One of the wonderful surprises at our Shambhlala Day celebration yesterday was a message and video greeting from Kootenay Shambhala Centre Director Lynn Dragone, who is about six months into a nine-month stay at Gampo Abbey.

The images below, featuring Changchup Garma (as Lynn is known at the Abbey), were selected from the video. Lynn’s message follows.

Dear Precious Sangha,

A glorious and peaceful Shambhala Day to all of you! Greetings from the vast expanse of Gampo Abbey on the cliffs of Cape Breton Island. The ice has come and filled the horizon, and a huge moose galloped across the snow early this morning. We just completed our closing ceremony for Yarne, the seven-week winter retreat yesterday.

It has been a satisfying time to practice diligently and celebrate with immense joy and tenderness for this path so well established by the practice lineage. Ani Pema [Chödrön] is keeping me out of trouble here, as her dedication to awakened heart knows no bounds.

A highlight of Shambhala Day (besides our trip to the hotsprings) has always been recognizing the worldwide sangha we are a part of. In this spirit I am happy to celebrate with practitioners from the breadth of the globe. We send you all heartfelt greetings this year from the extended family at the Abbey that I am a part of this year.

I’m learning a lot about living in a community at close range. As it turns out, it seems that our imperfections are the perfect path to reflect what we most need to learn. So we don’t have to worry, we all have something to offer! I miss all of you perfectly imperfect people. I am so grateful to have been nourished by the sanity of the Kootenay sangha.

There is too much to share now so I’ll wait until I come home and have a feast of relating then. The Yarne guests are leaving on Monday and we are having threeee―count ‘em: THREE―days off when we have to break the boundaries of the retreat. I haven’t been outside the boundaries for 4-1/2 months so I think it’s time. I’ll try to go to the little town nearby to have a donut or something.

On Thursday we will begin a self-designed silent retreat for seven days. This turns out to be a very spacious ‘cooker’ and I should be quite well done when I return in June.

I’ll say goodbye for now… May you all experience deep happiness… Yes! Enjoy your LIFE! in whatever way that expresses itself for you.

With deep appreciation and joy,

Changchup Garma / Lynn

“The success of our community, and its future, is going to depend heavily on the visible and ‘feelable’ kindness that is in our mandala,” said the Sakyong, Jamgön Mipham Rinpoche, at the concluding session of the Fourth Shambhala Congress, which took place in Halifax in November. “We can be doing a lot of things right when it comes to programs, but if there is not a feeling of kindness, nothing is really going to stick.”

The Sakyong’s Council has now formally decided that the key strategic objective for the immediate period, in line with the Sakyong’s wishes and the aspirations expressed by the Congress, would be to “deepen community and manifest a culture of kindness.”

The aim of this post is to invite anyone in the Pacific Northwest Shambhala community (or beyond) to participate in a collective contemplation of what it means to deepen community and manifest a culture of kindness.

What inspires you about your local Shambhala community? How does kindness manifest there? What do you find challenging―or even alienating? What else…? Join the discussion in the comments section below. All respectfully expressed thoughts and feelings are welcome.

For related pre-Congress discussion, see the post Exploring community.

Shambhala Congress 2009, themed “exploring community,” is scheduled to take place in Halifax from November 9th to 11th, and you can play a part.

The Shambhala Congress is the principal mandala-wide gathering for discussion and consultation on matters of concern to the mandala as a whole. Discussions held at previous Congresses have played a major role in guiding the forward movement of the worldwide Shambhala community.

One way you can help shape the Kootenay Shambhala Centre’s participation in this gathering (and simultaneously help shape our Centre’s future) is by sharing your thoughts and feelings―about community, about your concerns, about anything―in the comments section below.

What matters to you??!!

A wonderfully diverse mix of about 30 people gathered at the Shambhala Centre over several hours today to celebrate this year’s Harvest of Peace and the Kootenay Shambhala community’s 30 years in our present home.

Peace, yes. May it continue to flower so beautifully.

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche’s address to the international Shambhala community is available in video, audio and text formats on the Shambhala Times’ Harvest of Peace Address 2009 page.

How much should the Kootenay Shambhala Centre use Facebook, Twitter, and/or other social media?

Help us (and possibly others) decide by leaving your comments here.

This article was submitted by Russell Rodgers, director of this summer’s Kootenay Public Weekthün 2009: Touching the Earth program, in response to a request for more information about the program’s theme.

Russell Rodgers writes:

One of the key commitments in vajrayana Buddhism is to experience the world as sacred. Sacred in this context doesn’t mean that some deity proclaimed it so; it just is, primordially, in the present moment of fresh pristine awareness. In our busy existence, however, we tend to see our thoughts and concepts about the world rather than the world itself. Therefore we lose touch with its sacredness and basic goodness. Our concepts can be so subtle and pervasive that we don’t even realize that they are there. We just feel deadened and disconnected from the magical, living quality in our surroundings. As a corrective, and because we have buddha nature wakefulness buried somewhere within us, we feel haunted by the feeling that something is missing. Read the rest of this entry »

From April 17th to 19th, the Kootenay Shambhala Centre is presenting the program Gesar: Egoless Warriorship for Wrathful Times, with Acharya Jenny Warwick and Cameron Wenaus. You might (understandably) ask, “Who is Gesar and why should I care?” Here’s a response to that question.

Cameron Wenaus writes:

The Epic of Gesar is an ancient Central Asian tale―and one of the East’s longest and wildest stories! In Tibet, there are singing bards who, although they can neither read nor write, can somehow recall the story of Gesar in precise detail; their accounts can last for days. In the West, we have only recently had the good fortune to come across this magical story and its inner meaning.

Gesar was born in Ling, an area of Tibet, in 1038, at a time when the dharma was in great peril and was on the brink of being wiped out by materialistic forces. He was an emanation of Padmasambhava, who out of great compassion for humankind, took a rebirth in Tibet in order to subjugate four demonic kings who were intent on destroying the dharma altogether. He is associated with many miracles and is revered for overcoming all obstacles he faced, no matter what the odds. Read the rest of this entry »

Late last summer, senior Kootenay Shambhala Centre member Russell Rodgers released for publication on our Centre’s website a document titled, “Essays on the Shambhala Buddhist Chants.” This document has drawn immensely appreciative feedback. The following excerpt from the Preface might help explain why:

The Kootenay Shambhala Centre is in the town of Nelson, B.C., Canada. We have had the usual disagreements about whether it is appropriate to do the chants at public sittings. When the editor of our local newsletter requested me to write some dharma essays for the newsletter, it occurred to me that articles about the chants would be appropriate. They allude to a lot of dharmic ground, and there is a shortage of published explanation available in simple, everyday non-technical language.

As I wrote the essays, I imagined having a conversation with a newer student, one who been sitting for a while and may have taken a class or two. This imaginary person had some connection to the Centre, but, understandably, had questions and reactions to the chants. For this reason, the essays have a somewhat informal, conversational quality, rather than an authoritative, encyclopedic style.

Russell has just updated this document, including in it an essay on the new chant Supplication for the Longevity of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. The updated version is available (as a PDF file) where the original one was―at the bottom of the right side bar on our Centre’s Home page.

It is also available here: Essays on the Shambhala Buddhist Chants (PDF)

In case you missed Russell Rodgers’ article about the Kootenay Shambhala Centre in the Winter 2008/09 issue of The Dot, the article is available here: “Kootenay: Practicing in Drala Land” (PDF)