What offends you?

Two weeks after we released pictures of our Wisdom Hall gompa (prayer hall), I am still getting comments today about our Dorje Shugden statue being larger than our Shakyamuni one.

It doesn’t matter that Rinpoche has already explained that this arrangement is temporary until we can raise enough funds to build our larger gompa and we can move Shakyamuni there (you try finding storage for a 13ft statue!).

People are people, and when their minds are made up and their opinion has been formed, it’s very hard to shift. Which explains why we are all still in samsara, because the lojong (mind transformation) teachings are so hard to practice… but I’ll leave that topic for another post.

Anyway, after the latest comment, I had a thought: it’s funny what offends people. Instead of being offended by lack of practice, lack of compassion, lack of acceptance, lack of realising the Three Principal Paths or lack of practising the Six Paramitas, they’re offended by an altar layout that, through circumstance and lack of funds, has to be this way temporarily.

I’m not sure how many times we can emphasise the word ‘temporarily’ but there you go – I’ll keep beating that drum until it sinks in one day.

I mean, you don’t see the same people commenting when others clearly demonstrate their intolerance. You don’t see them asking intolerant people to calm their shizz and to practice Dharma, or to not direct death threats at people because it’s not the Buddhist way. You only see them taking to their keyboards to express their ~outrage~ when ohmygosh a Dorje Shugden image is on display.

So since everyone is on the path of making known what offends them, here’s what offends me: no religious freedom. No tolerance for a different set of views. No logic in arguments and debates. No openness for dialogue. People thinking it is acceptable to create lists of people who protest. People thinking it is acceptable to send death threats to others who don’t subscribe to their same views. People thinking it is acceptable to deny medical treatment to anyone on the basis of their beliefs. People thinking it is acceptable to support others who think in that manner! Ingratitude. Close-mindedness.

What offends you tells you a lot about your state of mind so please, don’t be offended (haha) by this article and instead use it as an opportunity to reflect about what upsets you the most.

And if our altar layout still offends you so greatly, I request you to please help us fund raise for our larger gompa so we can move Shakyamuni from this position ASAP 😉

Sorry folks but I’m not one to stay quiet or take abuse lying down so here’s another photo to round off your day. Yes, we do a traditional Dorje Shugden kangsol (puja) in front of this big, big statue every month. Problem?

Dorje Shugden