The Art of Creative Transformation for Happiness

Posted on June 4, 2013 by admin

by Dr. Ronald Alexander

I believe that within all of us lies dormant the potential for tremendous transformation that can lead to greater happiness. In my many years as a mind-body psychotherapist, educator, trainer, and consultant I’ve watched thousands of clients let go of their false beliefs about who they are and what roads are open to them. They found new paths to fulfillment and happiness that were previously hidden by their fears.

The art of creative transformation begins with the willingness to be mindful of your hidden resistance to making a change, examining it, and breaking it down. You might find yourself closing your eyes to any other avenues available to you, obsessing about the past and trying to reclaim what was once yours. This resistance blocks you from recognizing that what lies ahead for you might actually make you happier than you’ve ever been.

The second step is tuning in and listening to the wisdom of your soul or unconscious, the state in which core creativity takes place. I particularly recommend a mindfulness or insight meditation practice, which allows you to see the true nature of your experiences. Other forms of meditation that help you access an open mind are prayer, contemplation, mindful movement such as martial arts, tai chi, and yoga, and just being in nature.

The final step is to create a practical plan to manifest your goals. Any plan or vision requires research if you want to make it a reality. Don’t rush. Learning about how people have overcome obstacles and achieved success can help you identify the elements in their winning formulas, but then you must apply their insights to your own life. A vision board may help keep you on track.

Quite often, my clients begin the process of envisioning a new life by insisting that they need more money. Instead of assuming that money is your golden ticket to a fulfilling life, think about how you can increase the number and range of opportunities available to you.

Rebuilding after any great loss can be extremely difficult, but I’ve seen people use meditation and the art of creative transformation to pull themselves out of a valley of despair and even create successes they never would’ve dreamed of before their initial loss. A forward-thinking view can lead to reinvention and healing.

Ronald Alexander, PhD is a leadership consultant, psychotherapist, international trainer, and the Executive Director of the OpenMind Training Institute. He will be leading a retreat at Shambhala Mountain Center July 5-7. He is the author of Wise Mind, Open Mind: Finding Purpose and Meaning in Times of Crisis, Loss and Change upon which this article is based.

More than Meditation: The Totality of Dathün

Posted on June 4, 2013 by admin

by Will Brown

“We can become extremely wise and sensitive to all of humanity and the whole universe simply by knowing ourselves, just as we are.” – Pema Chödrön, teaching on day two of a dathün

When someone mentions “meditation retreat”, you might get an image of “on the cushion at 4am until lights out at 9pm”. The Shambhala Buddhist practice of Dathün is not just thirty days on “the cushion” but a complete system, or spiritual technology, for developing familiarity and friendliness with one’s mind, body, emotions (and patterns) and one’s own inherent power of healing and wakefulness. At my first Dathün, I discovered that sitting meditation was just a fraction of the practice.

The system of Dathün includes quite a few hours per day of sitting meditation but also walking meditation, dharma talks, contemplation, and chants. And just as integral to Dathün are the mindful “Oryoki” meals, the hours (or days) of silence, one’s interactions with other people, and the furniture, buildings, and land which support the practitioner.

At Dathün, in the kitchen, the hallway, on the cushion, all of it is meditation and all of it asked me to just try opening where I might find the dignity of compassion. For, as I “held my seat” (or bowl, or tongue), I was providing peaceful space for those on the cushion next to me who, in turn, were holding ground for me and all beings.

This “space” developed into care and appreciation for the objects, structures, and environment around me. Being mindful of the Shrine room, the Center, the animals and land, became as integral as returning to my breath rather than following thoughts. In the first few days of Dathün, I had taken personally the loud orange color of the Shrine room. By the end of four weeks I could accept that perhaps the Shrine room wasn’t about me but maybe just a mirror of my ever-shifting mind.

