Over 500 people attended the National Brazilian Festival 2023 at the beginning of November at the Temple for World Peace, Kadampa Meditation Center Brasil. Practitioners from all over the country gathered to receive special blessings from Gen-la Dekyong, NKT’s General Spiritual Director who traveled to South America to grant the Empowerment of Buddha Amitayus.
At the Kadampa Temple there is an air of anticipation as the community from all over Brazil and beyond are working together preparing for the Brazil National Festival, with Gen-la Kelsang Dekyong the NKT General Spiritual Director.
Recently, five more Kadampa Meditation Centers located in the Grand Canyon, Menorca, Fraser Valley, Hong Kong, and Tharpaland in Germany concluded their post-festival retreats. Explore the highlights and insights from these experiences.
Recently, three Kadampa Meditation Centers in Spain—Madrid, Albacete, and Barcelona—concluded their post-festival retreats. KMC Granda also completed a special event with Gen-la Kunsang. Join us as we explore the highlights and insights from these gatherings, offering a glance into Spain’s thriving Kadampa Buddhist community.
There are three International Kadampa Festivals to look forward to in 2024, including one in Brazil! Read on to find out more and to put the dates in your diary for your spiritual holidays next year.
In the upcoming weeks, a valuable opportunity will be available to the people of South America. The National Festivals in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile will feature the practice of Buddha Amitayus, the Buddha of Long Life, Wisdom, and Merit.
It’s been a very special, blessed festival, and now like a pure dream, the festival draws to a close, but leaves everyone forever changed.
After receiving a wealth of teachings, we complete the Festival with a day and a half of retreat beautifully and skilfully guided by Gen Rabten. The emphasis is on the first of the eleven reversals, taking us step by step through the meditation on relying on the Spiritual Guide from the book Mirror of Dharma with additions. He gives everyone a lot of time to contemplate, find their own object of meditation and meditate to deepen our familiarity with that object. Then we engage in the Medicine Buddha Sadhana as an extension of our faith, visualising our Spiritual Guide in this pure, healing aspect. Each day concludes with the Medicine Buddha Prayers, where we use the connection we have made with Medicine Guru to make powerful prayers and visualisations to heal the mental continuum of all living beings.
After another wonderful meditation session on Medicine Buddha we had the final two teachings from Gen-la Khyenrab. In the first teaching he completed the commentary to the practice of the 11 reversals.
Alongside the practice of Medicine Buddha, we are learning about the Eleven Reversals. As Gen-la Khyenrab explained this is another way of dividing up and practising Lamrim.
General Spiritual Director
