Rainy Days, Buoyant Hearts: “Overall Okayness”

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By Travis Newbill

It was Monday around noon when the rains began, and for the next several days there was barely a gap between chilly downpours long enough to close and reopen an umbrella. By the fourth day, it was no longer just rainy weather, or even an unusual streak. By the fourth day, and throughout the rest of the week, it was an adventure.

The deer were out of sight, as were the sun, moon, and stars. Beneath the heavy blanket of grey clouds, the people of SMC remained relatively cheerful in spite of the rather oppressive weight of the wetness.

While sludging through muddy terrain or huddled together in the shelter of the dining tent, folks exchanged comforting smiles and expressions of shared bewilderment. Meanwhile, as the rain was unrelenting, so has been the human exertion on the saturated ground–SMC staffers and volunteers have been working tirelessly to ensure the well-being of the community and the preservation of our land and facilities.

DSC_8893When asked about their experience of the rainy days and to describe the general atmosphere, peoples’ sentiments have ranged from “very down” to “fun,” with most falling into the median category of “overall okayness.”

“We are safe, and for the most part happy and somewhat dry. We have been taking care of each other on the land and making sure that everyone can find a dry place to sleep,” said one staffer.

Another appreciated the teaching quality inherent in the situation:

“I’m sure it was very different for different people. I myself had a lovely time, but I am very odd. I think it’s good to cope with a little adversity from time to time–you know, get your feet wet. I actually had a wonderful, dharmic experience.”

For yet another, the fragrance of the flooded bottom level of Rigden Lodge came to mind:

“A distinctive broccoli-esque aroma pervades the area, but we’ll have it cleared out soon.”

Despite the damage that SMC has sustained–both to our facilities and our finances, as we had to cancel last weekend’s programs–many people are primarily concerned for those in other nearby areas of Colorado, where the impact of the rain and resulting flooding has been calamitous to a tragic extent.

As one staffer put it:

“I actually feel somewhat disconnected from the real damage, which I’m hearing about from people in places like Boulder. My boots are wet, but we’ve been pretty much fine.”

Rainbow2As work to mend damaged roads, buildings, and belongings continues at SMC, our hearts remain with our friends nearby as they cope with severely challenging circumstances. And we remain grateful that we have made it through as intact as we have. Additionally, we are so very touched to have received the messages of concern from many of you regarding our well-being here.

If next summer brings a period of rain more lasting than this one has been, you are all invited to join us in the Stupa, two by two, to ride it out until rainbows grace the sky.

 

The Virtue of Variety: A Practitioner’s Toolbox

By Troy Rapp

troy rapp prajna yogaEarly in my meditation life, I found myself drawn to explore different styles of practice. I was in the midst of my first fall training period at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center after having spent two years practicing meditation in the Soto Zen tradition, when I found myself drawn to study Korean Zen that winter. A group of monks from this tradition had come to visit and brought with them an English translation of their teachings. I discussed this with the teacher under whom I had begun to practice Zen, and was strongly advised against it. The basis of this instruction was a belief that it was not possible to deepen a spiritual life without unwavering devotion to one style of practice. This type of admonition is not uncommon in the world of spiritual practice. I’ve encountered it from many teachers in a variety of traditions over the years. “If you’re digging a well, you won’t hit water by starting a new hole” goes the metaphor commonly used to support this perspective. I recognize its merit. There is a danger that students can dabble in many different methods, and use it as a distraction from making a sustained commitment to deepening their practice. In addition, the contradictions between different teaching styles can be confusing, and this can weaken the resolve of the practitioner. It is also important to recognize that different students have different affinities. Some students have a strong affinity for a particular tradition and will be well served by one-pointed devotion to that tradition. However, I would like to offer another perspective on the merit of exploring different traditions and integrating a variety of practice methods.

While devotion to a particular style of practice can prove valuable, it is also possible to integrate a variety of methods so that various practices support and enrich one another. In Buddhism, this is known as upaya, which is commonly translated as “skillful means.” In this approach, different methods of practice are cultivated in response to various difficulties. For example, if a particularly strong experience of fear, anger or hatred is arising, and the intensity is such that equanimity cannot be established, it can be helpful to cultivate loving-kindness (metta) as an antidote. This method of practice can be used to take the edge off the experience. When the intensity has dissipated enough that equanimity can be established, then it becomes possible to engage in other methods, exploring the nature of the aversion more directly. Similarly, if one is overcome by drowsiness or lethargy in meditation practice, it can be helpful to engage in practices which build energy such as opening the eyes wide, taking a standing posture rather than a seated posture, or engaging in more vigorous physical activity.