I know that this process of resisting and then accepting reality (suffering, impermanence) will continue for at least this lifetime if not for many more. But over the course of a month of Dathün (four weeks!), I was able to meet some patterns well, and perhaps, wear them out just a little bit. I have since seen friends who stayed only a week, or two, and they surely had significant experiences. But for me to fully unplug, be present and be able to discover, I needed that solid month – that entire page from the calendar – to allow the whole system of Dathün to enable me to make friends with myself, be merciful to others, and begin to experience meditation in everyday life.

Click here to learn more about Dathun or to register for the 2013 Summer Dathun

What I know to be true

Posted on May 31, 2013 by admin

By Sue Frederick

What I know to be true is this: Our pain is on purpose. Our joy is the gift. Our heart is all that matters. Our mind is a great monkey loose in the forest and running amuck; he must be tamed or our heart can’t be heard and our joy can’t be felt.

Our truth is inside – always. It’s the inner voice that only speaks loud enough when we turn within, tame the savage monkey mind, pull away from the surface, and surrender assumptions; when we dip a trembling hand into the deepest water that terrifies us most and help someone who is drowning right beside us.

Our truth only speaks up when we see the heartbreak in all of our journeys, the struggle in everyone’s life, the pain shared by each family member, the divine inner guidance that we mostly forget. This compassion is the fabric of our universe, and it guides us flawlessly through the night. This is all that matters. I will remember this now.

What I’m trying to say is that even when we don’t know it, when we feel completely alone, there are people who are part of our soul posse who show up in our hour of greatest need and help us in ways we may never know and never see. These soul mate agreements are always working in our favor even when we feel hopelessly abandoned, they’re standing where they should be standing and lending a hand in just the way that will save us.

And mostly it’s only at the end of our life or in brief glimpses of the divine that we fully see this luminous connection, this brilliant pattern, and know that it’s real and that we’ve always been held in grace. This final knowledge breaks us wide open in speechless, awestruck gratitude – even as we take our last gasping breath and our bodies disintegrate into a million shards of light.

Join Sue Frederick for Bridges to Heaven: A Grief Healing Retreat July 12th to 14th.

The Generosity of a Samurai

Posted on May 28, 2013 by admin

by Christopher Seelie

The snowfall began the night before, and by the time we arrived in a loose caravan of 4 cars Zenko-Iba was covered in white. Of the thirteen of us Shambhala Mountain Center staff who came to Boulder on this day to receive instruction in Kyudo—literally “the way of the bow”, a Japanese practice of meditation in action—only one had taken First Shot before. So we did not receive instruction in the snow. Instead we gathered in the free-standing garage, now converted to a shrine room and indoor practice space. The walls were decorated with photographs from Kanjuro Shibata Sensei’s life of practice, along with documents of merit and souvenirs. Three hay bales wrapped in plastic canvas were peppered with puncture holes. The distance was negligible but kyudo is not a sport like the western form of archery, where the distance between archer and target is a concern second only to where on the target one’s arrow enters.

We sat on gomdens and waited as Shibata Sensei—a green 91 years young and recently recovered from a bout of pneumonia—was escorted in with his wife and translator, Carolyn, and their little gray dog. He was dressed in dark wash jeans, a puffy winter jacket, pale grey slippers that had been warmed by the cast iron stove in the corner, and a black winter hat that had XX embroidered in white on the forehead—signifying his lineage identity as the 20th Kanjuro Shibata. We stood, and for a moment of solid silence Shibata Sensei stared at us, taking in our faces with direct purpose before bowing to us and we to him. Then he walked forward and looked closer before bowing again. Once seated, we waited for him to speak but he took his time in communicating. When he did, his command was to relax.

Carolyn explained that he thought we were sitting like elite monks.

Despite being twentieth in an unbroken line of imperial bowmakers and kyudo masters, Shibata Sensei does not abide dignities and honorarities that build ego. Cutting through the pretensions that could make a ragtag, baker’s dozen of curious students presume to a discipline more severe than warranted, Shibata Sensei told us to relax and then commented on how auspicious it was that the snow was falling. Casually, he told us that from the snow he felt Trungpa Rinpoche’s presence here this morning. He spoke briefly on kyudo as a practice and then allowed for his more experienced students, Vajra, Sue, and Suzanne who had come from Berlin to visit Sensei, to lead us through the stages of the practice.

