As Rolf’s blog post indicated, the front page article by Kelly Sinoski on New Year’s Eve attracted a huge interest.

“While many people will count down to 2011 with noisemakers and song tonight , a small pocket of Vancouver will ring in the new year in quiet meditation and soft Tibetan chants”

The challenge for us is that we didn’t have anything scheduled for newcomers in the New Year. the turnout was so big, and emails and calls after New Years so numerous that Ginny Evans, our Education Coordinator, quickly rustled up a Meditation in Everyday Life class, led by Geoff Bannoff and Betty Rongae, but the risk was that we might have missed our window of opportunity. Once people heard there was no class, could we get their attention again?  A letter to the Sun brought this help:

“After an overflow crowd of would-be meditators showed up at the Shambhala Meditation Centre of Vancouver for a New Year’s Eve event, the centre developed an introductory class designed to provide students with the tools and teachings for working with meditation in everyday life..”
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Centre+develops+introductory+class/4154535/story.html#ixzz1C0xsEagA

Many thanks to Kelly Sinoski, the Sun, Ginny, Geoff, Betty, Joachim, Zach, Rolf, Lisa and everyone who has pitched in to help people connect with the sanity of meditation in everyday life

by Rolf Erni

The New Year’s Eve Practice was the brainchild of Joachim Sehrbrock and Zachariah Finley, who based it on a similar event they had seen in Los Angeles. The event was a mindful way to let the old year go and step into the new year. Sitting meditation, chanting and the ringing of the gong 108 times were part of the original plan. A great idea, I didn’t need much convincing and my wife cheerfully agreed to join me.

Great ideas sometimes take on a life of their own. The Vancouver Sun was interested in different approaches to celebrating New Year’s Eve and contacted our centre to interview the organizers. To everyone’s surprise the story appeared on the front page of the paper the very next day.

My wife and I arrived early expecting a larger than usual turnout and we were not disappointed. Joachim and Zach were standing in the entrance hall with big smiles on their faces, welcoming a stream of curious people. Every cushion, chair and other sitting device was brought into the large shrine room. The shoe and coat racks were overflowing and people were still coming in.

A friendly man with a huge bag asked for the organizer, he said he was from Terra Breads and would like to donate some bread. Looking at the bag, I thought to myself, quite a lot of bread we have here!

By the time we were ready, there were close to eighty people assembled in the large shrine room. Well, all of a sudden the large shrine room didn’t look that large anymore. We had a diverse group of people from all walks of life.

I spotted a couple that must have been in their eighties and just a few rows over were two children no older than eight. Half of the group assembled had never meditated before.

Susan Chapman and Daniel Vokey rose to the occasion.

They conducted an inspiring four hour practice for a very attentive audience. The evening started off with a recorded talk and meditation instructions by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche previously given to an audience in Halifax. After we were given further instructions on meditation, we chanted, we did contemplative practices and even had a group conversation. All this in one room: close to eighty people under the guidance of Susan who made it look like she was doing this sort of thing daily.

The small shrine room was filled with energy as Daniel led a group of practitioners through the Sadhana of Mahamudra.

The highlight of the evening was the ringing of the gong combined with a special practice, a personal aspiration for a better world. A thoughtful alternative to the traditional New Year’s resolutions which can be a bit self- centered. Everyone was invited to write their aspiration on a piece of paper. Each person waved their piece of paper through the smoke offering (Lhasang) for purification, placed it in a brocade bag and rang the gong once.

All of the aspirations were placed on the shrine and will remain there for 2011. The last gong was rung at exactly midnight and it did not surprise me that we were right on time.

While people were on their way out, they each took a loaf of bread (neatly stacked on a counter) and stepped into the night ready for the new year. My concern about the bread was needless, it was all gone within a short time.

I was deeply moved by the diversity, sincerity and dedication of all the people present. When Susan was getting ready to leave I asked her if she was tired, her big smile answered my question.

