Robin

It’s a free day. A day to reflect or to explore.

For some people it was a relaxed start to the day then a chance to spend time contemplating in their own way the meaning of the teachings from part one of the Summer Festival.

Other people literally headed for the hills to enjoy a day wandering in the magnificent Lake District or walked around Ulverston, enjoying the charms of the local and historic market town.

For everyone, it’s a chance to relax and recharge for what is to come. With many new people arriving for week two, Manjushri Kadampa Meditation Centre buzzed with activity.

In the evening, the Resident Teachers met for the NKT Annual General Meeting where they heard reports on developments throughout the world in 2016-2017 and exciting developments to come.

Gen Losang, again using the powerful words from How to Transform Your Life, is taking us on a tour of the six realms of samsara, and the constantly changing sound of the rain and wind on the temple seems to reflect the ever changing fortunes in samsara.

The focus of today’s meditation retreat is on developing renunciation, the determination to liberate ourselves from samsara’s suffering, the suffering of our countless future lives and the sources of that suffering, in particular our uncontrolled desire and our self-grasping ignorance. In each session, we simply relax into the meaning of the words and allow them to touch our hearts, naturally inspiring in us virtuous insights and determinations.

The overall feeling of the retreat is one of joyful possibility. All we need to do is change our mind. And with the Dharma, and especially through mixing our mind with the Guru’s blessings, we can definitely do this.

As one participant said, “I’m having such powerful experiences in this retreat and yet Gen Losang is simply reading from the book. So this shows me I can do the same from home.”

At that point many people were standing outside in beautiful sunshine while simultaneously being gently rained on. Emptiness!

Another festival goer, a film maker, said, “It’s so cinematic here.” And it is. The light is beautiful, the festival grounds, the woods, the bay, the surrounding hills…such a magnificent environment. It’s everchanging beauty inspiring us to stay connected with the beautiful inner environment of our mind mixed with Guru Buddha Shakyamuni at our heart.

It being the last day of the first week of the festival, some people are departing and others newly arriving. Smiles as we say goodbye and smiles as we say hello. The joy of the Dharma.

‘What if today were your last day?’ Gen-la Dekyong asked a few days ago during her teaching on the meditation in death. ‘What would you do?’ Gen-la’s answer was ‘to spend it with her Spiritual Guide, mixing her mind with his.’

Of course, the point is that today could be our last day. This could be our last meditation session. If you knew that to be the case, would you allow your mind to be distracted? Or would you ensure that your mind is deeply and joyfully mixed with the blessings of your Spiritual Guide?

Today is the first of two retreat days, two days to take the teachings of the first week to heart. In each session Gen Losang is making sure that we are mixing our mind with the completely pure mind and powerful inspiring words of our Spiritual Guide. He begins by guiding us into a state of heartfelt connection with Guru Buddha Shakyamuni envisioned in the space in front. For the contemplation Gen Losang simply reads to us from How to Transform Your Life, today mostly from the Introduction and first chapter. He reads slowly and contemplatively allowing the full impact and meaning of the words to resonate. There is something very powerful in his rendition. Phrases suddenly reverberate in your mind with new meaning. What becomes clear is how these words of Geshe-la are pervaded by the experience of his mind, how they naturally evoke the peaceful expansiveness of the meditative state, and are designed to induce that state in the heart of the reader or listener who reads or listens with an open, fully attentive, faithful mind.

He leaves space at the end for us to hold in placement meditation the pure intentions or insights that have arisen. And finally he beautifully guides the dissolution of Guru Buddha Shakyamuni’s mind into our own at our heart, allowing us to envision the blissful clarity of enlightenment free from all mistaken appearances. He then encourages to remain mindful of our Spiritual Guide and the illusory nature of appearances during the meditation break.

In the first few sessions the temple and marquees resounded with the sound of wind and rain from outside. But in the afternoon it cleared spectacularly allowing for crystal clear expansive vision, a lovely echo of the power of Buddha’s blessings to clear our mind.

What if today were your last day?

One of the themes emphasised by Gen-la Dekyong has been the Dharma mirror. We use the teachings to reflect our own lives back at us. For example, today’s teachings were on renunciation which enables us to ‘make suffering meaningful’ and be positive all the time. We need to ask ourselves the question: Are we doing this? How do we relate to our suffering?

