Karol Sleczek UK Tour, March 2010

From 1-21 March 2010 travelling teacher Karol Sleczek made an epic teaching tour of our UK Diamond Way groups and centres. Karol has been practicing Buddhism for over 30 years. He was one of the first students of Lama Ole Nydahl in his home country of Poland and has been instrumental in the establishment of Diamond Way Buddhism there – today Poland has over 60 Diamond Way Buddhist centres including six retreat centres. Karol, who is also trained in classical philosophy, has been travelling internationally for many years giving lectures and courses on Buddhism at Lama Ole Nydahl’s request. He is highly respected for the depth of his wisdom and incisive teachings. He has visited the UK regularly since 2003 and it is always a great pleasure to welcome him back.

The map below shows Karol’s tour, together with labels for each place where he taught.

View Karol Sleczek UK Tour March 2010 in a larger map

Karol’s tour started in Scotland with a two-day program in Edinburgh where he taught on the Four Foundational Practices at our Diamond Way group based in Leith, followed by two days with our Glasgow group where he gave a lot of encouragement for the friends there in their practice and efforts to strengthen their activity. Afterwards Karol toured several of the Diamond Way Buddhist groups in Northern England. First were two days in Newcastle which included a lecture on the Kagyu lineage at our group’s premises, and a pubilc lecture on “Buddhism and the Art of Happiness” at the Central Library. Following this were two days with our group in Sheffield and one day in Manchester.

The Southern leg of Karol’s tour then commenced with two days in Exeter, including a public lecture at the Exeter Phoenix Theatre and a lecture in the Exeter Diamond Way Buddhist Centre. Karol then travelled on to London for a weekend study course based on Lama Ole Nydahl’s book “The Way Things Are“. This was a continuation of a similar course held in London in 2009 in which Karol gave a page-by-page commentary on the Lama Ole’s book, and answered numerous questions from the audience. During the previous year’s course only half of the book was covered, so this time Karol commenced from where he left off one year ago.

On Friday 12 March the London Diamond Way Buddhist Centre also had the great honour of hosting a special “surprise guest”, Tomek Lehnert, who was visiting London. Tomek opened the weekend’s teachings with an inspiring lecture on the “Teacher-Student Relationship” based on his 20 years of travelling around the world as Lama Ole Nydahl’s personal assistant.

Karol’s first lecture after two busy days in London took place in Reading. The topic was “Wisdom and Compassion”. As usual a few people from the Oxford sangha joined. The next lecture was in Oxford. As Karol walked around the old city for the first time he commented to the Sangha friends that was surprised because he expected to feel a vibration of “studying” but it was more one of “clubbing”! Karol’s public lecture took place in the evening in the beautiful old Council Chamber.

After Oxford Karol went to Canterbury. The public lecture was entitled “Buddhism in Everyday Life”. Since some of the Canterbury sangha live in Rochester, the next lecture, entitled “Death and Rebirth” happened there.

The next stop was our new Brighton Buddhist Centre. On the first day the topic was “Buddhist Refuge” and there were about 20-25 people at the lecture. On the second day Karol participated in the official “open day” organised by the Brighton sangha, for locals to pop in, meet their new neighbors and and ask questions. In the evening Brighton experienced the “London Sangha invasion”. The modest-sized meditation room was more than full with over 40 people. After the lecture the hosts in Brighton took Karol to a nearby pub to experience the locals in action.

The next day after a wholesome English breakfast, Karol was driven to St Albans. The lecture topic was “Buddhism and Partnership” and attracted many people. Karol said that it was a nice surprise for him, and a good end to the tour. He said that he noticed that people in the UK groups and centres are happier than a year ago – which means that Buddhism works.

Adam, a good friend from Oxford who drove Karol for most of the southern leg of his tour, had this to say about the experience:

“Travelling with Karol may give you the taste of how it is to be 100% focused on others. You can see how much energy and internal stability it gives him.”

We look forward to Karol’s return!

Tags: Brighton, Canterbury, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Kagyu Lineage, Karol Sleczek, Lama Ole Nydahl, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Oxford, Reading, Rochester, Sheffield, St Albans, The Way Things Are, Tomek Lehnert

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 8th, 2010 at 2:41 pm and is filed under Buddhist Courses, Diamond Way Buddhism, Event Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.