Ellen Kahler and her wife Susanna

On the Scene in Montpelier, Vermont

by Sarah Lipton

Ellen Kahler, executive director of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, is the winner of the inaugural Con Hogan Award for Creative, Entrepreneurial, Community Leadership.

You’ve met her before. Ellen Kahler was responsible for hosting Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche in the Governor’s Office in Vermont June 2014 (click here to read more). There was also an article about her earlier this year in the Kitchen Wisdom Column (click here). Ellen also serves on the Montpelier Shambhala Group Council, as part of the leadership team that has been growing their local sangha. She didn’t really want us to write about her again, but the fact that she has found a platform in the greater society to espouse the teachings draws us to her.

Ellen has long been a figure in the transformation of Vermont society, having led both the Peace and Justice Center and now the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund. Looking back at her career of over 25 years, Ellen has been remarkably tuned in to the issues that affect the state. While Ellen was the Executive Director of the Peace and Justice Center in Burlington (1990 to 2002), her most well-known works were the Vermont Job Gap Study and the Vermont Livable Wage Campaign, which won statewide attention around the issue of basic family needs, livable wages, and under-employment.

Ellen became the Executive Director of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund (VSJF) in late 2005. Over the past 10 years, she has demonstrated leadership on projects such as the development and implementation of the Farm to Plate Strategic Plan – a 10-year plan to strengthen the food and farm economy in Vermont – and providing grants and technical assistance to farms and businesses in the forest products and bioenergy sectors. She is a graduate of Bucknell University in Pennsylvania with a BA in Political Science and from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University with a Masters in Public Administration.

Today, a few of us very proud Shambhalians had the pleasure to witness as Ellen received this very prestigious new award in Vermont:  the Con Hogan Award for Creative, Entrepreneurial, Community Leadership. The $15,000 award was presented to Ellen at a reception at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier.

As local newspaper The Times Argus explained, “The annual award recognizes the life’s work of Vermont leader Con Hogan by rewarding a midcareer community leader who shares his vision of a better Vermont and who seizes the responsibility for making that vision real.”

Furthermore, “the award recognizes a leader who shows deep community involvement, generosity, enthusiasm, a collaborative approach, and a focus on data and outcomes in his or her work. In the award’s first year, 25 Vermonters representing a variety of interests from across the state were nominated.” Ellen, after many nominations, was recognized as holding these leadership qualities and came out on top.

Con Hogan, Ellen Kahler, Stuart Comstock Gaye (CEO of the VT Community Foundation)

In her address to the assembled gathering of over 100 people, Ellen not only demonstrated her excellent leadership by naming all those who have mentored her on her path, but she also challenged the assembly, saying, “I invite you to consider how our culture of fear and greed has been built and what this has led to. And then think about the desire we all have to be happy and to live from a place of hope and optimism for the future. What will most enable that? Will a culture of fear and greed lead us to be happy or to solve the incredibly complex challenges we face as a species today? Or do we need a culture of kindness to help us get to happiness and a feeling of all-rightness.

“I think we need to have a conversation about re-defining wealth in this country. We need to shift the definition of wealth from a level of accumulated money to a feeling of well-being. A feeling that you have ‘enough.’ What would that take? What would the metrics be to gauge kindness, care and ‘enough-ness’ in our society?

“Just think about it, if a person has a sense of well-being and ‘enough-ness’ and lives in a culture that reinforces this, then that person will want that same feeling of ‘enough-ness’ for others. It just works that way. How might that affect our societal structures? Our human services system, our economic system, and how we treat and interact with the planet and other beings who call earth home?”

Jane Arthur, Scott Robbins and Suzanne Trahey

Jane Arthur, in attendance at the event, had these thoughts to share about Ellen: “Ellen is someone who came into Shambhala already quite far along in understanding where we’re heading with the teachings, particularly those on enlightened society. The teachings have enriched the person that she already is, and have given her a compass point to continue doing all the great work that she is doing in Vermont. And she is definitely doing it. She is manifesting like Rinpoche is asking us to do. What a wonderful acknowledgement of somebody’s overt wisdom and goodness for her to be receiving this really special award, which is named for someone who has also exhibited that in his lifetime.”

Suzanne Trahey, also in attendance at the event, shares, “Ellen Kahler manifests leadership and humility through the humanity she brings to her work and to her community of Vermont. Her receiving this award is a validation and empowerment of the Shambhala teachings.”

“In conversations with those who have known her over her career,” said Scott Robbins, “it is obvious that her contributions and leadership have been well-regarded by many in the legislature and the non-profit sector. I get the sense that all that she has accomplished has been rooted in a long-standing aspiration for the betterment of all those in society, and that her discovery of the Shambhala teachings and our vision of enlightened society has only underscored and reaffirmed these values. Adding the profundity and simplicity of basic goodness to this drive has given Vermont a powerful voice for the inclusion of kindness and a recognition of our interdependence in the dialogue held by those who serve the public.”

When asked about how she feels, Ellen shares, “Being in a leadership position affords me lots of opportunity to work with managing my ego through moments of one of the eight worldly concerns – praise and blame. Receiving two significant leadership awards in Vermont in the span of a couple of weeks caught me by surprise and has been incredibly heart-warming, though a bit surreal. I am so used to just doing my work in Vermont, with as much equanimity as I can muster, and so don’t spend a lot of time thinking about how others might be viewing my leadership and perceived impact. The outpouring of love and congratulatory remarks by friends, family and colleagues has enabled a deep feeling of being grateful to everyone.”

Ellen has clearly demonstrated a profound embodiment of the Shambhala teachings, and we couldn’t be more proud to congratulate her on receiving this wonderful award!

photo by Ian Bascetta

The first practice will be a Healing Puja to increase health and dispel obstacles to well being. During this time, the Sakyong will practice for the vitality and healing of everyone in Shambhala, our families, and friends. Practice during this puja will focus on strengthening all aspects of physical and emotional health, as well as assisting in overcoming physical illness and more subtle obstacles like depression.

The second intensive practice is a Wealth and Enrichment Puja. Wealth pujas have the aim of enriching and enlivening all of our aspirations in order to have a more meaningful life and impact on the world. Our aspirations may be related to enlivening creative endeavors in our livelihood, business, education, households or more generally whatever we wish to enrich in our lives.

These pujas are for all of Shambhala. We can also request the Sakyong to specifically help a friend, loved one, or ourselves through these practices. If we wish ourselves or a friend to be included, it is traditional to offer their name along with an offering to the teacher. These names are read to the Sakyong as part of the puja itself. We can also include a short description of the situation surrounding the request, however the most important connection is the name of the person. The names and descriptions are kept confidential and burned at the conclusion of the puja.

To include someone in either puja, please fill out the information at this site. Another announcement will be sent when the exact dates of the pujas are known, with the deadline for sending names and offerings.

Dharma Teaching
by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

The Tibetan word for refuge is chup, “to be protected by.” Every day we wake up and tacitly take refuge in something that we think will offer us security and protection. Most of the time we put our poker chip on the little thing that says “desire.” We spend our time chasing worldly gains. We take refuge in money, in having things, in winning, in avoiding loss. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with external pleasures, when we believe that our happiness depends on them, we’re engaging in samsara—a Sanskrit word describing a circular and endless process that results in pain, suffering, and disillusionment. We work hard for what we think we want and when we get it, we don’t feel the happiness we expected.

In formally becoming Buddhists we take refuge in the three jewels: the Buddha, the dharma, and the sangha. We take refuge in the Buddha as teacher, our example of an awakened being. The Buddha also represents the potential for enlightenment that we all possess. Taking refuge in the Buddha is taking refuge in our own enlightened aspect. He’s our role model for someone who went through a personal struggle and came to rest in wisdom and compassion.

We also take refuge in the dharma—the truth that the Buddha expounded. This includes his literal words as well as the inner truth to which the words are pointing. Fundamentally we’re taking refuge in the notion of selflessness or emptiness, luminosity, suchness. The dharma is the fundamental nature of things. It’s the way things are.

The third jewel is sangha, a community of individuals who come together to practice, who know what to accept and what to reject in order to go forward on the path. We come together to cultivate the qualities that take us toward enlightenment. We reject the qualities that take us in another direction.

In the beginning we’re in a bewildered state. We don’t know what to accept and what to reject. We know things aren’t working out, but we’re not sure why. It’s usually because whatever we encounter, we react with aggression, attachment, or confusion. We’re so busy trying to avoid what we don’t want, get what we want, and ignore our suffering that we don’t even know what we’re doing. Unless we wake up to how it works, our life can be a process of these negative emotions alternating. They disturb our inherently peaceful mind, reinforce the notion of a solid self, and cause more suffering. That’s why these qualities are known as “the three poisons.”

When we practice shamatha meditation—peaceful abiding—we look at our minds and see what’s happening. We’re able to say, “Oh, here comes a moment of anger.” We begin to see how we use anger to maintain the solidity of “me,” even if it means hurting others. We also begin to see how often we use anger as a way to work things out: “I’m gonna get angry. Then I’ll get what I want.” But looking at the dharma of the situation shows us that the real result of anger is always more pain.

We see how desire creates fixation and duality—a separation of self and other in terms of what we experience and what’s projected. We begin to understand that whatever we’re after is conditioned by impermanence; it is not a solid entity. Neither are we. We work so hard to get something, and even when we think we’ve succeeded, it’s falling apart right in front of our face. We can’t really hold on to anything. We experience the process of trying to hold on as suffering—a sense of agitation and impending loss. Then we’re likely to say, “Next time will be better. I didn’t have enough desire. If I have enough desire, I’ll get what I want.”

That’s how we usually engage with our lives. The Buddha saw this seemingly simple truth and showed us how to open our eyes and see what’s actually going on. Is there anything in our lives that’s ever remained permanently? No, there’s only impermanence. Is there anything we experience in which we can find a solid identity? No, we’re always in a state of flux. Is there any situation that isn’t inhibited by suffering? Our happiness is a slippery situation. Suffering is always going to catch up with us. The Buddha taught that we need to see the truth of how things are because in fact, as real as it seems, the pain too is ephemeral, empty, and without entity.

Taking refuge in the three jewels, we begin to see a larger perspective: living as if aggression, desire, and confusion is going to lead to true happiness is like planting tomatoes when what we want is apples. To get what we want, we need to plant the seeds of virtue: love, compassion, and wisdom. Taking refuge is a moment when we say, “I’d like to do things differently now.” At that moment it is said that the seed of enlightenment is born in us. We want to stop perpetuating samsara. It takes tremendous conviction to give up being mad, to give up being jealous, to pull our heads out of the sand and acknowledge suffering. It’s not an easy path to follow. But when we take refuge, we aspire to turn our minds away from the samsaric way of living and to cultivate compassion, loving-kindness, and wisdom instead. We decide to nurture the seeds of genuine happiness.

It’s difficult to do this on our own. So we take refuge in the sangha. These are people who can support us, to whom we can look for guidance. Together we’re trying to understand that ultimately, dwelling in anger, desire, and bewilderment is not going to lead to liberation. We’re acknowledging that we’ve been in a reactive state: if somebody’s said something we didn’t like, we’ve responded automatically with jealousy, anger, or denial. We’re saying that we can now be proactive, in accordance with compassion, love, or wisdom.

In order to create that space where we’re not inundated by negativity, we need to cool the mind. We need to nurture a mind that is stable, strong, and clear enough to handle the rigors of this process. If our mind isn’t like that, even if we want to choose a more proactive path, we don’t have the option. We need to settle the mind, settle the body, begin to breathe. Meditation is how we as a community step on to the path of virtue. Together we’re taking refuge in the Buddha’s teaching that there’s a way out of the circle of aggression, fixation, and ignorance.

