A lot of people get confused how one practically surrenders completely to the spiritual guide.  It seems as if you would become a lifeless zombie frozen incapable of acting.  The reality is it is the exact opposite.  Right now we are a lifeless zombie incapable of acting since we are completely controlled by our delusions and have never tasted the enlightened experience of being all living beings.

It can seem like surrendering means you no longer make any decisions.  But this is wrong.  You do make one decision, over and over again:  the decision to surrender and submit to the spiritual guide in all of his aspects.  This is the best decision to make in every situation we find ourselves in.  I will repeat, this is the best decision to make in every situation we find ourselves in.  There is no situation in which this is not the best decision, and if we make any other decision in any situation, we are making the sub-optimal decision.  Any other decision is a product of our ignorance.

Given that things are empty, when reduced down to its essence, every situation has three components:  what is appearing, how we respond and what direction we are heading in (towards what destination are we moving).  What is appearing is dependent upon our past karma.  How we respond is dependent upon our present wisdom.  What direction we are heading in (towards what destination we are moving) is dependent upon our aspiration.  In all three of these domains, our spiritual task is to learn to surrender/submit completely to the spiritual guide.  With respect to what is appearing, we need to actively and continously surrender/submit completely to Guru Dorje Shugden.  With respect to how we rspond, we need to actively surrender/submit to Lama Tsongkhapa.  With respect to what direction we are heading in (towards what destination we are moving) we need to actively surrender/submit to Guru Father Heruka (or Vajrayogini as the case may be). 

Most of our worries in life are about what is appearing.  We are such externally-oriented beings.  As times become increasingly impure, this will only become more so the case.  For this reason, I believe that reliance upon Dorje Shugden is already and will increasingly become our primary and most important refuge.  Dorje Shugden has the power to control what karmically ripens, both externally and internally.  Normally, samsara is uncontrolled karmic appearance.  When we surrender/offer all of our karma into Dorje Shugden’s care, then he becomes the master of our universe, he becomes the Director of our (Truman) show.  It is so simple to do:  generate a pure intention, and request ‘please arrange whatever is best.’  By ‘best’ we mean, what is best for the swiftest possible of enlightenment of all living beings, understanding that our own enlightenment is an essential condition/pre-requisite for their enlightenment (the means to the end).  We have to get to the point where we actually don’t want to make the decision ourselves.  We want him to decide everything for us.  We have our own plans and our own goals, and we grasp onto them and become very attached to them.  We generate enormous stress for ourselves through this.  What freedom to let all of this go!  We need to be like a good soldier who is ready (indeed eager because he has complete confidence in his general) to go wherever he is to be deployed and to perform whatever mission is asked of him.  For a lot of RTs, they surrender themselves completely to VGL in terms of letting him decide where they go and what they do.  They are happy to do so because they trust his omniscient wisdom.  But for the overwhelming majority of us, it seems as if we are on our own in this respect.  But this is not the case.  We too can enjoy the same enlightened direction in our life by learning how to surrender/submit to Dorje Shugden.  I try have no plans of my own, no agenda of my own other than to surrender/submit to Dorje Shugden.  There is no stress, no anxiety, no worry, just an adventurous heart ready for whatever the Protector ripens next.  There is no basis for aversion to anything (for example the baby crying when I am trying to mediate or do my journal).  My ignorance makes me attached to my wishes, and I suffer when they are thwarted.  My faith in Dorje Shugden helps me let go of that aversion and be happy to assume responsibility for whatever the situation he emanates for me calls upon me to do.  No questions asked, no hesitation, no worry, no second-guessing, no frustration, just the peaceful equanimity of a confident faith that the Protector has taken charge.

I am running out of time, so I will have to explain later how it works to surrender in terms of how we respond and the direction we are going.  But briefly, the way we respond to all situations is to oppose orthogonally the nexus of delusions arising in any given moment.  This as well can be done quite simply through making simple requests such as ‘reveal to me what I should do’ or ‘please give me the wisdom to know how to respond’.  Likewise, we can simply ask ourselves, ‘what would VGL do?’ or ‘what would Lama Tsongkhapa do?’ much like Christians ask what would Jesus do.  Then we do that.  He has perfect wisdom and perfect skilfull means, so really these two types of request are just two sides of th same coin. 

