Hi! I’m Jiray Avedisian and I am currently serving as a full-time intern at the Shambhala Meditation Center of Boston for seven weeks this winter. I just recently moved to Boston. About a month ago, give or take a few days. I’m here almost solely because of the center.

I go to a really odd school (called Bennington College), and at this odd school each student is required to pursue and then complete a seven-week internship. These seven weeks are dubbed Field Work Term (or FWT) and they are called so because the job or internship we get should be one that aligns nicely with and compliments our intended course of study. And so when I set out to find this year’s FWT position, I felt a rather keen pull towards something… Buddhist.

At Bennington, we don’t have majors. Instead we have concentrations. I am concentrating in literature, and I’m also really interested in conflict resolution. I often get inquisitive looks when I mention the latter; so let me explain a little. I’m perturbed by the proclivity of human history for violence and aggression in the face of conflict. I want to understand why non-violence and compassion are not the go-to method of conflict resolution, and why they have been used so infrequently so as to become obscure, even abstract ideas. In the course of my studies, I’ve examined various schools of thought, philosophy, or spirituality that align themselves particularly with the ideas of compassion and non-violence. It may come as no surprise that I encountered Buddhism on a number of occasions. In high school I was introduced to Buddhism and began to take a real interest in its precepts and teachings. And I found it only natural that when I bumped into it again in college, I was excited to be reacquainted.

Which brings me to this FWT (I started here at the center in the very early days of January). Bennington doesn’t have much in the way of religion classes. So I found it a bit difficult to find any sort of formal instruction in Buddhist history, literature, etc. When confronted with the task of finding a fitting FWT position, I was most appropriately struck with the desire to find something that would allow me to experience Buddhism in one way or another. I was lucky enough to come across a listing for an internship at the Shambhala Meditation center of Boston. I had no idea what Shambhala meant at the time. But upon further investigation, it became apparent that the center had a strong foundation in Buddhism and Buddhist practice. The internship was in the Communications and Operations office, but the listing said, there would be plenty of time for meditation instruction. I was thrilled.

So naturally, I now find myself in Ashley Goodwin’s office, near the back door of the center. And having been at the job a month, I have experienced an immersion in the center’s spirit of practice and teaching. Now I pause for a bit of reflection. I came to the center having a rough understanding of Buddhism; it’s origins, the vocabulary, stuff like that. But in terms of practice, I’d had no training, and any of the sitting meditation that I actually had done was more like an imitation of what I’d read in Hesse’s Siddhartha, or what I gathered from 12th grade World Religions class. Now I’ve had the opportunity to explore my practice on a daily basis, with an entire community of individuals dedicated to cultivating their own.

And that’s what I have found to be most profound about my experience at the center thus far. Community.

Working in the communications department, I’ve been scouring Shambhala Boston’s website, Facebook, and Twitter, trying to analyze the information that’s there. In so doing I’ve found a thread, a theme that’s been woven throughout everything I’ve come across. Social media serves the larger purpose of widening and deepening the community we’ve built here at the center itself. We share the common experience that is the Shambhala Meditation Center of Boston. Whether it’s our meditation practice or our education, it is something that has grown out of this strong sense of community. Sitting meditation is as much about waking oneself up, as it is waking each other up. I mean, one of the basic and most important goals we have in Shambhala is garnering an enlightened society. So, I would say, community is at the very core of what we do here. I’ve felt it so strongly myself, at Under 30 and Meditation in Everyday life, and as I’ve watched other groups come and grow.

The body of this community is ever-changing. It is a transient entity whose shape is amorphous in a lot of ways. But what stands irrevocably true is the compassion and excitement that each individual brings to it. Whether you’re coming or going, taking a single class or dedicating your entire life to Shambhala and meditation practice, you help build this community. You are instrumental in its formation and sustenance. This is what I’ve felt so strongly and persistently in the short time that I’ve been here. One month is hardly a drop in the bucket compared to the relationship some of you share with the center. But so far that month has been enough to show me, in a huge way, what this place is all about. I’ve had the opportunity to take part, learn from, and contribute to a community that is truly unique and immeasurably wonderful.

So this is my present trajectory for the work I’ll be doing here in the next few weeks: to do the Shambhala Boston community justice and do my part in helping it grow. I may only have a month left here, but I know that I’ll continue to learn and benefit in ways I can’t yet imagine from the people I have had the pleasure to meet and work with. I hope you all feel the same, and I wish you the best of luck with your practice and your life as Shambhala Day and the New Year comes to a head.

Take Care,
Jiray

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Tags: intern, Volunteering

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 at 5:06 pm and is filed under Community Articles, Northeastern States. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can also leave a comment.