EC Blog Archive for the ‘Internationality’ Category

The Spanish-Ukrainian country weekend at the EC started with sunny Spanish weather and ended with rather typical Ukrainian weather…

Many friends not only from the hosting countries gathered to share experiences from both countries and to get to know each other and the Europe Center better.

One of the youngest Ukrainian representatives in a traditional embroidered shirt welcomed guests and residents with a refreshing drink (smoked dried fruits and water) and tiny chocolates with Ukrainian landmarks. Soon after, the Spanish sangha joined the opening event.

Saturday started with a typical Ukrainian breakfast and meditating together.  The Ukrainian sangha presented their projects and milestones of Buddhist activity in their country. As the Spanish friends put it: “Everyone knows Spain: “We have sun, wine and Karma Guen. Ukraine has to show the map first.” So, we started with the map.

After lunch, Traveling teachers from both countries shared their wisdom about Buddhist refuge and answered questions. The Spanish sangha’s presentation before common the meditation wrapped up our exchange of information about the two countries.

Late at night, the Baucafé became a melting pot: traditional Ukrainian and Spanish dances, songs and a quiz about both countries, snacks and talking.

On Sunday, the Spanish sangha took over the kitchen and later on waved good-bye to leaving guests.

We learned that we have much more in common than we thought (in addition to Buddha nature, football, “mañana” and pork… ).
It is always a joy to work, to meditate, and to have fun together!

— by the Spanish and Ukrainian Sangha —

Caty Hartung and Tomek Lehnert took the time to share their experiences, from their many years on the road and in the air with Lama Ole.

We started off with a lecture about the student and teacher relationship by Tomek, followed by questions and answers with both he  & Caty.  We got to know how Caty and Tomek became students of Lama Ole, and how and why they started to travel with him around the world until today.

During the lectures on Saturday we talked about fearlessness, highest joy and active compassion and heard exciting stories about  trust in the Lama. In the evening we squeezed Caty and Tomek with more questions and were inspired by a selection of pictures that were  taken over the last 20 years. On Sunday morning they shared some of the challenges  they had on their way and how they dealt with them.

Rounding up every session with a meditation on the 16th Karmapa  was very fitting!

Thanks to the Czech cooking crew and the joyful activity of all the friends who helped here and there, the atmosphere was very relaxed and on top there was time to get to know each other better. Caty and Tomek let us take part in their lives and gave us great inspiration, by showing how a student can identify with the Lamas’ qualities and out of this identification, the hard work can be full of joy and fun.

This week was all about clearing the Attic and archiving our precious goodies. Friends from Hungary, Austria, Venezuela, the US and Germany participated in restructuring the entire Attic, which is quite a spacious room above Lama Ole’s flat.

All the furniture, picture frames and other things which we did not immediately use after having bought the Villa where stored up there almost four years ago. Now, it was time to reorganise the space in order to protect the precious treasuries from possible rain because the southern part of the roof will be renewed soon.

Eighty. Exactly eighty steps from the cellar up to the attic of the Villa. Not a very symbolic number, but quite impressive when carrying heavy furniture, wooden skis, a doll house, a stylish but unfortunately broken Puck bicycle or other goodies downstairs – for the tenth time! Throughout this week, the back of the Diamond Room was enriched with a wooden box containing army blankets, the Lotus Room got a wardrobe for the clothes of our visiting friends and other rooms received the most beautiful old mirrors you can imagine. If it was not for fire regulations, we would have a fantastic space for an entire loft for Karmapa, as you can see on the pictures.

— by Johanna from Graz

Four weeks of meditation retreat came to an end with Lama Ole’s departure for his tour of Hongkong, Australia, and New Zealand on Wednesday – we think that these impressions from the last weeks of February do not need further comment. ;-)

Stupas are Buddhist monuments symbolizing the enlightened mind as well as the life of Buddha. They can be found all over Tibet, and many have been built in the West over the last decades, e.g. in Spain, Greece, Germany, Russia and Austria last year.

Every stupa contains relics and a “life tree” covered with mantras – the heart of a stupa. This central axis stands for different aspects of the wisdom of a Buddha. As with every element of a stupa, there are certain requirements concerning which tree is suitable to be used as a lifetree. According to the detailed traditional instructions, Lama Ole chose a tree from the EC forest during his February book retreat for the next stupa to be built in Europe this summer.

After the “tree action”, there was enough time to celebrate this special day together on the snowy hills of the Europe Center grounds.

