Association. “If there comes division among prominent persons in the Yellow Hat Sect, there will be bloodshed in the monasteries and settlements across India”, one of the threatening letters is said to have stated (Newsweek, April 28, 1997, p. 26; retranslation). Both sides clearly fear that their lives are threatened by the other side.
All these mutual fears, accusations, and slander in the battle between the two oracle gods reached their climax in the ritual murder of the lama Lobsang Gyatso on February 4, 1997 which we have described above. Lobsang Gyatso was considered a special friend of the Dalai Lama and a pronounced opponent of the Shugden sect. A few days after the murder a press release from the government in exile coursed around the world in which Dorje Shugden followers were said to certainly be responsible for the murder. There was talk of confessions and arrests. This opinion remains current among a broad public to this day.
As evidence, among other things a letter to the murder victim (Lobsang Gyatso) was cited in which (it was said) the secretary of the Dorje Shugden Society had threatened the abbot with murder. Tashi Wangdu, a minister of the Tibetan government in exile, held this document, written in Tibetan, in his hand and showed it again on January 25, 1998 in Swiss Television (on the “Sternstunde”[Star Hour] program). However, this turned out to be a deliberate and very blatant attempt to mislead, when the Tibetan document, which was later translated, does not contain a single word of a murder threat. Rather, it contains a polite invitation to Lobsang Gyatso to discuss “theological” questions with the Dorje Shugden Society in Delhi (Gassner, 1999).
But this document was enough to arrest all known followers of the protective god (Shugden) in Delhi and illegally imprison them. However, they denied participating in the crime in any form whatsoever. [4] Indeed, despite interrogations lasting weeks by the Indian criminal police, nothing has been proven. The evidence is so meager that it is most likely that the crime was committed by another party. The matter was also seen so by a court in Dharamsala, which negated any connection between the Dorje Shugden Society and the murders of February 4.
For this reason, there are claims from the Shugden followers that the Dalai Lama’s circle tried to pin the blame on them in order to muzzle and marginalize them. In light of the power-political ambitions and relative strength of the sect — it is said to have over 20,000 active members in India alone — this version also makes sense. Some western worshippers of the protective god even go so far as to claim that a higher order from the Kundun lay behind the deed. Until the murderers are convicted, a good criminologist must keep his or her eye on all of these possibilities.
Reactions of the Tibetan parliament:
Within the Tibetan parliament in exile, the incidents have led to great nervousness and high tension. A resolution was passed demanding that “in essence government departments, organizations, associations, monasteries and their branches under the direction of the exile Tibetan government should abide by the ban against worship of Dhogyal” (Burns, Newsgroup 1).
In the further reactions of the people’s representatives one can read just how risky the whole matter is seen to be. Hence, during the parliamentary session of September 20, 1997 one of the members established that “an unprecedented amount of literature is being published everywhere that criticizes the Dalai Lama and belittles the Tibetan Exile Government” (Burns, Newsgroup 1). This is “extremely dangerous” and in the principal monasteries there was open talk of a schism. During the parliamentary session the government was strongly criticized for not having done anything to treat the Shugden affair as an internal Tibetan matter, but rather to have told the whole world about it, thus bringing it to the attention of an international public. We have to conclude from the committed discussions of the parliamentary members that the power and potential influence of the Shugden followers are actually more significant than one would have thought from the previous official statements out of Dharamsala.
On the third day of the session the situation in parliament had reached such a dead end that there seemed to be nothing more to say. What do the representatives of Tibetans in exile do in such a situation? — They consult the state oracle! It is not the members of parliament as the representatives of the people’s will but rather the oracle god Pehar who decides which course the government is to steer in the controversy surrounding the recalcitrant Dorje Shugden. The grotesqueness of the situation can hardly be topped, since Pehar and Shugden — as we learn from the writings of both parties — are the most bitter of enemies. How, then, is the Mongolian god (Pehar) supposed to provide an objective judgment about his arch-enemy (Shugden)? Indeed, it was Pehar, who in 1996 prophesied for the Dalai Lama that his life and hence the fate of Tibet wee endangered by the Shugden cult. In contrast , the Shugden oracle announced that the Kundun has been falsely advised by Pehar for years. Hence what the state oracle consulted by parliament would say was clear in advance. The advice was to combat the Shugden followers with uncompromising keenness.
This interesting case is thus a matter of a war between two oracle gods who seek control over the politics of Tibet. No other example since the flight of the Dalai Lama (in 1959) has so clearly revealed to the public that “gods” are at work behind the Tibetan state, the realpolitik of the Kundun, and the power groupings of the society of Tibetans in exile. One may well be completely skeptical about such entities, but one cannot avoid acknowledging that the ruling elite and the subjects of the Lamaist state are guided by just such an ancient world view. How these occult struggles are to be reconciled with the untiringly repeated professions of belief in democracy is difficult to comprehend from a western-oriented way of thinking.