Suffering for a Dharma practitioner, Gen-la said, is like manure for a farmer. ‘We already think about suffering all the time. It’s called moaning!’ Gen-la compared this to Geshe-la who recommends, ‘Never think about your own suffering unless you are training in renunciation.’ Our difficult conditions remind us of the faults of samsara and encourage us to develop the peaceful, positive mind of renunciation. If we live with a peaceful, positive, happy mind we can then die with a peaceful, positive, happy mind. And if we die with such a pure mind we activate the previous good karma in our mind causing us to be reborn, Gen-la said smilingly, as a baby Kadampa! Or else to be reborn in the ’International Teacher Training Program in the Guru’s pure land where we continue our training’!

However there wasn’t much suffering in evidence at the Festival today. The afternoon sun made Manjushri KMC look like a pure land right here and now. In between sessions, one could see people enjoying coffees and teas and deep conversations on Dharma … or just quietly contemplating or reading on their own.

The first teaching Gen-la concluded with an oral instruction from Geshe-la giving us a special and very powerful meditation on developing renunciation (you’ll have to ask your resident teacher for that one.) In the afternoon’s teaching, Gen-la emphasised renunciation is not a gloomy mind. Quite the opposite! It’s a happy mind that transforms our life into a blissful journey and joyful path to liberation. Because we are ‘happy in the knowledge that there is a way to become free from suffering, contemplating suffering actually encourages us to engage in the methods that will produce actual freedom. Like someone leaving a bad job, we think, she said, quoting Geshe-la, ‘Samsara bye bye!’

As this was Gen-la’s concluding teaching, she explained how to achieve liberation. She pointed out that delusions, in particular self-grasping ignorance, are for us who wish to eradicate them ’meaningful objects’. Recognising them in our own mind, in our own experience, is meaningful. ‘If we look with wisdom in the mirror of Dharma’ we can see how our own delusions cause our suffering and through that develop the happy mind of renunciation determined to eradicate them, especially self-grasping ignorance.

After this powerful encouragement, the day culminated with a wonderful Offering to the Spiritual Guide practice with a tsog offering. With the Temple full, and so many voices chanting together, it was easy to feel ourselves surrounded by all living beings and even to envision all beings in a pure land, liberated from suffering. During the tea break, Jim Belither read a beautiful dedication commemorating Geshe-la’s 40 years of kindness. 40 years! And here we are now, voices lifted together in joy. Thank you, Geshe-la, long may your activities continue and may you remain in our hearts forever.

There’s an indescribable quality to meditating together with nearly 2000 practitioners in the Temple. Although each one of us is focused on our own mind, it’s communal, our meditations lifting each other, making it more powerful and blessed. And because we are all absorbed in the same object of meditation – in this case, the loving wish to make others happy – and connecting to the same Spiritual Guide, Guru Buddha Shakyamuni, the impact is visceral and creates a feeling of peace, joy and connection that pervades the entire Festival. It’s amazing to be part of something so powerfully beneficial.

Following the morning meditation, Gen-la Dekyong encouraged us in her teaching to come to a clear conclusion: I need to practice Buddha’s teachings. The sign of attainment of this would be that there is never a moment when we aren’t practicing Dharma. She distinguished between intellectual knowledge and actual experience, quoting from Geshe-la: ‘We need the inner protection of spiritual experience.’ Furthermore she said, ‘In every activity we should be practising our wisdom views and intentions. Every activity should be meditation. Never think that a busy life and Dharma are contradictory. The union of Dharma and daily life will naturally happen if you love the instructions’. The main point was that if we understand that authentic happiness comes from a peaceful mind we will decide that we need to practice Dharma, as only Dharma can give us inner peace.

Connecting this message with this afternoon’s teaching on death and karma made for a powerful combination. Gen-la spoke eloquently and passionately on the necessity of meditating on death every day. She said ‘the quick path of Mahamudra cannot bear fruit without it. It is the foundation for the house of Dharma.’ She said, ‘ Make this meditation your best friend’ and in this way refuse to allow our laziness of attachment to keep the door to the temple of Dharma realisations shut. We left the teaching empowered with the truth that “I may die today.”

In the evening the temple was packed for the Wishfulfilling Jewel puja with tsog offering. Inspired by the teachings, one could feel everyone connecting deeply with this joyful practice. And there it was again – that indescribable feeling of meditating and practising with nearly 2000 people – of feeling your ordinary experience and environment transformed, like the temple has become something more, an actual mandala of a Buddha. And in that moment enlightenment feels not only possible, but close.

