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Tenzin Ösel Hita giving a talk at Centro Shiwa Lha, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, September 2017. Photo courtesy of Centro Shiwa Lha.
Tenzin Ösel Hita, the recognized reincarnation of FPMT founder Lama Yeshe, gave a talk at Centro Shiwa Lha in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in September 2017. (At the beginning of 2017, Ösel toured European FPMT centers giving talks to hundreds of Dharma students.) Neyl Soares, director of Centro Shiwa Lha shared this update from Ösel’s visit:
Recently renovated and opened just six months ago, the building that houses Centro Shiwa Lha is a historic 19th-century house. Due to construction work, the center’s teaching and events calendar has been a work in progress. But a benefit of the remodeling process is that all activities can now be accommodated more comfortably in the new meditation and talks room, which has a capacity of up to sixty people. Upstairs in the building are guest teacher accommodations and outside there is a small yard with a guava tree and two papaya trees.
When we learned of Ösel Hita Torres coming to Brazil, we hurried to invite him for an informal visit and a talk. As we prepared for the talk, we were surprised to see that the projected audience numbers had quickly surpassed our permitted capacity. So, we moved the venue to a conference room in the neighborhood that would accommodate a large crowd.
While preparing the hired conference room, we noticed that there were resources to broadcast Ösel’s talk live to several FPMT centers, Facebook pages, and other social media platforms. To help in our desired broadcast of the talk, FPMT International Office put us in touch with Alexis Benelhadj, IT manager at Istitut Vajra Yogini in France. Alexis provided access to a streaming server, which allowed us to stream video to many destinations—our Facebook page and YouTube channel, the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive page, and Ösel’s own website—allowing us to reach even more people than we had initially imagined possible. The streaming connected people in various parts of the planet, benefiting many people.
Ösel arrived a couple of days in advance of his scheduled talk, so we had the chance to show him some of the sights and sounds of Rio.
Tenzin Ösel Hita giving a talk at Centro Shiwa Lha, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, September 2017. Photo courtesy of Centro Shiwa Lha.
During the event, the venue was packed with people of various ages and from different Dharma communities, all curious to listen Ösel talk. He was surprised by the number of people in attendance who were able to understand Spanish, but promised that since now he lives in Brazil, his next talk would be without translation.
After warming up the audience with a meditation focused on breathing and prayers, Ösel was clearly at ease. He quickly dismissed his notes and conducted the talk as if seated in the living room with family. Mostly the talk was in English with translation for the Brazilian attendees, but Ösel also used Spanish and a little Portuguese to clarify a number of points.
Overall, a highly successful event was delivered with lightness, and a keen spirit, which has resulted in giving us a sense of preparedness for the new season, and encourages us to engage in future responsibilities.
During his talk Ösel revealed that now he will live in Curitiba, southern Brazil, with his wife, who at the time was pregnant and expecting in one or two weeks. He told us that Centro Shiwa Lha will be his home in Rio de Janeiro. And baby Tenzin Norbu arrived within days!
Congratulations on your new baby, Indila and Ösel! ¡Enhorabuena por el bebé nuevo! Bem-vindo, Tenzin Norbu! May many benefit!
Watch Tenzi Ösel Hita talk at Centro Shiwa Lha in Rio de Janeiro:
https://www.youtube.com/Z3sC9Y-7uco
Find more information about Tenzin Ösel Hita on his resource page on FPMT.org, including news, photos, videos, and links to his official Facebook page:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/osel/
Learn more about Centro Shiwa Lha in Rio de Janeiro.
The Big Love Fund provides financial resources that enable Tenzin Ösel Hita to continue his endeavors on behalf of FPMT.