Celebrating Pride
by Eugene Castillo Pride, Basic Goodness and Good Society: part two of a three-part series Celebrating our identities as gays, lesbians, bisexuals, trans, intersex, questioning, and gender-queer individuals is both an individual process and a communal activity, though it may seem odd at times to the rest of society. Why do men have to … Continue
Queer Pride Meditation Group – Part 1
by Eugene Castillo “We can use our interconnectedness to cultivate human dignity – the bedrock of all diversity.” (Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, The Shambhala Principle) The first time I walked into our center in Eagle Rock, California, I wasn’t thinking about my queer identity. I was in physical pain and needed formal meditation instruction to cope after two … Continue
Council Meeting Notes
Hello Sangha, What follows are all the notes from January 2017 to date. Thank you for your patience with the distribution process. These notes would still be tucked away in the corners of Google Drive without the patient help our Communications Coordinator David Engelbrecht. I hope to see you at HoP, Wendy Griffin (Council Secretary) … Continue
The Lion Roars in May! — hear Dharma Arts talks + see performance this Tue, May 30
by Deborah Kuprunas Greetings! This merry month of May, the Dharma Arts Council of Portland Shambhala explores the teachings of the Second Dignity: Lion(Perky). We have already offered two Dharma Arts Talks on the 3rd & 4th Tuesdays of this month following our Tues evening meditation session. If you missed the talks, fear not! You can hear them … Continue
The Rough Edges of Basic Goodness
by Michaela McCormick Our Shambhala Center’s Listening Team, led by Mark Douglass, met recently to review the latest round of its interviews of a wide variety of our past and present members to learn the ways in which they participate in the Center’s activities and what encourages and discourages them to do so. Our … Continue
Health Care Professionals Initiative
March 30, 2017 (Re-posted from Shambhala Times) Envisioning a health department within Shambhala A group of Healthcare Professionals in the community have begun a dialogue over the past year about envisioning what a Shambhala Health Department would look like. If we had the opportunity to develop our own health care system, what would we do? If we … Continue
Rising to the Occasion: Taking the Dharma into Social Action
by Michaela McCormick Seventeen of us gathered on March 4 at our Shambhala Center to feel and express our broken-heartedness at the violence, injustice, and environmental degradation that recent political events are now refueling. We spent almost three hours voicing our longing to use what we know about compassion, interdependence, and curiosity to stand up … Continue
Book Sales Now through March
Your purchases of items in the Shambhala Center bookstore help support our Center. The bookstore lives in the center community room. Not to be confused with the Lending Library, which is in the back room off of the shrine room. The Shambhala Day bookstore sale continues through Milarepa Day, March 11. We are offering … Continue
AWAKENING TO THE STAGES OF LIFE
February 25, 2017 “The clouds pass and the rain does its work, and all individual beings flow into their forms.” I Ching By the year 2030 if you live in South Korea you can expect to live on average for 91 years. In the United States average length of life is projected to … Continue
Relocation: New Year, New Opportunities
Over the past few years our Portland Shambhala Meditation Center has grown its membership, classes and offerings, and budget to a size consistent with many other community-based nonprofits, religious communities, clubs, and social action groups in the Portland area! The challenge we face is that the physical space of our Center is limited and cannot meet our … Continue
