Bonus Bulletin – 8 September

The Cubs Pack from 1st Wandsbeck Scout Group made a special visit to KMC Durban recently.

An eager pack of cubs from 1st Wandsbeck Scout Group led by their 'Akela' (Saloshnee Naidoo) and 'Bagheera' (Etienne Bloem) made a special visit to KMC Durban. There they met and quickly made friends with Gen Jampel and Kelsang Chosang.

After learning many outer skills with their cub’s group they wanted to learn some inner skills, like how to control their minds and be peaceful even when things get tough!

Within the awe of their first visit to the beautiful meditation room and amongst the many questions they had, the boys learned what Buddhist monks and nuns do. They also discovered that they could learn to control their own minds and make them peaceful and happy, eventually all the time, and then help others to do the same.

A game of broken telephone, where a secret message of peace was passed from cub to cub, spread around the property of KMC Durban. When the message at the end was completely different from the one received at the beginning, the boys learnt in a very practical way, how important concentration and memory are. They could see it would be a good idea to improve the strength of their concentration and memory. When Gen Jampel explained that meditation was a good way to do this, everyone was keen to try.

He guided the cubs in a simple breathing meditation and the room went still. The concentration and peace was tangible. Both Saloshnee and Etienne commented that they had never seen them so quiet and sitting so still for so long.

The boys left with inner peace as their new ‘super-power’ and a wish to make it stronger. Some also wanted to return for the Kids' Meditation Classes at Kadampa Meditation Centre Durban starting in September.

Last weekend the Resident Teacher of KMC Colombia, Gen Kelsang Atisha, gave a course about how we can understand and develop a profound faith in Buddha and his teachings using our mind to investigate and prove the effectiveness of Dharma. Through this process we can not only deepen our faith, but also improve our practice and change the wrong conceptions that we may have about this beautiful mind of faith.

The course helped the community to understand the process of developing faith following the steps and reasoning that  of Venerable Geshe Kelsang gives us in every book. It also helped us to know how to improve our understanding and likewise our practice.

The course was a good opportunity to stop in the middle of the chaos of the city and daily life to work on our own mind with an abiding sense of joy.

We recently held two successful half-day courses titled: Discover meditation - A journey to your inner peace that left a profound impact on participants, fostering a deeper connection to inner peace and happiness.

The good attendance at both events, taught by the Resident Teacher of Tara KBC, Kadam Roxana, demonstrated the interest people have in meditation as a powerful tool to transform their lives. We look forward to continuing this journey with our growing community.

Event in Calama
Our first event focused on an introduction to meditation with 38 attendees. This event created a supportive space for beginners to explore inner peace and the power of meditation.Since the course in the morning was fully booked, we added another one in the afternoon which was also full. There were 19 attendees in each course.

Event in Antofagasta at the main centre
The second event, whit the same title as the previous one in Calama, was attended by 19 people.

In addition, we are happy to celebrate our first anniversary on Sep 8th with the presentation of the play The Life of Budda.