Halfway through Lama Ole’s book February book retreat , here’s a glimpse of some the activity that has been going on and continues to go on.

To get the most out of these weeks for everyone visiting the EC, traveling teachers are guiding a meditation retreat in the Lama’s power field, with four meditation sessions per day. At the same time, Lama Ole has enough uninterrupted time to focus on writing the book together with Caty. The book will be about the different meditation practices of Diamond Way Buddhism. Before Lama Ole started to write, he gave a lecture about the meditation on the 16th Karmapa and spontaneously guided the morning meditation. The transcript of the lecture is now being used for the book.

In between the meditation sessions and meals everyone participating helps with the housekeeping, outside work, or restoring the villa for an hour; and of course there is also time to enjoy the EC winter wonderland.

In the evenings there is time to chat with friends from all across the globe, ask questions and listen to Dharma teachings. Guido and Florinda from Austria talked about Love and Partnership from a Buddhist perspective. The following night, Lama Ole decided to leave his desk for a few hours to join his old friends Pedro and Dorrit, recalling how the 17th Karmapa Thaye Dorje came to the West as a child. There was so much to tell and so many memories to share that Pedro spontaneously gave a second lecture the following afternoon.

The meditation retreat will continue for the duration of Lama Ole’s book retreat.

A kind of state of emergency happened at the EC lasting about 36 hours: During the book-retreat a heavy gale swept through the Allgäu region and brought more than one meter of fresh snow.

Despite four meditation sessions a day and the intense bookwork, friends from all parts of the world tirelessly shoveled the masses of snow  from morning until night. Lama Ole joyfully insisted on taking part, interrupting his bookwork several times and ploughed through the snowdrifts in his familiar powerful manner.

Supported by a snowplough and a wheel loader that kept the road free and pushed the piled up snow heaps to the sides, most of the visitors could arrive or depart without too big problems, also without getting stuck. Regardless the heavy storm which whipped into one’s face, made the clothes white and the neighboring shoveler disappear behind swirled up snow clouds, everybody’s mood was excellent – and for many a unique experience! As a nice close to the day, Lama Ole guided the evening meditation and then watched an exciting movie together into the night.

— by Pit Weigelt

“This place will never stop inspiring and touching people.”

Lama Ole Nydahl at the Summer Course team meeting, Feb 4, 2012

At the beginning of February the teams preparing the International Summer Course at the EC met for the first time this year. They updated each other about the current state of the planning. To many participants it did not even feel like an organizational meeting though. The experience of our Summer course “veterans” from previous years provides a solid basis of knowledge that makes it possible to focus on fresh ideas and more detailed questions concerning e.g. the kitchen area, child care or site-management already now.

By working together over the last four years, we developed further individually and as teams. We got to know each other and our complementary qualities and skills, learned how things work best, and improved in different areas and on many levels. So the organization of this year’s Summer Course is already well underway and we had a relaxed and joyful weekend together.

Inspired by the growing joy and friendship, we just took the time to chat and meditate together and enjoyed the sunny weather outside as well as the friendly atmosphere of an inspiring weekend.

Taking a short break from writing a new book about meditation in Diamond Way Buddhism, Lama Ole and Caty went for a walk up the mountain with the guests at the EC – enjoying the sunshine and the view across Allgäu at Siberian temperatures around -25° Celsius.

Recognizing one’s friends last weekend was not so easy – funky shiny people wearing thick layers of neon-colored clothes, funny glasses and helmets met for our 2^nd “Ski & Meditate” weekend.

It started with teachings about meditation by Patricia Press-Schaffrick and meditating together. Another dharma lecture by Sax Camarata from Italy rounded off the weekend later on.

On the mountain, we worked our way through bumpy ski-slopes and powdered through deep-snow hills. Since the sun was in hiding, some decided to spend more time on meditation in the EC gompa, while others were putting their luck and the stability of their bones to a test at what pilots call “zero sight” conditions – foggy -8 °C. A pure view was helpful to enjoy bumps suddenly appearing out of nowhere and sometimes making on end up in the snow with the nose first. ;-)

The EC is situated in between more than 15 ski resorts of every kind of level that snowboarders, alpine and nordic skiers and sledge drivers like to enjoy. Beautiful mountain hikes are easily accessible for walks in winter from here. So the name of the weekend kept what it promised: skiing & meditating… plus sharing laughs with friends and enjoying the fresh air and the beautiful EC surroundings.

Let´s do it again next year!
– by Tom