Such is the Boston Shambhala Center - radiating sanity between two car repair shops, one called Transmission, and the other, Re-Alignment. It’s been a joke for visiting teachers, for years. And now, I find myself in the same exact place - caught between transmission and re-alignment.

Requested repeatedly to do so, I now sit sipping tea on a gorgeous end-of-summer day to write a missive to you about my experiences this summer attending Warrior Assembly and Vajrayana Seminary.

In some ways, what can I say? It was challenging to take so much time off of work, even if work is here at the Shambhala Center - mostly because of all the extra hours put in before leaving for both retreats to make sure the infrastructure was in place to take care of business while I was away, and because the catching up process upon returning was so challenging (in case you are wondering, I’m still not caught up on emails from August….).

It was also challenging to say goodbye to my sweet pet rattie, MP, the last of three, knowing that I would not see her again in her fuzzy cute form (she died while I was away at Seminary). Riding the heartbreak of my father’s illness and watching from afar as his life has fallen apart inspired me even more to throw myself completely into these spectacularly rare opportunities for deep practice. I take it not for granted how ridiculously fortunate I have been to attend these profound programs.

And so it is with extreme gratitude that I thank you all for supporting me in my pursuance of these retreats. Digging into Warrior Assembly was an experience of tasting a long-held dream of confidence, of fearless proclamation of my sanity - literally crying out from mountain tops. It was an extremely poetic experience for me - see my previous post called: the courage of grass. I was almost literally dripping poetry from my finger tips like rain falls from the leaves of oak trees.

With these tools and connections generated and received at Warrior Assembly, I met the intensity of life during the month of July, and then traveled to France and south from Paris to Dechen Choling. All I can say to those of you that have yet to proceed along the path to Seminary is: GO! And to those of you that have yet to visit Dechen Choling - be forewarned: it is aptly named as the Place of Great Bliss - GO!

This path is a path of love. Sure, it’s hard work, there’s pain and sweat and gobs of tears (I think there was only one day during the entire three weeks of Seminary that I didn’t cry, and I’m thinking of writing a book about the multitudinous varieties of crying), but it’s the heartbreak of it all that is so beautiful. This doesn’t make sense, but it’s the only thing that makes sense. It’s said that “pain and pleasure have become an ornament which it is pleasant to wear.” Peace is in our every moment, we just forget to look at it, directly. It is so simple. We are already awake, we are beings of love, we already have all the tools we need to meet our lives. And then the ego gets in the way, and it gets tricky, and time for practice falls apart and then everything else begins to unravel. But, we knew it once in a moment beneath a tree in France. And so the process of re-alignment begins over again, and we can remember that by extending compassion to other beings, we are reminded of our own soft, tender hearts. So we buck up again, Great Eastern Sun vision intact, and we meet the world as warriors. Caught, as it were, between the continual dance of transmission and re-alignment.

Sangha member Jim Infantino’s band is playing at the Burren in Davis Square, Sommerville every week the month of August.
For more information, click here.

These images were created by Katherine during the Miksang workshop held at the center in June, taught by Lance Brunner. Miksang is a Tibetan word that translates as “Good Eye.” The Miksang program of contemplative photography brings together the art of photography, the discipline of meditation and the Dharma Art teachings of the meditation master and scholar Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

For more information about Miksang, click here.

The Boston Shambhala Center was highlighted on WBUR Friday May 1st, 2009.

The community rallied for this spur-of-the-moment event, and after a flurry of emails back and forth between almost 20 members the day of the interview, we were set up to receive the intern. Thanks to some quick footwork, we re-constructed the first segment of the Open House meditation period to recite the Heart Sutra, which is featured in the story. The intern then attended the meditation and surprised us by recording that too. He then recorded the evening’s talk and interviewed a few of us afterwards as well. There was certainly an air of great excitement among everyone present.

Charlie Trageser, who was teaching that night says: So much excitement! There was an intern from WBUR at Open House last night (an Emerson student), who recorded us doing the Heart Sutra (Michael and I tried hard for throat singing but no such luck) and my talk on contentment, and interviewed almost everyone there. I think he even recorded the sitting practice. He said he was impressed by our “sense of calm and presence.”

Click here to read or hear the story by Meghna Chakrabarti titled “For Buddhists New And Old, Dalai Lama Brings Good Vibrations”

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.

We now have a flickr page to post photographs of community events!
the address is www.flickr.com/photos/shambhalaboston/
Check out the pictures from Shambhala Day.

On Sunday, February 8th, to no one’s surprise, during a werma practice in their home, co-Warrior of the Boston Shambhala Center Tom Ericsson proposed to Boston Shambhala Center’s Director, Jill Blagsvedt. They are planning a small wedding for this summer. Congratulations, Tom and Jill!!

Ki Ki So So!

Snapshots of a few members in our Boston community, and what they are up to. Photos are by Calvin Hennig.

Janet Romaine

(October, 2008) I’ve been spending some time making phone calls for the Obama campaign. NH is (or was) a battleground state, where McCain has been favorably viewed in the past, but Obama now seems to have a 10-point lead in the polls here. This is literally the first time in about 40 years that I have gotten involved in politics (aside from voting, of course).

Other than that, my main extracurricular thing is still Shambhala (not so much in Boston at the moment, but in Nashua).

Mustard fields, New York State, photo by Calvin Hennig

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