Day 7

Waking Up Your Buddha Nature

Today, the emphasis was on the meditation break. It was the free day before the 2nd part of the Festival. A beautiful warm day, many people literally headed for the hills to enjoy the ancient and stunning landscape of the Lake District, or walked the few miles into Ulverston, to gather fresh supplies and enjoy a meander in this historic market town - an opportunity for many to participate in the English ritual of tea and scones (with cream, of course!)

Others remained on site to prepare for and greet the new arrivals. There were some hugs of goodbye as some departed after the first week. But mostly there were hugs of hello, as more practitioners arrive from all over the world, gathering together to receive the empowerments of Highest Yoga Tantra, given in our tradition only once every two years. There is a feeling of joyful anticipation. The newcomers can immediately sense the peace and happiness pervading Manjushri KMC where through the skilled guidance of Gen-la Dekyong and Gen Jampa we have been preparing our minds to receive these empowerments through training in the three principal paths of renunciation. bodhichitta and the wisdom realizing emptiness.

In the evening Gen-la Khyenrab introduced the second part of the festival and welcomed all those newly arrived. With great hilarity, Gen-la Khyenrab introduced (and mimed!) waking up our Buddha nature. Of course the quickest way to do that is through the practice of Highest Yoga Tantra. … coming soon.

Day 8

Enlightenment on Offer!

Today is definitely a good day, Gen-la Kunsang declared at the beginning of the Heruka Empowerment Preparation. Mind you, she said, for a Dharma practitioner every day is a good day, but nonetheless today is an especially good day.

Why?

Because, as Gen-la said, enlightenment is on offer today. Nothing better in the market than that!

The Festival energy was in full force today. The ranks had swelled with the influx of new attendees, lots of new faces, more tents in the woods, the seats in the temple a little tighter, everywhere a sense of joyful anticipation. Even the sky, a radiant Heruka blue, was playing along.

In the morning meditations Gen Ananda prepared us for the preparation, as he put it, by helping us to set our sights on enlightenment with the compassionate motivation bodhichitta.

And then we were all pressed together in the temple, all nearly 2400 of us. And it felt like a good day, a day of great good fortune, as we prepared to have the doorway to Heruka's mandala opened for us, the quick path to enlightenment, the best way to truly help others. A day of rejoicing in our good fortune in having met the great Spiritual Guide, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso.

Day 9

The Heart of the Festival

We've arrived at the heart of the festival – the empowerment. Isn't it amazing what the mind can create?

Gen-la Kunsang began by explaining that she was visualising Geshe Kelsang at her heart and that she felt that the empowerment was being transmitted through him. Then skilfully, gently, lightly, she guided us through the empowerment ritual and we followed along, collectively believing, concentrating, imagining. And I think we all felt the amazing blessing that exists within the lineage of the empowerment kicking in.

An impure mind creates an impure world. A pure mind creates a pure world. Gen-la encouraged us to temporarily forget our impure world, and to imagine together the very best world, Heruka's pure land. And because such a pure land actually exists, when we imagine it and believe in it, we experience it, are empowered by it, and create the cause to actually attain it. What an amazing possibility that Geshe Kelsang has introduced in to our modern world. And it is marvellous to see it now being transmitted through his disciples.

You could have heard a pin drop, so strong was the concentration among the sea of participants, and the chanting at the end for the concluding tsog offering was jubilant. Some people were wheeled in wheelchairs, others carried in by their mothers (the vast majority, of course, managed very well on their own two feet). For some it was their first empowerment (hopefully the first of many); for others, perhaps their last … we don't know. What we do know is that people left the temple with a wonderful feeling in their hearts, and powerful imprints for their own future enlightenment … and a strong wish to take some of that pure land they had experienced with them into the world.