artwork by Temo Svirely

Tribute and Recollections by Stas Yasynskyy, Kiev, Ukraine
Everything is gray in color; it has become really cold in the extreme of autumn. Somebody on the bus raises their eyes to the sky and says, “First snow.” The wind is slowly helping the leaves to cross the road. A green fence shuts in an unfinished church. On the fence are promising pre-election signs and among them I see one sign saying smoothly, “Protection from lightning and grounding.” My friend Temo Svirely loved to paint the air and green fences. He knew and could convince others that you can’t stain life, for dirt is a manifestation of the ground. Grounding. Protection from lightning. That’s how he lived, between earth and sky.

I am remembering his straight back. He was sitting on the cushion in Bulgagov’s museum, and often would lead the practice alone for many months. I remember his instructions and the very precise and soft strikes on the gong. Those whom he guided in meditative discipline, feeling the taste of the air under their noses, would agree with me. I think about him in the Orthodox church. He holds my tiny son. Temo agreed to be his godfather and a sun ray fell direcly on those two, smooth and clear-cut like a sword.

Temo Svirely with paintings

The body that was carrying Temo started to feel badly in February, while at the same time fighting in Maidan became more fierce. The special units stormed the barricades on Grushevskaya street. We bumped into each other from the other side of the barricades, near the first-aid post, which was evacuated in a hurry. It was becoming more scary and darker from the smoke, but Temo was walking very slowly. He told me that he came to the clinic for an IV, but dozens of heavily wounded people were coming in and he wanted to stay and help the doctors. But they expelled him. Later, I learned that he, despite his sickness, stayed on in this scary, burning Maidan, and almost all night was helping to transfer pavers, water, food and fuel to the frontline.

And now he is the first in Ukrainian sangha to die. He is the first to be gone. The house of Temo and Ira cools down from the mourners opening the door. There are kasung on duty next to his body, and a few snowflakes and many petals of fall flowers. Outsiders, seeing people in berets and military uniform, are nodding with understanding. There is a war in Ukraine, dying warriors are constantly getting buried here. And the trident on the Dorje Kasung banner looks very much like a Ukrainian coat of arms.

Temo asked to be cremated. It is not a custom in Ukraine, and there are 45 million citizens and only 2 crematoriums. The one in Kiev looks like Giger’s sketches of entry in the world of “aliens.” The wind is more icy and tightens the flags like banners. Under the flags are many people. Georgians, Ukraininas, Russians. Buddhists, Christians, artists, business people… There is not enough space in the casket for flowers. People love Temo even in each other, turning their heads, trying to remember. Тhey are Svirely’s space as well as his canvases, deliciously smelling Amsterdams’ colors. Temo himself is lying amidst flowers. One week ago he, with flashing eyes, did strokes of Ashe, despite his pain. He was certain that fear and hope were left behind, and that he, at a significant moment could maintain mindfulness and do what is needed to do.

painting by Temo

The coffin departs down into the darkness and fire. Temo asked that his ashes be scattered from a particular mountain. Under this mountain twists the silver and precise monster snake of the river Dniepr. The river and mountain will accept the ashes of this human, who loved this country so much. And we will share and carry forward his tiger, lion, garuda and dragon.

The next day the small room is hardly able to be seen through the smoke of the lhasang. At this Shing Kam ceremony, we are calling those who are helping Temo in his travels after life. Today there are only Shambhalians and family. We are sitting in the same place where he left us. The sun is sparkling in the room. Slowly and very brightly his picture is burning. The picture of Temo in front of the background of his paintings shows, and then there is only the background left. Then even the background is burned. No smell, no taste, no forms, no appearances. I know that he is there, with his back straight, and his gaze a little bit higher that usual. Hello, dear! Shambhala Kulika Ki!

To read a profoundly moving letter from Temo to the Shambhala sangha, written just before his death, please click here.

Temo with one of his paintings

He was a fierce Shambhalian. He co-founded the Kiev, Ukraine Shambhala Center. He loved Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. He practiced, studied, taught, debated, and pontificated Shambhala dharma. He was a raconteur, sharing endless stories and dreams and visions sometimes fueled by his beloved Georgian vodka. He was very funny and his mangled-English toasts could go on for quite some time, but no one seemed to mind.

He was an outstanding cook. Georgian, Ukrainian and Russian food exquisitely prepared in his tiny Kiev apartment kitchen. He knew spices like he knew color – he could be subtle or bold and always daring.

He was a loving husband and father and was endlessly generous to friends and strangers. He was a Shambhala warrior in every way – brave and kind and confident. He will be missed.

painting by Temo Svirely

His paintings were a witness to the breath of life and the curiosity and delight of a child enticed by the magic of what it means to be alive in this world.

He was a true man from Georgia: fierce and gentle at the same time. He had many stories to tell. Not all of them are told. Some of them he took with him on his way beyond.

His spark is still around. I will remember him and his glow. He reminds me of the unconditional life force present in all forms of life: it is beyond any logic. It is vast and generous, has incredible humor, sadness and joy.

To read a profoundly moving letter from Temo to the Shambhala sangha, written just before his death, please click here.

Donations to the family of Temo are greatly appreciated, and can be offered through the purchase of his artwork. Visit his website here: svirelyart.com

Join the Shambhala Times in congratulating David Schreier and Devvora Papatheodorou on their recent marriage in Chicago!

On October 25th, 2014, David Schreier and Devvora Papatheodorou exchanged marriage vows in a Buddhist wedding ceremony that took place at the Chicago Shambhala Center. They took their honeymoon weeks earlier, which included hiking in the Rocky Mountains and visiting The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya at Shambhala Mountain Center.

Click through to see a beautiful photo!

The Shambhala Times is delighted to congratulate Ruth Holmes Whitehead on her receipt of the Order of Nova Scotia!

interview by Sarah Lipton, Shambhala Times Editor-in-Chief
edited by Chris Schuman, Shambhala Times Intern

The Order of Nova Scotia is the province’s highest honor. Presented by Her Majesty the Queen’s representative in Nova Scotia, it encourages excellence by recognizing Nova Scotians for outstanding contributions or achievements. Five people every year are accepted into the Order, and in December 2014, one of these will be Shambhalian Ruth Holmes Whitehead.