In my own practice, the primary meditation object I have used consistently has been the breath. It’s what I started with. It works for me, so I’ve continued with it. However, in addition to this method, over the years I’ve explored many other methods, and have integrated some of them into my own practice in supporting roles. These include the practice of metta meditation, counting the breath, mental noting of where the attention is drawn, reciting the name of a Buddha or Bodhisattva, contemplating death, yoga asana, pranayama, exploring the mental and emotional landscape through dialogue, and the study of sacred texts from a variety of contemplative traditions.

diggingEach of these has proven valuable and supported the deepening of my practice in some way. I’ve come to recognize the possibility of a perspective which sees the integration of various practice methods as akin to having a toolbox stocked with a variety of tools for working with different types of challenges.

I’m also proposing a different perspective on the metaphor of digging a well. Rather than viewing the adoption of another style of practice as digging a new hole, I’m proposing that a variety of techniques can work together to support the deepening of the well. Just as one might use a shovel, a pickaxe, a rock hammer, or a pry-bar to good effect when encountering different layers of material in the course of digging a well, so might one employ different practices to deepen their awakening.

Troy Rapp will be teaching “Prajna Yoga: Full Spectrum Practice” with Theresa Murphy at Shambhala Mountain Center on October 25–27, 2013. Click here to learn more.

Wise Living Heals You

by Charley Cropley, N.D.

Charley Cropley, ND, is a Naturopathic physician who after 35 years of practice, uses no medicines. He teaches his clients that they are endowed with self-healing capacities exactly equal to their condition. He will be leading a Self Healing Retreat at Shambhala Mountain Center this October 4–6, 2013. 

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Over my career, I have gradually abandoned all types of therapy such as herbal medicine, homeopathy, acupuncture, etc. Today my entire healing work is teaching my clients how to heal their health problems by performing their ordinary, daily activities with kindness and intelligence.

By “ordinary activities,” I mean the four activities that all human beings can and must perform for themselves alone: eating, moving, thinking and relating. These four life-sustaining actions are the most powerful, reliable and rapid of any forms of healing. We find extraordinary healing hidden in our most ordinary actions; miraculous benefit unrecognized in the mundane activities of our lives. The health that results from the skillful performance of the ordinary activities of living is truly extraordinary and miraculous. You can prove this for yourself in your own body.

To illustrate, imagine that you could purchase the following as medicines: First, picture a medicine that gave you the power to eat impeccably, exactly in accord with the wisdom of your mind and body. The results of this medicine would be a beautiful, youthful body free from every illness. Next, imagine a medicine that gave you the motivation and skill to perform a daily 90-minute balanced workout resulting in strength, flexibility and endurance? Finally, would you like a medicine that enabled you to direct your internal dialogue as an unbroken stream of positive, life affirming, self esteeming thoughts; one that freed you from collapsing into negative emotions and governed your mental/emotional body with unshakeable faith, hope and love? The medicine of loving kindness and compassion would heal your relationships of arguments, misunderstandings, conflicts and violence.

In the real world there has never been and never will be such medications. Why? The medicine already exists.

There is NO option to not perform these actions. We are already and always engaged in them. Our only choice is whether our actions will be expressions of our wisdom and love or expressions of our ignorance and indifference. The stakes could not be higher–our health, beauty, vitality, youth, happiness, marriage, career–all these depend entirely on our ability to govern our most basic actions.

Our bodies, minds and relationships faithfully reflect back to us the caring and thoughtfulness behind our actions. Our every act obeys the one universal law: “As you give so shall you receive.” If you want quality from your body, mind, or spouse–give it. There is no other way.

Through right action we cease to harm ourselves and others and therefore our mind becomes less anxious about the inescapable consequences that wrong actions incur. We are then able to relax and concentrate our attention in prayer and meditation enabling us to further discover and express in our mundane activities the divinity that we are. This is my medicine.

Join Charley Cropley, ND for the Self Healing Retreat at Shambhala Mountain Center this October 4–6. In this retreat you will learn to wisely use your power to eat, move, think and relate. For two days you will practice deliberately imbuing these most ordinary daily activities with intelligence and caring. Click here for more information.

Wholeness and Mindfulness

By Janet Solyntjes

Janet Solyntjes will be leading Introduction to Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, March 6-8, 2015

JanetSolyntjesNearly everywhere one turns these days the language of “mindfulness” is to be found. Its ubiquitous influence is flavoring American culture. Because my professional life is part of the mindfulness movement, I have sensitivity towards noticing the numerous references to mindfulness that are popping up in the media. What I personally find inspiring is not the “Zen” or “mindful” references dotting our media world. What is heartening is the clear shift that happens in an individual and culture each time a person opens to unconditional goodness, wholeness, and worthiness. Can you feel something shifting? Are you curious about the transformative power of the increased number of people practicing mindfulness in America?

