Who is Dorje Shugden? A letter from Kadam Lucy

Is there anyone amongst us who wouldn’t mind feeling a little less anxious?!

We can’t control everything that’s going on in our world, and any illusion that we could is fast disappearing during this unusual 2020. Plus, the more attached we are to controlling what’s going on in our lives, the more anxiety we are liable to be feeling as things seemingly continue to spiral.

Luckily — as many of us are discovering – all of Buddha’s teachings, or Dharma, provide an antidote to anxiety. This is because anxiety comes from what is called “inappropriate attention”, which Dharma opposes. Or as I once heard it said, “Worry is a misuse of the imagination”.

We can’t control sickness, death, and all the other things that are going wrong – that, to be honest, have always gone wrong in life after life. But we can come to control our minds, including our reactions, and in this way create an infinitely better reality for ourself and others out of compassion and wisdom. This is what we do when we follow the spiritual path.

There are 3 essential realizations of the stages of the path to enlightenment, or Lamrim, that I sum up here for easy reference, lol:

Do not worry.
This is not real.
Just love everyone.

When we lack an understanding of samsara and delusions, for example, and have not yet developed a wish for true lasting freedom, we tend to worry incessantly about every detail of what goes wrong. When we step back and see what’s actually going on, the bigger picture, we actually stop feeling worried and instead start to feel increasingly contented and free.
When we understand that all fear comes from grasping at ourself as more important than everyone else, whereas all peace and happiness come from our love and compassion, we also stop worrying, pretty much instantly. Venerable Geshe-la puts it like this in How to Transform Your Life:

“Controlling our self-cherishing is of great value, even temporarily. All worries, anxiety and sadness are based on self-cherishing. The moment we let go of our obsessive concern for our own welfare, our mind naturally relaxes.”

Thirdly, when we understand how things are dreamlike and not as real as they appear, how we are projecting everything with our thoughts, we realize that by changing our thoughts we can change everything. And this brings us the hugest relief of all.
If on top of these 3 so-called “Sutra” realizations we also practice Buddha’s Mahamudra Tantra teachings, these quickly cut through all ordinariness and suffering to reveal that reality is actually incredibly blissful, the union of great bliss and emptiness.

That was a quick outline of the whole spiritual path to enlightenment! Every step along this path overcomes our fears, as well as every other suffering we have ever had.

And this brings me to the main point of this letter, which is that I am really happy to be introducing you to Dorje Shugden this weekend. His main job is to help us stay on and make progress on this path to lasting happiness and freedom that we seem to have miraculously stumbled across. We all need spiritual protection in these degenerate times. Dorje Shugden is a supreme ally, a Wisdom Buddha who is far more powerful than anything life can throw at us.

“A Dharma Protector is an emanation of a Buddha or a Bodhisattva whose main functions are to avert the inner and outer obstacles that prevent practitioners from gaining spiritual realizations, and to arrange all the necessary conditions for their practice.” ~ Heart Jewel

He also opens our wisdom eyes so that we always know what is the best course of action in any given situation, and how to transform whatever is happening into something positive.

In general, if you know he is in your life, you are not going to feel nearly as worried or anxious. And this in turn means you’ll be unstoppable in your ability to show up for others.
Pagma collected together some stories of Sangha members coming to see Dorje Shugden’s protective influence in their lives. Check them out on our Facebook page — they’re really good!

If you’re interested in making steady spiritual progress, that’s Dorje Shugden’s main job. As a Buddha, Dorje Shugden also helps everyone without discrimination, so anyone who wants an enlightened friend by their side — someone who really has their back — is welcome to join in this weekend!

Here are the details. Check them out – and if you have any questions after that, let me know. My email is: rt@kmc-co-backup.local.

Really looking forward to it!

With love and prayers,
Kadam Lucy