April 19, 2009, HALIFAX–Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche offers the following teachings in support of Earth Day, April 22, and the work of the Touching the Earth working group of the Sakyong’s Council.

Our precious planet and the innumerable beings who dwell here face an unprecedented crisis. The escalating threat to the world’s environment and climate stems from a profound predicament that affects all humanity. We are ever more rapidly losing our connection with the sacred nature of our world. This tragedy affects us in so many ways, but at its heart, it is a crisis of the spirit. We are harming our planet and fellow beings because we are losing touch with the basic goodness of our own sacred being.

This disconnect from our primordial basic goodness is amplified by unparalleled technological and industrial capacity, dramatic population growth and the vast inequalities we witness everywhere in our world.

Disastrous as this situation is, it is still possible to change course. The Earth is calling to us for protection and for a return to basic sanity. We must all heed this call by adopting an approach that returns to a deep respect for our environment, and conserves our threatened resources.

We can take advantage of both traditional methods and innovative technological advances based on living in harmony with the fundamental intelligence of nature. But this global crisis cannot be transformed into a new way of living if we rely on the same attitudes and habits that brought us to this terrifying brink in the first place. To do that would merely reinforce, despite our good intentions, the degradation and inequality that are already so widespread.

This emergency calls for a complete transformation of how we live–a transformation of our underlying attitudes, our approach to human society and our relationship to planet Earth and all its inhabitants. My father, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, the great Tibetan meditation master and founder of Shambhala, foresaw this turning point in human history. His words could not ring truer: “When human beings lose their connection to nature, to heaven and earth, then they do not know how to nurture their environment or how to rule their world … Healing our society goes hand in hand with healing our personal, elemental connection with the phenomenal world.”

In the Shambhala tradition is it said that it is precisely in dark times like these that the inherent wisdom of the universe makes itself felt. Now is the time to draw on the inspiration of humanity’s wisdom traditions. All remind us of the sacred oneness of life, the interdependence of all beings and the inexorable laws of cause and effect. These teachings could not be more relevant to our collective imperative: the creation of enlightened and sustainable societies.

I am delighted that, within the Buddhist world, there is increasingly deep reflection on how the wisdom of this particular tradition can shine light on this common goal. Now is the time for us to tap the power available to us from our diverse disciplines, cultures and societies to cultivate the dignity, confidence and fearlessness necessary to protect our Earth. By doing so, we can help to reconnect all humanity with its primordial basic goodness, transform our relationship to sacred world and be inspired to sane choices, compassionate leadership and wise activism.

Shambhala Online is pleased to welcome back Andy Karr and the popular online course “The Buddhist Path: Karma and Emptiness”.

This five-class program is an excellent preparatory course for those planning to attend Sutrayana Seminary. It is also recommended for anyone interested in deepening their understanding of the true nature of reality. This program is complimented with readings from Andy’s book “Contemplating Reality”.

DATES: Tuesday, April 7, 14, 21, 28 and May 5 at 8:30 p.m. ADT (Halifax, NS time).

For more information and to register, please go to http://shambhalaonline.org.

“The buddha family, or families, associated with a person describes his or her fundamental style, that person’s intrinsic perspective or stance in perceiving the world and working with it. Each family is associated with both a neurotic and an enlightened style. The neurotic expression of any buddha family can be transmuted into its wisdom or enlightened aspect. As well as describing people’s styles, the buddha families are also associated with colors, elements, landscapes, directions, seasons—with any aspect of the phenomenal world.”
- Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche -

Saturday, March 21, 2009 [7 - 9 PM]
Appreciating the Five Wisdom Energies

This year’s Shambhala Arts Festival will feature work that embodies and exemplifies each of the five wisdom energies, or Buddha families. On Saturday, March 21, 2009, the Shambhala Meditation Center of San Antonio will host an exhibition of Miksang photography, a contemplative art form based on the Dharma Art teachings of Shambhala founder Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, illustrating the flavor of each Buddha family. There will also be a live performance of a new musical piece composed of five movements, each of which will provide an immersion into one of the five families through the sense of sound. This original musical interpretation of the wisdom energies will be performed by composers Phil Castillo and Travis Dierolf. The evening will begin at 7:00 pm with a brief talk about the five wisdom energies, and a celebratory reception of hors d’oeuvres and drinks will be offered.

Sunday, March 22, 2009 [9:30 - 1 PM]
Celebrating Sangha Through Sound

On Sunday morning, we will commence our public meditation practice at 9:30 am, followed by a continuation of our celebration of sound by enjoying the “Bamboo Spirit Shakuhachi Concert” at 10:00 am. The shakuhachi is a wooden flute which was traditionally played by Japanese Buddhist monks as part of their path of practice. At 11:00 am everyone will be invited to participate in a form of sonic meditation, which involves using sound to experience the vibrant sanity of our lives. A potluck lunch will follow at noon.