Dharamsala is completely aware that antidemocratic methods must arouse disquiet in the West. For example, in contrast to before, since the mid-eighties reports about the pronouncements of oracles no longer play a large role in the Tibetan Review (the exile Tibetans’ most important foreign-language organ of the press). Only since the “Shugden affair” (1996) has the excessive use of oracle mediums in the politics of the Tibetans in exile been rediscovered and become known worldwide. In monastic circles it is openly joked that the Kundun employs more oracles than ministers. “Favorites and sorcerers manipulate the sovereign”, it says in a Spanish magazine, with “demons and deities fighting to control people's minds ...” (Más Allá de la Ciencia, No. 103, 1997).
Nevertheless, the Kundun has succeeded amazingly well in marginalizing the Shugden cult internationally and branding it as medieval superstition. For example, the German news magazine, Der Spiegel, which normally takes an extremely critical stance towards religious matters, was prepared to blindly take up the official version of the Shugden story from Dharamsala: the Shugden followers, Der Spiegel reported, were responsible for two (!) murders and their flight could be traced to China and the Chinese secret service (Spiegel, 16/1998, p. 119). Nearly all western media stereotypically repeat that the ritual murderers came from the ranks of the protective god (for example, Time Magazine Asia, September 28, 1998).
One of the arguments of the Shugden followers in this “battle of the gods” is the claim that the Dalai Lama is engaged in selling his own country to the Chinese. He (they argue) is not acting in the interests of his people at all, since in his Strasbourg Declaration he renounced the national sovereignty of Tibet as his goal.
It is not possible for us to form a final judgment about such a charge; however, what we can in any case assume is the fact that the Mongolian war god Pehar (the Nechung oracle) can have no interest in the (well-being of the)Tibetans and their nation, against whom he in former times grimly struggled as a Hor Mongol and who then enslaved him. Of course, the national interests of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama could also collide with his worldwide ambitions concerning the spread of Tantric Buddhism. We shall return to this topic in our article on his politics towards China.
If — as the tantric belief maintains- deities are pulling the strings behind the scenes of “human” politics, then a direct consequence of this is that magic (as an invocatory art of gaining influence over gods and demons) must be counted among the “political” activities par excellence. Magic as statecraft is therefore a Tibetan specialty. Let us take a closer look at this “portfolio”.
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Notes:
[1] Here we ought to ask how a lesser deity like Pehar is able to predict the future at all for the hierarchically superior Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara and the incarnated time god (Kalachakra) who are embodied in the Dalai Lama.
[2] According to statements by the followers of Shugden, the Fifth Dalai Lama is supposed to have later changed his mind and prayed to the protective deity. He is even said to have molded the first statue of Dorje Shugden with his own hands and have composed prayers to the protective god. This statue is said to currently be found in Nepal.
[3] Trijang Rinpoche is the reincarnation of the deceased lama who previously initiated the Fourteenth Dalai Lama into the Shugden cult whilst his teacher.
[4] Up until now (February 1998) the police claim to have identified two of the six murderers. These have slipped over the border into Nepal, however.
by Victor and Victoria Trimondi
© 2003 by Victor and Victoria Trimondi
THE WAR OF THE ORACLE GODS AND THE SHUGDEN AFFAIR
The Tibetans can be described without exaggeration as being “addicted to oracles”. The most varied methods of augury and clairvoyance have been an everyday presence in the Land of Snows since time immemorial. The following types of oracle, all of which are still employed (among the Tibetans in exile as well), are described on an Internet site: doughball divination, dice divination, divination on a rosary, bootstrap divination, the interpretation of “incidental” signs, clairvoyant dreams, examining flames, observing a butter lamp, mirror divination, shoulder-blade divination, and hearing divination (HPI 10). When the “Great Fifth” seized worldly power in Tibet in the 17th century, he founded the institution of a state oracle so as to be able to obtain divinatory advice about the business of government. This is a matter of a human medium who serves as the mouthpiece of a particular deity. Still today, this form of “supernatural” consultation forms an important division within the Tibetan government in exile. The opinions of oracles are obtained for all important political events, often by the Fourteenth Dalai Lama in person. He is — in the accusations of his opponents — all but obsessed by divinations; it is primarily the prophecies of the state oracle which are mentioned. But before we examine this accusation, we should take a closer look at the history and character of this “state oracle”.
The Tibetan state oracle:
In the Tibet of old, the state oracle (or rather its human medium) lived as one of the highest ranking lamas in the Nechung residence. “It” had at its command a considerable “court” and celebrated its liturgies in a temple of its own. The predominant color of the interior temple was black. On the walls of the gloomy shrine hung mysterious weapons, from which great magical effects were supposed to emanate. In the corners lurked stuffed birds, tigers, and leopards. Pictures of terror gods looked back at the visitor, who suddenly stood in front of a mask of dried leather feared across the whole country. Among the chief iconographic motifs of the temple was the depiction of human ribcages.