Gen-la Dekyong began her commentary to How to Transform Your Life by talking about the qualities of a Buddha. Quoting from Introduction to Buddhism, she said that just as the sun’s nature is to shine, ‘being beneficial’ is a Buddha’s nature. Later she explained we have two things to do everyday: 1. Improve ourselves and 2. Benefit others. In fact, by improving ourselves we naturally benefit others, because then our nature is becoming beneficial and day by day we are drawing closer to enlightenment. Giving ourselves clear direction in this way makes our life simple, Gen-la said, and finding our purpose in life makes us feel fully alive. Otherwise we can be like a dog chasing its tail, a lot of activity but not a lot happening.

At the Festival we train in both improving ourselves and benefiting others. Through the guided morning meditations, the teachings, the discussions about Dharma spontaneously arising over lunch, between sessions and during walks, and the sublime evening Wishfulfilling Jewel puja everyone is engaged in practices of self-improvement. And as for benefitting others … opportunities abound. Because the Festival depends on everyone contributing, the Festival becomes an everyone benefitting everyone else bonanza. Which means everywhere you go, you receive service with a smile! Or else you are the one serving with a smile.

In the afternoon teaching Gen-la Dekyong gave us the transmission of the Introduction to How to Transform Your Life, in which we are introduced to the profound change of attitude from self-cherishing to cherishing others that lies at the heart of this practice. How to bring about this radical transformation will now be explained step by step. Bring it on!

Gen-la Dekyong opened the Buddha Shakyamuni empowerment with a message from Venerable Geshe-la:

Welcome everybody to the NKT International Festival. The NKT International Festivals are the special method to maintain the International Kadampa Buddhist Union from generation to generation. We should know this Union is very important. With this Union we can fulfill our own and others wishes easily. So please keep my message in your heart.
With much love and prayers,
Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

Gen-la asked us to contemplate the meaning of these words. Do we know how important is this Union? Do we know how it fulfills our own and others wishes?

In the morning meditation that preceded the empowerment, Gen-la Thubten had prepared us by guiding a meditation in feeling ourselves to be in the living presence of Buddha. We could hold this presence in our mind using our imagination or he said, quoting Geshe-la, we could simply gaze at the statue and experience it as actual living Buddha. And then he gave us lots of space to do just that, creating a very blessed feeling.

The whole empowerment seems like it unfolded within a rich inner absorption with Gen-la Dekyong’s soft tones drawing us into a tranquil contemplative state. In her introduction she led us into a deep appreciation for Buddha Shakyamuni, and in particular, emphasised the experience of emptiness and then guided us into it in meditation, as the basis for receiving the empowerment.

Afterwards, sitting on the lawn, there was a remarkable feeling pervading Festival. Everywhere you looked groups of people where engaged in joyful conversation, happiness emanating from a shared experience of the peace of a Buddha’s mind with which we had just connected. Gen-la ended with a strong encouragement to remain mindful. She said, ‘mostly we remember meaningless things. Now we have something so meaningful to remember: Guru Buddha Shakyamuni at our heart.’

Sunlight still pervaded the evening air with that beautiful northern Lake District light. Everywhere there were smiles, a feeling of being in a mandala, a vision of an alternative to our ordinary suffering world. It was extraordinary to be part of this International Kadampa Buddhist Union, experiencing that Union right here and now at the Festival, experiencing it fulfilling wishes and transforming the world.

Smiles, hugs and laughter abound as once again the International Kadampa family gathers at our mother centre, Manjushri KMC, for our Summer Festival. This year, 2017, there is a special poignant perspective. We are celebrating 40 years of kindness of our Venerable Spiritual Guide Geshe Kelsang Gyatso.

As Gen Rabten says in the evening’s introduction to the Festival, ‘Literally everywhere we look we see the manifestations of Venerable Geshe-la’s kindness. The temple, the statues, the Sangha, Manjushri Centre itself, the books, the Festival, the practitioners….’
What an immense cause of celebration and rejoicing! This appreciation and rejoicing will no doubt be setting the tone for the entire festival.

Gen Rabten said, Think of the energy Geshe-la has invested so as to provide us with everything we need for our path to Enlightenment. What gives someone that energy? Clearly Venerable Geshe-la sees in us what we don’t see: how great our capacity for happiness is, and our capacity to give happiness to others!

He said the Gen-la’s, the main festival teachers, would be sowing, through their teachings, the seeds in our mind for that potential for happiness to come to fruition and he then asked the question: What soil will those seeds be planted in? Gen Rabten then proceeded, with clarity and humour, to explain the six preparatory practices whereby we prepare our mind to receive Dharma so that we actually gain results.