Thank you to all the people: first time visitors, friends and everybody helping out. It was spontaneous, it was inspiring, it was phenomenal. I went to bed tired and inspired. I woke up inspired still thinking about the previous night. This was not always the case with some of my previous New Year’s Eve celebrations.

SUSAN CHAPMAN is a Shastri within the Shambhala mandala and within her own Green Light Conversations she offers training programs applying mindfulness principles to conversations, relationships, and communities. She is the author of a forthcoming book on mindful communication from Shambhala Publications. The article below, an excerpt from her book, appeared in Shambhala Sun’s Mindful supplement in November.

Mindful Communications: Stop, Wait, Go

This year’s Pacific Northwest Winter Retreat―at Camp Pringle, on the shore of Shawnigan Lake, Vancouver Island―is set to run from December 18, 2010 to January 1, 2011.

The retreat comprises two two-week programs (each with one-week participation options): a Half-Dathun mindfulness-awareness meditation retreat open to all; and, for Shambhala Vajrayana Seminary graduates, a Ngondro and Werma Retreat.

Click on the following links for full descriptions on the Victoria Shambhala Centre’s website:

• Pacific Northwest Half-Dathun
with Margaret Jones Callahan
Camp Pringle, Shawnigan Lake, BC
December 18, 2010 – January 1, 2011

• Pacific Northwest Ngondro and Werma Retreat
with Brian Callahan
Camp Pringle, Shawnigan Lake, BC
December 18, 2010 – January 1, 2011

On May 4 an announcement was made that Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche had created the new teaching position of Shastri. Today the Vancouver Shambhala Centre Council is happy to announce that our own sangha member, Susan Chapman, has been invited to take on this new teaching position for the Vancouver Shambhala Centre! We are very happy with her candidacy and feel that Susan has the inspiration and experience to do wonderfully in this role.

As Shastri (literally in Sanskrit, “teacher learned in the texts and commentaries”) Susan will serve as the senior teacher for Vancouver. Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche has designed the position of Shastri to especially represent and teach the integrated Shambhala Buddhist curriculum, “The Way of Shambhala.” The Sakyong has initially selected around sixty Shastri candidates from the international mandala to serve terms of three years in these new teaching positions. Near the end of this article you will find a description of the Shastri position as well as a list of the other Shastri candidates chosen by the Sakyong.

Acharya Simmer-Brown notes that while shastris will serve as senior mentors, all of our other skilled and committed centre teachers are encouraged and still greatly needed to continue to teach.

The Shastris’ portfolios will include strengthening and developing our teaching mandala, bringing current understanding of the Shambhala Buddhist curriculum vision to their centres, and mentoring and training other teachers. Shastris will also support the leadership in Shambhala Centres in building community, and strengthening the vision of enlightened society so important in Shambhala.
All shastri candidates are required to attend a special Teachers’ Academy training program, At the end of the training, the new shastris will be ceremonially installed by Rinpoche. They will begin their duties in their centres in late summer or fall of 2010.

Susan’s first function as Shastri will be to lead a one-day teachers’ conference in September 2010 for all the current and future Way of Shambhala teaching staff, including all SSBS teachers, Shambhala Directors and Assistant Directors.

A little history about Susan Chapman:

