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!

Shambhala Community Member Update: Frank Reynolds has a new business.

Mr. Frank Reynolds

“I wanted to let friends and acquaintances in the Boston Shambhala sangha know that earlier this fall I started working as a realtor with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Newburyport, and to provide you with my current work contact information [see below].

Though I’m focusing primarily on the North Shore, I’m licensed to work throughout Massachusetts and would be happy to assist any prospective home-buyers or sellers in the Greater Boston/North Shore region. Through my website, www.FrankReynolds.biz, I can set clients up with property searches which provide much more comprehensive information on MLS listings than can be obtained through most public real estate websites. I’m happy to do this on a no-obligation basis for anyone with an interest in exploring the real estate market, so let me know if this would be of interest to you and/or feel free to forward this message to friends who may be in this category.”

“In order to make confident decisions in today’s evolving real estate market, prospective sellers and buyers alike need:
Ø Information on properties currently on the market;
Ø Perspective on market trends;
Ø Professional guidance in developing an individual
strategy for identifying opportunites in today’s
challenging market;
Ø Professional support and representation in making
confident purchase or sale decisions.

As a Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Realtor®, I represent the leading real estate team in New England. Please take advantage of our tremendous array of tools and resources to help navigate the complex challenges of today’s real estate market.”

For more information, please see Frank’s website and contact him directly: www.FrankReynolds.biz

Council/Committees

The Shambhala Council has been hard at work planning our Harvest of Peace community celebration and Fall membership drive. The Membership Drive is an opportunity for Council members, and other volunteers, to call all members to thank them for their continued financial support, update them on the state of the center, and to ask for an increase in dues. The membership drive will end with a Members’ Social on October 23rd. All members are invited! Ravenna Michalson, dharma singer-songwriter, will perform.

We are also working on preparing for this winter when homeless persons may again try to take up residence under our building. Kasung are preparing steps to follow if you see someone (who to call, etc.). This is coming soon and will be posted for the community in the Center Coordinator/Kasung office.

Scott Robbins joined the newly formed Programming & Curriculum Committee. Welcome Scott!

Community

Our teacher, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, will soon enter a year-long retreat. We are hosting two events where we will celebrate the Sakyong’s life, and make financial and practice offerings in support of his year of retreat:

Essential Practices in Advance of Kongma Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche’s Year of Retreat will be held October 25th from 9am-1:30pm

Long Life Blessing, Tenshuk, for Kongma Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche Prior to his Year of Retreat will be held November 10th. Please join us for these auspicious events!

I will be attending the Shambhala Congress in early November, which is hosted by Shambhala International and held in Halifax, Nova Scotia. All members are invited to attend! The theme this year is “Exploring Community.” Click here to learn more about the Congress, and here to read a recent Shambhala Times article about it. Click here to learn more about Shambhala Governance and the Working Groups and here for the Working Groups latest activities. Please contact me if you have questions, issues or topics you are interested in bringing up with me, to bring to the Congress.

The Upcoming Move

As outlined in the BSC Vision and Mission for the Upcoming Move, there are two streams of activity taking place in support of the upcoming move: Community Building and Move Committee Research.

I have been inspired by the many ways in which community already exists, and thinking about ways we can deepen and strengthen. In order to do this we need to think about how we individually want to progress along our paths of meditation, and how much financial and volunteer support we can give. Having said that, now is a time when we need everyone’s help! I need volunteers to staff and coordinate programs (we will train you!), help with office program support, cleaning, and help updating the community blog. We also need your ideas and inspirations so please don’t hesitate to contact me about any of this!

The Move Committee held the first community meeting of what they hope will be a series of meetings, on October 15th. After I outlined “how we got here” (the decision to move the center), the Committee shared inspiration in the forms of other spirited Shambhala Centers, and shared about the Sakyong’s “Shambhala House model.” They also showed financials and potential available properties. The second part of the evening was spent sharing our hopes and fears about the move, and what we could personally offer towards making the move happen.

