Spreading Inner Peace and Joy in Our Communities
Dec 3, 2024
02 November 2024
Friday is an auspicious day. After a final meditation session practicing The Yoga of Buddha Heruka, there is a huge gathering in the Temple as it is opened to everyone to join in a truly global Prayers for World Peace. Many local people attend in addition to the international Festival participants, and it is simultaneously live-streamed around the world. How wonderful that thousands and thousands of people are praying together for peace in our world.
Venerable Geshe-la has told us many times that our job is to pray, to make strong collective prayers for peace while simultaneously removing from our own minds the causes of conflict, such as strong attachment to the fulfillment of our wishes, anger, greed and resentment. So today we pray and we dedicate all the effort and all the virtue from the Festival so that through these karmic actions our world leaders will have wisdom and the inhabitants of our world can find a way internally and externally to harmony and peace.
Kadam Morten gives a very powerful introduction to the importance of cherishing others and the dangers of having biased love. He encourages us according to Geshe-la's words, to imagine a world free from anger where weapons become useless and we can truly live in harmony with one another.
Then he helps us to still our minds, stopping our distractions, and to engage in the beautiful prayers sung in Portuguese.
As Gen-la Dekyong says the Festival is both quick, almost over in a flash, but also long, as it feels that we have been together for a long time and the Festival experience has been so rich. A huge thank you to our Founder, Venerable Geshe-la who gave us these precious International Festivals. We also appreciate the kindness and thank all the Festival Teachers, organizers and volunteers.
Then the buses arrive to take people to the airport and special buses leave for Rio de Janeiro to visit the site of the next center that will appear in Brazil. Many people are fortunate to be going to post-Festival retreats in South America and beyond.
Wishing everyone safe travels!