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.

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/

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

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