Dear All,
Welcome to 2025 with the Centre re-opening at 5.00 pm on Wednesday 8th January!
I’d like to say “Happy New Year”, but given the instability in the world – whether that’s social, political, or climate change, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, off-balance and helpless when we look at the year ahead. What can one do in the face of all this? Well, when our foundations are feeling shaky under so much pressure, that’s where we need to start. How can we help others regain their balance when our own stability is wobbling? By re-centring ourselves, coming back to stillness and training our minds, we can strengthen our foundations which will enable us to take meaningful, and helpful action in the world. For me, part of that is preparing this newsletter each month. For you it might be….
An Introduction to Meditation with Lama Zangmo on Saturday, 18th January. A particularly good course for when you realise that you've already broken all your New Year's resolutions and are suffering from post seasonal holiday blues! Here's your opportunity to start addressing that wobbly mind...or possibly:
Volunteering at the Centre? Applications open are now open for those who would like to practice meditation in action (as opposed to meditation inaction!). In exchange you’ll receive not only bed and board, but also a chance to find out what life is like in a Buddhist community. Please visit the website for more information and an application form.
Other things you can engage with at the Centre over the coming weeks include:
NEW -- Nyungney Instructions with Gelong Thubten over two evenings – Wednesday 22nd and Thursday 23rd January. This course will be both in-person and online. To find out more about the Nyungney practice, the course, and to book your place, please visit the event page.
Tibetan Language courses start on Wednesday, 8th January. To see details of all the courses, visit the website. The beginners course can be found here.
The Tibetan Doctor will next be available in KSDL on the weekend of the 18th - 19th January. To make an appointment for a consultation please contact Doctor Soktsang directly. If you want to check Dr Soktsang's availability in 2025, the dates of his attendance at the Centre are available on the website.
Winter Wanderings with Sarah Sheehan continues on Thursday, 30th January. Join Sarah for a cup of chai in our cosy tearoom while looking into the various difficulties that arise in our day to day experience. This month, the focus of the evening will be on desire. The tearoom has a tempting selection of homemade cakes to aid you on that focus...
And all that, with more on the website, was just January!
Looking forward to the beginning of February we have a Medicine Buddha weekend of practice and instructions with Lama Zangmo on the 1st and 2nd. There will be some instructions on the visualisations, meditations and benefits of this practice, but the emphasis will be on getting familiar through having plenty of time for actual practice on both days.
Peaceful Sleeping, Lucid Dreaming with Charlie Morley is also taking place in Feburary - on the weekend of the 8th and 9th.
While later in the month, on the 22nd - 23rd February, we have a return visit by Donal Creedon who will be teaching on Longing, Loneliness and Bodhicitta.
To find out what else is going on, and to get those dates in your diaries, just visit our "What's on" pages on the website...and get that diary / calendar ready to fill.
Best wishes,
David Bates
Newsletter Editor
Longer courses with Lama Zangmo in 2025
For those of you who like to study and practice in more depth, Lama Zangmo has three longer-term courses coming up in 2025:
The Seven Points of Mind Training is a monthly course which runs from March to December. For centuries, Tibetans have used the seven points of mind training with a series of fifty-nine slogans as a skillful method for training the mind and cultivating limitless compassion.
Precious Garland of the Supreme Path runs over 4 months.
Nagarjuna's A Letter to a Friend has been moved to the autumn, starting on 13 September and continuing into 2026. Dates are now on the website.
Akong - a remarkable life - screening with the Director
You are invited to join us at 4.00 pm on Saturday 12th January for this remarkable movie of A Remarkable Life about the Founder of Kagyu Samye Ling monastery and Tibetan Buddhist Centre.
We are fortunate to be joined by Chico Dall'Inha, the films Director, Editor & Producer, who will introduce the film and take questions at the end.
This is the first ever documentary film about the inspirational life of Chöje Akong Tulku Rinpoche, a Tibetan Tulku and one of the first Tibetan Lamas to come to this country.
