General Spiritual Director
An Auspicious Beginning for Kadam Dharma in Venezuela
Jul 7, 2026
NKT-IKBU International Spring Festival 2026 diaries
Day 4 ~ The importance of Eight Steps to Happiness for today's world
Feature Video ~ Simple Steps to Happiness
Over two sessions today Gen-la Khyenrab completes the teachings, sharing oral instructions and Geshe-la's essential teachings on the Eight Verses of Training the Mind originally composed almost 1000 years ago. One whole session is devoted to the mind of compassion and how to develop and extend it until it is a universal, all-embracing mind. Gen-la says, quoting Geshe-la,"From that point on everything we do will bring us closer to enlightenment, and our whole life will become meaningful."
Gen-la makes everyone laugh when he says, 'Don't be frightened - get enlightened!' But it is so true that although compassion finds the suffering of others unbearable, it does not make us depressed. Instead it gives us tremendous energy to benefit others and makes it impossible for strong delusions to arise.
Throughout the teachings we are encouraged to become deeply familiar with virtuous minds, and to rely on these minds rather than the deluded minds that bring so much suffering.
Teaching with Gen-la Khyenrab ~ Transforming Difficulties into the Path
The source of our inspiration
All the Festival teachings have been based on the book, The New Eight Steps to Happiness, written by the Founder of the New Kadampa Tradition, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. This inspiring book teaches us how to integrate Buddha's teachings into busy modern life. In the midst of the sufferings and problems we see around us, or that we experience in our own life, we gradually gain the ability to transform all these difficulties into the spiritual path to enlightenment.
“Everyone, whether religious or non-religious, is looking for happiness all the time and wants to be free from problems and suffering permanently. We can fulfil these wishes through understanding and practising the instructions given in this book.”.
— The New Eight Steps to Happiness
Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
One benefit of intensively listening to teachings and being immersed in the festival experience is that we can immediately remember the teachings and put them into practice. You can see people actively strengthening their patience with small difficulties that arise, trying to apply love to solve problems in relationships, to take responsabilty for their own minds and reactions and to remember that it is all an appearance to their mind.
In this way small inconveniences, unfulfilled wishes, and unexpected occurances become extremely useful training grounds for strengthening our patience, renunciation, love, compassion and wisdom. Learning to control our mind in this way we can experience real mental peace in place of our pain, worry and depression.
Gen-la finished by encouraging us to really enjoy the retreat and to take full advantage of this opportunity to put the teachings into practice and make progress with them.
Offering To The Spiritual Guide with the Global Kadampa Family
Finally, the day concludes with everyone gathered together in the Temple for the practice of Offering to the Spiritual Guide. Having received the precious teachings that Venerable Geshe-la shares from his own experience—teachings that bring happiness in this life and in future lives—we engage in these prayers with deep gratitude, faith and love.
Festival Podcast
/
RSS Feed
In this podcast, taken from the Spring Festival 2026, Gen-la Khyenrab guides us to develop authentic compassion by encouraging us to begin with those that we already love.
