From Angry Dogs to Serenity in Shambhala

I had a hard bike ride through Vermont today, and it didn’t help that Vermont is intensely hilly, which is beautiful, but extremely difficult. Plus, it seems like half of Vermonters keep an unleashed angry dog in their front yard that will chase you down the road for a good half mile. No joke – it’s happened about 10 times in the last two days in Vermont. I’ve seen pit bulls, black labs, and a German shepherd with the biggest teeth ever. I had no idea German shepherds could be fierce.

Anyhow, I’m now at Karme Choling, the first Shambhala center. It was founded in 1970 by Vidyadhara the Venerable Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a prominent Buddhist leader who was cremated on one of these Vermont hillsides in 1987.

Shambhala is a form of Tibetan Buddhism whose practices focus on using awareness meditation to connect with one’s basic sanity and further utilizing that as inspiration for one’s encounter with the world. Unlike many other types of Buddhism, it does not adopt seclusion of followers from society, such as in monasteries.

It’s also a very Western incarnation of Buddhism. With headquarters in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and main centers here in Barnet, Vt. and in Boulder, Colo., many of its followers are converted or children of those who converted in the 1970s. (Here, they are affectionately called “dharma brats.”

Today was mostly a day for me to settle in and learn, and I was shown around many of the center’s sites. With 600 acres, there was much I didn’t get to today, but I plan on staying through Friday morning, so I have time for that.

One of the most noticeable things was their organic garden, which is one of the most lovingly tended gardens I’ve ever seen. With many types of flowers romantically interspersed with vegetables, it’s very easy on the eyes. They use the flowers for Japanese flower arrangement, an artful form of meditation. They eat most of the vegetables themselves, and sell the rest at farmers’ markets.

Afterward, I attended meditation in this gorgeous room (I couldn’t take pictures with the people actually in it):

The meditation is broken into three parts. First, there’s silent, seated meditation where you concentrate on your breathing. Then, walking meditation, where you concentrate on your footsteps. Finally, there was chanting, which was something to behold. With the accompaniment of a gong, the congregants rhythmically speak long chants almost without stopping for breath. The words are almost like poetry, and deeply reflect some of the Hindu roots of the tradition, with allusions to gods and goddesses and highly floral descriptions of their exploits.

One of the things I love about Buddhism is that much of its teachings are couched in visual metaphor. For example, it’s said that the chance of being reincarnated as a human being is like that of a blind turtle swimming through a world that is entirely water, and when he comes up for breath once a year, he puts his head through a singular golden yoke floating on the surface.

During walking meditation, I was instructed to cup my left thumb in my hands like a baby bird inside a nest. I thought it was a very romantic way of explaining a simple gesture, and made it much more meaningful.