Have you ever wondered…

* What is the path of courses offered at Shambhala?
* What does it mean to be a member of Shambhala?
* What does the Center have to offer to you and the wider Boston community?

Newcomers’ Night is being offered to answer such questions!

Join us on Wednesday, September 1st from 7-9PM. Senior teachers, the Director of the center, and current members will be present to share their thoughts and experiences. We look forward to seeing you there!

A warm congratulations to the Sakyong and Sakyong Wangmo for the birth of their beautiful daughter, Drukmo Yeshe Sarasvati Ziji Mukpo, who was born at 9:24 am EDT on Wednesday, August 11th, the first day of the Tibetan new moon, in the IWK Health Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

This new addition to the royal family is a blessing worthy of celebration!

All members of the Shambhala Community, Families, Children and Friends, are warmly invited to attend a Royal Baby Celebration in honor of the first child of the Sakyong and Sakyong Wangmo, Friday August 13th, 7-9pm at The Shambhala Meditation Center of Boston.

The celebration will include a lhasang, offerings, 
toasts and an opportunity to support the new family by giving a donation for an item from the baby registry.

Please bring
 a flower or khata to offer.

Ki Ki So So!

To learn more about Jetsun Drukmo’s birth, follow the news on the Shambhala Times here.

Dear Friends,

Warm Summer Greetings! The Director’s Updates (formerly the Director’s Blog on a separate part of the website) are now fully incorporated into our blog “Wake up Boston.” When you click on the “Director Updates” tag on the left it will give you a listing of all of my previous updates. Using this online blog as a way to communicate should be easier and more enjoyable for all of us. Below is a snapshot of what’s been happening the last few months – which is a lot! In the future, I will be updating via this blog more frequently.

Also, don’t forget to click the “Expansion News” link in the tags section to see updates about the expansion process.

Councils & Committee’s Updates:

The Shambhala Center has been busy!

We’ve completed a number of facilities projects including:

• For health and possible mold issues, tore out the carpet from the stairway and one of the offices
• Brought in an indoor air specialist to test our air quality and fixed problem areas – the center is now mold free!
• Added brighter lighting to the stairway
• The Vajrayana (Small) shrine room was painted by volunteers Michael McLellan, Glenn Proteus, Simon Spiller and Bill Wooding.
• Pine Street Inn was coming through-out the winter to check under our front stair for homeless persons. The area has now been enclosed.
• The stairway ceiling will need to be replaced in the coming months – we are currently collecting quotes

Thank you to Alyssa Marino (facilities coordinator), Simon Spiller and other volunteers for all of your hard work in this area!

Practice & Education Committees have also been very busy as well

• A newly formed Visiting Teacher Support Cmte will be supporting all upcoming Acharya, Rinpoche and other visiting teacher visits by finding coordinators and staff and helping to train them.
• Tom Ericsson and Mary Lang officially stepped down as Warriors of the center, but are still chairing the Kalapa Council until new chairs take over. The Kalapa Council will continue to put on events and Werma feasts.

Community Updates

• The Care and Conduct Policy has been reintroduced and is posted in the community room of the center
• The Health and Well Being Group are working together to support the community. Please contact them at healthandwellbeing@shambhalaboston.org if you want to request support.

Finance Updates

• See our past Financial updates on this webpage, including 2008 & 2009 Year end documents
• Caitlin Cianflone was hired as a short term, part time paid Finance Coordinator to help me with a backlog of financial projects.
• Our finances are very steady. On average our gross income per month balances with our expenses – so we break even.

This coming weekend, we are very fortunate to be hosting Kunga Dawa (Richard Arthure), who became a close student of Vidyadhara, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1966. He was the first Westerner trained by the Vidyadhara as a meditation instructor and authorized by him to teach the Dharma. He traveled to India, Sikkim and Bhutan with Trungpa Rinpoche, was present with him at Tagtsang when the Sadhana of Mahamudra was revealed and co-created the English language version of it.

The Sadhana of Mahamudra is an important text composed by the Vidyadhara and a turning point in his presentation of the buddhadharma in the West. The Sadhana is practiced at the Shambhala Center on the new and full moon days.

The Sadhana of Mahamudra is one of the first practices that the Vidyadhara encouraged his students to do, and has a number of important characteristics. This sadhana is a binding factor for our community because students at all levels of practice can participate and receive a true experience or understanding of the spiritual path. Its essential teaching is that the nature of the practice itself undercuts any ideas of spiritual materialism. The practice consists of meditation and chants, and lasts about an hour.

These teachings are precious in many ways. The Tibetan text is itself terma, and the translation was considered by the Vidyadhara to be terma because of the ease with which the English translation happened. Terma are teachings that were concealed by the great Tibetan teacher Padmasambhava for the sake of future generations, and are rediscovered by a terton (a teacher able to find these teachings), at the auspicious time when they are needed. Such is the case of the Sadhana of Mahamudra, a teaching on overcoming obstacles and degraded spiritual practices in our time.

Join us this weekend at the Center to go into an in-depth inquiry about this powerful practice.

Large, warm congratulations go out to 5 Boston practitioners for attending two of the Shambhala Seminaries this summer. Seminary is a transformational retreat period of deep, intensive practice and study, bringing the practitioner to the next step on their path.

Greg Smith, Sarah Kimball and Kathy Vieweg attended Sutrayana Seminary at Shambhala Mountain Center in June. Reports are that they had a wonderful, intense, frustrating, exhilarating and fruitful time.