In terms of what direction we are going, our job is to make ourselves useful to others.  Our final goal is the complete freedom of all beings.  This is what we are working towards.  To bring this about, we need to recognize that we have imprisoned all beings in the samsara of our creation (our contaminated dream).  Thus to free them we need to gather and dissolve all our appearances into the bliss of the Dharmakaya (transform ourselves into Chakrasambara).  As a way station or an interim step in that process, we likewise transform ourselves and our entire empty world into Heruka’s pure land.  Heruka’s pure land is like a funnel which gathers all appearances from the deepest hell to the highest pure land gradually inwards towards the Dharmakaya inside the nada inside Father Heruka’s heart.  From the Charnel grounds into inside the protection circle, then into the celestial mansion, then into the deities of the commitment, body, speech, heart and great bliss wheels.  Then into Father Heruka himself, then into his indestructible drop, then into the nada.  When you enter into the nada, it is like a magic portal that when you pass through the entire interpretative mandala dissolves behind you and you emerge into the infinite expanse of the clear light Dharmakaya.  It is then that you realize that the entire path to enlightenment was like an unwinding of the contaminated karmic ball of knots we have been creating since beginningless time.  We release ourselves (and all beings) from the infinite chains of our past deluded deeds.  It all unwinds and dissolves and we emerge united with all beings in inseparable and irreversible freedom.

We are the tradition of Je Tsongkhapa.  Our principle defining characteristic is our union of Sutra and Tantra.  One of the most important things for us to do as Kadampas is to realize this union.  I have worked extensively in the past on the union of the Lamrim and our generation stage object.  But just as important, we need to realize the union of the Lamrim and our reliance upon Dorje Shugden.  Ultimately, it is the power of our lamrim minds that gives our reliance upon any deity its meaning and power, therefore it is very important to enjoy meditating on this union.

What follows is not the definitive union, but simply the union as I currently understand it.  As practitioners, our job is to contemplate the relationships between the different aspects of our practice so as to unite them.  When we realize their relationship as perfectly harmonious, mutually reinforcing and non-contradicory, and when we get a special feeling of wisdom, then we know we are on the right track.  We can work with this over the course of our whole lifetime, gradually deepening our understanding and realization of these connections.

To gain an understanding of the connections, you just malke internal requests that it be revealed to you the connection or relationship between a particular lamrim meditation and an aspect of your practice, like reliance upon Dorje Shugden.   Then see what comes.

Briefly, here is a start of my understanding:

1. The real nature of Dorje Shugden is the spiritual guide.  He is my spiritual guide in the aspect of Dorje Shugden.   The spiritual guide manifests himself as Dorje Shugden in order to provide us protection.  Frankly, I think this is my favorite aspect of the Spiritual Guide, his most useful aspect in terms of helping us solve our daily problems.  I need to surrender myself completely to my Spiritual Guide in the aspect of Dorje Shugden and request him to take over completely the ripening of the karma for myself and all the beings of my dream.
2. I have a precious human life in which I can create very powerful karmic connections with the great protector Dorje Shugden.  With these connections, he can care for me and protect me in this and all of my future lives, creating the perfect outer and inner conditions for my training leading to my eventual enlightenment.  If I can make my reliance upon Dorje Shugden irreversible, my attainment of enlightenment is guarranteed.  He will not let me not attain enlightenment!  I will put myself on an uninterrupted fast track to enlightenment.
3. I can die at any moment, which means I must use every moment of my life to develop deeper and closer karmic connections with Dorje Shugden.  I don’t know how long my opportunity to become closer to his holy being will last, and I cannot afford to waste a minute of it.  The biggest risk of death is losing our practice.  If we lose our practice then we may need to wait aeons before we start practicing again, and as a result we will have to suffer from delusion and karma for a very long time.  Dorje Shugden is the our best protection against this risk.  His job is to arrange and maintain the outer and inner conditions for our practice.  In other words, he can protect us through the process of death, the bardo and rebirth so that we can continue with our practice in our next life.  Our death is actually his finest hour, where our reliance upon him can make the most difference.  Who else would I trust for this most important moment of my life?  He can maintain the continuum of my practice beyond this life, and life after life, until I attain enlightenment.  He is my insurance policy against losing my practice. 
4. If I do not have strong reliance and protection from Dorje Shugden, not only will I likely succumb to delusion within this life, but more dangerously I will fall into the lower reams at the time of my death.  I currently respond with delusion when extreme hardship arrives.  There is no more extreme hardship than death.  If I respond to death with delusion, I will fall – at which point I will lose everything.  I have completely neglected purifying my negative karma, therefore I no doubt have a mountain of it remaining on my mind.  What hope do I have of not falling?  It is only through my reliance upon Dorje Shugden that I can avoid this fate.  One of the main ways he helps us is he can control what karma ripens.  He arranges conditions for us by ripening the karma on our mind in special ways and sequences to create the experience of ‘perfect conditions.’  Just as he does this for us in life, he can do this for us during the death and rebirth process, protecting us against lower rebirth and propelling us to another life in which we can practice.  Absent this help, my mind alone is not sufficently trained to ensure that I do not fall.  I am not trying to go all fire and brimstone, but this is the reality of the situation.

