Council Discussions On March 3rd Meeting

Have you ever wondered what is discussed during our monthly two hour council meetings? I volunteered to be the Council Secretary so I could help facilitate communications between our community to our council and vice versa. At my first council on 3/3/20, I realized there could be challenges to good communications.

For example, how can we be completely transparent and at the same time respect everyone in our community? Is there a skillful way of being completely transparent without evoking anger or distress in others? I do not have an absolute answer that will answer these questions or solutions for all the other challenges we will encounter. This will be a journey for all of us as we move into an unknown future.

One of the topics that was discussed was the Shambhala Mountain Center’s letter (You can request a copy from the author of this blog post):

During the council meeting, I was asked what I felt about the SMC letter. I remember receiving the email, but I did not remember how I felt after reading it. The next day I re-read the SMC letter. Two sentences stood out for me: “Here at SMC you’ll find a spectrum of experience and views, even in our staff of 50,” and “It is important to state that the board reflects the same diversity of opinion as is found in the staff of SMC.” I feel our center also has a wide spectrum or diversity of experiences, views, and opinions. How can all these voices at our Portland Shambhala Center be heard and an engaging dialogue emerge without trying to fix or problem solve? How can we validate more and be less dismissive?

The other topic that the Council worked on is future Town Halls and Community Conversations.  We thought we could draw upon ideas from two sources.  A working document from the Process Team’s Care and Conduct group and a recent invitation to a community meeting at the Boulder Shambhala Center.  Both of those will be shared soon.

Looking at the Some Principles Woven into the Shambhala Code of Conduct (You can request a copy from the author of this blog post), there were two principles from Item 1: “We need to relate to all people through relationship – it’s all about people that resonated with me:

 

  • We listen to others and acknowledge what we hear, treating everyone as worthy to be heard and treated with respect, even when we may not agree with them

 

  • We are curious about people, without being nosey, manipulative or judgmental

 

I think both of these statements have the ingredients we could use to work on the question I asked earlier: How can all these voices at our Portland Shambhala Center be heard and an engaging dialogue emerge without trying to fix or problem solve? We could approach these engaging in dialogue with curiosity instead of assumptions.  We could ask open-ended questions and then actively listen non-judgmentally to the response. We could show we heard (or are trying to understand) by something as simple as paraphrasing what we think we heard. These are just my thoughts. How about you? What principles caught your attention?

The Boulder Shambhala email (You can request a copy from the author of this blog post) also has good topics for us to discuss. There was one question that I felt curious about and wanted to explore more: What is accountability and forgiveness? When I hear accountability, I think of being able to admit what I did was wrong. When I hear forgiveness, I think of making amends and making an attempt to reconcile with someone.  However, I feel there is no guarantee of forgiveness.

What are your thoughts on topics for the next town hall? How do you feel about engaging dialogue and difficult conversations?

If you have any thoughts, ideas, questions, or opinions you would like the council to hear, I will make sure your voice is heard. You can contact me at [email protected]

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