Sutrayana Seminary deepens and expands the practice and study students undertook in the Shambhala School of Buddhist Studies, dathün, and the Shambhala Training Heart of Warriorship program. During this two week program led by a Shambhala Acharya, students live in a Shambhala environment, alternating periods of intensive meditation practice with classes in Buddhist and Shambhala view and practice. It is an intense culmination of many years of practice and study. Congratulations to the three of you!

Anthony Miller and Dale Hollocher returned this week from Vajrayana Seminary also at Shambhala Mountain Center. Congratulations!!

The Shambhala Vajrayana Seminary introduces the student into the vajrayana teachings and practices of our Shambhala and Buddhist lineages. During this program, students will receive authorization and training in the Shambhala ngöndro practices under Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche’s personal guidance. In applying for Vajrayana Seminary, students are requesting to be accepted as his vajrayana students. Thus, attendance in this program requires a personal connection and commitment to Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, the teachings of the Vidyadhara, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and the Shambhala Buddhist mandala.

Attention Boston Sangha!

Covered Patio Seating is now $250
For a limited time until July 16

Covered patio seating for A Gathering of Disciples: The Empowerment of the
Rangjung Peme Nyingtik at Pema Osel Do Ngak Choling, in Vershire, VT, is
now available for $250. Located on our intimate back patio between the main
shrine hall and a gentle sloping hill, this seating area offers a quiet, contemplative
perspective on the events. The interior of the shrine room is visible through a
series of large windows and audio will be broadcast through a series of speakers.
We are thankful for the generosity of many donors which has made this seating
Visit www.khyentsevisit2010.org/tickets for tickets.

Hello readers! My name is Jade, and I’m the new editor at Wake up Boston! (which, in case you are wondering, is the blog you are currently reading).

I’m also new to the Shambhala community as a whole, which makes me kind of an explorer. My goal is to give fellow newbies and interested by-standers the low-down as to what this tradition is all about. I hope that fresh, curious eyes will also bring new perspective to the goings-on in the community, even for seasoned members.

Either way, I’ll be writing as I’m learning. I hope you’ll stay tuned!

guest article from our friends at the Kootenay Shambhala Centre

Late last summer, senior Kootenay Shambhala Centre member Russell Rodgers released for publication on our Centre’s website a document titled, “Essays on the Shambhala Buddhist Chants.” This document has drawn immensely appreciative feedback. The following excerpt from the Preface might help explain why:

The Kootenay Shambhala Centre is in the town of Nelson, B.C., Canada. We have had the usual disagreements about whether it is appropriate to do the chants at public sittings. When the editor of our local newsletter requested me to write some dharma essays for the newsletter, it occurred to me that articles about the chants would be appropriate. They allude to a lot of dharmic ground, and there is a shortage of published explanation available in simple, everyday non-technical language.

As I wrote the essays, I imagined having a conversation with a newer student, one who been sitting for a while and may have taken a class or two. This imaginary person had some connection to the Centre, but, understandably, had questions and reactions to the chants. For this reason, the essays have a somewhat informal, conversational quality, rather than an authoritative, encyclopedic style.

Russell has just updated this document, including in it an essay on the new chant Supplication for the Longevity of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.

It is available here: Essays on the Shambhala Buddhist Chants (PDF)

A service opportunity has arisen at the Boston Shambhala Center. Our community is growing rapidly which has created a need to expand our services. We are looking for a detail oriented person to commit to volunteering for one year on a part-time basis, 3-5 hours per week, to assist us with our on-going finances. This person, in conjunction with the Executive Director and a professional
bookkeeper, will be responsible for the finances at our Center.

The Boston Shambhala Center is a community of Shambhala Buddhist practitioners who are committed to a path of mindfulness and awareness, and compassion for others. To learn more about our Center and practice and study opportunities, please visit our website: www.shambhalaboston.org.

Duties include:

• Administer program expense reports from beginning to end, i.e. provide program expense reports to program coordinators prior to the program, collect receipts and expense report post-program, review and complete all expense reports, follow up with reimbursements for expenses, and enter
information into QuickBooks

• Track Paypal payments and enter into QuickBooks

• Track dues and donations

• Filing

• Seasonal help developing the operating budget

• Generate reports in QuickBooks on an as-needed basis

• Other projects as needed

Ideal Candidate:

• Familiarity with Microsoft Excel, Paypal, and Quickbooks ideal but not required

• Familiarity with accounting procedures ideal but not required

• Highly detail-oriented

• Regular hours weekly or bi-weekly

Please send a brief cover letter to director@shambhalaboston.org describing your qualifications, and why you are interested in this opportunity.

The Sakyong has addressed the Shambhala Community from his year-long retreat. To read his address, please visit this site: http://www.shambhala.org/members/ps/updates.php. If you need help accessing this link, please contact us at: info@shambhalaboston.org.

The Sakyong is presently in Colorado where he will be presiding over the Vajrayana Seminary, the first shastri gathering and a Scorpion Seal Assembly.

In his message the Sakyong addresses the disasters which the world has been recently experiencing: “It is as if the earth is asking us to be kind to each other and to itself. Now, more than any other time in history, the fate of our own planet is in our hands.” He goes on to remind us that the teachings are calling on us “not run away from the world, but to engage in our life in the world.”

The Sakyong also wrote: “I cannot express how much I appreciate the effort and determination that you all have, for being on this journey is not easy.”