This weekend over 450 people gathered in the glorious setting of KMC New York for the US Festival with Gen-la Jampa entitled Healing the World.

Gen-la Jampa, the Deputy Spiritual Director of NKT-IKBU and Resident Teacher at IKRC Grand Canyon granted the empowerment of Medicine Buddha and gave teachings on How to Solve Our Human Problems by Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche.

Here's a description of the empowerment day:

'In order to prepare us for the empowerment, Gen-la explained that "Medicine" means Dharma, and "Guru" means Spiritual Teacher, so our Medicine Guru is our Spiritual Teacher guiding us along correct spiritual paths that lead to liberation and enlightenment. Gen-la skillfully presented the relationship between the common and uncommon paths of Sutra and Tantra, and gave a lucid and incisive explanation of the meditation on the emptiness of the body.

The empowerment itself was sublime, a gentle, powerful and profound experience whereby Gen-la Jampa led us deftly into the actual Pure Land through correct imagination, showing the power of Medicine Guru's blessings to heal our mind and our world.

In the afternoon Gen-la gave a commentary to the practice of Medicine Buddha sadhana based on Venerable Geshe-la's 2006 Festival teachings that were given on the occasion of this Temple's inauguration. How auspicious to be able to re-visit these precious teachings thirteen years later with our national Sangha!'

See below for a short excerpt from Gen-la's teachings and a selection of photos.

What people are saying
Here is a small selection of the fantastic reviews this special event received:

'One of the best experiences of my life. I would recommend to this to anyone and everyone.'

'Beautiful and inspiring. I always leave with great knowledge to put into practice immediately and my visits increase my appreciation of all the hard work everyone does there to keep NKT Dharma flourishing year round. Thank you Geshe-la.'

'It such an amazing and rare opportunity to meet people from different parts of the country and sometimes the world! Especially in a setting where everyone has the same goal.'

'These festivals are always a wonderful opportunity to cultivate joy, happiness and wisdom and share it with others. Coming to the temple always feels like coming home.'

'Every visit is life changing and so very meaningful.'

See more
For a full review of the event including many more photos and videos, visit the US Festival Facebook page.