EC Blog Archive for the ‘About the EC’ Category

28 degrees and bright sunshine provided the perfect setting for a very special occasion last Sunday. Or actually, two very special occasions!

Together with around 300 visitors from the Immenstadt region, we celebrated the founding of Gut Hochreute 100 years ago in 1911. The motto was “Past, Present and Future of Gut Hochreute”. In a special exhibition lots of pictures were shown from the times of the former owners,  the Martini and Herz families, as well as everyday items and rare documents from the last century in the precious Art Nouveau buildings which are today the Europe Center. If you would like to learn more about the history of this architectural jewel, please klick here.

It was also the yearly open house day of all Diamond Way Buddhist Centers in Bavaria – so guided tours of the historic exhibition and the villa were one option – another was listening to introductory talks and taking part in a short meditation. The visitors also had the opportunity to find out more about the plans of our future meditation hall and the new buildings north of the barn.

The atmosphere was relaxed and joyful. Amongst others, we enjoyed homemade cake and the Bavarian specialty Leberkässemmel in the garden, accompanied by live music from the equally traditional Bavarian brass band.

By meike

After he spent three weeks painting the two new pictures for the Villa’s yellow salon and opening the eyes of several Buddha statues, Thangka painting master Dawa from Nepal guided a course for those interested in learning the high art of thangka painting.

Thangka is a “scroll painting”; an ancient art form that primarily depicts images, such as Buddha aspects, or accomplished teachers from history. Tibetans are historically nomadic, and found it easy to transport artwork in a scroll form. A thangka is a complicated, composite three-dimensional object consisting of: a picture panel which is painted or embroidered, a textile mounting; and one or more of the following: a silk cover, leather corners, wooden dowels at the top and bottom and metal or wooden decorative knobs on the bottom dowel.

Dawa’s lecture about the different styles of thangka painting was the start of a whole week of diligent day and night practice in the villa’s dining room and winter garden, which were transformed into ateliers with a view for this purpose. The sky over Immenstadt provided some nice inspiration for the course – dramatic clouds and rainbows…

Below you can see some extracts of the precious paintings work in Karma Gadhri style that Dawa created on the walls of the meditation hall in Karma Guen, Spain.

Dawa was asked by H.H. Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje to teach his students in the West – so we would like to thank him for coming to the Europe Center in order to do this – and hope to welcome him again here very soon!

By meike

After the 4th International Summer course with thousands of people on site – back to normal. Whatever that means at the Europe Center… here’s just a few of the things that have been going on during the last two weeks.

We were quite busy dismantling the course with the help of a lot of friends from Poland, Austria, Russia and many more countries (in fact, we were so busy that we forgot to take pictures! ). Many, many thanks to everyone who stayed to help!

Conça, her daughter Ananda, and Joachim served us the most delicious brazilian sweet specialties, told about Diamond Way Buddhism in Brazil, and afterwards even taught us how to dance the samba!

As part of the moreEC action, Cristina and Henkjan hosted a hilarious quiz night in the baucafé to raise money for the new EC building, and our South-North-American power couple Yomaira and Jeremiah spent days and nights planning the upcoming moreEC action in the Americas.

And last but not least, René and his beautiful bride Romana tied the knot officially at the EC – accompanied by rainbows. The villa’s yellow salon is an official wedding room of the city of Immenstadt for any couple that would like to get married in this beautiful place. Best wishes to the newlyweds from the EC team!

By meike

EC villa’s yellow room now shines even more than before – thanks to two new paintings by renowned thangka painter Dawa, Urken Lama from Kathmandu, Nepal.

For the last weeks, our winter-garden, the beautiful ground floor room overviewing the lake, became Dawa’s atelier. According to the wishes of H.H. 17th Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje, Dawa painted two pictures with the auspicious motives of a dragon and a peacock for the oval frames above the doors connecting the yellow salon with the two neighboring rooms.

Dawa is a master of the Karma Gadri style of Tibetan art. He lives with his wife and daughters in Rumtek, Sikkim (India) and is a close student of 17th Karmapa Thaye Dorje. The Karmapa asked him to teach this style to students of Diamond Way Buddhism after finishing the project of painting the walls of the large meditation hall in Karma Guen, Spain.

Dawa also “opened” the eyes of several Buddha statues, like the one of Buddha Maitreya visible on the pictures. During the following week, Dawa will host the first thangka painting course at the Europe Center and we are honored to have him here as our guest for even some more days.

By meike

Hellooo world, hellooo Immenstadt, hellooo Europe Center…

Are you ready?  OK, one more time – ARE YOU READYYYY?!?!

10,9,8,7,6,5…go!

…and the full hall cheered in accord.