By practicing peaceful abiding together, we’re offering each other the strength and courage to develop our enlightened qualities. We’re tilling the soil, planting the seeds, and watering the love, compassion, and wisdom that sprout forth. We’re acknowledging that before we can better the world, we need to relate to what’s happening within our own minds. At the same time we’re developing a compassionate community through which we can engage the world in a different way. We’re establishing a culture based on the foundation that each of us has the genes for enlightenment.

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Read more by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche by clicking here.

What Karuna Training Offers

Story and photos by Miriam Hall

Update: application deadline for the upcoming training has been extended, and a few spaces may still be available

I signed up for the very first North American Karuna Training series with lots of planning and very little expectation. In this article from last year, I mentioned having heard great reviews from alumnae in Europe. However, when it came to them trying to tell me why, how or even what the experience gave them, they fell silent. As with Shambhala Training, as with meditation itself, it is tricky describing what we do in Karuna Training and the benefits it gives us. But I am going to try, because now that I am halfway through, I want more North Americans to know about Karuna Training, which is starting its second series in Seattle. Application deadline is October 25, 2015, with November 20-23, 2015 as the opening weekend.

The structure of Karuna Training is this: outstanding teachers like Acharya Melissa Moore, Acharya Susan Chapman, Paul Cashman and Shastri Sandra Ladley lead us through bi-monthly weekends full of talks, movement exercises, and intensely honest (but safe) Body Speech and Mind groups, Process groups and Compassionate Exchange groups. Each of these teachers brings their scholarly and personal experiences to the weekends. We also have two week-long programs, focusing on the Buddha Families, that fill us with a richness of direct experience to take home and digest. Many remote offerings in between keep us engaged until the next meeting. These provide selected readings, teachings, continuity groups – including one that runs on Skype for those who live far away – and practice commitments to keep us connected to practice and one another. We also have a Google Community, where we meditate together in real time, and share photos, videos, and discussions.

While coming in, my focus (as was the case for many in my cohort) was on helping others, and how to help myself help others. Fundamentally what has been deeply, experientially reinforced for me is a faith in Basic Goodness, or, as Karuna Training discusses it, Inherent Sanity. As with Basic Goodness, all humans are basically sane, even when in psychosis. Recognizing that wisdom, those islands of sanity that are often beleaguered by neurosis: this is the teaching of Basic Goodness applied to the activities of mind. Perhaps the most important aspect of the training is relationship. The main way we work with and through ourselves is in relationship, learning to see others – and the inner selves we often ignore – as complete and complex beings. Working with relationship also helps us see inner “othering,” and projections of ourselves onto others.

The practice of contemplative psychology embraces all that is happening in the present moment. Staying with what is happening now is a lovingly relentless aspect of Karuna Training. In all dyads and groups, we are repeatedly encouraged to speak to the present experience. Not the past, not focusing on cause and effect, but what is happening now. This is a stunningly vulnerability-enhancing practice, removing the contexts that give us a sense of a solid self.

Spending time in nature, in solitude and together, in quiet and in conversation, we unpack the teachings of contemplative psychology. Moving our bodies, minds and hearts to a communal and personal rhythm, we start to feel the unconditional love that underpins true compassion. This is perilous work that needs great guidance. If you are drawn to doing this work, now is the time, and Karuna Training can be the container.

For more information or to register for an upcoming event, please visit the Karuna Training website.

A seasonal contemplation on energy, connectedness and change

by Simon La Haye

Today is a beautiful fall day. The trees are dancing in the crisp energy of the wind, leaves have already changed colors and are flying about, everything is clear and vivid. It is slightly nostalgic, it is the end of summer, yet everything is very energized.

At Dechen Chöling it is a time of harvesting after a busy summer. We take down the summer equipment, and we look at what worked and what needs to be improved. As we continue with programs there is still quite a bit of activity, but there is also this process of gathering and harvesting. Because we can take this time and things are relatively quiet, sometimes I fear that we are disconnected with reality. In many places fall can be the beginning of a new phase as everyone come back from the break of summer, and new projects start: school, new books, a new football season, the Nobel prizes. The world seems to start again after having taken its breath during the summer: conflicts and agression erupting in many places even if at the beginning there were good intentions, refugees desperately looking for a place where they can live with a minimum of dignity, cynicism that continues to exploit and destroy the earth.

Even if we hear of basic goodness and are seduced by the idea, there is always an interrogation lurking. This interrogation is much more than just the contrast of this goodness with the suffering in the world. This sometimes is easier to understand -when one just thinks about survival it is more difficult to be generous and kind. It is actually heroic. There is also a more subtle and very personal side to it. For me, in the back of my mind, I still hope that meditation and the contemplation of how things are will solve my problems, will transform me into the person I would like to be. There is always an underlying hope that all my fear and embarrassment will be a thing of the past. But this question of basic goodness challenges me, makes me look at how I see myself. It is so hard to trust what and who we are, and then by extension others, society and the world.

This fall the Sakyong said that there is no small version of Shambhala. We are working on  transforming ourselves and creating enlightened society, or a good human society. They go together and are not different. If I trust myself I can also imagine peace. Otherwise it is just a theory.

Editors’ Note: read on for a French-language version of this article.

C’est un beau jour d’octobre. Les arbres dansent au chant énergique du vent, les feuilles ont déjà changés de couleur et virevoltent allègrement dans la douce clarté de l’automne. Il y a cette nostalgie de l’été fraichement partie, mais aussi beaucoup d’énergie.

A Dechen Chöling c’est le temps de la récolte après une période très active. On démonte les installations estivales: les tentes, la cuisine et le reste. Nous regardons ce qui a bien fonctionné et ce qui doit être amélioré pour l’an prochain. Comme il y a toujours des stages nous ne chômons pas, mais nous prenons le temps de la réflection. Comme nous pouvons nous permettre ce moment et que l’activité est moins intense, j’ai parfois l’impression que nous vivons un peu à l’écart du monde. Pour beaucoup l’automne est le début d’une nouvelle phase après la pause de l’été – le début de l’année scolaire, la rentrée littéraire, la nouvelle saison de foot, les prix Nobel et tout le reste. Le monde semble repartir et continuer sur sa lancée: il y a les réfugiés qui cherchent simplement un endroit où ils puissent vivre avec dignité, il y a la tricherie qui fait que l’on respecte peu cette terre qui nous nourrit, et les bonnes intentions souvent ne servent qu’à envenimer les conflits et créer de nouvelles sources d’agression.

Même si nous sommes séduits par l’idée de bonté fondamentale, il y a toujours une interrogation. Bien sur la souffrance générale n’est pas étrangère à cette hésitation, mais elle est tout de même plus facile à comprendre – lorsque nous sommes inquiets pour notre propre survie il est difficile de prendre le temps pour être bon et généreux. En fait, arriver à le faire est héroïque.

Mais il y a aussi un doute plus subtil et intensément personnel. Toujours je garde l’espoir de régler mes problèmes, de devenir la personne que j’aimerais être, et j’espère que la méditation et toute ma recherche personnelle vont régler le problème une fois pour toute. Il y a toujours cet espoir sous-jacent que finalement mes peurs et mes insécurités deviendront choses du passé. Mais cette question de bonté primordiale me pousse à regarder comment je me vois moi-même. C’est aussi extrêmement courageux de faire confiance à ce que l’on est, et ainsi de se permettre d’avoir confiance aux autres, à la société, et à notre monde.

Récemment le Sakyong à dit qu’il n’y a pas de version simplifié de Shambhala, nous travaillons à la fois à nous améliorer et à créer une bonne société humaine. Ces deux axes vont de pair et ne sont pas différents. Si j’ai confiance en ce que je suis je peux aussi imaginer la paix. Autrement tout cela reste une jolie théorie.

Simon La Haye is a resident teacher at Dechen Chöling.

The Shambhala Monastic Order’s first temporary monastic training program comes to completion

by Shastri Loden Nyima, Monastic Secretary to Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

Summer is passing and fall arriving at Gampo Abbey as we conclude our first year of residential monastic training, The Warriors Who Are Meek, from the Shambhala Monastic Order. This year of training was initiated by an instruction from Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche to continue the tradition of offering temporary monastic training residencies by designing The Warriors Who Are Meek: A Year in Review curricula based on the Four Dignities of the Shambhala path. As part of the monastery’s role in helping to hold deep practice and study, the intention was that a period of complete immersion in the dharma would offer practitioners the opportunity for processing and deepening which can also benefit the broader society as more people train in this way and return.

Our year began with the gentle arrival of eleven new participants (eight of whom have completed the year) and a welcome circle to join the existing community led by Director Richard Haspray. Participants familiarized themselves with the daily schedule of four and a half hours of practice. They learned their service roles in the community, including a trip to nearby Pollet’s Cove to help clean up the iconic spot and connect with the energy of the land. We then began our formal training with courses on the ground of basic goodness and friendliness to self, and introduced Shambhala Meditation. The main teaching team for the year was Gelong Loden Nyima, Shastri Alice Haspray, and Ani Lodro Dechen, with retreat teachings from Gampo Acharya Pema Chodron.

We continued with courses on the path of discernment, using dyads and contemplative meditation to deepen our appreciation for the effects and transformative power of our actions both individually and socially. This was supported with evening study sessions of the classical teachings on karma given by the Sakyong lineage at seminaries, and supportive texts. One potent way we practice these teachings in the monastery is through the Sojong ceremony, which occurs every two weeks and includes self-reflection, group sharing, purification, and renewal of intentions.

To help us turn away from distraction we practiced the four reminders: the preciousness of human life, the impermanence of all and imminence of death, the power of karmic action, and the futility of suffering in samsara. It was from this ground that we looked ahead to receiving temporary ordination – fully utilizing this precious opportunity to deepen and lay positive conditions for the future.

The week before ordination we traveled down to Halifax to attend Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche’s teachings on the Shambhala Sadhana, which we practice weekly as a community at the Abbey. The Sakyong was pleased to see such There, we had the opportunity to ask questions about our current venture and to receive direct guidance about our year of training underway, which was very encouraging.

Back at the Abbey we made final preparations for temporary ordination, such as learning the five basic precepts, reflecting on our intentions, and learning how to wear the robes with good lungta. Ten participants then had their hair cut, emulating the act of the Buddha, and received ordination on the 12th of December, further embarking on the year of contentment. This was a proud day for the Abbey as it was the first ordination offered within a Shambhala Monastic Order program, and also the first by new preceptor Gelong Lodro Kalsang, receiving the torch from beloved elder Ani Migme Chodron who retired from her position after many years of service.

Shortly afterwards, we prepared for the arrival of Ani Pema Chodron to lead our annual Yarne retreat, this year themed around the selflessness and basic goodness of who and what we are which we had begun to explore, and the methods of friendliness and mindfulness. Yarne also included expert guidance in the posture of meditation with Hope Martin, and intensive weeks of Shambhala Meditation. All had the chance to enjoy interviews with Ani Pema to receive personal guidance and instruction.

Yarne’s long hours of meditation and silence also became the time when our year moved past its honeymoon and into the main work of truly meeting the entirety of our minds. It was a potent and transformative time, though not always an easy one. It concluded with Shambhala Day celebrations and three days of open time to rest and relax. We also waved an early and tearful goodbye to two participants for whom it was time to move on into household life. As it happened, after a few regular weeks our next major event to prepare for was a visit from the Sakyong himself!