Kyudo is, as Shibata Sensei explained to us, a heart-cleansing practice. The emphasis is on the form one takes in the manner of shooting and the qualities of mind that are experienced in the process. When I asked Shibata Sensei later in the day about the obstacles a practitioner encounters in kyudo, he said that hitting the target is good and not hitting the target is good. “This Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche understood immediately.” When asked how he met Trungpa Rinpoche, Shibata Sensei says it was “very straight kyudo”.

We did not shoot our first arrows that day. The repetition of the form is our practice until such time that we are ready for taking the first shot. From that point, all of Shibata Sensei’s students are of a kind. There are no black belts, no officers, no gold medal winners or blue ribbon archers. These are the honorarities that repel Shibata Sensei’s understanding of kyudo. Becoming familiar with something inexpressible cannot fit into stages of a hierarchy.

calligraphy meaning wind tree fire mountain

“FU RIN KA ZAN” by Shibata Sensei. “Wind Tree Fire Mountain”

The friendship between the founder of Shambhala Mountain Center and Shibata Sensei is a profound example of how different cultures and disciplines find commonality in the wisdom that they share. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche was a meditation master, an academic and administrator displaced when Tibet was conquered by the Chinese. In his homeland, Shibata Sensei is a living national treasure and a lineage holder patronized by the Emperor of Japan. But Trungpa Rinpoche recognized the power and purpose of Shibata Sensei’s kyudo—a practice developed out of the samurai’s need for heart-training to balance out the fight-training so as to remove pride and aggression with the same tools that might engender it. And while the external differences between tonglen, shamatha, maitri, and other techniques Trungpa Rinpoche brought to the west and the kyudo of Shibata Sensei makes them truly diverse practices, the two men saw through those differences with complete clarity.

The day ended with tea and cookies as Shibata Sensei answered questions. Last fall, he had made the two hour journey up to Shambhala Mountain Center to give a talk on the importance of making offerings. Since then, the staff has made it a point to offer rice, water, and salt at the Kami shrine that sits behind the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya, nestled in the hills above the MPE campgrounds. Now kyudo too has returned as a regular part of life at Shambhala Mountain Center. May it be of benefit.

Kanjuro Shibata Sensei XX will meet with his students for a kyudo retreat at Shambhala Mountain Center June 30 – July 7th.

The Unfaithful Yes

Posted on May 24, 2013 by admin

by Janet Solyntjes

“Saying “yes” to more things than we can actually manage to be present for with

integrity and ease of being is in effect saying “no” to all those things and people and

places we have already said “yes” to, including, perhaps, our own well-being.”

Jon Kabat-Zinn from Coming to Our Senses

Having a manageable life is a key concern for most adult members of society. Unfortunately, it is becoming a big concern of our children as well. As Jon has often pointed out, we live in society afflicted by Attention-Deficit Over-activity Disorder. We simply have too much on our plate. We want to slow down, do less, have more time for our self, but it’s not happening.

Moving through life at high speed can be addictive. Overcommitting is fashionable. Saying “yes” when we want to say no is often a cloaked desire for approval. In our longing to know that we are lovable human beings, we look outside our self for selfworth. If we take on too much, saying yes to the many requests of friends, co-workers, supervisors, and family, we will inevitably be unfaithful. We must relearn our loveliness and practice saying “no.”

Why do I think that relearning our loveliness comes first? When we fully love our self and know that our nature is open, wise, and caring, the need to establish our identity in the outer world diminishes. We know how to be content in our own being, comfortable in our own skin. Embracing our deeper nature, we know the path of personal integrity. If saying yes to busyness means losing the capacity to truly listen to our loved ones when they have something meaningful to say, why would we do so? If that extra trip to the store to satisfy an urge to acquire something means losing a few precious moments of alone time at home for meditation, reflection, or just simply non-doing, then why would we say yes to the impulse?

