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Jun 19
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Summer 2010: The Sakyong and Sakyong Wangmo

The retreat
The Sakyong has now been on retreat since the Fourth Shambhala Congress ended in November. He has just completed a phase of deep retreat, including a Gesar Trakpo drupchen at Rigon Tashi Choeling monastery in Pharping, Nepal. After returning to the West, during the month of July, he will give transmission at Vajrayana Seminary, attend a training program for the newly nominated shastris, and lead a Scorpion Seal Assembly (for first time participants) – all at Shambhala Mountain Center. Although he will be giving these teachings, he will also maintain the essential quality of his retreat. He will then resume the secluded phase of his retreat year, which will end on Shambhala Day 2011 (5 March), when he returns to address our community.

“I will have everyone in my heart…”
It was the Sakyong’s express wish that we do our best to connect with him through our practice. His final words at the conclusion of the Tenshuk ceremony in November, included this aspiration:

“I will have everyone in my heart during this practice year. While I am on retreat, if I have one request, it is that at least one session a week you dedicate to me – if I may be so bold – once a week we can commune. In the fourth time there is no difference and therefore all of us at some point will be on retreat. It is said that if one has the right aspiration, one gains the benefit of the practice of the guru and there will be an enhancing of our own practice. That will be a moment when we are joined.”

The Sakyong Wangmo
The Sakyong Wangmo was in India in January for the consecration and formal opening of Rigon Thupten Mindrolling monastery in Orissa, presided over by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. She joined the Sakyong briefly in Nepal and returned to the west in May. She is now in Halifax, where she will reside until the birth of the couple’s first child, which is expected in August. We know that many people will want to connect with the birth at that time, and we are now considering possibilities for mandala-wide activities and offerings.

Invoking the protectors
The Sakyong has composed a protector practice invoking all of the protectors of Shambhala entitled Protectors of the Three Courts. This practice is particularly powerful as a way to invoke protection, health, and well-being for Khandro Tseyang while she is pregnant, and to request a healthy birth of their child. Through the genuine heart of longing, offering, and invocation, we also link our personal households and everyday experience with the Sakyong and the Sakyong Wangmo as they await their child’s birth. You will find Protectors of the Three Courts ready to print in the section called Chants in the Practice Manual. The instruction is to chant the Protectors of the Three Courts daily during Khandro Tseyang’s pregnancy whenever protector chants are practiced.

Sustaining the retreat
There has been an incredible outpouring of love and generosity with which our global community has offered to support the Sakyong’s period of deep retreat in Nepal. Hundreds have offered to become patrons of this phase of his retreat, and collectively they have donated more than $50,000. The names of a half dozen or so of the names of these patrons are read to the Sakyong each day at the appropriate points in his practice. We are now contemplating how we can provide similar opportunities for people to make this kind of further direct connection with his retreat.

Lodro Rinzler, our development coordinator, who worked long hours to set up the calendar for offerings, has written an article about his experience of the many messages flooding in. You can read his story live on Shambhala Times: If you are inspired to contact Lodro with further ideas and suggestions, please write to him:

The Sakyong Ladrang
The word ladrang has many translations, but basically the la stands for lama or ruler or king, and drang means residence; it can also be interpreted as palace. So ladrang literally means “palace of the lama” or “residence of a lama.” In Tibet, the term has different applications and several meanings. It is the physical place of the lama, or the Sakyong, depending on the tradition. When teachers would travel and teach, wherever they were actually conducting their business was their ladrang. It was the place of rulership.

The Sakyong Ladrang is registered in the United States as a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. The Sakyong Ladrang is committed to the protection and support of the Sakyong lineage. The prosperity of the Sakyong Ladrang is essential to ensuring the continuity and transmission of the Shambhala teachings on basic goodness, the fundamental ground of enlightened society. The ladrang protects the relics and the assets of the lineage and works to create a financial base of support for the training of the lineage holder of the mandala.

If you are interested in knowing more, you can see the Sakyong speaking on The Sakyong Ladrang website, as well as read about the councilors who assist him and the Sakyong Wangmo in the Ladrang and read or listen to an interview with Suter de Bose, finance director of the Ladrang on this link . The role of the Ladrang in the Our Future campaign is addressed in the final section of this update.

From: The Kalapa Council

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