Robin

You can follow the Summer Festival 2019 on Kadampa.org.

“It is all so much clearer now. Things are making sense in a way like never before” a woman from Boston tells me over the final day’s breakfast, sharing the wonder of her first ever summer festival. “How easy it would have been to have missed this. I am so grateful I made the effort to come.”

We are interrupted by an announcement to thank the volunteers running the breakfast tent for their help over this festival, many of whom start at 5am each morning! Just another example of the incredible kindness of others that has been seen through every single part of this summer festival.

The festival concludes with the special production of the life of Buddha play.

Acted, directed, choreographed and filmed entirely by practicing Kadampa Buddhists at previous summer festivals, the play captures the dignity, wisdom and supreme kindness with which Buddha lived his life, inspiring us all to do the same.

The play is followed with some special advice from Gen-la Kelsang Dekyong on how to take the essence of our Summer Festival into our daily lives. She encourages us to show our good example of being kinder and more peaceful. She jokes that our friends and family will notice such a difference that they will be offering to book our next festival for us.

The cars, taxis and buses are loaded up taking people ready to take their special experiences from the festival into their daily lives or onward to one of the many post-festival retreats in Retreat Centres and KMC’s around the world.

As the festival finishes for many, the work to clear up starts for the volunteers choosing to stay on and prepare Manjushri KMC to open again to the public.

Now the countdown beings to the Fall Festival in October at Deuachen Kadampa Meditation Centre, Portugal.

More information and booking at kadampafestivals.org/fall

Thank you Venerable Geshe-la for this extraordinary Festival!

What an Auspicious day to be engaging in Vajrayogini Retreat! This final day of retreat falls on a special tsog offering day. A beautiful rainbow appears in the morning over the festival site to mark the occasion.

In the first retreat session Kadam Morten suggests we emphasize guru yoga. He encourages us to always meditate with blessings and feel the presence of the spiritual guide in our mind. How can we do this? We can do this by focusing on admiring faith.

He explained how admiring faith is the nature of rejoicing. Rejoicing in our guru’s virtuous qualities and activities. There is nowhere we can better see the fruits of his virtues then at an International Summer Festival just like this one.

“The whole thing about rejoicing is you need to feel joy!” he said laughing.
“The function of mindfulness is to hold an object.”
“The function of concentration is to mix your mind with that object.”
“So allow yourself to feel that joy and abide in it. If we can stay with that feeling our practise will be blessed and easy.”

In the second session Kadam Morten encouraged us to focus on the body mandala.
He says how we should use the Yogas of Sleeping, Rising and Experiencing Nectar during our breaks to again and again dissolve away the self that we normally see and arise as our new pure self.

The final session Kadam Morten expressed what a privilege it is to be here with so many Vajrayogini practitioners engaging in retreat in this blessed place.
“We are here as representatives of our various parts of the globe.”
“We should take the time to reflect on our experiences over our time here at this festival. These experiences are our connection to our spiritual guide. Think about how you will take these into your busy daily life.”

The day concludes with an Offering to the Spiritual Guide puja. This tsog offering allows us to renewing commitments and averting obstacles in our practise. It is a special method through which we come under the care and guidance of the Dakas and Dakinis who bestow completion stage realizations.

“We are being taken on a magnificent journey! This is an incredible journey and we are going with the Guru.” “…If you feel some peaceful feeling, some special feeling in the heart, just know that is the Guru. That peaceful feeling, that is coming from blessings.”

The penultimate part of the Summer Festival 2018 continued with a guided retreat led by Kadam Morten, giving everyone a chance to deepen the experience of the incredible week’s commentary through contemplation and meditation.

Kadam Morten explained that during this retreat we will be following the practise of Quick Path to Great Bliss. In each session we will be focusing on a different part of the practise until we eventually have performed the entire sadhana.

Kadam Morten suggested that too often we are trying to engage in these extraordinary practices while still identifying strongly with an ordinary limited self. Therefore we end up pushing and forcing the experiences we believe we should be having in our practice.
“Let’s not do that” he said.

Instead we can recognise every moment of peace and happiness that arises within our mind as coming from our guru’s blessings. That feeling is you connecting with Buddha’s mind. If we recognise and abide in that feeling it becomes very easy to allow the guru to guide you on this magnificent journey.

Kadam Morten encouraged us to stay within the experience during the meditation session breaks by practising the Yoga’s sleeping, rising and experiencing nectar.

What a perfect way to conclude a week of such inspiring teachings!

In the morning teaching, we received such a beautiful and moving teaching from Gen-la Dekyong’s heart. She said that we can improve our faith in these instructions by understanding who we have met – by understanding who is Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche.

With great faith she explained Venerable Geshe-la’s special function in the world. He is not only the lineage holder of Je Tsongkhapa’s unequaled instructions of the Ganden Oral Lineage, he is also our precious Founder. We are not a Tibetan Tradition, we are the New Kadampa Tradition and Venerable Geshe-la is our Founder. He is clarifying Buddha’s teachings for the people of the modern world.

Gen-la read from Venerable Geshe-la’s teachings in Singapore when he said, “I believe I have come here to clarify Buddhadharma. There are so many misunderstandings. There is such a danger that pure Buddhadharma will disappear. My dedication is to clarify for the modern world. I am not saying I am a higher being, a scholar, a special person. But I have some confidence to help the people of the modern world, to explain what is the real meaning of Buddhadharma.”

Gen-la then explained how Venerable Geshe-la received permission from his root Guru, Trijang Rinpoche, to change the presentation of Dharma for modern people – to make it acceptable, suitable and practical for us. It is definitely working very well!

