Dalai Lama - Oxford protests
Waking up to the truth
On Friday May 30, the dreaming spires of Oxford awoke to cries of ‘Dalai Lama, Stop Lying’ as over 500 members of the Western Shugden Society gathered to protest against the Dalai Lama’s religious discrimination while he gave a public talk at the Sheldonian Theatre.
As the sound of the protest echoed through the streets of Oxford, students and members of the public gathered to find out what was happening.
Deliberate lie
They stopped to ask questions, keen to find out more about the issue. Seeing the huge banners declaring, ‘Dalai Lama, Stop Lying’, many asked what he was lying about.
Just as they were asking, the Dalai Lama was busy offending the intelligence of his audience by trying to persuade them we were worshipping a ‘harmful spirit’.
This was a deliberate lie.
He was, of course, referring to the Deity Dorje Shugden, whom millions of Tibetans of have relied upon as an enlightened being for hundreds of years.
The Dalai Lama himself relied upon Dorje Shugden for 50 years, praying to him daily for guidance and protection.
It was through relying on Dorje Shugden that he was able to escape to India and enjoy a long life in exile.
He even wrote a special Dorje Shugden prayer himself, praising Dorje Shugden as an enlightened being who helps us on our spiritual path.
Faustian deal
Then, once he was in exile and his grip on political power began to weaken, as part of a Faustian deal with his political opponents he announced that he was abandoning the practice and encouraged everyone else to do the same.
For sincere Buddhists to abandon a practice given by your Spiritual Guide is inconceivable, and so understandably there was considerable resistance to his calls for others to follow suit.
The Dalai Lama responded by demonizing the practice, referring to a Deity he once revered as a harmful spirit and concocting absurd stories to convince those with superstitious minds to abandon the practice.
And for those who still refused he and his government in exile unleashed a campaign of intimidation, humiliation, and ostracism.
Vicious persecution
Over the years this campaign has become more and more vicious, and today millions are suffering at the hands of the Dalai Lama and his henchmen.
Even as the Dalai Lama tours the West, his followers back in India are inflicting terrible suffering on fellow Tibetans who are refusing to abandon their heart practice.
Even though the Dalai Lama is an unelected leader of a handful of Tibetans with a puppet government who are on record as saying they would never pass a decision he did not approve of, and even though he has effectively usurped the position of ‘religious leader’ of the Tibetans through machinations such as those described above, still the world fetes him as an infallible “god-king” and accepts everything he says at face value.
Until now, that is.
Demonstrations meeting with success
As the thinking people of Oxford showed, even celebrities supported by powerful PR machines are accountable to the truth.
The audience in the Sheldonian and the students and members of the public on the streets of Oxford were not prepared to accept such preposterous accusations without evidence.
And of course there is no evidence.
All the evidence points to the persecution, intimidation, humiliation, and ostracism conducted by the Dalai Lama and his agents.
This evidence is presented very clearly in the arguments of the Western Shugden Society, the literature we are distributing, and the press interviews we are giving.
And an increasing number of members of the press are expressing an interest in pursuing the matter further and examining the evidence for themselves.
This is one of the principal objectives of our demonstrations, and the positive response shows they are already meeting with success.
Truth is revered
As the Dalai Lama stepped from his chauffeur-driven Mercedes-Benz onto the streets of Oxford he stepped into a world where truth is revered and superstition scorned, where religious persecution is reviled and freedom to practice one’s chosen faith honored.
As he stood just yards away from the protesters demanding an end to his hypocrisy with loud cries of, ‘Stop lying, stop lying’, it must have been obvious to him that cracks were beginning to appear in the Dalai Lama brand his PR machine had so carefully cultivated over all these years.
Images of him being greeted by dignitaries in the inner courtyard of the Bodleian Library with hundreds of protesting monks, nuns, and lay Buddhists clearly visible behind him through the open gates, and the impassioned cries of the protesters drowning out the speeches of his reception committee will have a much more lasting impact than scurrilous lies he tried to palm off on his audience.
A world that has hitherto been smitten with the myth of the Dalai Lama is beginning to wake up to the truth.
View full slideshow of the protest
Published: 31 May 2008