This is how the long-awaited moreEC fundraising was finally launched on Sunday, 7 August. The campaign aims to bring together all our friends and centers around the world and collect financial resources needed for completing the vision born 13 years ago with a wish for a central international place uniting the whole Diamond Way Buddhism worldwide. Today’s Europe Center fulfills this vision already on many levels by hosting high Lamas of the Kagyu lineage and bringing easily thousands of people from 40+ countries together on one course, like this summer but its function is still limited and often improvised.

This will all change when we inaugurate the new facilities. With a large 570m2 gompa and enough space for guests, residents & families, we can look forward to mediation courses with our teachers during the whole year. And as Lama Ole said on this evening – from that moment on, everything will flow back from here again, empowering all our 600+ centers around the globe.

The whole evening was very relaxed and joyful. Rather than presentations and bullet-points, we had a moderator, a piano player and many guests on the stage – friends who are in involved in the Europe Center project since the very beginning, friends who moved in once we bought it, and of course Lama Ole who gave the most inspiring speech which opened everyone’s hearts.

It is now very clear what task we have ahead of us. So what do you think, do we have the power to do it? The friends present this evening went in unison - YES!

moreEC team (more.ec/blog)

PS: Do you want to also join the adventure? Come on in…!

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By klara

For the second time our Transmission days took place at the EC starting after the Phowa course. All three days were held by Lama Ole, Caty and Tomek telling us all kinds of stories about how Diamond Way Buddhism has developed in the West since 1991 till 2000.

The conversations were supplemented by photographs and short films shown on two big screens. Lama Ole’s students in the audience commented the stories in order to give a colorful picture of the past. Many people were attending these days and learned about the history of Diamond Way Buddhism in the West.

Although the Transmission Days are over for this year, we are already looking forward to the next programm: a 12hr meditation on Loving Eyes and initiations into long life aspects with Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche.

By klara

One of many international meetings during the summer course and definitely a very significant one – on Saturday the new board of trustees of the Diamond Way Buddhism Foundation met in the EC Villa.

The goal of the Diamond Way Buddhism Foundation is to make the millennium-old Buddhist wisdom accessible to the people of the modern world. The tradition of the Diamond Way, which is threatened in the East, should be preserved for future generations in the West. In due time, its methods and values should be returned to its countries of origin.

The foundation…
• offers public access to Buddhist teachings and meditations.
• creates publicly-accessible places for meeting, exchange, studies and retreat.
• is asked to support Buddhist-oriented terminal care.
• finances the translation of traditional Buddhist texts into western languages
• supports Buddhist art, Tibetan medicine and culture.
• organizes, attends to and supports international Buddhist networks.
• supports charitable and social services within the context of a non-profit organization.

The foundation works worldwide with our 600 Buddhist centers. Over the next year, the main focus will be on the extension of the Europe Center and the construction of its new buildings. After this, the foundation’s focus of activity is going to shift to other projects all over the world again.
If you would like to know more about the Diamond Way Buddhism Foundation, please visit www.buddhismus-stiftung.de.

By meike

Just a quick snapshot from the team area behind the kitchen proving how easy it is to catch buddhists from lots of different countries having fun after lunch together.

Jean Christophe from France, Marek from Warsaw/Poland, Macarena from Buenos Aires/Argentina, Johanna from Graz/Austria, Eckart from Buenos Aires, Helena from Rejkjavik/Iceland – and Copenhagen/Denmark – Axel and Lisa from Argentina, Doris from Innsbruck/Austria and John from Madison, USA.

Spontaneously sharing a laugh, experiences and stories over a meal surely creates new and deepens old friendships across the globe that are going to last much longer than this course!

By meike

It’s done! The tents are up and “furnished”, many many friends are already here awaiting the kick-off of the 4th International Summer Course at the EC.

In between all the buzzing activity of the course build-up, there was also a different side to the last four weeks. Volen from Bulgaria beautifully captured some of the more quiet moments of friendship, reflection, relaxation, and meditation. Enjoy!

By meike

On the one hand a time is passing very quickly here, during the build-up phase of the International Summer Course, on the other hand we can not agree with the calendar: for us a few days here feels more like weeks.. Sometimes our posts on the blog are not as fast as the work outside and also in the offices – we want to show you some „old” photos of the moments of preparing the floor in the gompa tent and moments of sharing work and fun.

Nowadays we have a few sunny days after a lot of rainy hours. So when you consider that the mud outside the gompa tent was similar to that inside the tent, you can imagine how difficult it was to set up a wooden floor. The work is not only happening with construction or building up the course. We have a bunch of friends who at the same time are quietly working on their computers – preparing the moreEC campaign, graphics, registration systems, program schedules, translations and much much more.

Of course we are not only working: we have lectures of the traveling teachers who are here (like John from the US or Peter from Spain), movie evenings, late night talks and – surprisingly – parties in the Bau-Cafe

..and only a few days and we meet with our Lamas and thousands of our friends! Life is great at the EC!

By hubert