Finances

The center’s finances are stable, which we can be happy about. It has been a difficult year economically for many people and we have seen some members reduce or stop paying their dues for this reason. But, due to out Fall Membership drive, and the inspiration of new members, our total dues are increasing overall.

Membership dues and donations currently cover just over 50% of our base operating expenses (staff, shrine and office supplies, building maintenance, etc.) and program profits make up the remaining 50%.

Nearly thirty people from all parts of the Boston Shambhala sangha gathered Tuesday night for a long and moving celebration to support the long life of our Kongma Sakyong, Mipham Rinpoche.

The evening began a few minutes late, but on time, Shambhala time that is, as we scrambled to arrange the shrine room after the weekly yoga class, and people started streaming in. Acharya Emily Bower lead us in opening chants and gave a short introduction to the Tenshuk, or Long-Life Ceremony that had occurred in Halifax early that morning. We then turned the lights low and sat mesmerized for nearly an hour and a half while watching a video sent to us by Shambhala International that showed various highlights of the day’s events. The room felt close and warm, the energy vibrant as we oo-ed and ahh-ed the snippets of the blessing, seeing familiar faces in the people presenting their offerings to the Sakyong, Sakyong Wangmo, and His Eminence, some of us moving closer to the screen to watch the Lingdro dancers. We cried out when we thought we saw our Director Jill Blagsvedt flash by the camera!

It was incredibly moving to listen to the Sakyong’s address at the end of this video. You could tell that he didn’t quite know how to say goodbye for a year and three months, the length of his upcoming retreat. His messages were of deepening our practice, developing our kindness and compassion for each other within our community and strengthening ourselves to then turn the flower outwards, offering Shambhala to the world at large which so desperately needs our teachings of sanity and kindness. He also mentioned having “garuda bumps”. He left us with the request to devote at least one practice session a week to him, that through our practice we could connect with his mind, and therefore never be far apart.

Once this video finished, servers passed around delicious goodies, and Co-Warrior of the Center, Tom Ericsson gave an impassioned request for offerings to His Eminence for all that he has given to our community, and all that he is offering for the long life of our Sakyong. After that, we again dimmed the lights to watch “Joyful Vajra”, highlights from a feature documentary work in progress on the remarkable life and times of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. Tears streamed down some faces, and giggles were also shared - especially at the funny way media reporters pronounced the Sakyong’s name or Shambhala. It was such a joy to see snippets of Rinpoche’s life. We concluded with chants and a very rousing Shambhala anthem, the last note held out long and strong. The lungta in the room was palpable.

We cleaned up quickly and sat around on the couches for possibly another hour, just sharing in the radiance of the evening. I don’t think we left the Center until nearly 11:30pm, on a Tuesday night, the Kongma Sakyong, strong in our Boston hearts.

Queer Buddhist Fellowship will be meeting this Sunday, November 15, from 4-6pm at the Boston Shambhala Center (646 Brookline Avenue, Brookline, MA) for meditation and discussion. We hope you will be able to join us. Please note that meditation begins promptly at 4pm, so we recommend you arrive early. A $5 donation at the door is suggested but not required.

Our special guest teacher this month will be Charlie Byron, who will be giving a talk entitled “Radical Gentleness: Making Friends with Ourselves.” Charlie is a wonderfully warm, funny and enlightening teacher if you’ve never had the pleasure of being with him before.

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Radical Gentleness: Making Friends with Ourselves

Many of us are quick to name what we think is wrong with us. When we encounter things we don’t like about ourselves, we see it as badness, and hope for some way to eliminate it – a bad-ectomy.

Is there a different approach, one of radical gentleness? By opening up to ourselves, as we are, we can experience basic goodness – a clarity and stability we already possess. From there, we can discern what we may want to change from what we can make friends with. Working with ourselves gently over time rather than demanding a one-shot miracle can change our dissatisfaction into motivation.

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If you are interested in volunteering to help at the meeting, please send an email to Bruce Kohl at: windhorse13@gmail.com.