Shambhala & Social Change, by Rhiannon Wells, Centre Director
Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time contemplating the driving force of Shambhala. I keep thinking back to a time when I was taking the Shambhala Training levels and President Reoch gave a community talk in Boulder, CO, where I was living. He told the story of the Buddha, one I’d heard many times before. This time, though, it had a different flavour. President Reoch emphasized the Buddha as a leader of a movement, a revolutionary who was taking on the caste system and radically shifting people’s thinking around social status and what is important in society.
I was moved. Perhaps it was my experience as a high school student, leading protests and workshops on issues of social justice. That had been a passion of mine during some of my most important formative years. Then, after high school, I started to make a relationship with meditation that was much harder to explain. I could feel it was changing my patterns of thinking, and providing a space for the core of my being to be nourished. I resisted the practice and loved it at the same time. Meditation and the vision of Enlightened Society were the new building blocks for me to affect change in the world.
In the evenings, I’ve been watching a series of documentaries about the civil rights movement. I feel so much sadness hearing the stories of African Americans who were treated as second-class citizens, and cruelly killed because of a belief that blacks were not fellow dignified human beings. At the same time I’m deeply touched by the risks people took during the civil rights movement for justice and for the future of human dignity. People risked their lives and gave up the little comfort they had, all for a bigger vision, one of equality and goodness.
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche talks about Shambhala as the container for these kinds of movements. We are the basis, providing the space for reflection on what is important in our world. As warriors we need to face our world and act, but we also need to retreat; contemplate; feel our innate radiant goodness and the goodness of others; and be without an agenda. This is the recipe for enlightened society.
As I head off to the SSA retreat at Shambhala Mountain Center, I think of it as heading into training, but also heading into space. Group retreats provide a container to hold all of us Shambhala warriors, who’ve been out on the battlefield of the setting sun and are coming together to recharge and reflect. I wish everyone a magical summer full of space to be, and energy to engage.
I thoroughly enjoyed your perspective and article, Rhiannon. Indeed, Richard’s story of the Buddha as revolutionary is a timely one for us. How fortunate we are that our Sakyong has given us a path in The Shambhala Principle and many of his other writings. Wishing you a fulfilling retreat.
Susan Phenix
Thank you for your reflections, Rhiannon! They are so good to hear, near to RA in DCL and closing our year in the group in Barcelona before Summer holidays, me being in charge of coordination which is demanding and awarding at the same time. All the best for your Scorpion Seal!