 

As we exit the Temple, there are more hugs and greetings, as old friends meet up, and new friends are introduced. It’s a Festival, a celebration … but not an ordinary celebration … a celebration of Dharma, of a shared path to Enlightenment, and an opportunity to do something of real benefit to the world by bringing about a profound change in our hearts. And a celebration of the kindness of the Teacher who has given us this opportunity. How fortunate we are to be here!

On the final day of the festival we watched the play of the life story of Buddha. Acted, directed and choreographed entirely by practicing Kadampa Buddhists, the play captures the dignity, wisdom and supreme kindness with which Buddha lived his life, inspiring us all to do the same.

As venerable Geshe-la says, the play is not ordinary. Usually we can only hear or read Buddha’s teachings, but with the play we can directly see how Buddha lived his life and let this teach us.

After the play, Gen-la Dekyong, the NKT General Spiritual Director, shared some final words of advice. She said what particularly touched her from watching the play this year was Buddha’s promise to Angulimala, ‘I promise you will accomplish realisations’. Gen-la said that is what we have received at this year’s Festival.

Then, it was time to leave the festival, carrying the wisdom we had learnt back into our daily lives to maintain our inner peace and bring happiness to our families. This year, more than ever before, people leaving the festival were heading in their hundreds to various post festival retreats to deepen their experience even further!

Each morning of the festival, trucks and vans wind their way up the lane to the priory as local farms and shops bring their produce to feed and supply the festival.

After many years of festivals, a beautiful relationship has developed between these local companies and the priory. Each delivery is met with smiling faces and warm hearts, something that has furthered the good reputation of Kadampa Buddhists throughout the local area.

Most inspiring to those delivering goods to the festival, though, is that everyone working here is a volunteer. Hundreds of people from all over the world devote their summer holiday time to come to the festival and use their skills to help make the NKT International Summer Festival possible.

Throughout the building and grounds, volunteers are cooking, cleaning and repairing. Lending their skills as electricians and plumbers, doctors and cooks, to create the harmonious and peaceful atmosphere that is the annual Kadampa family gathering.

For the next two days, retreaters have the opportunity to bath their minds in Buddha’s blessings.

In today’s sessions, Gen Ananda guided everyone through the stages of Heruka Tantra, exhorting us to emulate Venerable Geshe-la’s example of deeply enjoying his practice.

Expanding on Gen-la Khyenrab’s advice to bring our prayer booklets to life by making our own sadhana – method for gaining spiritual experience – Gen Ananda helped us to make a personal connection with these special meditations.

Relaxing into the knowledge that everything is imagination, and thus, by developing a pure mind, we create a pure world around us, everyone allowed themselves to enjoy the inner stillness of retreat.

In the final day of the teachings, we learnt how to overcome distracted, discontented minds through a special method to transform our daily enjoyments into the quick path to enlightenment.

By offering the food, drink, music, conversations and companionship we enjoy each day to the Buddhas at our hearts we can maintain a peaceful happy mind, that is easily contented and feels deeply satisfied all the time.

Although the topics covered in these last few days of teachings have been so profound, Gen-la Khyenrab marveled at how Venerable Geshe-la continuously finds new ways of presenting these meditations that are ever more straightforward and accessible to modern people. All across the festival site, people shared their experience of how moved they have been this year and how much their confidence has grown through hearing these teachings.

At the end of the final teaching of the oral transmission, Gen-la shared the words Venerable Geshe-la had concluded with: ‘Now you have received the transmission, which means it has been passed to you, so now my job is finished. Now you need to do your job: practise yourself and then teach, this is your job.’ Smiling at everyone, Gen-la then waved goodbye. We finished the day with special prayers to safeguard the insights that have dawned in our hearts, and prepared to enter into retreat to grow them further.

The day began with Kadam Morten leading us through the preliminary stages of meditation on Heruka Tantra – from developing the wisdom fear of samsara’s dangers that helps us turn our hearts to the spiritual path, through to harnessing the power of correct imagination to create a pure world for ourselves and all people.

Between sessions, remembering the profound truth of emptiness – that our mind creates our world – festival goers held on to the pure mind they had developed in meditation and enjoyed the pure world that arose from that place.

In the teachings, Gen-la Khyenrab continued to share the special scientific methods of Buddha’s tantric technology, showing how we can transform the different levels of our mind into enlightened experience quickly and easily. Through these very meditations many people in previous generations, such as Gyalwa Ensapa, attained enlightenment within three years!