Gen-la said that ‘acceptable’ means we don’t need to become weird! We remain normal, with families and and jobs, but with the path to enlightenment in our hearts. I was immediately reminded of this when walking by the Kid’s Tent, seeing parents and children doing so many enjoyable activities together. Later in the afternoon, I met one of the mothers and her daughter. The young girl told me how much fun she was having and enthusiastically showing me her drawings and other treasures. It seems all ages are enjoying the blessed environment of Summer Festival. As Venerable Geshe-la says, “Everyone welcome!”

For the remainder of the first teaching Gen-la explained the profound meaning of Heruka body mandala and how to generate it according to Venerable Geshe-la’s oral instructions. This is non-deceptive Tantric technology for quickly and easily accomplishing the clear light of realization!

Then in the afternoon, she explained very clearly how to meditate on the generation stage of non-dual appearance and emptiness. Skillfully teaching for all levels of practitioner, Gen-la inspired us with faith and the confidence to engage in this profound practice. About this meditation, Venerable Geshe-la said, “This is an uncommon meditation of the Ganden Oral Lineage. It is the most profound and superior way to generate ourself as Heruka body mandala.” Gen-la encouraged us by saying that our very subtle mind that realizes non-dual appearance and emptiness directly and simultaneously is the state of enlightenment.

Gen-la finished her teachings by thanking everyone and encouraging us to repay our Spiritual Guide’s kindness by practicing the instructions and then, with a compassionate heart, to share our understanding and experience with others understanding that everyone needs Dharma.

Immediately after the last teaching, someone said, “What a banquet of delight!” Now we have the opportunity to put this special Tantric technology, the real quick path to enlightenment, into practice with retreat led by Kadam Morten. Fantastic.

Once again we had the good fortune of starting the day by engaging in Quick Path to Great Bliss in the very blessed environment of the Kadampa World Peace Temple. Each time we engage in this precious practice it feels a little more familiar and we come closer to understand its profound meaning – ultimately leading us to the experience of permanent world peace.

Before we started Quick Path, Gen Rabjor led us in a beautiful meditation developing Tantric bodhichitta wishing to attain the enlightened state of Vajrayogini for benefit of all living beings.

In her morning teaching, Gen-la Dekyong completed an essential commentary of the 11 yogas of Vajrayogini practice, starting with the yoga of the Guru. She began by saying, “I think the whole festival we are practicing the yoga of the Guru.” Then she explained the meaning and the importance of relying purely on our own Spiritual Guide.

Gen-la explained the most profound blessing of our Spiritual Guide comes when we sincerely request without distraction, “Please bless my mental continuum.” Gen-la said this practice is called definitive Guru Yoga and its real meaning is that our root Guru becomes one with our mind at our heart, transforming our mind into the union of great bliss and emptiness. At first, we accomplish this through correct imagination. Gen-la said this is the heart of Tantric practice and that there is no more powerful, transformative practice.

Then, using Venerable Geshe-la’s profound teachings from the Portugal Festival, Gen-la taught step-by-step how to self-generate as Vajrayogini. For example, she explained how to transform our experience of the clear light of death into the Truth Body of Buddha. In this meditation, we imagine we are dying – everything dissolves inwards until there is nothing left, no appearances of this life. We then imagine experiencing the clear light of death – our mind experiences immense bliss and perceives only emptiness. Then, in dependence upon this union of great bliss and emptiness, we think, ‘I am Truth Body, Vajrayogini.’

Through this special meditation, we identify ourself correctly. Through gaining deep familiarity with this meditation, we will eventually become a deathless person. Gen-la asked us, “Where is there kindness such as this?” It is clear that Venerable Geshe-la’s kindness for us is inconceivable.

In the afternoon teaching we began by engaging in The New Essence of Vajrayana sadhana, up to dissolving Guru Heruka into our heart, as the preliminary prayers. As Venerable Geshe-la says in the sadhana, “Having seen that modern practitioners need a Heruka body mandala sadhana that does not have extensive words but is easy to understand and practice, I have prepared this very essence practice of the Heruka body mandala…” Wonderful!

Later that evening, the assembly of practitioners gathered in the Temple once again to make beautiful offerings to our Dharma Protector, Dorje Shugden, by engaging in Wishfulfilling Jewel practice. Afterward, while walking through the priory and delighting in the sharing of offerings and the hum of good conversation, I heard someone say, “Another meaningful day!” Yes, indeed.

The morning practice started a little earlier than usual as we had the extraordinary opportunity to engage in the extensive sadhana of Vajrayogini, called Quick Path to Great Bliss. As Gen-la Dekyong said later in the day, “Where in the world are there three thousand people running to the Temple in their pajamas to do Quick Path at 7:30 am?!”

During her first teaching, Gen-la touched our hearts by showing us the practical and profound ways Venerable Geshe-la is benefiting the people of this world. She said, “On our doorstep, he is appearing everything we need. In our cities and on our main streets, Dharma Centers are appearing where thousands and millions of people walk, drive, and cycle past. They see happy people coming out and then they think, is there something there that can help me?”

Then Gen-la helped us understand that we have been identifying ourself incorrectly since beginningless time. She shared Venerable Geshe-la’s profound advice from How to Transform Your Life and The Oral Instructions of Mahamudra that in reality we are the union of appearance and emptiness. She encouraged us that through learning to identify ourself correctly through Highest Yoga Tantra practice we will attain enlightenment quickly!

We were able to practically apply this instruction in the yogas of sleeping and rising. In particular, Gen-la said we just need to memorize two sentences: “In vast space of emptiness of all phenomena – the Pure Land of Keajra – I appear as Vajrayogini surrounded by the enlightened Heroines and Heroes. Although I have this appearance it is not other than the emptiness of all phenomena.”

She quoted Venerable Geshe-la, “Just feel you are already there.” We can make ourself there – in Keajra Pure Land – through mental creation, merely imputing, believing, following wisdom.

