I took some photos as a part of the weekend. I had left my “good” camera back home, thinking I would be too busy to practice the Miksang photography that is my life’s blood (both as a student and teacher). But within the first full day, someone remembered me as a Miksang teacher (“Go ask that woman in the pink shirt to take a photo!”) and I was charged with capturing a few key moments. I wanted to share them with you.

(Photo: Miriam Hall - KGG BSMC - lunch first day)

(Photo: Miriam Hall - KGG BSMC - Manifesting our Mandala)

Manifesting an actual culture of kindness isn’t easy. We all wish it was. We spent, as many others have spent at the other KGG gatherings and will in the future, at Karme Choling and in Halifax in the fall, spend, time practicing many forms of adapted non-violent communication, listening and deep acceptance of ourselves and others. Like the classic image of the Buddha’s bowl going upstream after he revealed his teachings under the Bodhi Tree, this effortless love of Basic Goodness takes a lot of effort to learn how to manifest, though at the time of manifestation, no effort is actually needed. We are seeding the ground, and seeing how it can actually feel and smell and look like in life. The above photo is of an exercise in which community members, arms of governance and protectors wove in and out of each other with crepe paper and light and glitter to physically feel our interaction and interdependence on each other.

In the end, there is no better way to experience the possibilities of the power of Basic Goodness than to live them. We were implored, and are being encouraged in follow-up to the program, to live what we spoke, to explore what we poked and to discover new ways of being and share them with everyone. This cannot be simply another program we attend and return home from, leaving it all behind, President Reoch stated again and again.

I leave you with a little film of what it was like to be present in the center of the Maha-Sangha that the Shambhala Community is. Go to Karme Choling or Halifax if you can!

We have prepared the legal paperwork to make us owners of our current building, 408 S. Baldwin St, Madison, as of December 1st. All that is left to do is the actual closing and signing. Phew!

Now, things can always go a bit funky in closings, and we won’t have the details all nailed down until April (enter important but confusing legal mumbo jumbo here). So to be honest, in some ways, this is a bit like a restaurant’s “soft opening” – there won’t be a grand opening until spring.
However, the sellers and the sangha all agree on the terms and the building will be ours, bit by bit, starting with a December 1st closing.

Please keep the donations rolling in! Our fundraiser letter went out late due to a few flukes (some ours, some due to the printers) and so some of you are just getting them. Make sure to read it and contribute *whatever you can* – 100 people sending in $10 each means $1000! Of course, if you can help us out with a donation like $250 or more, that is the kind of support that will zoom us forward.

So far we have just over $1000, and we need $7000 by March (at the absolute latest – by January 1st would be best) to pay the entire down payment. Yes – that’s right – there’s not as much of a rush now – our lawyer has given us a cushion to give people time to get the money in, as well as take care of some other center business.
But certainly the sooner we have your donation, the sooner we can close.
If you can pay a bit more later, then do so, but if you can send in something now, then please do.

Many thanks to our core and building council members – in particular, Mark and Ann, Jim and Connie, and Miriam, who went through meeting after meeting (and will continue to go through meeting after meeting) to get this to happen. Ann and Suzanne have done great work with finances – keeping track of donations and taking care of number crunching – and without Jim and Connie’s generous legal help, we’d be up samsara creek without a paddle. The vision of long-term students like Mark and Kathy and Lora has been wonderful, and Olivia’s letter-writing and fundraising skills have raised the roof for sure.

And for all of you who have contributed, will contribute and are contributing – through physical labor, mental labor, emails, mailings, financial help or all of the above – a sincere and total thanks to you as well. With a sangha like this, Enlightened Society feels all the more possible in this lifetime.

-Miriam
Your Shambhala Meditation Center of Madison Director

with Keiko Kubo

Saturday, December 4, 10:00—5:00

Price $100 ($50 material fee included in price)

Give the gift of flowers this holiday season.

Keiko makes Ikebana as a three-dimensional sculptural form, using flowers and other materials as her medium of expression. Her Ikebana is a freestyle approach. It is also influenced by Western-style floral design and her background in the fine arts.

