Way of Shambhala

“The path of Shambhala is here to awaken us to the potential of our lives. It teaches us how to live meaningfully and vigorously, with joy. Its ancient but practical wisdom allows us to discover unconditional human confidence. Through the practice of meditation, we discover that goodness, strength, and wisdom are inherent in our own mind and being.”

- Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

The Way of Shambhala offers a structured path of authentic meditation practice and a complete introduction to Shambhala Buddhism. Open to people of any spiritual tradition, this program is designed for people living in the modern world, and is suitable for both beginning and experienced meditators alike. It provides a strong foundation in mindfulness-awareness meditation, wisdom teachings, contemplative arts and physical disciplines rooted in the ancient traditions of Shambhala and Tibetan Buddhism. The practices and teachings engage our emotions, intelligence, creativity, and the practicalities of modern daily life. The program, taught by experienced Shambhala teachers under the guidance of the Shambhala lineage-holder Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, offers a insight into how meditation can increase the sanity in our daily lives, and from there expand to impact our whole society.

Program Overview

The Way of Shambhala is a sequential program of contemplative weekend workshops and weeknight classes organized into two parts - Way of Shambhala I & Way of Shambhala II.

Way of Shambhala I

Way of Shambhala I is organized into five series. Each series includes a weekend workshop and a companion five-week evening class. Participants may choose to proceed sequentially through the entire program, or participate in just the Shambhala Training weekends or just the weeknight classes. However, in order to attend the final Rigden Weekend all previous weekends and classes must be completed first. Note: Way of Shambhala I is a prerequisite for Way of Shambhala II.

If you feel you have prior practice and study experience that qualifies you for mid-year entry, please contact our Practice & Study Director.

Program Schedule & Pricing for 2011- 2012

See our Generosity Policy.

Way of Shambhala I - Program Descriptions

Series I - Meditation in Everyday Life

• Shambhala Training Level I

1.5 Day Weekend Intensive
Open to the Public
Through the practice of meditation, we glimpse unconditional goodness as the ground of our existence. Opening to ourselves with gentleness and appreciation, we begin to see our potential as genuine and compassionate human beings.

• Meditation in Everyday Life

Five Week Course
Open to the Public
Provides introductory tools and teachings for working with meditation in everyday life. With simple instructions and the right support, mindfulness meditation practice can become part of one’s life, revealing one’s innate stability, strength and clarity.

Series II - Contentment in Everyday Life

• Shambhala Training Level II

2.5 Day Weekend Intensive
Prerequisite: Shambhala Training Level I
Having experienced a taste of basic goodness, we want to go forward. Meditation practice allows us to observe how we create a cocoon of habits to mask our fear. We begin to appreciate that there is no fundamental obstacle to experiencing basic goodness.

• Contentment in Everyday Life

Five Week Course
Prerequisite: Shambhala Meditation Instruction
Contentment is hard to find. We usually think that contentment is found in things, achievements or experiences. With meditation practice, we learn to appreciate ourselves and simple human experiences. Difficult emotions and the challenges of life can be met with gentleness, steadiness and humor.

Series III - Joy in Everyday Life

• Shambhala Training Level III

2.5 Day Weekend
Prerequisite: Shambhala Training Levels I & II
Developing fearlessness by examining our habitual tendencies, we are willing to experience our life directly and extend the attitude of fearlessness to our activities.

• Joy in Everyday Life

Five Week Course
Prerequisite: Contentment In Everyday Life
We often approach our lives with the idea that joy comes from the fulfillment of our personal desires. Through an exploration of the Buddhist teachings on intelligent compassion towards others, we begin to discover the confidence and inspiration for a life of cheerful discipline, health and bravery.

Series IV - Fearlessness in Everyday Life

• Shambhala Training Level IV

2.5 Day Weekend
Prerequisite: Shambhala Training Levels I - III
With trust in basic goodness and daring to experience the sharp edge of reality, we move forward with gentleness, increased awareness, and inquisitiveness about the world, as it is. We can extend ourselves to others fully and with kindness.

• Fearlessness In Everyday Life

Five Week Course
Prerequisite: Joy In Everyday Life
As the path continues, we learn to work with our anxiety, so that we are not blocked by fear. Through an exploration of the traditional Buddhist teachings of mind and the nature of reality, we learn to see clearly. We dare to face life and death as they are. The meditator, open to uncertainty, goes beyond the emotions of hope and fear to experience equanimity.

Series V - Wisdom in Everyday Life

• Shambhala Training Level V 

2.5 Day Weekend
Prerequisite: Shambhala Training Levels I - IV
Communicating with the world gently and fearlessly, our awareness is sharpened and we find the open clear sky of mind — a delightful source of wisdom and uplifted energy. We trust our nature enough to let go into the present moment.

• Wisdom In Everyday Life

Five Week Course
Prerequisite: Fearlessness In Everyday Life
Meditation sharpens our intelligence and uncovers our wisdom. Students will receive practical instructions for transforming confused emotions and situations into effective actions as they arise. No longer deterred or depressed by obstacles, we can include everything as part of the path. The challenges of daily life become opportunities for both contemplative practice and social action.

• Rigden Weekend

2.5 Day Weekend
Pre-requisite: Entire Way of Shambhala program (above), or
Outrageous/Inscrutable weekend of the Sacred Path program.
The contentment, joy, fearlessness and wisdom of the Way of Shambhala culminates in unconditional confidence. This weekend workshop, led by a master teacher in the Shambhala tradition, introduces the teachings of enlightened leadership. With the great problems now facing human society, it seems increasingly important to find simple ways to bring compassionate and strong leadership to the world, even in small ways. This weekend emphasizes genuine confidence and steadfastness in facing the world’s challenges.