The Sakyong arrived at the Abbey on the 10th of March for a one-day visit. It was something of a milestone as it was the first time the Sakyong had visited the Abbey since having established the Shambhala Monastic Order. His address to our community focused on the fundamental dignity of human beings as the ground of enlightened society, whether in the monastery or the larger world, and highlighted the role of the monastery as a place of intensive training in and expression of the virtues which naturally follow from this awakened essence of life, further empowering society. This was both an encouraging instruction and a seed of much to come. Our leadership also met with the Sakyong, who offered much guidance on our path of holding and practicing the Shambhala terma teachings as the heart of the monastery.

After a sad and joyful goodbye to the Sakyong, Ani Pema gave teachings on his text The Vow, sessions that were open to the larger community. Then we marked the Vidyadhara’s Parinirvana with offerings of tea from John Soyu McGee Sensei and Alexandre Soro Avdulov Sensei, who were visiting from Halifax. They generously offered the Abbey a gift of three scroll paintings of the three traditional bodhisattvas, brought back from their travels in Japan.

Shortly thereafter we waved goodbye to Ani Pema and took some time as a community to regroup and process together, sharing our experience as warriors having now journeyed roughly halfway through our year of the Tiger. It was touching for us to see each other’s process so far, and worthy of much space and reflection. Our practice and study continued with a close examination of the teachings on shamatha as a support for our path of meditation. We also continued with extended contemplation and practice of the Sakyong’s teaching of Shambhala Meditation. In my own experience, this was one of the most powerful parts of the year in discovering unconditional friendship, caring, and the fruition of contentment and confidence.

Now as we conclude, we have been discussing Shambhala Household teachings to reflect on the container we’ve had, and to aid in the transition many participants will soon undergo. Still eager for more study, some students also journeyed through the progressive philosophical tenets of the Buddhist view in our evening sessions. We will complete the year with a few days of intensive practice of the Shambhala Sadhana, final warrior’s exchange circles, and a graduation and goodbye ceremony before participants depart. Two will be staying for a second year of training, The Warriors Who Are Joyful, which will begin in January 2016.

If you’re curious about what it actually is to live a year of training in the monastery, the ups and downs, the inspirations and challenges, and the personal journeys, stay tuned for a series of articles from the participants themselves.

Shastri Loden Nyima is a fully ordained monk and has been in residence at Gampo Abbey since 2009.  He serves as Monastic Secretary to Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and as Head of Education at Gampo Abbey, where he designs and leads training programs offered by the Shambhala Monastic Order.  He was born in Texas and in his free time loves to meditate, study, and exercise.    

a review by Jay Lippman

Korean royal crown

In our search for worthwhile television viewing, my wife and I have wandered in many directions and genres from Hollywood to Bollywood, rarely finding anything truly memorable. But now I have discovered a television show so enjoyable that I am happy to share it with everyone.   Are you are tired of cable shows with shallow plots and one dimensional characters? Are you turned off by shows that are just excuses for excessive displays of sex and violence, and do you long for shows that are fit for an enlightened society? Then this show is for you. An uplifted, complex, sophisticated, (and wonderfully long) story based on some genuine human understanding of enlightened culture.

The show is called Queen Seon Duk and the genre is made-for-television Korean Historical dramas. These shows are available for streaming online. Seon Duk was a real person who ruled as the Queen of Silla from 632 to 647 during the Three Kingdoms period of Korean history. Silla made up one of Korea’s Three Kingdoms. She was Silla’s 27^th ruler, its first reigning Queen, and the second female sovereign in East Asian history. Queen Seon Duk was greatly attracted to Buddhism, and fostered its growth in Silla. She established the first astrological observatory in the Far East, which still stands today. She was renowned for her wit and intuition and she encouraged a rebirth of thought, literature and the arts in Silla.

The Queen’s Tomb

In this made-for-television historical drama, besides Queen Seon Duk, the main characters Mishil, Bidam, and Yushin, as well as others, are all actual historical figures. The story begins with Seon Duk’s mother, the Queen, giving birth to royal twins. This being an ominous omen, Doekman (her name before ascending the throne) is separated from her family at birth and secretly sent away to live outside Silla with a court maid. Doekman grows up not knowing her true identity. In the story, which encompasses 62 hour-long episodes, Doekman finds her way back to Silla, discovers her true identity, battles for the throne with her archrival Mishil, who has become the most powerful woman in the Court and was consort to Doekman’s grandfather.

I found the story riveting. The plot twists and turns, hour after hour, yet every episode is fresh and surprising. The characters and plot take many episodes to fully develop, during which there are incredible battles, sophisticated strategies, complex interactions and relationships, frank dialogues, demonstrations of loyalty, deception, and intrigue.

I’ll mention two underlying themes in the story that we as Shambhalians can especially appreciate. First is the notion of acting in accordance with principle. In the Silla Royal Court of that time, everyone’s conduct was governed by principle. Principle included the rules governing the actions of all members of the court and to a lesser extent, the rest of society. At one level, acting according to principle meant acting properly, doing the right thing.  More subtly, being in accord with principle was to be in harmony with the larger principles of Heaven, Earth and Humanity. Ambitiously advancing one’s own position was accepted as long as one’s actions were in accord with those larger principles. The second theme is sincerity. This referred to one’s inner attitude and experience. Sincerity is the complete, inner commitment to live in genuineness according to principle, no matter what the cost. In the drama, the character Yushin most exemplifies this quality.

Observatory from the time of Queen Seon Duk

Queen Seon Duk is a long and rich historical drama, exciting and enjoyable to watch, and full of lessons for would-be warriors of an enlightened society. But now for the fine print. It is not easy to watch this show. Queen Seon Duk is entirely in Korean, with English subtitles that seem to have been written by non-English speaking Koreans using only a Shakespearean English dictionary. In other words, the subtitles are crazy. The language is so convoluted and obscure that it’s laughable.   On top of that, sometimes the lines go by so fast they’re simply impossible to read. After the first 10 episodes or so, the language settles down a bit, or perhaps you just get used to it. But the show is worth it. And it takes at least 10 episodes for the plot to fully emerge, so just settle in and let it unfold.

If you’re not convinced, and you think 62 episodes might be too daunting, and you already subscribe to Netflix, then try this first to whet your appetite: “The Moon Embracing The Sun”. This is another Korean historical drama, but it has only 20 episodes and is not based on historical fact. It is a romantic melodrama, set during the later Joseon period of Korean history, and is also wonderful, with many Shambhalian themes. I loved it, but be prepared – you will need a whole box of tissues!  Enjoy.

Jay Lippman

Gongter empowerments continue on the sacred ground of Parpeng

by Walker Blaine

Namkha Drimed Rinpoche

After the first five empowerments of the Gongter, Namkha Drimed Rinpoche’s termas of key practices in the Nyingma lineage, we moved into what could be considered the heart of these transmissions, the empowerments for practices related to Gesar of Ling. Anticipation for this section of the Gongter was immense. Many people had come to Parpeng specifically to receive these Gesar teachings, for which His Eminence is most famous. Besides an increase in the number of people billeted around the monastery during the Gesar section of the Gongter, the number of buses with day-guests from Kathmandu seemed to double. Since the shrine room held 800, and the porch and courtyard were accommodating far more than that, we estimated that nearly 2,000 people received the Gesar empowerments. Some came from as far away as Tibet and Bhutan. An elder lama explained to me that in Tibet there are many people devoted to Gesar through the vast tradition of stories and songs about him, but until now there was no practice path for people to follow in Gesar’s footsteps. That explains why this was such an important event for the Tibetan community.

Gesar as Guru

The Gesar section began with an empowerment for Gesar as a guru, a peaceful form of Gesar of Ling. In any progression of practice, we have to relate to the principle of the teacher first. The form of Gesar as a guru looks very much like Padmasambhava’s most well-known form, but with some subtle differences; for example, there is no khatvangha, or staff, at his side.

Wrathful Gesar

The next afternoon we began receiving several days of empowerments for Gesar’s enlightened activity, the different forms that Gesar will manifest in depending on the needs of a situation. These manifestations correspond with the four enlightened activities:  pacifying obstacles; enriching life, merit, wealth, and lungta; magnetizing virtue; and wrathfully overcoming the enemy of our own deepest negativity. Gesar generally manifests as a wrathful warrior, with the first three activities of pacification, enrichment, and magnetizing seen as branches of his primary, wrathful aspect. At the same time, even when he is wrathful, he is never separate from the peaceful aspect or from compassion.

Drala Gesar

Along with these empowerments came one for a newly discovered terma that brings Gesar together the peaceful and wrathful deities of the bardo, or after-death state. This empowerment corresponds with the last section of the Gesar epic, when Gesar travels to the hell realms to release the consciousnesses of those beings who descended there after being killed in the wars between Gesar’s kingdom of Ling and the barbarian countries surrounding it. The final empowerment in the Gesar series was for Gesar, Lord of Drala, the most secret aspect of Gesar, where he is seated on his horse wearing brilliant golden armor.

Namkha Drimed Rinpoche

In addition to the human anticipation of the beginning of the Gesar empowerments, there also seemed to be a major non-human sign—a massive rainstorm the evening before the empowerments began. When we arrived at the monastery for breakfast the next morning, we found that the huge tent erected over the monastery courtyard had collapsed under the weight of rain the night before. Fortunately, no one was hurt, even though the collapse of the metal beams could have easily caused great damage. It is said that powerful rainstorms are not uncommon before His Eminence presents major Gesar teachings.

Throughout the Gongter, and especially during the Gesar empowerments, there was a sense of profound poignancy. On the most apparent level, this was because the empowerments were being bestowed for the first time in their entirety. The event felt as though it was a crowning jewel for Namkha Drimed Rinpoche’s life of compassionate activity in Tibet and throughout the world. However, there were many other layers of meaning surrounding what was happening. For example, the Gongter was bestowed on the sacred ground of Parpeng, the place where Padmasambhava tamed seemingly insurmountable obstacles in Nepal many centuries ago. This added an immediate sense of protection and strength, almost as if the Gongter were a response to the devastating earthquake that had happened less than six months earlier. A few days into the event, there was a small quake during a break in the day, which was a sharp reminder of the fragility of life and the preciousness of this situation.

The Sakyong and Sakyong Wangmo

The Gongter was a complete gathering of all of Namkha Drimed Rinpoche’s close students, as well as all of the Ripa family. The empowerments and reading transmissions were given first to the Sakyong, then to Jigme Rinpoche and the other main Ripa lineage teachers, as well to as the Sakyong Wangmo and all the family. Most terma lineages are held by the blood descendants of the tertön, so this family connection was crucial for the lineage to be fully upheld in the future. In a sense, the Gongter sealed the lineage of His Eminence’s termas, which are one of the two main streams of teachings that the Ripa lineage maintains, the other being the termas of 17th century tertön Taksham Nuden Dorje.

For Shambhalians, there was a special significance to the Gongter because the Sakyong was fully receiving the Gesar teachings of Namkha Drimed Rinpoche, who himself was a student of the first Sakyong, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Gesar of Ling, along with the Rigdens of Shambhala, is the source of the Shambhala terma teachings, and it was wonderful to witness the Sakyong receiving the Gesar practices and teachings of probably the most prolific living tertön in the world. At one point toward the end the event, His Eminence kindly bestowed the transmission for the Gesar practice that Trungpa Rinpoche had specifically composed for him. This was a true blessing for everyone at the Gongter, particularly younger, modern Tibetans who might not have been aware of Trungpa Rinpoche’s life and activity. Around that time, during the Gongter’s morning reading transmissions, there was a long section specifically devoted to Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, for which Lhuntrul Rinpoche paused to read the Tibetan more slowly so that everyone could hear—and about which we hope to learn more soon.

