Community Conversation: Lineage Portraits

Meeting Summary, Sunday, April 7

On Sunday 4/7, eight of us gathered to discuss the following questions:

• What do the lineage portraits at our center mean to you personally?
• Where should the lineage portraits be located in our center (or should they be removed permanently)?

Personal connection to the lineage portraits – and to our lineage holders – varied widely from “not at all” to “deeply important.” Some expressed their connections to both Chogyam Trungpa and/or Sakyong Mipham, as well as the role of lineage generally within the Shambhala tradition. Others connected more deeply with the teacher’s chair in the shrine room as a symbol of teaching, as well as other symbols around the center. Generally, those who had direct experience and encounters with the lineage holders found the portraits to be more significant than those who did not.

Recommendations for action regarding the lineage portraits included the following:

• The current lineage portraits in the Vajrayana shrine room should be left in place. It is important for those who are students of the lineage holders to continue their devotional practices. However, these portraits should continue to be hidden behind the screens when the room is used for meetings or other purposes.
• The large practice hall should remain “neutral,” with no portraits. The spaces where they hung should remain empty for now (the small Diginties banners hanging in their place should be removed)
• In order to connect more deeply with our lineage history, additional thangkas and images of other lineage holders from the Kagyu, Nyingma, and Shambhala lineages should be displayed in the community areas as space is available. Having these figures represented both deepens our connection to the lineage and keeps alive our history for continued reflection.
• This conversation should continue, in both formal and informal ways, as we move through this time of rapid change in our community. We should stay open to new possibilities as they arise.