Ruth is recognized worldwide as a scholar, researcher, author, historian and mentor. For 40 years, as staff ethnologist and assistant curator at the Nova Scotia Museum, she has worked to ensure that histories of the Mi’kmaw of eastern Canada and the Black Loyalists of Nova Scotia were brought back into mainstream awareness and understanding. The research for her most recent book, Black Loyalists: Southern Settlers of Nova Scotia’s First Free Black Communities, took eighteen years to accomplish.

Ruth Whitehead moved to Nova Scotia from South Carolina in 1972. “I have always considered it gave me sanctuary. I arrived before encountering Shambhala Buddhism, but such good karma! Just sitting here and Shambhala manifests!”

It truly was a sanctuary as, before moving to Nova Scotia, Whitehead had already lived quite the remarkable life. “I had been a Civil Rights worker on and off in 1968 and it was extraordinarily horrific. Finally I just couldn’t cope with it any longer; I thought the whole place was going to implode. I was in Atlanta, and I actually marched in Martin Luther King’s funeral,” a seminal event in Ruth’s life.

Ruth Holmes Whitehead

“We sat on the floor together and he pointed at various ones, saying, ‘My mother made that, and my grandmother made that and my aunt made that one,’ and he was never wrong. Pointing to the last box, he said, ‘My mother made this right before she died.’ He started crying and so did I.” Ruth made tea for the two of them and Max Basque started explaining this art, telling her stories which she wound up writing down. “He became my mentor.”

“I moved from studying things to learning about people. I had the advantage of museum training, but I knew that I didn’t know a thing about Mi’kmaw culture, so I had no preconceived notions. Max Basque became my father-by-respect, and through him I met others. They all began to teach me.”

However, in the 1990s, her passion for civil rights resurfaced. “In 1991,” she says, “I was asked to do the same sort of thing for the Black community – to create a reference database of information that they could access as they took charge of their own history.” Ruth was able to facilitate this process and says, “People were so kind to me. The more they shared their experience, the deeper my respect for them grew.”

“People would sometimes say to us, ‘We know we came here on a ship but that’s all we know; please help us discover our past.’” After 18 years of research, she published a history of people who escaped slavery via the British army or navy during the American Revolution, people who would later found Nova Scotia’s first free black communities. Now their descendants are establishing a museum presenting their own past, and she has turned over all her research to its library.

“I’ve had the most amazing career,” Ruth says, “from building wigwams to butchering a moose with stone tools, to cataloguing Mi’kmaw material in European museums. But the happiest day of my life really was the day I took the bodhisattva vow. The Buddhadharma has been the most important part of my life.”

Ruth Holmes Whitehead says, “I feel that in receiving the Order, I am merely accepting it on behalf of all the Mi’kmaw and Black communities. They taught me their history. Everything I know, I learned from them.”

After being inducted into the prestigious Order, what’s next for her? “I hope to practice, practice, practice! I haven’t done enough shamatha, and I want to re-do my ngondro. It was more about numbers before, so now I just want to sit. I want to be useful on a deep level, not just intellectually. Khandro Rinpoche told me just to listen, listen to people and the world, and to be of benefit that way. I hope that I can.”

Alix Baragiotta

Alix Baragiotta was born on Monday, November 24th at 4:49 pm, at a birthing center near Montreal, Quebec to happy parents Amélie Laberge and Davin Baragiotta. His birth went smoothly in a hot tub with the help of a midwife. Since his very first moments, Alix has been a very peaceful and cheerful baby, bringing us incredible joy. The whole family is doing extremely well!

Alix Baragiotta and parents Amelie Laberge and Davin Baragiotta

Matan Solomon Sternreich

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Shambhala Times is delighted to announce a new tropical novel to warm your toes on those cold nights!

Longtime Albuquerque sangha member and author Janice Convery is tickled to announce the worldwide birth of her new novel Dogs In The Sun, a tropical odyssey about a diverse cast of characters who forge family ties while on the last voyage of RMS Queen Mary, and beyond.

Queen Mary volunteer, train engineer and pilot’s daughter, Janice blends her fascination with the devices by which we travel and people of different cultures, to create a heartfelt, semi-historical tale inspired by the places in which she’s lived and worked – Haiti, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Los Angeles – and the people who’ve touched her along the way.

Of her accomplishment, Janice credits Shambhala Training for much of the discipline and steadfastness it took to complete the book.

“This was a labor of love – it took years of baby steps, showing up day after day, listening to the characters and moving them forward. During the whole process, I had a sense of being guided, gently pushed, by some unseen force. Basic goodness! My own, and that of all the characters, locations, and vintage vehicles in my book.”

Dogs In The Sun is available through Amazon. For more information about Janice, check out her author link online here.

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Janice Convery can spell the word Oceanliner with her full name and is convinced she has the ghost of a mariner inside. Born in New Jersey, raised in Haiti, she graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in Magazine Journalism and English Literature which she put to good use working on a monthly business paper and turning the movie “Boys On The Side” into a novel for Warner Brothers. She has written a spec film script called Chicklettes and worked on many Hollywood feature films and music videos. Janice loves all kinds of transportation – ships, planes, trains, motorcycles and automobiles, and is a certified locomotive engineer.

She calls Los Angeles and Albuquerque home.

Join the Shambhala Times in congratulating these happy couples!

Don Beamish and Kristine McCutcheon were married by Acharya Moh Hardin and Sangyum Cynde Grieve on September 27, 2014.

Kristine reports: On a crisp clear colourful fall day in Cape Breton we started with a lovely wedding lhasang with music and offerings. The men were bold and the ladies brilliant. Magic happened! In the afternoon we gathered where a Shambhala flag was flying on the Cabot Trail. The ceremony rolled right into toasts and cake and conversations then fiddlers and dancing. The environment was golden and everyone cleaned up. For those who were still brave and brilliant and awake there was a bonfire on the beach. Everyone celebrated their King and Queenness. Ki Ki So So!

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Pablo Coddou and Anne-Marie Keppel were married the weekend of December 12-14, 2014.

