The Wider World · Caution
Claims to be careful of
Some things are sold as Tibetan Buddhism that this tradition does not teach and would not recognise. This page sets out what it actually says, so that you can tell the difference yourself rather than taking anybody's word for it, including this site's.
Where this page stands
Darpa Pandita is written from inside the Geluk tradition, under the spiritual authority of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. That is a position, and you should know it before you read the rest. Everything below is either a doctrinal point the tradition makes about itself or a documented, checkable fact with a link. Where there is a genuine dispute, this page says so and says who disagrees.
This is not a page about other Buddhist schools. Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya and the Theravada and East Asian traditions are complete traditions in their own right and nothing here is aimed at them.
The first claim
“We can arrange your next rebirth.”
This one is worth understanding properly, because it sounds plausible inside a tradition that genuinely does recognise reincarnations.
His Holiness set out the relevant distinction in his statement of 24 September 2011. There are two quite different things going on when Buddhists talk about rebirth.
Ordinary beings are reborn involuntarily. The process is driven by karma and by the destructive emotions, and the person has no say in it. That is the definition of being an ordinary being. It is the problem the whole path exists to solve.
A highly realised being can direct their rebirth. Not by arrangement or purchase, but through the force of compassion for others and prayers made for their benefit, by somebody who has reached a level of attainment where that becomes possible. The tulku system rests entirely on this second category, and it is a claim about a very small number of people.
Nothing in that structure gives a third party the ability to place your mindstream anywhere. Your rebirth follows your own karma. Somebody else's devotion, or your payment to them, does not transfer.
And nothing is settled until the end
There is a second reason the promise does not work, and it is the practical one.
In this tradition the state of mind at the time of death matters enormously, because it influences which of the countless karmic seeds a person is carrying actually ripens to propel the next life. This is precisely why Tibetans go to such lengths around a dying person: mantras recited at the bedside, practices done for the dying, a quiet room, no arguing over the body. FPMT publishes texts specifically for this.
Which means that a life is not a ledger closed in advance. It can turn in the last minutes. That cuts both ways, and it is meant to: it is a reason not to despair, and a reason not to relax.
What is actually done around a dying person, and for forty-nine days afterwards, is set out on the death and dying page. See also death and the bardo and karma in the Lexicon.
The second claim
“Our teacher has powers.”
The interesting thing here is not whether such abilities exist in the literature. It is that the tradition has an explicit rule against advertising them.
The Buddhist monastic code contains three relevant provisions. Falsely claiming a superhuman attainment is a parajika, the gravest class of offence, and costs a monk his ordination outright. Declaring such an attainment to a lay person even when it is true is a separate offence requiring confession. And the Buddha laid down a rule against displaying psychic powers to householders at all, after the monk Pindola Bharadvaja used them to fetch down a bowl in public. The objection recorded is not that the powers were fake. It is that the display was pointless and cheapened the teaching.
So the position of the tradition is not that such things are impossible. It is that a genuine practitioner does not market them. Reticence is the norm here, and it is written into monastic law. When you meet the opposite, with abilities featuring in the promotional material, you are looking at something the rule was written to prevent.
The same applies to the directed rebirth described above. Lamas recognised as having that capacity are not, on the whole, the ones talking about it.
The third claim
“You must not question the teacher.”
This one is dangerous precisely because a distorted version of it is inside the tradition. Guru devotion is real, it matters in tantra, and texts do speak of seeing the teacher's actions as perfect.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama has spent decades saying, publicly and repeatedly, that this instruction must not be pressed on ordinary practitioners as a blanket rule. His position is consistent and it is not ambiguous:
- Examine a teacher thoroughly before accepting them. The tantric literature suggests that student and teacher examine each other for as long as twelve years first.
- Even after accepting a teacher, follow them within the bounds of reason as the Buddha laid it out. Every student is responsible for checking instructions against reason and against the Dharma.
- If a teacher acts in ways that contradict the Dharma, or teaches things that contradict it, the instruction to see their actions as perfect gives way to reason.
A group that inverts this, where doubt is treated as a spiritual failing rather than as due diligence, has departed from the tradition it claims, whatever it calls itself.
The fourth thing, which is a real dispute
Groups that reject the Dalai Lama's authority
A newcomer in a Western city can walk into a centre that presents itself simply as Tibetan or Kadampa Buddhism without realising that it sits outside the mainstream of that tradition and rejects the authority of the Dalai Lama. It is worth knowing this exists, and knowing what the argument is actually about.
