“I felt the inner peace and calmness of Geshe-la’s teachings, and the kindness and friendship of the Sangha at this Festival.”

With these words, Zhaoqing summed up her experience of the Asian Festival in Hong Kong last weekend.

More than 180 people from all over Asia gathered for the Festival with Gen-la Kelsang Jampa, the Deputy Spiritual Director of NKT-IKBU. It was an extraordinarily blessed occasion, as can be seen from their heartfelt description of the event:

OUR SPIRITUAL MOTHER
‘Gen-la introduced us to Arya Tara, our spiritual mother, and led us through a beautiful inspiring empowerment. He explained the very close connection Tara has with our tradition, how she had helped Atisha establish the Kadampa tradition and how she gives special protection to all those who sincerely follow this tradition.

‘Gen-la gave a profound commentary on how to develop compassion through wisdom, helping us to regard ourselves simply as cells in the body of life. By learning to impute our sense of I on all living beings, their sufferings become our sufferings and we naturally develop a powerful compassion that pushes us urgently towards enlightenment.

DEVELOPING COMPASSION THROUGH WISDOM
‘On Sunday, Gen-la continued his profound commentary on how to develop compassion through wisdom, helping us to regard ourselves simply as cells in the body of life. By learning to impute our sense of I on all living beings, their sufferings become our sufferings and we naturally develop a powerful compassion that pushes us urgently towards enlightenment. In the afternoon,

‘Gen-la shared with us Arya Tara’s common and uncommon life stories – inspiring us to draw close to her and develop deep faith. He went on to explain the most profound practice of exchanging self with others – generating our self as an enlightened being – and in particular the yoga of non-dual profundity and clarity that is the actual path to enlightenment.

On the final day of the Festival, Gen-la explained the stages of deepening our self-generation which is the actual path to enlightenment. He explained that wishing for true happiness and thinking ‘I, I’ on the basis of this impure body and mind is a contradiction. ‘Gen-la then gave us a detailed commentary to Arya Tara’s mantra and explained how she liberates us from all outer and inner fears.

A PRACTICE FOR THE MODERN WORLD
To conclude Gen-la described the many unique qualities of Modern Kadampa Buddhism - the special presentation that Venerable Geshe-la has gifted our modern world. He inspired us to share Venerable Geshe-la’s vision and to help however we can to make Kadam Dharma available to everyone, everywhere. How wonderful!

‘The Festival started with a joyful introductory teaching by Gen Kelsang Rabten, National Spiritual Director for South East Asia, and the meditations were led by Gen Kelsang Tonglam, National Spiritual Director for East Asia.’

Enjoy there inspiring photos from the Festival.

“I feel that I have even deeper experience this time than before. I can truly feel that Ayra Tara is abiding in my heart.” Wanfang.