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MILWAUKEE
AUGUST2013N E W S L E T T E R
milwaukee.shambhala.org
A Creative & Contemplative
Retreat for the Whole Family!
For Parents, for Children 4-18 and for adults interested in learn-ing to teach in an enlightened wayCreating an enlightened home for our family to grow in is a spiritual path in it-self. Becoming mindful of our own expec-tations in relationship to our children is part of that spiritual path. Family camp is an opportunity for both children and parents to learn meditative arts and enjoy playful activities in a creative and contem-plative environment. For further information contact Re-becca McAlister at [email protected] or Tavita Martinez at [email protected] Register online at wind-horse.shambhala.org. Hurry! Spaces are limited.
Taught By Kerry Lee MacLeanKerry Lee Ma-cLean has directed the Shambhala Children’s Rites of Passage program since 1998. !e mother of "ve meditators, and author of Peaceful Piggy Meditation and !e Family Med-itation Book, she helps Buddhist com-munities develop high-quality programs for children and their families. Kerry received her bachelor of arts in psycholo-gy from Naropa University.
Register online
Fri AUG 30-Sun SEP 1
windhorseretreat.org
Labour Day Weekend
THE WAY OF SHAMBHALA
WISDOM in Everyday LifeDate to be announced, tenta-tively some time in September or October.
!e Way of Shambhala con-tinues with the "nal “In Everyday Life” class, “Wis-dom in Everyday Life”. For those who have completed Level 5, this is the "nal pre-req-uisite for the Rigden program at Windhorse Retreat in October. !e Way of Shambhala is the core curriculum of Sham-bhala teachings comprising of weekday and weekend medita-tion workshops. !ese classes are suitable for meditators at all levels of practice and comple-mentary to any spiritual tradi-tions. !e new cycle of classes will resume later this year. Stay tuned!
Register Online
milwaukee.shambhala.org
Family CampWEEKEND ACTIVITIES
!roughout the weekend, parent and child will learn to be on equal ground and practice “beginner’s mind” to-gether, so back at home we can enjoy these activities as spiritual friends, opening a whole new level of com-munication, and giving us the op-portunity to nurture and support our children’s inspiration. Mini-Medita-tions and Other ‘Speed Bumps’ for the Home. Finding playful ways to incorporate moments of stillness and silence here and there throughout the family day can transform your home
into a peace zone. We’ll learn freeze games with the gong, red light/green light games for driving, meal chants and more. Object Arrangement: First, we get to know our chosen object, tell-ing everyone it’s history (if it’s wood, it was once a tree) then to get a fresh perspective, we make up a new his-tory and present it to the group: a roll of toilet paper could be wrapped around the arm and presented as an ancient material for mummi"cation. Finally, we take turns bowing to enter the sacred space, then placing objects artfully, with fresh awareness, "rst’ heaven’, then ‘earth’, then’ human’
completes the arrangement of three objects. For fun, we end with the same exercise, only using one of our own bodies for the ‘human’ object. Power Animals: Using colored Fimo clays, we discuss the powers of the Shambhala warrior – kindness for the tiger, cheerfulness and bravery for the snow lion, rising to life’s chal-lenges for the garuda and wisdom for the dragon. !en we’ll design and build our own personal power animal sculptures to be used as part of our 3 #owers arrangements. Healing Hands: !is exercise fosters mindfulness of body and gives kids a chance to touch each other in a healthy way—it also makes them
aware of the body’s innate healing abil-ities
CHILDREN’S
T E A C H E R
TRAINING
Becoming a Shambhala Chil-dren’s Teacher means being fully present and genuine with each child and situation that arises, thanks to our own mindfulness med-itation practice. It also means learning
how to create a peaceful ‘family style’ environment, where children can gently be guided into harmonious relationships, while o$ering activities to help them begin to slow down a bit and take responsibility for their own mind and emotions. And, it means learning how to use playful humor and a light touch to maintain a healthy classroom. Training teachers will attend 3 talks, and will receive direct instruc-tions as they witness child and family group activities.
