From 10–13 January, the Kagyu E-Vam Institute held the 32nd annual Buddhist Summer School (BSS) at its Maitripa Retreat Centre in Healesville, Victoria. The institute was established by the late Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche after he moved to Australia, and the BSS initiated shortly thereafter.
Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche IX. From evaminstitute.org
This year’s BSS offered teachings on Buddhist philosophy and meditation from within the Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana traditions, as well as in comparative philosophy and psychology. Over the four days participants had the opportunity to listen to five well-known speakers, who covered a wide range of topics, from the very basic to the very profound.
The proceedings began with an opening forum, giving participants the opportunity to hear the speakers engage in discussion of some of life’s big questions, with the audience also having the chance to ask questions themselves. The speakers comprised Venerable Ekai Korematsu Osho, Venerable Bhante Tejadhammo Bhikku, Sam Bercholz, Dr. Kathleen Gregory, and Dee Collings.
On the first and second mornings, Sam Bercholz, a renowned teacher in the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism for over 40 years, gave a talk based on the book Mindfulness in Action by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, followed on the third and fourth mornings by teachings entitled “White Lotus: Meeting the mind of the guru through the vajra seven-line prayer to Padmasambhava.”
Venerable Bhante Tejadhammo Bhikku gave a commentary, “Therigatha: A heart well released, women’s songs of liberation,” on the first and second mornings, and another talk, “The eyes of compassion in the face of suffering,” over the next two days. Bhante was ordained in Thailand in 1981 and has studied and received teachings in all three vehicles of Buddhism.
On the first and second afternoons, Venerable Ekai Korematsu Osho gave instruction on “The Zen Teachings of Bodhidharma,” revealing the meaning of the four sections: “Outline of Practice,” “the Bloodstream sermon,” “the Wake-up sermon,” and “the Breakthrough sermon.” On the third and fourth afternoons, he gave commentary on Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. Born in Japan in 1948, Venerable Ekai was ordained in the Soto Zen tradition in 1976. He moved to Australia in 1999 and established the Jikishian Buddhist Centre in Melbourne, which is affiliated with the temple of the same name in Kyoto, Japan.
Small gompa, Maitripa Centre, Australia. From maitripacentre.org
Another highlight was the talk “Buddhism and the way to psychological health: The kindness of treating ourselves better” by Dr. Kathleen Gregory, who has been a practicing Buddhist and psychologist for over 20 years. Another long-time Buddhist and former editor of the magazine Ordinary Mind, Dee Collings spoke on “The unexamined life: The role of beliefs on the path to liberation.”
Born in 1955, Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche was recognized as the ninth incarnation of the Traleg lineage at the age of two, and was later enthroned as abbot of Tra’gu Monastery in Kham, Tibet. He underwent rigorous scholastic and meditative training under various Kagyu and Nyingma masters in India, and moved to Australia in 1980. He established the Kagyu E-Vam Institute in 1982 and the Maitripa Retreat Centre in 1995, as well as centers in New Zealand and the USA. He passed away in 2012.
The venue for BSS 2015, the Maitripa Retreat Centre, is located on 53 acres of beautiful countryside in Healesville, about 90 minutes east of Melbourne, and is surrounded by hundreds of acres of state and national forest.