By Wasfia Nazreen
New York, May 17 – 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorjey, is currently on his historic tour to the US. His first stop being New York, today he gave his first teaching abroad in the heart of the bustling city. An eager crowd of 2500 occupied the seats at Hammerstein Ballroom of Manhattan Centre to hear “Awakening the Heart of Enlightenment.”
While the morning session comprised of teachings on cultivation of patience and benevolence in general, the afternoon teaching focused on how that can actually take form into reality. He enveloped in a joyous mood, made the crowd giggle and applauded every now and then with his humorous exchange with the translator.
Karmapa expressed to the audience that he hopes they could feel the amount of love and generosity he was feeling towards the crowd. He also stated that the first time he saw an American, was when he was only eight years old. Since then, it has been a dear wish of his to visit this country and meet the people that at one point were only ‘westerners’ and that’s all he knew about them. The previous Karmapa had grown friends with many living in the US. Thus it has been a complete joyful experience for him to be here, even though it has only been three days so far.
Towards the end of the whole day’s teaching, he stressed on the urgency going on in today’s world. He requested the audience in helping with the crisis in China and Myanmar. He said unfortunately some countries have a barrier on distributing aid, however, in China that is not the case. Therefore, people should urgently reach out in as many ways possible to help the affected in the recent earthquake in China and those who can in Myanmar.
Tomorrow He is scheduled to give teachings on “Cutting through confusion: Discovering the Wisdom of our own minds” at Waldorf-Astoria Ballroom, starting from 2pm.
More information on his US tour can be found on www.karmapavisit.org