Pablo reports: Our small and intimate wedding was held in a mansion in southern Vermont during the darkest days and hours of the year, under the year’s largest meteor shower. It was officiated by Bonnie and Bob Taylor, and witnessed by the couple’s family and a few friends. They are still basking in the joy of the weekend and wish to dedicate all of the love that they experienced (and continue to experience) to every being on earth.

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Shambhala Times is delighted to welcome this new addition to our community:

Lyon Rose Wilson-Reissmann was born on the 24th of December, 2014 at 1:06pm in Hamburg, Germany. She weighed 8lbs 5oz (3750grams) and measured 20.5 inches (52cm) at birth. Parents Clemens Reissmann and Sarah Wilson are thrilled to introduce their sweet Christmas baby to the sangha!

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Lulu, Leonard and Cadence

The Shamhala community warmly congratulates these families as they begin new chapters of their journeys!

Birth of Cadence Legend Warren
Lulu Strongheart and Leonard Marion Warren IV are delighted to announce the birth of their baby boy: Cadence Legend Warren, born January 31st, 2015 at 6:46 pm in Santa Fe, NM. A soft white snow fell during the entire labor along with a thick, magical fog: blessings of the dralas. KI KI SO SO!

Dori Digenti and Michael Stephens married in Amherst, MA on August 16, 2014
On a mild sunlit day in mid-August, families, friends, and Pioneer Valley Shambhala community gathered at the historic Lawrence Hills House in downtown Amherst to celebrate the wedding of Dori and Michael. The gathering included all ages and geographies in a joyful celebration. Blending elements of the Shambhala, Buddhist, and Western traditions, the ceremony was led by officiant Joseph Inskeep. Toasts, feasting, and dancing followed to complete the day.

Dori Digenti and Michael Stephens

Michael and Dori with their extended clans

Michael and Dori with family

Scott Robbins and Sarah Lipton are thoroughly delighted to introduce their beautiful baby girl to the Shambhala world. Odessa Rose Lipton Robbins was born on February 5th, 2015 after a beautiful labor and birth at home. She is a big girl, weighing in at 9 lbs, 9 oz and 21 3/4 inches. The birth was declared “perfect” by the midwives present, and the new family are luxuriating in each other’s health, joy, love and presence. 

As Sarah says, “Some of you may remember the pink laundry episode…others may know that the pipes burst in my basement the morning before I went into labor. Both heralded the arrival of our new daughter! And we could not be happier with our great good fortune! I felt incredible strength and love streaming from the support of our international sangha as I brought Odessa into the world. Deepest heartfelt gratitude to you all, and we can’t wait for you and Odessa to meet.”

Another Shambhala Day Around the Mandala feature celebrating the Year of the Wood Sheep in the community!

Celestina Leon, Jessica Rothschuh, Christian Florez

by Shambhala New York staff
Photographs by Andrea Reese

On Saturday, February 21, 2015 the Shambhala Meditation Center of New York City hosted a Shambhala Ball gala fundraiser. More than 150 guests attended the event, which celebrated the Year of the Wood Sheep, and raised more than $3,000 to benefit the New York center.

The evening featured special performances from the New York sangha’s many talented members, including acclaimed poet Anne Waldman, actress Lanny Harrison, Terre Roche (The Roches), Dee Dee Vega (Amour Obscur), Katherine Lieberson (Teen), Dylan Roddick, Jason Sebastian Russo and Tara Autovino (Guiding Light, Mercury Rev, Hopewell), Bryan Wade, Jim Storm, and Joseph Mauricio.

Shambhala Ball Committee (L to R: Alison Pepper, Katherine Lieberson, Ericka Phillips, Joe Mauricio, Beth Bloom, Ashley Dinges, Ana Maria Jomolca)

Upon arrival, guests made their way through the center’s Community Room, decorated with white trees and original Wood Sheep art created by sangha members. Entering the main Shrine Room, guests were transported into a magical forest. Tree branches adorned the room’s ceiling and held jewel-toned lanterns which illuminated the dance floor throughout the evening. Two stunning Wood Sheep calligraphy tapestries, created on white suede, flanked the sides of the main shrine.

Guests dined on gourmet hors d’oeuvres including potato kale fritters, halibut tacos, seasonal crudités, and enjoyed custom cocktails, wine, and beer donated by the Brooklyn Brewery.

Jerry Stone and John Sennhauser

A silent auction featured a variety of unique items including meditation retreat packages, original art, concert tickets and backstage passes, and more.

Shambhala New York’s silent auction will continue online through March 16, and is open to members of the international Shambhala mandala.  This is a wonderful way to bid on rare items while also supporting the New York sangha. Visit the online auction to bid on:

Performance by Terre Roche

Tsa Tsa: This precious and rare tsa tsa was originally made at Karmê Chöling for the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya at Shambhala Mountain Center. This beautiful shrine stupa is blessed, and contains relics of the Vidyadhara Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. (Link)

Luminous Mirror by Jon D’Orazio: This beautiful original mixed media piece was created by New York sangha member and artist Jon D’Orazio. Luminos Mirror is currently on display in the Shambhala New York Community Room, inside the tokanoma. (Link)

Performance by Anne Waldman

Simplicity Retreat at Karmê Chöling: Bid on program registration for a Simplicity Retreat; practice meditation in a small group setting, including group discussions, personal time for reflection, reading and enjoying Karme Chöling’s woodland trails and beautiful flower garden.  (Link)

Shambhala New York extends a heartfelt thanks to the many members, guests, volunteers and friends who made this memorable evening such a success.

Left to Right: Timothy Quigley, Garry Dial, Lanny Harriso

Janet Shaw

Sangha Profile: Janet Shaw

The startup story of a social entrepreneur and her Zulu Beadwork Project

article by Melanie Hawken
originally published here and picked up by the Shambhala Times because we were planning to feature a story about Shambhalian Janet Shaw anyway!

A social entrepreneur creates a Zulu beadwork collaboration that empowers, uplifts and celebrates the talents of South African craftswomen

Upon returning to South Africa in 2002 after 5 years of voluntary work for a non-profit organization in the USA, Janet Shaw felt moved by the continuing poverty and plight of those disadvantaged by the apartheid legacy in the country. Added to endemic poverty was the pandemic of HIV/Aids, further destabilizing communities in an alarming way. In some circumstances, women are often single parents in low income communities, and they are particularly vulnerable.

