Dorje Shugden
When he was a youth, he received death threats from the ‘Secret Society of External and Internal Enemy Eliminators’ for his practice of Dorje Shugden, which forced him to stop his traditional studies in India and go to Western Europe. In their meeting in Graz, Austria, in 2003, the Dalai Lama told him:
If you give up this deity, myself and all Tibetan people will appreciate it very much and our protector Nechung will take care of you and make you more successful and famous than ever. If you do not give up this deity, then your monastic career, like receiving the full monk’s ordination and taking Geshe examinations will not be possible. So I leave it to your judgement. "
Lama Zopa of the FPMT has expressed great sadness that the Guru of both the Dalai Lama and Lama Yeshe (the founder of the FPMT) felt it necessary to take this step:
The incarnation of Kyabje Dorje Chang, His Holiness Trijang Rinpoche, is His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s guru and the lama of all the Tibetan people, so it’s terrible if he’s hidden away in some corner as if there’s something wrong with him. That’s absolutely shameful. Therefore, the people around him have to think very extensively. In his previous life he performed incredibly holy actions; therefore, his present incarnation has the potential to spread Dharma in both the East and the West like the rising sun spreads light.
Read more about this topic: Trijang Chocktrul Rinpoche