Lama Ole Nydahl Skydiving
We just came across this recent interview from the Canadian newspaper, the Calgary Herald.
BY MARIO TONEGUZZI, CALGARY HERALD NOVEMBER 12, 2011
Lama Ole Nydahl is a contemporary lama who enjoys skydiving, fast motorcycles and bungee jumping.
For almost 40 years he’s been busy setting up meditation centres around the world….
Dearest Diamond Way students and friends,
Again in 2011, every travel and overview shows real growth in the numbers and activities of our Buddhist centers and their members in spiritually free countries worldwide.
Standing together and guided by the blessing of our unbroken transmission through 900 years of the Karmapas and Shamarpas, as well as today’s lamas and students protecting and representing them, we are bringing ultimate meaning and timeless methods towards realization to ever more karmically gifted minds.
Lama Ole Nydahl teaching in Manchester, November 2011
Lama Ole Nydahl visited the UK from 8-10 November 2011 to teach in Manchester, Exeter and London. Here is a report of these exciting three days. Click on any of the thumbnails to enlarge the image.
Lama Ole arrived St Pancras International by Eurostar from Belgium, having already taught in Paris, Rotterdam and Brussels during the previous days on this year’s “Channel Tour”, an annual part of Lama Ole’s teaching schedule in which he is invited by his centres in the countries along the English Channel – France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK. Typically this tour is made via coach, with a full travelling group of about 60 students who, as well as attending Lama Ole’s public lectures, use the opportunity to spend more time together with their lama and sangha friends, strengthen connections and use the long coach rides for personal questions and interviews. On this leg of the journey though, Lama Ole took the Eurostar to make enough time to visit the Diamond Way Buddhist Group in St Albans.
Lama Ole Nydahl in London November 2011
Lama Ole Nydahl will teach in Manchester, Exeter and London this November. Click on the images to enlarge, and visit the Diamond Way Buddhism UK website for further details.
Full details of Lama Ole’s UK visit can be found at our website www.buddhism.org.uk
Lama Ole Nydahl teaching in 2010
This teaching was published in 2001 in edition 9 of the magazine “Buddhism Today”.
Buddhism Today Vol.9
Any observation of the outer and inner worlds refers one to mind. Only mind is constantly and truly present, although not as a “something.” Consciousness is like space, unchanging and timeless, while its objects are conditioned. Both the outer world and beings’ inner states appear, change, and disappear. Only the experiencer is timeless, limitless, and everywhere.
The Great Seal, Mahamudra in Sanskrit and Chag Chen in Tibetan, was taught by Buddha to fully awaken mind’s potential and to seal its enlightened nature. Whoever rests in the radiance of the mirror while enjoying its images, and recognizes the indestructibility of the ocean beneath the play of the waves, has reached this goal.
The path there is a steadily increasing experience of richness and the bliss which enlightenment makes permanent. It already begins to manifest in short and weakened forms during the moments when no habits or expectations distract mind. Also non-meditators may taste some of this power during the free fall before the parachute opens or on a fast motorcycle, and all (hopefully) know it from sexual union. It appears in a flash when sneezing, as the joyful “a-ha” at a new and striking insight, or when one shares in the goodness or joy of others. Meditation, however, is the concise and scientific way to make this state permanent. In particular, the three “old” or “red hat” schools of Tibetan Buddhism, which focus on the Diamond Way practices of view and transformation, can make such moments into a lasting experience. Even a short exchange with a holder of the Great Seal of awareness can set off this maturation process, but a close friendship with him, or one’s co-operation in his groups is always the most effective method. In meditation, as in life, one will then experience a growing and joyful oneness with phenomena until suffering and frustrations are definitely seen as something unnecessary and odd.
Lama Ole Nydahl teaching in 2009 (Photo: JR Petersen)
This teaching was published in 2005 in Issue 16 of the magazine “Buddhism Today”. The original can be seen at the BuddhaChannel portal.
Conducted by Artur Przybyslawski at the Diamond Way Buddhist Center Vilnius, Lithuania, on September 25, 2004.
2600th Sambuddha Jayanthi
On 29 May 2011 a special event marking the 2600th anniversary of Buddha’s enlightenment is being held in London under the leadership of the UK Sri Lankan Sangha Sabha Council, with the participation of other Buddhist organisations and groups in the UK, particularly the Buddhist Society.
The 2600th “Sambuddha Jayanthi” celebration will combine talks on Buddhism given by international speakers, items that highlight the important contributions made by Buddhism in today’s world, and a selection of short cultural performances from different countries that have links to Buddhism.
In connection with the celebration, Lama Ole Nydahl offered the following message, which has been included in the souvenir programme printed for the event:
“Our finest celebration of Buddha’s enlightenment 2600 years ago would be remembering his ultimate teachings of the Great Seal (Skt. Mahamudra):
Mahamudra is the recognition that everything which might constitue an “I” or “self” such as body and feelings is conditioned and impermanent, while that which is timeless and shared by all – mind’s conscious space which allows for and experiences everything – is the same in all. The insight that this conscious space is beyond beginning or end first awakens basic fearlessness. From this manifests self-arisen joy because mind is limitless and can experience all richness, and finally compassion appears because all beings are endowed with this perfection, but so rarely experience it. This again leads to meaningful activity to awaken all.
Yours, Lama Ole from Diamond Way Karma Kagyu”
Europe Center Blog Meditation Research Blog