General Spiritual Director
Fall Festival 2024 ~ Day 8
Nov 2, 2024
It was a magical weekend in Copenhagen for the 2018 Nordic Dharma Celebration with dramatic rainbows appearing on the Saturday, Buddha’s Return from Heaven Day.
People from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and the UK gathered at KMC Copenhagen to receive the blessing empowerment of Wisdom Buddha Manjushri and a commentary to the practice Treasury of Wisdom from Gen Kelsang Dragpa, the National Spiritual Director of NKT-IKBU for the Nordic Region.
Deepening our wisdom
Gen Dragpa encouraged us to deepen our wisdom through relying on the Three Jewels in general and Buddha Manjushri in particular. He shared many of Venerable Geshe-la’s teachings on the Wisdom Buddha and helped us to understand that without wisdom there is no end to our suffering.
We learnt that by developing wisdom we can gradually bring our mind under control, create genuine causes of happiness and finally bring our own suffering to a complete end. Only then will we have the perfect ability to liberate all living beings from their suffering.
Not finding the rose
Gen Dragpa invited us to try to find a rose that he held up and by gradually eliminating each of its parts helped us to see that in reality the rose, and indeed all other things, are unfindable – their ultimate nature is emptiness. It was a very powerful teaching.
Kadam Dharma in the Nordic Region – milestones
2005 – Heart Jewel KBC established in Gothenburg, Sweden
2005 – Clear Light KBC established in Copenhagen, Denmark
2007 – Tara KBC established in Stockholm
2007 – First Nordic Dharma Celebration (Stockholm, Sweden) followed by a retreat on Finnhamn island
2009 – Je Tsongkhapa KBC established in Oslo, Norway, later to become Nordic Kadampa Meditation Center
2013 – Gen-la Kelsang Dekyong made the first visit to the Nordic region by an NKT-IKBU General Spiritual Director and gave a series of public talks on Modern Buddhism in Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki and Copenhagen.
2015 – First Nordic Festival in Oslo, Norway with Gen-la Dekyong, where she gave Amitayus empowerment and teachings on Eight Steps to Happiness
2016 – Sumatikirti KBC established in Helsinki, Finland
2017 – The Nordic Region’s first urban temple inaugurated by Gen-la Kelsang Dekyong at the Nordic KMC in Oslo
2017-2018 – For the first time Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche’s books published in a Nordic language with The New Eight Steps to Happiness, How to Transform Your Life and Modern Buddhism appearing in Swedish
Kadampa Centers in the Nordic region
Oslo: Nordic KMC – meditasjonioslo.no
Copenhagen: KMC Copenhagen – meditateincopenhagen.org/da
Helsinki: Sumatikirti KBC – sumatikirti.fi
Gothenburg: Heart Jewel KBC – mediteraigoteborg.org
Stockholm, KMC Stockholm – mediteraistockholm.se
