Monday

Sakyong says, “Hitch up your Chuba”

photo by Marv Ross

“We are entering the Year of the Horse which is very much associated with windhorse and action, a year of doing and accomplishing,” the Sakyong said in his Shambhala Day Address, delivered from Boulder and broadcast worldwide. “It is a hitch up your chuba and roll up your sleeves kind of year!”

Echoing his book, The Shambhala Principle, he told an overflowing gathering in the Boulder shrine room: “We are all deeply concerned intellectually, emotionally and viscerally, about the direction in which society is going.”

“It is important in this constantly shifting world to know how to guide our life and to reflect on the values we share as a community,” he said. “There is so much that can overwhelm us. In the current geopolitical situation we all wonder about the goodness of being human and the goodness of society.”

“Shambhala is about looking up. At an atomic level, we need to understand the purpose of living. We need to re-set our orientation,” he said. “There is a tendency to be depressed, hard and not optimistic. We need to galvanize, not only our own energy, but the energy of community.”

“We are not trying to meditate our way out of the problems,” he said. “The Shambhala teachings talk about the nature and fabric of creating a paradigm shift. We are being asked to become architects of a new civilization, and to ask ourselves, ‘What are the value systems we want to uphold?'”

“One way we do this,” he said,” is by creating a culture of kindness. That would be an intelligent community, being observant of others.” He said that rather than being a culture of separation, fear, mistrust and animosity, it would be what he called a “pro-active culture that manifests our principles.”

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The Shambhala Times will be sharing the video of this international broadcast in the coming days, so stay tuned.

All photos of the Sakyong and Sakyong Wangmo and their family are the property of the Sakyong Lhadrang. If you would like to learn more, please visit: www.sakyongladrang.org