Last week, Gen-la Kelsang Khyenrab, retired GSD of NKT-IKBU, guided a wonderful 5-day post Summer Festival retreat on the Oral Instructions of Mahamudra at Tharpaland KMC.

In Gen-la Khyenrab's powerful presence it felt very easy to identify our own mind, the emptiness of our self and all phenomena, and to immerse ourselves in the yogas of the channel, drop and wind.

Each day Gen-la guided us through one of the five steps of Mahamudra training. He encouraged us to follow precisely the instructions and guided the meditations as presented by Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche in the book Oral Instructions of Mahamudra. This enables us to continue our training in Mahamudra at home easily.

Everyone enjoyed a fantastic retreat experience in Tharpaland's special blessed retreat environment.

After the retreat. Gen-la headed for KMC Berlin, where he gave a public talk entitled 'How to Live Life Free from Problems.'

Quoting from How to Transform your Life by Venerable Geshe-la, Gen-la explained that just by learning to discriminate correctly between outer and inner problems our life would change for the better.

He encouraged us to learn to develop a positive response to problems trough meditation and explained the importance of a peaceful mind. Then he guided a meditation on the nature of the mind and explained how we can prepare our mind for meditation.

Gen-la concluded with a very practical explanation of the difference between mind and body.

It was a very powerful afternoon and the people who atteneded left very happy and peaceful.