At the very last day of November, we learned that Fabrice Champion, sangha member who lived close to Dechen Chöling, has died in Peru. He was traveling around South America by himself on his wheelchair.

Fabrice Champion

The director of Shambhala Europe, Chris Montone, wrote:  “Our Shambhala brother, Fabrice Champion, was attending a shamanistic healing centre and passed away during a healing ceremony. His family is arranging for his body to be returned to France. We will send further details when the situation is clearer. Please hold Fabrice, this fearless warrior, his family and all who are close to him, in your hearts and practice.”

Fabrice was scheduled to teach Dharma Art in May 2012 with Herb Elsky at DCL. He was 39 years old. Dechen Chöling offered a sukhavati on December 1st.

Shastri Catherine Eveillard wrote: “Fabrice a été et restera un poète volant, un magnifique héros de Shambhala, le coeur brisé et plein d’élan et de passion. Pensons à lui” (“Fabrice was and will always remain a flying poet, a great Shambhala hero, brokenhearted and full of character and passion. Let’s think of him.”).

Anna Weinstein

Last September, our dear and well-remembered Shambhala Europe former Centre Services Coordinator, Anna Weinstein, was appointed Dorje Kasung Sergeant-Major in a ceremony at the end of Magyal Pomra Encampment in Dorje Denma Ling. She is the first woman in the mandala to hold the position (responsible for all sergeants in the DK).

“She has been a member of the NCO Corps for many years and has trained closely with Sergeant-Major Krogoll.  She follows an impressive lineage of Sergeant-Majors and brings much precision and heart to her new post as she trains all of us on the parade ground of form and formlessness.  I am delighted to be working with her and to watch her further develop the NCO Corps”, said the announcement sent by the Kasung Kyi Khyap, Jesse I. Grimes.

Also, the previous Sergeant-Major, Lennart Krogoll, Rupön wrote: “Over the last few years, I enjoyed working very closely with Sergeant-Major Anna Weinstein.  How she applies her discipline with great heart and integrity— earthy and straightforward—is always inspiring.  I am very happy that things can only get better from here on out, and she will take the NCO Corps and NCO service to the Makkyi, the Dorje Kasung and the world further.  DKSM Anna Weinstein has my wholehearted support and confidence.”

Anna Weinstein lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Congratulations to Anna! E Ma Ho!

After 10 hours of bus drive we were got off on a side-road-village where we negotiated a ride to the start of the Amnye Machen Kora. This mountain is the seat of the deity that we Shambhalians know as Magyal Pomra. At the start of the trek around the mountain was a pretty depressing, muddy little village, where we stayed a couple of nights under ongoing heavy rain, hoping to find horses to rent. We were so relieved when we finally succeeded with our horse search and left, however still under ongoing rain.

Close to Cora

On this Kora is a place where Gesar is supposed to have taken his weapons and part of his treasure, and where he would have left his sword to take back one day out of the rock. Unfortunately as we didn’t speak a single word of the local Tibetan dialect, we didn’t succeed to find that terma place.

We had a little Lonely Planet phrasebook of Tibetan that had helped us a bit in Kham, even though the Khampa dialect was already quite different from the Lhasa-Tibetan that was taught in our book. Here, 600 km to the North the Tibetan dialect of Golok as well as the look of people was much closer to Mongolian, and our book only helped us with rather educated people.

During our horseback riding and camping trip we were invited a few times by friendly nomads into their tents, sharing butter tea, tsampa and noodle soup, as well as curious looks and laughter, somehow communicating with hands and feet and drawings.

Every nomad tent was equipped with solar panels for electric devices. We also discovered  there that the authorities were trying to “tame” the nomadic life style by wiring and fencing the immense plains and valleys. We saw fences everywhere, which surprised us and sometimes impeded our freedom to go outside the paths, but the politics we understood only when back home.

We rode and camped during five nicely slowed-down days of Kora through some beautiful, quiet, wild landscapes – riding through wide grasslands, crossing rivers, passing glaciers, high passes and valleys.

Amnye Machen Pass

During the entire pilgrimage we tried to hold as strong a practice container as we could, be it that we practiced for several hours during our long car rides or on horseback – the reigns in one hand, the mala in the other.

