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.

View Larger Map

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.

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.
Read the rest of this entry »

The Shambhala Times is delighted to offer a dispatch from Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche on Equanimity in Uncertain Times.

“As the economy seems to worsen and as we go forward, we need to have more equanimity altogether; not a passive equanimity, but more the notion of really being able to mature and understand the insidious level of hope and fear that we experience these days, and how our practices can actually bring about a level of strengthening and stabilization.”
~ Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

“These days there is so much difficulty in this world, so much uncertainty in life. The only thing that we can rely on is the dharma, so I advise you all to please practice.”
~ Sakyong Wangmo, Khandro Tseyang

Read the entire article plus listen to the Sakyong’s message here:
http://shambhalatimes.org/2009/05/08/equanimity-in-uncertain-times/

WHAT ARE OXEN LIKE? WHAT WILL THE EARTH OX YEAR BE LIKE?

Oxen are calm, methodical, practical and down-to-earth. They are strong, self-reliant, conservative, dutiful disciplinarians. They can be sullen and harbor a grudge. Unromantic, Oxen are loyal to and possessive of a few close friends. They achieve prosperity through routine, determination, hard work, and manual dexterity. They are born leaders, stubborn, with strong prejudices, logical and introverted.

The Earth Ox is less creative and more purposeful, aiming for security and stability. Awareness of her or his limitations makes this the slowest but surest Ox.

The Year of the Earth Ox is a relatively dormant period, not a time to start anything new or to innovate. Projects put in operation last year can be completed successfully - and there can be a rich harvest from the last year’s sowing (bailout? stimulus package?). It’s a time of consolidation and stability. Matters proceed happiest along already established lines. Any project conceived this year should be completed this year…Those suffering from bone ailments should find relief. Since the Ox relates to the plowing of the earth, treasure may be discovered this year/there could be significant archaeological finds.

I CHING READING

__ __ # 32 The Long Enduring. Success; freedom from error!
__6__ Thunder Righteous persistence brings reward. It is favorable
_____ to have in view a goal or destination.
_____
_____ Wind Symbol Thunder accompanied by wind; standing so
__ __ firmly that one cannot be uprooted

Changing 5th line One can overdo endurance and loyalty

__ __ # 28 Excess! The ridgepole sags! (There can be too much
_____ firmness.) Nonetheless the gentle and joyful act as one, so
_____ Lake it’s favorable to have a goal or destination. Success!
_____
_____ Wind Symbol A forest submerged in a great body of water.
__ __ Though alone, we feel neither fear nor discontent.

Respectfully submitted in basic goodness by Gail Whitacre

Listen to the Shambhala Day Addresses from Richard Reoch, Khandro Tseyang, and Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.

http://www.shambhala.org/community/video.php

Acharya Eric Spiegel teaches widely on understanding the transitions of living and dying as a part of life and practice. In 1980, Eric stumbled into what became a 22-year career on Wall Street. At the request of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, to relieve the general lack of insight into wealth that pervades our culture, Acharya Spiegel teaches on relating with the power and energy of wealth from a sane, empowered point of view. He has written this letter in response to challenging times.

Dear Noble Sangha,

Over recent months the world has been in economic turmoil. There continues to be a sense of not knowing what will calm things or how to make them “right” again. It is likely that a fair number of people in the sangha have lost their jobs and almost everyone is uncertain about their future, both due to the employment picture, rising prices, and the decreasing values of our homes and savings.

Whenever things change, it is helpful to engage the teachings on death, which offer a core contemplation of change and impermanence in our tradition. Death means that the relative reference points that you are familiar with have changed. It could mean that “you”, your body and the entity you think of as “myself” is no longer alive. Or it could mean that your marriage, your job, or the economic system — which assigns generally agreed upon values on “things” — is no longer functioning as it once did.

Obviously, the most logical thing to do in the case of any of these “deaths” is to get very nervous, maybe even panic… or at the least, dread.

The dharma instruction is that when confronted with the dissolution of our relative reference points, the best thing to do is remain open – abide in the present rather than freaking out about the past being gone or the unknowable future. If our body dies and we cling to the life we identify with, the result of that clinging will be fear. If our financial system collapses and we cling to the forms we knew and the job we believed was secure, the result will once again be fear itself. The practice of shamatha is the main way that we train in the stability of the present moment, but having a view that looks out from that stability is also important.

If we as Shambhalians and dharma practitioners can remain in stable and open, unfearful mind, then whatever possibilities are yet to arise from the dissolving of decaying structures will be available to us. This doesn’t mean you’ll get a great job. It means you can rest and then, perhaps, see where the auspiciousness abides. From that resting you can generate an attitude of bodhicitta rather than fear and grasping. Through holding your awareness in this simple way you manifest as a Warrior and Leader.

Currently the pundits are fond of saying that there is no “confidence” in the system. The confidence they are talking about is the confidence that if you pay $100 for something today, someone else will think it’s worth at least that much a few weeks later. This is not the same confidence that we talk about in the Shambhala dharma.

Our confidence is Ziji – radiance that comes from being both grounded to earth and reality and also open to heaven and possibility. This is not tied to the relative reference of outer things but the inner reference point of our own wisdom: a mind which knows itself, compassion and prajna.

Regardless of political perspective, people everywhere have been awestruck by the apparent stability of President Obama – he doesn’t seem to be confused by circumstances. He remains grounded and in touch with his vision, despite the powerful energies of world events, including his own election, that swirl around him. This is a wonderful Warrior image – that we can stay grounded in the movement of societal change. And if we can do this, individually and as a community, we could be leaders of our communities because in times of crisis, people need guides who know themselves well and have a view not based on fear and self-protection.

One thing which seems hard to imagine but is also true is that, just as economic expansion was subject to impermanence, so too is economic collapse. How we each practice and manifest in the midst of difficulty will be the seed of how we are able to flourish when things begin to expand again.

With trust and devotion in the vision of Basic Goodness and Wisdom,

Acharya Drukdra Thaye
Eric Spiegel