Culture, enlightened society, ALIA 2.0
This weekend I attended two talks. One was by Pema Chodron on monasticism and life at Gampo Abbey here in Nova Scotia. The other was an online talk by Marty Janowitz addressed to Shambhala centres worldwide, on culture. In both cases, they talked about aspiring to live the principles of "enlightened society" as defined in the Shambhala tradition.
Pema talked about living the intention to continually come back to wakefulness, gentleness, and fearlessness in the midst of all the rigor and struggles of monastic life. Marty told stories from his experience as a senior attendant and student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and how Rinpoche's home was both profoundly hospitable to a steady stream of students and almost terrifyingly wakeful, with nowhere to hide.
I was reminded of the original inspiration behind the Shambhala Institute, which was to create a week-long learning community oriented towards enlightened society. It's not that we were aspiring to some ideal utopian state--just that the culture would be wakeful, gentle, fearless, playful, and conducive to stepping beyond habitual patterns and limiting assumptions.
We often talk about the set of principles and practices we use to create these conditions as "container principle." Within that there are understandings about mandala as an energetic field, boundary and protection, the way the environment is ordered and cared for, and the kind of awareness and intention needed to tune into the field, bring it alive, and relate skillfully with whatever comes up.
I remember Chris Grant once challenged us--you are working with a lot of tacit understanding here about how to create this program container, based on what you bring from your experience of the Shambhala teachings and practice. When are you going to show people how to do this, so that they can go home and do it for themselves?
Well, the Summer Institute container has been full of many things, and a week is not long in the realm of deep learning. As we consider the next phase of the Institute and explore our best offering and role in the world, I am wondering if this shouldn't be one element. What kind of container or format would work for this? Could we do it in a way that didn't require a lot of travel? What do others think?
Pema talked about living the intention to continually come back to wakefulness, gentleness, and fearlessness in the midst of all the rigor and struggles of monastic life. Marty told stories from his experience as a senior attendant and student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and how Rinpoche's home was both profoundly hospitable to a steady stream of students and almost terrifyingly wakeful, with nowhere to hide.
I was reminded of the original inspiration behind the Shambhala Institute, which was to create a week-long learning community oriented towards enlightened society. It's not that we were aspiring to some ideal utopian state--just that the culture would be wakeful, gentle, fearless, playful, and conducive to stepping beyond habitual patterns and limiting assumptions.
We often talk about the set of principles and practices we use to create these conditions as "container principle." Within that there are understandings about mandala as an energetic field, boundary and protection, the way the environment is ordered and cared for, and the kind of awareness and intention needed to tune into the field, bring it alive, and relate skillfully with whatever comes up.
I remember Chris Grant once challenged us--you are working with a lot of tacit understanding here about how to create this program container, based on what you bring from your experience of the Shambhala teachings and practice. When are you going to show people how to do this, so that they can go home and do it for themselves?
Well, the Summer Institute container has been full of many things, and a week is not long in the realm of deep learning. As we consider the next phase of the Institute and explore our best offering and role in the world, I am wondering if this shouldn't be one element. What kind of container or format would work for this? Could we do it in a way that didn't require a lot of travel? What do others think?
Tags: Chris, Grant, Janowitz, Marty, Shambhala, culture, enlightened, society
Views: 3
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by David Holt on -
Susan said the other day that people love the culture of the summer program. Culture is like water to fish: we live in it somewhat unconsciously. How to make the institute's culture and implicit assumptions more explicit? Maybe we could try to describe it and develop some exercises: Try these at home. Notice what happens when. Dialogue circles, for instance. Group meditation before a meeting. Describe the concept of a field and how to sense it and interact with it. A little taste. Something about our busy modern lives (including caffeine and technology) damps down some basic aspects of our being. The summer program and similar approaches help us find them again.
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Permalink Reply by Meg Wheatley on
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I"m really struck, Susan, by seeing the list of qualities ALIA has been focused on
" wakeful, gentle, fearless, playful, and conducive to stepping beyond habitual patterns and limiting assumptions."
I'm noting how increasingly difficult it is to be these as we encounter every day the increased fear, aggression, powerlessness and insanity of this time. I'm less focused personally on the container principles than I am on how we create a community of Shambhala warriors who can truly be there for each other daily, given these corroding dynamics.
That being said, a few thoughts about the container. For years I've marveled at the container that the Institute has been, while wanting us to use it more courageously. We have sometimes let gentleness--or niceness--restrict our being fearless with one another. In these times, we really need to know how to show up for each other in fearless ways--encouraging, supporting, consoling, getting beyond our restrictive judgments and patterns of blame, disempowerment and all the other ways we minimize who we are.