When we had completed half of the Magyal Pomra circle we hitch-hiked towards Machen where we took a night bus back to Xining, the “civilization” and airport. There we visited a huge Gelugpa monastery called Khumbum and were shocked by the way it had become a noisy, busy mass tourist attraction, even though the Chinese and Tibetan tourists seemed for the most part devoted.

Before leaving on a trip like this, it is advised to look into the current political and economical situation in the area, as some regions and especially Surmang are very poor, and could also be under Chinese scrutiny at any given time. We recommend being autonomous with your own shelter and food to be sure not to be a weight on the local economy. But we believe it could help people to meet, mingle and interact with foreigners, even despite the language barrier. We hardly saw ten Westerners in a month.

It was certainly not an easy trip to organize, because there was neither a lot of reliable information about possible administrative difficulties with Chinese authorities, nor about the places themselves concerning transport, sleep, food, communication and safety.

So for the first part of our trip we eventually decided to hire a driver with his four wheel drive jeep, when traveling through an area not served by busses (there were only dirt roads with lots and lots of potholes); although this was quite heavy on our finances, we are extremely happy to have chosen this solution. THAT particular Tibetan driver was very well connected and respected in the area and opened up so many communication possibilities with the locals – monks, nuns, nomads, villagers…. If you have more time (and language skills) you could choose to hitch-hike, but be ready to get lost in the wilderness, or not to find some of the particular places you wanted to visit.

Amnye Machen tent

Almost no one speaks English there at all, luckily our driver spoke a few words, but not enough for touristic, spiritual or cultural explanations; we would have needed to add heavy expenses to have a guide and translator on top of a driver. Our budget however made us decide against this option. Regardless, we learned to communicate with hands and feet and smiles and pantomime, speaking from heart to heart with so many people wanting to relate with us.

Altitude sickness was sometimes difficult for me, not for Nadine, so it’s good to be prepared and have medicine. During most of our trip we stayed between 4000 and 5000 meters high, on some hikes we even went above 5000 meters. The weather in summer, the rainy season was overall quite nice, but we did have some days of heavy rain in a row, when we were more than happy to be invited into the warm and cozy nomad tents.

Amnye Machen Family Bus

When planning our trip at home we were afraid of the attitude of Chinese police. But we must say that every person we met on our trip, Chinese or Tibetan, policeman or civilian, monk or nomad, city- or country person has been so extremely kind with us that we feel ashamed at our ways to treat each other in general, and Chinese tourists in particular, in our countries. We were careful not to have any attitude though that could put Tibetans in danger. Sometimes we had a strange impression of being followed and monitored by the police; but if so, we got the good side of it, in that we would never wait long on the side of a road before being helped out by someone, magically coming out of nowhere.

We feel so much blessed by this trip, and hope that this little travel story will inspire some people to undertake this not always so easy, but totally worthwhile pilgrimage. You are more than welcome to ask any questions, if we could help you in your preparation.

By Eric Rugani and Nadine Zerbel erugani@yahoo.fr

When the Sakyong and Khandro-la celebrated their wedding in Orissa in 2007, a Pilgrimage to the sacred Buddhist sites of India was organized. Attending it inspired us (this is: Nadine and Eric) deeply, so when we got married ourselves last year in Dechen-Chöling and thought about a meaningful destination for our honeymoon, we decided to visit Kham and Golok where our lineage originates. We followed mainly Born in Tibet as our inspirational guidebook. We would like to share some pictures and impressions and maybe inspire some of you.

We landed in Jyekundo (or Yushu by Chinese name), which had been devastated the year before by a terrible earthquake and is now a town of tents between mud and dust. This was quite a depressing start for our first two days in Tibet.

Dutsi Til Shedra

The morning we met our driver we hoped to possibly have the chance to see the new Trungpa Rinpoche many hours later when arriving in Surmang Dudtsi Til, one of the two main seats of Trungpa Rinpoche. But actually he surprised us by getting in our car for the whole trip some minutes after, as he happened to be a close friend of our driver Phuntsok! Unfortunately Trungpa Tulku doesn’t speak any English yet, so direct heart-to-heart communication was beginning to be trained there.