His Eminence and Jetsun Drukmo

While in Europe earlier this year, the Sakyong was asked why he would take so much time to receive the Gongter in the midst of so many other important programs and initiatives within the community. His response was that he had to hold the lineage in order to pass it on to his children, who would in turn be holding the lineage as well. All of these teachings will become part of what the future generations of Sakyongs carry forward, and will be part of what is protected within Shambhala.

Khandro Chima and Jetsun Dzedron

This was something all of us could witness happening during the empowerments, because Jetsun Drukmo, Jetsun Yudra, and Jetsun Dzedron were present throughout the event, receiving the abhishekas with the family throughout the afternoon rituals. Jetsun Dzedron, just six months old, was carried to His Eminence’s throne by her grandmother Khandro Chime, or her great uncle Tulku Karma Shedrup, who took turns carrying her. They also carried Jetsun Dzedron’s two-month old cousin, the newborn son of Lhuntrul Rinpoche, to receive the various icons and blessed substances from His Eminence.

Shrine Room

One thing that was remarkable about the Gongter, and especially the Gesar empowerments, was the sense of familial intimacy, even with such a huge group of people. It wasn’t that everyone suddenly knew one another, but that there was a shared, felt experience of how we were all being touched by the heart-mind of Namkha Drimed Rinpoche. This atmospheric feeling was palpable, whether one was simply following the visual imagery of the ritual, or closely following the words of the ceremony through the translations in English and Nepali, or listening on the FM radio bands dedicated to different language groups.

The closeness of mind I am describing was not simply due to the fact that His Eminence was a teacher presenting teachings on Gesar. It was the interweaving of many different factors, primarily based on the meaning of being a tertön, or treasure-revealer. To be a tertön means that one’s mind is equivalent in realization to Padmasambhava. In other words, to receive teachings directly on the level of mind from a realized buddha like Padmasambhava, the tertön’s mind must be equally open. This became clear as we heard the stories at the start of each empowerment about when and where His Eminence received the teachings, all starting with visions when he was a very young boy. These stories echoed those of the Vidyadhara and all other great tertöns. We were in the presence of someone whose experience was incredibly refined and profound. Through empowerment rituals His Eminence was symbolically and directly pointing out what it meant to be in tune with such extraordinary wisdom. Knowing this, and feeling this happening, created a sense of being in one huge multi-lingual, multi-cultural family receiving the blessings of Gesar.

Walker Blaine is Master of Liturgies to Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. He has studied extensively with the Sakyong and been part of the Shambhala community for more that 30 years. Walker’s ebook, The Great River of Blessings, an account of the Rinchen Terdzö received by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche in the winter of 2008-2009, can be downloaded at the Sakyong Foundation. Walker lives with his wife Patricia in Halifax, Nova Scotia. 

E kore a ngaro he takere waka nui:  the keel of a great canoe cannot be lost.

by Susie Vincent

Just as all of you in the northern hemisphere decide that it’s autumn or fall, the leaves turn red and gold and the year’s cycle starts drawing into the dark, in this obscure little country in the South Pacific we have just put the clocks forward. The extraordinary burst of youthful, raw energy that ignites the New Zealand spring has arrived.  The air is scented, the birds are bouncing, buzzing, squeaking and trilling with excitement, and there is this almost ecstatic sense of immanence that brings people suddenly out of doors, as though compelled to greet something.  Then before you know it, the ashes in the wood burner lie cold, and we all take our socks and shoes off.

We are a remarkably barefoot culture.  In my village, only 14km (8 miles) from a big city, I see kids walking barefoot by choice to and from primary school all year round (we do have winter frosts in the valley).  In recent memory, kids rode bareback to school here and only the horse wore shoes.

The idea of exquisite five year olds scampering around the streets at dusk must appall parents elsewhere, but at this moment, in this village, they’re fine. New Zealand isn’t perfect: like everyone, we’re sleepwalking into social, economic and environmental crisis and losing many treasured values, yet I cherish this still tangible sense of difference, somehow characterised by planting the naked foot onto the textures of the earth, in that land-based indigenous way.

Kauri tree, Kakamatua Beach

I’ve no doubt that any remnant identity of strong values, strong community, participative democracy, and environmental stewardship that enshrines New Zealand in foreign eyes derives completely from Māori cultural norms ingrained in our mixed culture.  These are perishing fast and in dire need of preservation in these times.

Māori call the indigenous people of Aotearoa (New Zealand) tangata whenua, people of the land.   This isn’t about owning the land – this land is our land – but the other way around.  The land is in charge: the nature of the connection between human and animal and tree and earth and sky is unequivocal; the natural forces command respect and authentic dialogue.

So what of the canoe?  A canoe is a vehicle; it’s a path; it’s a tradition.  The Polynesian sea-voyaging ancestors – among the greatest navigators of all time – set out from their homeland in great, ornately adorned and carved, ocean-going canoes (waka), and thus arrived in this beautiful land.  A great waka might be as long as 36 metres (Cook’s ship, Endeavour was 33 metres) and could carry hundreds of people.

Kakamatua Beach, Waitakere Ranges

To build a great vehicle for the people isn’t done lightly.  First, you need to choose the right tree, and then designate it for human service – taunahatia.  The wind god – Tāwhirimātea – must be supplicated not to blow it down.  Mediation is needed with the elemental world, to remove any tapu prohibiting its use.  The god of the forest, Tāne, needs to be invoked and propitiated.  The builders of the waka need to be authorized, and a powerful energetic container created for the project.

Ceremonies of chants and songs accompany every stage.  Some elements of karakia are quite unearthly: in the karanga, which invites and supplicates the ancestors at the start of a gathering, the voices of women soar in a dramatic wail, as though reaching into the strands binding the visible and invisible worlds.  In Maori tradition, the inseparability of nirvana and samsara is indisputable.

Kakamatua Beach

Raising drala; raising the spirits; supplicating the elemental; inviting and supplicating tathagatas – the lineage heroes of tradition and myth: while the honour accorded to it is waning, this continual sense of sacred world embedded in a culture still remains.  Most New Zealanders understand these truths:  koha – reciprocal generosity; mana – authentic presence, integrity, honour; aroha – loving compassion; kaitiakitanga – guardianship and stewardship of the earth; wairua – the essential nature of something.

The keel of a great canoe cannot be lost.  Who is the keel of a great canoe?  Lineage holders are the keel – the great structural beam that holds the vessel together and from which everything radiates. When the vehicle and the journey are founded in what is timeless, elemental and primordial, it may be forgotten, diluted or denied, but it can never be destroyed.

We extend this hope for New Zealand, and for Shambhala.

Kia kaha!  Be strong and great like the ropes that bind the great canoe!

Aroha nui

Susie Vincent serves as the head of Practice and Education in Auckland. She offers this story with thanks to Sophie Watt for her inspiration.

All Shambhalians are warmly invited to an M.I. and Guide Gathering with Acharya Dale Asrael (or you can do Guide Training!) in New Zealand in the Southern midsummer, followed by a half-dathun.   The full program will extend from December 28  to January 16. Find more details at   www.auckland.shambhala.info, or contact the local center at: auckland.shambhala@gmail.com

On the night of an extraordinary full moon, Boulder Shambhala Center offers the Shambhala Sadhana

by Elaine Logan

I walk into the main shrine room at the Boulder Shambhala Center on the full moon, Sunday, August 30, for the Shambhala Sadhana practice. Achary Dan Hessey sits up front, surrounded by expectant folks. I sit at the back, facing the shrine. The shrine room feels full – so many people showed up!  Something different is happening. People came out of their homes late on a Sunday afternoon, just to do this sadhana, just to be here with folks of like mind and to chant about basic goodness.

Acharya Hessey introduces the sadhana. While I listen, I look around the room. I see old friends, and I see new faces. I see young couples. I see children. I see young teenage friends sitting beside me in the back. Later I ask one young man, “What brings you here? Are you Buddhist?” He says, “No. I just came with my friend.”

In front of me a woman and her daughter sit on red gomdens. During the sadhana, mother and daughter share a magenta scarf. The daughter pulls the scarf from her mother’s shoulders and stretches it over her arms. A radiating tattoo of dots and triangles wraps around the mother’s arm like a sleeve.  She wears red lipstick – a look I love.  Black springy curls surround the daughter’s face. She looks ten years old. During the sadhana, I see the daughter is chanting too. I am impressed. What’s it like to feel basically good right from childhood?

During my own chanting, I hear an old Scots voice, “Who the hell do you think you are to be so good?” Regardless of this voice I chant, “I am basically good.” After the practice, we all retire to the community room for a spread of refreshments topped by two huge homemade pies: apple and pumpkin! I love to mingle with my favorite folks on the planet, the Basically Good Guys!

Now Shelly Webb, the Boulder Shambhala Member and Volunteer Coordinator, asks me to write something up about this event. “We had at least 74 people here tonight. We’d like to put something into the Times about it.” Sounds great, but by this time almost everyone has gone. So, I followed up with some calls. First, I asked Melanie Klein, the Shambhala Center’s new Executive Director. Melanie was delighted: “A wonderful blend of senior and brand new students, some even brought their children along. Folks told me that practicing the Sadhana was just what they needed.”

To find out more about this whole shebang, I called Les Schafer, who coordinated the event. “How did it feel to see so many people?” “Wondrous,” Les said. “Pato [Valderrama] and I were coordinating. Noel Smith said ‘Set up for 20.’ We set up for 30. Then Noel went and set up for 40. Then more and more people kept coming and we kept putting out more and more cushions, chairs, and support cushions. Everybody was so wonderful. Everybody helped!” Les went on to describe what happened later: “Pato and I were downstairs putting away food and Eileen Malloy comes downstairs and says, ‘Your cushions are all put away in the post-meditation hall.’ We didn’t ask anyone. They did that on their own. Everyone was compassionate and good-natured. Pato and I thought we’d be there till 9:00!”

I followed up with Bill Haas, a colleague from Seagate Technology. How did Bill find the evening? “It was heartwarming and encouraging that so many people showed up,” said Bill. “Man, we pretty much filled the place up.  More and more people are connecting to the magic of that practice. It is so to the point. It so speaks to the whole situation, individually, and globally, and everything else in between. The other thing I like about it is that it’s not exclusive. We exclude no one. If you’ve never done it before, you’re welcome. If you do it all the time, you’re welcome. That warms my heart.”What makes it magical?” I ask Bill. “Well, it helps because there is group energy. We are not just individuals. We transcend the boundaries of our bags of skin.”

I caught up with Acharya Dan Hessey driving to another teaching event. What did the Acharya think of this event? Acharya Hessey said, “This was an exciting and pivotal event. It provides context where the entire community could hear, contemplate, and meditate on the core principal of Shambhala which is Basic Goodness. This has a new level of inclusivity.”

Inclusivity? “When people hear about Basic Goodness at any point in the path, two things take place: a deep intuitive inspiration that it’s possible that Basic Goodness is at the heart of every being in the world and the world itself, and at the same time our doubt about that is brought up to the surface. The group sadhana provides a community to experience basic goodness and contemplate their doubts and hesitations. What a wonderful path!”

Aha! Yes. I remember that Scottish doubting voice.

I feel happy with my work. Too bad I don’t get a chance to chat with that mother and daughter who sat in front of me. Then, just this past weekend, I assistant directed a Shambhala Training Level One in Boulder. Steve Seely, the director, is my old meditation instructor from the 1984 Vajradhatu Seminary, and I decided to reconnect.

