Lama Zopa Rinpoche

him about the bum-pa, the vase. This is a very common object used in debating along with
pillars, rabbits’ horns and things like that. He asked, “Is this vase truly existent or not?”
Dolgyal, Shugden, who had entered the monk, answered, “Oh yes, yes, yes.” Do you
understand? Rinpoche asked if the vase was truly existent and Dolgyal replied that is was, so
it seems he didn’t know about what makes a thing truly existent. He had never been taught.
The vase appears to be real, but is that true? If Dolgyal had been an enlightened being, there
is no way he would have replied like that. Not even an arya being would have done that, so
that proves he was not.
Then Rinpoche did gek-tor with three tormas, and by dedicating was able to drive Dolgyal
away. Dolgyal had come to ask Rinpoche to accept him but when Rinpoche heard the
incorrect answer he was able to drive him away with a gek-tor practice. Dolgyal’s motivation
was not to benefit sentient beings but for the self. It was an activity of the self-cherishing
mind, like wanting to become famous or have great power. Wanting to have great influence,
he tried to use a high lama many people trusted so they would accept him and willingly
follow him.
In the West I think you call that sort of thing lobbying. At Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in
Italy there had never been a vote in the past, but after Lama Yeshe passed away we needed
to appoint a director so I called everybody together to ask them to vote for one. There was a
student who went around telling everybody who to vote for; he was lobbying for his friend.
In the West, people spend millions and millions of dollars trying to get people to vote for
them. They do whatever they can to win the vote. This is kind of what Dolgyal was doing
with the high lamas. If you look at it like that, you can understand it. He was trying to cheat
the high lamas, the learned geshes, to control them so that many people would practice him.
Having no mistakes but showing mistakes
Many of us are disciples of Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche. He was our root guru and his root
guru was Kyabje Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo. We are disciples in the twenty-first century, so
this is our special karma, our particular karma, our obstacle. This obstacle has just arisen; it
wasn’t there before but has now become a particular problem for us twenty-first century
disciples. Now there is great danger from life-to-life for hundreds, thousands, hundreds of
thousands, even millions of lifetimes—the great danger of our being led the wrong way.
I gave you the example of Trehor Kyörpon Rinpoche. He saw Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo
and Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche as buddhas, as being without mistakes. How could somebody
be a buddha and yet at the same time have faults or make mistakes? It is not possible. If he
has faults that means he is not an enlightened being. That doesn’t happen. If we look at
somebody and see he has faults—not showing the aspect of having faults but actually having
faults—then that means he is not an enlightened being but an ordinary being. If he were a
buddha he would have no faults.
According to the Mahayana, Guru Shakyamuni Buddha was enlightened numberless eons
ago. He had no suffering but he showed us the twelve deeds; he showed us the suffering of
rebirth, old age, sickness and death. He showed us those sufferings during his life and in the
end he showed us the aspect of passing away. By taking the aspect of having suffering—by
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