Chökhor Duchen with Geshe Lhakdor

We had such an amazing final week of July at Tushita, hosting the Harmony in Kalachakra intermediate course, a 10-day Introduction to Buddhism course, and a special teaching from Jhado Rinpoche (you can see more about these events in the next news item here).

Ending the month in style, we celebrated Buddha’s precious turning of the wheel on the festival day of Choekhor Duchen on July 31st, 2014.

As well as an open program of drop-in events throughout the day, enthusiastic students from the July 22 – 31, 2014 Introduction to Buddhism course took precepts at 5 AM. Later in the day they ended they ended their time at Tushita in the company of Geshe Lhakdor (pictured above left), who gave a wonderful teaching on the meaning of Buddhism. Audio of this teaching can be streamed or downloaded here.

Geshe Lhakdor has been the Director of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala since 2005, after serving as His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s official translator for 16 years (he still occasionally travels with H.H. as translator). Geshe Lhakdor has also co-translated and co-produced several books by His Holiness and is a trustee of the Foundation for Universal Responsibility and Director of the Central Archive of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Imagine how fortunate we are to have him come to teach here!

To wrap it all up we had an inspiring Medicine Buddha puja led by Venerable Kabir Saxena (pictured above right) and a light offering at the stupa led by Richard – what an amazing day…

Photos of these Choekhor Duchen events can be seen on our facebook account here.