Questioning ourselves and Shambhala’s new Code of Conduct
Years ago, my efforts to reflect on and create a kind of mirror for the Portland Shambhala Community involved a lot of obviously uplifting stories such as a Harvest of Peace report or notes from a Drala Hike leadership retreat. Even when the topics were more somber, like Practicing while incarcerated, Sukhavati for Ron Tomas, or Aging in Shambhala, … Continue
Farewell (for now) to Janie (as co-director)
Our co-director Janie Perlstein stepped down from her leadership position at Portland Shambhala at the end of June, 2021 to focus on the clinical training phase of her doctorate. We feel so much gratitude for her two and a half years of service and we miss her already. Janie stepped into this role at a … Continue
Landing Portland Shambhala
Instead of having a mid-summer’s day party, our Shambhala community met on zoom because the temperature outside was fierce, part of the heatwave affecting the Pacific Northwest. There were two parts of our meeting, talking about the possibility of leasing a space and bidding farewell to Janie Perlstein in her role as Center Co-Director. This … Continue
Meditating (and walking) in the park on Memorial Day weekend
Last Sunday, Shambhalians in Portland gathered for sitting and walking meditation. It was our first in-person event for many months. It was also our first experiment with a hybrid event — where we tried to connect those of us in the park with community members who could only participate via Zoom. David Parker created the … Continue
What comes next after a year of zooming?
The COVID-19 pandemic made Portland Shambhala do a lot of improvisation on how to do: Zoom Practice and Education team, Council, “operations”, and all the other kinds of meetings that are part of a functioning Shambhala Center. Zoom community meetings (to decide about moving out of the Carnegie Library building or talk about our future … Continue
The New Shambhala Policy on Diversity, Inclusivity & Anti-Discrimination
On July 12, 2020, the Shambhala Board of Directors approved the Policy on Diversity, Inclusivity & Anti-Discrimination. This policy became effective on Shambhala Day, 2021 and will be reviewed on Shambhala Day, 2022. The policy states: “Each individual has the right to practice, study and work in Shambhala in an environment that is free from … Continue
2021 – PSMC Year of the Iron Ox I Ching Reading
Farewell to 2020, Year of the Iron Mouse. It was a year characterized by intense global challenges, but through the mouse’s characteristics of cheerfulness, cleverness, and sociability, we found new ways to come together as a community through online technologies. Both Portland Shambhala and Open Sky Eugene went through the poignant process of dissolving our … Continue
New Years news
In case you missed the Shambhala Day broadcast, here is a recording of it. One of the day’s events, before the International Broadcast, was throwing the I Ching for Portland. We have a recording of the discussion about the reading: #6 SUNG, transitioning to #44 Kou (its 13 minutes long). My take-away was that we … Continue
Reflections on our retreat: Windhorse for the New Year
I wanted to share some reflections from the Sangha Retreat, “Windhorse for the New Year” with Shastri Janet Bronstein. Whether you were able to participate or not, there’s plenty to contemplate and follow-up on. Both the first and second days were structured around the Terma instructions from Trungpa Rinpoche on raising lungta or windhorse. It … Continue
Three-Fold Logic of Sangha
Jack Bodner came across a scanned, un-signed document titled “Three-Fold Logic of Deleks”. He shared it and I thought it could easily be retitled “The Three-Fold Logic of Sangha”. Here it is: Ground In order to realize our precious human birth It is necessary to share the buddhadharma. In order to share the buddhadharma, it … Continue
