by Alex Milsom

When I woke up Monday morning this week, on a bunkbed in an uninsulated cabin in the Buddha North fields of Dorje Denma Ling, I had one question on my mind: is this really worth it? Yes, I had slogged through my Rigden Ngöndro, yes, I was excited to see the Sakyong and find out what this mysterious Rigden Abhisheka was all about, but it was definitely too cold to get out of the sleeping bag to go to morning drill with the kasung and it was certainly too cold to practice! I’m no Milarepa, after all! I asked myself, “What am I doing here? What is anyone doing here when they could be living in California?”

Fortunately, I ran into some fellow Angelinos – Pearl Werbin and our fearless center co-director Melanie Klein. They seemed to be better-prepared with elegant some shawls and jackets. Despite the threat of zero-degree weather (that’s Celsius; and whatever that is in Farenheit, it sounds cold to me!), we managed to remain cheerful throughout.

Tatamagouche, a little outpost village a couple hours from Halifax, is the closest urban area to Dorje Denma Ling, the Shambhala land-center located in Nova Scotia. For those of you who resemble me in your total ignorance of Canadian geography, Nova Scotia is a peninsula – quite nearly an island – connected to the Province of New Brunswick. It is nearly at the same latitude as Maine and is also nearly the size of that state. In other words, it is quite remote. People there say “eh” sometimes, they don’t switch lanes gratuitously like we do in L.A., and are even friendly at ten at night in the drive-through line at the fast-food restaurant when you can’t figure out their coins and you are used to nice weather.

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Did I mention that it’s cold there?

Despite my early-program jitters and my fear that I would freeze to death in my cabin, upon seeing fellow Angelinos and seeing all the people with whom I had endured dathüns, oryoki meals, endless toasts, long hours in shrine rooms all over the world, and Vajrayana transmission, I knew I was where I belonged. Next time, though, I will bring a warmer jacket.

Marcia Sibata practicing Kadö at the L.A. Shambhala Center. Photo by Anne Saitzyk.

Marcia Shibata brought the elegant vision of Kadö, the “Way of Flowers,” to the Los Angeles Shambhala center in two workshops in August. Shibata has studied Ikebana extensively in Japan and had received instruction from the Vidyadhara, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, on the contemplative aspect of flower arranging. It is a practice rich with an appreciation for the natural world. As Shibata explained to her students, even the word “Ikebana” reflects the Japanese school’s empathy with the life and death of flowers: it is derived from the words “Ikeru” - to keep alive - and “Hana” - flowers.

The “Way of Flowers” is a tradition that goes back thousands of years in Japan and China, but in recent times has evolved into more of a decorative art. Shibata’s vision is to return Kadö to a meditative practice of subject and object. Flower arrangements become a reflection of the mind of their creator. During practice, the room in which Ikebana is done becomes the kado-jo, or practice hall in which the Way of Flowers can be explored. The journey of creating the flower arrangement is as important as the final result. The ultimate outcome is an Ikebana that mirrors a harmonious and balanced world.

Ms. Shibata lives in Vermont but will return to Los Angeles in January of 2010 to conduct another series of workshops on the way of flowers.

And go to the L.A. Shambhala Center’s Flickr Page to look at the full array of photos by L.A.’s own Anne Saitzyk from the weekend!

*Blume

by Guy Blume

His Eminence Namkha Drimed Rinpoche, father of the Sakyong Wangmo Khandro Tseyang and head of the Rigon Thupten Mindrolling monastery in India and the Rigon Tashi Choling monastery in Tibet, made his fourth visit in four years to the Los Angeles Shambhala Center in July. His weekend of teachings started with a Purification and Healing Ceremony and followed with a Chenrezig Empowerment and teachings. Chenrezig–or “Avalokiteshvara” in Sanskrit–is the Bodhisattva of Compassion.

His Eminence recounted the tale of how Chenrezig worked tirelessly to free all beings from suffering. He emptied samsara three times, liberating beings from suffering each time. But Chenrezig looked into the hell realm and saw the limitless number of beings that were still there. He became despondent with grief and fell to the ground, were his head shattered into thousands of pieces. Amitabha Buddha put the body back together, but when he did so, he gave Chenrezig eleven faces and a thousand arms so he could work with myriad beings at the same time.

A contemporary of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, His Eminence escaped from Tibet at roughly the same time. However unlike the Vidyadhara, who adopted English and western fashion, Namkha Drimed remains rooted in the traditions of Tibetan language, dress and culture. His teachings are a direct link to a rapidly disappearing body of knowledge. In person, he is warm and friendly and has the kindest eyes that you will ever encounter. He speaks little English, but seems to understand everything. It is a blessing just to be in his presence.

