Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Tibet was free many other important lamas had already advised the monasteries not to
practice Dolgyal.
When His Holiness himself was in a young aspect he was in Domo, southern Tibet, where I
became a monk. It was becoming very difficult in Tibet because of China, so there was the
question of whether to go to India or remain in Tibet. At that time, my teacher’s teacher was
the oracle, and he was the one who gave the answer. The governors invoked Dolgyal and
asked him whether His Holiness should remain in Tibet or go to India because of the
situation. The answer was to stay in Tibet. I heard it helped Tibet for one year.
After His Holiness himself repeatedly checked, using more and more logic, he found out
that practicing Dolgyal was wrong and gave up the practice. That was what he also advised
other people to do. At the beginning His Holiness was very quiet and didn’t tell people
directly, but then later on he found more reasons and so he advised that if people were
concerned with practicing the correct Dharma they should not follow Dolgyal.
These people who criticize His Holiness are unaware that when Tibet was free there were
many other lamas who advised against practicing Dolgyal. In particular this was the advice of
six or seven great lamas who were like one sun rising in this world, in this southern
continent. These lamas did great benefit for sentient beings, for the teachings of the Buddha.
They wrote many teachings on sutra and tantra. They advised what could and couldn’t be
taught and practiced in the monasteries, and they advised particularly not to practice this
one, Dolgyal, Shugden.
They are compared to the sun because when the sun rises it dispels the darkness in the
world, allowing crops to grow and people to enjoy themselves. Especially in England!
Especially in London! I heard yesterday that when the sun comes out everybody goes to the
park. One of the students advertised London weather to me like that.
My life in Phagri and Buxa Duar
I’ve known about the English weather from the time I lived in Buxa Duar, where I went
after I escaped from Tibet.
I went to Tibet from Solu Khumbu in 1956 when I was very small, with my two uncles, who
were fully ordained monks and one of whom was also my alphabet teacher, my guru. I went
there because one of my other uncles, who became a soldier in the Indian army, had married
a lady from the upper part of Tibet who lived in Phagri and had invited us to come.
On our walk from Solu Khumbu there was very little snow, just on some of the mountains.
We walked all the time except for one day when two Tibetans on horseback gave me a ride
on their donkey for two hours until we reached their house in Sangba in upper Tibet, where
we had thugpa. My uncles came later with the luggage they were carrying and we spent the
night there.
Generally, however, we walked all the way, every day, all day, along a car road, stopping to
light a fire on the road to cook food. My teacher made tsampa for me by mixing it with black
tea in a leather bag. When it was well mixed we ate it. This is a very simple way of traveling.
Sometimes we begged. I was a very small child so, I don’t know, maybe I was cute. Families
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