In her light-hearted and loving way, Gen-la continued to encourage us saying instead of asking ourself how many steps did I do today, we can ask ourself how many times did we practice the yoga of rising!

During the breaks, many people gathered in the Festival cafes, juice bar and creperie enjoying delicious food and drinks – no doubt putting into practice the instruction on transforming pleasure into the spiritual path through the yoga of experiencing nectar.

In the afternoon teaching, Gen-la continued to give us encouraging advice, inspiring us with the confidence to develop and maintain a daily Vajrayogini practice. She kindly explained how to be skillful and choose a level of practice that is suitable for our life – something that we can manage with a joyful, happy and grateful mind. She gave many practical examples from Venerable Geshe-la’s oral and written instructions. Gen-la also encouraged us to rely upon our precious Sangha friends – those pure spiritual practitioners who help us with our Dharma practice, including our Resident Teacher.

To finish, Gen-la said, “Tonight is the night! Three thousand people applying effort to practice the yoga of sleeping – such a beautiful offering to our Spiritual Guide.”

The morning was contemplative and spacious as the empowerment didn’t start until 10 am. However, as we drew closer to the time, you could feel the joyful anticipation rising with some people greeting each other saying, “Happy Vajrayogini empowerment day!”

Upon entering Temple one couldn’t help but notice the beautiful empowering shrine at the front, glistening with many blissful red offerings, including tiny chandeliers!

Gen-la Dekyong started the empowerment saying that today we would receive the blessing empowerment of Vajrayogini, who is also known as Vajravarahi, the consort of Buddha Heruka. She said, “How wonderful it is just to hear her holy name.”

At the beginning, Gen-la helped us to overcome our confusion that thinks Heruka and Vajrayogini are two different people, like John and Mary. She explained very clearly that the wisdom of the clear light of bliss of all Buddhas has two parts: one part, that is bliss, appears as Heruka; and the other part, that is wisdom, appears as Vajrayogini. Therefore, in reality, Heruka and Vajrayogini are the same person, born from the same mother – the clear light of bliss! If we understand and never forget this, then we will have no problem feeling very close to both Heruka and Vajrayogini.

As the empowerment ceremony progressed, Gen-la gently guided us from one beautiful visualization and blissful meditation to the next. Throughout, she encouraged us in ways that deepened our faith and reminded us again and again that everything is mentally created. With confidence, we concentrated on maintaining our wisdom of correct imagination throughout the empowerment. In this way, we received Vajrayogini’s special blessings of the four empowerments which purify the obstacles of our body, speech and mind and bestow upon us the potential to attain the completely pure body, speech and mind of Vajrayogini in the future. What good fortune!

Then after lunch we all gathered in the Temple again for a very enjoyable and practical question and answer session with Gen-la Khyenrab. He has a special way of keeping the afternoon session light-hearted, with many opportunities for joyful laughter, while at the same time fearlessly giving pure Dharma advice.

Gen-la began by saying the number of questions was fewer than in previous years. He said this was a good sign that our collective understanding of Tantra is improving. Then he explained that over the last few years the Resident Teachers and students have had the opportunity to study many of Venerable Geshe-la’s Tantric books. What an an object of rejoicing!

Over the next hour, Gen-la answered questions about: how to choose which Deity, Heruka or Vajrayogini, to emphasize; the practices of transforming sleep, waking and enjoyments into the spiritual path; how to overcome doubts by receiving blessings; how to purify and re-new our Tantric vows; and also the importance of being skillful with our Tantric practice and to always show a good example by cherishing our partner, our family and everyone we meet. As he answered these questions, he often referred to Venerable Geshe-la’s books, such as Essence of Vajrayana, and also the teachings Gen-la Dekyong gave in the empowerments themselves. It was so helpful.

As the sun was setting, the priory grounds felt very peaceful even though people could be seen everywhere, whether sitting together or walking, talking and enjoying each other’s company. With peaceful and blessed minds, we all understood what a profoundly meaningful day we had just experienced – like a pure dream.

It is a beautiful day in the Lakes District. Everywhere you look, sunshine and bright smiles pervade Manjushri KMC! Today we receive the actual empowerment of Buddha Heruka.

In the morning session, Gen-la Dekyong explained the entire purpose of receiving the empowerment is to be empowered into the paths of Sutra and Tantra so we can practice them in our busy daily life. Finally, we will develop the ability to practice Dharma continually without wasting even a minute of our precious human life. She said this is what it means to be a Kadampa.

In fact, looking around the festival you see examples everywhere of people cherishing others, benefiting others and being of service to others. Many people are joyfully helping with volunteer jobs or spontaneously lending a helping hand when needed. We all took the Bodhisattva vows yesterday and it feels like we really are part of an international Bodhisattva community, showing a good example, and working together to create both inner and outer peace. This is a real sign that our minds are already becoming more pure. Through practicing our Spiritual Guide’s instructions of Sutra and Tantra, we are transforming ourself into a truly good person!

Gen-la’s teachings continue to be so clear, practical and inspiring. She is able to make even very profound subjects easy to understand and feel like personal advice. She is guiding us step by step to become a member of the Heruka family and to enter the mandala of Heruka. The empowerment is like a precious, profound meditation program helping us to increase our wisdom of correct imagination. Gen-la encouraged us by saying that, when we open our wisdom eyes, we will see Heruka and the Heruka’s mandala directly.

She explained that Tantra is a special method, an inner realization, through which we can purify our world, self, enjoyments and actions. Because these are all the nature of our mind, if we purify our mind through Tantric practice, then we will accomplish the pure world, self, enjoyments and actions of a Buddha. Therefore, attaining enlightenment is very simple – all we need to do is purify our mind!

At the beginning of part two of the Heruka empowerment, Gen-la Dekyong explained that we will receive the four empowerments: vase empowerment, secret empowerment, wisdom-mudra empowerment and the precious word empowerment. Receiving these empowerments is the method for becoming the actual King, Buddha Heruka. Wonderful!

