rime

Dear Pob,

Thank you for your question. I have read the above article that alleges persecution against the Rime movement. Within the history of Tibet there have many instances of religious conversion between the four major schools for political reasons. However I do not personally believe this claim that there was such strong persecution against the Rime practitioners of the past as alleged in the article.

The claim that Pabongka Rinpoche and his students promoted sectarianism does not accord with the teachings that Pabongka Rinpoche gave. In fact in Liberation in the Palm of Your Hands, it clearly states that Pabongka Rinpoche taught that to even deride any of the four schools or any branch of Buddhism for that matter causes a great deal of negative karma, let alone to promote sectarianism, which itself goes against the teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni.

As for Pabongka Rinpoche’s students, his most famous disciple – Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche – was known to have given empowerments of the peaceful and wrathful forms of Padmasambhava and other Nyingma empowerments when he was 28 years old in Chatreng, Kham. This is recorded is his own biography. This just goes to show that he was not sectarian. If he was sectarian then there would be no reason why Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche would be keeping the commitments of this Nyingma practice in order to pass it on to others.

There is also well-known saying that Padmasambhava, Lama Atisha and Lama Tsongkhapa are of the same mindstream, therefore a practicing Gelugpa would never deride the teachings or destroy the statues of another tradition. I hope this helps.

Thank you.