According to His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche, the Dharma Protector Dorje Shugden arose to protect Lama Tsongkhapa’s sacred lineage of teachings. However, Dorje Shugden is more than just an ordinary Dharma Protector. He is an emanation of Manjushri, the Buddha of Wisdom. As an enlightened being he has great compassion for all beings. He has no preference or bias towards those he protects. This means that you don’t have to specifically be a practitioner of Lama Tsongkhapa’s Gelug tradition for him to help you. You can be of any Tibetan Buddhist tradition (Nyingma, Kagyu or Sakya) and propitiate Dorje Shugden. In fact, you don’t even need to be a Buddhist to invoke upon his special blessings and protection. He views all of us equally, we just need to call upon him for help. The role and purpose of a Dharma Protector is, first and foremost, to protect the spiritual journey or Dharma practice of a sincere practitioner. It is not simply to overcome obstacles that we experience, as some mistakenly think. Dorje Shugden creates suitable conditions that make it easy for our spirituality to flourish. This can manifest in many ways, like connecting with spiritual friends or improving our livelihood which […]