Geshe Michael and Lama Christie's teachings:
On March 25, the lamas gave a great talk at Lotus Yoga center. The average age of the audience member was about twenty five, and they were really interested and enthusiastic. Geshe hla met a boy at the talks with a spinal problem and constant headaches and he asked one of our staff to work privately with him on inversions while we were there. Sometimes it's a relief to feel for a few days that you are of use in the world and maybe doing a little bit of good.
As in Israel, the team members also taught, but most weren't recorded (unfortunately). But we managed to cover a vast number of topics: meditation, Tibetan Heart Yoga, Songs of the Panchen Lama, debate, relating to a spiritual teacher, movement meditation to remove obstacles, Heart Sutra, and more yoga.
Audio for March 25: The Meaning of Yoga (Lotus Yoga Center)
March 25th Reading
For the next talk, about how to make karma work for you, Geshe Michael started out talking about where things come from, for example, the invention of fire. Perhaps an animal was hit by lightning and tasted better, and so the cavemen tried to make it happen again. But how? We are like cavemen because we don't know how to do anything—we don't know if we're going to make or lose money or if your food will make you healthy or sick, etc.
Buddhism isn't a religion, it's just a way of thinking, so you can have any religion and study Buddhism. We're teaching how to make fire—how to succeed at everything. If you understand how reality works, you can have anything—money, a healthy body, a good partner, you can reach heaven/nirvana/enlightenment. You can stop death. The principle is the same.
Audio for March 26: Yoga, Business, and a Love Story (Lotus Yoga Center)
March 26th Reading
On the 26th, the teachings were held in an old church, and the evening started out with a concert. The teachings came from the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, about Raja Yoga--the highest yoga--and they started to teach how not to die, how to change the pictures in your mind that make you see yourself dying. Then, because we have to leave, they told them:
"You need to find someone who can guide you for the rest of the way. You have to have a living teacher guiding you for 15 or 20 years. So you need to find your teacher, take some time and pick them carefully, because you will end up becoming just like them. Then once you have picked your teacher, throw your whole heart into it. Don't have any doubts. Then your path will go very fast."
Audio for March 27: The Yoga of the Sun and the Moon teachings from the Hatha Yoga Pradipika (at Kostel sv Jana Křtitele Na prádle)
March 27th Reading
Audio for March 27: A special concert before the talk with Mercedes Bahleda singing, with Irena and Vojta Havlovi on strings and Will Duncan on percussion.
The last talk was held at the Esoterika Festival, a happy eclectic gathering of everyone from Hare Krishnas to honey farmers, and everything in between. The lamas talked about spiritual partners, a topic that everyone is interested in.
Lama Christie said: "When you find someone who opens your heart you learn to think about someone besides yourself, and that's the only thing that will make you happy—to open your heart so that you think of their needs as more than your own. But there's another reason that has to do with what's inside of us. We have an inner body—a network of channels in our body—made of light. Inside of them runs prana or chi or lung. This is called inner wind and it runs through the channels in our body. It is a combination of male and female energies. We have both, but out of balance. If you are male you have mostly male, if you are female you have mostly female. So there is a longing to be a whole, and that is the attraction you have to a partner. The people you are attracted to are the one who have what you lack—who can make you whole. When you get enlightened you will have a balance of energies. So partner practice is about balancing the energies in you. In the last moments before enlightenment you will be with your partner. So every movie you have ever seen with a happy ending is leading you to this moment."
Audio for March 28: Spiritual Partners-How to Find Them, Keep Them and Reach Them (Esoterika Festival)
March 28th Reading