August 6 - Meditation Retreats
If you’re curious about dathün (month-long meditation session) or any extended meditation retreat practice, come to this discussion! Jessica Bizub will share her ex-perience of the January dathün at Karmê Chöling in rural Vermont. All are wel-come to learn more and share about re-treat life at Shambhala land centers.With Jessica Bizub
August 13 - Shambhala is a Mandala
What is a mandala? What does that have to do with Shambhala? Why do I care?With Debbie Zarate
August 20 - What is “Emptiness”An Exploration
Shambhala Buddhism and in fact all tra-ditions of Buddhism talk about “empti-ness”, originating from one of the Bud-dha’s most profound teachings! But what is meant by the term? If there is emptiness, then what is there? What does this have to do with my meditation practice? With my life? !ese and other related topics will be explored in this talk and discussion. Please note: If you happen to have a copy of Sa-kyong Mipham, Rinpoche’s book Turning the Mind into an Ally, reading Chapter 20, “Wisdom and Emptiness”, pp.187 - 197 would be a good preparation for our discussion!With Dan Kaemmerer
August 27 - Building an Enlightened Soci-ety Takes Work
Drawing on the mahayana teachings on the six paramitas—the activity of a bodhi-sattva, this talk is about the real work of and what it takes to build an enlightened society. With Napa Chayaworakul
Need Your Input!
The Center Director, Debbie Zarate, is request-ing suggestions for Tuesday night Open House topics. Why? Many friends have many ques-
tions about many things but don’t know who to ask or how to ask? Questions that range from how is the Shambhala Center organized, What does membership mean? to what is lineage? What is the path? How does ambition relate to meditation? What is a Mandala? What is Emptiness? Why do we chant sometimes? What if I just want to meditate and focus my mind and not hear so much about the Enlightened Society bit. And there are more, no doubt. Questions are good and an expression of our intelligence but it would be great to have somewhere and someone to discuss this with. !erefore one Tuesday night a month will be dedicated to a topic of your choice. Your question or suggestion will be the subject matter for the Open House discussion. So if you have some burning ques-tion on your mind please let the Open House Coordi-nator, Jessica Bizup, [email protected] or myself know [email protected]. For those of you who prefer to be anonymous, we will also be putting a sug-gestion “box” at the center. !e "rst o$ering will be on Tuesday, August 13, 2013, entitled “Shambhala is a Mandala—What is a mandala? and what does that have to do with Shambhala? and Why do I care?”
OPEN HOUSEuesday
The Shambhala Center to Host Compassionate MilwaukeeCompassionate Milwaukee is an expansion of the Compassion-ate Cities program inspired by Karen Armstrong's Charter for Compassion. Milwaukee is cam-paigning to be recognized as an international city of compassion by Compassion Action Network International, and will be partic-ipating in the 2013 Compassion Games. !e Charter for Compas-sion is a call to bring together the voices of diverse cultures and spiritual/faith communities with the purpose of reminding the world that we all share the core principle of compassion. !e Shambhala Center has joined this initiative and hosted the "rst meeting on July 31, 2013. Members or friends may also join the campaign as individuals. Please spread the word. Compassionate Milwaukee, and all that this "label" means, could become a fabulous representation of all that is good in our won-derful city. For more information:
Contact Kathy [email protected]/CompassionMKEFacebook.com/CompassionateMilwaukee www.compassionatemilwaukee.org
Governing Council Meeting Report July 2013
!e governing council met twice in July to discuss topics of "nance and fundraising. !e conversation large-ly centered around “Choosing Our Future: Wealth, Money and Fi-nancial Structure in Shambhala,” a report on the "nances of Shambhala as an international organization, and the new uni"ed giving model Sham-bhala is working toward implement-ing. !e discussion included broad exploration of our understanding of the meaning and value of wealth and generosity in our community, as well as the particulars of how we "t into the larger plan for uni"ed giving and increased income for the mandala. We also discussed intentions for a membership drive and fundraising at our local center, including questions around how to send a compelling message, engage the full range of our participants, and provide clear ways to get involved. We identi"ed and will be moving forward with next steps individually and as a group.
May Meeting Minutes Now PostedCouncil meeting minutes for May is now posted on our website at http://milwaukee.shambhala.org/minutes.php
Weekthun with Queer Dharma, Aug 2-9At Windhorse Retreat Center
A week-long meditation retreat led by a senior meditation instructor. !e program includes sitting and walking meditation, contemplation and work/study periods. Participating in a weekthun is a great way to deepen your meditation practice with the support of a group.
Queer Dharma is a Chicago-based group and has been conducting sum-mer weekthun at Windhorse for the past several years. Both queer and non-queer practitioners welcomed. For full details, registration and contanct, go to Chicago Shambhala website.
About Windhorse Retreat As the midwest Shambhala land center, Windhorse is located just an hour north of Milwaukee and adjacent to Kettle Morraine State Park. !e retreat facility is a light-"lled, sustainably built house that accommodates both group and solitary retreat rentals. Contact Rebecca at [email protected] or 920-449-4352.