Nearly a 130 people squeezed into the Eagle Rock shrine room for the healing ceremony and around 60 people attended the weekend teachings and empowerment. It was a very rich and heady weekend for all that attended.

Photo by Alexandra Milsom, Dechen Chöling 2008

by Laura Landau

On Friday night, the Los Angeles Shambhala Center was honored with a public talk given by the Venerable Changling Rinpoche. Changling Rinpoche, enthroned by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and a student of the late Penor Rinpoche, has been invited by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche to teach at Shambhala Centers throughout the Mandala.

Changling Rinpoche gave us teachings about the only real wealth we possess: nothing belongs to us except our own self-confidence. When we develop self-confidence, we can work with anything. We develop this confidence and we work with regret in the same way: by working with our minds. It isn’t enough to know that we’ve got a problem; we need to discover the method to work with that problem.
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Written by Alexandra Milsom

If you need any incentive to jump through your Shambhala hoops and get to Vajrayana Seminary, perhaps I should tell you about the waffles. That’s right, at our recent Vajrayana Weekthün, Marilyn Moore and “Machen” (Shambhala jargon for sometime-personal chef to the Sakyong) Guy Blume got up early and made waffles and bacon. It was Friday morning of our long week of prostrating and counting repetitions of mantras, and the waffles certainly helped motivate us. They also offered us a legitimate excuse to start late that morning.

The prospect of a city-based, weeklong retreat may seem strange to those of us who think the word “retreat” means isolated asceticism in Guru Rinpoche’s cave and a diet of tsampa and nettle-leaves. Over the past few years, I have personally come to equate intensive-practice with altitude-sickness and coyote-hunts that interrupt my nighttime tent-slumber. The success of the L.A. sangha’s vajrayana weekthün, then, held during the third week of April this year, should come as a relief: the urban setting can actually be conducive to practice, humorous post-meditation interludes, and enjoyable sangha-antics.
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Hi everyone,

We had an amazing day yesterday! We had at least 30 people in the shrine room the whole two hours, roughly half of whom were complete newbies!!! Greg, I believe Claude ended up giving group meditation instruction to everyone at the beginning since there were so many new folks. We actually ran out of cushions and chairs!! (Joel and Melanie, any chance of us holding off selling the remaining red cushions at Eagle Rock so that the Westside can borrow a few of them along with any zafus or support cushions? If we end up back with the Zen Center in June then they should have more cushions we can borrow… Just a thought).

Thanks to everyone for their support and hard work in setting this up (with a special shout-out to Jason for all the publicity, Anne who schlepped all the cushions from ER and set up the beautiful shrine room (see photos), and did umdze duties, Claude for his talk and instruction, Stanley and Tom for their leadership and all the hard work getting us the space) and everyone who supported in ways large and small!
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A total of 15 members (many of whom gathered to celebrate at Weilland Brewery in downtown LA last month) teamed up in organizing, making solicitation calls and accounting for the Shambhala Meditation Center Los Angeles annual appeal. From member monthly dues revenue of $5,875, SCLA climbed in the end-of-year 3-month drive to $8,502 — a 45% increase (especially impressive on the generosity front as the membership roll - with new dues included - increased only slightly: from 125 to 138).

Dear Sangha Members,

I’d like to introduce myself as your new Volunteer Coordinator, responsible for connecting those of you who would like to participate in the various areas of our mandala - whether for the first time or in a new area of service - with our needs. The opportunities include both ongoing positions and “as needed volunteers.” You will probably be hearing from me by email and phone telling you about various opportunities for service. I am happy to go over all the areas of the mandala to see what might be the right fit for you. Feel free to let me know which areas interest and excite you and where you feel you might be best utilized in the unfolding of our enlightened society.

We have positions across the Mandala that we would like staff as soon as we can to give support to the directors of these programs.

VISITING TEACHER COORDINATOR - coordinates 3 to 4 events per year between the teacher’s secretary and the Center (event coordinator, housing, Kasung, publicity, and Head of Practice); approx. 5-10 hours/week in the month prior to each visit. A great opportunity to meet the teachers!

THURSDAY NIGHT PUBLIC PROGRAM COORDINATOR - staffs teacher, leader and host positions from an established base of volunteers for each of the 4 evening programs per month. Assists as needed with access to DVDs or other materials and, if possible, developing topics for the Intro to Dharma talks. Approx. 4 hours/month.

