Véronique Villemagne, coordinator and designer, Sylvie Deraime, Clarisse Marandin, Bénédicte Moquard and Rohini Schiff-Bhagwat worked on this issue whose theme is family, children - raising children in Shambhala. The next issue, due sometime early next year, will be about teaching in Shambhala and the new curriculum.

From: Shambhala Europe Blog

In their spare time, Chris and Hamish, with the enthusiastic support of Shambhala Media and Shambhala Information Technology Services, have been transcribing into English and captioning (subtitling) into various languages online video teachings of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and Vidyadhara Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Starting with short videos that have already been posted online either on Shambhala.org or Sakyong.com, at least 18 video teachings–most under 10 minutes long–have been transcribed and captioned into English so far. Our goal is to eventually make these videos available for Shambhala Centres and Groups to use on their websites or for their open house/open evening events.

The group is using software available from dotSUB.com, which allows multiple translators to log in and work with the files simultaneously, and makes new translations very easy to add in. If you’d like to see a sample video, just visit the Shambhala Times and look near the bottom of the right column on just about any page. There you’ll see a video called “Learning to Meditate”. The video allows you to easily select the caption language of your preference–English, Spanish, Persian (Farsi ) or Chinese (traditional or simplified). Another video on “Motivation” is also publicly viewable with captions in Czech, English, Spanish, and Swedish.

In this task, we have been greatly helped by several members who have very generously offered to proofread and translate the captions into other languages. Translators for Chinese, Czech, Spanish, French, Swedish and Farsi have recently joined the group and have begun captioning into those languages. Thank you very much to all of them!

We are currently looking for more volunteer translators in more languages. If you’d like to help, please contact either Hamish (maclaren@earthlink.net<a href=”maclaren@earthlink.net”) or Chris (<a href=”director@shambhala-europe.org”).

For more information on Shambhala’s Accessibility and Disability work, please click here. Also see the German and French, Spanish language sections of the Shambhala Times.

From: Shambhala Europe Blog

From: Shambhala Europe Blog

The weekends will be led by Vegan Aharonian from New York, a native Russian speaker.

Please spread the word to anyone in these locations!
Kiev, Ukraine 10 -12 July
St.Petersburg, Russia 17-19 July
Moscow, Russia 24 – 26 July

Training the Mind: Strategies for difficult times

Challenges and instability in our lives lead to stress and depression but struggling against these conditions rarely brings lasting results. Circumstances — whether they are related to financial difficulty, an unsettled personal life, complications in relationships, or dissatisfaction with ourselves — return repeatedly with renewed force.

Meditation practice offers a powerful and radically different approach to these challenges. In this seminar, you will become familiar with ancient strategies that help people from a variety of cultures, traditions, and views. Find sanity, gain confidence, and increase your life energy.

Тренировка Ума
Стратегии для трудных времён

Трудные жизненные обстоятельства и нестабильность приводят к стрессам и подавленности. Борьба с обстоятельствами редко приносит долгосрочный результат. Обстоятельства накатываются на нас с новой силой: будь то связано с материальными проблемами, неустроенностью в личной жизни, сложностью во взаимоотношениях или неудовлетворенностью самим собой. Список проблем можно продолжить…

Практика медитации предлагает радикально иной подход к себе и жизни. На семинаре вы познакомитесь с древней стратегией, которая помогает людям разных культур, традиций, взглядов найти здравый смысл, обрести уверенность и жизненную энергию.

Dharma program participants in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, April 3rd, 2009.

On January 21st, 2009, I wrote a letter to the Vajradhatu sangha and the Shambhala community, stating that from this time forward it is my intention to focus on the propagation of the teachings of my root guru, the Great Vidyadhara, Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, and his predecessors. It has been about three months since this letter was posted on sangha-announce, and much has happened.

I am grateful for the invitations being offered by the Shambhala Times and to the Radio Free Shambhala website to report on the progress of this work.