By the Sakyong

Whether we are in the busy streets of New York or in the solitude of a mountain cave in Nepal, our happiness and contentment are completely within our own hands. Sitting meditation enables us to rest our mind in a present and a cheerful way. At the base of that experience is a quality of happiness, which is not a sense of giddiness, but of relaxation. Wherever we are, life is going to be coming at us. But if we use our lives as an opportunity to develop and enhance our mind, we will always be able to acknowledge that we are in a very precious situation.

When we sit, we’re making a direct relationship to the source of happiness, this wish-fulfilling jewel, the mind itself. Meditation gives us the ability to unpack the box in which the jewel is hidden. In effect, we’re taking time out from our busyness to say, “I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to be right here.” That is a very profound step, because we’re beginning to look at the truth and to trust it.

Our mind goes through a lot in the period of a day. Generally speaking, our thoughts cycle between positive and negative. Either we’re thinking about what upsets us or makes us anxious, or we’re riding the wave of what inspires us and reminds of us good things. If we don’t work with the mind, the pattern tends to shift toward more disturbing thoughts and emotions. We get consumed by the negativity of the mind—fear and regret, anger and desire. When these thoughts and emotions come up, they completely obscure us and we’re trapped by them.

If we do work with the mind, we learn to sit and watch all the ups and downs come and go like clouds in the sky. In the process, we gain more strength in terms of our clarity, insight, and prajna—wisdom. These are noble qualities that we all possess. In meditation we begin to be able to recognize them. They are the lessons we learn from watching our discursiveness. But to develop those qualities takes more effort than just sitting on the cushion; we have to be proactive. If we don’t apply ourselves, nothing is going to happen.

Yes, it’s important to show up, to have the discipline to sit, but there is also the internal aspect of dealing with every thought, every emotion. That is how we learn that they are temporary. They are always arising, always falling away. We can look at our mind and try to figure out where the thoughts come from, but we’ll never actually find that moment. The point is to learn to relax, to learn not to be absorbed in our discursiveness. Once we’re lost in it, we can be lost in it for twenty minutes, half an hour, or twenty years. The mind is where we live. That is how we experience things. Whether we have a good day or a bad day really depends on our experience of the mind.

Sitting meditation gives us the confidence to be able to acknowledge our thoughts without being hooked by them. We have the teachings and the techniques to be able form the mind into something that is totally useful and pleasant. In terms of a spiritual tradition, we can say that we are developing our mind’s potential to become buddha, awake. But in a very pragmatic sense, this level of practice is helpful to anybody. If we’re going to be living in this world we should at least have the ability to work with our mind. When we do yoga, for example, the more flexible and fluid the body becomes, and the less of a nuisance it is. In meditation, we are putting the mind into a situation where it can become flexible, joyous, and less of a problem. It’s that simple.

To practice successfully requires that we hold a view of what our mind really is. The image I like to use is basic goodness. What are the aspects of basic goodness? There’s compassion, virtue, wisdom, and other noble qualities. We meditate in order to become familiar with that good mind. Sometimes our meditation is fun; at other times, it can be boring. But overall, if we’re holding this view and applying the technique, meditation makes us stronger. We’re learning what the mind is, and stabilizing ourselves in that reality. This ability gives us a very powerful tool.

Our mind is always becoming familiar with something. Most of the time we’re becoming familiar with things that ultimately have very little relevance to us. We get familiar with the fantasy of food, a relationship, or a holiday. Of course we may have to pay the rent; there are always concerns on which our mind can chew. But in our daily meditation, we practice unloading those concerns from our mind and experiencing our precious opportunity to become familiar with something more meaningful. One way to ground ourselves in the view is to feel fortunate that we have the time and technique to meditate. We can say, “I feel very fortunate to be able to follow my breath because, number one, I have a breath.” It’s not necessarily guaranteed. For us to sit here and not appreciate what’s going on is ignorance, because we’re taking our lives for granted.

What happens when we feel fortunate? Inspiration is born, and it grows. Without inspiration, we don’t have any reason to return to the breath. Sitting is just an exercise. It’s like working in a factory: we’re just plugging in the time until we can go home. Our noble qualities are not increasing. Without the view, our meditation is like a rock at the bottom of a lake. What happens to a rock at the bottom of the lake? No matter how much time passes, nothing. In a hundred years, it’ll still be a rock at the bottom of the lake.

Even though our understanding may be small, we should have a level of confidence that the practice of sitting in this form and placing our mind on the breath is very special. It’s been handed down by people like the Tibetan yogi Milarepa, who did not leave us the message, “Meditation’s not really worth it,” or, “I looked in my mind and there’s nothing really there, but it’s a great way to lose weight.” He didn’t say that at all. Rather, he wrote 100,000 spontaneous songs that celebrate the basic goodness of our mind and the precious opportunity we have to develop our noble qualities. These are real. As our mind sticks with them, our level of prajna, intelligence, rises.

When we take the time to meditate, we’re not idly passing time. In following the breath and learning to deal with our thoughts, we’re laying the foundation for a shift in attitude that has the power to change our lives in a truly meaningful way. There’s a lot of darkness and aggression in our world. Developing our noble qualities has an immediate effect on ourselves and others. When we apply ourselves in practice, we’re not only doing something very present, we’re also laying the conditions for how our lives move forward.