Learn about integrating meditation and everyday life.

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.”

Lynn…?

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.

Shambhala President Richard Reoch was interviewed on CBC Radio on August 3rd in a segment titled A Royal Birth at the IWK Health Centre.

Here is an excerpt from President Reoch’s remarks:

The whole point of the Shambhala teachings, you could say, is that there is no fundamental difference or separation between the sacred, on the one hand, and the secular, on the other hand. So this sense of a royal seat at the centre of the Kingdom of Shambhala is a symbolic way of stating that the temporal and the spiritual are not separate; they are unified in one family and in one sense of leadership. [...]

Many of us see a tragic or even catastrophic split in contemporary society, where we think that some things are sacred or deserve respect and the rest is somewhat inanimate. Where we really see this in the largest form is the environmental catastrophe that we are living through, where modern society is literally devouring its mother, the earth.

So this is really a symbolic way of healing that split [...].

You can listen to the interview in the CBC Archives: A Royal Birth at the IWK Health Centre

This video is one of three we’ve scheduled for our August Open House program.

Have a look―and maybe have a laugh at yourself.

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Compiled by the Governance as Path Working Group, Third Shambhala Congress, and available from Shambhala Media, the book The Six Ways of Ruling: A Resource for Leaders contains commentaries and contemplations on the six ways of ruling, a key principle of Shambhala governance.

Presented below is the text from a corresponding wallet card file posted on Shambhala’s Governance as Path webpage.

THE SIX WAYS OF RULING

Heaven

Benevolent
Benevolence is rooted in patience. Our mind is spacious. We understand that people suffer. Our patience results in gentleness, absence of aggression. Benevolence requires the steadiness of an elephant―a sense of trusting ourselves and remembering the suffering of others. When others are acting out of aggression and speed, they can’t quite trust benevolence. The wisdom ruler often encounters blame and criticism. If we feel cornered in the hallway by irritation, it seems overwhelming, and we’re likely to react aggressively. Our mind becomes a little box. We begin to panic because we have no room for maneuver. At that point we don’t need to be less gentle―we need to be more gentle. Gentleness is always the best whip. It is devoted to the welfare of others. Read the rest of this entry »

In a short article in the Washington Post today, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, meditation master in the Nyingma and Kagyü schools of Tibetan Buddhism, clarifies what it means to be a Buddhist and in particular a Western Buddhist.

Here is the link to the article: The Buddha wasn’t a Buddhist.

Each year on April 4th, Shambhala Centres around the world conduct a day of practice and related activities to commemorate the parinirvana, or passing into nirvana, of the Vidyadhara the Venerable Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. This year is the 23rd anniversary of the Vidyadhara’s parinirvana, and today is a day during which we can appreciate our connection to his teachings and life example.

Visit the Shambhala Times to read a special selection of offerings.

Click on the image below to view a ten-minute video clip made available by the Shambhala Archives.

Ethan Nichtern is the founding director of the Interdependence Project, a New York City-based nonprofit organization dedicated to Buddhist-inspired meditation and psychology, integral activism, mindful arts, and meaningful media.

Listen to him speak about the process of meditation and how it relates to the history of Buddhism, and his own practice, in this Interdependence Project podcast: “Why Not Meditate?” with Ethan Nichtern