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3000 Buddhists Want to Meditate in Bühl
August 13th, 2008
German original
Allgäuer Anzeigeblatt August 13, 2008 , Europe Center
Europe-Center visitors from 40 nations take part in the summer course
Immenstadt-Bühl │spe │Gut Hochreute is stately enthroned above the Alpsee for nearly 100 years now. The art nouveau estate was built in 1911 and has always been in private hands as yet. But now the manor above Bühl (Oberallgäu) accommodates an international junction of Buddhism – the Europe Center of the Diamond Way Buddhism Foundation. For the summer course, which started there yesterday, about 3000 Buddhists from all over the world are expected to come. They will meditate in large tents and set up camp on the meadow of the 50 hectare big area. The course will end on 24 August.
Lama Ole Nydahl is one of the best known Buddhist teachers in the western world and will give lectures during the summer course as well as meditate with his followers. Talking about the Oberallgäu, the Dane becomes enthusiastic. For ten years they were looking for a suitable place for the Europe Center and eventually found it in Gut Hochreute. You would not consider him to be a Buddhist at first sight: Nydahl does not walk in long red garments like the Dalai Lama but dresses “quite normally”, likes to drive a motorbike and immediately offers to call him by his first name.
Learning to die consciously
During the initial 5 days of the summer course, Lama Ole Nydahl will teach a meditation for conscious dying. This shall bring the participants to also actively help others during the process of dying. Afterwards the followers will meditate for 72 hours in turns. As from 21 to 24 August the highest spiritual dignitary of the Karma Kagyü Tradition, the 17th Karmapa Thaye Dorje from Tibet, will finally visit the center.
On Sunday 17 August 20:00, Gut Hochreute opens up for “non-Buddhists”: Lama Ole Nydahl offers an introduction into Buddhism for the interested population. Visitors can ask questions and join a meditation. Guests, however, will have to leave their cars behind. They can either walk or will be shuttled form parking place Viehmarktplatz in Immenstadt to the Buddhist Center.
For Caty Hartung, board member of the Diamond Way Foundation, the entire project is a special challenge: “We want to cultivate the information exchange between Buddhists from all over the world”, she said. Germans are working closely with Swedes, Danes, Czechs, Austrians, Hungarians, they communicate in English, and all of them voluntarily join hands together.
During the following two weeks tents will be set up side by side on Gut Hochreute, thousands of guests will be there. And afterwards? “We will develop a seminar program in the following year”, Caty Hartung announces.
Art insights
In November, a statue exhibition shall allow the population an insight into Buddhist art. Additionally, after the summer course, a meditation takes place every Thursday at 20:00. Visitors are welcome.
Picture description:
This man still meditates quite lonely in the large hall of the Buddhist Centre at Gut Hochreute. But very soon he will be in the company of about 3000 Buddhists from all over the world. They are expected for the summer course which started yesterday at the manor.
The Diamond Way within Buddhism
- Buddhism is the main religion for several East Asian countries with worldwide about 375 millions of followers. Since the seventies, the religion appeals to more and more people in the west. The Deutsche Buddhistische Union assumes a number of 250,000 active Buddhists in Germany, half of which are immigrated Asians.
- The Diamond Way is one of three kinds of Tibetan Buddhism: The first aims to prevent suffering, the second mainly teaches compassion and wisdom and the followers of the third
- The Diamond Way – wants to recognize the mind as clear light. The members of Diamond Way Buddhism particularly trust in their own “Buddha Nature” and learn to experience the world from a rich and self liberating point of view, informs the Diamond Way Foundation.
- The “Karma Kagyü Lineage” is one of the large Buddhist schools within the Diamond Way. It specially emphasizes meditation and the direct realization of the nature of mind by transmission from the teacher.
Posted on August 13th, 2008.
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