Way of Shambhala II

Way of Shambhala II currently includes a curriculum of five Shambhala Training Sacred Path weekends, four 6-week evening classes, and one 5-week evening recorded course. Participants may choose to proceed through sequentiallythe entire program, or participate in just the Shambhala Training weekends or the just weeknight classes. However, in order to qualify for Sutrayana Seminary, the entire Way of Shambhala II program must be completed.

Note: the weekly courses are NOT scheduled in series with the weekend courses as in Way of Shambhala I.

Program Schedule & Pricing for 2011- 2012

See our Generosity Policy.

Note: The weekend tuitions are higher for Way of Shambhala II due to the necessity of bringing in out-of-town teachers.

Way of Shambhala II - Program Descriptions

• Shambhala Training Sacred Path: Great Eastern Sun

2.5 Day Weekend Intensive - Prerequisite: Way of Shambhala I
This weekend program teaches how to see the Great Eastern Sun, the primordial energy and brilliance that is the basis of all that exists...

This is the first weekend of The Sacred Path program. The Sacred Path is based on the Shambhala root texts of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, which present a societal vision of enlightenment and the methods for realizing such a vision. The Sacred Path series of weekends extend the meditation training introduced in Shambhala Training Levels I-V, deepening the experience of Shambhala warriorship and offering further methods for being of genuine and practical benefit in the world.

• Shambhala Training Sacred Path: Windhorse

2.5 Day Weekend Intensive - Prerequisite: Great Eastern Sun
Introduction and instruction for the practice of “raising windhorse” is given, which opens the heart and refreshes one's confidence. The practice is a way to bring about skillful and heartfelt social engagement, enabling the warrior to go forward in the midst of whatever challenges occur.

• Shambhala Training Sacred Path: Drala

  2.5 Day Weekend - Prerequisite: Windhorse
  Through exploring the depth of perception, one engages the elemental and magical strength inherent in the world. The principle of Drala refers to the sacred energy and power that exists when we step beyond aggression.
  

• Shambhala Training Sacred Path: Meek & Perky

  2.5 Day Weekend - Prerequisite: Drala
  The “four dignities” are introduced as a path and a process, which describe a warrior's maturing and widening sphere of benevolent engagement in the world. The training in the dignities allows one to maintain awareness and delight at each stage. Meek is a study of the grounded, humble and gentle beginning stages of a warrior's journey. Here one trains to overcome arrogance—the primary obstacle to learning. Perky focuses on cultivating sharp, vibrant and uplifted energy through natural discipline. Overcoming the trap of doubt, the warrior of perky is able to accomplish his or her activities with a sense of nobility and ease.

• Shambhala Training Sacred Path: Outrageous & Inscrutable

2.5 Day Weekend - Prerequisite: Meek & Perky
These fruitional dignities refer to the extraordinary skill of a practiced warrior. No longer afraid of making mistakes, the unconventional and visionary perspective of the outrageous warrior combines with the skill of spontaneous inscrutability to create benefit for others on a large scale.

• Karma & The Twelve Nidana's

  Six Week Course - Prerequisite: Way of Shambhala I
  The complex workings of karma are examined through the teachings on the "Twelve Links of Interdependent Origination". These twelve links, or nidanas, are one of the best known Buddhist explanations of the causal chain-reaction of confusion, which creates the perpetual cycle of suffering called samsara. By looking directly at the experience of mind, we begin to understand our apparent confusion about ourselves and the phenomena of our world, and how it could be interrupted thus allowing wakeful wisdom to manifest.

• Lojong

Six Week Course - Prerequisite: Karma & the Nidanas
Coupling practical advice with penetrating wisdom, the teachings on lojong offer a workable way to develop genuine compassion in our daily lives. Based on Atisha’s original Seven Points of Mind Training, this course introduces two essential practices of the bodhisattva warrior: Tonglen (Exchanging Self For Other), and contemplation of the Lojong slogans. Through these two Mahayana practices, we find ourselves developing openness naturally and gaining greater skills in helping others.

• Lineage & Devotion

  Five Week Course - Prerequisite: Lojong
  The principles of transmission and the student/teacher relationship are introduced as a central component to advancing on the Shambhala Buddhist Path. Included is an overview of the path of devotion according to the three yanas, or vehicles, of Tibetan Buddhism; and an introduction to the central lineage figures of the Shambhala Buddhist tradition and the living, up-to-date nature of their life examples.
  

• Journey Without Goal

6 Week Course - Prerequisite: Lineage & Devotion
The Shambhala Buddhist tradition includes the special practices and path of tantra, or the Vajrayana, which are the pinnacle of view and skillful means that leads to ultimate wisdom and compassion. This course provides a glimpse of the tantric world and it’s requisites: the tantric student/teacher relationship, transmission of the teachings from teacher to student, “abhisheka” or empowerment, and the principles of vajra nature, mandala, the five Buddha families, and “sacred world”.

• Emptiness

5 Week Course - Prerequisite: All previous Way of Shambhala I & II courses

The Buddha taught the view of the Mahayana in the second and third turnings of the wheel of dharma.  The second turning articulates the truth of sunyata, or emptiness -- the doctrine that the apparently substantial world that we perceive and think about is, in fact, empty of any solid or objectifiable reality.  The teachings on emptiness reveal that it is our own ego-centered, self-serving versions of reality that are empty of validity, not reality itself.  Once this emptiness is realized, the true beauty and value of the world may be seen and the boundless compassion that exists within each person may be released.

Learn more about meditation and buddhism at shambhala.org
Read more about meditation and buddhism at shambhalatimes.org

Glossary of terms at labelingthoughts.org.

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Shambhala Meditation Center of Portland
1110 SE Alder Street, Suite 203, Portland,  OR 97214
Tel. 503 231 4971   

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