Janet felt compelled to do something to help the situation. She had always had a deep love and appreciation for the aesthetic of South African cultures. Having studied both Fashion Design and Fine Art and always worked in creative fields, she sought to establish a work environment that could be a source of creative pride and income for all.

An auspicious coincidence led to the creation of the Zulu Beadwork Project in KwaZulu Natal, formed by entrepreneur Janet and a group of craftswomen in October 2006. What started originally as a project crafting and offering just three beadwork products, led to what is today a project offering over twenty-five products sold in South Africa, America, and Europe. Janet says she aspires and aims to empower the women involved in the Zulu Beadwork Project by enhancing an African cultural integrity and humanity that finds greater expression through the manifestation of equal opportunity.

The skills of the bead workers involved at the Zulu Beadwork Project is equivalent to that of a master crafts person. Whilst beadwork is often historically viewed as a pavement or curio craft, the project aims to elevate this skill and thereby income, through design and other innovations, to be more in line with the level of master craftsmanship. Essential to this is a model that creates steady and sustainable income for all involved in the project. This requires continual innovation at the level of product development and the refining of key skills, introducing other jewellery making skills to create a more durable and desirable product to the global market.

The project is based around the ethos of each craftsperson owning their individual creative process, nurturing and cultivating those skills, so that each bead worker becomes responsible for products they produce for bi-annual seasons. The number of orders received by each beader is often reflective in the quality and design of an individual beader’s work.

Today, the Zulu Beadwork Project develops two jewellery ranges each year, following the Northern Hemisphere seasons and trends as they occur six months ahead of those in South Africa. This range includes fifteen plus necklace styles, six bracelet styles, and three earring styles in up to forty different colour ways. The number of designs and colours are based on seasonal trends which lend our product an appeal that extends beyond the conventional beaded jewellery market. All the products are made by hand and to order using the finest glass beads imported from Europe and Japan. Semi precious stones, recycled glass and metal beads from Africa are also incorporated into the designs.

Ultimately, the project aspires to reduce the impact of poverty and foster the continuation of a healthy and sustainable family, clan, and cultural inheritance. Many of the women involved in the Zulu Beadwork Project learned their skills from their mothers or other family members. The project aims to keep this a living tradition where the level of master cratfmanship is recognised as being as valuable as that of a tertiary education. Equally important to the Zulu Beadwork Project is to provide the economic circumstances for those involved to afford themselves and/or their children a high level of education, should that be their aspiration.

At present, the primary focus of the Zulu Beadwork Project is to create sustainable income and a raised standard of living. The aspiration for the project is that through creating greater economic freedom, it is able to positively impact the communities involved. On an individual level, the project aims to create great pride in one’s culture and its skills. Janet’s focus is on training in current international fashion and colour trends, advising the craftswomen on how to interpret traditional skills in a fresh and contemporary way. The project also offers continual training on the importance of delivery and quality standard management.

The Zulu Beadwork Project is a fair trade initiative that aims to link accomplished crafters with the global market. The range of beaded jewellery produced is a blend of contemporary aesthetics and traditional skills, showcasing a rich cultural heritage. Each collection is made entirely by hand, using glass beads and materials of the highest quality.

The project generates sustainable income for fifteen women. Click here to read some of their individual stories.

Photo by Lodro Kalsang

On April 9th, one of Gampo Abbey’s temporary monks, Thubten Tingdzen, took the brave leap of Parma Rabjung ordination. In the Tibetan tradition, this is a first step in the path of life monasticism, an entry period before taking novice vows.

After the ceremony, with Gampo Acharya Pema Chodron as preceptor, the whole community gathered for a celebration, in which we shared our appreciation for the courageous choice Tingdzen has made. Director Richard Haspray and Shastri Alice Haspray say: “We are honored to be supporting Tingdzen’s journey at the Abbey. His ziji is contagious!”

Many community members celebrated Tingdzen’s kindness, thoughtfulness, humor, intellect, and natural monastic leanings. We are very proud to welcome such a valuable member of the community into the Shambhala Monastic Order. We all now look forward to continuing the journey together.

Photo by Lodro Kalsang

“I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to make a connection to the Buddha’s monastic lineage at Gampo Abbey,” says Tingdzen “It is humbling to think that so many inspiring practitioners have worked so hard in order for me to be able to take this step. The ceremony was brief but I feel like surrendering in this way has taken a lifetime of preparation. I now feel deeply protected and nurtured by the Buddha who has accepted me just as I am, my wisdom and confusion neatly wrapped in maroon robes, a basically good human being. Through surrendering I have made a commitment to see myself as a Buddha would see me: perfectly capable of realizing the nature of my own mind, worthy of the robes I now wear, a perfectly imperfect monk.”

Miksang image by Charles Blackhall

“If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you recognize that your liberation and mine are bound up together, we can walk together.”
~ Lila Watson

As Buddhist teachers and leaders we are distressed and deeply saddened by the killings of unarmed African-Americans by police—most recently brought to light with Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, Eric Garner in Staten Island, NY, Walter Scott in North Charleston, SC, Freddie Gray of Baltimore MD and too many others–and the frequent failure of the courts to bring justice to these cases. Most grievous is that these tragic events are not isolated incidents. They are part of a systemic injustice in the United States that is rooted in centuries of slavery and segregation, and manifested in continued economic and social exclusion, inferior education, mass incarceration and ongoing violence against African-Americans.

The Buddhist teachings are grounded in a clear recognition of suffering, an ethical commitment to non-harming and an understanding of interdependence: We can’t separate our personal healing and transformation from that of our larger society. The historic and continued suffering of people of color in this country—of African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and others—is our collective suffering. The harm caused daily is our collective responsibility. Once we see this suffering, our freedom unfolds as we respond with a wise and compassionate heart.