A mosque in Sharjah

To begin with, the Shambhala Prison Community (SPC), which is separately incorporated from Shambhala International, continues strong; and it also has been evolving rapidly. We have begun to authorize meditation instructors, and to create a path into instructorship for those doing prison work. The Shambhala Prison Community is not a non-profit organization in the conventional sense of establishing territory in its field, consolidating that territory, and expanding from its established base. We have no home office function to speak of; we spend 96% of every dollar raised on work in the field, providing service to prison inmates, correctional personnel and volunteers. We have been training case workers in the Polish prison system; last December 2008, I conducted our fourth three-day workshop outside of Warsaw for ten participants.

Our organization in Oregon has put on about 18 weekends for offenders in the Maximum Security Penitentiary, originally via Shambhala Training. This year that program is shifting its emphasis to the Four Foundations of Mindfulness and other basic Buddhist practice topics. This March, I visited prison workers the SPC trained two years ago in Amsterdam. Three of these individuals now belong to a group of four full-time staff employed by the Dutch government to provide Buddhist services to inmates; that group covers over 80% of the prisons in The Netherlands, which has one of the most progressive governmental systems in the world in the area of concern for the human development of its inmate populations.

On the beach, Sharjah-style

While in Europe this winter and spring, I made several prison Dharma presentations, notably with the Amida Trust in Narbrough, United Kingdom, at a university conference for mindfulness practice in the field of psychology in Warsaw, and in France.

Most of my activity, as it has been for some years, is conducted outside the prison field - straight Dharma, unmingled with worldly dharmas, presented to meditation groups. This presentation falls generally into the two categories of cutting through spiritual materialism, and Buddha Nature, in the context of all three yanas; and the Shambhala parallels. I have just this April completed a two-month tour of nine countries, mostly in Western and Central Europe (I also presented a program in the United Arab Emirates). My activity is dividing out into three major components:

• Collaborating with senior students of our lineage on Vajrayana practice and the Shambhala teaching of the Vidyadhara, and maintaining communication generally among the Vajra Sangha, who are often painfully dispersed and isolated - at least as much as I am able.
  

  During a break in the Sharjah program

• Teaching in Zen, Karma Kagyu and other centers and venues - programs and individual talks, in equal measure. This activity comprises a great part of my work. It includes relating with teachers of different lineages.

• Establishing non-aligned groups, which operate under the principle of personal mentorship, rather than that of institutional process, and which follow the teachings of the Vidyadhara. There are now five of these, one in each of five countries.

This has been, without question, the most dynamic and creative period of my practice and teaching path. It is characterized by exertion, hopelessness and a tremendous sense of the need for our teaching stream in the world at large. In fact, the world is starving for what we know. My overarching feeling is that we should stop trying to sell the Dharma, and start giving it away to those who request it, for whom the karma is ripe.

Anyone wishing to know more, to collaborate or to help is welcome to write to me or call me at bkarelis@yahoo.com, or 1 303 444 0043.

Bill Karelis has been studying and practicing the Dharma since 1972. He served as Comptroller of the Boston Dharmadhatu from 1975-1977, and as Coordinator from 1977-1983. In 1983 he moved to Boulder, where he served as Assistant Finance Director and later Finance Director of Vajradhatu and Nalanda Foundation, and sat on the Boards of both institutions from 1983-1988. He was instrumental in establishing annual fundraising in Shambhala International, and to the founding of the Shambhala Trust. In 1988 he was fired by the Vajra Regent, then the President of Vajradhatu, apparently for speaking up about certain problems that had arisen at the top levels of the organization. In 1988 Mr. Karelis began to reemphasize study and practice in his personal path, eventually joining the Core Faculty of the Ngedon School of Higher Learning, and traveling throughout the current Shambhala Centers to present the Buddhadharma and the Shambhala teachings at all levels, hundreds of weekends of each throughout the world, visiting most centers many times. He also served on the Faculty of Nitartha Institute from 1996-1998. He has led four dathuns, as many Fire Pujas, served as umdze for twelve major abhisdekas, and taught at the 1985, 1994, 1999, 2000 and 2001 Seminaries. He practices the artistic disciplines of poetry, calligraphy and photography and lives with his wife, Brigitta, in Boulder, Colorado.