At the beginning of an oracle session, the Nechung Lama is sent into a trance via all manner of ritual song and incense. After a while his eyes close, his facial muscles begin to twitch, his brow becomes dark red and glistens with sweat. The prophet god then visibly enters him, then during his trance the medium develops — and this is confirmed by photographs and western eyewitness reports — almost superhuman powers. He can bend iron swords and, although he carries a metal crown weighing over 80 pounds (!) on his head, perform a wild dance. Incomprehensible sounds come from his foaming lips. This is supposed to be a sacred language. Only once it has been deciphered by the priests can the content of the oracle message be recognized.
The deity conjured up by the Nechung Lama is called Pehar or Pedkar. However, often only his adjutant is invoked, Dorje Drakden by name. This is because a direct appearance by Pehar can be so violent that it threatens the life of his medium (the Nechung Lama). Pehar has under his command a group of five wrathful gods, who together are called the “protective wheel”. It seems sensible to make a few thoughts about this prophesying god, who has for centuries exercised such a decisive influence upon Tibetan politics and still continues to do so.
In iconographic representations, Pehar has three faces of different colors. He wears a bamboo hat which is crowned with a vajra upon his head. In his hands he holds a bow and arrow, a sword, a cleaver, and a club. His mount is a snow lion.
Pehar’s original home lay in the north of Tibet, there where in the conception of the old Tibetans (in the Gesar epic) the “devil’s country” was to be found. In earlier times he reigned as war god of the Hor Mongols. According to the sagas, this wild tribe was counted among the bitterest opponents of the pre-Buddhist Tibetans and their national hero, Gesar of Ling.
Old documents from Tunhuang describe the Hor as “flesh-eating red demons” (Stein, 1993, p. 36). Their martial king had laid waste to the Land of Snows and stolen its queen, the wife of Gesar of Ling. After terrible battles the Tibetan national hero defeated the rapacious Hors, to whom we are indebted for the word horde, and won their commitment and that of their chief god, Pehar, with an eternal oath of loyalty. Over the centuries the term Hor was then used to refer to various Mongolian tribes, including those of Genghis Khan. Hence, Pehar (the principal oracle god of the Dalai Lama) was originally a bitter arch-enemy of the Tibetans.
Where Gesar had rendered the Mongol god harmless, it was the Maha Siddha Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) who brought Buddhism to Tibet who first succeeded in actually putting Pehar to work. The saga tells how Guru Rinpoche pressed a vajra upon the barbaric god’s head and thus magically mastered him. After this act, Pehar was able to be incorporated into the Buddhist pantheon as a servant. For seven hundred years his chief residence was the founding monastery Samye, by the construction of which he had to assist as a “forced laborer”. About 900 years later the “Great Fifth” transported him (i.e., his symbol) to Nechung in the vicinity of the Drepung monastery and advanced the former war god of the Hor to state oracle. Since, after his “Buddhization”, he did not want to be reminded of his former defeat (by the national hero, Gesar), not a single verse from the Gesar epic was allowed to be cited in the Drepung monastery or at any other location where he had stayed.
The question soon arises as to why of all gods Pehar, the former ferocious and cruel opponent of the Land of Snows, was given the delicate office of being a supernatural governmental advisor to the Tibetan “god-king”. Surely this would have sooner been the entitlement of a Bodhisattva like Avalokiteshvara or a national hero like Gesar of Ling.
With this question too, the key is to be sought in the “political theology” of the “Great Fifth”. We may recall that both the conferring of the title of Dalai Lama and the establishment of the hierarch’s secular power were the actions of the Mongolians and not of the Tibetan people. In contrast, as we have reported, in the 17th century the national forces of the country were actually gathered under the kings of Tsang and around the throne of the Karmapa (the leader of the “red” Kagyupa sect). Thus, it does not take much fantasy to be able to sketch out why Pehar was chosen as the advisor of the “yellow” Buddhist state (then represented by the Fifth Dalai Lama). It was expected of the former Mongolian god and opponent of Tibet that he tame the recalcitrant Tibetans (who supported the Karmapa). In this his interests were in complete accord with those of the “god-king”. Additionally, the “Great Fifth” himself was a descendant of an aristocratic family which traced its lineage back to the Hor Mongols. Pehar, the later state oracle, is thus a foreign deity imposed upon the Tibetan people.
It is true that the oracle god has sworn an oath of loyalty, but it is — in the lamas’ opinion — by no means ruled out that he may one day break this and unleash his full vengeance upon the Tibetans who defeated him in times gone by. He has in his own words explained to Padmasambhava what will then happen. He will destroy the houses and the fields. The children of the Land of Snows will have to endure famine and will be driven insane. The fruit of the land will be destroyed by hail and swarms of insects. The strong will be carried off and only the weak shall survive. Wars shall devastate the roof of the world. Pehar himself will interrupt the meditations of the lamas, rob their spells of their magic power, and force them to commit suicide. Brothers will rape their sisters. He will make the wisdom consorts (the mudras) of the tantra masters bad and heretical, yes, transform them into enemies of the teaching who emigrate to the lands of the unbelievers. But first he shall copulate with them. “I,” Pehar proclaims, “the lord of the temples, the stupas and scriptures, I shall possess the fair bodies of all virgins” (Sierksma, 1966, p. 165).
