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We’re delighted to announce that senior Seattle Shambhala Center teacher Dan Peterson is coming to Nelson to lead this key introductory program.

For a full program description go to our Shambhala Training Level I: The Art of Being Human page.

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Learn more on our Open House page.

Lisa Hill (with partner Julian Gonzales) coordinates Awake in Action, the Vancouver Shambhala Centre’s social action arm. She gave an hour-long talk on the group’s history, organization and activity to some thirty people at the Kootenay Shambhala Centre’s Open House on May 18th. Click on the icon below to listen to her talk.

Listen/Download “Awake in Action,” with Lisa Hill (MP3: 54 MB; 59 min)

Lisa has volunteered for WISH, a drop-in centre in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, which serves women and transgendered people working in the sex trade, and for Vancouver’s Citywide Housing Coalition on the issues of inadequate housing and homelessness. She aspires to raise awareness of the personal and societal benefits of mindfulness-awareness meditation. She gratefully acknowledges Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and His Holiness the 17th Karmapa for their compassionate encouragement to all of us to take an active roll in caring for the world.

The Pacific Northwest Winter Retreat―a successful, five-year-running annual event that typically includes a dathün (one-month group meditation retreat) and a shorter, advanced program―will not take place in 2009, due to construction at Camp Pringle, the retreat site. The retreat’s organizers look forward to continuing this valuable regional practice tradition in 2010. Stay tuned…

Learn more about the Pacific Northwest Winter Retreat―and our regional community―on our Pacific Northwest Shambhala Community page.

Please consider reading (and following the Dalai Lama’s lead in signing) The Time to Act is Now: A Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change.

This declaration, composed as a pan-Buddhist statement by Zen teacher Dr. David Tetsuun Loy and senior Theravadin teacher Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi with scientific input from Dr. John Stanley, will present to the world’s media a unique spiritual view of climate change and our urgent responsibility to address the solutions in the run-up to the U.N. Climate Treaty Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009.

Please note that the dates are now one day later than those first publicized.

Join us Sunday, June 14th for a work (and fun) party to prepare Senge Ling, our retreat land near Nelson, for our “Touching the Earth” meditation retreat. Senge Ling work parties are a great way to get into the woods and enjoy being part of a community. Everyone is welcome.

We plan to leave Nelson at 10:00 AM and be back around 6:00 PM. Jobs will include cleaning the pavilion and kitchen shack, and grooming the tent sites and paths. Bring work gloves, lunch and something to drink. To arrange rides or for more information, contact Russ Rodgers at 250-352-6559.

If we don’t get everything done, we’ll have another work party on Sunday, June 21st.