May - June Empowerments, Teachings and Phowa course.

During May and June this year we had a wonderful course where more than 1600 people from all around the world joined together during the diferent empowerments and teachings by H.H. The 17. Gyalwa Karmapa, Lama Ole Nydahl, Beru Khyentse Rinpoche and The 4th Jamgon Kontrul Rinpoche.

On May, 27 Beru Khyentse Rinpoche did the preparations for the Kalachakra empowerment, meanwhile everybody could do their own practice.

On May, 28 we had the Kalachakra impowerment. This impowerment was given to Beru Khyentse Rinpoche by the 3 Jamgon Kontrul Rinpoche.

On May, 29 The 4th Jamgon Kontrul Rinpoche gave the initiation of Buddha of Limitless Light.
Afterwards his father, Beru Khyentse Rinpoche, blessed everybody with the Gambopa hat he got as a gift from the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa. Rinpoche was at that time 8 years old. The hat fit him at that time, and it still fits him.

From May, 29 to June 2 Lama Ole did the annual Phowa course

On June, 3 H.H. The 17. Gyalwa Karmapa did the preparations for the initiation of Gyalwa Gyamtso, meanwhile everybody could do their own practice.

On June , 4 H.H. The 17. Gyalwa Karmapa gave the initiation of Gyalwa Gyamtso. These days around 1600 people were present.

On June 5, H.H. Karmapa gave teachings from a text of Shantidewa : The aspiration prayer from the Bodhicharyavatara.

On June, 6  Continuation with cuestions and answers. In the afternoon blessing of the children.

All these events took place at the Thaye Dorje Gompa in Karma Guen.

New Look for the Kalachakra Stupa.

2009 is the 15th anniversary of the building of the Kalachakra Stupa at Karma Guen. Since Lopon Tsechu Rinpoche, Lama Ole and Hannah Nydahl and thousands of friends from all around the world inaugurated the stupa in October 1994, a lot of things have happened at Karma Guen. Every year we have been trying to improve and make the place around the stupa really inviting
for visits and meditation. Every year several thousand local people from the towns around also come to visit the stupa. And the surrounding schools and colleges have made a yearly visit a part of their education about culture and religion.
Therefore, at the beginning of 2009, we decided to exchange the messy small white stones surrounding the stupa with a beautiful terrace made of natural stone. For more than a month practically all visiting friends helped collecting stones at the nearby lake and river. More than 10 tons where used to create this masterpiece now surrounding the stupa. We would really like to thank everybody who participated and helped in the work.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

New Diamond Way Centre in Málaga

Only 35 km from Karma Guen, Spain now has its first fully owned Diamond Way city centre. In the heart of Malaga, less than 5 minutes walk from the main bus and train stations, we now own an entire building with 4 floors. Since 1999, when the meditation group in Malaga started, there has been a steady growth. Going through the normal process from meditating in private living rooms, to getting a key centre, the Malaga sangha now has approximately 50 members, a gompa for 100 people, a cosy chill out café/lounge, and 2 flats where friends from the sangha live. The 50 m2 roof terrace will definitely be a busy barbeque spot during the summer! If this was not already enough, the port, beach and lovely fish restaurants are only a short walk away from the centre… who said it would be easy to sit down and meditate when visiting Malaga?

Olives harvest.

This years olives harvest again set new records. For two months Miguel, Petras
and a dozen friends enjoyed the sunny Spanish winter crawling around in the olive trees. The quality of our precious extra virgin olive oil was again praised by the owners of the local oil press as “oro liquido: muy suave” (“liquid gold: very soft”). As usual the olive oil and our natural honey will be for sale in Karma Guen.

Two new meditation retreat caves have been planned.

Two new meditation retreat caves have been planned and will be built near the Kalachakra Stupa. The work will start after the summer and will be ready for use by the end of the year. As more and more friends come for shorter retreats, we have for a long time been wishing to have more caves for meditation.

Ngondro weekends

With the initiative of our Granada sangha, the monthly Ngondro weekends at Karma Guen have become a good place to meet and meditate with friends from all around the Spanish sangha. Please come and join the first weekend of every month.

I.T.A.S. Courses

The ITAS courses over both Christmas and New Year and now at Easter, again gather friends from all over the world. The most advanced students have now for over 5 years been learning Tibetan and Sanskrit. We are now more and more reaching the wish of Hannah Nydahl, where persons from every country can translate directly into their own language from the original sources.

http://www.itas-uni.org/

Thaye Dorje Gompa.

Dawa Lhadipa, our good friend and artist, has spent the past three months working on the last of the great paintings in the Thaye Dorje gompa. Together with his helpers they have been working on the 12 parts of the life story of the historical Buddha Sakyamuni. Although the last, fine details still have to be completed, it is impressive to sit and meditate in the gompa. All walls are now beautifully painted in the original Karma Gadri style of our Karma Kagyu tradition. On the walls you can find the history of our Mahamudra lineage, the lineage of the 16 Karmapas, beautiful paintings of the main yidam aspects of our lineage, and the life history of Buddha Sakyamuni.

Losar celebration

On February the 25th, we celebrated the Tibetan New Year, Losar. With Kagyu friends from Spain, Holland, Germany and other places. We did, with Miphan Rinpoche and Mayun, as well as Kenpo Gnedon and the Karma Guen residents, a Fire Puja at the Stupa of Kalachakra here in Karma Guen, afterwards we had tea and sweet tibetan rice at Karmapa´s parents house.

KG Course May/June 2009.

As most of you already know we have a great program at Karma Guen this year.

Beginning 2 days early in Benalmadena on May 24th with an empowerment by the young Jamgon Kontrul Rinpoche the 4th. The course at Karma Guen starts on May 27 when Lama Ole arrives and we will have the 2 day Kalachakra empowerment by Beru Kyense Rinpoche. Lama Ole will give the amazing phowa and at the end of the course the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa Thaye Dorje will offer the 2 day Gyalwa Gyamso Empowerment and 2 days teaching on a text by Shanti Deva. On June 7th the course finishes with an empowerment at the stupa in Benalmadena by Karmapa.

At our webpage http://www.karmaguen.org you can find the complete program with all details and inscription. Please notice that the limit for getting the early payment reduction is April 15th.

Statue filling course.

At the end of February we had a 4 day statue filling course. A small group of friends learned about the details and effort required in filling a Buddha statue. From painting, cutting and rolling the thousands of mantras to the hard cleaning of the inside of the statues, the participants really felt like they were practicing Dharma. We also prepared mantras to be filled in the statues at the Europe Centre.

Welcome!

Hello friends and welcome to our BLOG. Here we are going to post the activities, news and general interesting information about Karma Guen. We are planning to make it very active so please check it out often or subscribe to the RSS feed to keep yourself updated.

Best wishes and thank you for visiting.

-KGTeam