By Travis Newbill
Floral Notes and Bardo: The Creative Chronicles of a Shambhala Mountain Resident is a daily feature on the SMC blog in which a member of our staff/community shares his experience of existing as part of Shambhala Mountain Center.
A group of us piled in the car on Friday, headed down to Boulder. Rolling down the hill in the sunshine, it was reminiscent of heading to music festivals in the summertime with my old friends.
Photo by Paul Bennett
We were headed down for a Shambhala program with the Sakyong, Acharya Asreal, and Shastri Ethan Nichtern (my main dharma-teacher-homie from New York City — so cool to connect with him, eat falafel with him, in Colorado!). Great line-up!
A few of us stayed at Marpa House, which is a residential Shambhala-Buddhist co-op sort of place in Boulder. It felt amazing in there. I felt quickly that Marpa House will be the next place that I live. After a couple more years at SMC, after I graduate from Sacred World Assembly, I’ll move to Marpa House to do my Ngöndro and study at Naropa.
In this moment, that path ahead is clear as day. (who knows how it may shift?) Clear as day!
We actually slept in the Ngöndro shrine room. Oh! They have a room for Ngöndro! Ngöndro is the practice you begin doing once you formally enter the vajrayana stage of the path — which I am aiming to do before leaving SMC. A sort of graduation… Marpa House seems like a mighty fine place to do Ngöndro.
And, for a decade or so, I’ve had a dream of studying at Naropa — at the Jack Kerouac School of (Dis)embodied Poetics. How could I not go to study at that school in this lifetime?!
Boulder is lovely. Such a nice time strolling through the neighborhoods and enjoying the activity on Pearl Street.
Inside the Shambhala Center, the retreat was awesome. Powerful teachings all the way through, great community of people. Provocative contemplations, conversations.
We considered how we may practice in three areas, or levels, of our world:
The personal, interpersonal, and collective.
SMC is a pretty amazing place to practice with all three in a vivid way.
— June 16, 2014
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Travis Newbill is a curious dude on the path of artistry, meditation, and social engagement who is very glad to be residing at Shambhala Mountain Center. His roles within the organization include Marketing Associate and Head Dekyong–a position of leadership within the community.