FINANCE DEPUTY - provides support to the Finance director Patsy in managing the Center’s accounts, e.g. paying invoices, tracking charges, managing Quickbooks, developing budgets, and leading other members of the mini-mandala (team). Opportunity to become next Finance Director, a Council-level position. Approx 3 hours/week.

PROGRAMS REPORTING AND CORRESPONDENCE - receives community enquiries for Finance information and responds or forwards to other mini-mandala mates as required; compiles and reports income and expenditure statements for individual programs. Approx 2 hours/week.

MEMBERSHIP LIAISON - is a member of the Finance mini-mandala who provides financial service support to the Membership Coordinator by arranging for direct deposit of dues, sending out monthly reminders to those not on direct deposit, sending out year-end total contributions for tax purposes, and tracking member dues payments. Approx. 2 hours/week.

DONOR UNDERWRITING COORDINATOR - identifies and creates opportunities for underwriting in collaboration with the leaders of the other mini-mandalas (departments) and key volunteers; solicits and acknowledge donors, tracks payments, and provides reporting of underwriting activity to Finance and Development Director. Approx. 5 hours/month

DONOR RELATIONS MANAGER - identifies and secures approval for donor incentives; conceives, coordinates and supports development activities; Approx. 3 hours/month

If you think you can help please email la@shambhala.org and use Shambhala Volunteer in the subject heading.

Yours in the Great Eastern Sun,

Valerie Landsburg

The following post is from Todj Mandel:

January 30, 2009

Dear Members,

The dream of owning our own building is turning out to be less dream-like every day. Final results for the fall Annual Appeal exceeded the high range of our expectations, just going to demonstrate again that expectations are problematic…

Harvest of Peace fundraising and appeal calls to members ending earlier this month provided $75,647 in new revenue for fiscal year 2009 through this coming August. This sum is well over twice the budget projection set 5 months ago.

It was a team effort: fourteen members including current and former center directors and co-directors took on multiple calls to our expanding membership. Additional members donated auction items, pledged matching funds, coordinated fundraising at Harvest of Peace, and supported the cause in other critical ways. Last, and of course not least, a large majority of us generously participated by increasing monthly dues and/or making one-time donations, and by sharing questionnaire feedback as to how our sangha can better serve us all personally and collectively.

So…thank you and congratulations. Yes, those of us who made one-time donations, matching funds, and/or increased dues commitments need to be sure that we follow up with our pledges. And yes, we still have a great deal to accomplish in raising funds over the next 21 months to permit us to purchase our next home. But it’s important to celebrate, don’t you think?

Appreciatively,

Todj Mandel
Director, Development

The following post is from David Armitage:

Dear Sangha,

We are squarely on track to our goals in order to purchase a building in 2010. That may seem very far off now, but it will be the steps we consistently make over the next 18 months that determine both our probability of achieving our goal as well as the breadth of choices we will have with respect to characteristics of our new center.

In 2008, we succeeded in raising our monthly member dues revenues in our annual appeal considerably (details to come in a subsequent post shortly) and were grateful to accept year end charitable contributions to the tune of roughly $35,000, of which approximately $25,000 is earmarked for the building campaign. This is all great news and we should celebrate our progress as well as the universal support (in ways both financial and otherwise) that we, as a community, have shown for this project.

2009 will be an interesting year for our economy. As one who works in capital markets and finance, I would be disingenuous to portray that we are almost out of the woods. Most of the smart economists and market participants I speak with believe 2009 promises to be a very hard year for the US economy in general. With this in mind, we will have to be sure to remain disciplined in the face of uncertainty and adversity if we want to achieve our goal in 2010.

For me, it is helpful to remember our mission to create enlightened society, and go beyond fear and tap into the more powerful motivator - love. If we open our hearts, and appreciate our practice and the world around us, then taking the necessary steps to create a place and space where others can experience basic goodness and spend time in practice and study is a natural extension of our personal practice. The Sakyong spoke of this eloquently in his letter on generosity (linked above right).

So, as with so many things, it will take an unyielding confidence in our ability to reach our goal, coupled with small and disciplined steps that will move us slowly towards it. I have to think of the Tibetan nationals fleeing Chinese occupation, who took turns making the path for their caravans through the Himalayas by laying down in the freezing snow. In this way, each step we can make personally to enable our community to move along the path to our goal is a bridge for those who will come behind us.

So, thank you all for the steady progress and strong support shown in 2008. Let’s continue in 2009, and take care not to lose heart. We are on the path to success, and just need to stay the course.

May the good windhorse be with you throughout.

David