Throughout the festival, there has been a growing sense of confidence that these deep  meditative experiences truly are within our grasp. Through the kindness of our unequalled spiritual guide, every good condition has been gathered for us to be able transform our lives into a blissful spiritual journey.

These profound and transformative practices all arise from an understanding of emptiness. Sharing Venerable Geshe-la’s words, Gen-la Khyenrab explained the kindness of emptiness: ‘If something inherently exists it is impossible to change … but since emptiness is right everything can be changed.’ Because of the truth of emptiness all suffering can disappear and pure worlds and beings can arise. How wonderful!

Today Gen-la Khyenrab began the transmission of the precious Heruka Body Mandala instruction which is the key that opens door to the deepest inner peace. Sharing Venerable Geshe-la’s words with us, we learnt of the stillness of great bliss that ‘is coming from the depths of the heart’ through which the mind becomes ‘very subtle, calm, peaceful, joyful and very sharp’.

Gen-la illuminated the reasons why these special spiritual practices are so powerful for us even in these turbulent times, and how perhaps even our mother or father, our brother or sister could be emanations helping us fulfill our deepest spiritual potential.

As Venerable Geshe-la’s root guru, Trijang Dorjechang wrote: ‘As times become ever more impure, Your power and blessings ever increase, And you care for us quickly, as swift as thought; O Heruka Father and Mother, to you I prostrate.’

Through understanding that our precious lineage gurus, Je Phabongkha, Trijang Dorjechang, Ling and Song Rinpoche all became living Heruka, we can know that simply by following their examples we will naturally become just like them. What could be more empowering than this?!

Throughout the priory grounds, trainee yogis and yoginis, gathered their minds inwards in meditation. Following in the footsteps of the great meditators of the past they embarked on a journey deep into the heart where the most profound truths can be enjoyed.

The weather, contrasting between radiant clear skies and sudden dark clouds, feels dramatic and epic – a perfect backdrop to the dramatic and epic teaching/transmission being given by Gen-la Khyenrab. Note-takers are finding it hard to keep up as the inspiring transmission from Venerable Geshe-la continues to pour forth.

This morning the focus is on the seven-limb prayer from the Hundreds of Deities sadhana. Most are already familiar with this prayer as it is almost identical to the prayer in Heart Jewel practice, the daily practice at our Centers worldwide. However, the new sadhana supplies pithy and concise commentary to each verse. In addition to this Gen-la transmits from Geshe-la illuminating elaborations on different aspects of the practice, helping us eliminate faults and ensure our practice is truly effective.

The festival feels like one big seven-limb prayer, as collectively we engage in purifying, making offerings, developing faith in our Spiritual Guide, requesting teachings etc., all dedicated to the long life of our Spiritual Guide and to the flourishing of Dharma.

On the topic of rejoicing, Gen-la Khyenrab teaches on the deeds of our Spiritual Guide, Venerable Geshe-la, how Geshe-la first he studied and practiced, then did long meditation retreat, before coming to the West, teaching extensively, and accomplishing so much for the sake of the Dharma and living beings.

Here, rejoicing in our Spiritual Guide is easy. All we need to do is walk around the Festival grounds.  See how we are surrounded by practitioners from all over the world.  Look at the array of teachings and retreats on offer at amazing retreat facilities, temples and centers again all over the world. Notice the dedication of everyone here, helping facilitate the flourishing of Kadam Dharma worldwide. What our Spiritual Guide has accomplished is truly astounding. I rejoice!

I’m not sure what I expected, but it wasn’t this! It’s the first day of the second week of the Festival. Gen-la Khyenrab is going be giving ten teachings over the next five days on Parts 2 and 3 of Oral Instructions of Mahamudra, both of which focus on sadhanas, or chanted prayers. So surely the main Mahamudra transmission had been given in week one, right? What was left?

As it turns out … a lot!

Gen-la Khyenrab gives us a direct transmission from the teachings given by Venerable Geshe-la last year in a London, supplemented with other quotes from Geshe-la’s works and occasional comments from Gen-la. It’s like drinking nectar directly from the hose, a torrent of wisdom flowing forth in an unstoppable stream. What we are receiving is essentially a blueprint for our tradition, Kadampa Buddhism for the modern world, full of wonderful clarifications, explanations, encouragements. The focus in the temple is intense, with no one wanting to miss a single word. After the teachings the buzz of enthusiasm is palpable.

