The content of this post will be limited to the material collected at the Dalai Lama's talk at TD Garden. I received pamphlets from the International Shugden Community and a Christian with a large sign reading "Saved by Jesus or Lost to Hell."
The International Shugden Community
Shugden practitioners protested the Dalai Lama's recent U.S. talks and they have organized into the International Shugden Community. The International Shugden Community has published several pamphlets and continue to protest the Dalai Lama for his alleged civil rights violations. The central disagreement is over the status of Dorje Shugden, also known as Dolgyal and Gyalchen Shugden, and whether Shugden practitioners are allowed to be part of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism that the Dalai Lama leads. The Shugden community's protest at TD Garden was large and they chanted "False Dalai Lama, Stop Lying." The three pamphlets that they handed out were titled "Dalai Lama: The Worst Dictator in This Modern Day," "Reting Lama: How He Chose the False Dalai Lama," and Images of Discrimination and Segregation." I will take each of these publications in turn.
Pamphlet 1) "Dalai Lama: The Worst Dictator in this Modern Day"
The main claim in this pamphlet is that the Dalai Lama has "falsely banned the worship" of Dorje Shugden. The vast majority of the pamphlet was unspecific claims that he has removed all Shugden practitioners form Tibetan communities. The most specific statement was that in February 2008 he expelled 900 innocent Shugden monks from the Tibetan community. The pamphlet does not specify what actions were taken to expel these 900 monks. In short, this pamphlet is unconvincing due to lack of details.
Pamphlet 2) "Images of Discrimination and Segregation"
This pamphlet (pictured below) claims that there is widespread discrimination of Shugden practitioners. The evidence consists entirely of images of signs and notices in public view. While these signs do provide some evidence of discrimination, ultimately its not compelling. For instance, one of the signs is outside of a medical center. If Shugden practitioners were denied medical care, why do we not see pictures of them suffering for lack of medical care? That would be compelling evidence that real meaningful discrimination exists. That such evidence is not presented means that either there isn't meaningful discrimination or that they simply failed to present compelling evidence of such discrimination.
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Pamphlet 3) "Reting Lama: How He Chose the False Dalai Lama"
Summary: Reting Lama and a high government official Langdun had a strained relationship. A son of one of Langdun's relatives is the true Dalai Lama and this was supported by Langdun. Reting then faked seeing a vision containing the words A, KA, and MA. The false Dalai Lama was chosen from the Amdo Kumbum region and was born Muslim. In his youth the current Dalai Lama was not attentive to his studies and did not care for the Buddhist way of life. Reting later admitted, while in prison, that he had lied about seeing the letters A, KA, and MA. Having learned the truth the Tibetan Government publicly announced that any person who had received a special position from Reting, including the Dalai Lama would be removed from office. In 1959 due to political turmoil the current Dalai Lama escaped to India and created the Tibetan exile government. Though the current Dalai Lama is a Muslim, he has maintained the pretense of being a Buddhist holy being. In this way he has cheated people throughout the world.
Commentary: Even if this is all true, from a non-Buddhist perspective, this is not convincing. It would be more surprising to me if there was no political turmoil over choosing the leader of a religion. That being said IF this is true, this would be devastating to a devout Tibetan Buddhist. There are a few things that stand out. First, that a relative of a high government official would just happen to be the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama seems more politically motivated than Reting choosing someone from the Amdo Kumbum region. Second, the repeated insistence that the current recognized Dalai Lama is not even Buddhist, but Muslim. In addition, the only evidence given for this claim is his birth to Muslims. This is unnecessary and perhaps anti-Muslim. Third the only cited sources are essentially anonymous sources which cannot be verified independently. In short, like the other two pamphlets this is ultimately not convincing.
What would have been convincing in these series of pamphlets is a direct line from the recognized Dalai Lama's actions to some real suffering of the Shugden practitioners. In the first two pamphlets this connection was attempted, but the evidence was neither convincing nor compelling. Whether the current recognized Dalai Lama is not actually the reincarnation of the previous Dalai Lama makes no difference to a non-Buddhist. To a Buddhist it would make a difference, but even then the evidence is lacking.
Christianity as an alternative to Buddhism?
After leaving the Dalai Lama's talk I took a second to talk to a man holding a sign saying "Saved by Jesus or Lost to Hell." I asked him if he thought it was inappropriate to proselytize at the location of the Dalai Lama's talk and if he agreed with the Dalai Lama that Western religions should (for the most part) stay in Western countries and that Eastern religions should stay in Eastern countries. He stated that if he was in Tibet or any other eastern country he would be doing the same thing and that Christianity isn't a religion, its a relationship with God. That if Christianity wasn't the truth that he was wasting his life. He then handed me a pamphlet titled "Have You Believed Another Gospel?" and said "You're probably the only person I'll talk to all day."
I have stated here that the Dalai Lama doesn't understand the stakes for certain Christians to do missionary work. If you believed that everyone who was not Christian was going to suffer an eternity of anguish, you would be rather immoral not to try to convince all you could to become Christian. Second notice he doesn't even acknowledge that Christianity is a religion, but rather it is simply a relationship with God. Christianity, for this man, is not one among many religious options, but rather the one true and good way to live one's life, and the only way to be saved from eternal damnation.
This concludes my series on Tibetan Buddhism. I have reached out to the International Shugden community for comments.