Gen-la said, “You have come here expecting something. I can say, from my root Guru at my heart, you will receive everything.” And that we certainly did! We received such powerful blessings and special teachings about nature and function of the great bliss of Tantra and the Union of Heruka. Gen-la said, “In summary, we should become Buddha Heruka. This is the ultimate goal of human life.” In this way we will be able to effortlessly benefit all living beings just like Guru Heruka.

The assembly then finished this extraordinary empowerment ceremony with special prayers and offerings, remembering our good fortune and Venerable Geshe-la’s profound kindness. Gen-la said, “It is indeed an assembly of good fortune!”

The first day of the second week of Summer Festival begins with two meditations before lunch led by Gen Rabjor. The purpose of these meditations was to help us develop a peaceful and virtuous mind before the Heruka Empowerment Preparation session this afternoon with Gen-la Dekyong.

In the first meditation, Gen Rabjor explained the importance of overcoming our distractions. In the second meditation, Gen Rabjor continued with his light-hearted and insightful examples, skillfully helping us to understand that we can enter inside Heruka’s mandala only if we let go of our selfish intention and develop compassion for all living beings. He explained that just as a dog cannot enter the doorway with a big stick in its mouth, so too, we need to drop the big stick of our self-cherishing if we are to enter inside Heruka’s mandala!

In the actual meditation, we imagined how wonderful it would be if all living beings were permanently free from suffering and then developed the wish to attain enlightenment in order to accomplish that aim. It is this precious mind of bodhichitta that is our intention for receiving the empowerments.

In the afternoon break, everyone enjoyed catching up with old friends – and making new ones! What a great joy it is to have such meaningful Sangha friendships from all around the world. This is just one of the many great kindnesses that we receive from our precious Spiritual Guide, Venerable Geshe-la.

Then, in the late afternoon, thousands of Kadampas gathered for the actual Heruka Empowerment Preparation. Gen-la Dekyong’s wonderful teaching was so clear, powerful and blessed.

At the beginning she inspired us by explaining some of the special qualities of the practice of Heruka and Vajrayogini. In particular, we understood these Highest Yoga Tantra practices are more profound than those of other Deities. In addition, because we have a special connection with Heruka and Vajrayogini, as times become more spiritually degenerate, we receive their blessings and special care more quickly!

Gen-la reminded us of how kind is our root Guru for giving us these profound practices. She encouraged us to regard each point as an object of contemplation, like the most delicious food that we can savor and take like nectar down into our heart. Then we will receive a special blessing from our Guru to put into practice what we have learned.

After the inspiring introduction, she led us through the various stages to Heruka preparation practice. These included becoming a qualified Vajrayana disciple and taking the Bodhisattva and Tantric Vows. In particular, Gen-la explained how we become a Vajrayana disciple through imputation, understanding that everything is mentally created – so now we are ‘cutting through all this impurity’ by following the path of correct imagination which is wisdom. What joy!

She finished by encouraged us to keep this mind of joy, thinking, “I am a Vajrayana disciple!” Now we are ready for the actual Heruka empowerment tomorrow.

It’s the Free Day, the day off in between Parts 1 and 2 of the Festival, but the Festival grounds are anything but quiet.

Of course, many people have, quite literally, headed for the hills, to enjoy the beautiful Lake District and perhaps tea and scones in some picturesque village. Or have wandered into the local market town Ulverston to enjoy its cobblestones and colorful houses, and maybe stock up on supplies. Others, staying even closer, take pleasure in Manjushri Center’s woods and beach, read their notes, and simply have a quiet day.

But the grounds are busy as many kind trainee Bodhisattvas volunteer to help prepare for and greet the more than 1,500 new arrivals, and to help prepare for the empowerments. Altogether more than 3,500 people will be receiving the Highest Yoga Tantra empowerments of Glorious Heruka and Venerable Vajrayogini, making this the largest Festival since 2009 when Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche last taught at the Summer Festival. As the saying goes, how auspicious! Truly an object of rejoicing!

Throughout the day, the practitioners arrived, to be welcomed with open arms and warm smiles. To travel to Manjushri KMC for such a magical event feels like a pilgrimage. And the sight of the spires of Conishead Priory and the golden vajras of the Temple are never less than awe-inspiring. Here we are! We’ve arrived at the gates of the mandala, the home of the Spiritual Guide, the mother Center of our tradition. We’ve arrived at the source. How amazing! Welcome!

The second day of our lamrim retreat.

Today we meditate on cherishing love, compassion and bodhichitta. And then we have two sessions on emptiness.

With everyone’s hearts mixing simultaneously with these loving minds in meditation, the attitude of cherishing naturally spills over into the meditation break. Also the rain has stopped and the sun is shining. People are scattered across the lawns in small groups discussing, or sitting in the cafes, or enjoying walks on the beach or in the woods, or working on behalf of everyone else. It is a truly heart-warming appearance and experience.

Gen Tubchen gives us Geshe-la’s and Gen-la Jampa’s words, and then leaves us lots of time to engage in contemplation and to absorb into our objects of meditation. Each object of meditation, when tasted, is so pure and expansive that it can’t help but touch and transform the heart. When a whole community engages the effect is magical. We get a direct experience of being the person we wish to b – kind, loving, joyful – and of experiencing the type of world we want everyone to experience – harmonious, loving, happy. Being on retreat increases our appetite for Dharma. We ask ourselves, why don’t I do this more?

As both Gen-la Jampa and Gen Tubchen reminded us, quoting Shantideva:

Why do I forsake the joy of Holy Dharma
Which is a boundless source of happiness,
Just to seek pleasure in distractions and meaningless pursuits
That are only causes of suffering?