I want to continue this conversation from this context and this question--what can we create that will truly support us as warriors for the increasing challenges of this time? What type of containers are important and what other ways of staying as community are available?
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Permalink Reply by David Kahane on
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Thank you Susan, for opening this up. I crave a conversation about some of the nuanced elements of understanding and design that form the program container. I repeatedly invoke the Institute as an example, to colleagues who themselves design dialogues and draw on mindfulness practices in their work, of the kinds of almost ineffable details that differentiate a good conversation and learning experience from a transformative one.
The conversation I crave is about the fearlessness that Meg describes, and the try-these-at-home elements mentioned by David.
But it is especially about the fine grain of designing according the the 'container principle': details of decisions around timing (e.g. where do people need intensity and where do they need time to process?), ritual (e.g. roll-downs, silence, celebration), how activities are sequenced (beginnings, middles, and ends), and so on. It would be so interesting for those closely involved in the design of the Institute container to be bold in sharing some of this insight (including how it has influenced quite granular process decisions), for a wider community to talk about and learn to explore.
Could this discussion board be at least one place for to have the conversation?
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Permalink Reply by Barbara Leonard on -
Aloha All,
I regret that I will not be able to attend the summer conference this year, but truly value my time spent at the Shambhala Institute. Two ladies just started a Shambhala meditation center across the street from me this year so I hope to spend some time with them (http://www.dakinihawaii.net/shambhala.html).
I want to comment on David's request for coversation on these points: "...details of decisions around timing (e.g. where do people need intensity and where do they need time to process?), ritual (e.g. roll-downs, silence, celebration), how activities are sequenced (beginnings, middles, and ends), and so on."
My husband George and I recently moved to the country and decided that we did not need a TV (we need satellite to access stations because we are on the "other" side of the volcano). We do have internet access, so I check in every day and listen to NPR for the news. It is amazing how little I miss having CNN available 24/7! It is also amazing to me how easy it is for me to spend time in meditation without the TV scheduling my life. Yes, things are getting more chaotic and stressful on the Earth, but at the same time, I find that my meditations are more insightful and powerful than ever before. So I guess it is up to us how we harness this enhanced energy that is showering the earth.
I also recently returned from Ababiania, Brazil to see John of God, a medium. He is available Wed, Thurs, and Fridays. While he sees people, around 100 people sit in mediation "sit in current" to hold the energy and ask for the highest good for the earth and for these people. These sessions usually last anywhere from 3-5 hours and are quite powerful. I personally witnessed some amazing healings.
After returning home from Brazil, I am continually reminded that there are these divine beings working with us and helping the earth go through this shift. I am also aware that there are less evolved discarnate beings hanging around that are contributing to confusion with some people. I am aware that keeping a sacred space is vitally important to stay out of the chaos and to help the earth. So yes, I am very much in agreement that beginning meetings with some quiet meditative time is very important, and it is my opinion that more time is needed to process. Creating and maintaining these links to these higher beings is vitally important now and will be so in the future. This is final exam time, and cramming for the final doesn't usually help. That is why we need more time in meditation and in processing what is going on. Just my 2 cents! Peace and love to all. Barbara on the Big Island.
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Permalink Reply by Susan Szpakowski on -
Thanks so much for all these rich reflections and questions. I am realizing that the thread running through them is about communities of practice. I wish that the ALIA Institute had a manual for working with groups that said when to move into intensity and when to relax into time for reflection, or what it felt like to lean into fear at a moment of panic and not-knowing, or how to access the invisible energies that can guide us in our work. Although there may be practices and exercises about this, I expect some kind of support system is also needed to develop and sustain one's capacities in this way. Most basically, there needs to be a community of fellow travellers, learners, practitioners, warriors, who are following shared guideposts and being in some kind of real work together.
Otherwise I find that things can quickly become divergent and abstract. The nature of "authentic leadership" is that it arises in relationship with the environment and with other people. So there can't be a one-size-fits-all approach, and ultimately there isn't a manual. But there could be a fieldbook :-) of resources and stories.
I have always admired the Art of Hosting as an example of an always-evolving community of practice grounded in real relationships and real work.
In a sense the Institute has been a resource and watering-hole for multiple communities of practice. Perhaps it is time for the Institute to express its own life-force more, as a resource for communities of practice committed to warriorship as defined broadly in the Shambhala tradition--i.e., with an allegiance to wakefulness, gentleness, and fearlessness, and supported by mindfulness meditation and/or other personal and collective mind-training practices.
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