By Paul Shinkle
My Mom calls painting “the poor man’s remodeling.” We painted walls in our home most every year. I’m still amazed by how wonderfully a bucket of tinted liquid plastic and a long af-ternoon can uplift a room. By now, I hope you’ve had a chance to see the upstairs shrine room and its new complexion! !is is no ordinary ‘one white for another’ tint change. Sarah Os-bourne, our Representative of the O%ce of Culture and Decorum, selected “Clear Moon” for the walls and “Candlelight Ivory” for the trim. !eir names alone make them suit-able for a shrine room. It’s helpful to remember that every item in the Center, from ikebana to the banners and including even the paint on the walls, is a part of an uplifted contain-er intended to help us wake up to ba-sic goodness. !e other important people in this story are our crack all-day Sunday painting crew and Saturday prep guy, Greg! We put in a com-bined 20+ hours of e$ort over the weekend. Feel free to express your appreciation to Mary Ellen and her husband Gary, !erese, Stuart, John, and Glenn! !ese Shambhalians are the only proof of basic goodness and enlightened society we need. It truly is so simple—a paint brush, an open heart, and four walls. Projects like this are always im-perfectly "nished. If you see a blem-ish or a skipped spot, please let me know. Plus, we all know that when you uplift one part of an area, the other areas begin to cry out for at-tention too. As always, please feel free to share your ideas, talents, la-bor, and most of all your open heart. Remember to touch our Center with the same gentleness you extend to yourself and to others. Working with this interesting building and all of you creates great
con"dence in the 500-year view of the Milwaukee Shambhala Center.
We’ll be cleaning the car-peting in August. We still have some painting
in both post-meditation halls and, eventually, the stairwell. So if you’re really pining to work with other col-ors, let me know. We are still in need of a 24-foot extension ladder so we can secure the stucco around the windows along the south exposure. Actually, we have ac-cess to a ladder, but need a way to get it from Bay View to the Center and back home again. If you have or know of someone who might give it a ride (a pickup truck would be per-fect), please contact me (paulshin-
[email protected]). I’m sorry to men-tion that we are only 12 weeks from wintery weather, so we really need to take care of this. !e supplies we use for these projects are not free, so any amount you can donate is gratefully received. We often hear the phrase “no amount is too small.” !at is very true. Of course, no amount is too large either! !e supplies for the painting project cost nearly $150, a purchase made possible by your continuing generos-ity. !e other side of this is that our gentle and mindful contact with the building itself means we need fewer supplies and resources in the future. !at e$ort is also gratefully received and gratefully o$ered.
The Poor Man’s Remodeling
HAPPY &'()*+,-. !ank you so much to everyone who contributed to paint-ing the upstairs Shrine room especially Paul Shinkle who organized the e$ort. !e Shrine room looks beautiful, bright and cheerful.
Greetings! I very much wel-come and appreciate this op-portunity to write a regular
column about the science of med-itation. Let me introduce myself: I am an Associate Professor of Psy-chology at Carroll University where I teach courses in neuroscience, ex-perimental psychology, and statistics. I conduct research on the e$ects of di$erent kinds of meditation (e.g., close placement, or breath-focus, and loving-kindness meditation) on cognition, emotion, and physiologi-cal processes. As many of you have likely no-ticed, the science of meditation is in vogue right now. Prominent maga-zines such as Time, Newsweek, and Discover have featured cover stories on the science of meditation. Books and videos about changing your brain through meditation (and oth-er training regimens) are springing up at an accelerating rate. Even the
Dalai Lama is on board, having cul-tivated numerous active partnerships with scientists, including some in our own backyard (e.g. Richard Da-vidson of UW-Madison). Why the fascination with the science of meditation? Certainly, we are all drawn to meditation for over-lapping reasons. But why is its scien-ti"c study such a focus of attention? !is is a question I think about, par-ticularly in relation to my own work. Why do I conduct research on med-itation? To prove that meditation is e$ective? If so, to whom? !e Buddha famously advised that our experiences should ground our beliefs. Our understanding of meditation arises from our practice. Do we feel more relaxed? Mind-ful? Open? Compassionate? Joyful? !ese are the important data points. We shouldn’t, the Buddha might say, substitute scienti"c understanding—however powerful the neuroimaging
technology that produced it—for our own experiential understanding. In other domains as well, our experi-ence is the ground of understanding. No amount of familiarity with New-tonian physics will convince you of the e$ects of gravity quite like falling hard on the ice. So, are we misguided in our interest in the science of med-itation, given the Buddha’s teaching? I don’t think so. But it may be help-ful to appropriately contextualize the science of meditation. HERE’S WHAT I THINK. Most (all?) of us are cognizant of a gap between where we are and where we would like to be. We believe that meditation will help to close that gap. Perhaps we have some measure of experience that this is so, there-by fortifying our belief. But we still need to trust the path. In the absence of personal experience with elements of the path, that trust amounts to faith. Faith in what may come with continued meditation and study. I think that science is attractive be-cause its "ndings reinforce our faith in the promise of meditation. !at promise feels more tangible seeing that others’ brain circuitry has been re-sculpted by meditation. In this way, science mimics a role of the tra-ditional guru by showcasing models of what is possible. In future columns, I’ll present and discuss the science of medita-tion. Not to prove its e$ectiveness. But to bolster our faith that our dis-cipline and exertion will yield fruit. I welcome your feedback at any time at [email protected]!