A few words cannot begin to do justice to the extent of the teachings. Some of the topics covered: the lineage, the union of Lamrim and Mahamudra, how to rely purely on a Spiritual Guide, the union of Sutra and Tantra, key differences between ancient Buddhism and modern Buddhism, and the ancient Kadampa tradition and the new Kadampa tradition, the importance of Highest Yoga Tantra in the modern world, how to generate bodhichitta according to Highest Yoga Tantra … and much much more!

One tasty morsel: Quoting Geshe-la, Gen-la transmitted how in Tibet the Dharma Centres were monasteries, in which ordained practitioners lived apart from lay people and society. In our Modern Buddhist Dharma Centres we do not discriminate between ordained and lay practitioners. Rather we practice, live and work together. We respect each other’s differences, and regard both as equally precious. Both are Sangha Jewels because for us the main Sangha Jewel is the Bodhisattva Sangha Jewel, as we together, on the basis of our Bodhisattva vow, strive for enlightenment for the benefit of all.

Looking around at the festival this is everywhere in evidence. Monks, nuns, and lay people all working together as equals to help flourish the Dharma and to create good conditions for practice for everyone else. Meditating, discussing, working, enjoying … together. It is so beautiful to see. Everyone receiving benefit from everyone else, being inspired and encouraged by each other’s way of practice. Real friendships, spiritual friendships, are in evidence everywhere. Friendships that will sustain us throughout our spiritual lives as together we take this sublime transmission deeply to heart, gradually realise it and then use it to help others throughout our world.

It’s the day off. Not a day off from Dharma … there’s no such thing! Just a day of practising Dharma in a different context. And we are very fortunate as it’s a sun filled, beautiful day of stunning clarity. Loads of people head out to enjoy the Lake District just north of Manjushri KMC, with its pristine waters and beautiful rolling hills and low mountains. Some people choose to walk around Ulverston, enjoying the charms of our local and historic market town. Some people stay back at the Manjushri KMC to volunteer and prepare for 400 new arrivals for week 2 of the festival. Some people have a quiet day of meditating and studying on the Festival grounds.

For everyone, it’s a chance to just pull back for a moment, catch our breath and recharge for what is to come. One person, walking back to her accommodation while enjoying the evening light so that is remarkable here in the north of England, thought to herself, ‘I’ve had a wonderful day off. And now I can’t wait to get back to the festival tomorrow!’

It’s a rainy, drizzly day. Or as Gen Devi puts it, a perfect day for retreat. A perfect day to go in, to go inwards to our heart. It’s amazing, she says, that the way out of our suffering life is to go in. And in we go, deeply in, right in to the central channel and the indestructible drop within our heart chakra. Today we do the three completion stage practices known as the yogas of the central channel, drop and wind. If done skilfully and correctly, on the bases of a pure motivation, reliance on our Spiritual Guide and wisdom, these practices can help us to swiftly actualize our very subtle mind, the mind of clear light. Through manifesting this mind we can achieve enlightenment swiftly. In his new book, Oral Instructions of Mahamudra, Venerable Geshe-la presents these practices so succinctly and precisely. Gen Devi guides the meditations with her soothing voice and delighted manner, and it’s amazing how still the temple, brimming with bodies, can become. You sense everyone going in, deeply in, and then gently abiding there. It’s a wonderful feeling.

And even when the meditation session finishes, everyone stays in. Due to the rain, almost everyone seeks shelter. They huddle inwards, beneath the raincoats and the umbrellas. The cafes and creperie are fully occupied. The normally voluminous main corridor of Manjushri KMC is overflowing with people, every seat taken. Trying to find a place to drink tea with a friend I ended up having to walk to the top floor to find a step on the staircase to sit on! And everyone you talk to is so encouraged. ‘These meditations make it feel like enlightenment really is possible,’ someone comments.

Every session is just as still, just as focused. There is a pervading sense of immense good fortune. We know how rare it is to have the opportunity to receive such teachings, let alone do retreat on them amidst such a great assembly of practitioners from all over the world. It’s inspiring to see such dedication and such joy. It’s … a perfect day.

Retreat day. Gen Devi, smiling with the joy of her meditation, says that meditating in the company of 3000 people, allows us to be like a seagull soaring on a slipstream, soaring on the slipstream of the collective focus of all these minds right into a deep absorption on our object of meditation.

We spend a couple of sessions on the clarity of the very subtle mind, and then a couple on the emptiness of the self. In each session the temple and marquees are completely full and yet breathtakingly still and focussed. It is a wonderful feeling. Afterwards there is noticeable inward focus as people quietly leave the temple.

