General Spiritual Director
Preparations for the International Fall Festival
Oct 14, 2024
EXCEPTIONAL WEEKENDS WITH NATIONAL SPIRITUAL DIRECTORS
National Spiritual Directors traveled to give special courses at KMC Texas, KMC Merida, KMC Lille (France), and Avalokiteshvara KBC in Huelva. Their teachings offered many wonderful and practical examples of how to practice Dharma in our daily lives.
PUBLIC TALK AND 30TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION WITH GEN DEMO
This past weekend, we had the special opportunity to welcome Midwest Spiritual Director and KMC-DC Resident Teacher, Gen Kelsang Demo, who visited us at KMC Texas. She joined us for one of a series of events this year, commemorating our 30th anniversary.
Gen Kelsang Demo delighted attendees with a public talk followed by a retreat, with teachings on compassionate communication.
Both the talk and retreat were inspiring and full of profound Dharma wisdom. The teachings moved the hearts of all, senior practitioners and newcomers.
Gen Kelsang Demo taught on improving communication through cherishing others, equalizing and exchanging self with others, and the karma of speech. She offered many wonderful practical examples of how to practice compassionate communication in our daily lives.
Deep thanks to dear Gen Kelsang Demo, to our volunteers who made the event happen and to all the people who attended the public talk and retreat both in-person and online.
It was certainly a magical visit to continue to honor such an important anniversary for KMC Texas. It is one of the oldest Kadampa centers in the US, and the place where our unequalled Spiritual Guide, Venerable Geshe-la wrote Essence of Vajrayana during his time as the KMC Texas Resident Teacher.
ENJOY THIS VIDEO SUMMARY
ANNUAL VISIT OF GEN KELSANG SANGDEN to MERIDA
We had a very meaningful weekend full of valuable teachings and meditations that we received from our precious National Spiritual Director Gen Kelsang Sangden. We were able to deepen our knowledge and experience of Buddha's advice, to have an increasingly peaceful mind, solve our problems and learn how it's possible to enjoy permanent and supreme inner peace for the benefit of all beings.
In the talk on How to Solve the Problem of Anger, Gen Sangden taught us that we get angry because we believe that anger is necessary in order to be happy and peaceful people.
In the retreat How does the world exist? How do I exist? she explained that we need a lot of familiarity with meditation on emptiness to reduce the deep-seated delusion of self-grasping that is the root of all other delusions such as attachment and hatred. The power of our delusions is nothing compared to the power of Buddha's wisdom advice that destroys these bad mental habits when we put it into practice. Our motivation for meditating on emptiness is to be able to benefit all beings.
Thank you to all the attendees, it was very nice to have you present. And thank you very much to each of the volunteers who before, during and after the event did a wonderful job showing the Kadampa way of life.
We look forward to seeing you soon at our next events!
EXCEPTIONAL WEEKEND WITH GEN EUPAMÉ AT KMC LILLE
Joy and lightness were the order of the day for this exceptional weekend with Gen Eupamé at the Kadampa Meditation Center in Lille. We began with a magnificent day of teaching on Sunday, September 29, titled Meditating Effectively and Joyfully, which enabled us to improve our meditation practice by identifying more clearly the wrong perceptions we need to abandon, thus making our contemplations more effective.
On Monday, September 30, we continued with a talk titled The world is changing, so why hang on? on the theme of subtle impermanence and how to use it to approach the difficulties we encounter with more lightness.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the organization and the smooth running of this exceptional weekend. Your help and smiles made this event a success!
SPECIAL VISIT OF GEN CHOKGA to HUELVA
Gen Kelsang Chokga, National Spiritual Director of Spain and Portugal, shared with us tips that are like a lamp on the path when she visited Avalokiteshvara KBC in Huelva (Spain), teaching a special course called Choose to be Happy on the last weekend in September.
In this course, she shared with us the advice of the great meditation master and Buddhist scholar, Atisha, that helps us to create new habits and wise and compassionate ways of thinking, leading to peaceful and positive states of mind. In this way, we will feel better about ourselves and others, and we will be able to help those in need.
This was an inspiring course and we look forward to her visit next year.
