photos by Lisa Stanley
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By Vicki Tansey
photo by Sol Lang
When it comes to being in one’s body with mindfulness, in some fundamental way, there is little difference between any of us. Dancer, athlete, mover, doer. All that we are – all that defines us – is a conglomeration of how we think, feel and act. It is easy to dismiss the body’s role; after all, we often focus on communication through words, when perhaps simple, embodied presence is better. We try to transcend – to override the signals our bodies are tuned to – convinced that our intellectual and emotional intelligences ‘know’ what’s going on and how to respond. Time after time, we allow this mind over body ‘take-over’ and wonder why we keep feeling overwhelmed, fatigued and off-centre. We misread situations because we are not including the body’s natural and innate ability to inform us. Try this exercise, standing or sitting still: Wait. Wait some more. Begin to notice – to pay attention to what you’re feeling and thinking. Relief at the stillness? Agitation? Nothing? This is the very place to start. You are in the process of returning ‘home’, beginning to let your body, breath, mind and heart arrive in the same place at the same time. When mindfully present in your body – in all its unique quirkiness and beauty – you come back into your own skin. You soften to its reality, trusting the way it can and will guide you through the still and rushing waters of life itself. The hundreds of small and large gestures and movements we do everyday – every moment is one in which we can be present. This quality of consciousness is available to all of us, but requires that we are willing to investigate and take on the kind of practices that will nourish and support it. Vicki Tansey will lead “Exits & Entrances: Explorations in Presence and Improvisation with Meditation,” For Karmê Chöling’s 40th anniversary celebration over Memorial Day weekend Jack Niland showered us with creative blessings of various kinds. Not only did he produce and direct two of Trungpa Rinpoche’s plays (more about those in a separate post) but he also created a series of banners that were hung throughout the house, the Pavilion and the dining tent – a brilliant display of the symbols of the Shambhala world. Jack arrived at Karmê Chöling several days before the weekend celebration began with more than 40 banners that he had produced single-handedly in his apartment in New York. “For the 40th I wanted to create a new visual vision with the banners based on sunshine and I wanted to sum up Shambhala in 21 symbols – like the essence of Shambhala as Trungpa developed it.”
 From the very beginning of the Vidyadhara’s arrival in the U.S. Jack had a part in helping to bring that vision into forms. It was a very young Jack Niland who painted the front door of Karmê Chöling under painstakingly specific directions from Trungpa Rinpoche in 1970. Rinpoche referred to the front door as the gateway to dharma in the west. The door has been repainted by many artists through the years, most recently Peter Fried and Catherine Clark, and in each case they have tried to stay as true as possible to the original design.
Jack told us about an occasion, years ago, when Trungpa came to his banner studio in Boulder. He instructed Jack to print a big yellow sun on white satin, and while the ink was still wet Rinpoche took the garuda seal and silk screened it in red on the sun. When Rinpoche pulled the screen up he said, “Look. The ink has penetrated the yellow sun so it looks as though the seal is inside of the sun instead of on top of the sun. That’s how you should think of it.” ” That blew me away,” Jack said, “because I had never thought of printing wet on wet – it just wasn’t done.”
When the Sakyong appointed Jack an ‘Artist of the Kalapa Court’, he presented him with the image of a black Ashe on top of a gold sun. The image was on a shikishi board. Jack nailed the award very securely to the wall above his bed. As the time drew close to do the project for Karmê Chöling, Jack was having a hard time figuring out what the project should be. At 3 o’clock one morning he was sitting in his bed with a pad of paper, thoroughly stumped and becoming depressed, when suddenly the board popped off the wall, fell, and hit him on the head. “My first reaction was, ‘Oh, I’m a failure as an artist because I can’t think of anything and my award fell down’.” But as he picked it up from the floor he realized, “Oh my God, this is the project!” And that is how Karmê Chöling came to be filled with glorious banners each containing a gold sun and a symbol of Shambhala.
