It’s A Monks Life - Summer Studies at Lam Rim Wales by Jampa Gyatlsen
Jampa Gyatlsen, 31 years old from The Netherlands. Studied Urban planning & Sociology, met Buddhism during an internship in China, Shanghai in 2013. Started out in Zen Buddhism, and realised he wanted to ordain in a Korean Zen Monastery in 2018. Gradually he got more and more pulled towards Tibetan Buddhism, met his root teacher Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Kopan Monastery in 2019. He was advised to go to Nalanda Monastery and took Novice ordination there in July 2021 with Geshe Gyaltsen, and full ordination in February 2024 by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama in McLeod Ganj. Now a student of the FPMT Master Program hoping to integrate service, study, contemplation and meditation to the best of his abilities.
Jampa Joined a group of ordained sangha and lay people on the Dependent Arising, Summer Studies 11th July to 31st July 2025, which explored in-depth Jetsun Chökyi Gyaltsen’s General Meaning of Dependent Arising, a supplementary text to his main Perfection of Wisdom commentaries.
Below he shares brief reflections of his time at Lam Rim.
From different centers and monasteries around Europe, a group of monastics has set out to attend the Summer studies on The Twelve Links of Dependent arising. Led by Geshe Losel, one of the few westerners who completed the Geshe program in the Tibetan monastic institutions. Thus, a rare opportunity indeed!
We travel to Lamrim Buddhist Center, Wales, which is one of the oldest Buddhist centers in the western world. A very comfortable place to escape the heat waves of Southern Europe, where most of us are based. Here we are received by a group of devoted volunteers who make us feel home from the moment of our arrival. The beautiful old mansion which hosts the center is surrounded by a lush forest, giving it a secluded feeling, perfect for retreat and practice.
When you arrive in Lamrim Buddhist Center Wales for the first time, and you go for a walk by yourself, you end up walking in-between hedges of two to three meters tall wherever you go. There doesn’t immediately seem to be any nice paths around, any rolling hills to behold, or any vast forests with mighty oaks around. Even though all of these are promised to be there by those who visited and know Wales.
This is how it feels when you study the twelve links for the first time as well. There is the promise of a deep insight into the nature of our existence and how we take rebirth again and again in different types of existence, and how to free you from this uncontrolled cycle. However, looking at the twelve links by yourself feels a bit like wandering around the endless roads with tall hedges in Wales. You simply don’t get any clarity and feel that you are right in the middle of something beautiful, but you simply cannot see it from where you are standing.
The solution to overcome both situations is that you need a proper guide, and for this is what we have found here in Lamrim Buddhist Center Wales guided by Geshe Losel. Geshe-la guides us through the stunning landscape of Wales for long walks, and through the complex philosophy of the twelve links to get a taste of the profound insights that loom once we properly understand it.
Like this day by day we feel more at home in the beautiful surroundings of Wales, the profound philosophy of the Twelve links, and in Lamrim Buddhist Center Wales. We want to thank Geshe Losel, the team of Lamrim Wales and all those that contributed to the center since its very founding. What a great place to study the Dharma, we hope to come back again and again for more stunning walks, more in-depth study and practice and more meetings with the volunteers that we now regard as our dharma friends.