When I walked into the Shambhala Training Meditation hall Saturday morning I found, not just the mother who sat in front of me at the Shambhala Sadhana, but her daughter too. This daughter loves her Mom so much she likes to meditate with her. On Saturday, we meditated with Paloma. We walked with Paloma, and saw her hands perfectly joined in the walking meditation mudra. In the aimless wandering exercise, Paloma was the first one to look behind the curtain that says, “Don’t look behind this curtain.” And we all looked with her.

Before we leave that day, Larissa Godat, Paloma’s mother, tells me about their full moon Shambhala Sadhana, “We went by accident,” she says. “We thought it was the Basic Goodness mantra chant. We really enjoyed that chant when the Sakyong visited. And the email said it was a family event. But there was no childcare, or we missed it somehow. We ended up in the shrine room, expecting a different practice. Then I realized I had brought Paloma to something really advanced. Some parts she could do easily, like ‘I am basically good.'” Larissa apologized to her daughter; they didn’t find out until later that there had been a whole game room set up just for kids. But Paloma impressed her mother: “She did the whole sadhana. She hung in there! I was just so mindblown that we had done it, that she had done it. I was just so completely impressed with her!”

I ask Paloma Godat herself, what does she think of that whole shebang? “It was full of complicated words I couldn’t understand.”

Were there words Paloma did understand? “Yeah! Heart, and Buddha.”

How about Basic Goodness? Does Paloma feel that she is basically good? “Yeah – sort of.” Another pause … “But mainly – I’m basically bored!”

Elaine Logan ​was thrown out of Scotland in 1984 for being too cheerful. She works for Seagate Technology, writing the documents that make the whole world sing. ​Elaine volunteers for hospice and the Boulder Shambhala Center​, and she is writing a memoir of life in Scotland, called “Who, Me?” Elaine’s daughter, Rowena Lair, teaches history in New York City.​

On behalf of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and Shambhala International, the Kalapa Council—together with the leadership of the Shambhala Sun—is delighted to share with you some exciting developments at the Shambhala Sun Foundation.

Launched by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche as an internal publication of the Shambhala community, the Shambhala Sun was always intended to speak more broadly. Over the past three decades, the Sun has evolved from a community newspaper, to a small young magazine, to the largest-circulation Buddhist magazine in the English language. In the decade since the Sun incorporated as an independent non-profit, it has built many bridges between Western Buddhist communities, and has also retained close ties to the Shambhala community—the magazine continues to be based in Halifax, and the majority of its staff are sangha members or close sangha-friends. At the same time, much has changed within the pages of the magazine and on the website LionsRoar.com to reflect the full range of Buddhist traditions and the diversity of practitioners today.

As Buddhism in the West has grown, matured, and diversified, the Sun has too, and it is time to honor this successful history, and also encourage further expansion. So we are pleased to share some exciting news that is a natural reflection of this evolution.

As of the February–March 2016 issue, the new title of the Shambhala Sun will be Lion’s Roar. This name, recognized by Buddhists of all traditions and with a deep meaning for our lineage, expresses the magazine’s long-standing mission to support genuine Buddhism in the West in all its forms and to offer the dharma to everyone who would benefit from it. As well, the not-for-profit foundation that publishes Lion’s Roar magazine, Buddhadharma: The Practioner’s Quarterly, and LionsRoar.com will now be called The Lion’s Roar Foundation.

The lion’s roar was the Buddha’s own metaphor for the fearless proclamation of the truth of the dharma. It reflects the aspiration to be a fearless and powerful voice for the dharma in our society. The mission of Lion’s Roar is to offer, as its slogan says, Buddhist Wisdom for our Time: to bring genuine dharma to everyone who may find value in it, in a voice that speaks to all, in the best medium for each individual need.

This change is not the end of the Shambhala Sun we know so well—its heart, voice, and roots in the three-yana view and Shambhala vision will carry on in Lion’s Roar. At the same time, the new name and the intention behind it are already opening up fresh thinking, more possibilities, and new ways to offer the profound dharma.

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and Shambhala International are very pleased to support this transition, which will help Lion’s Roar to offer the dharma to more people and contribute even more effectively the growth of genuine dharma in our world. The title Shambhala Sun is one with great meaning for our community, and after a transition period, it will return to Shambhala International for possible use in future communications. The best use of this name is something we look forward to considering, and the Lion’s Roar Foundation is very happy to offer its experience and advice in those discussions.

The mission of the Lion’s Roar Foundation is to support the flourishing of the dharma in the West by making genuine Buddhist wisdom accessible in all its forms, to the broadest audience, for the benefit of all beings. We hope that you will join in making Lion’s Roar all it can be.

A new structure rises in a drala-rich space at Shambhala Mountain Center

by Jamie Woodworth

Early photo of Prajna

It’s a widely agreed upon sentiment, among both newcomers and veteran Shambhalians, that this mountain valley has a quality of spaciousness beyond its physical boundaries. It opens up and unfolds more and more as you walk upon it. The feeling is palpable in the wind, and the life—always at play—gregariously engaging. The place has “juice.” You can feel that presence when you first enter. It’s the drala. It converses with you in the moments you experience in-between yourself and the world. It’s awakened by the people who live here, over many cycles of leadership and life. And, if you follow your intuition, your felt sense of this place, you may be guided towards the place we call Prajna.

Prajna translates roughly as “transcendental wisdom.” The spirit of that word abides in the history of this site. Prajna was the home of the founder of Shambhala, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche until 1986, then home of the Vajra Regent, and Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche thereafter, until a fire razed it in 2009. The causes of the fire remain somewhat nebulous. It has been described as a reminder of “the potent truth of impermanence.”

Prajna after the fire

Prajna, in its youth, in wreckage, and in emptiness, has enduringly served as a container for authentic encounters. Community members have reflected on the love and guardianship that Trungpa Rinpoche instilled in the heart of Prajna, from its initial settlement up until today. It was a stage to many stories—our teacher’s presence magnetized a vast array of situations. The deck was where he wrote books and chants, held council with his cabinet, and sat down for drinks with his friends and visitors. Prajna’s deck was the window through which he viewed the world, and where the world came to greet him. During his stay, that house received and held the hearts of people who came to share moments of delicate vulnerability. That energy still irrigates relationships unfolding here at SMC. Acharya Noel McLellan reflects, “Many things happened there that were of personal significance to individuals. Tiny as it was, it was a place where many people met the Sakyong. It always seemed to me to be a part of the tent culture—the walls weren’t solid barriers in a sense. The energy inside the house permeated the whole area.”

Michael Gayner, Executive Director of Shambhala Mountain Center recollects his experience in Prajna at the Seminary he attended in 1994, “that was really where I understood the role of service to the community, and from that, service to all sentient beings, and infinite commitment to being of benefit to the world” (M. Gayner, 2015). Prajna had a way of defining a path for those who came to both visit and live on the land. The leadership here at SMC has a conviction to keep paths running to and from it, even though its former substance has moved on. We had been discussing a way to reinvent the empty space into something accessible, and ensuring it too can still benefit the world.

Thus began our pavilion project, an endeavor made possible by the generosity of the Shambhala Trust.The Shambhala Trust fundraises and grants money to causes that further the vision of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Their largesse helps to disseminate the ideal of an enlightened society, by uplifting many projects inside and outside the Shambhala Buddhist community. Some projects include: The Prison Mindfulness Institute, and the Reciprocity Foundation. John Sennhauser, an original member of the Trust, evoked a special kind of enthusiasm for the Prajna reclamation project in particular, “the current Shambhala Trust was founded in 1995, you know—and, it happened at a meeting in Prajna. I was thinking about this to myself the other day. Things really came full circle—it’s great.” More than that, it’s a homecoming for many trust members, who themselves lived in tents at the Prajna site. There’s a certain air of poignancy coming back 20 years later to the memory of their old lives, and old times with the Sakyong. Funding this project, beyond spreading the Shambhala vision, is a way of dusting off that piece of their hearts, two decades later. Moreover, it’s a service to all the current volunteers, staff, and visitors fresh on the land, who can now enjoy Prajna in a whole new way.

There was a lot of intentionality behind the choice of the pavilion. When Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche visited the crumbling remains of his old house with John in 2009, he voiced how great it would be to let this land return to nature, and to reclaim it as a place where people could sit, contemplate, and rest. He laid the groundwork for the grant proposal to the Trust, and the vision our leadership outlined in that proposal. Michael Gayner described the pavilion as a potential “pilgrimage site” where people could reconnect with the drala that flowed through Trungpa Rinpoche’s court. Placing a pavilion in this spot is a way of re-energizing Prajna, and making the dralas available once again. Attracting people to this spot will accomplish the broader goal of reawakening the naturally present magic that Trungpa Rinpoche illuminated so many years ago. The Prajna project will be ultimately completed with the construction of a Stupa some years in the future, once the overall energetics of the land are “proper.”

With this in mind, a lot of consideration went into construction and design. Eva Wong, our Feng Shui consultant, provided guidelines on how to orient the pavilion, and how to stylize it. Danny Boyce, our project coordinator, described how she encouraged the use of certain design elements to make sure the pavilion seamlessly conducted the flow of energy. The materials were all locally sourced, from the land and from an additional parcel of private property about 25 miles away from the SMC property line. The pavilion contains a total of 35 timbers, which were meticulously chosen by our leadership team:  Peter Haney, Jared Leveille, Sophie DeMaio, and Josh Halper. Four rocks from the land were also collected to be scribed onto the bottom of the posts, to provide an organic transition from the wooden posts down into the earth.

SMC staff construct the pavilion

The thoughtfulness of the construction is a manifestation of SMC’s commitment to not only accomplish a job, but do profoundly good work, Michael commented. Danny outlined how the whole structure was masterfully engineered—the pavilion is equipped to hold at least “three feet of snow and twenty people on it.” It will even have a handicap ramp. It’s definitely an edifice that will withstand the test of time, and be enjoyed by many people.

The moment when the frames of the pavilion were raised was itself a demonstration of the love and energy that’s still present at Prajna. Lifting the sides together required the participation of many members of the community, and more people actually showed up than were needed. For two hours, a sizable group of staff rallied and pieced together a collective vision. Everybody was pretty proud to have their hands in it. Michael, reflecting upon that teamwork, said with a smile, “our workers brought in a tremendous amount of heart and skill to Prajna.”

Really, the whole endeavor speaks to not only the continuing spirit of the land there, but also the strength of the community that sustains the beauty of Shambhala Mountain Center, in both material and non-material ways.

Our teachers nurtured a powerful heritage for Prajna. That cadence of life present during their residence is a thread we’re weaving through this present moment, through this community, and into the fabric of what Shambhala has yet to become. One summer evening, about 16 years ago, the Sakyong was standing on the deck of his old house, writing this poem, reflecting on the perfection of being in this place:

A drink from mountain stream—
Lost water comes to haunt me.
Surrounding loneliness,
Mind peers into vast blue sky.
A distant yogin’s love song plays upon my ears.
The silence of this valley
Sings the cry of liberation

Mind paces like a caged tiger.
Heart drowns in inexpressible chasm.
Let us bring it all to the path of bodhi.
Let us climb this mountain of uncertainty.
Look!
Look again!
The sun is rising.
Its golden-orange hue commands us to exhale.

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
26 July, 1999

As our lives collide and mesh, we’re looking forward to the poetry of our future—and some new memories housed in this sanctuary, built by the hands of our friends.

