This post features the first in a series of articles by senior Shambhala teachers invited to share their personal impressions of the Way of Shambhala curriculum to complement the resources available on the Kootenay Shambhala Centre’s Way of Shambhala page. For all articles in this series, click here.

SUSAN CHAPMAN was empowered as a Shastri by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche in July. To learn more about her, go to Susan Chapman: Our New Shastri in Vancouver! on the Vancouver Shambhala Centre’s blog.

CULTIVATING GENUINE DIALOGUE
By Susan Chapman

If we want to create a space that welcomes the soul, we must speak our own truth to the center of the circle and listen receptively as others speak theirs. We must also respond to what others say in ways that extend the welcome, something that rarely happens in daily life.

―Parker Palmer

In the fall of 2008, when I first moved to Vancouver, I started a Monday night dharma study group that focused on the experience of dialogue. Although I formed this group in response to a request to offer a program for beginning meditators, it was also a way of meeting my own need for a sense of community after having lived at Gampo Abbey for the previous seven years. When I lived in Boulder in the early 80’s I loved the delek system that the Druk Sakyong created, groups of about 25 people who got to know and care for one another through conversations about the dharma. So I gravitate towards these kinds of situations.

Last year, in 2009, we launched the Way of Shambhala in Vancouver and I was delighted to realize that this format encouraged the kind of dialogue I’d come to appreciate so much. When we create the conditions for people to turn towards each other and genuinely share their experience of the teachings, a special kind of group lungta is raised. David Bohm, the quantum physicist who also worked with Krishnamurti to explore transformational communication, describes this. He says that when the conditions are right, we can experience “a stream of meaning that flows among, through us and between us.”

According to Bohm, genuine dialogue can occur even when we’re alone. In Way of Shambhala we accomplish this by introducing contemplation as well as short dyad exercises. In Bohm’s view, dialogue is not the same thing as a discussion. I think most participants in Way of Shambhala would agree. The experience of dialogue is more than educational, it is transformative. It can moves us beyond knowing into the wisdom of not knowing. Read the rest of this entry »

Learn about integrating meditation and everyday life.

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For a complete program description go to our Open House page.

The Kootenay Shambhala Centre has been offering online courses and other online programming for a number of years. This service is meant to support students, extend our Centre’s reach, and build community.

If you have any questions about the service―or if you participated in any of our core path programs (such as Shambhala Training weekends or other Way of Shambhala offerings) in the last few years and would like to revisit the teachings, but you’ve lost the info you need to access the participants-only webpage(s)―just let us know, at nelsonbuddha@gmail.com.

For a fresh take on the ever popular topic of relationships, read Buddhist teacher and New York Times best selling author Susan Piver’s post Relationships & The Four Noble Truths on the Interdependence Project blog.

While you’re at it, check out other aspects of the IDP’s life and work on their new, highly interactive website: http://theidproject.org.

Here is a short excerpt from a talk that Dilgo Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche gave in Boulder, Colorado on August 14th.

We showed the Pema Chodron video “This Lousy World” at our August 16th Open House, and as is typical at Open House, there was rich, thoughtful, heartfelt discussion.

The discussion among some of the participants has continued by email since then. So, at Centre Director Lynn Dragone’s suggestion, we’re inviting you―whether or not you attended the event at the Shambhala Centre―to use the comments section below to join in the discussion and participate in the first session of “Open House Online.”

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Lynn Dragone submitted this remarkable photo showing, in Lynn’s words, “the (four-hour) rainbow on the morning Ani Pema Chodron left the Abbey in May, and the khata [traditional Tibetan offering scarf]/dragon that I realized appeared blowing in the wind after the photo was taken.”

Over the last few months, with input from many people, we’ve made both minor and major changes to our homepage and the rest of our website in an ongoing effort to make the whole thing as informative, engaging and user-friendly as possible―especially for newcomers.

Suggestions for improvement are always welcome!

Dilgo Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche held a children’s blessing at the Boulder Shambhala Center on August 13th, and in this clip he answers a question from the audience about meditation.