General Spiritual Director
Retreats to Connect with Our Good Heart
Apr 10, 2024
DAY 4 ~ The kindness of the guru
"It says here. ‘Out of his great kindness Je Tsongkhapa introduced’ but for us
personally who is it? It’s Venerable Geshe-la, isn’t it? It’s our Guru who introduced these teachings to us personally, worked for so many years translating into perfect understanding in all our languages. So we have many different languages. English is one of them, and it was Venerable Geshe-la we have to say - each of us here - yes of course we depend on the kindness of Je Tsongkhapa. But we can think ‘Je Tsongkhapa is my root Guru. Je Tsongkhapa is Buddha Shakyamuni.’ We can think like this.
"But immediately, who is it who is giving us this benefit? It is our living Spiritual Guide. So this makes this verse very personal. It’s not just some historical reference. “O thank you Je Tsongkhapa who lived 500 years ago.” No. This is now talking about the Teacher who gave us this kindness directly in this life."
In the first part of his extraordinary commentary to Request to the Lord of All Lineages, Gen-la Khyenrab helped us understand that although the verses directly praise Je Tsongkhapa for the clear, practical instructions on Sutra and Tantra we have received, in truth, for us, it is our Spiritual Guide, Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche who has show us this unimaginable kindness.
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Seizing This Rare Opportunity
"Whatever problem you’ve got, it’s coming from this root of attachment. We sometimes say the root is self-grasping ignorance, but practically speaking it's our uncontrolled desire that is the problem and that is what is keeping us suffering. That is what is keeping us in samsara."
GEN-LA KELSANG KHYENRAB
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Taking encouragement from this life ~ Gen-la Khyenrab
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behind the scenes at the festival
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If you would like to contribute a video story, photo story, snapshot or insight, please email to [email protected] Last submissions please by 24.00 UK time, May 31. Thank you.
video stories
kelsang lodro, brasil
karla, mexico
elke, france
photo stories
arthur, usa
I found today’s Buddha Shakyamuni empowerment with Gen-la Khyenrab to be extraordinary. Every empowerment I attend deepens my understanding, sometimes a great deepening, even though I thought I already understood. Today, I could feel and absorb in my core concepts that previously were much more in my head, intellectual understandings. Today everything about mistaken appearance took on a clearer meaning. The lights had been turned on, but today the dimmer switch was turned up far higher. What a wonderful experience!
Isabel & family, brasil
We are very happy to receive these profound Dharma teachings and blessings at our home, and to be part of this blessed world-wide Kadampa family that we cherish so much.
We hope we can be part of this, and help to keep it from generation to generation.
Thank you very much to all community, volunteers and Venerable Geshe-la for making this possible.
Tyler, Canada
I am really enjoying the festival and hope I can make it every year! I am very grateful for Gen-la’s teachings this year.
I'm so glad we can continue the festivals even during these times.
May we never forget Guru Sumati Buddha Heruka, but always have him in front of us.
laura, colombia
It is such a pleasure and great joy for the Colombian Sangha spread around the world to be listening to our dearest director Guen Sangden and her special insights on the beautiful teachings of Gen-la Khyenrab.
Let all these teachings be heard and ripen the seed of faith in our hearts and to make all the garden of realizations flourish! ,💕😊🤗.
kelsang shima, mexico
The Spring Festival of the New Kadampa Tradition has started! In the deep, inspiring and revealing empowerment Guenla Khyenrab shared with us the enormous benefits of approaching Buddha Shakyamuni, his kindness to us and his ability to personally help us - the beings of the Unforgetting World. It is tremendously touching to know that, despite the fact that it can be hard work to forget our objects of attachment (because our obsessions, our anger, our grudges and pains), there is a powerful spiritual help within our reach. Peace is possible 💛💛💛
Aurora, Spain
Amazing festival !!!! I am really enjoying Gen-la Khyenrab's teachings and empowerment of Buddha Sakyamuni.
Performing the Request to the Lord of All Lineages in Hundreds of Deities completely changed my Dharma practice.
Now, I have the opportunity to receive the empowerment of Buddha Sakyamuni and the explanation of the Request to the Lord of All Lineages during this festival.