The Shambhala Trust at Prajna, 2015

~~~

Jamie Woodworth earned her Bachelors of Arts in Environmental Studies and Women and Gender Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Currently, she is a Masters student in Human Ecology at Lund University in Sweden. Her ethnographic research in Iceland couples ecological thinking with feminist theory. Understanding sustainability from a solutionary point of view is the pivoting point for her studies. In the past, Jamie has worked as an outreach coordinator for CU’s Environmental Center, a manager for Colorado Public Interest Research Group, and interned for the Chasing Ice film crew.

We are pleased to announce three employment opportunities within our community. The following positions are currently accepting applicants:

Shambhala is seeking to fill a new position of Shambhala Help Desk to be the first point of contact for individuals, centres and groups.

The Shambhala Center of Seattle is seeking a new Center Director to be appointed by Shambhala Day 2016.

The Shambhala Center of Denver is seeking a new Center Director to be appointed by Shambhala Day 2016.

Complete job descriptions and details may be found in a new area of the Shambhala website, created to announce Community Positions Available.

Being with Jampa Pawo

by Norma Harris

Buddha image by Jampa Pawo

Last year Atlanta Shambhala received an email from Les Ste. Marie at Gampo Abbey. He was passing on a request from a man on death row in Georgia who had been meditating and studying Buddhism. His wish was to receive refuge and bodhisattva vows. On October 3, 2014, I brought Acharya Richard John to visit him and fulfill his wish.

I have continued to visit this man, once each week. We also write and talk by phone. I have gotten to know him well, and have written about him once before. I am advised not to disclose his birth name or give any details about his crime, a brutal murder. But I can let you know something about him and his practice. Jampa Pawo (Kindness Warrior) is the bodhisattva name he was given and with which he has begun to sign dharma writings and drawings, so I’ll refer to him using this name.

Jampa Pawo committed a murder when he was 19 years old. He has been incarcerated for eighteen years and has lived in solitary confinement on death row for seventeen of those years. He has changed, as do we all, even those of us who have done the most horrific of things. We commonly hear stories of people “finding Jesus” when they are facing the death penalty. And this does not preclude the truth that people really do find Jesus – or, in this case, Buddha. Here is a summary of how that happened for Jampo Pawo.

The first things that Jampa Pawo found in prison were shelter and food, basics that were absent from his life as a teenager who had found himself homeless and without hope. He was immediately drawn to art books that he could get from the prison library. He began to draw the art he saw. He also began to notice the themes depicted in great art, so he started to read about these subjects, including history, mythology, psychology and religion. He saw connection in these broad themes, and this caused him to consider that life held meaning. He stopped using drugs and alcohol (that’s right!), and he began making use of his mind. He discovered that he was an intelligent person and a skillful artist.

It was not enough. Though he made a 180 degree change, that change was not sufficient for him to start considering life to be worthwhile; not his life. The change could not erase having committed a murder and having to live with that. How could these skills and attributes ever contribute to him living a worthy life? This question led him into deep depression.

It was then that he began to notice the word Buddhism. It seemed to show up in things that he read or heard. He had read about many religions, but he didn’t know much about this one. He asked his pen pal from England to send him a book about Buddhism. He says that he understood this dharma book immediately. He asked her to send him more.

Drawing by Jampa Pawo

Even after reading books on the subject, Jampa Pawo saw that to follow this path he would need help. He prayed that he would find people who knew dharma, that they would find him. And people did find him, including Ani Pema Chodron and Thich Nhat Hanh, both of whom corresponded with him, sending books and practice instructions. His connections with Gampo Abbey deepened when Les Ste. Marie and Louise Collin began to correspond with Jampa regularly, and the same occurred with Olivier Sylvere from the Prison Liberation Project in France, who also sent courses on CD.

He became more and more knowledgeable about Buddhism. And with help from faraway others, he trained himself to practice meditation. But he knew that his view was superficial. He needed a way to deepen – a path, a lineage. He was receiving support from others but he was still quite alone. He was a quiet person, someone who spoke little and who had always looked inward. He wanted to be able to put a path together, but he didn’t know enough. He began to have dreams. In one dream he approached a lama that he recognized as the author of one of the books he had been reading. The lama ignored him, and so did the lama’s entourage. He then dreamed of a lama who approached him. Jampa asked him how he could deepen his practice. The lama showed him how to make prostrations. Sometime later Jampa saw a picture of a Lama Zopa and he recognized this as the lama who helped him in his dream. He made a decision to become a student in this Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

Garuda drawing by Jampa Pawo

After four years of practice and study, Jampa Pawo prayed that he would somehow be able to take formal vows. Atlanta Shambhala was able to make this wish come true, and it is through this connection that he has begun to learn more about Shambhala Buddhist teachings. He was familiar with Chogyam Trungpa, and had read Shambhala: Sacred path of the Warrior. He was also familiar with Shambhala teachings through the writings of Ani Pema. After taking vows with Richard John, he read Ruling Your World, and began to take note of Tibetan and Bon iconography. He was particularly taken with the energies of the Four Dignities, and with ground lungta.

Jampa Pawo essentially lives the life of a monk. His cell is 5x7x9. He is vegetarian. He does formal practice in the mornings and evenings. He reads, draws and writes letters and poetry in the time between. He gets one hour of yard time a day. He lives a life of study and practice.

Jampa Pawo has a beaming presence that radiates strong, cheerful, loving energy. Although he lives with intense physical and emotional pain, he is healthy and animated. He has his priorities, and they always begin with “you” – and end with practice. “How are you? How is s/he or they? Please give him my love. I am sending them a drawing. I have written a poem for her. Can I lead us in this practice? Will you teach me to raise windhorse? Here’s a story about Asanga and Maitreya about that. Please give these books to the Shambhala Library. (You can read them first.) Here is a drawing to help you with your practice.”

I have learned that Jampa Pawo is regarded as a positive force in a place that does not have a lot of positive influences. He does not talk about himself, but pastors who talk with guards and prisoners have told me this about him. When I asked him directly if he felt himself to be “Kindness Warrior,” he seemed at a loss. He finally articulated his view this way: “I try to practice kindness to others. I try to refrain from acting out of klesha energy. I used to be very withdrawn. I would not interact with anyone; I would draw, read and write, and stay by myself. Now I try to offer what I can give. I can offer conversation of a spiritual nature. When people are upset, you can be there to listen to someone. You can advise people to ‘let it go.’ Also, I try to motivate people to be creative.”

As for us, my prison visits are pastoral visits, and this means that we can be in the same room without the need to talk on a phone while separated by plexiglass. We give each other a big hug when I enter, and we touch our foreheads. We sit facing each other in a long narrow room that we sometimes have to ourselves, and that sometimes includes many other prisoners speaking with their ministers or with their lawyers. To us it doesn’t matter. We create our space. We bow and then we move closer to be knee-to-knee. We spend a brief time doing shamatha. We do ground lungta practice because he read about this in Ruling Your World and requested it. We have two hours for this visit. He leads us in short Vajrasattva practice (20 minutes), depending on his need for more talk or more practice. Jampa’s energy is palpable even when we talk about practice. And when we engage in practice, I can feel his energy radiate through me. It is undeniable.

We talk about death, and the practices that will be of benefit if and when he receives lethal injection. He will be practicing the powa described by Sogyal Rinpoche in the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. He will be doing tonglen, and he will be reciting the Vajrasattva mantra. We practice walking meditation when we have the space. We practice dignity in the face of fear.

We talk up until the very end of our time together. We hear the 10 minute announcement, and we continue to talk even as we walk to the gated door, and even after our hug good-bye. We talk even after I have gone through the door, and even if the officer gives a reprimanding reminder that the visit is over. Sometimes I watch them readying him to go back to his cell. Chaining his hands behind his back. Walking at his side, going from one iron-barred passageway to the next. Disappearing into a world I really cannot imagine, though I ask him endless questions about it, which he answers in patient detail. Often now, he leaves packages for me with books or art to send to others, packages that I sign for on my way out. Often, when I get into my car to drive away, I realize that we have forgotten to dedicate the merit.

Jampa and I have a request, which is that you include Jampa Pawo in your tonglen practice. I do not know when exactly his execution will be, perhaps not until November. He will be granted a clemency hearing the day before his execution date, and if you wish to be informed about that, please email me and I will let you know. Your prayers will be most helpful at that time and then again at the time of the actual execution, should it come to that.

I wish to dedicate the merit of this dharma relationship to all those who have done tremendous harm, those who I think I am so much better than. I give thanks for this teaching on change/ impermanence. I give thanks to the power of bodhichitta.

The lineage of Sakyongs, from which the brilliance of the Shambhala teachings streams, resides at the centre of the Shambhala mandala. This has always been true from a heart sense, and in order to increase clarity, unity, and heart connection in the governance of the mandala, the Sakyong has established the Sakyong Potrang as the highest leadership and coordinating body of Shambhala. As the Sakyong described it, “The Potrang is an essential step to clarify the structure of Shambhala, affecting everything — from organizing Shambhala Centres to creating a clear connection between each member and the lineage.”

In a January letter to the leadership the Sakyong wrote: “I feel a great sense of family with all of you. We are all working with our lives in order to make these teachings real…. When I took this mantel [as Sakyong] on, I felt very alone. But now I feel surrounded by friends, students, and comrades in this great adventure of warriorship. It is with deep gratitude and love that I share this vision with you. I invite you to participate and carry on.”

The Sakyong is working with the Kalapa Council to clarify how the Sakyong Potrang will manifest. On Shambhala Day the Sakyong began this process by reintegrating the President’s functions back into the Sakyong’s role as lineage holder, so that he holds more direct responsibility for the governance of our community. He has appointed Mr. Josh Silberstein, his Chief of Staff, to the position of Chair of the Kalapa Council, to act as his representative and liaison in the governance of the four pillars: Practice and Education, Government, Kasung, and Economy.

The Sakyong also is pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Jane Arthur to the position of Head of the Pillar of Government for Shambhala. A former Director of Karmê Chöling and the Boulder Shambhala Center, Ms. Arthur currently serves on the Kalapa Council as the Kalapa Envoy for Leadership Development as well as the Director of Residential and Retreat Centers. She is also currently employed as Director of the Vermont Leadership Institute, a position she will hold until June, 2016. At that point, Ms. Arthur will assume her new full-time role for Shambhala.

In order to provide the space for the Sakyong and Ms. Arthur to restructure the Pillar of Government, Ms. Carolyn Mandelker and Ms. Anna Weinstein will be leaving their respective positions as Executive Director of Shambhala and Director of the Shambhala Office of Center and Group Support on 31 December 2015. Ms. Mandelker and Ms. Weinstein’s departure will be felt deeply, as they have been respected colleagues and friends to so many in Shambhala.

Ms. Mandelker was Shambhala’s Director of Practice and Education from 2003 to 2011, when she was appointed by the Sakyong to be the mandala’s Executive Director — a position she has held until now. Ms. Weinstein has been the director of the Shambhala Office of Center and Group Support since 2011, having played the same supportive role for centers and groups previously in Shambhala Europe. Their activities in these positions have been vital to bringing the global Shambhala community to its present level of international development, diversity, and organization.

The Sakyong has expressed his deep appreciation for the years of service that both Ms. Mandelker and Ms. Weinstein have offered to him and the larger mandala. They are exemplars of deep devotion, professional excellence, boundless exertion, and warm care for the Shambhala community. Under their guardianship, Shambhala has not only reached a profound level of strength and direction, but has also become a powerful beacon for the larger society.

Over the coming months, the Sakyong and the Kalapa Council will explore the next steps for this transition to the mandala’s new international structure and we have begun recruitment processes for new staff members to maintain essential central functions during this transition.
We warmly welcome Ms. Arthur to her new position. We wish Ms. Mandelker and Ms. Weinstein the very best, and very much look forward to serving with them both in different ways in the future.