Right now, we believe there is an immediacy and urgency in focusing our attentions and efforts on the pervasive and ongoing violence done to people of color in our country. We are inspired by the courage and leadership of the people of Ferguson and many other communities in recent months in drawing a line in the sand and saying, “Enough”, “Black Lives Matter”, and calling for deep-rooted changes in our economic and justice systems. As Buddhists we see the timeliness of adding our voices to theirs, knowing it will take a dedicated focus to recognize how the hidden biases and assumptions of our society deprive people of color of their basic rights to justice, opportunity and human dignity.

Our collective aspiration within the Buddhist traditions is to become truly inclusive and beloved communities. In this process we are committed to honestly and bravely uncovering the ways we create separation and unintentionally replicate patterns of inequity and harm. In the same spirit, we are committed to engaging with other faith and social justice groups in support of undoing racism throughout our society.

In the midst of tragedy, grief, and anger, we see the seeds of profound possibilities for healing the wounds of separation and building communities based on respect and love. Since their inception, Buddhist teachings and practices have been explicitly devoted to liberation. In his time the Buddha was a revolutionary voice against racism and the caste system: “Not by caste, race, or creed, or birth is one noble, but by heart alone is one a noble being.” The Buddhist trainings in mindfulness, wisdom and compassion, create the grounds for wise speech and wise action. These teachings and practices free our hearts from greed, prejudice and hate and serve an essential role in societal healing, and in the awakening of all.

With prayers for healing and peace,

* Signed by all present at the White House Buddhist Leaders’ Summit

Miksang Publications is happy to announce the release of Michael Wood’s new book, Graceful Appearance: Passion, Perception, Expression.

Graceful Appearance is a collection of 108 of Michael’s most essential Miksang photographs. They were selected from thousands of images taken over more than thirty years of developing and teaching Miksang Contemplative Photography.

This First Edition is a limited release of only 100 signed and sealed copies.

“Graceful Appearance,” shares Michael Wood, “is a collection of my images that expresses the experience of the first moment of meeting. It is possible to see as if for the first time whenever we are still, open and available, prepared to meet our world as it presents itself. When interpretation and meaning are irrelevant, and we present ourselves fully and unconditionally to meet the world as it manifests, we can experience the joy of graceful appearance.”

To celebrate this occasion, we are offering a complimentary copy of Graceful Appearance with the purchase of a signed, sealed and numbered print of any image in the book.

Please visit gracefulappearancebook.com to see and read about Graceful Appearance and the images Michael chose to include in his book.

Jill Scott in Vermont on May 25 2015, photo taken one week prior to her death

Jill lived her life in a manner that should be an example to our sangha. She was a close student of the Vidyadhara, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and served him for many years. She also served as my attache in Boulder during the same time, and following his death she continued in this role in Halifax.

She then went on to serve Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and the Shambhala community for the remainder of her life. Jill was a beacon of integrity and devotion. She faced death as she lived, with bravery and steadiness of mind. We all mourn the passing of a true Shambhala Warrior.

With Love to the entire Scott Family,
Lady Diana Mukpo

Jill Scott and Michael at their wedding, officiated by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Boulder, July 1976

Remembrance by Acharya Marty Janowitz:
Grace, elegance and simplicity; warmth and wry humor; quiet strength; artfulness and directness; perceptive with insight and clarity; constant and patient; always showing up – steadily and without bias; meticulous and diligent in service to both Sakyongs, Sakyong Wangmos, Vajradhatu, Kalapa and Shambhala; a true and steady friend, a nurturing and cherishing mother and life partner. These are merely some of the images that arose during the Sukhavati for our dear Jill Scott, the essential lady warrior of Shambhala.

Jill Scott in Boulder, 1974, photo by Michael Scott

Jill Scott 60th birthday (with family), Halifax, April 2009, photo by Marvin Moore

For more than fifteen years she served as the one constant reference point in the Office of Practice and Education for Shambhala International, retiring just this past February as Associate Director. In this role, she was the consummate go-to person – handling endless details and communications, from the mundane to the most challenging, always with élan, subtlety and an uplifted demeanor, regardless of how she felt as she navigated her way through her 19-year journey with breast cancer and its complications. So many people came to trust and respect Jill and through her, to respect and enrich their connection with Shambhala.

Over the years she became a devoted and artful student of the practice of Japanese Tea Ceremony. A dedicated student of the two wonderful Senseis John McGee and Alexandre Avdulov, she became a mainstay, leader and instructor within the Kalapa Cha Society in Halifax, and in recent years the tea room was her most cherished home. She continued to offer and practice tea ceremony until the final days of her life.

Jill Scott at the Yukoan Teahouse, Halifax 2015, photo by Liza Matthews

Jill’s immediate and natural laugh, bright wit, time for everyone and shrewd eye for what to accept and what to reject were and will continue to be integral to the atmosphere and culture of Shambhala society – always accompanied by compassion and an open heart and therefore deserving of the attribute: enlightened.

Jill Scott, Atlantic Canada, July 2010, photo by Michael Scott

Stay tuned for remembrances by Jill’s Tea Ceremony Senseis John McGee and Alexandre Avdulov.

Remembrance by Carolyn Mandelker:
Jill worked for Shambhala in one way or another for over 30 years. I had the privilege of working with her for the last 12. She was an incredibly steady person. She had a quality that I would call “positive stubbornness”, which she exemplified in her service to Shambhala. She weathered all kinds of upheavals in our organization and through sheer will power, never wavered — financial ups and downs, staffing and salary ups and downs, and lineage ups and downs.

I remember in 2003 when President Reoch had to lay off 18 of the 25 international staff for financial reasons and there was almost nobody to ask anything of. I was new at my job, and Jill was there. She never missed a day of work even while going through chemotherapy and radiation, and she attempted to answer every single email that came to her. Isn’t that amazing? She mentored many of today’s leaders in Shambhala in various ways, those who worked in close proximity to her, and the many who she communicated with across the mandala every day. We are fortunate to have had Jill’s steady and precise presence through all these years – because of her and others like her, Shambhala has grown stronger.

The Sakyong has said on several occasions that “there is no such thing as retirement in enlightened society.” Jill’s health was clearly declining over the last year, and on March 1st, when our new Director of Practice and Education arrived (Mr. Charlie Goetzl), having replied to every email and offered Charlie a very organized download of the Practice and Education files, Jill gracefully shut off her computer and went home. She died exactly three months later. Jill never retired, and we are so grateful.