On the way to Surmang we witnessed (and practiced ourselves) the “Tsethar” tradition of buying the life of a Yak from their owner, in order to save the animal for the rest of his life from being slaughtered. The Tsethar animals (mostly Yaks or sheep) can be recognized by a colorful ribbon in their ears, and everyone in the area understands the taboo of killing or even stealing such a liberated animal.

The young Trungpa Rinpoche offered us very generously a lot of his time, which was at the same time delicious, and extremely embarrassing, when we learned that he had come especially for us from one  full day’s drive away, from Sertar monastery where he persues his  studies. We were received like a king and a queen, constantly being fed with delicious foods, butter tea, tsampa, soups, noodles, yak meat, fruit… Trungpa Tulku guided us through Surmang to the ruined residence of the former Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

Trungpa XII in the center

Picture shows all of us in front of the Dutsi Til ruins: from left to right two monks, Nadine Zerbel, Trungpa XII, Eric Rugani and Trungpa’s father. There we met Martin, a Swiss Shambhalian, who stayed in Surmang  for the summer to teach English to the young monks at the Shedra. All three of us then sung a glorious Shambhala anthem, which Trungpa videotaped with great joy.

Rinpoche was fascinated by the Born in Tibet pictures of Dudtsi Til and its Dorje Kyung Dzong retreat center, as it was drawn by Chögyam Trungpa 50 years earlier, and he spent a long time studying the photo of Chögyam Trungpa on the book cover of the French version.

We wanted to find the birthplace of Chögyam Trungpa, with the fiery Pagö-pusum mountain, and Surmang Khenpo Tsering Gyurme pointed out the place for us – unfortunately too far for our schedule; but auspiciously Khenpo himself  went there shortly after with a group of monks, about to put the 1st stone of a Stupa dedicated to Trungpa on his birthplace.

Dorje Khyung Dzong

Upon our departure Trungpa Tulku offered us a beautiful Tara statue (he had seen us practicing the short Tara sadhana the night before), which was extremely touching and again, so embarrassing when seeing that the residents at Surmang seem to have so little. We passed after some kilometers near Dechen-Chöling the second retreat center of the area which we were told could be visible on the mountain slopes from the road.

After some hours we arrived at Namgyal Tse, the main monastery under Trungpa’s guidance as far as size is concerned. Here we realized how much Tibet is currently under change; hundreds of little grey concrete box houses and blue tents are growing like mushrooms to room Chinese “voluntary” immigrants. It gave us  the impression of a human tide swelling, with the difference that it seems to follow a plan and is not spontaneous. Picture shows the monastery in the background, with young lama just released from jail, Phuntsok, Karma, Nadine and Martin.

At the same time there’s an enormous effort of rebuilding monasteries that had been destroyed to the ground, which we would then see in every major monastery that we visited later on. What we understood is that the money comes mainly from many Chinese Buddhists, as well as possibly from the government.

We had the luck to meet an English-speaking Lama who came from India to visit his family; in fact double luck as  a thunderstorm had just started and he invited us to sleep at his home (Namgyal-Tse doesn’t have a Guesthouse yet). On the way to the Lama’s home he took us for a visit of the nearby Ani Gompa – the nunnery of Namgyal Tse, hidden in a nice valley.

Nadine with a nun at Namgyal Tse

There was a lot of police, government officials and journalists that day at the main shrine hall, and we learned that there was a press conference after 40 out of the 100 lamas of the monastery had been arrested. We understood that they had protested against a huge increase of local tax following the new immigration, and that the arrests were the answer. However, at least there was some negotiation, in a seemingly open way.

The next day we were on our way back to Jyekundo where Martin left us in order to go back to Surmang to continue teaching.  In a restaurant in Jyekundo we had for the first time the surprise to see a picture of the Dalaï Lama, the Karmapa who escaped Tibet in 2000, and the late Panchen Lama. This happened a few more times and we even saw a huge Dalai Lama poster right at the entrance to a Tibetan Hotel (Western Tourists were not authorized to stay in this hotel). We understood that the restrictions for travelling in mainland China, in the regions of Quinhai and Sichuan, and not in the so called “Autonomous Republic of Tibet” (TAR), are a lot lighter. For tourists like us the visa was much easier to get (in fact we simply had to apply for a Chinese Tourist visa), and we were also allowed to travel on our own, without an official tour operator / Chinese guide.