Yours in the Great Eastern Sun,
The Kalapa Council

Jane Arthur, Connie Brock, David Brown, Wendy Friedman, Jesse Grimes, Mitchell Levy, Adam Lobel, Carolyn Mandelker, Robert Reichner, Christoph Schoenherr, Joshua Silberstein
12 November 2015

The Sakyong will be performing two pujas, or intensive practices, for the benefit of Shambhala on November 21 -22 during his fall retreat in Nepal. These practices are opportunities for community members to request the Sakyong to specifically dedicate his personal practice to assist us, our households, loved ones, friends, and endeavors throughout the year.

The first practice will be a Healing Puja to increase health and dispel obstacles to well being. During this time, the Sakyong will practice for the vitality and healing of everyone in Shambhala, our families, and friends. Practice during this puja will focus on strengthening all aspects of physical and emotional health, as well as assisting in overcoming physical illness and more subtle obstacles like depression.

The second intensive practice is a Wealth and Enrichment Puja. Wealth pujas have the aim of enriching and enlivening all of our aspirations in order to have a more meaningful life and impact on the world. Our aspirations may be related to enlivening creative endeavors in our livelihood, business, education, households or more generally whatever we wish to enrich in our lives.

These pujas are for all of Shambhala. We can also request the Sakyong to specifically help a friend, loved one, or ourselves through these practices. If we wish ourselves or a friend to be included, it is traditional to offer their name along with an offering to the teacher. These names are read to the Sakyong as part of the puja itself. We can also include a short description of the situation surrounding the request, however the most important connection is the name of the person. The names and descriptions are kept confidential and burned at the conclusion of the puja.

To include someone in either puja, please fill out the information at this site: https://sakyonglineage.org/offering/.

A day of practice and celebration brings together expatriates with Mexican nationals 
by Reina/Ryn Armstrong
Kai and I hosted our second Harvest of Peace here at Casa Werma this year; it was a delightful evening with wonderful people, full of open-heartedness, humor, mutual appreciation, good food, and shared practice. And it marked an important first for Casa Werma. Since our arrival in November 2013, we have been developing our Spanish as we reach out into the Pátzcuaro community of expatriates and Mexican nationals, which includes local people as well as many transplants from Mexico City and other big metropolitan areas. Every week that we are not busy with programs, we offer Open Meditation and Tea and a yoga class. In the last month or so, we’ve seen a shift in the folks coming to these open, public offerings.

We’ve been thrilled to notice that more and more nationals are coming (some friends of ours from the community), many of whom are not conversant in English, so we’re offering more and more instruction in meditation and yoga in our grammatically-challenged Spanish. Given the traditional, conservative nature of the region of Pátzcuaro, the assumption has been that local people are not seeking, as a rule, meditation or spiritual opportunities outside their own communities, families, and the Catholic faith, which is prevalent everywhere, particularly among the Purhépecha people (the indigenous people of the area). We’ve not known how to make our offerings known outside an English-language online yahoo group and calendar, other than simple word of mouth.

For our Harvest of Peace Gathering this week, there were a total of 11 of us gathered (a good-sized group for these events at Casa Werma); six were nationals, three from the state of Michoacán, two of whom are Purhépecha. It is the first time that nationals outnumbered expatriates at an open, public event. The weather was divine, sunny and warm. We practiced shamatha together in our solarium shrine room, contemplated the vibrant gardens, and practiced the Shambhala Sadhana with the text in English but the opening chants and mantras in Spanish. Spanish speakers read the text silently in Spanish. Everyone commented on how touched and enchanted they were by the sadhana. Afterward, we shared a potluck dinner at what is known as the “werma table” on the wide terraza facing the gardens — where the sangha-famous photo of Trungpa Rinpoche composing the Werma Sadhana was taken. While enjoying September-harvest winter squash pie, we watched the Sakyong’s address from Berlin by candlelight. All attendees went home with our harvest from the Casa Werma gardens, including limes, avocados, persimmons, chiles perones, and oranges.

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche Addresses Western Students at the Gongter

Near the end of the Gongter, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche gave an evening talk to the Westerners and English-speaking Tibetans attending the empowerments. About two hundred people attended the event, which was followed by a blessing line where everyone had an opportunity to meet the Sakyong personally. It was a magical evening, adorned with a perfectly-timed power failure near the end of the talk.

Text from talk by the Sakyong:

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche: Well, we’ve spent twelve days together. I don’t know who’s counting [laughter], but it’s been an extraordinary journey. First of all, I want to express how moved I am that so many of you decided to come. You took this time out of your life and made this journey, a pilgrimage of the mind and heart, to come here. It is commendable to be in a situation like this one. I am have also been very touched by His Eminence, the Venerable Jigme Rinpoche, Lhunpa Tulku Rinpoche, and all the Ripa family. His Eminence has been emotional at times—as emotional as a being like him can get. This is very much the fruition of his life and work. For all of us, coming at this particular time, whether we have been practicing for many years or only just took refuge, it’s a poignant moment.

Blessing line

Karma has brought us together. When we receive the abhisheka there’s a moment when we hold the flower and put it in the mandala. That is a ceremony of karma and inspiration. According to the Buddhist tradition, that ceremony represents that at some time in the past we threw our flower and it landed here. Somehow that moment brought us all here. That is the strength of our mind’s intention, our aspiration and motivation. It is a powerful aspect of the teachings.

We live in a world that is dominated by science and empirical analysis. What we see is real, what we don’t see is not real. However, this whole ceremony has very much been about the unseen, about the mind. And now, even science and modern culture are beginning to recognize that the universe is multilayered. This truth has been understood and experienced throughout the Buddhist tradition and in many other wisdom cultures. What is important is the cultivation of the mind and heart.

Part of what is happening is we are exploring who we are. We are exploring our humanness. We are also exploring our enlightened qualities. One of the basic premises is that innately, the foundation of who we are is awake, enlightened, and complete. That is the notion of essence, and of seed. This sounds very philosophical and theoretical, but the idea of who we are as people—and what human nature is—along with the environment, is one of the most critical issues of our time because we are living in a world where there is more doubt. There is more aggression and cynicism. Many cultures now doubt the spirit of humanity and have very cynical views about religion and spirituality. There are many questions about who we are and how we will go forward. It is definitely a very interesting time.

It is this question of who we are and how we are that leads us on a journey and a path. We are all looking, which is important, and I encourage you continue on your journey after receiving these abhishekas. In a simple way, having a question is also what deity practice is. The deities help us answer that question.

Denma – Gesar’s chief minister

When my father and His Eminence were they were seventeen or eighteen years old and about to escape Tibet, they engaged in the Rinchen Terdzö abhishekas, which are about four months of exactly what we are doing here. His Eminence received those empowerments from my father. With their own spiritual insight they were both wondering what the future is. One of the qualities that I take from both these teachers, from both gentlemen, is this tremendous spirit of bravery and courage. My father went to India, and later to the West, but he entered a situation where nobody knew about Buddhism. It was the late Sixties, just the beginning. Most people didn’t even know where Tibet was. Being alone was not “cool.” [Laughter.] There was a good mixture of activists and hippies. We are very proud of our hippies. It was a time of exploration.

My father continued to teach and explore how the dharma and human wisdom can have relevance in modern times. A basic premise of that exploration is the question of who we are as individuals. This is related with His Eminence receiving these visions of Gesar and the empowerments.

Magnetizing Gesar

The essence of Gesar is courage and bravery. You can have experience, you can have knowledge, but you have to have bravery and courage to actually go forward. We are all somehow connected to that spirit of bravery. It was brave for you to come here. [Laughter.] Maybe you wondered a few times while the stomach was grumbling. Bravery is important because, by and large, people just get busy with their lives and do not explore the essential and critical issues of human nature and society. However, that is very much what we are doing here. One of the basic elements of this approach is that we are in a culture and tradition that believes that humanity is good, humanity is complete. That teaching is simple, but it is profound.

My father expressed this in many ways. He talked about it as basic goodness dömané sangpo in Tibetan, “primordial goodness.” What does that mean? Most of us, when we reflect, are not sure that we are good or complete. We have a lot of doubt. Not only that, but we are not sure if somebody else is good and complete. It is a simple principle, but it has a profound effect on how we view the world and how we view ourselves. If we do not view ourselves in an intimately healthy way, life becomes a process of guilt, of not feeling satisfied. In such a process, we cannot express love or compassion, we cannot hold others.

King Gesar of Ling

Gesar lived at a time when aggression arose and the notion of human goodness and human nature were suppressed. In a sense, his journey was to go out the four directions and manifest in a peaceful way, a magnetizing way, an enriching way, and a wrathful way in order to uplift society. There are many similarities between Gesar’s time and our own. There is a lot of confusion and aggression. We live in a time when we need to look at who we are and how we are going forward. This period when humanity becomes doubtful, depressed, and aggressive, when people treat themselves and others badly, is called the dark age, when the sun sets. Human values are setting, the human spirit is setting, human ethics are setting. Gesar brings about the rising of the sun by reinvigorating the notion of ethics and culture in a simple way. As we explore the themes of enlightenment and compassion, that is part of what we are doing here, asking, “Can we live our life this way?” To me, one of the most important things is that it is not just about understanding this stuff intellectually; it is about actually embodying, manifesting, and living it.

Whether the teachings and blessings of His Eminence and what my father began go forward does not come down to how great they are, but to how much we can manifest and actually live our life. This is challenging. We cannot have compassion, or a sense of love, and just keep it secret. We have to engage. That’s what we are talking about. What inspires me is the question of how can we try these things out in a society that may not particularly agree with our method and says, “That’s your trip, being compassionate, being nice. Go meditate.” How do we actually do this? Tibetan Buddhism is not just an intellectual trip; it is a culture that has produced incredibly human people. That is what has inspired this situation.

Even if we talk about deities, it is important that we don’t do these practices while trying to abandon who we are. This is where the notion of abhisheka comes in. If we have doubts and obstacles, we may become self-centered to the point that we can’t get out of bed and say hello to somebody. We can’t just hold the dharma; we have to manifest it. Even though we understand all the dharma, we can be decent to somebody else.

The tradition of abhisheka ceremony empowers the strength that we all have. It is connected with our own body and mind. The two main words for abhisheka— in Tibetan, wang—are abhishinsha and abhisheka. Abhishinsha has to do with the cleansing process, the calming and purification process. Abhisheka has to do with empowerment. The process of abhisheka is that one is bathed and then enthroned. What’s enthroned is our enlightened qualities. You could say that in many ways we go through empowerment every day, but sometimes it is in reverse. Our aggression is empowered, our self-centeredness is empowered, and then that rises up. It is not about being good or bad, it is about looking at the very, very subtle seeds of who we are.

Abhisheka is a ritualized ceremony where the teacher tries to empower, help, and uplift the student. In order to do that, the student must come forward and want to be bathed and dressed—even with a limited water supply. [Laughter.] Wanting to do this and having some energy for it is what we call faith or devotion. It is what we call lungta, energy. As everybody at Gongter knows at this point, you have to do some searching even just to survive the abhisheka because it can be a very long process. It sounds like a good idea, and after a while you start to wonder if you know what you are doing.

Often there is a time before the abhisheka when you contemplate why you are doing it. It is the same if we are going on a journey. We need reasons to go on a journey because there may be challenges. We have to remind ourselves why we chose to go. That is normal. We go through that same process during different situations every day.

