Purity, enrichment, insight – news of Lama Jampa Thaye’s autumn teaching visit to Bristol

Autumn made its debut (albeit a little later than usual) this Saturday 10 October when we welcomed Lama Jampa Thaye back to Bristol to start teaching, ‘The Excellent Vase of Nectar’. This is Karma Thinley Rinpoche’s commentary on The Sutra of the Three Heaps. which was first taught by Buddha Shakyamuni as the means to confess and purify negative actions by reliance on the Thirty-Five Buddhas.

Lama Jampa explained that mind itself is the creator of both difficulties and contentment in our lives but, nonetheless, the fundamental nature of mind is pure. The purpose of purification and confession of our negative actions is to enable us to see the true nature of our mind. He used the analogy of the negative actions being like clouds. They are not intrinsic to our true nature, but just temporarily obscure it. We create suffering for ourselves but suffering is also impermanent. Beyond the clouds is primordial mind.

In the afternoon, Lama Jampa Thaye bestowed the initiation of Vasudhara from the One Hundred Sadhanas of Bari Lotsawa (Tib: Bari Gyatsa). Vasudhara is a wealth-bestowing goddess who creates enriching conditions to support one on their Buddhist path. This initiation was a perfect complement to the morning’s teaching on purification and confession. We received the special transmission (Tib: lung) for the initiation practice and also for the lineage prayer of Bari Gyatsa at the end of the initiation.

At the end of the day’s events Lama Jampa reminded us that our daily meditation sessions and personal study of the teachings were only one part of our Buddhist practice. He commended those in our Bristol centre for their efforts to make the day run smoothly, telling us that our work within our Dechen centres and beyond was an integral part of our journey on the Buddhist path. We needed to see our practice in a more expansive way and bring all elements of our daily life onto the path. One excellent and joyful way to do this is to get involved with helping at our centres.

On Sunday morning in the Sakya Buddhist Centre shrine room, this extraordinary weekend continued with Lama Jampa Thaye answering questions on the Buddhist path. The centre was packed to the rafters and many insightful questions were discussed, from how to properly understand the Mahayana aspiration of becoming enlightened for the sake of all beings without losing heart with our capacities at the moment, to how to ensure that we can relax at the time of death with the practice and experience we have had in life.

We are delighted to be welcoming Lama Jampa Thaye back to Bristol on 30 January for the first major event of our 50th anniversary year. We hope you can join us for this and for other events – to hear news of our 2026 celebratory programme, join our mailing list here.