Sukhavati for Jill Scott in Halifax, June 3 2015, photo by Marvin Moore

An article of appreciation for Jill, written by Maggie Colby, can be read by clicking here.

Reviewing the New Release of Devotion and Crazy Wisdom: Teachings on the Sadhana of Mahamudra

Available through Shambhala Media

written by Frank Ryan

In 1963 Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche received a Spaulding scholarship to attend Oxford University. Sailing from Bombay to Tilbury aboard the P&O Line he immersed himself into Western culture. This blended with his prior, amazingly disciplined training growing up in Eastern Tibet, as well as the wisdom traditions of Kagyu, Nyingma, and Shambhala.

In 1968, when he returned to Bhutan at the invitation of Her Majesty the Queen, Ashi Kesang, all of these streams coalesced in the form of a retreat at Taktsang in the upper reaches of Paro valley.

This was a profound turning point in the planting of a genuine path of personal transformation and societal well-being leading up to the twenty-first century. With amazing deep insight Devotion & Crazy Wisdom: Teachings on The Sadhana of Mahamudra, a recent publication of Vajradhatu Press, explores the contours of how that particular retreat and the sadhana, or practice, that arose from that retreat naturally evolved.

Devotion & Crazy Wisdom draws from two seminars presented nearly forty years ago. Part One, “The Embodiment of All the Siddhas,” draws on a seminar of the same name which Chogyam Trungpa presented in Vermont in September 1975. Part Two, “The Sadhana of Mahamudra,” was a seminar given three months later in Colorado.

The book opens with a forward and introduction which brilliantly contextualize the life of the author and the Sadhana of Mahamudra liturgy itself. Chogyam Trungpa’s opening discussion of the immediate background of the sadhana is detailed and amazingly candid. As embodied by this very remarkable teacher we witness both the challenges and opportunities that existed toward the end of the last century for establishing a viable spiritual tradition in the world. The play between the traditional world of Bhutan with its medieval formality and lockstep tradition, and the vast potential and materialism of the twentieth century world he had encountered since fleeing Tibet is expressed with penetrating immediacy.

The terma (“hidden treasure”) tradition of transmitting the essence of teachings in Tibet is ordinarily shrouded in cryptic indirection but his presentation is disarmingly direct. Few are capable of describing how two of the most powerful contemplative traditions on earth can be joined in a single practice as an attempt to “create a better soup stock, a better flavoring.”

In an era fascinated with the exotic trappings of Eastern traditions, instead of focusing on such aspects of the sadhana as “the great mountain of torma, ornamented with the eight kinds of consciousness” he touches on the indispensible underpinnings of the practice. This includes the role of the teacher, devotion, crazy wisdom, and the mandala of the siddhas. The reader’s consideration is directed towards the experience, not the abstraction, of the contemporary spiritual journey.

This separates this text – as well as the complementary six video and four audio recordings of the talks – from dry scholarly analysis. Each lineage figure, each section, and every aspect, such as “luminosity,” is presented with thorough precision. Constantly underscoring the primacy of experiential understanding, his instruction is simple and direct. For instance, the understanding of the “offering section,” explained in terms of how one would cook and present a meal for others as a offering from the heart in “100 percent ethnic style” is much more compelling than the standard formulation of the seven-fold offering often found in the Mahayana tradition.

It’s striking that Part Two, “The Sadhana of Mahamudra,” doesn’t devolve into just a technical presentation of the various sections of the sadhana. Rather than the obvious flair and energy of the practice, the focus on the view is relentless. The recurrent message is: slow down, open, and appreciate the textures of your life before venturing into the supposed realm of the exotic. What is the motivation for truly giving? What are the obstacles to giving? What is the actual experience of “giving the giver?”

The question-and-answer sections which accompany each talk underscore the approach that discovering goodness and wisdom is a collaborative process. Although the accents of the seventies reveal themselves in several questions referencing “primal screams” and Peter O’Toole movies, there’s an undeniable level of probing intelligence. Interplay between teacher and student is on full display.

The closing chapter, “Historical Commentary: Part Two” is remarkable for both its scope and candor. In the twenty-first century it’s rare to hear a Tibetan lama of this caliber note that there “was tremendous corruption, confusion, lack of faith, and lack of practice in Tibet.” Neither avoiding this truth nor dwelling on negativity, he contrasts this with the opportunity available to those in the West to act in accord with “the highest code of discipline, meditation and wisdom.”

Both the extensive Glossary and vivid illustrations provides greater depth in plumbing the depth of the sadhana itself. In a sense, the photograph of a young and vibrant Chogyam Trungpa on horseback juxtaposed to the formidable power of the temple complex of Paro Taktsang encapsulates the wisdom of Devotion & Crazy Wisdom: Teachings on The Sadhana of Mahamudra.

It is an invitation to partake in living wisdom, not static spiritual voyeurism.

~~
Order your copy at Shambhala Media.

The Poet is Profound. The Poet is a Jester.

Interview with Acharya David Schneider by Valerie Lorig

written and edited by J. R. Gilness

When author David Schneider was a fledgling student of Zen, he and his cohorts celebrated the end of retreat with a picnic at the crest of a mountain. During a hike on one of these special occasions, Schneider recalls, “I started having all these great ideas, and when I got up there, I started to write them all down in my notebook.”

“David, stop writing poetry,” snapped his friend and mentor, Philip Whalen.

“I’m not writing poetry,” Schneider blatantly lied, “I’m writing to my mother.”

“‘Dear Mother,’” responded Whalen, in mock-narration, “‘I’m writing poetry.’”

Such was the wit of the late Philip Whalen.

Schneider’s latest book, Crowded by Beauty, is the first authorized biography and chronicle of Whalen’s life and poetry. Often overlooked among the pantheon of Beat Generation contemporaries like Gary Snyder, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, Whalen takes center stage during Schneider’s interview with Shambhala Times, and he is well worth the attention.

Fumbling for a delicate way of describing Whalen, Schneider begins, “He was… laaaarge–” and then more bluntly concedes: “He was fat. He was enormous! And he was hilarious!”

