General Spiritual Director
German National Festival 2024
Dec 11, 2024
Retreats in Argentina, Mexico & Portugal
In every Kadampa Centre around the world, retreats are an integral part of the spiritual program, providing an opportunity to familiarize ourselves with a particular practice, meditation, or drawing closer to a Deity. Concluding the year, Centres in Argentina, Mexico, and Portugal engaged in retreats, creating peace in their hearts and in this way contributing to peace in this world.
Retreat at Nagarjuna KBC, Argentina
On Saturday, December 8, at Nagarjuna KBC in Buenos Aires we had our first away Meditation and Concentration Retreat guided by our teacher María Eugenia Cháves. We received teachings, meditated, and shared a beautiful day with spiritual friends in a natural environment. We look forward to organizing more retreats throughout 2024!
Requesting Green Tara's Assistance in Mexico
Retreat on Green Tara is a special occasion to connect with her and to receive her assistance, inspiration, and guidance in our lives. On December 15-16, at KMC Querétaro in Mexico we enjoyed a 24-hour Green Tara retreat, engaging in the prayers Liberation from Sorrow. Thank you, Venerable Geshe-la, for this wonderful opportunity.
A taste of liberation from ordinary appearances
Last weekend at KMC Deuachen in Portugal, we engaged in a retreat focusing on Guru Yoga and Mandala Offering practice. Guru Yoga emphasizes reliance on the Spiritual Guide, recognizing him or her as a manifestation of all Buddhas. Through his example and teachings, he guides us on our spiritual path. Reflecting on the kindness of our Guru, we make mandala offerings with a generous mind, seeking his blessings to attain Dharma realizations that protect us and others from problems and suffering.
In this context, mandala means a pure universe, interpreted in Buddhism as the world perceived by a pure mind. The essence of this practice is to deeply purify our mind and, consequently, purify the world that appears to our mind. The mandalas are offered in conjunction with a traditional prayer through which we fill the universe with symbolic objects representing an imagined Pure Land.
We seek the blessings of the Spiritual Guide by reciting an extremely blessed prayer called 'Migtsema', transmitted directly from Buddha Manjushri to Je Tsongkhapa. Practicing together as one Sangha with faith, devotion and concentration in the precious Temple in Sintra on Portugal's Independence Day marked a profound independence within our minds – a taste of liberation from ordinary appearances and conceptions.
Heartfelt thanks to our most precious Spiritual Guide, Venerable Geshe-la, for providing us with these powerful methods to purify our mind and our world, and to sow the seeds for taking rebirth in a real Pure Land of a Buddha.
