toujour... my thoughts are (having visited and spent some months with them) that they are pretty normal ppl, on the surface..,. they dig buddhism like the rest of the buddhists do...
...that said, the Dalai Lama uttered a proscription which told buddhists that the NKT was not to be considered part of the overarching pantheon... he stated this publicly, and as we know it is "unmeritorious" to defile the precious jewel of the sangha by creating bad feeling between buddhists, so, why did he say this?
well, there are three versions of the story- the first is due to ban on the worship of a character called Dorje Shugden, the second involves financial irregularities and benefit fraud, and the third, simple jealousy...
back in the day when they went out to the villiages to find the new incarnation of the old Dalai Lama, they picked both Geshe Kelsang Gyatso and the current D.L and gave them both the same training (this isn't unusual- its standard practise to take more than one boy). Eventually, they picked DL over GKD.
now, in the beginning the Dalai Lama supported Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, and even wrote a few forewords in a few NKT books, back in the day... then something happened...
two monks were killed in India... a young boy and an old man... stabbed to death in a monastery... they never found out who killed them, but the rumours suggest it was the NKT who did this... before I seem like I'm going off on a tangent, I must first try to explain about Dorje Shugden, and then u will understand why the NKT were blamed for this...
Dorje Shugden is worshipped only by the NKT. I have traced this deity back to about the 13th century, before then, he does not appear. The party line is, dorje shugden is a deity of evil. He protects the dharma by killing folks...
and drinking their blood...
now, those of u who do Tibetan stuff will notice that there are a few bloodsucking demons about, skull necklaces and cups, etc, but they are not brown- they have a function- in tantra, demons remove obstacles, as we know... however, if u find a picture of dorje shugden, u will see a tower behind him, and in that tower is a brown figure...
now, in Tibetan, all our deities are either red, blue, green, white, yellow, or occasionally, black. We don't have brown ones, and for one simple reason-its the colour of poo, filth and defilement. This character of Dorje Shugden is considered to be, not a demon, but evil. And yes, there is a difference.
The worship of this deity over the years has, supposedly, been associated with much evil, namely murder. The Dalai Lama asked ppl who worship this deity to stop calling themselves buddhists.
the NKT didn't like that one bit, and so they took to the streets in Dharamsala, protesting that the DL was abusing their human rights and not allowing them freedom to practise their religion. This made buddhism look bad, and so the DL then removed them from the buddhist gang.
So, thats the first version.
the second- the NKT rose and grew at an alarming rate during the 90's, and this happenned because- all the monks claimed income support and housing benefit, and then gave their monies to the cause... in this country (england) it is unlawful for monks/nuns/priests to receive benefits, as members of a religious community ur exempt from paying council tax, but ur not entitled to any welfare benefits- ur organisation is supposed to pay ur way- the NKT didn't, they got caught, and it made them look bad. The theory goes that the DL tried to distance himself from them before the poop hit the fan, and made it just in time...
the third reason- petty jealousy... rumour has it that the DL was jealous of the NKT's rise, and decided to put the boot in, using his position to cause trouble for the NKT and GKG.
Of course, it is up to you to decide... however...
when I went to stay with the NKT, I was thinking of taking up the robes... I was advised by a person who lived there not to. They told me that this version of buddhism was not for me, although they would not say why. I of course, found this strange, as this person was a resident and had been for years.
My problem with the NKT is strictly that of practise- I don't care about politics, and my philosophy is... if it works, its good buddhism.
However, with a little knowledge of buddhism it is easy to see that the NKT's buddhism is bad buddhism. Everything is learnt via a sing-song recitation. We know this is the most effective way of impressing information on those under 25. And yes, recitation is important to many buddhists, but not quite in this way.
Those who approach NKT were, in those days, pushed into taking up the robes or becoming a residents, especially if they had money, and this is a little unethical, perhaps... personally, I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole, as their buddhism is rubbish, IMHO. There is little in the way of an introduction to buddhism -its straight onto empowerments and tantra, which is stupid.
People spend hours meditating on deities, yet they are not too clued up about the basics. To be empowered in those days cost 25 pounds each time. To be a good buddhist in the NKT, you had to do all the empowerments and buy all the books, of which there is about 50, and at 15 pound a pop this is quite a lot of money to shell out for dharma which is freely available online and in the library and via organisations like The Corporate Body of The Buddha Educational Foundation (who can be found at:
www.budaedu.org.tw )
There is an overreliance on guru and lineage (although thats a problem throughout Tibetan Buddhism, not just in the NKT) and people are told that doing things like going to the cinema or consorting with non-buddhists is bad, unmeritorious. We know that this is a tactic used by cults around the world to distance ppl from their friends and families and ensnare recruits.
So, all in, I'd say... I don't like their buddhism, I think it's watered down crap, and I think they are just a money making cult. I saw a few monks there with holes in their shoes. Nobody would buy them new ones. If you can't give ur monks new shoes but ur making such great profits, there's something up.
so... just my thoughts... if u think I'm being a savage, then pls, do some research online, have a look, but personally, I think ppl would be better off going to the library and lending a few books on buddhism than going anywhere near them...
adios