Jon Kabat-Zinn, the progenitor of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, speaks of the healing power of the view and practice of entering wholeness:

When we glimpse our own completeness in the stillness of any moment, when we directly experience ourself as whole in that moment and also a part of a larger whole, a new and profound coming to terms with our problems and suffering begins to take place. We begin to see both ourselves and our problems differently, namely from a perspective of wholeness.

In this time of the spreading of mindfulness, where people in all areas and walks of life, crossing economic and cultural boundaries, are gravitating towards the beauty, power, and genuineness of living life one moment at a time, the need to cultivate a view of wholeness and completeness is paramount to individual and societal transformation. This leads me to my main point: Cultivating an unshakeable view of wholeness, worthiness, and goodness in our own heart requires periods of deep reflection and meditation to uproot wrong views and nourish faith in innate wholeness. It doesn’t happen automatically in our busy lives. It requires intention.

DSCN0186A penetrating question that poet Antonio Machado asks his readers in The Wind, One Brilliant Day has been haunting me for years: “What have you done with the garden that was entrusted to you?” When these words and associated images arise in my mind, I feel a deep longing for retreat practice. Utilizing the gardening metaphor, Maria Rodale offers comparisons between gardens and a human life:

You have to have a vision and Big Dreams.
You have to have patience.
You have to learn how to deal with things that are totally out of your control.
It’s hard to do it alone.
It’s good to be thankful.
Sometimes you have to let things go.
It’s all about love.

This November, Jim Colosi and I will be co-leading a 7-day Mindfulness Meditation Retreat at SMC. Our inspiration is to help teachers and aspiring teachers of MBSR and other mindfulness programs to refine the tools of “gardening” and to support the view of wholeness. Tending to one’s interior garden is the essential work of a group meditation retreat.

Support for the retreat from Saki Santorelli:

“The Mindfulness Meditation Retreat is designed to mirror and express the essential and universal approach of MBSR by fostering a rigorous retreat experience that is independent of any religious viewpoint. And because the themes, practice instructions, and outlook of the retreat are all rooted in the MBSR experience, there will be a natural continuity with our Oasis Institute MBSR teacher training curriculum and criteria. For this reason, and because of the longtime MBSR teaching experience of Jim and Janet, we at the Center for Mindfulness are happy to co-sponsor and endorse this retreat.”

We hope you join us!

Janet Solyntjes

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Click here for our full interview with Janet

Also, please see this post from Janet on our blog:

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JanetSolyntjesJanet Solyntjes, MA, is a senior teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist tradition and Adjunct Professor at Naropa University. A practitioner of mind-body disciplines since 1977, she completed a professional training in MBSR with Jon Kabat-Zinn and Saki Santorelli and an MBSR Teacher Development Intensive at the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Janet leads mindfulness retreats in the U.S. and internationally and is co-founder of the Boulder-based Center for Courageous Living.

A Rare Pairing, Awareness Through Moving & Stillness

by Katharine Kaufman and Kim Hansen

Katharine Kaufman  and Kim Hansen will be teaching: Awareness Through Moving and Stillness: Feldenkrais and Meditation September 6–8, 2013 at Shambhala Mountain Center.

miss kaufman adjustsParticipating in an Awareness Through Movement lesson is like wearing clothes that fit well. Imagine you have an exceptional suit, and it doesn’t fit.  It’s a little too big around the shoulders; so you go to the tailor to take that in. It is a bit too long in the legs, too snug in the waist…By the time the tailor is finished with your suit, it is no longer baggy in some places and tight in others. It fits freely so you can move unencumbered, and naturally.  You could wear the special suit with ease all day and through the night.

In this retreat rather than one size fits all, participants are guided continually to create choices based on their internal experiences such as comfort, intuition, sensation, feelings, vitality, and thoughts.  Movements can be soft, subtle, influenced by the breath– or large, moving through space. The mind/body connection is investigated as well so we begin to trust the situation, and can begin to move and find stillness in integrated, holistic, and organic ways.

Awareness Through Movement practice is offered in thematic lessons, through verbal cues, like little movement puzzles. The practice helps sort out habits and internalized patterns from the inside out. The most simple movements become fascinating.

Then we take a break and have some tea, or stroll about, or talk with each other, and allow the lesson to integrate.