On retreat the truth of these words become so apparent. We are so fortunate to have access to Dharma. We need to take full advantage!

The first week of Festival has fulfilled perfectly its function of preparing us for the extraordinary empowerments to follow, by deepening our experience renunciation, compassion and bodhichitta.

After the evening session (the fifth session of the first day of retreat), a retreater said to me, ‘What a wonderful first day!’ I asked him to elaborate. ‘When you do retreat you begin to understand the meaning behind the words. A word like ‘liberation’. We say this word a lot, but in retreat you begin to hold the actual possibility of permanent freedom in your mind, and it’s amazing. You begin to feel the meaning of it.’

Also, ‘with each session you feel how the objects of lamrim expand your mind. You feel your horizons growing. It makes you realize that normally we live inside such a narrow view.’

I asked another person, how was your retreat? ‘Awesome,’ she replied. ‘I’m loving Gen Tubchen’s presentation. She’s giving us so many different ways of transforming distractions into objects of meditation. The meditations on renunciation are affecting me deeply.’

In the morning meditation, Gen Tubchen, in her gentle yet incisive manner, guided us into an experience of the clarity of the mind, helping us to dissolve all distracting concerns into that expansive clarity. On the basis of this experience, in the second session we were led to contemplate the basic Buddhist view that the happiness and freedom of our countless future lives are more important than the happiness and freedom of this one life. This then led into two powerful meditations on renunciation, and finally a contemplation on cherishing love: Because I am just one and others are countless we develop the belief that the happiness and freedom of others is more important than my own.

Gen Tubchen gave us the wonderful advice to see the mind as a clear sky and the distractions as clouds within it. We must stay with the sky so the clouds dissolve and the sun of our beneficial minds can arise.

It’s an amazing experience to meditate on these powerful life changing states of mind together with more than a thousand other practitioners. The inward focus is palpable, and the sense of blessing and uplift pervades everywhere. During the breaks, the energy of the Festival is less extrovert, but still full of joy and heartfelt sharing. We are being changed, and in turn our change is affecting everyone else. What a wonderful offering of gratitude to our Spiritual Guide, and what a powerful gift to the world.

In the wonderful morning talk, Gen-la Jampa spoke about cherishing others, compassion and developing bodhichitta. And he continued with the theme of overcoming distraction.

‘Our love for others must be reflected in how we live our life.’ In general, he said, ‘we can transform ordinary activities but we need to check, are we thinking ‘may I be happy’ or are we thinking ‘may others be happy.’ ‘Distracting activities leave us with nothing.’ He encouraged us to integrate more Dharma activities into our life, to reach for a Dharma book rather than to spend too much time staring at ‘glowing screens.’ ‘Improving our inner peace is not a selfish job.’ ‘If we cherish all living beings we will naturally take care of ourself’, we will naturally wish to lead a healthy life that sustains our Dharma practice.

The Festival is the perfect place to experience both the happiness that comes from engaging in lots of Dharma activities, as well the power of transforming ordinary activities through cherishing others. Volunteering, taking on some responsibility for caring for others, is an essential part of Festival life. Serving food or coffees, cleaning, cooking, washing up, stewarding – at Festivals these actions are manifestly done on behalf of others, not just the other Festival participants, but on behalf of all living beings to whom this Festival is dedicated. The merit generated in the mind is palpable. And it’s joyful! As one friend said, ‘Just finished washing up the pots for lunch … always good fun!’

Of course, through meditating together, listening to teachings, preparing offerings, cleaning the temple, quietly contemplating Dharma in the woods or on the beach, and, everywhere, practicing giving Dharma through discussing, it becomes clear that the more we integrate actual Dharma activities into our life, the more joy, harmony and meaning we experience, the more we feel ourself progressing towards our goal. As stated in the object of meditation: ‘If I become an Enlightened Being, I myself become the source of happiness and refuge for all living beings. For this reason I must attain Enlightenment!’

After Gen-la Jampa’s concluding teaching on ultimate bodhichitta, we made special prayers for the long life of our Spiritual Guide, Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche, and then we celebrated with Wishfulfilling Jewel in the evening. Tomorrow, we begin retreat.

Festivals, as Gen-la Jampa reminded us in his first talk by giving us Venerable Geshe-la’s special Festival message, are essential ‘for maintaining the International Kadampa Buddhist Union’ for future generations. There are many levels of meaning to the term Union, but one of them is clearly that at the Festival we act together as a collective, a union of practitioners from throughout the world. We meditate together, eat together, listen to Dharma and generate virtuous minds together, discuss, socialize, and work together, create virtue together. We are, through being here now, creating the International Kadampa Buddhist Union for now and for the future. Being at the Festival is powerful and it is creating powerful good karma. And you feel it. One woman, attending her first Festival, told me she was amazed by the friendliness of everyone, from people throughout the world!

The Festival is expressing World Peace and creating World Peace all at the same time. It’s a beautiful example for a world that very much needs it.

And so the day begins with a union of meditators, guided by Gen Ananda, meditating on the deep and expansive clarity of the mind. Then Gen-la Jampa continues to give us all one precious Dharma Jewel after another as he fills his talk with published and unpublished quotations from Venerable Geshe-la, as well Buddha, Shantideva, Atisha, Geshe Chekawa, Milarepa. Wonderful!

In the morning Gen-la Jampa helps us to generate together the ‘joyful mind’ of renunciation (joyful because we are leaving behind the ocean of samsara and going to the bliss of perfect freedom), and to generate the determination to practice the Three Higher Trainings as the method to accomplish this freedom. In both talks he encourages us to overcome distraction, in particular by transforming both good and bad experiences into objects of meditation. He says, quoting Geshe-la, “Kadampa practitioners who do this will have no distractions as all distractions are transformed into objects of meditation. Such a person can achieve enlightenment very quickly.”