Susan grew up in Vancouver and from grade one to twelve she attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart, an educational system that is highly regarded in the Shambhala community for it’s uplifted, gentle approach and authentic sense of community. During this time she also spent seven years training in dressage and other equestrian disciplines.
After becoming a student of the Vidyadhara, she spent the summer of 1974 studying with him in Colorado, at Naropa Institute and RMDC (now SMC). She was a member of our Vancouver center from it’s founding until 1979, when she moved to Boulder with her three year old son, Sheehan. For the next nine years she studied and practiced intensively with Rinpoche and became authorized as a dharma teacher, a Shambhala director and a Vajrayana meditation instructor. In 1983 she completed an MA degree in Buddhist and western psychology at Naropa and later became licensed as a marital and family therapist.
In 1988 Susan moved to Juneau, Alaska to work as clinical director for a community counseling center. There she met her husband, Jerry, and began to teach evening classes on Buddhism and Shambhala. In 1990 she founded the Juneau Shambhala Center. Seven years later she and her husband left Juneau to participate in the three year retreat at Sopa Choling, located at Gampo Abbey.
After completing the retreat, she was asked by Pema Chodron to move to the Abbey and assume the role of ‘Druppon’, or retreat leader, for Sopa Choling. She served as Druppon for six years, starting in 2002, with the guidance of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, Pema Chodron and Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche. In this capacity her main efforts were to cultivate an uplifted and gentle community within the three year retreat, as well as instructing and leading the retreat. During that time she also continued to teach SSBS, Heart of Warriorship and Sacred Path programs and led a Rigden ngondro retreat.
In 2008 she and Jerry returned to the Vancouver area to be closer to her aging parents and family. She was Head of Practice for the 2009 vajrayana seminary at Dechen Choling and led the month long 2010 mahamudra retreat at Karme Choling. She is currently writing a book on Mindful Communication and running a small business that offers workshops on community building.

We are happy for her new position and feel lucky that she is with us in Vancouver.

Congratulations, Susan!

With much gratitude,
The Vancouver Shambhala Centre Council

Practice and Study Pillar:
The Teaching Stream

For some time now, the Sakyong has been strengthening the Pillar of Practice and Education throughout the Shambhala Mandala, along with the pillars of government and the pillar of protection (the Dorje Kasung).

Within the pillar of Practice and Education, the Sakyong has envisioned a hierarchy of appointed teachers, similar to the structure of the Dorje Kasung. Similar to his role as the Makkyi Rabjam, the supreme commander of the Dorje Kasung, the Sakyong is the ultimate leader and mentor of all of the teachers in Shambhala. He has clarified the hierarchy of teachers, including the role of the new senior teachers, the shastris, (literally in Sanskrit, “teacher learned in the texts and commentaries”). The hierarchy of teachers will now flow from the Sakyong to the acharyas, from the acharyas to the shastris, and from the shastris to the local and regional teachers and meditation instructors.

Teaching Stream:

The Sakyong
The Acharyas
The Shastris
Local Teachers, Meditation Instructors, Assistant Directors
Shambhala Guides

The Sakyong’s leadership in the areas of curriculum and pedagogy, as well as the mentorship of teachers and meditation instructors, is most frequently communicated through the acharyas, and in particular through the Kalapa Acharya, Adam Lobel, the Dean of the Teacher Academy, Judith Simmer-Brown, and the Ashe Acharya, John Rockwell. The acharyas will continue in their broader roles as senior teachers of Shambhala. They will also mentor the shastris who will teach and provide mentorship to teachers on more local and regional levels.

Shastri functions.

• Communicating the Shambhala Buddhist path. The shastri’s role is to bring the current understanding of the Shambhala Buddhist vision and teachings to their centres, to be a reference point for questions about the path, and in particular to help establish The Way of Shambhala curriculum as the core path.

• Teaching. The shastri position is a teaching position, empowered to present the Way of Shambhala and to guide others in offering these teachings.

• Mentoring and strengthening the local teaching mandala. A major role of the shastri is to personally bring along other teachers and meditation instructors in the local centre, as appropriate. This role includes:

o Peer support and review.
o Training and updating local teachers on teachings methods and skills.
o Drawing on the expertise of local senior teachers to help the Shastri provide mentorship to local teachers and meditation instructors in their areas of strength.
o Considering and providing continuing education opportunities to teachers and meditation instructors at all levels.

• Providing path guidance to students of all levels.

• Providing feedback to the Office of Practice and Education on the Way of Shambhala curriculum, based on the local teaching team’s experience of teaching it.

