Days of Sunshine and Storm by guest writer Frank Ryan

Have been told that
Mamo
is a term of affection
for dakinis
of open awake
sunshine and storm
tuning in or turning stone.

Neither casually cruising
nor ponderously proclaiming,
we invite, praise and command
these various women
who fill a thousand realms
to banish into space
these viper mirages of outer, inner and secret.

Only mind itself
nothing but your smiling face
can pacify these raging squalls,
avert sickness, döns and obstacles,
master the glory of profound, brilliant,
just and powerful,
and usher in self-existing kingdom of delight.

I am the new editor of our community life news magazine, and I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and the capabilities of this web page. This “magazine” can help us communicate about all aspects of this practice both on the cushion and in our daily lives, helping us stay in touch with and learn from one another. Wherever you are on your path, I hope you will find this forum to be an enhancement to your involvement in this community. I will be updating this page 1-2 times a week, and I encourage you to contribute as often as you would like. Here are some loose guidelines for what sort of content may appear here:

Announcements. If there is an occasion in your life that you would like other members of our community to know about, such as a birth announcement or a wedding announcement, you are welcome to submit it to this page. General community news will also appear here.

Your Experiences. You are welcome to share any experiences you have that relate to this practice. Whether you have just completed a program either here or at another Shambhala center and would like to write about it, or you have just had a thought-provoking experience in line at the grocery store you feel is worth sharing, please submit it to this page.

Art. I know that there are a number of very gifted artists in our community, and my hope is to spotlight one artist each month. We have the ability to upload video, audio, images, and of course text onto this page, so whatever your medium of choice is, you are welcome to showcase your work here.

Interviews and Profiles. If you know someone in this community whose life, experiences, or perspective you would like to spotlight, and you have their permission to do this, you are welcome to submit an interview or profile to this page.

If you would like to submit or you have questions or suggestions, simply email me at magazineeditor@shambhalaboston.org. Feel free to approach me at the center - I am always there on Tuesdays for Under 30 Night, and I will now be present more regularly Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings. I welcome your feedback, as it will help me create a community life news magazine most beneficial to you.

Yours in the dharma,
Deanna Kaplan

Sitting with Joyful Disappointment, by guest writer Jim Infantino

Recently, one of the bigger mysteries of my life was solved. Not only solved, but tied up neatly, with a big fat happy ending. All of my fears about that situation were, though far from baseless, ultimately not realized. I should be overjoyed, and I am. However, it is also true that part of me feels let down, and I find that fascinating.

The story goes like this: In my teenage years, I had a friend, who was a girl - not really a girlfriend, but someone that I spent tons of time talking to. She seemed to really get me, and I felt like I really got her, and we drank copious quantities of coffee in diners and cafes between classes, and after school all over lower Manhattan. She was a dancer, and very pretty and had a sharp perception that cut through all my bullshit. I was enthralled. Gradually, I began to notice that her life had taken a darker turn. She had quit dancing, started smoking more, stopped eating. She came to school less and less, she cut her hair short, died it black, spent nights out with her older aunt in punk clubs, all the time getting thinner and thinner. I was scared for her. I tried to talk to her, tried to help in some way, but the forces in her life moving her in this direction were beyond me. Our talks became more and more rare, her depression seemed to deepen daily. Then she stopped coming to school at all. Her phone number was disconnected. I asked around about her, but no one knew anything. I stopped by her house, walked around her neighborhood repeatedly, but there was just no sign of my friend anywhere.

Months went by. As I began to accept that my friend was gone, and since I had no further information, I began to make up stories about why she was gone. Read the rest of this entry »

On November 18th, 2009 Nina Raizel Orchowski was born to community member Markus Orchowski and his wife. In this photo, she is being held by her older brother Isaak born on August 18th, 2007. They are exactly 2 years and 3 months apart.

Welcome to the world of the Great Eastern Sun!

KI KI SO SO!

Interested in ways to be involved with our community as a family? Join us this Sunday for Shambhala Family Gathering and Household Teachings.

