A fundraiser for education in Tibet

May 8 – 9, 2009

A unique triathlon combining sports and meditation. We will all sit together Friday night at the Shambhala Center to begin the Shambhala Triathlon. Then Saturday morning we will come together to complete the triathlon by joining a team to walk or bike, and practice Shamatha Yoga together.

We will gather donations from friends and family, co-workers, and Shambhala and Buddhist community members to support our participation in the Triathlon..

Our goal is to raise $2,000 to help rebuild the monastery. With 30 participants, who are each sponsored $67.00, we will have reached our goal! 100% of the proceeds will go to support the rebuilding the Surmang School in Surmang Valley, eastern Tibet. Konchok Foundation sponsors Surmang Monastery, which is where Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, the founder of Shambhala Centers throughout the world, was raised and trained as a young monk. Click here to learn more about Konchok Foundation, and here to learn more about the Triathlon.

The global goal for The Shambhala Triathlon for Surmang, Tibet is to raise $50,000, with our local goal being $2000. Two donors to the Konchok Foundation have already agreed to match dollar-for-dollar the first $15,000 of donations!

As of today, May 6th, there are 10 members signed up to participate! Please join us, or sponsor your fellow friends.

“I have now run nine marathons over the past years to support the rebuilding of Surmang Dutsi Til. Thank you to everyone who supported me in this effort. My friends at the Konchok Foundation tell me that these marathons collectively raised nearly three quarters of a million dollars, and have brought us well within reach of achieving our goal.

However, it’s now time for you to take over from me in running (or sitting, or walking) for Tibet, to complete the vital dharma projects that we are supporting there.”

~ Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

Schedule:

Friday, May 8th

7-9pm: Group meditation practice and a short talk about Tibet and Surmang, at the Boston Shambhala Center.

Saturday, May 9th

10am: Meet at the Boston Shambhala Center and join team Biking Bodhisattvas or team Windhorse Walkers to complete the second portion of the Triathlon. There will be different routes and mileages available for various levels of participation.

12:30pm: Both teams will meet at Olmstead park on the Brookline side of Leverett Pond (click here to see map) for one hour of group Shamatha Yoga to complete the third portion of the Triathlon.

1:30pm:Following the successful completion of the Triathlon, the entire group will celebrate with a celebratory picnic lunch!

Pre-registration required if you are interested in participating in the Triathlon.

Indicate which team you would like to be on in the comment:

the Biking Bodhisattvas (please bring your bicycle),

or

the Windhorse Walkers.

To sponsor the Triathlon, or someone participating in the Triathlon, please click to register and make a note that your payment is your donation. You are also invited to send a check to the Shambhala Center (646 Brookline Ave, Brookline, MA 02445), please just make a note what you are donating for, and thank you!!

Contact Sarah Lipton to get involved: info@shambhalaboston.org

This is a child-friendly community activity!

The shared experience of staffing a program naturally gives rise to a sense of community. On a recent Saturday afternoon, 16 new and old members of the Shambhala Community gathered to dialog with Center Director Jill Blagsvedt, Center Coordinator Sarah Lipton, and volunteer leadership from the center about leadership in the Boston Shambhala Center. The group contemplated the Six Ways of Ruling in relationship to staffing and coordinating programs and volunteering at the Shambhala Center.

The Shambhala Center is not just a place where you go to meditate, it’s a place where enlightened society takes root, through coming together as a community to study, practice, and serve. The Shambhala Program Leadership Training’s purpose was for newer volunteers to learn about the view, path and skills of program support. Leadership in a program support position is a combination of holding the view of basic goodness and kindness, while also working with other staff and the participants. Volunteering is a way to put the principles you’re learning about in classes into action when working with others. This afternoon training included in-depth contemplation and discussion of Shambhala principles, and training in the various areas of program support.

This program was so successful that we will continue to offer it on a bi- or tri-monthly basis. Newer volunteers learned the view and skills for staffing and coordinating programs, and older volunteers stepped into training roles. Three upcoming programs were filled with staff from the training. To continue the fun of community building, everyone carpooled to local Jamaica Plain’s Bukhara Indian restaurant for a delicious and uplifted celebration.

“It’s people like you stepping into program leadership roles that make it possible for the center to offer so many wonderful classes and programs to the community.”
~ Jill Blagsvedt

Watch out for, and join us at another program training called “Hosting the Lineage”, at which there will be a talk on the view of staffing and serving in the household when a visiting teacher or Tibetan Rinpoche comes to town, and in-depth training on how to serve.