In the sphere of practical politics the recommendations of the Mongolian martial god have also not always been advantageous for the Tibetans. For example, he gave the Thirteenth Dalai Lama the catastrophic advice that he should attack the British army under Colonel Younghusband which led to a massacre of the Tibetan soldiers.
Current politics and the oracle system:
One would think that the Tibetans in exile would these days have distanced themselves from such a warlike deity as Pehar, who constantly threatens them with bloody acts of revenge, especially after their experiences at the hands of the Chinese occupying forces. One would further assume that, given the Kundun’s strident professions of democracy, the oracle system as such would be in decline or have even been abandoned. But the opposite is the case: in Dharamsala the divinatory arts, astrology, the interpretation of dreams, and even the drawing of lots still have a most decisive (!) influence upon the politics of the Tibetans in exile. Every (!) politically significant step is first taken once the mediums, soothsayers, and court astrologers have been consulted, every important state-political activity requires the invocation of the wrathful Mongolian god, Pehar. This tendency has increased in recent years. Today there are said to be three further mediums (who represent different deities) whose services are made use of. Among these is a young and attractive girl from an eastern province of Tibet. Some members of the community of Tibetans in exile are therefore of the opinion that the various oracles misuse His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama for their own ends and force their will upon him.
Now, how does the “god-king” see this through his own eyes? “Even some Tibetans,” we learn from the Kundun, “mostly those who consider themselves 'progressive', have misgivings about my continued use of this ancient method of intelligence gathering. But I do so for the simple reason that as I look back over the many occasions when I have asked questions of the oracle, on each one of them time has proved that his answer was correct” (Dalai Lama XIV, 1993 I, p. 312). “I not only believe in spirits, but in various kinds of spirits!”, His Holiness further admits, “... To this category belongs the state oracle Nechung (Pehar). We consider these spirits reliable, then they have a long history without any controversy in over 1000 years” (Tagesanzeiger (Switzerland), March 23, 1998). Pehar determined the point in time in which the Dalai Lama had to flee Tibet and with the statement “that the shine of the 'wish-fulfilling jewel' [one of the Dalai Lama’s names] will light up in the West” predicted the spread of Buddhism in Europe and North America. (Dalai Lama XIV, 1993a, p. 154).
Even the aggression of his oracle god is not denied by the Kundun: “His [task], in his capacity as protector and defender, is wrathful. [!] However, although our functions are similar, my relationship with Nechung is that of commander to lieutenant: I never bow down to him. It is for Nechung to bow to the Dalai Lama” (Dalai Lama XIV, 1993 I, p. 312). This statement confirms once again that from a tantric viewpoint, the politics of the Tibetans in exile is not conducted by people, but by gods. As Avalokiteshvara and the Kalachakra deity, the Dalai Lama commands the Mongolian god, Pehar, to make predictions about the future. [1] The Kundun’s comment in this quotation that his functions and the “functions” of Pehar are “similar” is ambiguous. Does he want to allude to his own “wrathful aspect” here? On September 4, 1987 a new Nechung medium was enthroned in Dharamsala, since the old one had died three years before. His official confirmation was attained following a demonstrative trance session at which the Kundun, cabinet members of the Tibetan government in exile and the parliamentary chairman were present. About two months later another séance was held before the Council of Ministers and a number of high lamas. This illustrious assembly of the highest ranking representatives of the Tibetan people shows how the political prophecies and instructions of the god Pehar are taken seriously not just by the Dalai Lama but also by the “people’s representatives” of the Tibetans in exile. Thus, in political decisions neither reason nor the majority of votes, nor even public opinion have the last word, but rather the Mongolian oracle god.
Dorje Shugden—a threat to the Fourteenth Dalai Lama’s life?
Since 1996 at the latest, Pehar and his Nechung medium have met with embittered competition from among the Tibetan’s own ranks. This is a matter of the tutelary and divinatory deity, Dorje Shugden. In pictures, Dorje Shugden is depicted riding grim-faced through a lake of boiling blood upon a snow lion. It is primarily conservative circles among the Gelugpas (the “Yellow Hats”) who have grouped around this figure. They demand the exclusive supremacy of the yellow sect (the Gelugpas) over the other Buddhist schools.
This traditional political position of the Shugden worshippers is not acceptable to the Fourteenth Dalai Lama (although he himself is a member of the yellow sect) because he is working towards an integration of all Tibet’s religious orientations, including the Bonpos. With the same resolve as the “Great Fifth” he sees a one-off chance to multiply the power of his own institution in a collective movement involving all schools. It is therefore not surprising that even the early history of Dorje Shugden features an irreconcilable confrontation between the protective god and the Fifth Dalai Lama, which appears to be repeating itself today.