In the afternoon, Gen-la Jampa helps us to explore the faults of self-cherishing. Another jewel from Venerable Geshe-la: ‘You must be tired of self-cherishing. The self-cherishing plan and activity doesn’t work. Thinking my happiness and freedom are important and then looking for happiness and freedom in the ocean of suffering doesn’t work!’ In this way, together, we generate the determination to stop our self-cherishing and instead to cherish others.

In the evening we gather in our World Peace Temple to do Wishfulfilling Jewel with a tsog offering. An international assembly unifying their minds in prayer and aspiration. There is no doubt these prayers reverberate throughout the world and into the future.

Gen-la Jampa begins his teaching on Lamrim by explaining its pre-eminent qualities and characteristics. He makes it clear though that in order to experience these benefits for ourselves we need to stop distractions.

Quoting Venerable Geshe-la he says, ‘Distractions are not harmless. They are our worst enemy. ‘

Then reaching back to a Festival teaching by Geshe-la from 1997, Gen-la Jampa gives us a wonderful remedy. ‘Watch our mind and recognize its clarity. Through this distractions will naturally cease because they are part of the mind.’

In addition, he explains how meditating on the nature of the mind will help us to recognize the continuum of the mind as distinct from the body and therefore to understand that we have future lives.

Through this we arrive at the basic Buddhist view: ‘the happiness and freedom of our countless future lives are more important than the happiness and freedom of this one life’ and that therefore ‘we use our precious human life to prepare for the happiness and freedom of our countless future lives.’

During the break the conversations are abuzz with the power of the teaching. However this is briefly interrupted as the kids suddenly march into the dining marquee with drums and dancing and stage a brief ‘World Peace’ parade. The diners all join in on the loudly chanted chorus, ‘ World Peace!’

In the second talk Gen-la Jampa goes deeper into the basic Buddhist view and intention with an extensive teaching in renunciation. As he is giving us Venerable Geshe-la’s analogy that samsara is like an ocean of suffering, a massive downpour suddenly pounds down on the temple making the analogy all too vivid.

As we emerge from the teaching, the rain has stopped and the smiles are still shining. After all, the only way to truly transform suffering … Dharma!

Summer Festival 2018 welcomes over three and a half thousand people from fifty-two countries.

‘Welcome’, Kadam Bridget says as she begins the evening Introduction to the Festival, ‘ welcome to the 26th International Summer Festival.’

And welcomed us, which is what you feel from the moment you arrive at Manjushri Kadampa Meditation Center. The sun is shining, the smiles are out, an inner and outer warmth is everywhere. As you are greeted by old and new friends from other Kadampa events you feel yourself being gently uplifted by the pervading loving friendliness. It’s a sweet reminder: you can open your heart fully here. You are back home.

Kadam Bridget gives us a quote from Venerable Geshe Kelsang from a previous Festival:

‘Modern people are very intelligent but they are missing something.’
(What? Bridget asks, What are they missing?)

‘They are missing Dharma.’

Kadam Bridget proceeds to give us lots of excellent advice, interspersed with quotes, personal examples and her always amusing anecdotes, on how not to miss the Dharma on offer here at the Festival.

‘Listen well because you never know when that Dharma will surface in your mind … just when you need it.’

‘Take the teachings as personal advice.’

‘At the Festival, teachings are everywhere. Let everyone and everything be your teacher.’

She also reminds us to look after ourselves while we are here, to take the time to digest the Dharma we are receiving and to sometimes just be still.
And, oh yes, to volunteer!

She gives us so much practical advice and concludes that we will leave the Festival ‘spiritually more confident.’

Back to Ven Geshe-la’s quote on how people are missing Dharma:

‘How wonderful if they had the opportunity to listen to the Dharma and to practice it and in this way avoid wasting their precious human life and lead meaningful lives.’

This is our opportunity right here, right now. Welcome.

The dream-like appearance of Summer Festival 2017 is dissolving away.
Today as the Festival comes to a close the Kadampa family will watch the inspiring and moving movie of the Life of Buddha.

Followed by some special concluding advice from Gen-la Kelsang Dekyong on how to take the essence of our experience at the Summer Festival into our daily lives.

But as one Festival dream fades, others arise. Hundreds of people will now be engaging in post-festival retreats in Retreat Centres and KMC’s around the world. People leave taking both the feeling and the imprint of the Festival with them. The feeling we can share with others. The imprint we can know will ripen in wonderful ways for us in the future. Certainly we have created the cause to have many more Festivals with everyone cherishing one another arising throughout the world.

Everywhere now people are hugging goodbye. It won’t be long till we see each other again in the Festival dream arising in Germany at Tharpaland International Retreat Centre.

Thank you Venerable Geshe-la for this extraordinary Festival!

Day two of retreat and the last full day of the Festival. Between occasional, sudden and short downpours the sun has shone on us as we continue to shine the sun of our faith on the snow mountain of our Spiritual Guide, to feel the rain of his powerful blessings pouring into our hearts and uplifting our minds.

Kadam Morten has encouraged us not to fake it, but to take time to build the profoundly compassionate intention of bodhichitta in our hearts, following the step-by-step instructions we have received. Doing this here, in this blessed place, with this great assembly of sincere, good-hearted spiritual friends, it feels easy.

There’s a strong feeling amongst everyone here that it’s time to really put the teachings into practice, to get real, to be authentic. That is what you feel in the Temple during the sessions – a host of meditators all connecting with the same pure wishes, all mixing our minds with our Spiritual Guide’s advice practically: it’s so powerful to meditate together. As Kadam Morten says, the Spiritual Guide’s inspiring blessings are the wind in our sails, blowing us swiftly along the spiritual path.

