We are all Kagyus, which means we have close connections with each other. This doesn’t mean that we see each other every day, but that the individual groups have energy fields that are connected to the Karmapa’s energy field through me.
When one goes to a group like this, one will always learn something about oneself. The basic attitude is that of Mahamudra: we know that we are all part of a totality and that subject, object, and action are fundamental expressions of the same truth.
That’s why visiting a center is always a mirror that shows one’s own face, whether as a purification or a blessing. Because of this, it is better to meditate well in the center than to sit on the lama’s lap and look somewhere else. If we do our best, hold our bonds, and have confidence, then the lama is there because the lama’s essence is space.
Of course you should meet the lama in person once in a while so that you don’t set yourself apart or become proud, so that you can check yourself and hear something new now and then. But the centers are the representatives of the lama. You get the teachings there, the meditations, the methods; you can meet people who have the transmission and the blessing. And in this way everything grows.