From Jyekundo we headed towards Sechen Monastery, the seat of Sechen Kongtrül and Khenpo Gangshar who were the two root gurus of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Sechen was also the former seat of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. On our way through the Dzachuka valley, in Junyung, we were lucky to find one of the former retreat hermitages of Mipham Rinpoche. The Lama who lived and practiced there welcomed and blessed us with the mantra of Manjushri and showed us a “self appearing” mantra of Manjushri on a rock nearby.

Sechen Monastery

In Sechen, under huge rebuilding efforts of the monasteries we met two Western architects who were directing the work and helped us a lot to understand the situation. Chinese authorities have actually imposed to rebuild monasteries that had just been reconstructed some decades before, now under earthquake-safe norms.

There we trekked toward the rebuilt retreat center of Sechen Kongtrül, were young Chögyam Trungpa had gone to meet his Guru.

We also had the luck to meet the new Sechen Gyaltsap Rinpoche, the Tulku of Dilgo Khyentse’s Guru, who was extremely kind to us, and who went out of his way to invite us for a feast at his family home in Derge two days later.

From Sechen we went to Dzogchen monastery – a beautiful one hour trek up the picturesque valley surrounded by towering  snow-topped mountains took us to a cave retreat where Patrül Rinpoche wrote “The Words of my Perfect teacher” in the XIXth century. The hermit invited us into his cave and practiced together with us, which was a very powerful and moving experience.

Patrul Rinpoche's cave retreat

The next day we went through the former seat of Namkhaï Norbu Rinpoche. (pict Namkhaï Norbu)

We then visited Derge with its printing press and library,that helped so much the spreading, and survival, of Buddhist literature and culture and is considered one of the main sacred sites of the area. There in the printing press monastery was a very lively stupa with the remains of Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lödrö, the former incarnation of the filmmaker of “the Cup”.

From there we visited his monastery, Dzongsar, where Chögyam Trungpa had studied for some months, and trekked up to Pema Shelpuk the morning after. Pema Shelpunk is a former hermitage of Guru Rinpoche. We wanted to reach Taktsang where Mipham Rinpoche had once stayed in a long retreat, but we got lost on the high mountain ridge. Apparently it was not possible in a one day’s trek and Eric also got altitude sick, having done this steep, exhausting hike above 5000 meters.

Pema Shelpuk

Luckily the area around Derge is much lower with valley bottoms reaching “only” around 3000 meters, so here the altitude sickness quickly diminished. It is an alpine landscape with nice forests, which seem to be rather savagely logged. We don’t know if the responsibility is only Chinese there, as it seems a lot of wood is used to rebuild many traditional houses and monasteries. But you would see steep coombs entirely logged, with wood ending up in the river further down. A lot of the logged wood that could not easily reach the river had been abandoned on the way, and a lot as well was rotting in the river.

On that topic we could speak of the habit of people to throw their garbage everywhere, resulting, like in India, in landscapes only nice from far. Getting close one would notice an incredible concentration of plastic, instant soup boxes and broken glass. It seems to be a common game to aim at a rock with your beer bottle while driving. There are still immense areas which are quite pristine and clean, but you know with no mistake when you approach a road.

Then we went to Katok monastery, very close to Pelyul, the former seat of Penor Rinpoche. He was the former head of the Nyingma lineage and one of the main teachers of the Sakyong. The road to Pelyul was closed, due to the recent death of the revered Lama of a huge monastery nearby, hosting around 10 000 monks, Yachen if we understood correctly. It seems the Chinese authorities were afraid of permitting a big gathering of devoted people.

Katok Monastery

Palpung, the seat of Tai Situ Rinpoche, was the only Kagyü monastery that we visited other than Surmang. All the other ones belonged to the Nyingma lineage.