Get a preview of Shambhala community member Jim Infantino’s music at his upcoming Solo Show: “Voice and guitar, mostly”.

Falcon Ridge Folk Festival “most wanted to return artist”,2006

Jim Infantino

@ Jackson Homestead

527 Washington Street, Newton

Friday, January 29

Doors 7:45, Concert 8:00

Minimum suggested donation $15, $5 children under 12, $50 immediate family max. 25% less for museum members.

All donations go to the museum and artist.

Singer Songwriter, Rockstar Geek

CMJ Music Report says:
“Jim Infantino wields his razor-sharp poetic flair like a weapon, offering thought-provoking commentary that can sound both humorous and poignant at the same time. Infantino mixes a down-town Lou Reed-style hipness … that best illustrates the band’s smart, imaginative approach.”

The Boston Globe says:
“Jim Infantino, ground zero of the Boston trio Jim’s Big Ego, is one of those rare songwriters whose wit is as sharp as his sense of melody, and whose intellect is broad and beautifully skewed as his jumble of musical influences.”

To one and all
Among the snowflakes
settling on each other
like accumulations of karma or of understanding
or of neither,
To everyone who will enter this year -
every foot fall, every glance, every opening
that lets the wind come in -
May you be at home in the warm and vast
freedom to which the dharma points
with everlasting kisses for everyone.

~ poem by Arthur Dion

“The poem is intended as a salute to our sangha on the first morning of 2010. It was composed spontaneously as written; this is the original. It emulates the tradition of spontaneous poetry within our lineage, which I understand to have been given to us by the Vidyadhara.”

Guest Post by Jim Infantino:

I started writing and playing songs on my guitar when I was 13 as a way to express my teenage frustration and sadness, and as a way to become popular. To that end, I wrote mostly humorous songs, or breakup songs. And to a large extent, this has not changed.

Songs have a direct access to the mind that is unparalleled. They simultaneously engage us intellectually, physically and emotionally. TV shows and movies cannot engage us in the same the way. In fact these media require music to give their stories the proper dramatic impact. Unlike TV shows, or motion pictures, songs can turn our everyday humdrum world into something dramatic. A walk to the gym, and an hour on the treadmill can become something heroic, or tragic, or funky, or sexy, or funny with the right playlist on our iPod. A bus ride becomes a scene from a movie in which we are the stars, and everyone around us is an extra.

Songs are like candy for the ego.
Read the rest of this entry »

The first thing you notice as you walk into the entrance of the Boston Flower Exchange is the abundance of fragrance. The second thing is the shear size of the place. “This place is a candy store for flower lovers!” exclaimed Kathryn Canney, one of the members of Padma Ikebana – Boston Shambhala Center’s flower arranging group.

Last Saturday morning at the early hour of 8:30am, 7 members of Padma Ikebana gathered together to carpool the few miles into the heart of Boston to soak in the Boston Flower Exchange and make some purchases before they closed at 10am. The Boston Flower Exchange is Boston’s largest wholesale flower market, and stocked daily with flowers from around the world. It is basically a warehouse full, absolutely full of flowers. They cater to florists all over the City - Whole Foods, KaBloom, and many of the smaller main street florists all over Boston. We can shop there because we are legally a non-profit organization.

About $70 later, we left the large market with multiple bundles of various greenery, mums, bamboo and thistle flowers. We set ourselves up in the main shrine room and commenced to practice the art of Japanese flower arranging together for an hour and a half. The 7 of us worked individually on our arrangements, occasionally calling out to Hazel Bercholz for a critique or suggestion. Hazel has been arranging flowers for over 30 years - if you ever get a chance to watch “Discovering Elegance”, a remarkable dharma art film about the Vidyadhara, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, you will spot her assisting Trungpa Rinpoche in creating a large flower arrangement at an installation in Los Angeles. In recent years at the Shambhala Center, Hazel has generously led many Ikebana workshops and trainings, allowing new practitioners to get a taste of the art of Ikebana. See our calendar for the next one of these on January 30th.

