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.

Passing pictures back and forth–how many times per second?
Flickering dream, expressing itself as kisses.
Under the bed, shadow monsters.

The main thing is:
so much care.

So much care is required for people to flower.

Acharya Lyon is leading a class on logong–about recognizing the dreamlike quality of our experience, and then engaging in a way that helps to alleviate the suffering of everyone who is mixed up in this thing.

Meanwhile–I’m becoming delightfully, terrifyingly, willingly mixed up with a particular-fellow-person.

I’m nursing a cold. I’m tasting high-grade sweetness. I’m saying things like this to myself:

Joyous to have
Such a human birth,
Difficult to find,
Free and well favored.

But death is real,
Comes without warning,
This body
will be a corpse.

Unalterable
Are the laws of karma;
Cause and effect
Cannot be escaped.

Samsara
Is an ocean of suffering,
Unendurable,
Unbearably intense.

(“The Four Reminders” by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche)

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.