A timely and good reminder of the effects of Shugden practice

A timely and good reminder of the effects of Shugden practice:

The dangers of dolgyal (by anon)

Now, if one has been following and reading this issue for quite sometime, the pro dolgyal side has been peddling the notion that the real reason why the Dalai Lama 'banned' this practice was due to political reasons and that the Dalai Lama would like to discriminate against ‘shugden’ practitioners and that this is a very powerful practice that was done by Pabongkha and Trijang Rinpoche and that an entire generation of Gelug lamas has done this practice, that it only makes sense that their disciples should be allowed to continue the practice and any Gelug lama that does not are betraying the lineage and have no guru devotion etc.

Unfortunately, this is very far from the truth. There is one very important reason as to why the Dalai Lama banned this practice and the deity itself: because you lose sight of who you are, and you lose your conscience. Being sectarian as a result of shugden is just a minor side effect compared to the one that will hit practitioners as they deepen their ‘practice’.

To fully practice shugden, the requirements are that one must never study or practice teachings from other traditions other than Gelug, have ‘guru devotion’ in a very fanatic sense and also to have his initiation which is known as ‘life entrustment’ where one surrenders everything to shugden in exchange for ‘enlightenment’.

The result from the first ‘requirement/commitment’ is obviously being sectarian. But the result of the second and third commitment is the real danger. As shugden is a spirit masquerading as an enlightened being, surrendering completely to shugden will result in a mental state that does resemble that of a spirit, where one is always in fear and always having this idea where the whole world is against you and that it is okay to harm or strike others first in the name of self-defense.

How does this happen? The reason is simple: in the sadhana, one invites shugden to reside in one’s heart and mind. The problem with this is that shugden is not an enlightened being but a spirit and doing this practice often will result in your mind melding with shugden’s, and you will start to think like a spirit after a while and lose your conscience. Lamas who have ‘mastered’ shugden will start to show symptoms of harming, hurting and exploiting their students and bad mouthing or going to far lengths to harm students who leave or attempt to leave. No matter how much they have harmed, these lamas will always paint themselves as the victim and that they are the ones who are being harmed and damaged by the monastic community, and that students who leave them will go to hell or that there is no spiritual salvation beyond them or shugden and that anyone and everyone who does not agree with them are evil and corrupted. They will also be very controlling and demand that their students only listen to them and forbid their students from studying from other traditions or teachers even. They will also justify their actions by twisting the scriptures and that they can do no wrong and students who follow these lamas eventually become like them as well.

The next stage is that these students and lamas will start to be delusional, and will feel that they can do no wrong, even if it is attempting to sue someone to bankruptcy or stealing and using people. They will feel that because they are being victimized, they should fight back even though in reality, the non-practitioners and ex-students just want to be left alone and want to have nothing to do with them or shugden. They become fanatical and paranoid as the fear sets in. They always feel that everyone is closing in on them, or that their lives will be in danger although this is not the case at all. During this time also, many of the lamas or practitioners will get what they desire such as large amounts of money, power, lots of followers, big temples and so forth and live comfortably but their minds will never be at peace. Many NKT practitioners are currently in this stage which can last for several years and decades before it goes to the last stage or the result.

Many Lamas and individuals who practice shugden will also have anger issues. I myself had a horrible anger issue when I was doing this practice and I did not realize it until I stopped. I would lash out at my family members over small matters and my reaction would be explosive. When I stopped the practice, my explosive anger calmed down as well to as I was before I did the practice. The same can be seen in Kelsang Gyatso who is known to have outbursts of anger against students. Another lama is also famous for his anger outbursts to the point that he is no longer able to give public talks and has to stay behind cloistered, amongst his close students. There are also reports of this particular lama physically abusing his close students who would regard this abuse as blessings. Another lama based in the US who has previously promised to give up shugden has also been said to slap his students at times and also has horrible anger outbursts. This isn’t that surprising, considering that one is embodying not a Buddha, but an angry spirit. If you wish to embody a Buddha’s qualities, you’ll have them, and if you wish to embody a spirit’s qualities, you’ll have them too.

The eventual result of this is that these individuals would eventually be afflicted with a debilitating mental condition as a result of all their negative actions that they have been doing in the name of self-defense, and they are no longer able to stop or see that what they are doing contradicts the Dharma completely, or an incurable disease strikes them and they will lose all that they had been given before. The intensity of this final stage depends entirely on how much people have they harmed or deceived during their lifetime.

There is one case amongst the Tibetan community as a Kagyu Lama has related to me. He told me the story of one very famous lama who was famous for giving very accurate divinations based on shugden. He was so powerful that when he did divinations, the arrows would quiver without being touched. As a result, he had a huge labrang and hundreds of houses and properties across Taiwan and Dharamsala and had not one but a fleet of 30 or so Rolls Royce cars. However, when he was struck by pneumonia before he died, he lost all his wealth, disciples and friends. Nobody came to see him as he lay dying in the hospital. As the Kagyu lama, who was a friend, visited him, he could not recognize him, the friend whom he snubbed after getting involved with the shugden practice. The Kagyu Lama did not give me any names, but it is pretty clear which gelug lama is this. Other Lamas who met an unhappy death include Zemey Rinpoche and his story is pretty well known amongst many lamas in the Tibetan community. There is also the current Pabongkha Rinpoche, who failed to manifest enlightened activity after his massive surge to power 2 lifetimes ago. Interestingly, no shugden practitioner has rescued him from Nepal where he is currently experiencing difficulty in gathering disciples and so forth. His former root disciple, Trjang Choktrul is enjoying a lot of wealth and disciples in this lifetime, but leaves him in Nepal without ever trying to invite him out or try to help him relocate. This really shows how loyal shugden practitioners are.

For further proof, one can take a look at the current crop of practitioners who accuse the Dalai Lama of discriminating and suppressing the most delusional way when it does not exist. They always play victim and act in ways that contradict the Dharma and even basic human values. They play the victim, yet act with full force against those whom they perceive are against them with no mercy or conscience as evident from their recent string of cyber-attacks against those who speak up against them. Look at how they comment at every article that talks about shugden in a negative light, and see if they are acting in a fair manner or that they are unbiased and grounded in reality, or they are posting from a very fanatical and unbuddhist angle that does not reflect reality. You will soon find that it is the latter.

In short, the practice of shugden hooks individuals who have greed for something, i.e wealth, power, fame, grants their hearts’ desire while corrupting them and causing them to create negative karma at the same time until the negative karma explodes and takes over. If you would like to practice shugden, be aware of these negative effects because many lamas have tried and failed to mitigate the negative effects, and so has many, many practitioners too as evident by merely observing them, then asking yourself if that is what you want to end up as.

(The author did the practice briefly and observed those who did the practice as well. They wish to remain anonymous)

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