When leading MBSR retreats I sense participants’ struggle with surrendering to an entire weekend of accomplishing nothing. Slowing down is like coming off a drug. There’s a withdrawal period that is uncomfortable. Practicing mindfulness asks us to move into a place of faithful yes to our innermost nature. We faithfully say yes to each moment, not compromising it for a future fantasy or the play of reminiscences.

If we want to heal the societies ADOD, feeling, as we do, that its absence would only enrich our experience of living with others, then we should take a look at the times when we offer an unfaithful yes to the world. Only we know when that is.

That’s why it comes down to knowing within our self the feeling of contentment. Living with integrity is much more interesting and satisfying than managing hyperactive over-activity. Don’t you agree?

Janet Solyntjes will be teaching Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction at Shambhala Mountain Center on June 27 – 30.

Sit Still & Let Nature Play: An Interview With Acharya Allyn Lyon

Posted on May 21, 2013 by admin

By Brianna Socha

I first met Acharya Allyn Lyon last fall in Los Angeles when she was the senior teacher at a weekthun. A weekthun is an intensive week of group meditation with almost 12 hours spent in silent practice each day. Her morning and evening talks were welcome guidance, grounding us with wisdom and compassion. Whenever the hot boredom set in and I would start to question why I chose to spend my coveted vacation time sitting quietly on a cushion, her example would remind me of the beauty of someone who has followed the path of meditation.

Acharya Lyon has a long history with Shambhala Mountain Center, starting in the 70s as a student of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and then serving as staff in the 80s for dathuns (month-long meditation retreats). In 1995, she became the center’s director, a position she held for five years before being appointed an acharya, a senior most teacher in the Shambhala tradition, by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. It seemed only fitting to sit down and talk with her again in the beautiful terrain of SMC, where she is now spending a good portion of the year as an acharya-in-residence. Her presence is profound and witty, dignified and outrageous, open and humble.

Why do you think it’s important to take moments to slow down?

I think the world has speeded up so fast and there’s so much electronic communication, so there’s no time between things. And you react. Push the “send” button and get a response right back. You can start a war in five minutes with unskillful emails. So it’s out of balance in a lot of ways with speed and materialism. There’s not much respect for the soft sciences—culture, the arts, compassion, empathy. Judgmental mind is very active. Generally speaking, most people are not very in touch with nature. So it leads to a lot of unhappiness, a lot of suffering and bizarre things.

How does nature factor into the retreat experience?

Being in nature has always been a huge part of the SMC experience. The seasons are not theoretical. You feel them. You’re part of it. When the wind blows, you can hear it quite a distance away through the trees. You can see the weather in advance, feel it approach and then it lands on you. It’s very dramatic much of the year because the temperatures can be extreme but always changing, just as clouds are always changing. Then we have animals and they’re changing too. When you come here for a program, a retreat or just a little R and R, you’re always in touch with what’s happening outside. I remember we were having this very intense program in the Sacred Studies Hall last summer and out the back windows you could see a mother and two new fawns wandering around the garden. It was really delightful because it was just part of the whole thing.

As the senior teacher for numerous weekthuns and dathuns, how would you describe the challenge and benefit of attending these programs?

Sometimes the discipline is challenging—silence and sitting in your posture and doing your meditation for hours and hours. It’s hard but you are doing it with other people who are going through the same thing. There’s a sense of humor that comes really quickly because some of it’s absurd. And you can do it. You discover you can do it. Furthermore, you begin to learn about yourself and what you do that is helpful for being happy and what makes you miserable. And you learn that don’t have to do that. You have to do it a little bit to discover that it makes you miserable but then you stop.

People often feel stretched thin with obligations. Stepping away and spending a week or even a month with yourself can sometimes feel awkward…

It’s the kindest thing you can do for the people around you—become a gentler person.

You’ve mentioned you like watching the news. How do you stay connected with all that’s going on these days without getting caught up in feelings of anger and darkness?

