EC Blog Archive for the ‘moreEC’ Category

Last weekend about 150 friends came together to listen to Gabi Volenko, Christiane Ewerbeck and Tommy Bogs share their insights about traveling with their Buddhist teachers. All have been Buddhists for more than 25 years and have been on the road again and again.

Even though the EC was still without snow, we all tucked in expecting fireside stories about how it was to travel with Lama Ole so many years ago. All three of course shared stories from that time and also gave us a frame about how the times and people’s mindset were three decades ago.

But it was not only stories about their travels. They also explained why we travel with our teachers. We don’t strive for exciting holidays. We try to get to know our mind and therefore we leave our habits and concepts behind to learn from our teacher in a multitude of situations. Both Gabi and Tommy gave lectures and answered questions pointing out in detail the benefit of traveling with our Lamas.

We also had a moreEC Karaoke night in the Baucafé. It was a great evening featuring celebrities from all around the globe. We enjoyed Australian rappers, a German-Lithuanian AC/DC interpretation and even “Take That” made a spontaneous appearance.

And: Madonna ist eine Berlinerin! ;-)     – by Michael Gellings

The EC Villa magically turned into a glamourous casino last weekend – for the benefit of moreEC, of course!

Who knows more about glamour than the Austrians – so thanks to the Graz Sangha, everything from the red carpet to the chips to the handsome croupiers was perfectly organized. We just had to take a seat at the poker, Black Jack or Roulette table and play – after taking part in what was certainly one of the best-dressed meditation sessions ever seen at the EC. ;-)

The fact that no one was going to get a single cent for themselves out of it or that only fake cigars were permitted did not stop us from discovering hidden and quite passionate gambling talents in our friends – some did not get up once for hours from the poker table, others spent the whole night at the Roulette, now looking forward to retreat days at the Buddhist Retreat Center in Graz for their friends instead of money.

Enough said – we think that the pictures speak for themselves, so there are a lot of them this time.

Only a week after Lama Ole finished a tour of the Nordic countries, many Danes, Finns, Norwegians, and Swedes made their way down to Bavaria to meet again – this time at the EC for the Nordic Country Weekend.

The weather could not have been more welcoming to the Vikings –  icy temperatures at night and warm sunshine with bright blue autumn skies all day long. The perfect setting for the Finnish “Outside adventure”, which saw brilliant performances in disciplines like wheelbarrow races. ;-)

For the sanghas of the North, it was a nice opportunity to come together, get to know each other, and focus on the exchange of experiences. Denmark is going to celebrate 40 years of Buddhism in the West next year – we learned a lot about the roots of Buddhism in Western Europe this weekend.

Following the wishes of their teacher, H.H. the 16th Karmapa, Lama Ole and his wife Hannah started one of the first Buddhist Centers in the West in their hometown of Copenhagen in the beginning of the 1970s, after returning from meditating and studying Buddhism for years in the East. Karmapa visited the North for the first time in 1974. Leif Andersen, a contemporary witness and international traveling teacher today, shared lots of inspiring memories and showed pictures from these times. Diamond Way Buddhism in the West started in Skandinavia and Graz – with over 600 centers around the world today.

Rounding up an evening of questions and answers with traveling teachers from all present Nordic countries, the Baucafé saw a very joyful party at night – viking style, of course! This did not stop anyone from showing very informative presentations and telling about the ongoings in their home sanghas on Sunday. Even the very young Icelandic sangha sent greetings and a portrait of their meditation group in Reykjavik via video.

It was certainly a weekend of many new friendships and connections – with lots of fun and tasty regional specialities in and in between the lectures and meetings. Inspired by this weekend, the next and from now on annual meeting of the Nordic sanghas was already fixed for next year in Sweden.