It’s A Monk’s Life - Summer Studies at Lam Rim, Wales by Jampa Gyatlsen
Jampa Gyatlsen is 31 years old and from The Netherlands. He Studied Urban planning & Sociology, and met Buddhism during an internship in China, Shanghai in 2013. Having started out in Zen Buddhism he realised he wanted to ordain in a Korean Zen Monastery in 2018. Gradually he became more and more pulled towards Tibetan Buddhism, and then 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. He was fully ordinated in February 2024 by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama in McLeod Ganj. He is now a student of the FPMT Master Programme, hoping to integrate service, study, contemplation and meditation to the best of his abilities.
On 11th to 31st July 2025, at Lam Rim Buddhist Centre, Jampa joined a group of ordained sangha and lay people on the Dependent Arising, Summer Studies, which explored in-depth Jetsun Chökyi Gyaltsen’s General Meaning of Dependent Arising, a supplementary text to his main Perfection of Wisdom commentaries.
Below Jampa shares brief reflections of his time at Lam Rim.
From different centres and monasteries around Europe, a group of Buddhist monastics set out to attend the Summer Studies at Lam Rim, Wales on The Twelve Links of Dependent arising. Led by Geshe Losel, one of the few westerners who completed the Geshe programme in the Tibetan monastic institutions, this was a rare opportunity indeed!
Independently, we travelled to Lam Rim Buddhist Centre, Wales, which is one of the oldest Buddhist Centres 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 at home from the moment of our arrival. The beautiful old mansion house which hosts the Centre is surrounded by a lush forest, giving it a secluded feel, perfect for retreat and practice.
When you arrive in Lam Rim Buddhist Centre, Wales for the first time, and you venture out for a walk by yourself in the surrounding country lanes, you end up walking in between hedges of two to three metres 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. Even though all of these are promised to be there by those who visited and know Wales.
This is how it also feels when you study the twelve links for the first time. 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 oneself from this uncontrolled cycle. However, looking at the twelve links by yourself feels a bit like wandering around the endless county lanes 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 this is what we have found here in Lam Rim Buddhist Centre, 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.
Similarly, day by day we feel more at home in the beautiful surroundings of Wales; in the profound philosophy of the Twelve links; and in Lam Rim Buddhist Centre, Wales. We want to thank Geshe Losel, the team of Lam Rim, Wales and all those who have contributed to the Centre 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.