• Collaborating with the local leadership.

o Choice of teachers. The shastri will participate in semi-annual meetings with the local Director of Practice and Education at the centre(s) they work with to discuss the best usage and mentorship of individual teachers. The shastri’s role is to exchange insight with the practice and education director about how best to mentor the students and local teachers, rather than to choose teachers for each course. The Director of Practice and Education then invites teachers and meditation instructors based on these discussions and on the authorizations from the Shambhala Office of Practice and Education. Should the shastri seriously disagree with the choice of a teacher for a particular program, the shastri’s view would predominate.

o Scheduling. Shastris will be invited to centre scheduling meetings to contribute to the development of the centre calendar.

o Teacher authorizations and suspension of authorizations. The Shastri would be a key person to work with local authorization questions in consultation with the local director of Practice and Education and the Shambhala Office of Practice and Education. The Shambhala Office of Practice and Education has the sole authority to authorize a teacher or meditation instructor, or to suspend their authorizations.

o Helping to create personalized paths and practices for students who miss Levels or courses or need additional support for various reasons.

o When appropriate, working together with committees on Health and Well-Being, or the Desung Arm, on the psychological health of students and teachers.

The relation of the shastris to the leadership of the local Shambhala Centre.
The shastri, together with the Director of Practice and Education, represent the Pillar of Practice and Education at the local Shambhala Centre. The shastri holds the teaching seat of the pillar, whereas the Director of Practice and Education is responsible for all executive functions in the areas of Practice and Education. The functions of the Director of Practice and Education are spelled out in the Role Description for that office. If there is an irreconcilable difference of opinion between the shastri and the Director of Practice and Education that cannot be resolved by the Director of the Shambhala Centre, the matter may be referred for higher-level resolution to the Director of Practice and Education of Shambhala and the Kalapa Acharya.

Shambhala International Shastris May 2010

1. Canada

Halifax
Benoit Cote
Mary Campbell
David Sable

Montreal
Ani Lodro

New Brunswick (Fredericton, Moncton, and St. John)
Veit Weber

Ontario
Henry Chapin (includes Ottawa, Toronto, Kingston, Mississauga, etc.)

Smaller centres and groups in Nova Scotia (Saint Margaret’s Bay, Mahone Bay, Yarmouth, Dartmouth, Annapolis, Wolfville, Truro, Antigonish, Cape Breton)
Christine Sloan
Alice Haspray

Vancouver
Susan Chapman

Victoria, BC
Becky Hazell

2. Europe
Austria
Otto Pichlhöfer

France
Cathérine Eveillard
Dominique Malardier
Chris de Block

Germany
Marburg
Jutta Alberti

Hamburg
Friedrich Spengelin
Beate Kirchhof-Schlage

Cologne
Sabine Rolf
Arnd Riester

Munich
Petra Drummer

Southern Germany
Dorothea Gaedecke
Netherlands
Marianne Bots
Hans Zwart
Cor Laven

Spain
Alfonso Taboada

Switzerland and Italy
Daniele Bollini

United Kingdom
Peter Conradi
Jim O’Neill
Orhun Cercel

Ukraine
Jane Hope

3. Latin America

Chile
Magali Meneses
Jaime Sepulveda

Mexico
Lourdes Alvarez

4. New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific
Marian Bond

5. United States of America

Austin
Larry Higgins
George Hasty (recently deceased, awarded posthumously)

Baltimore
Andrew Sacamano
Linda Catling

Bay Area:
Charlene Leung
Melissa Moore
Alan Schwartz

Birmingham and Atlanta
Chuck Whetsell

Boston
Frank Ryan
Carolyn Krusinski
Diana Evans

Boulder
Holly Gayley
Samten Kobelt

Chicago
Marita McLaughlin (and Minneapolis)
David Stone

Denver
Jeffrey Stevens

Florida
Gayle Van Gils

Karme Choling and Region
Bill Brauer

Lexington
Shelley Heinz

Los Angeles:
Pam Bothwell

Milwaukee
Alan Anderson

New York City
Ethan Nichtern

Philadelphia
Alexander deVaron

San Antonio
Betsy Pond
Linda Mockeridge (and Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana)

Seattle and Portland
Ben Hines
Matthew Lyon

Shambhala Mountain Centre
Dan Hessey (and regional)

Washington, DC
Jerry Webster

Our envisioning process continues. Below are “snippets” we’ve highlighted from select Member Envisioning Interviews(MEI) which express opinions, passion and ideas about our Shambhala Center. If you would like to read a members full interview go to the sidebar and click on the member interview you are interested in. If you have not completed an MEI and would like to, please contact John fox, Jill Gift, or Betty Rongae.