In the afternoon and evening, we meditated on emptiness. Realising that the limited, impure, suffering self we normally see doesn’t exist, we can understand how we can really change on the most complete and liberating level. We can be whatever we want to be: we can be enlightened Buddhas!

As people start to pack up and get ready to leave, all around the Festival carries on running: the cooks continue to cook, the cleaning teams carry on cleaning, the car parking attendants continue their heroic efforts to prevent cars from getting stuck in the mud – everywhere you look you see the happy faces of Festival-goers cherishing others. The whole Festival depends on the kindness of others!

Doing these Festival jobs shows us directly from our own experience how Modern Buddhism can really work in our daily lives. As Kadam Morten quoted from How to Transform Your Life, “Activities such as cooking, working, talking and relaxing are not intrinsically mundane; they are mundane only if done with a mundane mind. By doing exactly the same actions with a spiritual motivation, they become pure spiritual practices.”

As we leave tomorrow we will carry this special experience we’ve gained at the Festival back to our homes and our busy lives. We can be like the legendary jewel Venerable Geshe-la describes in the text that purifies any water it is placed into. By trying sincerely to keep our good hearts and pure intentions and to practise the wisdom that correctly identifies ourselves as mere appearance, not other than emptiness, we will bring peace and meaning to all our relationships, spreading compassion and wisdom throughout the world.

What an incredible gift we are bringing back from the Festival, for the whole world! This is the great kindness of our Spiritual Guide, Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche. Geshe-la has given us directly 40 years of kindness! As Gen-la Khyenrab said, may there be 50 years, 60 years, 70 years – 100 years!

Today, we go in. Now begins two days of retreat guided by Kadam Morten. In five sessions through the day, the Kadampa family has been taking the time to put into practice together the teachings we have received from Gen-la Khyenrab over the last five days, mixing our hearts with Venerable Geshe-la’s profound and moving instructions on developing the supreme good heart of bodhichitta from How to Transform Your Life.

Kadam Morten began the day by skilfully helping us to recognise our pure Buddha potential – imagining the peace and joy of a good heart that cherishes all living beings, then contrasting that bliss with the uncomfortable feelings of an ordinary, selfish attitude. With this experience, it’s really not so difficult at all to really want to be the Bodhisattva we have vowed to become!

Sitting in the beautiful Kadampa Temple surrounded by happy meditators from around the world, all sincerely focussing on cherishing love, you can understand how a better world is possible. There’s really nowhere you’d rather be. For those of us lucky enough to be here for the retreat, it’s going to be hard to leave, but when we do, the overwhelming feeling we’ll take away is our determination to try to cherish others more as the best way to solve our own and others’ problems.

Between the sessions, though the rain clouds threatened and occasionally a brief shower appeared (no rainbows today), people followed the instruction to relax and enjoy – but in a virtuous way: putting their good hearts into practice by discussing the teachings and meditations together, sharing their experience, and continuing to help out with the running of the Festival.

One of the most inspiring aspects of the Festivals that so many people remark on is the profound and peaceful happiness you can feel and see all around you. The Festivals give us the opportunity to understand first hand the truth that happiness comes from merit – the good energy created in our minds when we perform virtuous actions. Through the powerful merit we create benefiting others through our Festival jobs, our meditations together in the Temple just seem so easy. It makes you really want to help out, and it makes you want to meditate. Some people carried on meditating down on the beach! This is the power of a good heart, and today at the Festival it’s infectious.

On the last day of teachings before the retreat, festival goers soak up the incredible opportunities that NKT Festivals provide: appearances of inspiring international Sangha, Buddha’s teachings in the World Peace Temple and an environment that feels like world peace.

We began the day perfectly with a meditation guided by Gen Devi on exchanging self with others moving away from the mountain of self and over to the mountain of others. Thus preparing our mind to soak up the teachings on Ultimate Bodhichitta that were to follow.

Gen-la Khenyrab explained what many people experience when they meditate on emptiness. He said if you already know emptiness and you meditate on emptiness but find that your delusions remain then this is a sign that something is not working.

He said that we should understand that this is quite common as we have karmic obstructions to realising emptiness due to following self grasping for so long. To overcome this we need to create the right conditions in our mind by collecting merit, purifying and receiving blessings.

Gen-la then helped to increase our faith in emptiness and our determination to practise these teachings even if it takes many years by explaining it is the method to solve our problems and end suffering permanently. He highlighted Je Tsongkhapa’s instruction:

The knowledge of emptiness is superior to any other knowledge,
The teacher who teaches emptiness unmistakenly is superior to any other teacher,
And the realisation of emptiness is the very essence of Buddhadharma.

Gen-la illuminated many examples to help us practise emptiness in our daily life. Using the analogy of the rainbow, he said all phenomena are like rainbows, appearing to us when the conditions come together but when we search we cannot find them. Deeply inspired after the teaching people everywhere were talking animatedly about how their enjoyments were merely an appearance to their mind.

Whilst enjoying all these dream like appearances, we know that they were created by conditions coming together – the pure intention and wisdom of our Spiritual Guide Venerable Geshe-la, the faith of his disciples and the work of everyone before and during the festival.

Now we are beginning to understand Geshe-la’s message to us on the importance of the Festival for maintaining the International Kadampa Buddhist Union from generation to generation and easily fulfilling our own and others wishes.

Really, there’s nothing like a Kadampa Festival for giving our life clear spiritual direction. And consequently for helping us to recognise the importance of our own regular daily practice when we return home, and of helping our Dharma centres there to flourish.

Now we can enjoy two days of retreat to further take the teachings to heart.

“It’s so much easier to do here” is a comment heard now several times here at the Festival. The teachings go in deeper, their application seems natural, relating to your potential comes effortlessly, meditations are less distracted, and the truth and importance of Dharma is easily apparent. It’s easier to access a sense of happiness and possibility. In fact it feels like it’s in the air itself.

