lokabandhu, vajragupta and I visited the nkt headquarters at the manjusri institute on the edge of the lake district. vishvapani and i had been here a few years before, visiting jim belither who we knew through the uk network of buddhist organisations. lokabandhu and vajragupta are the new core of the fwbo chairs' meeting's development team, and they were interested to visit, to see what we could learn from this extraordinarily successful organisation. jim put us in touch with the secretary at manjusri, gen sangkyong, who agreed to spend all of thursday afternoon with us.

we arived early enough to take a walk in the large grounds of the manjusri institute, the victorian gothic conishead priory, and along the edge of morecambe bay. it was a clear cold day: we watched birds flocking over the bay, and saw the snow on the lake district peaks.

sangkyong was a great host; thoughtful, well informed and frank. we were pretty shameless, asking about the funding of the organisation, the strucutre of the teaching, the organisational structure. sangkyong was very open handed, answering our questions very fully.

while we were warming up we happened onto the subject of their organisational strucutre, which nkt have been reviewing and revising in the last few years.  sangkyong joked that the system they were developing could be described as 'faith based democracy'. initiated by geshe kelsang gyatso, they are moving towards a basic structure that will allow the resident teachers in a country to elect the national spiritual director, and for every centre to take part in the election of the deputy spiritual director of the whole movement, who, in turn they would expect to become the spiritual director.

it was interesting, and perhaps a little surprising, to see this organisation, where faith in the teacher plays such a central and important role, to be adapting its structures in line with the democratic values of the west.

we went on to discuss the very successful summer festivals that are run every year at manjusri. some 3,500 people come on retreat, to hear teachings from geshe kelsang gyatso and other senior teachers. with so many people taking part and such experienced teachers, the retreats must serve as a spiritual focus. they also generate around £500,000 each year, and this has been one of the sources which has helped to fund the growth of the nkt, supporting resident teachers at new centres.

lokabandhu, who has long experience of buddhafields, managed to draw out some of the more arcane details of local authority permissions and how exactly you provide showers for a couple of thousand campers.

we talked about the structure of teaching within nkt, much more highly structured than our own, and very pertinent to the discussion at the recent chairs meeting, on how to develop a more structured approach to bhante's teaching.

the nkt teaching at their centres is strucutred into three courses :

The General Program, provides a basic introduction to basic Buddhist ideas and meditation.

The Foundation Program, which includes the study of six commentaries written by Geshe Kelsang on the following classical texts:

Joyful Path of Good Fortune,

based on Pabongka Rinpoche's teachings on Lamrim

Universal Compassion,

a commentary on Chekhawa's  Seven Point Mind Training

Eight Steps to Happiness

a commentary on Langri Tangpa's Eight Verses of Training the Mind

Heart of Wisdom

a commentary on the Heart Sutra

Meaningful to Behold

a commentary on Shantideva's bodhicaryavatara

Understanding the Mind

looking at the 51 mental events

teachers and trainees follow The Teacher Training Program which adds eight texts to the foundation programme.

The Bodhisattva Vow

A commentary on the six perfections.

Ocean of Nectar

A commentary on Chandrakirti's Guide to the Middle Way

Clear Light of Bliss

A commentary on meditations of Highest Yoga Tantra.

Great Treasury of Merit

A commentary on the Puja Offering to the Spiritual Guides

Mahamudra Tantra

Meditation on the nature of mind according to Tantra

Guide to Dakini Land

A commentary on the tantric practice of Vajrayogini

Tantric Grounds and Paths

An explanation of Tantra

Essence of Vajrayana

A commentary on the tantric practice of Heruka

people taking this systematic training will probably take 5-10 years to complete it. those taking the teacher training programme will commit to attend one or two classes a week, a daily meditation pracitce, and five retreats a year, four of them a week long, and one a month long retreat every january. there is some flexiblity in how people participate in the retreats; someone in regular employment, for example, will take part in mornings, evenings and weekends, while carrying on with work.

nkt have been a controversial movement in the west, particularly their disagreement with the dalai lama in the late 90s over the dorje shugden practice. my experience on this visit was of gen sangkyong's hospitality, openness and frankness, and the organisational and spiritual confidence and vitality of the nkt.