It is a beautiful day – a beautiful day to walk through the woods down to the bay, enjoying the play of light on the leaves, and the sparkles of light on the rushing water in the estuary – seeing it all as a dream-like mere appearance to the mind, using these appearances to enhance our experience of the meditation. Down on the beach people are meditating or reading the Oral Instructions of Mahamudra. Everywhere you hear the sound of people discussing the Dharma. There is so much joyful enthusiasm for the practice, a collective sense of moving forward, of going deeper into the actual experience of the Dharma. As one Festival-goer put it: I used to think mahamudra was so complicated. But it all seems possible now, it”s within reach.

Overheard in a queue: ‘These teachings are making me want to read and study the books more’. Everywhere you look you see people studying, reading, even memorising some of the key passages which Gen-la Dekyong says Geshe-la has encouraged us to memorise. In the book Oral Instructions it says often ‘recite mentally in your heart’. It is through internalising the teachings that we will be able to then absorb deeply into them in meditation, especially in our upcoming two day retreat.

The teachings today focused on the three completion stage meditations of the central channel, the drop and the wind. Gen-la Dekyong mainly gave us the transmission directly from the book. At one point she gave us a long passage from Venerable Geshe-la’s London teachings (the oral instructions of the Oral Instructions, as she called them) containing wonderful words of encouragement. ‘The view of Highest Yoga Tantra is unbelievable. It’s the real truth. It’s not intellectual. It’s so practical and so wonderful. Initially it may seem that these practices (eg. envisioning yourself as a Buddha, training in absorbing your inner winds into your central channel) are a silly idea. If things existed inherently then that would be correct. But there is no thing existing from its own side. Everything in reality is imagination. Correct imagination is the life of Highest Yoga Tantra.’

Gen-la Dekyong said that Geshe-la has said that if you can’t imagine yourself becoming a Buddha then you will never become them. With each new practice that she introduced she encouraged us to imagine being able to do it (eg. absorb our inner winds, develop an illusory body). As Geshe-la has said: Everything begins in the imagination.

Tomorrow we have the opportunity to take these ‘unbelievable’ Highest Yoga Tantra teachings to heart in retreat. Geshe-la said we should think: ‘How wonderful if other people throughout the world have the opportunity to gain this kind of knowledge.’ Of course, that depends on us gaining true experience of this special knowledge. Imagine that! And tomorrow we begin to make it happen.

It is wonderful to start the day meditating with several thousand people in the temple. In his gentle way Gen-la Jampa reminds us of what we will be focussing on (the new Guru Yoga prayer from the Oral Instructions). Having set us up, when we reach the appropriate point in the sadhana, we enter directly into the meditation. The experience of meditating together in this way can’t be described, and of course everyone’s experience is unique. But one thing’s for sure. It is profoundly beneficial and blessed.

In the morning class, Gen-la Dekyong explains how to realize the self correctly, as a mere appearance to mind not other than emptiness. Quoting Geshe-la she explains that this type of understanding is not commonly known but is an oral instruction. Teachings like this show how important Dharma is to modern life. It is because of misperceiving the self that living beings experience hallucination-like sufferings in samsara life after life. If we correctly perceive the self as the union of appearance and emptiness there will be no suffering. But without Dharma teachings how will we ever correctly identify the self? That’s why, as Gen-la concludes, everybody needs Dharma.

As Gen-la is teaching you can hear a background murmur as the row of translators immediately translate her words into 13 languages (including the recently added Finnish, Russian and Hindi) so that everyone from the 53 countries represented here can hear the Dharma in their own language. It’s moving to contemplate that the teachings of the Wisdom Buddha immediately appear in these many different aspects. As a result these teachings will literally travel the globe. Everybody needs Dharma. Due to the kindness of Venerable Geshe-la more and more people are being given access to it.

As we settle into the Festival, we feel the Festival settling into us. The sense of peace and happiness increases. The sense of optimism and possibility … not just for ourself but for our world. We feel ourself changing, through the power of the Dharma, the Sangha family, and the blessings that permeate the Festival. Our sense of our self changes. As a result the notion of one day realizing the self correctly as a mere appearance to mind not other than emptiness no longer seems farfetched. Quite the opposite. If we keep practicing, keep creating the causes, the effect of wisdom will arise. And then we will be able to teach and truly help others. Because everyone needs Dharma.