What took place on that occasion, and what has been the history of the recalcitrant Shugden? The “pan-Buddhist” program of the “Great Fifth”, but especially his occult tendency towards the Nyingmapa sect, led the abbot of the powerful Drepung (Yellow Hat) monastery, Drakpa Gyaltsen, to organize a rebellion against the ruler in the Potala. The conspiracy was discovered and was not carried out.
The two oracle gods at daggers drawn: Shugden [l] and Nechung [r]
Most probably at the command of the in such matters unscrupulous god-king, the rebel was murdered first. Whilst the corpse was being burned on a pyre, a threatening cloud which resembled a huge black hand, the hand of the avenger, was formed by the ascending smoke. After his death the murdered lama, Drakpa Gyaltsen, transformed into a martial spirit and took on the fearsome name of Dorje Shugden, which means the “Bellower of the Thunderbolt”. He continued to pursue his political goals from the beyond.
Shortly after his death — the legend reports — all manner of unhappy incidents befell the country. Towns and villages were afflicted with sicknesses. The Tibetan government constantly made wrong decisions, even the Fifth Dalai Lama was not spared. Every time he wanted to have a meal in the middle of the day, his victim (Dorje Shugden) manifested himself as an invisible evil force, up-ended the dinner tables and damaged “His Holiness’s possessions”. [2] Ultimately it proved possible to subdue the vengeful spirit through all manner of rituals, but he did not therefore remain inactive.
With the assistance of a human medium, through whom he still today communicates with his priests, the abbot who had transformed into a protective god organized (from the beyond, so to speak) a oppositional grouping within the Yellow Hat (Gelugpa) order, who wanted (and still want) to enforce the absolute supremacy of their order by magical and practical political means. For example, at the beginning of the 20th century the invocation of Shugden by the powerful Yellow Hat lama, Pabongka Rinpoche, was used to suppress the Nyingmapas and Kagyupas in eastern Tibet. An outright ritual war was fought out: “... whenever this [Shugden] ritual was practiced in the Gelugpa monasteries, the surrounding monasteries of the other schools [performed] certain practices so as to check the negative forces again” (Kagyü Life 21-1996, p. 34).
Nonetheless the “reactionary” Shugden movement constantly gained in popularity, especially among members of the Tibetan nobility too. Later, this “sub-sect” of the Yellow Hats came to understand itself as a secret nest of resistance against the Chinese occupation force, since the traditional protectors of Tibet (Palden Lhamo or Pehar, for example) had allegedly betrayed and left the country. One of the chief representatives of the secret conservative alliance (Trijang Rinpoche) was a teacher of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, who himself initiated his divine pupil into the Shugden cult.
The reverence for Shugden is likewise high among the Tibetans in exile, and is well distributed worldwide (everywhere where Gelugpas are to be found). A fifth, in some other versions even two-thirds, of the yellow sect are said to pray to the reactionary dharmapala (tutelary spirit). But in the meantime the movement has also spread among Westerners. These are primarily from the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT), an English-based grouping around the lama Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. The declaration of exclusion from his former monastery says of the latter that, “this demon with broken commitments, Kelsang Gyatso, burns with the flame of unbearable spite toward the unsurpassed omniscient XIV Dalai Lama, the only staff of life of religious people in Tibet, whose activities and kindness equal the sky” (Lopez, 1998, p. 195). His supporters provide online information about their conflict with Dharamsala under the name of the Shugden Supporters Community (SSC).
The Kundun and Shugden:
It is true that in the year 1976 the Fourteenth Dalai Lama had already declared that he did not wish for his person to associated in any way with Dorje Shugden, especially because the worship of this “reactionary” spirit had come into conflict with three other dharmapalas (tutelary gods) which he revered highly, the oracle god Pehar, the terrible Palden Lhamo, and the protective god Dharmaraja. Rumors report of a dream of the Kundun in which Shugden and Pehar had fought with one another. On a number of occasions Pehar prophesied via the Nechung Lama that Shugden was attempting to undermine the sovereignty of the Kundun and thus deliver Tibet into the hands of the Chinese. The Mongolian god received unexpected support in his accusations through a young attractive female medium by name of Tsering Chenma, who, during the preparations for a Kalachakra initiation (!) in Lahaul Spiti announced that 30 members of the Dorje Shugden Society would attack the Dalai Lama in the course of the initiation. Thereupon the Kundun’s security staff searched all present for weapons. Nothing was found and not a single representative of the Shugden society was in attendance (Burns, Newsgroup 1).
Yet another, female (!) oracle was questioned about the Shugden affair. During the session and in the presence of the Dalai Lama, the woman is supposed to have fallen upon a monk and whilst she tore at his clothes and shook his head cried out: “This Lama is bad, he is following Dorje Shugden, take him out, take him out” (Burns, Newsgroup 9).
