Important Information Regarding Our Relocation
Dear Dallas Shambhala Sangha, For many years, a major goal of the Dallas Shambhala Meditation Center has been to establish a lasting and stable presence in the city – a center that is owned, rather than rented. It excites me to announce that in the coming month, we will be moving one step closer to … Continue
Hope and the Spiral of Resentment and Violence
So we continue in the spiral of resentment and violence. It’s shocking to wake up to five dead police officers and, instead of an anonymous street scene from Some City, it’s an intersection I know well. Then, a week later, three more dead, not so far away. And with so many horrors crowding around, it’s … Continue
Respecting the Earth, suggestions of H.H. Karmapa
TEN THINGS YOU CAN DO TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE… Make aspiration prayers. We make aspiration prayers for all sentient beings. This should also include the Earth, which sustains us and gives us life. Read, discuss, and develop an understanding of environmental issues and how they affect you and your community. Go vegetarian. Not only will … Continue
What’s Bravery Got to Do with It?
I stumbled into Shambhala three years ago wanting to learn more about meditation. I figured I’d learn some cool stuff and totally bliss out while trying to get my act together. A coworker had mentioned they had read a book by Pema Chödrön and suggested I do the same since I was interested in Buddhism. … Continue
Sacred Nowness by Dan Stebbins
I was recently given the Shambhala name Sacred Nowness. This caused me to reflect on the meaning. I’ve contemplated nowness many times before. I naively tried to capture nowness so I could know what now is. But nowness proved too elusive and enigmatic. Now is all the time we have but it can’t be measured. … Continue
Meditation and Yoga by Leila Cranford
Not all meditators practice yoga, but meditation is a foundational practice in hatha yoga – or yoga, as we simply call it in the west. A robust yoga practice includes regular meditation (dhyana) as well as postures and breathwork. The seminal Yoga Sutras, in fact, lays out the Eight Limbs that form the the yogi’s … Continue
Feed the Right Wolf
Last week during our normal Heart of Recovery meeting, (Hint: Every Sunday at 6pm!!) this allegory was brought up during our open discussion: An old Cherokee was telling his grandson about the struggle that takes place within all of us. He said, ‘My son, the conflict is between two wolves that live inside us. One … Continue
Practicing Kindness
by Sangha Member Dan It seems to me that we all instinctively know how to practice kindness, what it is and how to do it. We know when we receive kindness, when we extend kindness and also when kindness is faked. It’s a great leveler. healer, heart-warmer, day-maker and friend-maker. Please remember to practice it … Continue
Everybody gets to do what they want
Years ago, prior to embarking on a spectacularly unwise course of action, I ran the plan by my sponsor as a ‘hypothetical’ situation. Truth be told, I didn’t really want nor need his opinion and he wasn’t going to sway me from the overwhelming, maddeningly compulsive need to act… I ran it by him because … Continue
Letting go of the story and moving into Open Sky
Escape, by D.H. Lawrence When we get out of the glass bottles of our own ego, and when we escape like squirrels from turning in the cages of our personality, and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright but things will happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves. Cool, … Continue