What are the non-negotiables related to space we need to meet at our new center? We have to have a sacred meditation space. A space that preserves the sacred quality of our Shambhala buddhist community. ~ Walter Coates

I would go to the centre more if …“there were more opportunities to sit, especially on the weekend.” ~ Karim Amersi

What do you imagine the new centre would look like? the new center would be open and available more often, 7 evenings a week with more of a happening atmosphere; art, calligraphy, miksang and cultural activities which would support our place in the community. ~ Ty Runkle

What about our curriculum? Right now we have so much going on and it feels very vibrant ~ Sandi Mustard

What do we not do well at our centre? We need a more social flavour in our community. and this will be aided by having a better and bigger space to allow this sort of expansion ~ Theresa Harding

Exploring how right speech, together with meditation practice, can tranform us from a ‘me-first’ into a ‘we-first’ society

by Susan Chapman

Many years ago, in my career as a therapist, it dawned on me that the roots of enlightened society are the ordinary, everyday relationships we have with each other. Relationship itself, I knew, centers around communication. While we might have larger projects for creating a compassionate world, we must learn to relate to each other as humans — with warmth, dignity, authenticity and skill. But while this is easy to intend, the learning process can be tricky, full of misunderstandings, confusion and pain. We can often move in directions which solidify fixed ideas, instead of taking them apart. And even experienced meditators can find themselves filled with overpowering klesha activity.

In response, I began envisioning the method that I’m training people in via my business: Green Light Conversations. At that time I had a private counseling practice working with individuals and couples. But I saw that this approach was only available to those with the means to pay. Could there be something more affordable that would extend further into our communities, like a safety net?

While working in a domestic violence prevention program, I began experimenting with teaching classes on Contemplative Psychology based on models I had developed. These models reflected the insights I’d gained from my teachers at Naropa Institute, Ed Podvoll and Virginia Hilliker, and were adapted to clarify both healthy and neurotic patterns of relationship and communication.

Then, in 1997 my husband and I began a three-year retreat and ended up spending nine years at Gampo Abbey. During that time I paid close attention to the resilient local culture of Cape Breton, which has a well deserved reputation for friendliness. How did these people get along so well? Also, as retreat leader (or druppon) for intensive, long Shambhala Vajrayana retreats, I was particularly interested in learning the practice of right speech, and how it goes hand in hand with meditation practice to tranform us from a ‘me-first’ into a ‘we-first’ society — in other words, into a true sangha.

After leaving the Abbey in 2008 I spent a year developing Green Light Conversations, and the three main programs that can be offered as retreats, workshops or classes. After working with him as a web designer, I invited Mudra Institute teacher Greg Heffron and student of Craig Smith to include Mudra Space Awareness training in our retreats in order to provide potent, non-conceptual contemplations for the skills covered in each workshop.

Because the five elemental dralas are also key to my work, I also needed to find the right venue for our program. I discovered the perfect location at Deer Lake in Burnaby, in the beautiful and historic Baldwin House

. Our first local retreat was held there on a rainy weekend in November. Twenty participants came from a variety of sources: hospice, the BC Counseling Association, from Vipassana communities, as well as from our Shambhala Center, including a variety of meditators, from new members to “old dogs.” In our weekend retreat, strangers become friends as we practiced mindfulness and awareness skills tuned especially towards what I’m calling the “Five Powers of Mindful Communication:” Silence, Mirroring, Encouraging, Responsiveness and Discernment. We practiced how to recognize open communication, what to do when communication collapses, and how to use our mindfulness in the in between state when communication becomes edgy and irritating. By the end of Sunday afternoon, the warmth of reconnection with ourselves and each other was palpable.