The majority of the Tibetans in exile were naturally not informed about such incidents, which were more or less played out behind closed doors, and were thus most surprised at the sharpness and lack of compromise with which the Kundun repeated his criticisms of the Shugden movement in 1996.
On March 21, during the initiation into a particular tantra (Hayagriva) he turned to those present with the following words: “I have recently said several prayers for the well-being of our nation and religion. It has become fairly clear that Dolgyal [another name for Shugden] is a spirit of the dark forces. ... If any of you intend to continue to invoke Dolgyal [Shugden], it would be better for you to stay away from this authorization, to stand up and leave this place. It is unfitting if you continue to sit here. It will be of no use to you. It will in contrast have the effect of shortening the life of the Gyalwa Rinpoche [of the Dalai Lama, that is, his own life]. Which is not good. If there are, however, some among you who want that Gyalwa Rinpoche [he himself] should soon die, then just stay” (Kagyü Life 21-1996, p. 35).
At another location the Kundun announced his fear that Shugden was seeking to spoil all his pleasure in life via psychic terror: “You should not think that dangers for my life come only from someone armed with a knife, a gun or a bomb. Such an event is extremely unlikely. But dangers to my life may arise if my advice is constantly spurned, causing me to feel discouraged and to see no further purpose in life” (Kashag, HPI 11).
Such statements by His Holiness may imply that the Dalai Lama (and behind him the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara) is very fearful of this vengeful spirit, which induced the Indian Associated Press to make the mocking comment that, “a 350-year old ghost is haunting the Dalai Lama” (Associated Press, August 21, 1997, 2:54 a.m.). At any rate, the god-king’s security service which protects his residence in Dharamsala in the meantime consists of 100 police officers.
The following statement by the Kundun has been leaked from a secret meeting of influential exiled Tibetan politicians and high lamas which the Dalai Lama called to discuss the Shugden case in Caux (Switzerland): “Everyone who is affiliated with the Tibetan Society of Ganden Phodrang government (Tibetan Government) should relinquish ties with Dhogyal (Shugden). This is necessary since it poses danger to the religious and temporal situation in 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. ... We should do it [carry out this ban] in such a way to ensure that in future generations not even the name of Dholgyal [Shugden] is remembered” (Burns, Newsgroup 1).
Numerous Tibetans who had in the past been initiated into the Shugden cult by the personal teacher of the Kundun, Trijang Rinpoche, and believed that through this they enjoyed His Holiness’s favor, saw themselves all at once betrayed after the ban and felt deeply disappointed. For the sophisticated Dalai Lama, however, the sectarian position of the “yellow fundamentalists” and “sectarians” was no longer bearable and quite obviously a significant obstacle on his mission to compel all sects to accept his absolute control and thus limit the supremacy of the Gelugpas. “This Shugden spirit”, the Kundun has said, “has for over 360 years created tensions between the Gelug tradition and the other schools. ... Some may [because of the ban] have lost trust in me. But at the same time numerous followers of the Kagyupa or Nyingma schools have recognized that the Dalai Lama is pursuing a truly non-sectarian course. I believe this Shugden worship has been like an agonizing boil for 360 years. Now like a modern surgeon I have undertaken a small operation” (Tagesanzeiger (Switzerland), March 23, 1998).
He then also branded the Shugden cult as “idolatry” and as a “relapse into shamanism” (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 1997, No. 158, p. 10). On March 30, 1996 the ban on the worship of Shugden was pronounced by governmental decree. The “mouthpiece” of the Kundun in the USA, Robert Thurman, emotionally denounced the “sectarians” and publicly disparaged them as the “Taliban of Buddhism”.
In the meantime the accusations coming out of Dharamsala against the Shugden worshippers fill many pages: they were cooperating with the Chinese and received funding from Beijing; they were fouling their own nest; they were playing “Russian roulette”, because they dragged the whole exile Tibetan case (and thereby themselves) into the depths. They were trying to kill the Kundun.
The accusations made by the Shugden worshippers:
On the other hand, the Shugden followers, whose leader has meanwhile been officially declared to be an “enemy of the people”, speak of a true witch hunt directed against them which has already been in progress for a number of months. They accuse the Dalai Lama of a flagrant breach of human rights and the right to freedom of religion and do not shy from drawing comparisons with the Chinese occupation force and the Catholic Inquisition. Houses belonging to the sect are said to have been illegally searched by followers of the Kundun, masked bands of thugs to have attacked defenseless Shugden believers, images of and altars to the protective god to have been deliberately burned and thrown into rivers. Lists of the names of Dorje Shugden practitioners ("enemies of the people”) are said to have been drawn up and pictures of them and their children to have been hung out in public buildings so as to defame them. It is said that followers of the protective deity have been completely refused entry to the offices of the government in exile and that the children of their families no longer have access to the official schools. Following a resolution of the so-called Tibetan Cholsum Convention (held between August 27 and 31, 1998) Shugden followers were unable to travel internationally or draw pensions, state child assistance, or social security payments. In it, Tibetans are forbidden to read the writings of the cult and they were called upon to burn them.