The abhisheka process is pointing to our inherent strength, which is being purified and empowered. The process of the abhishekas, which relates to the four elements of body, speech, mind, and wisdom, addresses how our own body, our own speech, our mind, and the inherent wisdom are acknowledged and empowered. Abhisheka is a permission and blessing for us to act on our enlightened quality. What does that mean in a practical way? It means that once we have received abhisheka we have the permission of that particular lineage to do visualization practice and see ourself as enlightened. Part of the quality of visualization and meditation is getting used to those qualities of wakefulness.

The journey we are going through can become esoteric, but also it’s very human and simple. According to the vajrayana teachings, how we relate to our physical body is that the body is precious. Our speech too—the wind and channels—is also very special. Even our thinking mind has inherent wisdom at its root. Nonconceptual wisdom is inherent within us. This is a path that we are traveling.

What happens in powerful situations like this one is that something unnamable, inexpressible, is transmitted and experienced. Ultimately, especially in the vajrayana—[the power goes out] Can you hear me? [Students: Yes.] You’ll have to visualize now. [Laughter.] In the vajrayana tradition especially, nonverbal communication takes place. That is done through the imagery. As we go through the empowerment, we are becoming familiar with symbolism, which is the notion of things being transmitted in a nonverbal and nonconceptual way.

Sometimes we may read a text and intellectually understand it, but when we do the practice, something is not happening. Then we need the missing link, which is some kind of blessing and acknowledgement. This ceremony is empowering your practice and understanding at an immediate level. Not only that, it lays the foundation for your experience and practice in the future—whether that is in a meditation session or not. This is very important to understand.

The Sakyong

After the empowerments, when you return home and go back to your life, I hope you will take along what has happened here. It will help you see your life and what you are doing in a fresh way. In particular, I encourage everyone to engage in the principles from these empowerments that are helpful to you and try to help others. Not only is this an incredible way to learn things for yourself, but even simple things we do can be very powerful for other people. We don’t have to feel like we must understand everything or accomplish everything. That is what I mean by the notion of bravery and courage. We are creating the possibility for things to occur. That’s what we are doing here.

In many ways, something important has happened because the transmission of Gesar occurred. Everyone’s experience of this will benefit the world. It is much broader than any of us. This is a very auspicious ceremony and ritual to be involved in. We have all been part of creating the good intention that allowed His Eminence to be able to teach his termas in a full way. This will be incredibly important for the Ripa lineage and all its activities in Russia, Switzerland, France, Spain, and many other places. This has also been an excellent way for the Shambhala community to connect with the Gesar tradition and share this common family root. As you have seen, the whole thing is very family. It is wonderful that it has occurred.

I send you all my blessings and good wishes for how you go forward. I hope you make it the next two days. [Laughter.] Try to stay healthy. I look forward to seeing all of you again and again. Tashi Delek and best wishes. Let’s conclude with a bow.

The Sakyong Wangmo writes to us from Nepal

As we prepare to celebrate the birthday of the Kongma Sakyong, I felt inspired to share some thoughts and feelings with all of you. As everyone knows, this has been a tremendous year for our family, first with the birth of our third child, Jetsun Dzedron, as well as the continued deepening and expansion of the Shambhala teachings with the many deep retreats and public programs that the Sakyong has led, all of which have deepened our understanding of basic goodness and enlightened society. After teaching a public program in Poland for the first time, the Sakyong then traveled to Nepal where I joined him along with Jetsun Drukmo, Jetsun Yudra, and Jetsun Dzedron in order to attend a very important empowerment ceremony at my family lineage’s monastery in Pharping.

Namkha Drimed Rinpoche

This was an important moment for my family because my father, His Eminence Namka Drimed Rabjam Rinpoche, conferred for the first time in its entirety his personal collection of teachings, known in Tibetan as gongter, or “mind treasure.” He first started to receive and compose these teachings in Tibet and has continued to the present day. As young men in Tibet, he and the first Sakyong often shared their vision, insights, and inspiration. Now, many years later, that collection of teachings is being passed on to and held by our Sakyong. This joining of the Shambhala lineage and world with my personal family lineage and clan of the Ripa tradition was especially important for me.

In attendance were tülkus, khenpos, monks, nuns, and a very large lay community of Himalayan people from Nepal, Bhutan, and India. A cheerful group of Shambhalians, as well as students of Ripa Centers from Europe, Russia, and Southeast Asia, were also in attendance, I am happy to say. The days were quite long, with a lung, “reading transmission,” given by my brother, Dungsey Lhuntrul Rinpoche, every morning, and the abhishekas, “ritual empowerments,” conferred by my father in the afternoons. At the end of each day, the Sakyong would then lead the individual bestowal of the empowerments to the entire monastic and lay communities, which often numbered over a thousand people.

Between the empowerments, the Sakyong and I would meet with local dignitaries and students, and in the midst of it all the Sakyong gave a talk to all of the Western students gathered, explaining the significance and meaning of the ceremonies. For my family and myself, the entire experience was very moving, for my father seemed especially happy and sometimes quite emotional since he was passing on his life’s work. It was a very deep, significant, and busy time. Everything ran smoothly under the guidance of my brother Gyetrul Jigme Rinpoche.

At the conclusion of the abhisheka ceremonies, my sisters and I were invited to lead the sacred Lingdro dances associated with Gesar of Ling. This was a wonderful and inspiring occasion with both male and female warriors dressed in ancient costumes of Ling performing a circular dance of warriorship.

Sakyong in Berlin, photo by Katja Assman

After the abhisheka was completed, the Sakyong did a personal retreat, which I was very happy about since he had been constantly traveling and teaching. What often strikes me is how the Sakyong is so deeply immersed in both the profound and ancient traditions of Tibet and his understanding and familiarity with the West and our modern culture. It feels as though he is tirelessly working for all of us and I believe for the true betterment of the world. I was glad that he could have some time to rest and rejuvenate. I’m also very happy that the Sakyong will be performing pujas for the health and prosperity of our community before he departs Nepal. These pujas are something that the Sakyong does annually, and I am delighted that he will be able do them this year in Nepal.

I feel inspired to share with all of you that one of the main messages and teachings that came from my father’s mind treasure were the teachings on Gesar of Ling and warriorship. Therefore I would like to encourage all of you to take to heart our profound, rich Shambhala teachings on warriorship. More than ever, I feel a spirit of fearlessness and gentleness encouraging us to go forward. As a mother, I feel especially moved by these teachings because they provide guidance and inspiration, not only for my children but for future Shambhalians and warriors to be.

As I write to you here in Nepal I feel a great sense of blessing and good fortune to be connected to all of you. I wish to extend my love and tashi deleks to all of you.

Yours in the vision of Shambhala,

The Sakyong Wangmo, Dechen Chöying Sangmo

A Gampo Abbey Reflection: Lodro’s Story

by Tharpa Lodro

My given name at birth was Daniel McCoy Baker. I was born October 26th, 1989 in Cheverly, Maryland, not too far from Washington D.C., the area where I have spent the greater part of my life. I grew up about a mile outside of the city. My town was called Brentwood, and it was in quite a poor neighborhood where violent incidents were common: gunshots and sirens, muggings and rape. Brentwood was home to lower-income black families with sprinkling of a few white families. As rough as it was there, my town was quiet compared to a lot of other nearby communities.

My family struggled with depression, addiction, aggression and poverty. As a small child I saw shotgun pellets fired through floors into the ceiling above me during arguments between family members. I watched my uncle pin my father down, holding a knife to his throat. It’s kind of a family tradition to be kicked out of the house at least a couple of times. I scrounged food from dumpsters, or simply didn’t eat for days. The house I lived in was sometimes a base for prostitution, and sometimes for dealing drugs. I lived in a hotel for years. It’s hard to fully express the environment and experiences of my adolescence, though I still very strongly identify with the suffering of those times.

The struggles I witnessed growing up made me question life and the nature of the mind. That questioning led to investigation of varied religions, along with a desire for hermitage and seclusion, and eventually led to studying Buddhism in high school. I vaguely remember reading about emptiness and spending quality time with the mantra Om Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha during my many months of being grounded. Eventually, I read a book on warriorship in which Shambhala was mentioned.  This piqued my curiosity, though it would still be a long time before I acted on this interest. I had to go through many challenging experiences: joining the military and realizing I didn’t want to kill anyone, the depths of suicidal depression, and episodes of explosive and maniacal rage. I also entered into a deep relationship, and found that I couldn’t express the love I felt for that person. At last, I recognized the need to engage with the dharma.

From the moment of entering my first Shambhala Center, I felt cautious yet at home. It was a new experience to be around so many white people I didn’t know. These people were older, seemingly middle-income, and without the kind of suspicion, paranoia or aggression I had learned to expect from others. I was rather out of my element, so to speak. I went to a few book groups, and liked being there. I really enjoyed talking about dharma and contemplating it with others, even though I found it hard to trust that experience at first. That led to attending a Level 1, which wasn’t so bad. I felt transformed afterwards, which encouraged me. Then I attended a Level 2, and that was pretty intense. It was an entire weekend of feeling as if I were on fire, simply burning up from the inside. That made me a little hesitant to continue, but eventually life led me back to attend a Level 3, where the vastness of space gave me the momentum to dive in. I have been diving deeper ever since.

My life eventually untied itself. A job of four years ended quite happily, a six-year relationship ended quite unhappily, and my apartment lease ended too.  This came as a sigh of relief, but at the same time all these endings left me quite bereft. I knew I wanted to live in a community of practitioners, I knew I wanted to study and learn about the Dharma in a deeper way, and yet I vacillated among many possibilities. I spoke with a teacher I dearly value, and her wise enthusiasm encouraged me to explore the Abbey as an option. The Abbey graciously accepted me and supported me in my path, to attend the Year of the Meek.

I now live in a pressure cooker, which is sometimes double-stocked during intensive retreats like Yarne. During the summer when we have tourists, it is also like “living in a fishbowl,” as another ordained member of the Sangha has called it. I live with a varying group of eight to sixteen members, made up of people I didn’t get to choose, and have no choice but to interact with them. I’ve seen the Sakyong four times while living at the Abbey. I have been present over four months of time with Gampo Acharya Pema Chodron. I enjoy weekly classes on Shambhala teachings, as well as groups on sutra-related topics. I participate in group practice for hours every day. I have the most functional family that I’ve ever related to, though I’m not certain they would be so functional if we were all together anywhere else. I have received so much support from the Sangha, financially and emotionally. I’ve met and engaged with people who I would most likely never have approached or connected with in any other way.  All this has happened through being in a position of no escape and staying there.  I have experienced profound transformation through association with these people and this interplay.

I have experienced what I can only describe as the best year of my life so far. It’s been very tough. My grandmother, who was my strongest supporter, died while I was here at the Abbey. Also, I was very sick for quite a while. Yet I have never known myself so well, never had a better understanding of how mind works. My relationship to mind and true self is an ever deepening reality due to the time spent at the Abbey. I no longer question Basic Goodness in myself or others. I may fear it at times, and shy away from it, but I know for certain what it is. I know how to find Basic Goodness, and I know that relating to it is possible and healthy and human.

While at a recent Assembly, I was speaking with a friend, discussing my thoughts on staying at the Abbey. I explained all of this to him, and expressed my hesitation about staying longer.  He told me he was having a really hard time finding a reason for my not staying. I have no certainty about becoming a fully ordained bhikku, and yet I definitely feel that what’s being offered at Gampo Abbey isn’t being offered anywhere else in the world. I am in a singular situation within our time and realm, and I have every intention of continuing to steep myself thoroughly in practice, lineage and transmission. Assuming I can raise the funds to afford another year at the Abbey, that the Abbey has a place for me to stay and that I’m still alive to be present, I will gladly be participating in the Year of the Warriors who are Joyful.

Ki Ki So So Ashe Lha Gyal Lo Tak Seng Khyung Druk Di Yar Kye!