From there we trekked to Tsadra Rinchen Drak, the hermitage of the 1st Kongtrül, Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thaye, who was, along with the 1st Khyentse and Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa, the initiator of the Rime Movement in the XIXth century. He gathered among many other things the terma texts of the Rinchen Terzö that the Sakyong received last year from His Eminence Namkha Trimed Rabjam Rinpoche.

Palpung Monastery

The three of them collaborated to create a terma map of the 25 holy sites of the Amdo and Kham region. Tsadra is one of those 25 holy sites, as well as the monastery sites of Dzogchen and Katok, and the hermitage of Pema Shelpuk. Kongtrül wrote a guide for proper pilgrimage to Tsadra that was translated in English and contributed to inspire us here.

Tsadra is one of the most extraordinary places we visited on our trip: it was the combination of intense peace, lofty spaciousness and beautiful landscape with grasslands full of wild flowers, steep rocks, mountains and valleys all around – and nice welcoming people! The Lama who greeted us insisted that we advertise widely that Buddhist visitors are more than welcome there.

In Tsadra we met one of Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche’s nuns from his monastery of Pullahari, Nepal, who guided us through the Kora, showing us a footprint of a Karmapa on a rock, and a rock shelter where Humkara, an Indian master who brought the mahayoga lineage to Tibet, had meditated and left head and foot imprints in rock.

Tsadra Monastery

To be honest we were not that impressed by those imprints that lookes more like natural geological phenomena, nor by any of the self-appeared mantras or sculptures that we happened to see on our trip. BUT before leaving Tsadra Rinchen Drak we were granted a glimpse in the treasure room of the hermitage, where a footprint in rock really looks like a fully detailed footprint in mud, but here it was left in solid rock.

We then camped at the sacred lake Yilun Lhatso, a now rather touristy but nevertheless magical place, where Kalu Rinpoche had done retreats, and where we were literally eaten alive by thousands of mosquitos.

Near the town of Denkhok we tried to find the birthplace of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, as well as the place where Mipham Rinpoche had spent his 12 last years in retreat before dying, but we didn’t succeed to find it. In Denkhok we visited one of the geomantic monasteries that had been built all across Tibet to tame the giant ogress that the Tibetan land was considered to be at the time of the first Buddhist kings. This gompa was supposed to tame one of her hands. While we were in the shrine room Dzogchen Rinpoche arrived on a blessing tour of the area.

When arriving back in Jyekundo we sadly parted with Phuntsok, our super friendly and safe driver during this 2-week trip. From this point on the “real” adventure started, as we were now on our own, without the help of Phuntsok to find our way and to communicate…

By Eric Rugani and Nadine Zerbel

The EDG Fall meeting was hosted by the new gorgeous Shambhala Centre in Paris, through the co-director, Anne Lavergne and the Finance director, Annick Hecq-Cauquil. The EDG was quite impressed by the incredible amount of work and skills involved in the renovation of the Centre. We are grateful for hosting us!

Among the topics on the table were progress reports on projects the EDG is currently funding, the evaluation of new project proposals as well as the situation at Dechen Chöling. Another important point of the meeting was to work on establishing a Shambhala Trust Fund for Europe which aspires to be a charitable foundation, offering the possibility to support the European Shambhala sangha. This will be a continuous source of contributing and receiving bequests and donations, either big or small, open to the whole sangha. Additional information will follow in due time and in detail.

If you are interested in knowing more about the plans for a Trust Fund and/or have projects worth funding to propose, you can contact the Chair of the EDG, Veronika Bauer, at edg@shambhala-europe.org for more information.

Shown in the picture are the EDG members at the Paris meeting. Left to right, front row:: Agathe Steinhilber, Jean-Jacques Mathieu, Veronika Bauer, Luz Rodriguez. Back row: Christian Thallhammer, Willem Kuijpers, Achim Schlage.

Alfonso Taboada (Madrid, 1962) juró el cargo de acharya el 29 de septiembre, aprovechando la presencia del acharya Eric Spiegel en Madrid para enseñar ese fin de semana sobre “Miedo y valentía” (véanse los dos acharyas en la foto, el español vistiendo el rakusu).

