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Lama Zopa Rinpoche preparing to teach at Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London, UK, July 2014. Photo by Pierre Aloize.
Spiritual program coordinator Mike Murray from Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London reports on the center’s activities during June-August 2014:
This summer in London turned out to be wish fulfilling. Our kind guru Lama Zopa Rinpoche came in July to visit for the first time in a good few years. Over 70 people volunteered their time and offered financial support to make the visit a success and to make the center look its best.
Rinpoche was on top form. He gave one public talk in the Conway Hall and then gave five evenings of teachings at Jamyang, culminating in a Heruka Five Deities initiation. At the end, he kindly accepted a long life puja offering from the students. He was utterly extraordinary. The whole experience was uplifting, inspiring, heart opening, mind expanding and, at times, totally exhausting. May he come back very soon!
Afterward, Rinpoche left for America to be with Geshe Sopa at Deer Park. Our resident teacher Geshe Tashi Tsering once again led his annual nine-day summer lam-rim retreat in late July. This year, the students settled into retreat mode far more quickly than before, and the aura of contemplative caring calm that pervades retreat began to cover the building. For our very busy city center, this is our annual immersion in stability, clarity, kindness and calm. Geshe Tashi’s explanations and his insistence on combining training in shamata with lam-rim meditation from the beginning really gave students a taste of what transformation is possible.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche preparing for initiation, Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London, UK, July 2014. Photo by Pierre Aloize.
In late August, we hosted a six-day teaching on the Heart Sutra by Glen Svensson. It was with this that we launched our very first five-year Basic Program course. It seems odd that up till now the English-speaking countries in Europe have not hosted this amazing course, but now one of them is. Glen is a seriously good teacher and the 20 or so students embarking on the Basic Program found out just how relevant to daily life the Heart Sutra teachings are.
Geshe Tashi Tsering is currently teaching the Sublime Continuum on Tuesdays and the Middle Length Lam-rim on Wednesdays and our autumn program is in full swing. In November we hosted the Heart Shrine Relic Tour; then a visit by the very the first female geshe, Geshe Kelsang Wangmo; then Andy Weber; then Geshe Sherab from Kopan; then Geshe Graham Woodhouse; and we end with a double nyung nä before Christmas. Along the way, there were Tara pujas, Medicine Buddha pujas, Lama Chöpa tsok pujas, recitations of the Golden Light Sutra and of the Sanghata Sutra It was an autumn of much merit!
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