International Kadampa Summer Festival - Day 8 Today began the transition from part 1 of the Festival, the Power of Kadam Lamrim with Gen-la Kunsang, to part 2, Avalokiteshvara empowerment and teachings on Powa with Gen-la Dekyong. On this classic English Lakes District day, many people were working together joyfully to prepare Manjushri KMC for the second week of International Summer Festival, our meaningful spiritual holiday. There were a few farewells as some people were returning home after deeply enjoying the first week, but all around could be seen big smiles and warm greetings to the hundreds of our Sangha friends just arriving from all around the world. So many happy faces! Manjushri KMC truly is our international spiritual home and a very special place - a holy place - in this world. By just entering the grounds and seeing the beautiful, golden lantern of the Temple, a peace and happiness naturally appears in our hearts. In the evening, we all gathered into the Temple for a teaching with Gen-la Khyenrab. Upon entering, the first thing many people noticed was the extraordinary statue of Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of Compassion on the empowering shrine. Created by Kadampa artists with the blessings and guidance of Venerable Geshe-la, this precious statue actually radiates light! Gen-la mentioned that he didn’t really need to teach and encouraged us to just gaze at Avalokiteshvara. Gen-la did of course give a teaching, and it was so heartfelt and practical - a teaching on developing and maintaining faith in our Spiritual Guide, which is the root of all our Dharma realizations. He read from Ven. Geshe-la’s book, Great Treasury of Merit, and even guided a meditation on this beautiful verse: “We should regard our Spiritual Guide as our mother who cares for us and cherishes us, as our father who provides us with all that we need and protects us from danger, as the moon that cools the heat of our delusions, as the sun that dispels the darkness of ignorance in our mind, as as a kind benefactor that gives us the priceless gift of Dharma.” It was perfect preparation for the second week of Summer Festival, and in particular for receiving the blessing empowerment of Guru Avalokiteshvara tomorrow. How incredibly fortunate we are! Booking is still open - kadampafestivals.org/summer #KadampaSummer2014
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 18:00:02 +0000