It’s the free day – a day that is by turns a day of rest, recreation, arrival and preparation. Many people who are here for the whole Festival head out for an adventure into the beautiful lake district, with its stunning mountains, charming towns and picturesque lakes.

During our Lamrim retreat, both in and out of the meditation sessions, thousands of people are applying joyful effort to abide in this inner Lamrim Pure Land. Every appearance becomes an opportunity to train in Dharma. Pure happiness arises from wisdom, and wisdom arises through practising pure Dharma teachings. In this way, we gradually come to abide in the Pure Land of Lamrim.

After three wonderful days of teachings on Lamrim there are now two days of retreat to contemplate the essential meditations we have received and to meditate on them from the heart.

Gen-la Sangden helps us to take to heart Venerable Geshe-la’s advice that during this spiritual holiday we should learn how to make ourselves happy and that cherishing others is the method for doing this.

The day begins with a morning meditation on the first Lamrim meditation that we learned about yesterday, the preciousness of our human life. Using the Festival teachings and Venerable Geshe-la’s words to help us to contemplate the purpose of the meditation which is to encourage us to take the real meaning of our human lives through practicing Dharma purely and sincerely.