Finding the Middle Way in Yorkshire

On Saturday 21st May Lama Jampa was in the beautiful English county of Yorkshire to give teachings from the Kagyu tradition. People from across the country gathered to receive these precious teachings in person, with the understanding that this is the only way to properly acquire the wisdom and compassion they contain.

In the morning Lama Jampa taught the ‘Instruction in the View of the Profound Middle Way’ composed by the great Jamgon Ju Mipham Rinpoche (1846-1914). This is the second of two short works by Mipham Rinpoche introducing the profound view of emptiness, the key point of Madhyamaka. The first work ‘The Wheel of Analytical Meditation’ (taught previously in Yorkshire by Lama Jampa) expounds the preliminary practices through which one can recognise the nature of conditioned existence. This second text sets forth instructions for gaining experiential realisation of emptiness as presented in the Prasangika Madhyamaka system.

Arriving at confidence and clarity of the view is very helpful as it frees us from feeling that our problems, disturbing emotions, ego are real things that we need to get rid of… Likewise the qualities of wisdom and compassion that we wish to have are already present. So if we get the view right we don’t get caught up, we just have to remove some specks of dust and relax.

In the afternoon, Lama Jampa bestowed the initiation of Manjusri Lion’s Speech (Maha Sengge). This initiation was brought to Tibet by Dampa Sanjay in the C11th and the lineage has been preserved in both the Sakya and Kagyu traditions.

Lama Jampa will return to Yorkshire to bestow further teachings on Saturday 10th September 2022.