A militant underground organization with the name of the “secret society for the destruction of internal and external enemies of Tibet” threatened to murder two young lineage holders, the lamas Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche (13-years-old) [3] and Song Rinpoche (11-years-old), who (under the influence of their teacher) performed rites in honor of Dorje Shugden: “… we will destroy your life and your activities” (Swiss Television, SF1, January 6, 1998). In a document from this group tabled by Shugden followers, it says: “Anyone who goes against the policy of the government must be singled out one-pointedly, opposed and given the death penalty. ... As for the reincarnations of Trijang and Song Rinpoche, if they do not stop practicing Dhogyal [Shugden] and contradict with the word of H.H. the Dalai Lama, not only will we not be able to respect them, but their life and their activities will suffer destruction. This is our first warning” (Burns, Newsgroup 1). Whilst a Western television crew were filming, a Tibetan monk who cooperated with the reporters received a death threat: “... in seven days you will be dead!” (Swiss Television, SF1, January 6, 1998).
In addition Dharamsala has exerted vehement psychological pressure on Buddhist centers in the West and forbidden them from performing Shugden rituals. In a word — the worshippers of the protective god had become the “Jews of Buddhism” (Newsweek, April 28, 1997, p. 26).
In London, where the sect has around 3000 members, there were protest demonstrations at which pictures of the Kundun were held high with the slogan, “Your Smiles Charm, Your Actions Harm”. He was referred to here as a “merciless dictator, who oppresses his people more than the Chinese do” (Kagyü Life 21, 1996, p. 34).
However, in an official communiqué from May 14, 1996, the government in exile denied all accusations. In contrast — they announced that death threats had been sent from Shugden to the offices of His Holiness and the Tibetan Women's Association. “If there comes division among prominent persons in the Yellow Hat Sect, there will be bloodshed in the monasteries and settlements across India”, one of the threatening letters is said to have stated (Newsweek, April 28, 1997, p. 26; retranslation). Both sides clearly fear that their lives are threatened by the other side.
All these mutual fears, accusations, and slander in the battle between the two oracle gods reached their climax in the ritual murder of the lama Lobsang Gyatso on February 4, 1997 which we have described above. Lobsang Gyatso was considered a special friend of the Dalai Lama and a pronounced opponent of the Shugden sect. A few days after the murder a press release from the government in exile coursed around the world in which Dorje Shugden followers were said to certainly be responsible for the murder. There was talk of confessions and arrests. This opinion remains current among a broad public to this day.
As evidence, among other things a letter to the murder victim (Lobsang Gyatso) was cited in which (it was said) the secretary of the Dorje Shugden Society had threatened the abbot with murder. Tashi Wangdu, a minister of the Tibetan government in exile, held this document, written in Tibetan, in his hand and showed it again on January 25, 1998 in Swiss Television (on the “Sternstunde”[Star Hour] program). However, this turned out to be a deliberate and very blatant attempt to mislead, when the Tibetan document, which was later translated, does not contain a single word of a murder threat. Rather, it contains a polite invitation to Lobsang Gyatso to discuss “theological” questions with the Dorje Shugden Society in Delhi (Gassner, 1999).
But this document was enough to arrest all known followers of the protective god (Shugden) in Delhi and illegally imprison them. However, they denied participating in the crime in any form whatsoever. [4] Indeed, despite interrogations lasting weeks by the Indian criminal police, nothing has been proven. The evidence is so meager that it is most likely that the crime was committed by another party. The matter was also seen so by a court in Dharamsala, which negated any connection between the Dorje Shugden Society and the murders of February 4.
For this reason, there are claims from the Shugden followers that the Dalai Lama’s circle tried to pin the blame on them in order to muzzle and marginalize them. In light of the power-political ambitions and relative strength of the sect — it is said to have over 20,000 active members in India alone — this version also makes sense. Some western worshippers of the protective god even go so far as to claim that a higher order from the Kundun lay behind the deed. Until the murderers are convicted, a good criminologist must keep his or her eye on all of these possibilities.
Reactions of the Tibetan parliament:
Within the Tibetan parliament in exile, the incidents have led to great nervousness and high tension. A resolution was passed demanding that “in essence government departments, organizations, associations, monasteries and their branches under the direction of the exile Tibetan government should abide by the ban against worship of Dhogyal” (Burns, Newsgroup 1).
In the further reactions of the people’s representatives one can read just how risky the whole matter is seen to be. Hence, during the parliamentary session of September 20, 1997 one of the members established that “an unprecedented amount of literature is being published everywhere that criticizes the Dalai Lama and belittles the Tibetan Exile Government” (Burns, Newsgroup 1). This is “extremely dangerous” and in the principal monasteries there was open talk of a schism. During the parliamentary session the government was strongly criticized for not having done anything to treat the Shugden affair as an internal Tibetan matter, but rather to have told the whole world about it, thus bringing it to the attention of an international public. We have to conclude from the committed discussions of the parliamentary members that the power and potential influence of the Shugden followers are actually more significant than one would have thought from the previous official statements out of Dharamsala.