M'/0+. B1* ,+2',34+-- 56 what form the guru takes, the true bene"t of medita-tion can best be proven only through our own experiential understanding.
By Christopher May
Neuroscience - the 21st cent Meditation Guru?
CHARDI KALA 6K RUN/WALK
with the Sikh Community
of Oak Creek, WI
More photos on facebook.com/milwaukeeshambhala
2344 N. Oakland Avenue, Milwaukee. Tel: (414) 277-8020. Email: [email protected]
By Debbie Zarate
THE SPIRIT OF CHARDHI KALA, a key principle that infuses the Sikh re-ligion, has touched the Shambhala com-munity of Milwau-
kee, the city of Milwaukee and and many around the country including family members of the Sandi Hook tragedy. Chardhi Kala describes the state of mind in which a person or community does not let negative emotions like fear, jealousy or hatred become overwhelming and a$ect one's outlook and actions. Instead the mind is full of positive feel-ings including joy, satisfaction and self-dignity. Sikhs are ideally expect-ed to be in this positive state of mind as a sign of their contentment with the will of God even during the times of adversity. Last August 5, 2012, the Sikh Community of Wisconsin su$ered a senseless and tragic shooting that killed 6 members. Instead of re-sponding to these events with more hatred, polarization and aggression, the spirit of Chardhi Kala inspired the Sikh community and family members of victims to bravely reach out and connect with the greater Milwaukee community including Shambhala.
One endeavor started by fam-ily members of a victim, was the formation of a col-
laborative organizaion called Serve 2 Unite. From the perspective that diversity is a great strength, its vision is to foster appreciation, understand-ing and respect amongst diverse reli-gious communities. In particular, it serves to build a regional network of diverse interfaith youth leaders that can help at-risk communities. !is work bought the founders of Serve 2 Unite, Pardeep Kaleka, Rahul Dubey and Navi Gill to Chicago for the Imaging Peace Conference with Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche late last spring. P',3++& K'4+7', a high school teacher and former police o%ce, is the oldest son of Satwant Singh Kale-ka, the president and founder of the Sikh temple who was slain during the attacks on August 5th, 2012, along with 5 others. Rahul Dubey, a soft-wear engineer at Rockwell Interna-tional, considered Mr. Kaleka like a god father and was deeply inspired by Mr. Kaleka's example. He learned many lessons on integrity and the importance of community service from him. Navi Gill, the nephew of the late Satwant Singh Kaleka and son of the current President of the Sikh temple of Wisconsin, is in-volved along with Rahul in the Youth Program at the Sikh temple. One of
Navi's favorite quotes is "Peace is not something you wish for; it’s some-thing you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away." ( Robert Fulghum). Finding the Imagining Peace Conference and Youth Congress very relevant and meaningful to their work; a supportive friendship began between the Sikh community and the Shambhala Center of Milwaukee. (!e Center Director of Milwaukee) Debbie Zarate was able to talk to Pardeep, Rahul and Navi about their experience of the Imagining Peace Program and Shambhala.
!e rest of the article will appear in Shambhala Times News Magazine. Or you can download the full article from our website at http://milwaukee.sham-bhala.org/community.php
A Heart Conversation with the Sikh Community of Wisconsin
WEEKLY MEDITATION
Tuesday 7 - 7:45 pm
Wednesday 7 - 8 pm
Saturday 9 - 10:30 am
Sunday 9 - 11 am
Meditation instruction every
Tuesday at 7 pm and Sunday
at 10am. Join us every Tuesday
for meditation, tea social and
open house talk. Free.
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grams. Contact David Skoglind
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