Rejoicing in the Efforts of Festival Organizers

I’d like to step back from my own preparations for Festival to appreciate all the effort that is going into the Festival preparations. By implementing Venerable Geshe-la’s vision, the organizers and their teams are giving us what I like to think of as a once-in-a-lifetimes opportunity. I have a strong sense that there will be vast benefits for us, the people we know, and the world, but also know there are depths to it I won’t really comprehend until I am farther along the spiritual path.

When I first learned about rejoicing, and that it was a practice you could even do lying down, I thought, “ooh, this is for me!” So this morning I was lying in bed trying to imagine what it was like to try to put this event together. Festival planning is always so much work, and this Fall’s Festival is by far the biggest event the New Kadampa Tradition has ever put together, by thousands of attendees.

One of the things I love about the NKT is that it’s not run by a bunch of  flakes: There are managers who have given up lucrative professional jobs to be in service of our Guru and his vision, and very skillful people who could have much easier lives working elsewhere. There are volunteers with a wide array of skills, from contractors to artists to cooks to accountants … who offer their talents generously. Many of them have been working for a long time, and I’m guessing planning for this very special event started more than a year ago. I suspect they must be exhausted by now, and there is still a final push these last few weeks to pull it all together. Gen-la Dekyong says that energy comes from compassion, so I rejoice in the enormous compassion they all must have. (They do not have time to lie in bed rejoicing!)

It’s hard to imagine what it’s going to be like at the Hipódromo Manuel Possolo in Cascais, even having been to some very large Festivals. Picture turning the Hipodrome, which is usually the site of big summer concerts and horse events ...

 

into something like this ...

When there was a big Festival in Berlin 2005, I was stunned by the enormity of the marquee tent that served as the meditation hall. I still can’t imagine how you put up something like that.

 

This Festival grew from the smallest seed: My memory is so unreliable these days, so please forgive me if this isn’t completely accurate – maybe someone will email me with a correction or a confirmation – but I think the first Festival was held in the North Wing gompa at our Mother Center in England, and that room only fits 50 (?) people. Hey, maybe there’s hope for me: If the Festival can grow like this over just a few decades, maybe my little Dharma seeds can grow like that too.

Think of the planning, much less what was involved in the implementation of the plan:

·  Researching venues that could hold thousands, then negotiating a contract with them.

·  Researching possible Festival accommodations, and then working out terms with them.

·  Building the Festival website to convey all this information clearly.

·  Putting together the online registration system, then keeping track of everyone’s choices, and then their changes. That is not an easy job.

·  Planning shuttles to get Festival-goers from the airport to their accommodations, and giving us information about other transportation.

·  Figuring out how everyone’s going to eat, in a country where the diet is mostly meat-based, and even adding on the lunch options, with photos of the meals!

· Planning the meditation hall:

o   Planning the seating, with sections for the disabled, the hard of hearing and translation in, I’m guessing, 40+ languages. Arranging for native speakers who can give simultaneous translation of the teachings and meditations Figuring out the mechanics of the headphones …

o   Putting together a plan for the Teacher’s throne and the shrine …

·  Arranging security for the Teachers and attendees …

·  Putting together the bookshop. Just wandering around in the shop, you can think of the kindness that went into preparing all the Tharpa items (books, CDs, postcards, etc.); other Dharma items, such as mandala kits and malas; and the array of gift items, including the greeting cards, which allow us to express our gratitude to our Teachers. Shopping as a cause of enlightenment!

·  Lest I forget, there's also all the work that goes into putting on the "cherry on the cake," as Kadam Morten called the play.

·    Organizing volunteer efforts to help in all of these areas during the Festival.

 

To say nothing of the new Temple in Sintra, which must have been years in the planning:

·  The decision that the latest Temple would be in Portugal – when there are so many countries that desperately need a Temple.

      Remember to  rejoice in your own contributions to the International Temples Project (ITP) that funded the project. Even registering for Festival creates enormous merit. Buying a cup of coffee at Festival too. It all goes to building more holy places like Temples, and schools, and retreat centers, and who knows what else. We are all part of that.

·  Scouts searching for suitable properties ...

·  Geshe-la’s design for the building and grounds, the architects and other planners who worked with him to implement it, and the builders and craftsmen, artists and landscapers who carried it out ...

 

·  Planning the tours of the Temple and grounds, arranging for shuttles to get us there and back, as well as translation …

And of course, the immeasurable kindness of Geshe-la, who is coming out of retirement at 82 to give us the blessing empowerment of the Buddha of Higher Wisdom, Prajnaparamita, and commentary to the practice, as well as on The New Heart of Wisdom book, the new Yoga of Inconceivability sadhana, and the new Vajrayogini sadhana The Blissful Path. How will we ever repay him?