I feel the desire to punch somebody a lot. And I recognize it and yeah, that’s the environment. You don’t want to contribute more aggression to it. But it’s good to touch in so that you’re not Pollyana, thinking everything is love and light. “It’s all good.” No, it’s not! That’s not what basic goodness means.

I think if you really keep in touch with your feelings and see the cause and effect, it’s very easy not to get caught. If you are being mindful of your feelings, you can remember to let go. And maybe you actually want to turn it off because enough is enough.

What final advice do you have for getting back in balance?

Sit still and let nature play. Get out of your office and your car and go sit somewhere and watch the squirrels and clouds and slow down a little bit. We let people do that. That’s not wasting time. That’s actually part of your job. Usually.

Acharya Allyn Lyon will be leading the dathun meditation retreat this summer at Shambhala Mountain Center. You can do it! Attend for a week or the whole month.

Reawakening Amazing Inner Places

Posted on May 15, 2013 by admin

by Erica Kaufman

This year I traveled quite extensively in India. So much teaching…and of course I learn from each student. Regardless of their spoken language, I learn from their ways and this helps me to teach accordingly.

I teach the eight limbs of yoga, they are portals into the intuitive home. Life is a journey and the eight limbs of yoga are a beautiful guide into intuitive clarity.

That journey is of central interest in my life, and in teaching Lila Yoga.

I am here, solo and not. I am sometimes alone but I am not lonely. As I relax into new-ancient rhythms, I experience the home of GENEROSITY.

I will explain:

Generosity flows naturally, when we understand the inter-connectivity of it all.

Tat Tvam Asi. We are That…That which Is… No need to horde…impossible to hold onto anything…what could we hold onto?

When we live sensitive to this,

it breaks down defensiveness and possessiveness and Generosity opens.

Generosity of Spirit, Love, Patience, Time…

We have within us/around us/between us, an endless source of these qualities.

No need to ration. Fear of loss from Giving looses potency

when we realize the true nature of Generosity.

Home unfolds wherever you are.

I am here. I am there. I am home.

Know a home so deep that land does not matter, a familiarity so clear that wherever you go you feel the strength of curiosity, respect, and joy. As you meet new friends, join new families, and feel the give and take of interconnectivity, know that you have blessings within you of excited ease.

I invite you to join me for the Lila Yoga Retreat: Accessing the Brilliance Within.

Our weekend will explore the boundless joy of gratitude, the ability to feel thankful to BE.

Please join me for a Lila Yoga Retreat June 28-30.

Love Blessings Faith

OM NAMA SHIVAYA

~ Erica ~

Portrait of a Rinpoche in 350 Words

Posted on May 13, 2013 by admin

He sees that the fundamental error of our time is materialism. Instead of accepting the Dalai Lama’s invitation to represent his lineage in the exile government of Tibet, he came to the West to teach. He was shocked by the amount of garbage his small groups of western students created while meditating for a week, equal to what a monastery in India creates in over a month.

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche believes that our complete subservience to wealth – material wealth – will be undermined when everybody has more sense of who we are. It will answer a lot of questions and alleviate a lot of confusion and suffering just by having an understanding of the stillness, silence, spaciousness at the core of experience. Having taught all over the world, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche has used Buddhism and the wisdom heritage of Tibetan Bon to help others make contact with their own luminous minds. From a lifetime of study, teaching, and practice, he is convinced that there are more awakening experiences to be found inside oneself, and it leads to enlightened actions, creativity, and peace without passivity.

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche characterizes Bon–the earliest religious tradition and practices of Tibet of which he is a scholar, teacher, and advocate–as being “very earthy”. Bon works with nature and the elements, it is sensitive to the environment and healing practices. Yet it also has dzogchen, a meditation of pure awareness. It is an awareness-of-inner-light practice and the highest achievement in this practice is said to be a body of light. So, he will tell you with a smile that comes as much from his eyes as his mouth, Bon is earthy and illuminating at the same time.

