Saturday
Featured StoriesGathering Opens in California
“Creating Enlightened Society” gathering opens at Craneway Pavilion in Richmond, California
report and video by President Richard Reoch
“We’re in such a high, auspicious moment on earth,” said Jyoti, Spiritual Director of the Center for Sacred Studies as she opened the “Creating Enlightened Society” gathering hosted by Shambhala in Northern California. She is world famous for bringing together the Thirteen Grandmothers dedicated to preserving the indigenous wisdom and culture of the first nations of humanity.
“I know that I would rather spend my time dreaming this, than the one I find when I turn on TV,” she told the gathering.
The weekend is taking place in Craneway Pavilion that overlooks Richmond Harbour of San Francisco Bay. The first night was opened by by Shambhala Acharyas Adam Lobel and Susan Skjei.
“Creating Enlightened Society” is the second in a four-city tour of public dialogues hosted by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. His book, The Shambhala Principle, was published this past week. He is to address the gathering over the weekend along with Bishop Marc Andrus, the Episcopal Bishop of California; the Reverend Angel Kyodo Williams, founder of the Center for Transformative Change; and Chade-Meng Tan, founder of the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute.
The Craneway Pavilion event follows the Sakyong’s “Imagining Peace” weekend in Chicago at the end of April which brought together more than 40 organizations, youth leaders and social activists, addressing the challenge of youth violence in that city.
May 13, 2013
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This was a profound, momentous, perhaps event of historical proportions. Under Jyoti’s direction, the whole audience honored the Grandmothers of the Four Directions. I felt chills of truth. Jyoti sometimes uses language that is foreign to non Christians, but she also uses the language that we recognize–goodness, innate worthiness–and concepts that align with primordial nature and mind. As I talked with my friends here, I discovered I was not alone, Joyti had brought many old-timer Shambhalians to tears.