What happened
The dispute concerns the propitiation of a protector figure called Dorje Shugden, also known as Dolgyal. The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, himself a Geluk monk, began speaking against the practice in the 1970s and has discouraged it since, on the grounds that it is sectarian in effect and harmful to the ecumenical relations between the Tibetan traditions. Some Geluk practitioners consider the practice essential and regard his position as a restriction on their religious freedom.
In 1991 Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, who took the opposite view, separated from the mainstream Geluk establishment and founded the New Kadampa Tradition, an organisation built in the West with its own centres, its own ordination and its own texts. The NKT and associated groups have campaigned publicly against the Dalai Lama, most visibly through the Western Shugden Society from 2008.
What this means for you, practically
Nothing dramatic. It means that if you are looking for a centre and you want to be inside the tradition described on this website, you should check what a centre is affiliated to rather than assume. A centre connected to FPMT, to one of the great monasteries, or listed by the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, is inside it. A Kadampa Meditation Centre belonging to the New Kadampa Tradition is a different organisation with a different position.
It also means that you will meet very heated material about this online in both directions. People on the other side of this dispute describe it differently, and describe themselves as practitioners defending a lineage rather than opponents of anybody. This page is not neutral, because this website is not neutral, and you now know exactly where it stands.
In general
Eight things that should slow you down
None of these proves anything on its own. Several of them together, in the same place, is a pattern.
A guaranteed outcome
A good rebirth, enlightenment in this life, or protection, promised to you in advance in exchange for devotion, obedience or money.
Powers as a selling point
Miracles, clairvoyance or healing advertised in the material that brings people in, rather than mentioned reluctantly by others afterwards.
Questioning treated as a fault
Doubt reframed as broken commitment, bad karma, or disloyalty to the teacher.
A single source of truth
Students discouraged from studying elsewhere, reading other teachers, or attending other centres.
Fast commitments
Vows, empowerments or formal guru devotion urged within weeks, rather than after years of looking.
Money at the gate
Access to teachings conditional on payment, or escalating financial expectations tied to spiritual progress.
Leaving is costly
People who leave are described as having fallen, broken samaya, or betrayed the lineage, and contact with them is discouraged.
Nobody above the teacher
No abbot, no monastery, no recognised body, and no external accountability of any kind.
And the opposite, which is what normal looks like
A teacher who tells you to take your time. A centre that is glad when you go and study somewhere else as well. Teachings that are free or cheap, and a donation box rather than a price list. Somebody who answers a hard question with reasoning rather than with an appeal to their own status. Students who seem more capable and less dependent than when they arrived. Nobody promising you anything.
Sources
References
This page makes claims about what a tradition does and does not teach, and about a live dispute. Both kinds of claim are sourced, and the sources for the dispute include ones written from more than one point of view.
- 1Rebirth, Recognition and Tradition, 24 September 2011The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama
The distinction between rebirth driven by karma and rebirth directed by a realised being, the methods of recognition, and the rejection of politically chosen candidates.
- 2The Buddhist Monastic CodeThanissaro Bhikkhu, dhammatalks.org
The rule against displaying psychic powers to lay people, and the offence of declaring an attainment one actually has.
- 3Parajika 4: wrongfully claiming noble attainmentssuttas.net
Falsely claiming a superhuman attainment as the gravest class of monastic offence.
- 4The Dalai Lama on questioning the advice of the guruShambhala Publications
Examining a teacher before accepting them, and the limits of guru devotion for ordinary practitioners.
- 5The Dalai Lama: Reliance on a TeacherShambhala Publications
The twelve-year mutual examination of teacher and student before the relationship is entered.
- 6Dorje Shugden controversyWikipedia
The history of the dispute over the propitiation of Dorje Shugden.
- 7New Kadampa TraditionWikipedia
The founding of the New Kadampa Tradition in 1991 and its relationship to the Geluk establishment.
- 8
- 9The Exclusivism of the New Kadampa TraditionBuddhistdoor Global
Analysis of the New Kadampa Tradition's position and practice.
- 10Mantras and their prerequisitesFPMT
When an initiation is required to recite a mantra and when it is not, and the oral transmission.
Every factual claim on this page rests on one of the sources above. Links open in a new tab. The full list for the whole site, and the standard this site holds itself to, is on the sources page.