Philip Whalen, Gary Snyder and Lew Welch

Like any great comedian, though, Whalen exercised mindful timing in his unorthodoxy. Most of the time he followed the rules, which is exactly what made the exceptions so amusing. On a whim, explains Schneider, Whalen once decided to tiptoe down the aisle at mealtime. “You’re looking at someone who’s in the high two-fifties or three-hundred pounds – quite a large fellow – tiptoeing in these robes, and it was just hilarious.”

If the sacred jester is a universal motif in world religion and folklore, then Philip Whalen might have been one of its live incarnations. His humor was like a guardrail that prevented himself – and others – from swerving into the sanctimonious or losing touch with the very purpose of the spiritual path: to be present with reality.

With his unique demeanor, Whalen had attracted a cadre of young men who would sit at the feet of the proverbial master, but Schneider wonders aloud, what were they trying to get? They weren’t studying poetry or Buddhism or Zen with him. Instead, they were following the lead of an older brother figure who made them feel comfortable making mistakes. After all, he not only committed faux pas himself, but made them with confident gusto. He filled the often-aloof silence with affection and generated a welcoming atmosphere.

David Schneider describes a unique moment in an army/navy surplus store in Santa Fe. Whalen entered wearing a t-shirt, jeans, and orange dayglo hat, with his raksu balanced over his big belly. Out of the blue, a fellow patron who appeared to come from Santa Fe’s eccentric bohemian scene approached him and said, “Sir, I don’t know what it is you do, but you do something, and I want to study it with you.” Though Schneider never found out who that stranger was or what became of him, he says it bespeaks of how magnetic Whalen could be.

Despite his avuncular attraction and extraversion, Whalen was primarily a scholar who relished his alone time. “He needed to go back and forth between high-stimulation and scholarly solitude,” says Schneider. Whalen didn’t have a wife or a life partner. Nobody had ever even seen him with a romantic interest, though Schneider reveals that Whalen had had several lovers, both male and female. “The Beats – except for Allen [Ginsberg] – were really discrete… especially the gay beats. They were not out. People were not out in the 50s and 60s,” Schneider explains.

Though an avid hiker and wildlife observer, Whalen struggled with his weight. His doctor ordered him to cut his caloric intake and monitor his eating habits, and these dietary patterns surfaced in his journals. Schneider laughs over the details that took over Whalen’s journals — the amount of cottage cheese he ate for breakfast, or how many calories were accumulated each day. It adds a human touch and is a reminder of the mundane aspects of a man whose appeal lies greatly in his relatability.

Schneider explains that he wrote Crowded by Beauty so that people would get a feeling for who Philip Whalen – the person – really was. The title, it seems, fits a profound and koan-like backstory, though in fact the anecdote behind it is far more befitting of Whalen’s persona.

David Schneider

Sometimes writers’ thoughts, which are so creative and productive and quick, can create a feeling of claustrophobia or crowding, says Schneider, relating the overstimulation of the hardware store to the overstimulation of one’s own ideas. Without a way to find space in between those thoughts, Beat writers like Whalen could suffer until they found cathartic release. Through his years of Zen meditation, Whalen learned to find space, and be at ease in it.

Between securing permissions, conducting interviews and doing research – Whalen’s papers, and those of his friends are mostly on the West Coast of the United States, and Schneider lives in Koln, Germany — Crowded by Beauty has been a decade in the making. With this book, Schneider has opened the window on a man who was not originally one of the “famous Beats” but who may find a posthumous place in the new generation’s pantheon.

Pamela Krasney

Pamela was a very active and inspiring person in our Shambhala world. Many of us knew her as a friend and fellow practitioner, supporter of our Centers and Region, longtime Board member of Shambhala Mountain Center, member of the Shambhala Trust, and Board member of Naropa University. She was also involved in many other causes, and gave herself to a number of important projects. You could not be around Pamela without being inspired by her energy, her dedication, her sharp wit, and her compassionate nature.

A description of her life taken from Naropa University encapsulates many of the aspects of her journey:

Pamela Krasney was an innovative, catalytic and deeply authentic social activist for more than half a century, starting with her participation in the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was an art history major in the mid-nineteen-sixties. Moving to San Francisco after graduation, she became involved with the San Francisco Mime Troupe and the Diggers, a community arts and action group that provided free street theater, food, medical care, transport, and temporary housing in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood and opened “Free Stores” that gave away their stock.

Pamela became a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner in 1974 and lived for the next decade in Boulder, Colorado, where she was a student of Chogyam Trungpa, and worked for and attended Naropa Institute (now Naropa University), earning an MA in Contemplative Psychology in 1983 and serving on Naropa’s board for the past thirty years, much of that time as Development Chair.

with husband Marty Krasney

After returning to California and marrying in 1984, Pamela was active in the HIV/AIDS community, initially as a caregiver and eventually as the Chair of the Marin AIDS Project. Since 1999, when she befriended and began to work with Jarvis Masters, a wrongly-convicted Death Row inmate at San Quentin State Prison, Pamela was a fervent criminal justice and anti-death penalty advocate. She was active in Human Rights Watch, was on the board of Death Penalty Focus for many years and had been serving as a director of the Prison Mindfulness Institute (with Acharya Fleet Maull).

She lived with her husband Marty in Sausalito, California and had two children and two grandchildren, and more best friends than anyone else.

Pamela will be greatly missed by all of us who knew her, and by all the people whose lives she touched who may never have met her. The Boulder Shambhala community will be having an event to celebrate her life later in the summer.

A Warrior of Generosity
Tribute by Gregory Lubkin
Kalapa Patron and Co-Chair, Shambhala Trust

If someone had set out to create the perfect model of generosity in the Shambhala world, they could not have improved on Pamela Krasney. Many years ago, when I was an underemployed and underpaid professor of medieval history, she convinced me that I could somehow afford to donate hundreds of dollars a month for three years to help Shambhala Mountain Center build a proper dining room. Pamela convinced me in part because she was giving so generously herself that I felt ashamed not to donate something myself. She convinced me in part because she had such enthusiasm and certainty about the importance of SMC that I felt inspired to contribute what I could. And she convinced me in part because she pierced my sense of poverty, so that I could see the powerful abundance pervading the world of warriorship. In the words of another leading Shambhala patron, she taught us how to give until it felt good.