All photos by by Bill Karelis, 2009.

The European Shambhala Leadership will be hosted in the Kalapa Centre in Cologne from May 7th through to May 10th 2009.

Leadership training, consultation and celebration will be the catchwords for this colourful meeting of Centre Directors and Group coordinators with members of the Sakyong’s council and other Shambhala dignitaries.

The programme will be presided over by the President of Shambhala, Richard Reoch.
He and both the former and the present Shambhala Europe Directors (Chris Tamdjidi and Chris Montone, respectively) will present unique Shambhala teachings on leadership and governance. This programme is open to all who have an active interest in Shambhala leadership.

The first half of this programme will focus on examining the teachings on natural hierarchy, virtue, enrichment and the sudden leap of courage. For those who have received the Golden Key text, they are encouraged to study it in advance and bring it. The Sakyong is increasingly speaking about the importance of the Shambhala teachings on how to govern, and we want this academy to deepen our understanding of this rare and timely wisdom. Special attention will be given to the training of skills needed to be a Shambhala leader.

During the second half of the programme participants will be invited to apply what they have learned in the training within the Mandala Council meeting itself. The Mandala Council plays an important part in the process of consultation within the mandala on important topics like finance, organization and curriculum. All Centres have a seat in it, and all groups are invited to send a representative as well.

Programme cost will be 125 euros, with a reduced fee for representatives from Central and Eastern European centres and groups. We would like to call upon all Centres and Groups to send a delegation with at least one representative, and to enable their representative(s) - if necessary also financially- to attend the programme from Thursday though Sunday. For information and registration: http://shambhala-europe.org/index.php?id=8300.

By Ernst Kleisterlee, Vicechair to the MC

From: Shambhala Europe Blog

For the original Czech article, click here.

Prague is a pretty new Shambhala center with quite many young people. Lots of them have little children now and it has changed the energy of the center a lot. We are now focusing on offering programmes for families and trying to include children in the sangha.

Thanks to our sangha member, Alice Buehler, we brought a special children´s programme to the schedule of the center to support the families. We also offer babysitting for some Shambhala levels and other programmes, and a summer retreat with a family program.

Everything started four years ago when Kerry MacLean taught our first ever weekend programme for children and parents. This was a wonderful occasion to learn how children may be equal sangha members and not only someone who disturbs the practice. It helped us to realise that they are the future of everything what we are trying to build.

Since that time we have had two other weekend programmes with Sophie Maclaren (Kerry’s daughter and Families and Youth Coordinator for Shambhala Europe) and many weekends which we organised by ourselves. We try to keep kind of rhythm - once every 2 months, on the weekend with a Nyinthun.

In the winter, we started to organise the Children’s day before Christmas and it slowly becomes a nice tradition now. A very nice summer tradition, is also to invite children and their parents for longer summer programmes which we usually organise somewhere in the Czech mountains.

The first one was in 2006, where it was a side part of the Sutrayana and Vajrayana group. Second one was last summer where children and parents had, for first time, their own shrine room and programme specially made for them!  Since the other group practiced Kyudo there, children also had the possibility to make their own bow and try shooting.

For this summer we are also planning a family programme, it will be the same place - Krkonose mountains from 24th of July till 1st of August and we are very happy that Sophie Maclaren will find a few days in her very tight schedule and will come to help us and teach. We would also like to invite everyone who is interested to join us and taste the Czech atmosphere- parents with children, future parents, and anyone interested in working with children.

We would like to share with you a short movie and photos from this January when Sophie taught her second programme here. We had  9 parents and 9 children in age  from 15 months till 9 years. We did a wonderful practice of sending balloons into the sky with calligraphy wishes we wrote for unknown people in the world to find. The creativity of the children- and also parents, was amazing and we had lots of fun - and also tears- from letting them go. Not always easy!

For more information please contact holubcovaj@yahoo.com