We can let things be as they are, without adding additional stories or judgments to confuse direct somatic experiences. One may find more possibilities, fewer subconscious chains dragging down behavior and creativity. One may actually feel new connections coming alive. During this retreat in the early days of September there will be plenty of opportunity to wander, roam and pause through the magnificent land at Shambhala Mountain Center, with our new found freedom of awareness, movement and stillness.

When this type of exploration is combined with the art of sitting, standing, lying and walking meditation, the meditator becomes uniquely and deeply aware of the whole experience as an integrated one. When we look and feel our breath and allow small micro-movements then the stillness of meditation is not so still after all. When the emphasis strays from holding a posture and instead transforms to experiencing a posture then meditation becomes quite alive, and fresh. We have the possibility of recognizing our choices even during seemingly still meditation postures. One is able to rest with awareness in the process of meditation.

Combining Awareness Through Movement lessons with meditation practices we can discover ourselves as new as a brilliantly fitting suit, in the way we turn toward our unavowed dreams, human dignity, and relationships.

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Katharine Kaufman and Kim Hansen will be teaching: Awareness Through Moving and Stillness: Feldenkrais and Meditation September 6–8, 2013 at Shambhala Mountain Center.

Traveling Light

by Andrew Holecek

empty shoesOne of the biggest problems in death, as in life, is looking back, or being held back by unhealthy attachments. By cutting our attachments and lightening our load now (by writing wills and other advance directives), we can free ourselves to move forward.

Dealing with all the emotional, medical, legal, and endless practical details that surround death is overwhelming at the time of death, so it behooves us to prepare in advance. The single best thing you can do to have a good death is to relax, and the best way to relax is to have all your affairs in order. These practical preparations have spiritual implications. When we die, we want to travel light into the after-life, what the Tibetans call “bardo” or “gap, transitional process.”  Traveling light allows our consciousness to move forward to our next destination.

This is actually a form of “phowa,” which means “transference, or ejection,” and refers to the movement of consciousness after death.  There are esoteric and exoteric forms of phowa, and getting all our affairs in order now is a form of exoteric phowa. It’s a spiritual practice.

Advance directives help everyone. They help your caretakers follow your wishes; they help your loved ones by removing all the hassles of sorting out your wishes and implementing them; and they help you by lightening the load on your mind and allowing you to move forward.

What are you waiting for? Since death comes without warning, this means you want to prepare now.

Andrew Holecek

Andrew Holecek will offer a class on preparing to die (advance directives, signs of impending death, hospice, grief, funeral issues, and medical and legal challenges) in Boulder, Colorado on the 1st and 2nd of November. He regularly offers seminars internationally on meditation, dream yoga, and death.  He is the author of The Power and the Pain: Transforming Spiritual Hardship into Joy, Preparing to Die: Practical Advice and Spiritual Wisdom from the Tibetan Buddhist Perspective, and the audio learning course, “Dream Yoga: The Tibetan Path of Awakening Through Lucid Dreaming”.  His work has appeared in the Shambhala Sun, Buddhadharma, Light of Consciousness, Utne Reader, and other periodicals.

Photography and Unconditional Expression

 

With Opening the Good Eye: An Introduction to Miksang coming up October 10-14, we’d like to offer here a little glimpse into the way of seeing that will be the focus of this upcoming program.

Miksang Michael in Puddle
“In order to notice our world and see it clearly, we have to simplify our minds. We make a choice to be fully engaged with one thing at a time. This allows us to be fully present in each moment.”
 -Julie DuBose

Miksang contemplative photography was developed as a method for seeing the world in fresh ways. Instead of emphasizing the technical aspects of the art form, it turns photography into a practice for waking up by bringing together mind and eye to see the world directly.  Julie DuBose is the founder of the Miksang Institute for Contemplative Photography and Miksang Publications and has studied and then taught with founder Michael Wood since 1998, who works with her at the Miksang Institute, developing and teaching the Miksang curriculum. She will be teaching Opening the Good Eye: An Introduction to Miksang  at Shambhala Mountain Center October 10–14. This unique retreat will offer valuable tools for recognizing direct visual perception through visual exercises, assignments, discussion and sharing of images.

Miksang Diner Seat
“We have an innate ability to connect unconditionally with our world. This means that we can be wide open and receptive, free of ideas and preferences. We can work directly with our world with our wisdom guiding us.” –Julie DuBose

Miksang Woman with Orange Umbrella
“If we begin with an open, receptive, curious, attentive mind, free of judgment and the desire to interpret, the impulse to express will flow through us, vibrating with possibility. From this openness, unconditional expression is born.” Julie DuBose

 

Click here to read the Shambhala Times interview excerpt with Julie DuBose and Dan Hessey about Julie’s new book, Effortless Beauty: Photography as an Expression of Eye, Mind, and Heart.

