Ganden Ngamchoe: the offering of lights, a celebration of wisdom
Today, December 18, 2022, we have just arrived in Sarnath, India. The group will join us tomorrow, and as we meet up with Geshela who will accompany us during these next weeks of pilgrimage in the footsteps of the Buddha, we went to the Drepung monastery on the occasion of "Ganden Ngamchoe".
"Ganden Ngamchoe" means "the Ganden offering of the 25th day" and marks the anniversary of the parinirvana of Lama Tsongkhapa who was the founder of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of the Gelugpa.
Light, a symbol of wisdom
This celebration takes place in the form of light offerings.
The offering of light symbolizes the elimination of darkness. Darkness symbolizes the ignorance that causes us to function blindly in our lives, unable to maintain emotional calm in the face of the many jolts life offers. The light represents the wisdom of the Dharma, the wisdom of the awakened being, the awakened being the one who is able to let go of the various emotional manifestations rooted in attachment-desire and anger-aversion.
Traditionally, it is about offering butter lamps but we live with our time, and today these join the electric lights. This is how we had the pleasure to discover the monastery, the stupas, the statues, illuminated with a thousand colors stretched through time and space, cutting the darkness of the night sky with a thousand lights.
A people united on the path to enlightenment
In the gompa (monastery), the monks chant offerings in the form of a tsok; outside, sitting on the ground in front of the steps leading to the temple, old Tibetan women join their voices to those of the monks, their eyes turned towards the representations of the Buddha and His Holiness the Dalai Lama; laywomen and nuns tread the kora ringing the monastery while chanting mantras; some discuss with friends; children play.
The atmosphere is warm, convivial, and it is good to finally find the Tibetan universe after these 4 years of absence because of Covid.
An auspicious launch for a duo engaged in a new version of travel and a trio reunited for a new content combining teaching and discovery in everyday life
When we booked our tickets in order to arrive a day before the group of participants, we had not thought at all about setting our reservations on that day.
It turns out that chance made things right, which is actually very common at my level when it comes to teachings to be given or received.
This aspect of good omens, or auspiciousness, is manifested through this new version of VoyagesBienEtre.com trips
New version because until now I was alone to organize and supervise them. In 2019, Urgyen joined me, but the Covid stopped us in our tracks and so we waited 4 years. Patient as far as Asia is concerned, but these 4 years still allowed us to develop many stays in Europe. So we transformed the adverse circumstances of the pandemic into opportunities to develop the spread of the Dharma. We have therefore carried out our scouting and prepared tours in Italy, Croatia, Austria, Spain, the Canary Islands, and of course France.
I can hear some people asking "but Dharma, Buddhism, in Europe, how can it be possible? Yes it is possible, of course, because Buddhism is composed of 5 major sciences and 5 minor sciences, and Buddhist Medicine, one of the 5 major sciences, allows to discover the body-mind link through the 5 elements... I will come back to this in another article....
A wind of good omens
Concerning the Indian land, we have been waiting for 4 years to be able to come back there.
2022 closes 12 years since the sowing and the germination of the seed alone, and opens the development of the first branches through this particular day and this new model of travel organized in duo.
But it doesn't stop there!
The auspicious aspect is also manifested through the fact that I meet Geshe Urgyan Tsering in real life! By real, I mean "outside of Whatsapp and other virtual means of communication".
This auspicious aspect also manifests itself through the fact that some of our trips will be led as a trio, with Geshe Urgyean Tsering joining us on some of the trips in order to bring his precious knowledge of the Dharma, directly to the places where the Buddha taught and lived.
So it is with great gratitude to the karma that gives us these precious connections that we share this first day with you.
We hope that many journeys will manifest, offering each and every one of you the chance to be guided through an inner journey united with an outer journey in the footsteps of the Buddha.
And to celebrate it all...
This first blog post...
On our new blog...
As for blog posts on other subjects... and Buddhism... go to www.energetique-tibetaine.com
