Community Conversation: Shambhala Global Services
Ten people gathered for a conversation on Sunday, May 5, regarding Shambhala Global Services (SGS) and the Portland Shambhala Center’s relationship to it. What follows is a brief summary of information shared by John Smith and Jack Bodner, as well as questions that were answered at this conversation. About SGS: Shambhala is the global organization … Continue
Community Conversation: Abuses of Power in Our Community
On Sunday, April 28, 18 people attended our Community Conversation focused on the topic of abuses of power in our community. Aspirations for this conversation included “getting to know one another at a deeper level,” “healing,” “understanding what happened and how to address it,” “learning to hold, express, and feel pain along with love,” “development … Continue
Relo Team Community Bulletin for May
Your Relo Team Community Bulletin for May What we’re thinking about and doing to ensure a home for our community. Background: We will keep a pulse on our collective wishes to see what we want and what we have the energy and resources. For example, right now, our dues alone do not cover our expenses. … Continue
Community Conversation: Reports from An Olive Branch
On Sunday, April 20, seventeen of us gathered to review and discuss the reports from An Olive Branch, the third-party organization investigating misconduct within our Shambhala international organization. We reflected on the following questions: What can our community learn from these reports? How do we hold these stories in our hearts without becoming overwhelmed or triggered? … Continue
The Dharma of Social Justice
The Dalai Lama has said, “The threshold between right and wrong is pain.” (Imagine All the People, p.98). He was speaking to the intersection of love and justice. As Buddhists, we know that all humanity is innately compassionate, however often we lose touch with that. No matter how often we try to turn away from … Continue
More on who does what
In this episode we talk a bit more about who does what at the Portland Shambhala Meditation Center. https://youtu.be/05lIZJo7K0c
Making Portland Shambhala governance more inclusive
Part 1 Since the beginning of the year, the Portland Shambhala directors and Governance Council have been thinking about how to make governance more open, less exclusive or mysterious. So, inspired by the TRIZ facilitation structure, we played a game at the March 2019 Council meeting. We started by envisioning the worst possible actions. We … Continue
Community Conversation: Diversity and Inclusion
Meeting Summary, Sunday, April 14 By Mark Douglass Twelve people attended our conversation on diversity and inclusion. We began by listening to one another’s stories of marginalization and exclusion, then discussed in small groups the categories of people who are not at the Portland Shambhala Center. We identified categories of race, age (young people), socioeconomic … Continue
Community Conversation: Lineage Portraits
Meeting Summary, Sunday, April 7 by Mark Douglass 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 – … Continue
I Ching Guidance for the Year of the Earth Boar
Contributors: Gardner Murphy, Timaree Bierle-Dodds, Abbey Pleviak, Laura Byrd; Photos by Dale Bennet It is traditional every year on Shambhala Day to throw the I Ching, the classical Chinese system of interpreting questions or current situations by tossing, in our case, three coins. Each toss of the three coins can result in a broken line, … Continue
