The delegates arrived at the convention, were greeted with hi 5’s, registered, given name badges and were directed towards the dinner area. It was great to see so many people, friends, old friends, relatives, etc!! The Northampton turn out was great too!
On Friday, after dinner, everyone entered the main hall, where the atmosphere of the convention was being created! The lights were dimmed and the music was playing. The mango dancing followed shortly! An introduction to the whole weekend was communicated. This took the form of the following:
“Just as a mighty mango tree is hidden within the stone of the mango, even so, o man, divinity itself is hidden within you. Rest not until you uncover it.”
Mahavir Bhagwan
The whole convention was to be based around the above quote. So much can be derived from such a simple and short sentence. Many useful tools such as mango dancing, perceptions and changing of states aided the understanding. The four fun keys were paramount throughout the convention:
- Play full out!
- Have fun!
- Capture the information!
- Use what you learn!
These guided and helped focus the purpose for what was being delivered to all the delegates.
On Saturday, the main elements of the convention began. The Jain jigsaw puzzle was pieced together in a fun and interactive way. Cornerstone sessions covered the fundamentals of Jainism, such as Atma, Mithyatva, Samyak Darshan, and Moksha.
Later it was time to put our acting skills into practice; we separated into our facilitator groups in order to act out the scenes from Mahavir’s life story! This portrayed many inspirational messages.
The night entertainment was electrifying! We started off with a huge Mexican wave. “Shailen says” was next on the agenda! Thereafter, the quiz commenced!
On Sunday, we continued with the Jain jigsaw puzzle – Star Wars Jain style! This included the Dark side and Light Sabres. The struggle between good versus evil was illustrated well by using Star Wars as an analogy. This helped the delegates to identify with the kashayas Anger Greed Ego and Deceit and how to overcome them.
The evening ended with a groovy garden party…music…dancing…food!
Opinions of the Northampton delegates:
“Have had an absolutely brilliant weekend. Would definitely recommend it to others. It was quite an experience. THANK YOU!”
Bhanva Shah
“The convention was an elaboration of what was briefly shown to us before. I thoroughly enjoyed the 2.5 days that we were there for. As a teacher of Jain classes this helped me to bring a bit more depth into my teaching. Northampton town are too full of questions!”
Fulvanti Shah
“Very enjoyable as nobody felt any age gaps. Everyone was on the same level, whether aged 4 or 40! It did not feel as if there were any young or old delegates there, everybody gelled nicely. The whole convention went really fast, it did not feel like 2.5 days, as we were doing different things, which were broken up, as we do in Jain classes.
This also encouraged a lot of students to come to classes afterwards, so this was nice for the teachers also to see some new blood! Thus this inspired us to do a one-day workshop so that it would allow more people who attend to benefit from the whole TTM experience. It was very encouraging, the support that was given from the TTM Team!”
Ansuiya Shah
“The inspiration and innovation that was generated in a short space of time was remarkable! After the 2.5 days you really felt like ‘u’d been mangoed!’”
Deepa M Shah