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For all of Dallas’ benefits (Southwestern-style urban sprawl, for example), it can be confusing at times and often more than a little stressful. For many people, the day begins and ends on Central Expressway, Interstate 30 or Stemmons Freeway, and the abundance of tension experienced along these thoroughfares is matched only by the commonality of car horns and middle fingers.
Kelsang Sangye, a gen, or teacher, at the Vajradakini Buddhist Center of Irving, often uses driving (and the stresses and worries that go along with it) as an example or an analogy of the stresses placed upon us throughout the day. While driving may be a prime example, these feelings can manifest in many other areas of our lives, and, for Sangye, meditation is the antidote of choice to modern problems and a remedy he chooses to share with others by teaching meditation classes.
“Times are degenerating,” Sangye says. “For example, we have a huge medical industry, but this isn’t stopping people from becoming sick. More money and more effort are spent by people trying to find happiness, but, in spite of these things, they are not finding it.”
The center is hosting a weekend titled “Freedom From Fear–How to Find a Haven of Peace” in an effort to offer people what they may not be finding elsewhere. The program includes teaching and guided meditations featuring special guest Gen-la Kelsang Dekyong, United States spiritual director of the New Kadampa Tradition of Mahayana Buddhism, along with Sangye himself.
Sangye describes Dekyong as “very clear and with quick wisdom. She has the clarity for quick decisions for what needs to be done.” The name, part of which is taken from her spiritual teacher, breaks down as Gen-la (close disciple) Kelsang (good fortune) Dekyong (sustainer of great bliss). “She is certainly someone who gives great happiness,” Sangye says, “but all of us have the potential to bring happiness to others, and that potential needs to be developed.”
According to Sangye, attendees for the weekend can expect “answers to questions they may have had or a confirmation of feelings they may have.” Most of all, though, he wishes for people to come away with “an understanding that spiritual practices are very practical,” a point Sangye reiterates often. “People, especially those from the West, may look at the form of the Buddha sitting there with the crossed legs and strange clothes, and it all looks a little bit foreign to them. They should know meditation and Buddhist advice is for everyone to experience freedom from fear or more confidence by developing wisdom in our mind to overcome ignorance in our daily lives or ignorance about others. There are literally hundreds of thousands of meditations we can do, and they are very practical and very pragmatic.”
The essence of the weekend, though, and the essence of Buddhism, according to Sangye, comes down to this: “Everything depends on the mind, and if we change our mind, we change our experience of life.”