At about 11:30, we breaked to walk around the room together to look at each other’s arrangements. Hazel offered feedback and suggestions on each arrangement, and we each had the chance to offer our own feedback to each other as well. It was a very soft experience of seeing through each other’s eyes and learning how we each see the wisdom of the flowers and branches. The arrangements were beautiful, elegant, and uplifted. We offered them to the Center and enjoyed placing them around. We then finished by going out to lunch together for some delcious Vietnemese food. The group decided to start meeting once a month for group practice, and we even spontaneously agreed upon a new name: Padma Ikebana!

The members of Padma Ikebana who are responsible for creating the elegant flower arrangements at the Shambhala Center are: Scott Robbins, Mary Lang, Hazel Bercholz, Greg Smith, Rachel Siebert, Timaree Bierle-Dodds, Kathryn Canney, Dawn Davies, Erika Wilton, Linda Brown, and Sarah Lipton. If you are interested in joining Padma Ikebana, please send an email to Sarah Lipton at info@shambhalaboston.org.

Please join us this Sunday, December 20th, from 4-6pm for QBF (Queer Buddhist Fellowship). We’ll be meeting at the Boston Shambhala Center, 646 Brookline Avenue, Brookline. (The Shambhala Center is T accessible on the Green Line D/Brookline Village station.)

Buddhism beginners as well as those more experienced are cordially welcomed. Meditation instruction will be available. The program begins promptly at 4pm, so please plan to arrive early. Suggested program donation is $5.

This month we’re delighted to welcome bestselling author Susan Piver. She is a wonderful, funny and talented teacher. Susan will be discussing her new book – a conversation that will be of value to anyone dealing with powerful emotions in their lives. Books will be available for purchase, and a book signing will follow the program.

A description of the talk follows. We look forward to welcoming you!

Talk Description: THE WISDOM OF A BROKEN HEART

A broken heart is not a problem to be solved, but a remarkable opportunity to discover wisdom. This talk will introduce you to the skills needed to work with these powerful emotions - not to drive them away or tie them up with a bow, but to find the possibility of transforming heartbreak into heart opening. Instead of (or in addition to) collapsing and freaking out, the conditions of heartbreak provide the perfect crucible for developing indestructible compassion and the capacity to love more deeply than ever.

Whether your heart was broken yesterday or years ago, all the elements are there to discover your innate spiritual warriorship. As we talk, you will discover that the dark power of heartbreak can introduce you to gentleness, fearlessness, and intelligence. If you stay with your broken heart, it will surely lead you down the path to wisdom.

Speaker Bio: Susan Piver is an authorized meditation instructor in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage, the New York Times bestselling author of The Hard Questions, and the award-winning How Not to Be Afraid of Your Own Life. She has been a student of Buddhism since 1995. Her new book is The Wisdom of a Broken Heart, published by Simon & Schuster in January, 2010.

It’s that time of year again: turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and Momma Stanburg Relish, pickles, sweet potatoes, squash, apple pie, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, hot mulled apple cider. And: family.

We love them, it’s great to see them, but sometimes they can drive us crazy, right? We witness layers of habitual mind suddenly rearing up and running away with us. So, when we’re all gathered around that laden table tomorrow, how can we hold our seats and maintain our sanity? How can we radiate peace to the friends and family who have gathered? How can we touch in with our hearts, our love for these people, and respond to them with a genuine experience of tenderness?

In 1975, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche spoke about Surrendering Your Aggression. This video is about what happens when you experience aggression, let go of aggression, and begin to “give and give and give.” What dawns in the process of giving? “Real clarity.”

So as you prepare to face the reality of your family, watch this video. And when you sit down to feast, take a deep breath and taste every bite as you watch the scene unfold. You could be surprised!

Wishing you all a cheerful holiday celebration from the Boston Shambhala Center!

KI KI SO SO!