While the Shambhala Sun is always in the East, the West Coast Shambhalian certainly knows how to enjoy a good setting sun once in a while. Especially those of us who live on the West Side of Los Angeles, a good 25 miles (that’s L.A. miles, folks!) from our main center over in Eagle Rock.

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Although the hard core amongst us will brave three or four highways through Hollywood and other exotic locale to visit our East Side brethren for a good talk or a Werma Feast or our routine check-ins with acharya and mentor Allyn Lyon, most people visiting the West Side Shambhala group for the first time have trouble believing that we actually drive all the way to Eagle Rock for programs. In fact, most West Siders (myself included!) are reluctant to go east of the 405 very often.

Because of the increased amount of foot traffic at the West Side Shambhala events - Sunday evening sittings (4-6pm), Thursday evening talks about Shambhala Arts, “The Way of Shambhala” courses, Shambhala Levels, free meditation instruction, and so forth - the L.A. sangha is rallying to find a larger, permanent home for the West Siders.

Most significantly, this year’s Shambhala Ball (February 20 at the Eagle Rock Center) will dedicate its proceeds to the West Side Shambhala group and its building search. West Siders have been assigned with the task of planning this year’s party. They have been practicing for this task for months, organizing occasional forays into local dance clubs to sample of the DJs.

Being a West Side Shambhalian is not just party-planning and sunsets over the beach, however. A few dedicated sitters make up the “West Side Steering Committee.” This group meets regularly, discusses administrative and financial matters, and cultivates leadership amongst its ranks. I hasten to add that these meetings often mitigate any fatigue they might engender by featuring delicious cookies and chocolates! This is the sort of committee I can commit to!

And no discussion about the West Side Shambhala group is complete without mentioning the fearless duo that has lead it fearlessly for four years:

Stanley Weiser and Tom Gottlieb, both deeply devoted students of the Sakyong and his father, attend nearly every sitting session, maintain the financial stability of the burgeoning organization, and even make sure all the doors are locked when we leave the Santa Monica Zen Center on Sunday evenings.

So, West Siders, don’t despair! While the trek to the East Side might be long and hard on your gas mileage, and though that trek is usually worth it, you can look forward to a future in which some of those East Siders might venture West. And they’ll probably want to see the setting sun while they’re at it.

Have you noticed a lot of empty gomdens next to you during Sunday morning meditation practice? Have you been having to fill in all the MI shifts and umdze spots on the Westside ROTA schedule? Have you been wondering why?

Well in the past month, there’s been a mass migration of Shambhala students to Shambhala Mountain Center in the mountains outside Red Feather Lakes, Colorado. For the very first time, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche is giving teachings about his father’s terma, The Scorpion Seal, to senior students in the mandala. The prospect of receiving these teachings, after years of practice, has magnetized long-time Shambhala students from all over the world. Thirteen participants in the Scorpion Seal (last time I counted) hail from the City of Angels!

You may wonder what these people had to go through in order to qualify to receive these teachings. Some of the Scorpion Angelinos have been practicing with the Shambhala and Buddhist sangha since the days of the Vidyadhara, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. In fact, a few days ago, Pamela Bothwell was wearing a lovely dress during her shift as the Sakyong’s secretary. When I commented on the dress, she explained that she had also worn it while serving the Sakyong’s father as well.
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Click here to check out pictures from this year’s Shambhala Arts Festival.

There are also some videos on YouTube.

For more information on Shambhala Art go to http://www.shambhalaart.org

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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Shambhala Day was a day of practice, dharma, volunteering, and giving. Through membership underwriting, we were able to raise $5,150 for our building/moving fund.

Cheers to the following members who generously agreed to underwrite one or more weeks or months of glorious flowers for our Center (arranged by our treasured Kado practitioners):
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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).