Visit the Stupa for a day or…

 

stupa top and side

The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya Which Liberates Upon Seeing. A monument to kindness. Built to last a thousand years. One of the key examples of Eastern architecture in North America.

The Stupa Work Week volunteer program is coming soon, and it is really the best chance you have to take that feeling of accomplishment you get from a weekend working on your yard and multiply it by a thousand. After all, this is not just a landscaping project, the Great Stupa is a site of pilgrimage, equally for the devout and the curious. As an example of enlightened architecture, it is both specific to Tibetan tradition and archetypal as a sacred space.

It has accommodated many motives and inspirations from volunteers, who provided most of the labor to build it. You can visit the Great Stupa in a day, but you can also work with it for a week.

stupa work week

Expect some hearty activities like concrete crack repair, path expansion, and fire mitigation. But where there are tools, there are tools in need of organization and storage. And where there is a 108 foot tall, white concrete stupa in the middle of a rustic mountain range, there is a stupa in need of a fresh coat of paint.

You will be working with Joshua Mulder, who must be in rare company when he fills out his census with “Occupation: Stupa Caretaker”. His mission—should you choose to assist it—will benefit an inestimable number of visitors. Volunteers are essential.

Along with the lifting, painting, and general caring for this amazing site, you can expect dharma talks and discussions…and sitting meditation. Because you don’t spend a week at the Great Stupa without logging some time on the cushion.

Enjoying the peaceful space of the mountains, however, is completely optional.

Autumnal Tori Gate

Please contact Lindy and Bob King at lotusking@indra.com to apply for the program. Once your application has been reviewed and approved, you will be given a link to register for the program. Good strong backs are very helpful, but not required!

everyday I'm shoveling

Summer Pasta Salad

Recipe by Terri Huggett, Shambhala Mountain chef extraordinaire.Terry the chef

Light fare doesn’t have to be light on taste. This lovely little recipe is perfect for those August scorchers when lunch is less about re-fueling and more about refreshing. This recipe will serve a whole family, or store well for days when you really can’t stand the idea of a hot stove.

2 Tbsp. salt

1 lb penne paste (gluten-free if desired)

1/2 cup olive oil, or to taste

12 roma tomatoes, stem removed and cut into 1/2 inch dices

2 cups arugula

Zest of 2 lemons, or to taste

Salt and pepper, to taste

 

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add salt and penne pasta and cook until slightly underdone. Drain and run cold water over pasta to cool. Drain well. Place in a large bowl and stir with olive oil. Add tomatoes, arugula, lemon zest, lemon juice and stir to mix. Add salt and paper to taste. Serve chilled or at room temperature. Serves eight.

The Last Word at the Great Stupa

 

Trungpa RinpocheThe founder of Shambhala Publications, Sam Bercholz, described Trungpa Rinpoche as “not just another great Buddhist teacher. He was Padmasambhava, Guru Rinpoche, for the West.” And on September 13–14 at the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya the final reading of his The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma will occur.

In keeping with the tradition of oral transmission of important texts like The Profound Treasury, a reading tour has introduced sections of the text to the public at a variety of places like the Rubin Museum in New York City, the Harvard Divinity School, and the Halifax Shambhala Center.

judy lief reading

Between 1973 and 1986, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche conducted a series of annual study and practice intensives, called “Vajradhatu Seminaries.” The talks were organized around the three yanas, or major stages, of the Buddhist path: hinayana, mahayana, and vajrayana. It was a landmark moment in a practitioner’s life to be accepted to seminary and even moreso to be able to hear the vajrayana teachings in particular. In these programs he presented heart teachings to his most senior students and transcripts were restricted at Rinpoche’s insistance. However, beginning just a few years after the seminaries started, he began talking about compiling this material and editing it for a general audience. Now, forty years after the first Vajradhatu Seminary took place, Acharya Emeritus Judy Lief has completed the work of compiling and editing the seminary material into three volumes totaling more than 2,000 pages. With the publication of The Profound Treasury, for the first time, these teachings have become publicly available.

 

the Stupa's Buddha

Rinpoche himself talked about looking at traditional literary arrangements of such teachings, referring to shila, samadhi and prajna, for example, as organizing principles for some material. But reviews of The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma have been full of praise for Judy Lief’s editorial acumen. So please join Acharya Emeritus Judy Lief at the Stupa built in honor of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche for the resounding, or recitation, of the final chapters of The Profound Treasury of the Ocean of Dharma. This program is open to all and includes a Friday night talk, group meditation practice, listening and reciting, and discussion.