We are really very very fortunate!!!!🙏❤️✨
festival gathering at KMC Barcelona
enjoying the festival in vietnam
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SHARED
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STARING INTO THE MIRROR OF DHARMA
Straight to the point, Genla Khyenrab laid out the problem with attachment. Pleasure!
We are attached to the things, the people, the places we think bring us pleasure. This is our default mechanism for living. Yes, we know it’s the most poisonous delusion but it still tastes so sweet. After all, don't we deserve a bit of pleasure as a reward for being so virtuous?
Gen-la Khyenrab held up a Dharma mirror for us today. Do we want out of samsara or do we really have a mind made of iron?
I found this teaching a powerful reminder that we always have to keep checking, ruthlessly. Am I actually heading out of impure life, or sinking back into its deceptive charms? Am I rejecting or nourishing my self-cherishing? I can be an outward practitioner but inside my attachment and self-cherishing remain untouched. Intellectual renunciation is no renunciation at all. It has to be personal to us.
So Genla Khyenrab really put us on the spot today. Staring straight into that Dharma mirror. There’s no better place to be! But what is looking back at us?
JEFF, UK
UNA EXPERIENCA FUERA DE LO COMÙN
Escuchar, contemplar, meditar y recibir las enseñanzas del Festival de Primavera en el KMC de España en Málaga, es una experiencia fuera de lo común. Me siento muy afortunado por vivir esta experiencia tan extraordinaria y significativa.
El KMC España está muy bendecido, un lugar en proceso de transformación, Gueshe-la ha puesto toda su bondad, su intención y su trabajo incansable para diseñar este precioso Templo Tradicional, su presencia se percibe en cada rincón de este lugar, una visión tan especial y extraordinaria apareciendo en este mundo para el futuro de las nuevas generaciones, que maravilla, buena energía y que necesario en estos tiempos.
El comentario que estamos recibiendo de guenla Khyenrab sobre la Súplica al Señor de Todos los Linajes, nos recuerda que nuestro Guía Espiritual es Guru Sumati Buda Heruka una misma persona, pero con diferentes aspectos y funciones. Además, con esta súplica especial y extraordinaria, con unas pocas estrofas Gueshe-la funde las enseñanzas del Sutra y del Tantra y las condensa en esta oración, ¡¡¡qué especial y extraordinario!!!, por eso Gueshe-la quiere que memoricemos esta súplica, porque en ella reside las 84 mil enseñanzas de Buda y en ella anida la solución a todos nuestros problemas, que Guía Espiritual Supremo tan extraordinario, que suerte tenemos, ahora nos toca a nosotros!!, de todo.
JORGE, SPAIN
FAITH LIKE AN IMMOVABLE MOUNTAIN
How wonderful if after Festival we could all develop faith like an immovable mountain rather than faith that is blown here and there by the winds of karma. We can all do this it is not rocket science.
If we were to walk out across the sands of Morecombe Bay we would need a guide to show us where to go. We would have faith in the guide and we carefully follow in their footsteps. But how much more important is it to have faith in our Spiritual Guide who is leading us out of samara?
We put faith in doctors when we have a serious sickness but we all have a serious sickness of our mind.It is called self-grasping ignorance, which binds us tightly to samsara. Yet we have met the most skilful doctor, our Spiritual Guide who is telling us, If you follow in my footsteps I will lead you to enlightenment,' so how much him when afflicted by the delusions of self-grasping and other delusions!
Our Spiritual Guide is showing us by his own example, 'Look what you can achieve by following in my footsteps.' We all need to develop the mind of faith by doing our own scientific research, testing the teachings for ourselves. How much better does our mind feel when we practice the supreme medicine our Guru has given us compared to when we don’t practice?
It takes many drops of water to fill a bucket and in a similar way our faith grows drop by drop till the bucket is overflowing and we have faith like an immovable mountain. Then we can be of real benefit to those closest to us and all the other people around us.
I am off to follow in the footsteps of my Spiritual Guide. Thank you Geshe-la for helping me to follow in your footsteps.
KELSANG ZONDRU, UK
festival shop
WELCOME TO THE FESTIVAL SHOP FOR THE 2021 NKT-IKBU SPRING FESTIVAL
This year, as last year, we have created an online Festival Shop where you can purchase high-quality Dharma items and gift items as well as all your Tharpa items. Your purchases will be securely packed and promptly shipped to any country in the world.