Location:

St. Paul’s Lutheran Church (2nd floor)

1004 Greenwood Street

(Corner of Maple and Greenwood)

Evanston, IL 60201

To Register: http://chicago.shambhala.org

Contact: Julieeinstein@comcast.net

If you haven’t become a member of our center, please consider doing so. You can see from the below email from Shambhala News Service that joining our center also joins you to a very wide mandala of Shambhala Community.

Click Here for more information on membership. It can take the form of volunteering and/or paying a monthly stipend to help support the center. Don’t hesitate to email us at madisonshambhala@gmail.com or call at 608-441-8868 to ask more questions or to join up.

Thanks to all current members for supporting us – AND the larger Shambhala world.

-Miriam Hall
Madison Center Director

From Shambhala News Service:
22 Oct 2010 – Shambhala membership now 8,000 in 47 countries

Shambhala’s recorded membership worldwide reached 8,000 this month. The 8,000 Shambhala members recorded on the Shambhala database are spread across 47 countries, in addition to many more “friends of Shambhala”. There are currently 214 Shambhala centres and groups (including our major practice centres) worldwide.

Three new members brought us to this new global total: Corinne Lemieux of the Montreal Shambhala Centre, Kevin Curtis of the Boulder Shambhala Centre and Jane Noble of the London Shambhala Centre. This latest member in London brought the total membership of Shambhala Europe to 1,500.

Thanks go to the many people who maintain Shambhala’s membership records throughout the mandala and to Ed Keizer in Amsterdam who helps administer the Shambhala Database and spotted the fact that we had just reached the 8,000 mark.

SAKYONG MIPHAM RINPOCHE
from Shambhala International:

We want to let you know that The Sakyong, Jamgön Mipham Rinpoche, officially entered deep retreat at the beginning of October. This follows the brief period when he came out of retreat for the teachings he gave this summer and to be with Khandro Tseyang for the birth of their daughter, Jetsun Drukmo.

At the mid-point of his retreat, the Sakyong wrote:
As many of you know, I have undertaken this retreat in the year of the Iron Tiger. According to Tibetan astrology, it was considered an obstacle year, as well as being a pivotal year for myself. Therefore, I have reduced my activity and entered into this retreat… This has been a powerful and meaningful time. More than ever, I feel how fortunate we are to have these teachings… These days, even though we may feel overwhelmed and weak, we can still help the world and guide it in a positive direction… I cannot express how much I appreciate the effort and determination that you all have, for being on this journey is not easy. But it is through your determination and courage that I myself am inspired… I intend to continue my retreat through the remainder of the year, concluding it after Shambhala Day. I think of you all, every single day.

Now that he is re-immersed in deep retreat, we are writing to you, and to each and every member of Shambhala, to invite you to make a personal contribution and further connection to the Sakyong by being a patron of this phase of his retreat.

Hundreds of Shambhalians served as patrons for all or part of a day when the Sakyong was in deep retreat Nepal in May. The response was so overwhelming that the entire calendar was filled by sponsors in just 30 hours! We invited the Vajra sangha to lead the way in sponsoring this new phase of retreat two weeks ago and already the first two months are fully sponsored.

If you would like to join in and make an offering at this point in his retreat, it would be in the form of taking on the role of patron for part or all of one of the days from the beginning of December through February, when the Sakyong will conclude this phase of the retreat. In accord with traditional ritual, the names of the patrons will be read aloud daily.

The retreat calendar

We have developed a calendar that you can visit, to indicate what part of the retreat you would like to be the patron for.

The contribution for one day has been calculated on the basis of the total overhead for the retreat, which includes daily food, travel, and housing expenses for the Sakyong, Sakyong Wangmo Jetsun Drukmo, and five court staff. Since the contribution for a full day is $600 (and proportionately less for a half and quarter day), you might want to consider a group contribution, such as from your household, friends, delek or kasung squad.

