EC Blog Archive for the ‘moreEC’ Category

Last weekend we had a wonderful experience here at the Europe Center. It was a bit rainy and cold, so we were more than happy to stay inside for a weekend, eager to learn about the masters and mistresses of the Karma Kagyu lineage.

Manfred Seegers kicked off the weekend with the opening lecture. He explained buddhist terminology and told us that at the end of the packed weekend, we should understand what “Kagyu” means, and if not we would need to start again!

On Saturday morning Kerstin Seifert gave the first of two sessions entitled “Indian and Tibetan origins of our lineage”, and gave us an insight into many of the un-named great female masters of the lineage and of what it might have been like to be Buddhist at that time.

Manfred continued in the afternoon, taking us over the mountains from Indian to Tibet and into the time of the Karmapas. On Saturday evening Kerstin and Manfred were joined by Detlev Goebel from “Buddhism Today” for a question and answer session – with a brief interruption in proceedings for the EC to be connected to Poland, Latvia and other countries for a MoreEC evening via live streaming.

On Sunday the amazing duo concluded the weekend with explanations on the meaning of Guru Yoga practice on the 16th Karmapa and its use through our foundational practices. The perfect end to a wonderfully inspiring weekend!

The dedicated work of the past summer months by the EC roof team is coming to an end – half of the new villa’s roof is almost finished and shining. For the other half, which is to be retiled in 2012, we need your wishes!

As you might know by now – it is not “just” a solid new roof. Our EC villa will be covered by your wishes for the benefit of all. All the wishes already made during and around the summer course are now on the roof – thanks to our professional roof expert Edwin and his team, not a single one of them broke in the tiling process. The wishes of our precious teachers like Shamar Rinpoche, Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche, Lama Toensang and Lama Ole Nydahl were already placed on the very top of the roof in the middle.

You can buy tiles to write your individual wishes or those of your home sangha directly at the EC when you come or you send them to us by mail and we write them on a tile in your name. All money is collected exclusively for moreEC.

A roof tile with your individual wishes:
suggested donation: 2 Euros or more

An edge roof tile for Diamond Way Buddhist Centers, groups and sanghas:
suggested donation: 108 Euros or more
Of course you can buy as many as you like individually or as a center/group.

It’s easy to place your roof tile order:
1) Write down your wishes
2) Send a mail with your group’s or center’s complete contact information, amount of tiles and your wishes to Frauke: moreroof@yahoo.de
2) Please transfer the money to the respective national accounts with the listed here and write only “Spende Europazentrum” as the reason for payment.

And last but not least  – please don’t forget to come as soon as you can to spend some time under a roof that is being built to last longer than 100 years and consists of your wishes.

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!

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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The 4th International Summer Course at the Europe Center is off to a magnificent start!

Following the first International Center Meeting, Lama Ole has been teaching the meditation practice of conscious dying during the last days in the biggest Phowa course ever – worldwide.

However… there is so much more to come. The new model of the planned Europe Center building now on display in the dining tent is just the beginning. On August 7th, watch the kick-off of the moreEC fundraising campaign – either together with Lama Ole and thousands of friends in the gompa tent or anywhere else in the world via live streaming.

MoreJOY, moreACTION, moreEC!
Watch the space… ;-)

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!

The creativity of our Hamburg friends knows no limits. Going through a construction phase in their center themselves, they gathered to celebrate the completion of their new kitchen in a spectacular way, last Saturday – by bull riding! But not only that, they used the occasion also for supporting the Europe Center. Not waiting for the new “More EC” fundraising campaign to start officially in the summer, they collected all the profit from the event as a donation for the upcoming EC expansion project.