Shambhala Day – Year of the Iron Mouse

Shambhala Day this year was warm and remarkably pacified.

Of course we began with a traditional Lhasang.

In addition to sitting practice and the international broadcast, we held a fund-raising conversation, and had two people step down from the Governing Council:

• Bettina Hetz stepped down from her role as the Culture and Decorum representative after many years of service.  She followed that up by inviting everyone to Dim Sum at a local restaurant the following Sunday!
• Misha Drlikova stepped down as Director of Practice and Education after holding the post during these turbulent times.  They are taking some time off to attend to a very demanding job as a crisis worker.

Although he was not present, David Engelbrecht is stepping into the role of Council Secretary.  Although the doors to Council are always open, he will be focused on improving communication between the the Council and the Community — both ways.

The Practice and Education Director role is currently vacant and co-director Janie Perlstein will be convening a group of people to organize that area.

As a reflection of the times, we had a protest from several people and that led to a remarkable discussion during the delicious pot luck lunch about how we as a community feel about disagreements and dissension.  As a community we’ve come a long way in understanding how the Shambhala teachings can inform us and guide us toward more patience with and compassion for each other, regardless of the other person’s point of view.  Facing the reality of society as it exists is not necessarily easy. That conversation led us back to the question of “How do we go back to Square One?”  and “What is Square One for Portland Shambhala?” That was the question that we posed to the I-Ching.

The I-Ching reading was

45 Gathering Together moving to 60 Limitation

There’s a lot to think about there and you can look forward to an interpretation soon.

And of course we had a remarkable clean-up where everyone pitched in and put the Center back in perfect order.

During the preliminaries, where we did some year-end cleaning, Nora Nichols realized that the vacuum cleaner that we were using had reached the end of its life and so she donated a new one.  Look forward to using it the next time you’re on the clean-up crew!