Dharma in the heart of Scotland

scottish dharma celebration 2020

On a very wet and windy weekend, 130 people braved the storm to travel to Stirling in the heart of Scotland to take refuge in a nourishing weekend of blessings, inspirational teachings and joyful Sangha.

With an introduction by Gen Kelsang Tubchen, the Resident Teacher at KMC Glasgow, to help us appreciate our good fortune in having found a precious human life and a fully qualified Spiritual Guide, we started the weekend with a mind of rejoicing faith and a wish to value and make use of each moment.

Buddha of love
Then, on Saturday Kadam Bridget Heyes, the UK National Spiritual Director, guided a deep empowerment of Buddha Maitreya, the Buddha of love. Kadam Bridget reminded us that love is the answer to all our problems and the very foundation of the spiritual path.

Throughout her teachings on both Saturday and Sunday, Kadam Bridget gave great encouragement to become sincere practitioners and never to give up. By training in loving kindness we can transform all our difficulties into the spiritual path.

Developing the three kinds of love
By developing the three kinds of love we can choose to focus on others good qualities rather than their faults, we can relate to their pain and suffering at a deep level and develop compassion instead of aversion, and we can try to overcome the greatest obstacle to our love, our self-cherishing and our self-grasping.

By choosing to view others in this way there will be no conflict at all in our world, our mind will be constantly at peace, our families, workplaces and Dharma centers will be increasingly happy and harmonious, and we will bring great benefit to others.In the last session we received extraordinary teachings on the union of the two truths from The Mirror of Dharma in the context of generating ourself through correct imagination as Buddha Maitreya.

Meditations, walks and good company
Besides the teachings there were beautiful, heart-felt meditations led by Kelsang Osung, the Resident Teacher at KMC Aberdeen, and on the Saturday afternoon a wind-swept walk to the Wallace monument. And of course plenty time to make and catch up with spiritual friends.

Although only a few short days, the weekend was so meaningful and blessed. We saw directly how important our Dharma Celebrations are for fulfilling the compassionate vision of Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche of pure Kadam Dharma to flourishing in each area.

Thank you Venerable Geshe-la for your great kindness to us all!

The joy says it all
Enjoy these wonderful, joyful photos of the event.