I will continue with the rest of the relationships between the different lamrim meditations and our reliance upon Dorje Shugden in future posts.  For now, these are the ones moving my mind the most and that are the foundation for all the others.

The function of a Dharma protector is to arrange all the outer and inner conditions of our lives so that everything that happens to us is perfect for our swiftest possible enlightenment.  But Dorje Shugden is more than just a Dharma protector, he is also a wisdom Buddha.  It is not enough to just know that the outer and inner conditions of our life are perfect for our enlightenment, but to be able to take full advantage of these conditions we need to understand and realize directly how (or in what way) they are indeed perfect.  When we have the wisdom which realizes how our conditions are perfect, then we can fully take advantage of them and move most swiftly to enlightenment.  The blessings of Dorje Shugden bestow upon us this wisdom of realizing how the conditions he has emanated for us are in fact perfect.  Then we are not only happy with everything, but can use everything most effectively to advance along the path.

When we realize the emptiness of ourselves, all beings and Dorje Shugden then we realize that his power is not limited to just arranging perfect conditions for ourselves and bestowing upon ourselves the wisdom realizing how our conditions are perfect, but we can also invoke him to accomplish this same function for each and every living being.  We pray to him that he arrange all the outer and inner conditions for each and every being so that whatever happens to them is perfect for their enlightenment.  He can then bestow upon us the wisdom that sees directly how whatever arises in the life of any living being is in fact perfect for their enlightenment.  Then, we can share our point of view with others, helping them to see their lives and challenges as gifts from all the Buddhas designed to quickly deliver them to the bliss of full enlightenment. 

From our perspective, Dorje Shugden is the same being as the wisdom Buddha Manjushri.  Manjushri appears in two aspects, as Je Tsongkhapa to lead us along the path and as Dorje Shugden to arrange all the conditions of our practice.  It is therefore impossible to reject one without rejecting the other two.  Since we all agree that Manjushri and Je Tsongkhapa are perfectly reliable Buddhas, since Dorje Shugden is for us just a different aspect of this same being, Dorje Shugden is also perfectly reliable.  We cannot reject him without rejecting the others.  Since we cannot reject the others, we cannot reject him.

This website has been prepared for the benefit of Buddhist practitioners as well as the general public (journalists, concerned persons, etc.) to better understand the different arguments on both sides of the current controversy surrounding the practice of Dorje Shugden.

The goal is to have in one place all of the major arguments on both sides of this debate so that individuals can examine the debate and come to their own conclusions.

http://dorjeshugdendebate.wordpress.com/

Our personal world is a dream world arising from our karma.  Because the karma that is ripening on our mind is contaminated karma, when these dream worlds ripen, they appear to us as being ‘real’ worlds.  Out of ignorance, we believe this appearance and experience our world as such.

The problem is this:  we have spend at least 99% of our previous lives in the lower realms, and 99% of our actions have been negative actions (while in the lower realms, basically all of our actions were negative).  It is true that in this life we are not engaging in significant negativities, though we are still engaging in some.  But this life is an exception, a brief period of relative non-negativity in an infinite history of non-virtue.  It is also true that I have done next to nothing to purify my negative karma.  Out of a false arrogance from the fact that little negative karma is ripening right now, I arrogantly assume that I do not have a lot of negative karma which remains on my mind.  Or I ignorantly become lulled into a false sense of security because things are OK right now. 

The reality is the only reason why I am not being crushed by my negativity is I am being protected by Dorje Shugden.  His protection circle holds back the fires of my negative karma.  He has provided me with the space necessary to create more virtue and to purify the negativities which plague my mind.  But the point is this:  for as long as these negative seeds remain on my mind, I remain in extreme danger of falling into the lower realms.  Once I fall, I will engage in almost exclusively negative actions, and I will be forced to undergo unimaginable sufferings for incalculably long periods of time.  I will lose everything I have worked so hard for.  Even if the risk is only 1% that this will happen, because the impact of it happening is infinite, this is an infinite risk.  It is just too dangerous to remain.  If I don’t use the space that Dorje Shuden has provided me to purify my mind of its negative karma, then the risk is always there. 

I must take the time and apply effort to purify my mind before it is too late.  It does not take much.  All I need to do is generate a strong regret about my negativities before I engage in my daily practice and then intend to engage in my practice as a means of purifying that negative karma.  It adds one minute to my contemplations before I start, but could save my life.