What could be the explanation?

One explanation is given by Gen-la Khyenrab in his morning’s summation of the practice of exchanging self with others. During the meditation break, Gen-la said, quoting How to Transform Your Life,  whenever we meet someone we think: This person is important. Their freedom and happiness is important.

When a community of people is engaged in such practical cherishing it creates a wonderful atmosphere that affects everyone.

And of course the blessings! When so many people meditate together, pray together, engage in the evening Wishfulfilling Jewel puja together, connect to the extraordinary vision of our Spiritual Guide together there is a palpable communal blessing. The environment itself feels blessed and the mind naturally feels inspired.

Following Gen Devi’s morning meditation on cherishing love, Gen-la Khyenrab gave inspiring commentary to the section on ‘Living beings have no faults’ in which we are encouraged to relate to the gold nugget of our own and others’ limitless potential, our Buddha Nature, and not to the dirt of our delusions. He said we should meditate forever on this sentence both with respect to ourself and others: ‘In the heart of even the cruellest and most degenerate person lies the potential for limitless love, compassion and wisdom.’

In the afternoon, he followed up on this with a powerful teaching on the faults of self-cherishing, so that we develop a strong wish to ‘stop our mind from following this delusion’ so that we can eventually abandon it. He explained how there is no contradiction between focusing on the faults of self-cherishing and seeing living beings as ‘faultless’, because the problem is self-cherishing, not living beings.

Gen-la read extensively from the book How to Transform Your Life highlighting just how profound, clear and extensive Geshe-la’s teachings are and encouraging us not to think, ‘we know this’, but to return to the text again and again until we realise the meaning fully.

With so many people gathered together, the Festival gives many opportunities not just to cherish others but also to recognize our own self-cherishing. Standing in queues for lunch, sometimes not getting to sit where you want in the Temple, doing your volunteer work … of course, sometimes delusions may manifest. But that’s why we are here. To learn how to recognize the delusions when they arise, to examine their faults and to learn skilfully how to let them go. Here at the Festival, we are in an environment where everyone is training together and therefore the encouragement to apply Dharma to your own mind ‘practically’, as Geshe-la says, is strong. And when we do it, we discover that Dharma works. And our mind changes and the delusions diminish.

And enlightenment is possible.

Walking through the beautiful woods there was the startling appearance of a man wearing face paint. He smiled and said, “Perfectly normal”. Then behind him was a gathering of at least 30 or 40 laughing children and more adults, all wearing face paint and clearly about to embark on some elaborate game.

For the kids the Summer Festival is a wonderful experience. Everyday they enjoy wonderful international friendships and are entertained by skilful magicians, clowns, acrobats, participate in games and shows. All of these activities are put on by festival volunteers. For these volunteers, this is a festival of cherishing others.

Gen-la Khyenrab moving yet at times humorous teachings on developing and enhancing cherishing love included reading excerpts from How to Transform Your Life:

‘Wherever we look we find only the kindness of others. We are all interconnected in a web of kindness from which it is impossible to separate ourself.’

Of course, the festival makes that web of kindness easy to recognize. One Kadampa student brought her 60 year old mother to the Festival, the first time her mother had participated in a Kadampa event of any kind. She told her daughter, “With everyone you meet here, you feel their kindness.”

It’s incredible that an event of such magnitude can be run by volunteers but it’s the truth. Some people, the festival cooks, the car park attendants smiling in the rain, the security staff patrolling the camp site at night, the behind the scenes organisers put in long hours, and, in some cases, months of preparation, to be able to give this beautiful festival to the world. And as the cafe volunteers serve you or pick up your used plates, as the stewards guide you to your seat, as the toilet cleaners ask you to wait until they’ve finished cleaning, you feel their kindness.

Gen Devi’s morning meditation was on being a Bodhisattva and practising the 6 Perfections. Here we are training in doing just that. We are together experiencing the heart of Buddhadharma, cherishing love. It’s magnificent to participate in such a society. It gives hope. We need this experience.

The Kadampa student’s mother left the festival the other day to return to her country determined to come to future festivals. Her daughter said, “You know what my mother’s takeaway from the festival is? ‘I can change.'”

We need this.

And so Part 2 of the Festival begins. In the morning Gen Devi guides us in meditation in connecting with Buddha Shakyamuni and then developing the heartfelt wish of bodhichitta, the wish to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all, in this way preparing us for the afternoon’s Bodhisattva Vow Ceremony.

Gen-la Khyenrab began his morning teaching by quoting Geshe-la saying that the Festivals are our ‘special Dharma activity’ and that they include all Three Wheels of practice, the Wheels of study, meditating, and working for the Dharma. Gen-la said, we can engage in these easily here at the Festival, and then continue at home. In his clear and encouraging commentary on the Bodhisattva vow, Gen-la emphasized how we practice at our own level.

The afternoon Vow Ceremony itself was beautiful. The shrine was overflowing with a wonderful arrangement of offerings. Gen-la gave great encouragement at the beginning, saying how wonderful for our present world if we could emulate the ancient Bodhisattvas! We can do this because we all have Buddha nature, our present compassion. Bodhichitta is an advanced form of compassion, he said. By training in compassion every day, gradually we will develop actual bodhichitta through which we transform all our virtues into the path to Enlightenment, solve all our problems, fulfill all our wishes, and benefit all living beings. What a mind!

How amazing to be among an assembly of nearly 2000 people generating bodhichitta together and committing themselves to the Bodhisattva’s way of life. Gen-la guided us in dedicating that vast merit for the flourishing of Kadam Dharma, enlightenment for all living beings, and world peace.

What beautiful minds! How wonderful to be part of a Bodhisattva family striving our best through the 3 Wheels and the Six Perfections to improve ourselves for the benefit of all.