If you wish, you can dedicate your contribution, not only to the well-being of the Sakyong’s retreat, but also to any special person or event in your life — it could be an aspiration for a person who is ill, for someone who is close to death or had died, for a newborn child (or a child about to be born!) and so on.

To select the period of time for which you wish to be a patron, and make your contribution, please click here http://shambhala.org/giving/fallsponsorshipcalendar.php

Yours in the vision of Shambhala,

Richard Reoch, President of Shambhala

Josh Silberstein

Josh Silberstein, Chief of Staff, the Sakyong Ladrang

—————————————————-

SURMANG SHEDRA

This is what the long years of rebuilding the shedra have been all about. Not only reconstructing this noble site in the Shambhala heartland of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, but meeting the single greatest hunger of the Surmang villagers – the education of their young people.

This is definitely a shedra with a difference. You can count them yourself: not only some 30 young monastics, but more than 70 other local children – and that includes both girls and boys.

You can see a remarkable short film shot by Jon Ransohoff and edited by Lyndon Comstock who were just there. Please click here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXlfE_D4HpY . You can see the great progress we have made on the shedra and feel the energy of all these young people on their first day of school.

Lyndon and Jon also brought back a message to us from Trungpa XII Rinpoche. In it he says

The shedra at Surmang Dutsi Til will be of great benefit to the entire community of monks, nuns and laypeople. Owing to the kindness of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and the entire Shambhala community, the shedra is now close to completion this year… In order to ensure that the teachings of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche spread widely and do not decline, it would be good for these teachings to be studied by the entire community at Surmang Dutsi Til in addition to the Shambhala community. In this way, I hope that both Shambhala and Surmang can work together on practicing and developing these teachings.

Lyndon and Jon were also able to conduct the first-ever filmed interview with him, and we hope to put that online very soon.

You can visit a lovely collection of photos now up on the Konchok Foundation website along with an article from Lyndon about how things are going and what remains to be done to complete the shedra (they are starting to use it as a school, but there is lot left to finish). Please click here : http://www.konchok.org/LyndonUpdateReport.htm.

The big challenge we face now is to get the rest of the construction work done so that the shedra can be properly consecrated. There is about $150,000 of work to be done.

It has taken us six years and $740,000 to get this far. (Bob King insisted on rigorous construction standards, and thankfully the shedra withstood the earthquake.) Now we are in the final stretch of making this happen.

I know there are many funding requests at this time of year, but I wanted everyone to get this and share in this wonderful news. If you are touched by these photos and films – and by the fact that this is actually happening in this remote and unbelievably poor valley – please join me in visiting the Konchok Foundation webpages http://www.konchok.org and giving an open hearted offering…

With so much appreciation to everyone who has wanted this to happen,

Yours in the vision of Shambhala,

Richard Reoch , President of Shambhala

This is our shrine room now. A happy, calm place where many of us have sat looking out over linoleum tiles and up at a hanging ceiling for years. Our huge news is that all of this is about to change!

We are buying the building we are currently in – 408 S. Baldwin St – the whole thing. For the short term, we will keep on the renters upstairs, but over time, we will redo the first and then second floor to expand our center. This way we can have two programs at once (we won’t have to have dharma classes only after sitting on Monday or Thursday night, for instance), we’ll have more space for cooking and eventually, even an accessible bathroom. Finally, we will uplift the space we do have, right away.

For now, though, our focus is on acquiring the building (we are 75% there, with fundraising mostly done, and negotiations figured out with current owners). We need funds to finish gathering our downpayment – we still need about $5,000, before the end of the year.

Our first steps in remodeling will be to this shrine room, once it is ours to change. The ceiling under those hanging ceilings is tin – beautiful hand work from the Labor Temple days of the building. We will expose those and cover the old lino with new wood floor. Join in our efforts – through labor and donations – to make the space that has long been part ours into a space that is all ours!

For donations or questions, please contact center director, Miriam Hall
madisonshambhala@gmail.com
608-441-8868