In the words of that well known Joni Mitchell song* “you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone”, the last few months have given us pause for thought if we imagined that the Lama’s packed programme of teachings up and down this country and beyond was invulnerable to change and circumstance. And so it was an enormous pleasure to welcome Lama Jampa and his wife Albena back to Harrogate (Yorkshire UK) after so long. In the well appointed village hall at Hampthswaite a highly organised team headed by Howard and Tricia made it possible for us to receive a day of teachings on Saturday, September 19th. The Wheel of Analytical Meditation by the great 19th Century Nyingma teacher Ju Mipham is a short text that provides a systematic but flexible method of meditating on, and bringing to life, the four marks which ‘seal’ a teaching as authentically Buddhist, so enabling us to form a real relationship with these key teachings.
Lama-la finished by expanding a little on the ‘family ties’ that Dechen have as a community with the author, not least that Karmapa Thinley Thaye Dorje’s father is the Third Mipham Rinpoche.
Lama Jampa made time on the Sunday to see many of his Yorkshire students individually, another gift that we are reminded never to take for granted, along with the bestowal of initiation. Now in Germany, Lama will be resuming all aspects of his precious activity, including these.
*Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell
Christina Taylor
Kagyu Dechen Dzong
September 2020