Looking ahead to 2010 we’ll be teaching all three programs at Deer Lake between January and June and then resuming in November. The next Level One is January 30-31, and Level Two (“The Chemistry of Emotions”) will be the first weekend in March. Plans are in the works for a week retreat, and Green Light Conversations also has an introductory class and workshop that can be offered at Shambhala Centers. For more news and updates, see our website: www.greenzonetalk.com

by Andrew Topf

It was a typical Sunday afternoon, or so I thought. I got into my car around 5 pm to go grocery shopping. Halfway to the store, as I was turning left, I realized a man was crossing the street on the green light. Luckily, we saw each other in time, but I could see he was clearly annoyed that I had not yielded him the right-of-way. Suddenly he stopped walking, looked me straight in the eye, and then calmly, without effort, gave me the finger! This casual display of aggression took me by surprise and shocked me, at least temporarily.

It made me think of all the countless small, seemingly inconsequential ways that we diminish and browbeat our fellow human beings. When I walked into the grocery store, things only got worse. The store was buzzing with activity; people walked briskly through the aisles while cashiers beeped and bagged items through ceaseless conveyor belts. Yet I felt utterly alone. A typical Sunday afternoon shopping trip had turned into an existential nightmare. Who were these human beings mindlessly rushing around without care for each other? Was this really my world? It all seemed so foreign to me. As I lined up to pay, I received the final indignity from the cashier, a young man who looked about 20. Not once did he look at me as he robotically scanned each item. After I’d paid and received my change, he finally glanced up, and mumbled, to no one in particular, “Happy New Year.” Small, seemingly inconsequential acts of aggression.

This mundane chain of events could have happened on any day in my life, but the fact that it happened the day after the Winter Weekthun at the Vancouver Shambhala Centre held special significance for me. After sitting and meditating for a week, my world had changed. Actually, it wasn’t my world that had changed, but the way that I perceived it. The mindlessness and aggression displayed by the pedestrian and the people in the grocery store didn’t seem normal to me, even though we have been conditioned through our “setting sun” mentality to think so. Like the spaces between breaths that occur during shamatha practice, I was able to see the contrast between a world of human connection, experienced through the Weekthun, and our “real” world, which often seems like a world of disconnection.

As a beginning meditator, I approached the Weekthun with a mixture of curiosity and trepidation. My own modest practice consists of 15 to 20 minutes a day, and here I was, agreeing to sit 12 hours a day for a week. Was I deluded? I told my friends I was either going to emerge from this an enlightened being or certifiably insane. As it turns out, I became neither crazy nor Buddha-esque; rather, I came away with a better understanding of my mind, of the incredible depth and profundity of the Shambhala teachings, and of the close bond that can develop between strangers while sitting together in silence in a room.

As Geoff Bannoff pointed out during one of his talks, it often takes long periods of sitting to dislodge the mind from the patterns it grows accustomed to during a normal daily-practice sit. It’s like always going for the same run along the same stretch of road during the same time of day, every day. The body appreciates the heart pumping and the legs and arms moving, but it soon gets comfortable. Sitting for a long time forces you out of your comfort zone, to a place where real changes and insights can occur.

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche talks of the “cocoon” of our daily existence, but the Weekthun offered another kind of cocoon that was both seductive and sweet. Never before have I felt so protected and treated so compassionately and humanely, by the staff at the centre, whose careful planning created a beautiful container from which to practice. Overseer Jan Russell imparted her wealth of experience to Jillyan Gift, who managed the day-to-day activities flawlessly and with humour and grace.

One of the best surprises for me, and I’m sure I speak for everyone, were the meals cooked for us by our generous sangha. Each day we were delighted by a home-cooked meal usually consisting of several courses – from fresh green salads brimming with goodness and nutrition, to hot savory casseroles and spicy Indian dishes, to decadent desserts that must have taken hours to produce. Thank you to all who provided these goodies. Your culinary expressions of love and kindness brought warmth and joy to us during mealtimes.

