Interesting Times

Sorry I’ve been scarce. I need two of me to keep up with things sometimes.

Yesterday hundreds of Shugden Dorje devotees and Dalai Lama supporters clashed outside Radio City Music Hall and had to be separated by NYPD. I’m sorry I missed it.

If you’ve seen the Shugden groupies — they go around protesting His Holiness the Dalai Lama everywhere he speaks — you may have wondered what their issues are. I just wrote a long backgrounder on the other blog. Essentially, the Shugdenistas are a fundamentalist cult, and what’s going on is a power struggle within Tibetan Buddhism.

The leaders of the Shugden sect recruit lots of soft-headed westerners, feed them highly revisionist versions of Tibetan history and Buddhism, and get them all worked up into believing His Holiness is an enemy of religious freedom. But the protesters really are just pawns in a bigger game. And you can bet China is involved. This is all explained on the other blog.

So if you see the Shugden culties in the future, just ignore them. And pity them, if you like.

Notice to Shugden culties: If you want to argue with me, go to the Buddhism forums. Any nonsense you leave here will be deleted.