General Spiritual Director
Spring Festival 2026 Day 5
May 27, 2026
JUL 25 - AUG 9, 2025
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Today we received teachings on contentment from Gen-la Jampa: how to be satisfied with our inner and outer conditions with a good motivation, how to let go of the endless discontent that drives us to constantly seek and never find satisfaction in external things. Our endless scrolling, our endless acquiring.
Day 5 ~ The inner wealth of contentment
"Friends, the things you desire give no more satisfaction than drinking sea water, therefore practice contentment."
Discontent is not a small problem and the practice of contentment is not just a supplementary practice - it is essential and can bring so much peace and happiness. Festivals offer a great opportunity to practice contentment and we see for ourselves what results it brings!
WHAT HAPPENS IF WE BEGIN TO EXPERIENCE THE TRUTH OF CONTENTMENT?
Our main focus at Festivals is to enjoy internally, having the opportunity to listen to Dharma teachings, to meditate and practice the teachings, and to be in community with other practitioners. With this as our main intention, our attachment to external things is reduced. We are content to eat the food on the menu each day, we are content to sleep in a tent, or a dormitory.
We are content to queue for showers. We are content with the bustle and busyness around us. We are content with the weather and with each other. We try to be content with where we end up seated in the Temple, and with who we end up sitting next to.
What happens is that we begin to experience the truth of contentment and find we are in fact much, much happier than in so-called 'perfect' conditions.
Teaching with Gen-la Jampa
MORNING MEDiTATION WITH GEN TONGLAM
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If we have strong uncontrolled desire we will never find happiness because we can never satisfy our desires. If instead we practice contentment and control our desires we will always be happy.
'just forget' all our usual worries and problems
In this way, for the time we are at the Festival, we put to one side our normal pre-occupations and concerns. Geshe-la often used to say at the beginning of Festivals "Just forget all your usual worries and problems" and he would encourage us that it didn't matter if for a few days or weeks our external conditions were not perfect. In fact it just might be that they are entirely perfect for us to deepen our practice and experience of the peace of contentment!
