Five days with Jigme Rinpoche - saturday, april 23 till wednesday 27
Loving kindness and clarity of mind / Ultimate reality, relative truth

Some pictures here >>>

As human beings we need to find meaning in what we are living. We have to relate in an appropriate manner to our environment, and welcome others in our lives the way they are. So as to make us capable of finding a path that will allow us to be beneficial for ourselves and for others, Buddha taught the enlightened attitude: a way to discover what wisdom, mind's essential core, really is, and how it is expressed as the various facets of compassion, relative reality. Jigme Rinpoche transmitted the methods of practising the ultimate and the relative simultaneously in such a way that loving kindness and compassion become a path of wisdom.

Despite heavy rain on the first day, an audience of about 200 people came to listen to Jigme Rinpoches explanations on the two realities - ultimate and relative truth. Translated from the English by Lama Puntso, Rinpoche started out by giving detailed explanations on important notions of the dharma, such as ignorance, the belief in the existence of a self, emotions, karma and illusion. He based his presentation on the Tibetan etymological origins and related them through various vivid illustrations to our experiences in daily life. In his very thorough and delicate manner he gave a picture of the progressive liberation of the process of suffering.

On sunday, april 24, more than 300 people received the empowerment and blessing of Green Tara, and many new practitioners took part in the refuge ceremony with Rinpoche, surrounded by the assembly of elder practitioners.

Under splendid sunshine Jigme Rinpoche finished his teachings with an incitation to take these several days' instructions as a starting point for our learning, reflecting and understanding of the Buddha's teachings: In this way, the Dharma can become meaningful for us.

Some extracts of the teachings:

"We have to face the situation we are in, openly and frankly, in order to transform it. Becoming aware of our condition will allow us to understand samsara and the six types of beings with their various kinds of pain and suffering: This is the relative truth, the starting point of our spiritual journey."

"If there is listening, reflexion and application of the Buddha's teaching, there will always be a possibility of transformation."

"When we get stuck on the level of appearances and of feelings, really believing in their existence, we become prisonners. The moment we know that beyond appearance there is another reality, a more ultimate level, our way of handling situations in life will change. There is a another vision or perspective, even though we might not yet have a direct experience of the ultimate dimension."

"As far as enlightenment is concerned, we are like a child in front of an apple tree: we have to grow in order to obtain the fruit. If we wish to attain enlightenment, there is a path we have to travel along."

"Samasara is a succession of pleasure and pain. Happiness – we know it – will not last. There is no « happy end » in samsara. Therefore take all situations, those of well-being and those of dissatisfaction as material of transformation – a means to liberate yourself from samsara."