An exhibition in two parts

by Ilona Anderson

April 28th – May 30th, 2009

Kingston Gallery
450 Harrison Ave. #43
Boston, MA 02118

First Fridays reception: May 1, 5 – 7:30 pm
Gallery Talk by the Artist and Opening Reception: Saturday, May 2, 3 – 6 pm

Ilona Anderson exhibits two bodies of work that explore, in different ways, our relationship with the taste of honey on the razors edge.

“Please come celebrate with me at the opening of my show at Kingston Gallery. Essentially I am hanging two different bodies of work. It should be really beautiful. I have been working on it really hard.
The opening is May 1 (First Friday. real cool)
I will give an artists talk on the Saturday May 2nd at 3:30.(same day as the Dalai Lama’s visit)
Looking forward to seeing you there.
The gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday 12-5, if you can’t make the opening or artists talk.

In the Main gallery:

All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream
—-Edgar Allen Poe

A series of drawings with pearlescent ink on black paper exploring mythology and the notion of our created identities, who we think we are, or want to be.

In the Center gallery:

Some Very Important Things – an installation using embroidery, a bed frame, paint cans, shoes and Astroturf.

Anderson states: “As an artist, I am drawn to interconnecting spaces, the multiple planes where our inner and outer worlds meet.”

Embroidery on cotton fabric with silk thread.

Ilona Anderson is an Assistant Professor of Foundation & Fine Arts at the New England School of Art and Design at Suffolk University. She a long-time practitioner in the Shambhala lineage, and is originally from South Africa.

http://www.kingstongallery.com/upcoming_exhibition.html

A reflection paper written by a local college student after visiting our weekly Open House when Acharya Adam Lobel was teaching. There were about one hundred people present at this Open House.

Buddhist Temple Reflection

I had already been to the Shambhala Buddhist Center once before, for the World Religions class, and I was expecting to have the same experience I did before. To my surprise, however, this time was a lot different from the last. On the last visit, I felt like I was attending an introductory course to Buddhism and Buddhist meditation. The instructor went on for a while about the history of the Shambhala center, and talked at length about the institution and it’s origins. Then, I remember, during the meditation, she would talk us through it as if she were telling us how to meditate, which I found to be very distracting.

The instructor for this visit, however, did none of that. I felt in this visit, that I was experiencing more of what a true service at a temple should be. The instructor started off in silence, only speaking a few carefully chosen words at a time, making everyone feel very relaxed and peaceful. He the proceeded to meditate and instructed us to do so as well. The meditations would go on for a little while, and then he would introduce a new form of meditation, and we would practice that for a little while. He would take brief moments to answer questions about meditation, and would answer them with careful clarity and thoughtfulness.

He then instructed us think about one major thing in our lives today that was bothering us, and that we felt was controlling how we live. We then got into small groups and discussed our issue with the other members. At first, I was not happy that we were going to be having a “group therapy” session as I saw it. I am very reserved and private person when it comes to talking about myself, and I normally do not like sharing any of my problems, big or small, with anyone, especially people I do not know. But I opened up a little to those in my group as they did as well, and I was very interested to learn that some people who I had thought had these perfect lives, really had major problems to deal with that I was not aware of. It felt good to share some of my own concerns with them as well. It really went to show how Buddhism really is a community centered religion.

Overall I feel this visit, compared to the visit I made last year, was a better example of the Buddhist religion. I really liked the way the instructor led the meditations. And I think that even though he did not give a detailed account of the
Shambhala Center’s history, I got a better sense of what the Center is like and about. I was surprised when I left the center and looked at my watch seeing it was almost nine. It did not feel like two hours.

The Vidyadhara Chögyam Trunpa Rinpoche’s Parinirvana on April 4th, 2009 was a wonderful community celebration. We had the good the fortune of hosting our guest Acharya Dorje Löppön Lodrö Dorje for the event, as well as over 80 community members. Food, poems, readings and stories were shared.

After the Parinirvana, we held an auction to raise money for our local Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche CD Archive, which holds over 1300 recorded teachings covering a vast range of topics. With the help of Gail Flynn and Larry Teitelbaum, Louise Miller’s decadent deserts, and the entire community, we raised over $4000. We exceeded our goal! The Archive will be available to the community beginning in May for check-out, or to listen to in the center, or take advantage of the the Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche Study Group beginning April 23rd. The money from the auction will be used to pay for the archive (our final payment) and to purchase a shelf to make the rest of the archive available to the community. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Click here to see more photos from the event.

A poem by Frank Ryan, written on the occasion of the 22nd Parinirvana of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche


Fistfight is Over

Beyond coming or going
our deepest longing and tender love.

The fistfight is over.

Now waltzing with phenomena
which never strays
from the expanse of your vast smile.
For all of us who fret
that we’ve missed so much,
we discover you in nowness
spotless on the top shelf of the spice rack