Obviously, it couldn't. I was using a figure of speech to distinguish between a distant 17th century incident (the persecution of Kagyupas at the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama) with a closer 20th century example of Phabongkha's persecution of Nyingmapas, which touches more on our lamas and their lamas.gregkavarnos wrote:How could it possibly be ancient history?michaelb wrote:This isn't ancient history either.
I totally agree that all traditions have also engaged in less than positive behaviour towards other traditions but as this is the Gelug forum mentioning Gelug examples seems appropriate. I am not doing this to show the Gelug tradition in an unfavourable light, but, as the OP suggested, it does raise interesting questions for modern students with different values who may idealise their own lineages.
How do we respond? With total faith and devotion as some scriptures tell us to, which may lead to unavoidable cognitive dissonance, or in a more nuanced way, bearing the human failings of our lineage lamas in mind? And how far do we go? These are pertinent questions for all of us as no tradition is without fault. I'm just a little surprised by the response I have received by some here.