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The Abhidharma is the collection of the Buddha’s teachings on the composition and functions of the human mind.

If you are looking for a Buddhist Studies course offering a more in-depth exploration of these teachings than is presented in the Way of Shambhala curriculum, consider taking this one: Looking at Mind: An Introduction to Buddhist Psychology.

Taught by David Marshall, this course is scheduled to run at the Kootenay Shambhala Centre on six consecutive Thursdays, from February 11th to March 18th, 2010. Everyone is welcome. Online participation―through audio recordings and other materials―will be possible.

For a full course description, go to our Looking at Mind: An Introduction to Buddhist Psychology page.

The dark season is a great season for celebrating the brightness and warmth of community life. The December 2009 issue of Kootenay Shambhala eNews (shown at the right) highlights some of the ways you can join in.

To subscribe to eNews, go to the “Email News Sign-Up” section on our home page or contact us at info@nelsonbuddha.com. (An unsubscribe link is included at the bottom of each message.)

it wasn’t slow.
it was quick
like how red bleeds to amber
after the match jumps
from its box.
free falling free
swimming in an ocean
of intertwined body-speech 
and mind.
falling 
so free
my heart touched 
your ground.

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The Kootenay Shambhala Centre is hosting a “Sounds of 350″ gathering in support of a binding climate change agreement at the December United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

The gathering will include time for silent contemplation, chanting practices designed to clear obstacles, and 350 recitations of a mantra from the Heart Sutra, which helps dispel fixed modes of thinking.

Everyone is welcome.

For more information go to 350.org/node/13088 or contact Jane DiGiacomo at info@nelsonbuddha.com.

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Open to all and set to run on five consecutive Thursday evenings, from January 7th to February 4th, this course is part of the Way of Shambhala, a new core curriculum designed to convey the essence of the Shambhala teachings powerfully and quickly. Please join us.

For a full course description, go to our Contentment in Everyday Life page.

12 Nov 2009 – Sakyong welcomes Charter of Compassion launched today; Shambhala members invited to give support

The Sakyong, Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche, welcomed the new global initiative, Charter for Compassion, that was launched today by an inter-faith coalition of leading religious teachers and scholars.

The Charter of Compassion, compiled over a two-year period as a result of broad internet consultation and a high-level drafting commission, was initiated by author Karen Armstrong who announced the results at the recent Peace Summit, held at the Dalai Lama Centre for Peace and Education in Vancouver.

Following the summit, the Sakyong responded positively to her appeal for international support and issued the following message, affirming the intention of the charter:

“Compassion is a core value of world culture,” he said. “It is at the heart of all spiritual traditions. It is a pith instruction of the Buddha. It binds us to our common humanity. In a deeply divided world, it is the vehicle that enables us to transcend our differences.

“Compassion is a path of practice. It can be pointed to in words, but never captured. Thus this charter and the campaign that will radiate out from it — like compassion itself — is a work in progress. It is part of a global realization that the time has come when compassion must rise to the forefront of our collective consciousness.”

To read the full text of the charter and learn about how it is being unveiled around the world, please click here. Read the rest of this entry »

The image posted here was submitted by Bonnie Jackson, a Kootenay Shambhala member who has completed (to the world’s benefit) a scandalously large number of Kootenay Public Weekthüns.

Bonnie describes the image this way: “I stared and stared at my toes and threw drawing after drawing away until I came upon this one―rivers of colours, without boundaries.”

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Learn more on our Open House page.

Tonight, for the second time in as many weeks, Acharya Allyn Lyon drew a large crowd to the Kootenay Shambhala Centre’s Monday Open House. In her talk, titled “Shambhala: A Buddhist Shamanic Journey for Modern Times,” she spoke about a path of working with the energies of the world to restore balance in an age of rampant materialism. Click on the icon below to listen to her talk.

Download “Shambhala: A Buddhist Shamanic Journey for Modern Times,” with Acharya Allyn Lyon (MP3: 53 MB; 58 min)

ALLYN LYON was appointed an acharya in 2000, after several years serving as Director of Shambhala Mountain Center and in other Shambhala administrative positions. Since then she has been traveling and teaching while creating a home base in Tepotzlan, Mexico, where she is the resident acharya. Her main interest in teaching dharma is the nature of mind and how it functions: “What is mind? How does practice work with mind? What is real?” But if there’s a bottom line, Allyn says, “it’s that I really enjoy practicing the dharma, teaching and sharing my love of the dharma with students.” For more about Acharya Lyon, click here.