I can’t say enough about our revered teachers who guided us, especially as we laboured and stumbled, along this difficult seven-day road. Like a solid rock in a swift-flowing river, Geoff Bannoff was the epitome of strength and stability – something we all craved when our minds wandered and our bodies protested. Most of us were introduced to Noreen Morris for the first time. A former student of Trungpa Rinpoche, Noreen joined the retreat from Bellingham, where she has recently taken up residence, and it was a pleasure to have her in the shrine room with us. Sometimes during a sit, Noreen would get up and walk through the room, just observing the practitioners. Her walks were always without judgment or purpose. Reflecting on it later, it is these qualities that one should bring to a meditation practice. Many of us found our hearts and tear ducts opening during Noreen’s talk on the Three Prajnas, when she drew a delightful analogy between the teachings and “meeting your parents again” after a long absence. “The teachings are something like that,” she said in her soft Irish lilt. “You have to get used to them. You have to get used to sitting down with your mother and father. They treat you very well.” Susan Chapman, whose calm insights pierced like an arrow through the fog of confusion and discursiveness, was with us every step of the way. During a toast to Susan at the end of the retreat, practitioner Anne Thompson evoked a beautiful image to describe Susan’s strength and gentleness: a Monet painting of a bridge festooned with flowers. I couldn’t think of a more apt and touching metaphor.

If there is one thing I took away from this Weekthun, it’s the knowledge that I gave something of myself and am the better person for it. It has opened my heart and exposed the brilliant sun that shines within me. Thank you Vancouver Shambhala for creating the conditions to make it happen.

During the recent Winter Weekthun, on December 31, 2009, a full moon, and a “blue” moon, Susan Chapman introduced the Sadhana of Mahamudra, traditionally practiced on the full and new moons.

Click to listen, or Download Sadhana of Mahamudra talk by Susan Chapman

This year, Children’s Day at the Vancouver Shambhala Centre was one of the warmest (and coolest) Children’s Day ever.  Here are some photos, albums, videos and expressions of appreciation from that day.

Ian Wallace posted a photo album of the day and its preparations beforehand here:

http://web.me.com/iawallace/Shambhala/Childrens_Day.html

And here are some iPhone videos of the event, taken by Susan Chapman:

Children’s procession

Arrival of the King and Queen

address of the King and Queen

The Illiana Story

Carrie Abresch:

“To Noele, the tireless warrior of many hats- shrine dakini, lantern leader, story director, magic weaver… non of the beauty and magic would have happened without your hard work and inspiration.

To Linda, who fully stepped into a new situation with gentleness and generosity. You are a complete joy to work with- we are very lucky to have
you!

To Betty, who once again created a magical and absolutely beautiful environment, your effortless effort transforms and uplifts!

To Bruce and Robyn, more magic! whose music ignited windhorse for the tigar, lion, garuda, dragon, and magnitized the dancing dhralas- and whose attention to details kept things moving along.

To John and Coleen, our magnificent King and Queen! Gemma told her grandmother all about how the King and Queen came to Children’s day! Your elegance and gentle/strong presence lifted our hearts and settled our minds.

To Dylan, for stepping in at the last minute and leading our youth with dignity and worriorship.

To Jillyan, Katelyn and Andrew, who jumped in and helped selflessly and cheerfully.

To Tyler and Lisa whose kind leadership got the ball rolling.

To the sangha, who came! and came with food- lots of it- providing an overflowing feast for celebration.

And last but certainly not least, the Children, whose bright faces, open hearts, and brave performances reminded us all of our own tender hearts-of how fortunate we are.”

Noele Bird:

“And a toast to you too Carrie!  You had the initial inspiration and organized all of us, keeping an eye on all the details, delegating, and getting the magical blue curtains to create the perfect atmosphere for the solstice lanterns!”

Edmund Butler:

“This is a joyful cry of appreciation for the love we all shared at Childrens’ Day!! Particularly to Noele and Carrie for allowing it all to flow so well, thankyou!”

Children’s Day Shrine, by Tara Butler

(see here some of daughter Tara’s photos of the Children’s Shrine)