 Photo by Tom Plucinski  Photo by Jeffrey Mann
It’s been more than a year now that I’ve been Retreat Master here at Karmê Chöling, and what a rich experience it’s been. Holding the retreat container, being a protectress, is an honor and a joy, and very humbling. I thank all who’ve done retreat, anywhere, for your practice, courage, curiosity, trepidation, joy, and devotion in doing retreat. So, what happened in 2009 in the world of Retreats? Alexander ‘t Hart, prior Retreat Master, returned home to Holland in April; major repairs were made to parts of the road to the Purkhang, around the wood pile, and the road to the Scorpion Seal retreat cabin; Nirmanakaya was picked up and moved to a new location; all the fields above the Upper Campground, except for that at Sambhogakaya, were mowed. 2009 also saw the departure of Shaun Nord, Retreats Assistant for two years. Samuel Allison arrived in June this year as the new Assistant. For those of you who’ve done retreat here, I thought you might be interested to know about your favorite cabin(s), what was done in 2009 and what we aspire to get done in 2010. During 2009 I created a no-holds barred budget for the next two years. This isn’t a wish list. This is the nitty-gritty stuff! Continue reading June 20, 2010, Summer Solstice, Update From Retreats at Karmê Chöling
Last year a snapping turtle laid eggs in the Karme Choling rock garden. At least that’s what everyone says. I can’t find anyone who actually saw any baby turtles but here are photos to prove that she was there. We put up turtle crossing signs along the driveway, since it cuts directly through her path between the rock garden and the pond. This event occurred during the first Scorpion Seal Assembly last June. Some of us felt certain there was a cosmic relationship between the amazing energy of the program and the appearance of the turtle. Others of us felt that Tom Plucinski did such a fine job tending the rock garden that she was seduced by its pristine form. Of course by the time these photos were taken the pristine part had begun to diminish. Whatever the reason, it appears she has returned this year. The signs are there: a particular kind of disturbance of the rocks resembling a trail and something that looks distinctly like a smushed out little nest in an otherwise perfectly raked rock garden. In addition, the apparent causes and conditions have repeated themselves again this year. The garden was raked just before we began the second Scorpion Seal Assembly last week. One thing is for sure. She’s in the pond. Acharyas Greenleaf, Hayashi and Ferguson were observed watching her float, very still, on the surface of the pond a couple of days ago. Completely motionless for a long time. The turtle, that is, not necessarily the Acharyas.
We rolled out the Cornerstone Campaign at a High Tea on Saturday afternoon on the lawn outside the pavilion. Jane Arthur and Acharya Suzann Duquette (who is also the Chair of the Expansion Committee) gave a short presentation about Karmê Chöling’s plans to move us forward into the next 40 + years while people nibbled tea cakes and sipped champagne in the brilliant afternoon air. Katie Trautz and Julia Wayne played beautiful fiddle music and we were delighted by a surprise visit from poet Anne Waldman. Ms. Waldman, who lives in Colorado, was in the area for a brief residency at the Vermont Studio Center. She heard it was our birthday and came to visit for an afternoon. We were treated to a reading/dancing of a ritual performance-piece entitled “Neuralinguistically: This is the Writing Dance” and the reading of a transcript of an “archival” 1975 conversation between the Vidyadhara, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and others. The archival piece is now in a recent anthology that she co-edited with Laura Wright, entitled BEATS AT NAROPA. After two years of preparation, construction of the cabin will begin this month. The groundbreaking ceremony during the 40th Anniversary celebration was one of the highlights of the weekend. More than 100 people hiked up the road in a long stream passing through a lhasang of juniper (created by Ms. Cynther Greene, Karme Choling Retreat Master) as we entered into what, for years, has been called the Nirmanakaya meadow. The day was magnificent with clouds moving through a blue sky. The celebration began with an offering of Genjoraku, a bugaku 7th century Japanese court dance, by Acharya Arawana Hayashi, powerful and magical amongst the tall trees of the meadow. A special shovel was created for the actual groundbreaking by Ms. Catherine Clark. The shovel blade has a gold face marked with a black Ashe. Acharya Rockwell and Director Jane Arthur made the first cut tossing earth in the air with glee. They were followed by Acharyas Suzann Duquette, Michael Greenleaf and Arawana Hayashi then all former directors of Karme Choling who were present for the weekend: David Nichtern, Jude Robison, Roger Guest, Tom Bell and Bill Brauer as well as Dr. Stuart Lord, President of Naropa University. After the gleeful shoveling Acharya Rockwell said a few words about the cabin then engaged in a lively and informative conversation with the assembly. The design of the cabin is based on the Sakyong’s Scorpion Seal Retreat cabin in Kalapa Valley in Nova Scotia. The cabin being built at Karme Choling is a prototype for a series of cabins to be built at Shambhala Centers around the world. Donations to the Scoripon Seal Retreat Cabin can be made here. “Poem About Karme Choling” written by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche Ekajati Painting by Chogyam Trungpa The party is happening in a couple of days! Everyone here is busily preparing for your arrival. We are looking forward to seeing everyone here and also invite your “virtual participation.” We invite you to share your stories of Karme Choling in the comments. We’ll be happy to include them in the “Inside Karme Choling” session on Sunday morning. The Chronicles Project feature “Glimpses of Tail of the Tiger 1970” by Jonathan Eric might inspire you to share your memories. If you are planning to come and we don’t know about it yet, please take a minuter to register. Our coordinators and kitchen staff will really appreciate it. Video credit: Painting of Ekajati by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche used with permission. |
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