Dorje Shugden

Promoters of Dorje Shugden consider it to be the protector of Je Tsongkhapa's pure dharma, traditionally regarded as the founder of the Gelug school.

[5][15] David Kay notes that Kelsang Gyatso departs from Phabongkha and Trijang Rinpoche by stating that Dorje Shugden's appearance is enlightened, rather than worldly.

[16] Kay states: Geshe Kelsang takes the elevation of Dorje Shugden’s ontological status another step further, emphasising that the deity is enlightened in both essence and appearance.

[16]Kay quotes Kelsang Gyatso's interpretation of Shugden's appearance: Some people believe that Dorje Shugdan is an emanation of Manjushri who shows the aspect of a worldly being, but this is incorrect.

"[18] Pabongka referred to Shugden as "Dol-gyel": The wooden implements (i.e., crate) having been thrown in the water, the pond of Dol became whitish.

[5]The entry for Dorje Shugden in Frederick Bunce's encyclopedia of Buddhist entities describes Dorje Shugden's appearance as follows: Face: one, fearsome, bared fangs, three bloodshot eyes, orange flame sprouts from eyebrows and facial hair, yellow brown hair stands on end, from his nostrils issue rain clouds with violent lightning; arms/hands: two, right hand holds flaming sword (khadga, ral-gri), left hand holds skull-cup (kapala, thod-pa) filled with the organs of the five senses, hearts, brains, and blood, in the crook of his left arm rests a mongoose (ichneumon or nakula, nehu-li) and golden goad/hook (ankusha, lcags-kyu); body: bejeweled, elephant skin upper garment, loin cloth of tiger skin; legs: two; ornaments: five-skull crown, wristlets, anklets, necklace, garland of fifty freshly severed heads, tiger or elephant skin as a body covering and apron of carved human bones; color: dark red; vahana: carpet of human skins on one hundred thousand thunderbolts (vajra, rdo-rje) on the back of a garuda-like bird (khyung); companion: include Zhi-ba'i-rgyal-chen, rGyas-pa'i-rgyal-chen, dBang-'dus-rgyal-chen, Drag-po'i-rgyal-chen.

[23]von Brück provides a translation of Phabongkhapa's text which states: ....the disciples visualize themselves as the yidam Vajrabhairava and as such invoke and control Shugden.

As Bultrini explains (with quoted phrases from the 5th Dalai Lama): a great number of signs, among them a strong smell of burning flesh, demonstrated that the exorcisms were fully successful and that “many lives were saved,” while these “infernal creatures” were being guided “toward a peaceful state of being” and saved from the danger of “having to experience the intolerable suffering of bad states of rebirth due to their increasingly negative actions.”[24]Terdak Lingpa confirmed: I saw that at this point of the rite the untameable elemental spirit, wandering in the night, being seized, tied around the waist, killed, and eaten.

According to traditional Tibetan teachings, none of the high-ranking supramundane protective deities ‘would condescend to interfere with more or less mundane affairs by speaking through the mouth of a medium’ (Nebesky-Wojkowitz 1956: 409).

The notion of oracular divination may thus have been problematised for Geshe Kelsang in light of his portrayal of Dorje Shugden as a fully enlightened being.