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Dechen Chöling is the residential practice centre
of the European Shambhala Buddhist community.
The centre sits in a land of rolling meadows
and magnificent old trees near Limoges, France.
My inspiration for Shambhala is that we have centres where people come, people learn;
people train; people become leaders; people become practitioners;
become hopefully better at family and relationship, business, whatever it is.
So from that kind of strength they go out and actually help the world,
and one of the basic aspects of Shambhala is a social kind of vision.
Social vision in the sense of trying to have a harmonious
and more sort of integrity in terms of big culture.
(gong sounds)
Vetali, Vetali, life life. The devi with one face and four arms riding on...
People from around the world come to learn and practice meditation,
and to relax within the beauty of the land.
Throughout the year, Dechen Chöling offers programmes ranging from basic meditation
and contemplative arts to advanced buddhist and Shambhala teachings
taught by renowned teachers.
You know, when the Buddha taught he taught to what the person was doing.
So, if they were a musician, he would talk about music.
And if they were a farmer, he talked about farming.
So it is the way of how you incorporate it into what you are doing.
And I think making the connection is the main thing.
And right now with this culture that we are in,
it is very important to have a way of connecting it to people's lives.
And if we can connect it to people's lives, then it becomes meaningful.
And one of the main things is people do not spend a great amount of time meditating.
And in the old days, if you were in Tibet, you would talk about meditation,
and people would go ahead and do it for months and years.
Here people have a limited amount of time. So it is a matter of
trying to make wisdom applicable to what people are doing now in their life.
So I think it is a matter of trying to get it incorporated.
In my recent book, the point of it was,
how do you actually engage these wisdom principles in your life.
It's not to do with just leaving life or removing yourself from life or abandoning life.
It is a matter of actually trying to make your life richer and fuller, and so how do you do that?
And these spiritual principles can invoke that.
Buddhism is not just one aspect of your life; it is actually your whole life.
So within that you can write poetry. You can sing: you can do: you can be active.
It is everything coming together.
And I think that more people in the West begin to understand that. As opposed to it’s just like,
it’s not just for Sundays or going to an official thing,
but it's more 24 hours and for whatever life's expressing.