Kelsang Lhadron

Kadampa Meditation Center San Diego

• Contact: 3502 Adams Ave, San Diego 619-230-5832 www.meditateinsandiego.org
• Membership: 70
• Resident Teacher (Gen): Kelsang Lhadron
• Age: 49
• Born: Chattanooga, TN
• Formation: Emory University, Atlanta, GA; Kadampa Meditation Center, Glen Spey, NY; Manjushri Center, Ulverston, England
• Years Ordained:16

San Diego Reader: How long do you spend preparing your Sunday-morning teachings?

Gen Kelsang Lhadron: We have a Sunday morning class with a 20-minute guided meditation and we give a 45-minute teaching on some aspect of Buddhist philosophy that I hope people find practical for their daily lives, such as teachings on patient acceptance, karma, overcoming anger, how to develop a more pure love, and the difference between love and attachment. These are some of the basic ideas of Buddhism. We have a different meditation each week. I usually take two or three hours in the morning of the meditation to prepare, with some time the night before to familiarize myself with the topic I’m going to teach on.

SDR: What is your favorite topic to teach?

GL: The difference between real love and attachment. Buddhism has some real insights to offer on this topic which people might not be able to get somewhere else. It’s so important because we mix up love and attachments. All the problems and pain in our relationships come from attachment and not love. We need to able to discriminate between these two to have better relationships—not only romantic relationships but also familial relationships and friendships. One easy way to discriminate between the two is to see that love says, “I want you to be happy.” Attachment says, “I want you to make me happy.” So how much do we want of each in our relationship? If you want 50-50, you’re going to have 50% good times and 50% pain. The more we can increase our pure love and the more we can decrease our attachment, the happier we’ll be in our relationships; they’ll be more long-lasting and fulfilling.

SDR: What is the mission of your community?

GL: To help people find their inner peace, cultivate their good qualities, and develop wisdom and compassion. People who come to the center like the teachings because they’re practical and they can try them out… I find it so fulfilling when people tell me that a particular teaching works in their lives. People appreciate hearing something that’s practical and makes sense to them.

SDR: Where do you go when you die?

GL: Buddhism is very specific about this. When we die, we enter a dream-like state called the bardo—which means “intermediate state” in Tibetan—where we can be up to 49 days. Then we take rebirth into another body. The mind leaves the body like a bird leaves the nest. The body dies, but the mind never dies—it’s eternal. It’s a similar process to sleeping, dreaming and waking. But in Buddhism, it’s more than an analogy… The difference is that at death, the karmic link between body and mind is broken…Some believe that we’re blown by the winds of karma into our next rebirth, and don’t have control over that process unless we’ve deeply trained in meditation and we are able to bring our awareness into the subtle levels of our minds. But an ordinary person does not have control over that process. This process is never ending on its own, but we can achieve nirvana when we gain enough control of our minds to realize the ultimate nature of reality, which is emptiness, and we can transcend this uncontrolled cycle.