On the third day of the session the situation in parliament had reached such a dead end that there seemed to be nothing more to say. What do the representatives of Tibetans in exile do in such a situation? — They consult the state oracle! It is not the members of parliament as the representatives of the people’s will but rather the oracle god Pehar who decides which course the government is to steer in the controversy surrounding the recalcitrant Dorje Shugden. The grotesqueness of the situation can hardly be topped, since Pehar and Shugden — as we learn from the writings of both parties — are the most bitter of enemies. How, then, is the Mongolian god (Pehar) supposed to provide an objective judgment about his arch-enemy (Shugden)? Indeed, it was Pehar, who in 1996 prophesied for the Dalai Lama that his life and hence the fate of Tibet wee endangered by the Shugden cult. In contrast , the Shugden oracle announced that the Kundun has been falsely advised by Pehar for years. Hence what the state oracle consulted by parliament would say was clear in advance. The advice was to combat the Shugden followers with uncompromising keenness.
This interesting case is thus a matter of a war between two oracle gods who seek control over the politics of Tibet. No other example since the flight of the Dalai Lama (in 1959) has so clearly revealed to the public that “gods” are at work behind the Tibetan state, the realpolitik of the Kundun, and the power groupings of the society of Tibetans in exile. One may well be completely skeptical about such entities, but one cannot avoid acknowledging that the ruling elite and the subjects of the Lamaist state are guided by just such an ancient world view. How these occult struggles are to be reconciled with the untiringly repeated professions of belief in democracy is difficult to comprehend from a western-oriented way of thinking.
Dharamsala is completely aware that antidemocratic methods must arouse disquiet in the West. For example, in contrast to before, since the mid-eighties reports about the pronouncements of oracles no longer play a large role in the Tibetan Review (the exile Tibetans’ most important foreign-language organ of the press). Only since the “Shugden affair” (1996) has the excessive use of oracle mediums in the politics of the Tibetans in exile been rediscovered and become known worldwide. In monastic circles it is openly joked that the Kundun employs more oracles than ministers. “Favorites and sorcerers manipulate the sovereign”, it says in a Spanish magazine, with “demons and deities fighting to control people's minds ...” (Más Allá de la Ciencia, No. 103, 1997).
Nevertheless, the Kundun has succeeded amazingly well in marginalizing the Shugden cult internationally and branding it as medieval superstition. For example, the German news magazine, Der Spiegel, which normally takes an extremely critical stance towards religious matters, was prepared to blindly take up the official version of the Shugden story from Dharamsala: the Shugden followers, Der Spiegel reported, were responsible for two (!) murders and their flight could be traced to China and the Chinese secret service (Spiegel, 16/1998, p. 119). Nearly all western media stereotypically repeat that the ritual murderers came from the ranks of the protective god (for example, Time Magazine Asia, September 28, 1998).
One of the arguments of the Shugden followers in this “battle of the gods” is the claim that the Dalai Lama is engaged in selling his own country to the Chinese. He (they argue) is not acting in the interests of his people at all, since in his Strasbourg Declaration he renounced the national sovereignty of Tibet as his goal.
It is not possible for us to form a final judgment about such a charge; however, what we can in any case assume is the fact that the Mongolian war god Pehar (the Nechung oracle) can have no interest in the (well-being of the)Tibetans and their nation, against whom he in former times grimly struggled as a Hor Mongol and who then enslaved him. Of course, the national interests of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama could also collide with his worldwide ambitions concerning the spread of Tantric Buddhism. We shall return to this topic in our article on his politics towards China.
If — as the tantric belief maintains- deities are pulling the strings behind the scenes of “human” politics, then a direct consequence of this is that magic (as an invocatory art of gaining influence over gods and demons) must be counted among the “political” activities par excellence. Magic as statecraft is therefore a Tibetan specialty. Let us take a closer look at this “portfolio”.
_______________
Notes:
[1] Here we ought to ask how a lesser deity like Pehar is able to predict the future at all for the hierarchically superior Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara and the incarnated time god (Kalachakra) who are embodied in the Dalai Lama.
[2] According to statements by the followers of Shugden, the Fifth Dalai Lama is supposed to have later changed his mind and prayed to the protective deity. He is even said to have molded the first statue of Dorje Shugden with his own hands and have composed prayers to the protective god. This statue is said to currently be found in Nepal.
[3] Trijang Rinpoche is the reincarnation of the deceased lama who previously initiated the Fourteenth Dalai Lama into the Shugden cult whilst his teacher.
[4] Up until now (February 1998) the police claim to have identified two of the six murderers. These have slipped over the border into Nepal, however.
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