Weekend with Peter Gomez

We had the pleasure of welcoming not one, but three experienced travelling teachers at the Europe Center this weekend.

Peter Gomez, who is living with his family in Southern Spain, was accompanied by our local heroes Klaus Neukirchen and Michael Gellings. The topic of the weekend was Buddhist refuge. In our daily lives, we each have our own understanding of what makes us happy, but in the end, we cannot take anything with us when we die. As Buddhists, we rely not on the passing phenomena which come and go, but we take refuge in the Buddha, the fully developed state of mind, in his teachings or Dharma, and in the Sangha, our friends and helpers on the way.

On Saturday afternoon, we enjoyed the interaction between Klaus and Peter. In the evening, they were joined by Michael Gellings, who brought his own approach into the mix. It was great to see how everyone has their own way of teaching the Dharma and explaining Buddhist Refuge.

On Saturday morning, Peter and Klaus shared some interesting, astonishing and also funny stories about some great Lamas such as Kalu Rinpoche, the 16th and the 17th Karmapa and also Karmapaˋs father and mother, Mipham Rinpoche and Decheng Wangmo.

Thank you, Peter, for coming such a long way, and to all three of you for sharing so much of your personal experience with us, as well as explaining the Dharma. We all enjoyed it very much and are very much looking forward to the next time we meet at the EC and elsewhere in the world.

(Ingrid)