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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