On 18th May Lama Jampa taught for the first time in Geneva, Switzerland. He was invited to teach by a Swiss group of Karma Kagyu students that formed in 2013 under the guidance of Lama Teunsang, founder of Karma Migyur Ling, France. Lama Jampa gave a detailed presentation to a group of around 30 students on the final contemplation of the Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind to Dharma, the Suffering of Samsara.
Rather than being a gloomy topic, Lama Jampa likened Buddha’s teaching on suffering to a compassionate doctor, pointing out our illness, suffering caused by attachment to self, and prescribing the remedy, the path.
Leading the group on a tour through the six realms of samsara, Lama Jampa emphasised that, far from being remote and mythological, we can find the very cause for these realms in the existence of our disturbing emotions. Lama Jampa clarified that ‘only our forgetfulness allows us to pretend happiness exists in samsara’.
Lama Jampa concluded the teaching with the joyful reflection that suffering is not inevitable, because the natural state – the buddha nature mind – is unstained by suffering.