Pamela bore her wisdom lightly, but she was relentless in her efforts to be of benefit. Her boundless generosity was genuinely refreshing, and happily balanced by a cheerful irreverence. Besides being been one of Shambhala’s most active and effective donors and fund-raisers, Pamela sat on many charitable boards and shared her intelligence and experience widely. Even in her last weeks, she successfully steered through the Shambhala Trust grant process a new project addressing issues of at-risk youth in the San Francisco Bay Area.

For those of us who have been working with Pamela in Shambhala’s mandala of generosity, it is difficult to imagine life without her keen mind, her ready wit, and her open heart. We will miss her terribly.

My Good Friend Pamela
poem by Vicki Hitchcock

at the Sukhavati for Pamela in Mill Valley

My good friend Pamela was the queen of dead headers
Not the “grateful” kind traveling the country in VW buses
I’m talking about the ones who master the art of picking dead blossoms off of plants..
Her plants, your plants, perfect stranger’s plants
Plants in front of fancy hotels while she was waiting for the valet to bring her car
No plant was safe from her fearless care
No dead leaf could rest for long on her lawn
No weeds could settle in her flower beds Even in these last few months, of weekly treatments, she would shuffle out hunched over to pick dropped leaves and clean up unruly bushes.. She always took care of everyone and every thing in her world On her last afternoon she escaped into her beloved garden
To pull and pick a few pesky intruders
And then, as she climbed into her bed to rest a moment, her heart suddenly stopped
Her heart that so many of us relied on
Her heart that held so many of us in its fierce and honest embrace..
Stopped.. Just like that.
Later that night, as I am on my porch sharing the news with a fellow shattered friend in another town, I break down.
“you’ll never believe what I’m doing right this minute” I blubber, laughing and crying at once,
“I’m dead heading my fucking plant!” A loud hoot erupts in space and we two friends left here laugh and cry together for a long time…
Too many losses to hold in a single moment
It will take years.
That night, a soft rain came, soaking our parched gardens, sending a shower of brilliant yellow leaves onto the grateful grass…
Bringing the whisper of a smile to our broken hearts

Share your tributes and memories here, below in the comments section.

photo by Ali Hunsberger

So, this young white boy walks into one of the oldest,
most revered African-American churches in Charleston, SC
to sit down and pray in Bible study with the church members —
his mental state, a deranged, but calm, psychosis simmering.
Nobody saw it coming, though the vacancy in his eyes might have betrayed it —
when suddenly, this devil-made-me-do-it despicable shadow puppet of white
supremacist culture broke through his chest like an alien relic of the KKK —
and he started shooting people.

He got a gun for his journey into manhood, a gift for his 21st birthday.
But what was it that caused him to take hold of it this night inside God’s house?
That is the question, isn’t it?
This young man betrayed his own humanity, and something is not right here.
This gun, these bullets, too many bullets, nine precious beautiful lives lost.
Something is just not right here, and even these words can do this no justice.
Even these words are just a story, just a narrative looking for a resolution,
looking for an explanation, looking to ease the pain, buyback some blame.
But it just keeps coming back to this final resting place —
that something, something is terribly wrong with this picture.
Why does this young man have a gun in his hand?
Something is not right here. Something is not right.
Can we all just see that for a minute? and stop —
stop right where you are, don’t take another step.
Think about it – what just happened here, what continues to happen.
Just feel it, let your broken-heart cry.

© Debra Hiers, 20 June 2015, Atlanta, GA

On May 26, 2015, two Davis Shambhala Meditation Center members received City of Davis “Thong Hu Nuynh” Awards. Shastri Manny Medieros was recognized for Civil Rights Advocacy and Judith MacBrine was recognized as Public Servant of the Year.

article by Judith MacBrine

For Manny, receiving the award was difficult. But the award was also about pride of family: his nuclear family, his family of origin and his Shambhala family. Manny grew up in a family that taught him to value service to others and to not draw attention to himself.

As it happened, on the day of the award, Manny was unable to personally receive it due to an earlier agreement to co-lead an out-of-town weekthun. “I dodged that bullet,” he laughed. Instead, Manny’s daughter Sarah, grandson Wesley, and grandchild-in-utero, received the award for him. In her acceptance remarks, Sarah said, “My dad always tends to be quite humble about these things. I’m always impressed to hear what he has accomplished because he doesn’t always share everything with us…I’m very proud of him.”

Manny Medeiros received the award for his lifetime of legal work focused on expanding the protections and empowerments of marginalized classes of Californians. Manny worked to:

Manny Medeiros

For Judith, the best part of the award was being nominated for it. “When you’ve been in the trenches with people and they “see” you – your commitment, your skills, your humanity – and they want to honor you, it’s quite a humbling thing.”

Judith’s niche is working with government. Her particular passions are working with conflict and with issues of societal power and privilege. She has been active with the Yolo County Neighborhood Court, a facilitator of community dialogues between community members of color and the Davis Police Department, and is implementing the Alternative Conflict Resolution Pilot Program with the Davis Police Department, among many other activities focused on improving the Davis community.

Judith MacBrine

Judith suggests that the real story here isn’t that she and Manny were recognized with awards but that so many people, unnamed, are actively engaged in creating enlightened society in their own ways.

As mentioned by Davis Mayor Pro Tem, Robb Davis, “So much of what is going right in our [Davis] community is not in the public eye. The real connective tissue of the community is the efforts of people who are giving their time and even their professional skills and advice. [The Thong Hy Hyuhn Awards are] one of the few spaces in our community where we get to celebrate all the unique gifts that people have. I love it. These are acts of peace-building. We have such a conflictual society. These are people who are going counter to that by going with the moral arc – the “grain” – of the universe which, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, bends toward justice. How can’t that be emotive? It’s like seeing a vision of what the world must be. I think of that every time. It’s like getting a glimpse of the future.”

As Shambhala warriors, we “arrange the throne of the king” by:

Receiving something like the Davis Thong Hu Nuynh Award, reminds us of these warrior attributes, especially that – each of us – has an integral part in the larger mandala.