The day has finally arrived for the start of a profoundly meaningful and joyful gathering at Manjushri Kadampa Meditation Centre –  the International Spring Festival 2018. Over 1,600 people from 40 countries are now arriving at the birthplace of modern Kadampa Buddhism in this world, where Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso lived and taught for over 30 years.

As the cars and buses bring more and more people into this blessed environment, you can hear the sound of laughter and warm-hearted greetings among spiritual friends. Everywhere you look you see people holding Venerable Geshe-la’s newest book, The Mirror of Dharma, revealing how to find the real meaning of human life. How fortunate we are!

With smiling faces and growing anticipation, everyone makes their way inside the beautiful Kadampa Temple for World Peace to receive the first teaching from Gen-la Thubten.

Gen-la’s lighthearted and practical teaching was based on Venerable Geshe-la’s book, New Heart of Wisdom. He explained that wisdom is a virtuous intelligent mind that functions to dispel the inner darkness of ignorance. Through this we understood the great opportunity we have now to increase the light of our wisdom and free ourselves from problems and suffering.

Gen-la encouraged us by showing his own joy in this precious Dharma and declared the festival slogan to be, “Now is the time to abandon ignorance permanently!” This is possible for us because we have met the Wisdom Buddha who leads us into the practice of the perfection of wisdom in general and the higher perfection of wisdom in particular.

To help us with this special practice of wisdom, tomorrow we will meet Prajnaparamita and receive her powerful blessings. What a wonderful beginning to our spiritual holiday.

Latest Videos from the Festival

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