General Spiritual Director
French and Nordic Dharma Celebrations 2024
Dec 10, 2024
Day 2 ~ The art of listening
Last night, Genla Kelsang Khyenrab, retired General Spiritual Director of NKT-IKBU, gave a truly inspiring introduction to this year's online International Spring Festival, watched by over 5,500 people around the world.
Gen-la began with a special message from Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche. Venerable Geshe-la quoted from Stories of Rebirth by Aryasura in which he gives many examples of the benefits of listening to Dharma, and he encouraged us to memorise this and put it into practice.
Gen-la points out that from many points of view it is wonderful we are taking part in this Festival online, but because it is a very visual medium we will need to put special effort into listening carefully to the words of the teachings, and taking their meaning to heart.
Listening sincerely and effectively will be a principal theme of this Festival.
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Identifying our Real Enemies
empowerment day
Receiving the blessings of Buddha Vajrapani
Saturday begins with two guided meditations led by Gen Rabten based on Gen-la's teachings in the Introduction.
Then at 4pm UK time Gen-la will grant the empowerment of Vajrapani, the Buddha of spiritual power.
With faith and correct imagination we can connect directly with Buddha Vajrapani through the Spiritual Guide and receive his blessings.
interconnected
international kadampa family online
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lisa, UK
Deborah, Brasil
gen tsangpa, UK
fi, UK
Anaïs, Kevin & Amora, Switzerland
We are so happy that the three of us can take part in the Festival and receive the powerful blessings of Buddha Vajrapani together as a family.
With Venerable Geshe-la's Dharma now being streamed directly into our homes, this opens the door for many more people to benefit from this extraordinary path.
Thank you Geshe-la!
cristina, colombia
I am from from Colombia, but at the moment I am a working visitor of Kailash IRC. I have been looking forward to the Spring Festival for a long time because I have been waiting for this empowerment and teachings for over a year. I believe that only through compassion is real change possible in our world.
martin, Uruguay
It is wonderful we can connect with the spiritual power of compassion during the Festival knowing that all around the world thousand of people are doing the same.
This gives me lot of encouragement that through the power of this Kadampa worldwide union we can change this world and make it into a better place.
Katherina, USA
I'm truly happy that we have now the opportunity to experience this Festival and that many more people will be able to attend! I'm looking forward to meditating together with all the thousands of attendees around the globe. I'll imagine that I am meditating surrounded by all of you in every session. SO powerful!.
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TRANSPORTED TO A PURE ENVIRONMENT
I sat down a little tired, but looking forward to the first teaching of the festival. Immediately during the beautiful prayers, sitting in front of Gen-la Kyenrab, something quite magical happened. I felt transported to the pure environment of the Temple and the thought came to my mind, 'How wonderful - now everyone gets a front row seat!' My mind began to lift, then Gen-la transfixed me with his compassionate gaze, and taught precisely, directly and with great clarity and power directly into my heart.
He brought me close to Venerable Geshe-la by sharing his special advice to memorize and contemplate the 10 benefits of listening to Dharma. It struck me that this Festival can in fact be even more powerful because we have fewer distractions and can be more focused. As Gen-la said, ‘All we can do is listen.’
At several points in the evening I thought, ‘Gen-la is so kind’. Sharing his insights and taking us on a carefully structured journey to understand the root of our suffering. Deftly he explained two levels of self grasping, how we suffer because we misapprehend reality, but we misapprehend reality because we do not know the true nature of reality. I felt so encouraged when Gen-la said, ‘All we need to do is to want to understand - this is the meaning of searching with wisdom.’
To defeat our self cherishing, which Gen-la called a crazy mind and a dreadful illness, we need to train in compassion and with his final explanation on the five forces we learned how to make all our practices work.
Gen Tubchen, Scotland
THE REASON WE ARE SUFFERING SO MUCH
What a fantastic introduction to the NKT Spring Festival 2020 online!
Gen la Khyenrab welcomed us all and encouraged us to feel that, even though this year we’re not able to be together physically, mentally we can all be together, present at the Kadampa Temple for World Peace at Manjushri KMC.
Gen-la explained the real reason we’re all suffering so much, as revealed by Buddha: our self-grasping and self-cherishing ignorance. He then explained the real methods to free ourselves and others from suffering by developing our wisdom and our universal compassion.
Finally, he explained five simple ways to give our meditations power and make them really effective.
As always, Gen-la’s teaching was so powerful and clear, so obviously coming from his decades of sincere practice and reliance on Venerable Geshe-la. We’re so lucky! And now I can’t wait for tomorrow’s meditations and empowerment!
Gen Jigme, UK
