Unlike ordinary holidays which provide temporary breaks from our daily existence, Festivals bring about lasting and positive changes to our lives.
They take us on a journey that continues after the Festival – we carry the gift of Dharma in our hearts and have the wonderful opportunity to integrate the teachings into our daily life so that Buddha’s instructions benefit ourself and others.
When Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso welcomes people to a Festival he defines the event as a spiritual holiday. It is a meaningful spiritual holiday as it improves our life and moves our mind in a profound and positive way.
Festivals are unforgettable experiences as the global Kadampa family gather to receive precious teachings and practise Dharma.
Retreat
On the second day of the retreat and during the course of five sessions, Gen-la Khyenrab explained the importance of the preliminary practices in order for our Heruka body mandala self-generation to be successful. In this session we focused on making special requests to receive blessings. Gen-la explained that we have obstructions, in the form of delusions and these negative states of mind prevent us from making spiritual progress. In the Heruka body mandala prayer book we make requests three times which highlights our need for this essential practice.
Continuing to gain familiarity with preparatory practices, Gen-la then encouraged us to imagine experiencing pure happiness by mixing our mind with our Spiritual Guide’s mind. This led to a final preparatory session before the actual self generation practice. We meditated on pure happiness whilst observing the emptiness of all phenomena.
Gen-la advised that when we first engage in the actual self-generation of the Heruka body mandala we should relax and enjoy becoming familiar with this meditation.
Quote of the day
Remain natural while changing your aspiration.
Geshe Chekhawa
Review Excerpt
