Below is an adaptation of an email message sent to Kootenay Shambhala members and friends today by Candace Batycki, who organized the refugee sponsorship meeting that took place at the Shambhala Centre on Wednesday, July 7th.

Hello dear sangha,

The meeting Wednesday night went well, with about 20 people attending. Thank you to everyone who sent emails of interest and support.

It was very informative and a bit heartbreaking learning more about the Karen people in particular―hill tribe people from Burma forced into refugee camps in Thailand whose only hope of ever leaving is through private sponsorship. It was great to see the short film about the people that have been resettled into the East Kootenays. The refugee support group there has been active for 26 years and has settled a family every year, many from Burma but also from Colombia and Eritrea. They have made such an impact on so many lives.

Some of the attendees were there because they have already formed a local group and have been gathering resources for a while now; they are ready to welcome a family but have hit some bureaucratic walls, which the East Kootenay people will now help them break through. They hope to welcome a family here by late 2010. They are loosely affiliated with the United Church, which has a long history of doing this work, helping with the bureaucracy.

We decided that the best approach will be for us (interested sangha) to join forces with them. I think this is quite exciting! For now I will be the liaison to their committee. We can appoint somebody from the sangha either to actually join the committee (which would be great) or to continue as liaison (after I leave for Halifax August 31). Or, if nobody wants to step forward, I can just forward the email addresses of interested sangha members to their committee chair and people can proceed on their own. Thoughts?

Thank you!
Candace

P.S. It felt good to have these folks in our centre; many commented on how beautiful it was and some took bookmarks with the practice schedule.

A Nelson community meeting about refugee sponsorship is set to take place at the Shambhala Centre on Wednesday, July 7th, at 7:00 PM.

The meeting’s organizer, Kootenay Shambhala member Candace Batycki, invites everyone to come and meet Karen refugees from Burma now living in Kimberley, and to discuss whether we have the collective wherewithal to help refugees resettle in our town. Free snacks will be offered.

For more information contact Candace at 250-352-3830.

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The Kootenay Shambhala Centre is pleased to present Earth Dharma, a five-class course with Russell Rodgers, on Thursday evenings, from May 20th to June 17th.

We will explore our relationship with the earth, our present ecological predicament, and how meditation and other practices can help.

Everyone is welcome. Online participation (through audio recordings and other resources) will be possible. For a full program description click here.

Jane DiGiacomo, a key member of the Kootenay Shambhala Centre’s environment working group, submitted this article.

By Jane DiGiacomo

The Kootenay Shamhbala Centre is taking part in the Transition Nelson Expo and Gathering at the Prestige Lakeside Resort and Convention Centre from May 14th to 16th, and I hope to see you all there!

Transition Nelson is a grass roots movement aiming to organize all sectors of the Nelson area community to plan for a community that can easily and joyfully meet the demands of a future world impacted by climate change and decreasing dependency on fossil fuels.

The Expo and Gathering weekend will include celebrations of Nelson’s progress in this process, reskilling workshops, booths hosted by individuals and organizations participating in the process, and most importantly, a professionally-facilitated community conversation to plan for this future.

The end result of the weekend will be an Energy Descent Action Plan, which will guide the Nelson area community in taking immediate and long-term steps towards a more sustainable and resilient future.

Our Centre is hosting a booth on Friday, May 14th. This will give Expo participants a chance to learn about who we are, what we offer, and how our offerings are relevant to Transition Nelson’s focus. Our upcoming Earth Dharma course, for example, may be of particular interest.

Stay tuned for more details about our participation.

On Tuesday, April 13th, 7:30 PM, at Nelson’s TNT Playhouse (Carbonate and Ward Streets), Nelson paramedic (and Kootenay Shambhala member) Alon Gelcer is sharing his photos and experiences from a month of medical relief work in Haiti.

This is a chance to learn about the recent Haitian calamity and discuss ways we can effectively serve others. The suggested donation is $2 - $10, with all proceeds going to Haiti Relief.

New York City’s Interdependence Project is bringing new meaning to the idea of mixing meditation and everyday life!

Transition Nelson, part of a global movement to address this century’s converging challenges by enhancing community resilience, is organizing the Imagine Transition festival to give everyone a chance to communicate their vision of Nelson’s future.

Click on the image below for details.

Responding to climate change effectively requires understanding it deeply.

For a Buddhist view on the roots of climate change, read the excerpt from the new book A Buddhist Response to the Climate Emergency, featured in yesterday’s Shambhala Times post Buddhadharma and the Planetary Crisis. Also, see the other Shambhala Times articles tagged Buddhist Response to Climate Change.

If you’d like to join in the Kootenay Shambhala Centre’s efforts to bring this view down to earth through practical action, locally and beyond, contact Russell Rodgers or Jim Northcote at info@nelsonbuddha.com.

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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.

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 »