In this morning’s teaching, Gen-la Dekyong mostly focuses on the third preliminary guide of purification. She interweaves passages from the book Oral Instructions of Mahamudra with her notes from the transmission Geshe-la gave to a small group in London, adding in some personal encouragement from her side. The clarity of the new presentation combined with the surprisingly personal stories from Geshe-la has us all enthralled.

What do we need, Gen-la asked. The answer: a pure mind. Samsara is the appearance to an impure mind. Happiness is the appearance to a pure mind. If we transform an impure mind to a pure mind, there is no suffering. Therefore we need to purify our mind.

In addition to explaining the powerful purification practice of reciting Vajrasattva’s mantra, Gen-la said the main Kadampa purification practice is happily accepting whatever arises, especially difficulties. Quoting Geshe-la, she said that for lojong (training the mind) practitioners samsara is like a pure world for them personally. They are not harmed by external bad conditions because they happily accept.

Although in general the conditions here at the Festival are wonderful, we still need to practice happily accepting. After all there are around 3000 people gathered together here. There’s a lot of queueing (easily transformed into Dharma discussion), some accommodations are less comfortable than others (although one camper told me she sleeps better here than at home!) and we might get rained on. Of course, some people are experiencing grave difficulties such as sickness. And yet everywhere you look you see smiles. People are happily accepting, and hence purifying, accumulating merit, receiving blessings and acquiring an invaluable skill to bring back home. We are all learning naturally just through being here how Dharma solves our problems.

There is no greater good fortune than to be able to receive the transmission of the oral instructions of Mahamudra, Gen-la Dekyong said this morning during her teaching. She explained that a transmission is In dependence upon these lineage blessings and sincere practice we can accomplish enlightenment in one life “easily without any difficulty”, she said, quoting Venerable Geshe-la. Je Tsongkhapa’s disciples accomplished this, as did the disciples of our Lineage Gurus Phabongkha and Trijang Rinpoche. Now we have the same opportunity.

Actually, Gen-la said, quoting Geshe-la, we have more opportunity than in the past and can accomplish these realisations more easily. Why? Because our conditions for the development of Dharma in our hearts and in the world are wonderful.

Here at the Festival, it is easy to see how wonderful our conditions are. Who gave us these great conditions? Our Spiritual Guide has of course supplied us with everything we need to practice Dharma, including these Oral Instructions. But at the festival we can also see that we are giving these wonderful conditions to each other. Here everyone is serving everybody else, volunteering to perform the roles that support us all.

The temple stewards guide us to our seats. The cooks, food choppers, carriers, and servers keep us well-fed. The pot washers clean up our mess. The ground patrollers look after our safety. The cleaning and restocking is constant. The video and sound crew enable thousands of us to hear and enjoy the teachings. At the cafes the many volunteers keep the coffees, teas and cakes coming. Playful adults keep the kids entertained so the parents can attend the classes, and behind the scenes, so many people are working hard to keep everything flowing smoothly.

As these International Festivals are a key condition for the flourishing of Dharma globally, we are, all together, supplying the conditions for Dharma for everyone. The festival is a beautiful dependent arising, arising from our collective good hearts. No wonder the result is an environment that engenders faith in the possibility of a pure land, a pure joyful loving experience of the world. This opportunity to create and participate in something so good and meaningful is Venerable Geshe-la’s gift to all of us and to our world. Wonderful conditions indeed!

We come by plane, by train, by bus, by car – traveling from near (just down the road) and far (the other side of the world) – to be greeted by the magical spires of Manjushri Kadampa Meditation Center, mother center of the New Kadampa Tradition and home of our International Summer Festival 2016.

We come to experience a ‘microcosm of hope’, as Gen Rabten explained it during his evening Festival Introduction, a truly international gathering pervaded by harmony when we are so accustomed to a world of conflict. We come to experience our ‘Sangha family’, Gen Rabten said, deep friendships, meaningful conversations – all while standing in a lunch queue talking to whoever is next to you.

But mostly we come to experience the Oral Instructions of Mahamudra, the actual transmission of this most precious treasure of our tradition, the heart song of our teacher, the great yogi, Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche, the master key that unlocks our prison of samsara, which we can then share with others so that they can unlock theirs.

After poetically extolling the qualities of the teaching we are about to receive, Gen Rabten gave an inspiring teaching on how to listen so as to be able to take the teachings to heart and put them into practice.

A wondrous and still light sky greeted us as we exited the temple. Joy and enthusiasm was everywhere – and we are here, we’ve arrived! Let the transmission begin!