Through his powerful message of loving-kindness and compassion and his humanitarian work in the UK and around the world, Akong Rinpoche has benefitted the lives of countless people. This film aims to make his inspirational life story available to future generations.
onastery and Tibetan Buddhist Centre.
We are fortunate to be joined by Chico Dall'Inha, the films Director, Editor & Producer, who will introduce the film and take questions at the end.
This is the first ever documentary film about the inspirational life of Chöje Akong Tulku Rinpoche, a Tibetan Tulku and one of the first Tibetan Lamas to come to this country.
Through his powerful message of loving-kindness and compassion and his humanitarian work in the UK and around the world, Akong Rinpoche has benefitted the lives of countless people. This film aims to make his inspirational life story available to future generations.
This documentary is a must-see if you have not, and a treasure to watch again for the second, third, fourth time together with members of the community who knew him!
For more information and to book your seat, please visit the event page on the website.
What skill can you offer for our Skills Auction?
On Sunday 27th April we're delighted to be welcoming Barbara Pfeiffer from ROKPA Germany, who will share her memories of travelling with Akong Rinpoche to the ROKPA projects in the Tibetan areas of China.
As part of the afternoon we will hold a Skills Auction with all funds raised from the event will going towards Choje Akong Tulku Rinpoche’s monastery in the autonomous region of Tibet and the monks and nuns living in the monastery.
Now, in order to have a Skills Auction, we need people to be offering their skills in the first place! So what sort of things are we looking for?
FITNESS AND FUN (can you offer yoga classes, martial arts classes, reflexology, massage, acupuncture/acupressure, other health consultations and physical wellbeing activities)
ARTISTIC & CREATIVE SERVICES AND LESSONS (can you offer guitar or cooking lessons, take a photograph, paint a picture?)
ORGANISATIONAL SUPPORT SERVICES (decluttering, filing, professional services, cleaning services, washing the dishes and others)
OTHER (Do you have accommodation to offer, can you walk dogs or cook a meal? Go on, surprise us!)
If there is a skill that you'd like to offer for the auction, please complete and submit the form before 28th March, to give us time to organise the event. And thank you in advance to all those who are able to
Akong Tulku Rinpoche - On Mindfulness
"Mindfulness means to be aware, in every moment, of your thoughts when they appear. You have to be mindful but it doesn't mean you are separating thoughts into good and bad; all thoughts are the same. During meditation time there is no such things as good thoughts or bad thoughts. In the context of meditation, mindfulness means accepting whatever thoughts arise, seeing that they are just different types of thoughts. It is as if you look into the sky and see clouds. Some look like nice pink clouds, some are red clouds, some orange; sometimes they may have the shape of a lion, sometimes the shape of a dragon, sometimes the shape of a demon. ......If you see that everything is just a cloud it doesn't really matter.
In the Mahamudra teaching it is said that you should not look at the pattern of your mind - good pattern or bad pattern, beautiful pattern or ugly pattern. There is no such thing as ugliness, there is no such thing as goodness; they are all just different types of thoughts. You simply remain mindful of what is happening in your mind. In Mahamudra there is nothing to throw out and nothing to pick up. There is no separation, as in, "This is a good thing, I must keep it. This is a bad thing, I nust get rid of it." In the meditation itself you treat everything the same.
In that case, how do you meditate?
You should treat meditation like your food.You need to eat food three or four times a day in order to maintain your body and in order to have understanding.When we do not have understanding we have so many delusions and so much suffering. Suffering is unnecessary. All suffering is due to misunderstanding and to the working of the mind. You could simply take less notice of all your suffering and from time to time you can sit and meditate. Maybe it is not necessary to meditate for a long time, but in short sessions, not exhausting your mind. because the mind is very delicate. The mind is like the human being itself - it is very delicate so you need to be gentle but firm.It is similar to how your treat your child: you try to be kind, but at the same time you need to be firm"
from Limitless Compassion by Akong Tulku Rinpoche ,p 59.