He was born in the first generation of Tibetan emigres. He became a monk at age ten and earned his Geshe, the Tibetan doctorate awarded after an eleven year program of study, in 1986. He founded the Ligmincha Institute, an international community for the preservation and integration of Bon Buddhism into the modern western world. And on May 31st to June 2nd he will be teaching dzogchen at Shambhala Mountain Center.

Many Forms of Mindfulness: Indelible Presence Meditation Retreat

Posted on May 6, 2013 by admin

By Acharya Dale Asrael and Cynthia Moku

Touching the Moment: Indelible Presence meditation retreat begins soon–May 15–19. We practice mindfulness in many forms throughout the day: sitting meditation, outdoor walking meditation in the heart of nature, hatha yoga, periods of silence, and contemplative brush practice. The images below are from our outdoor brushwork, led by master teacher Cynthia Moku.

ICHI RIVER
After several days of meditation and basic brush practice, we passed our brushes through thin films of water feeling the rhythm of our breathing. ©cmoku/IP

ICHI EDGE
Snow was coming, so paper was laid down before nightfall. The next day we did brush practice on the paper buried beneath this snow cover. ©cmoku/IP

Come rediscover the world with fresh perception with these two skilled teachers in their upcoming meditation retreat: Touching the Moment: Indelible Presence May 15–19.

Acharya Dale Asrael and Cynthia Moku will also be teaching together May 23–27 for Taming the Wild Horse: Riding the Energy of Emotions. This retreat will present techniques to expose core belief structures that perpetuate emotional confusion, meditation practices that foster clarity and insight, daily Hatha Yoga classes and contemplative brush-and-ink sessions.

Bringing the Retreat Experience Home – Courageous Women, Fearless Living

Posted on May 2, 2013 by admin

By Sarah Sutherland

Thanks to a generous grant from the Shambhala Trust, Courageous Women, Fearless Living has launched its first-ever website: www.cwfl.org

The new website will make it easier for women touched by cancer to find out about the Courageous Women 5-day annual retreat and access resources that help extend the retreat into everyday life.

Unlike many retreats for women with cancer, the Courageous Women retreat not only offers respite and renewal in a beautiful setting but also teaches participants meditation and contemplative practices to work effectively with their mind and emotions.

“The basis of the retreat is that everyone has the courage, gentleness and strength to relax and find joy in the most difficult circumstances, even a cancer journey,” says Adana Barbieri, who runs the retreat together with Judith Lief, Victoria Maizes, and Linda Sparrowe. “This unique retreat offers women a supportive, nurturing environment and effective techniques to discover the courage to be fearless in the midst of a life-changing cancer diagnosis.”

Shambhala Mountain Center has supported and hosted the summer retreat since 2006 and its website has been the main source of online information about it. By launching its own website, CWFL hopes to reach a broader audience of participants and donors.

After this summer’s retreat, the new website will also include a robust “resources” section that will include access to talks, videos and instructions on meditation and yoga taught during the retreat. Integrative medicine and natural health information, including articles and recipes, will be featured as well. A secure social networking page will give retreat participants a way to stay connected, feel supported and nurture their friendships.

“With the website, we can extend the reach of the retreat into participants’ lives when they return home,” says Barbieri. “That way, they can continue to benefit from the wisdom, compassion and community they experience at the retreat.”

The generous grant from the Shambhala Trust—whose mission is to support projects that promote the creation of enlightened society—will also fund a promotional video. Intended primarily for healthcare professionals, the video will show the essence of the retreat to people who are unfamiliar with it but are in a position to recommend it to their patients. The video is expected to be completed by the end of 2013.

In addition to the extraordinary support and retreat discounts offered by Shambhala Mountain Center, CWFL is sponsored this year by the Eileen Fisher Community Foundation and the Beanstalk Foundation.

Upcoming: Courageous Women, Fearless Living is hosting three morning retreat samplers on Saturdays from 9-12:

May 18 – Ft. Collins
June 8 – Boulder
July 13 – Denver