Every moment of every day we engage in action.  Since we currently have a precious human life, our goal should be to engage in the most karmically beneficial actions we can.  The highest actions we can engage in are those which function to transform ourselves into the gateway through which all beings can attain enlightenment (transform our root mind into a Buddha’s pure land).

Since we live in a modern world, we must work.  Even if we don’t have a formal job, we all ‘work’ in the world in some form or another.  This work is our outer job.  The more we help others, the more virtuous our outer job is.  We can make our outer job, even the most mundane of outer jobs, into a virtuous job by viewing our work through the lens of how what we do helps others.  Our outer job also enables us to maintain the material conditions of our practice and they enable us to create good conditions for others (such as providing for our family).  

There is no contradiction between pursuing a normal career and dedicating 100% of one’s life to the practice of Dharma.  If we are to gain the realizations the people of this modern world need, then we must externally adopt lives similar to theirs – and that means working, having a family, etc.  Learning how to live their lives as the spiritual path will give us the wisdom we need to be able to help the people in this world find meaning and happiness in their lives.  Our inner job is to do precisely this.

Each outer situation will induce within us a different set of delusions – sometimes attachment, sometimes anger or frustration, sometimes despondency, sometimes jealousy, etc.  Our inner job is to learn how to relate to each one of these outer situations in the least deluded and the most wise/virtuous way possible. 

If we rely completely upon the Dharma Protector, he will arrange things so that every moment of our lives is emanated by him for our practice.  Through relying upon him, everything that happens to us, the good and the bad, is exactly what we need to take the next step in our spiritual journey.  We can view what happens to us as the spiritual exercises or homework that our personal Dharma trainer gives us so that we can advance to the next level of our spiritual training. 

The sole objective of the Protector is to transform us into the Buddha we need to become.  He knows the beings with whom we have the karma to lead them to enlightenment.  He knows what wisdom they will need on their spiritual journey.  Knowing this, he gives us now the problems and life experiences that they will have in the future so that we can gain now the wisdom realizations we need to later be able to explain to them how to transform their lives into the path.  Viewed in this way, we realize how every life event is not only exactly what we need for our own training, but it is also perfect for giving us the ability to help others in similar situations in the future.  This recognition alone gives great meaning and purpose to every moment of our life.  Living our life in this way is our inner job.

Our real job, then, as Modern Kadampas is to unite our outer and inner job so that every moment and every action, both outer and inner, takes us in a singular direction towards our final spiritual goal – the enlightenment of all.  The method by which we can unite completely these two goals is externally we continually strive to help as many people as our karma allows and internally we continually strive to respond to the events of our life with as much wisdom and virtue as our realizations allow.  In short, as the Old Kadampas would say, we “harm our delusions as much as possible and help others as much as possible.” 

By continuing to ambitiously pursue both our outer and inner careers in this way they will eventually unite into one.  When we experience our life in this way, we will have the immense satisfaction which comes from fulfilling our life’s purpose and not wasting a single moment along the way.

Understanding and realizing emptiness is the gateway to infinite faith.  Why?  Ignorance, at its root, believes that things are outside of our control, they are independent of the mind and have nothing to do with the mind.  They function autonomously.  If this is the case, then our mental requests to Dorje Shugden can accomplish nothing because things operate outside of our (and his) control.  If we grasp at him as being inherently existent, then we too can’t connect with him in any way.

But if everything is projection of mind, then everything arises from mind and our karma.  Whether everything in this world is a condition for falling deeper into samsara or a condition for our enlightenment becomes changeable and entirely dependent upon our mind.  If all is empty, including Dorje Shugden himself, then I can request that he take control literally of the entire universe – everything that happens to every being.  None of it is outside of my mind, therefore I have access to and can influence everything.  By making the request “may everything that appears to every being become a perfect cause of their enlightenment”, then, since the whole world is arising from my karma, Dorje Shugden can enter into and take control of absolutely everything and direct everything towards this end – for myself and for each and every being in my karmic dream. 

If I understand this and have faith that not only he can do this, but he HAS done this (all the attainments I desire arise from merely remembering you), then I will gain the wisdom blessings which reveal to me directly how everything is in fact perfect for the enlightenment of every other living being.  Then, instead of living in and seeing a samsara, I will be abiding in and enjoying a pure land.  For myself, everything will teach to me the truth of Dharma.  For others, everything will be a cause of their enlightenment, as it would be in a pure land.  For myself helping others, I will see directly how their conditions are perfect and so I can share with them my point of view – how I see things.  I explain to them why and how things are perfect.  By sharing this with them, they can come to likewise adopt this point of view, see how their conditions are perfect, they can then accept them, be happy with them, and enjoy them as perfect conditions.  In this way, I can solve all of my own and ohters problems.

Fantastic!