Alfonso recibió el nombre de “Great East Warrior”. Estuvieron presentes en la ceremonia los padres del acharya Alfonso Taboada y su familia, además de distintos socios del Centro Shambhala de Madrid que contribuyó a fundar hace más de 15 años.

La nota de humor la puso la madre de Alfonso cuando recordó el comentario de la abuela del acharya, siendo Alfonso pequeño: “Este niño tiene que ser sacerdote”.

Foto de Teresa Gómez

From 7-9 October 435 Shambhala leaders from 125 centres and groups who had attended one of the 10 Kalapa Governance Gatherings offered this year gathered in Halifax, Nova Scotia to hear the Sakyong teach about governance and the evolution of Shambhala. Thirty-nine individuals from 15 European centres and groups were among them, including most of the leadership of Dechen Chöling and four Shambhala Europe staff.

The assembly was arranged with heads of the Three Pillars seated on cushions in front–the Pillar of Teaching (Acharyas) seated on cushions to the Sakyong’s left, the Pillar of Government (the Kalapa Council and the Kalapa Executive) seat in the middle, and the Pillar of Protection and Court Staff seated to his right, with all other participants seated in chairs behind.

In beginning his address, the Sakyong expressed that it was very important to acknowledge the crossroads that we are at. We are approaching the 50^th anniversary of the year in which his father brought his vast vision to the West. Now, he told the assembly, it is our responsibility as leaders to figure out the skillful means to bring about enlightened society. What will determine our success, he said, is our ability to remain open to the universal message and unequivocal in our trust in human nature. To do that, we need to deeply contemplate human nature and basic goodness. He seemed to be saying that once we have unshakable trust in basic goodness, we will radiate confidence, and that confidence will magnetize others to us and our vision.

At one point, the Sakyong noted that he was speaking slowly, not just for the Europeans (which evoked laughter) but, he continued, “If we are to be leaders, these words need to sink in and transform us.”  To lead or govern properly, he continued, is directly related to our connection with basic goodness. “If we can create a society where basic goodness is at the heart of everything, that is what will shift culture.” In order to do this, he urged us to engage in self-reflection each day in order to place what we’re doing in a larger perspective. And he urged us to contemplate deeply both individual and societal basic goodness.  We can’t just meditate, he said. We have to contemplate, develop trust, and act. We must educate ourselves and become curious about how our society currently views human nature. We should start with waking people up before trying to “bring them to our side,” he advised. Our effectiveness in leading and helping others, he said, will be based on that feeling of trust in our own minds and in basic goodness.

“Basic goodness is simple and its simplicity challenges us,” the Sakyong proclaimed. “Our task is to figure out, in a complex society, how we can transmit this simple theme.”  One way we will accomplish this, he seemed to be saying, was by bringing the wisdom of basic goodness into our experience. To maintain this connection with basic goodness, he gave us a three-step practice that starts with a spark of recognition of basic goodness, which leads to a general cheerfulness, which then leads to an instinct, or “first thought.” To succeed, he said, we need skillful means:  we need to excel in worldly wisdom (e.g., knowing how to conduct meetings, communications, etc.) and be better. We will need both wisdom (long-term thinking) and intelligence (short-term perspective), he said. He urged us all to develop our own words for expressing what we mean by “basic goodness” and “enlightened society” so that we are prepared to speak about it at any time to anyone.

The Sakyong also encouraged us to be trustworthy. Because there is such doubt about authority these days, he reasoned, we have to be trustworthy. “So be humble and reflect on whether this is what you want to be doing,” he advised.

Not just our leaders will evolve, however. The Sakyong would like our Centres to become more like “societies”. He asked us to contemplate how our Centres could “be” basic goodness, rather than “fix-it camps” and how can we manifest a community that can be some kind of an example. Individual and communal contemplation of these questions is important, he stated, and, simply by doing so, makes us an enlightened society. If people are recognized as human beings when they come to a Shambhala Centre and are appreciated and respected on a deep level, we will be creating enlightened society. “I see this as a new beginning for our centres—a chance to develop and shift. This is essential if we want to continue to exist as a community,” he proclaimed.  It is our job as leaders, he told us, to figure out how to make this shift—from “centre” to “society.” The leaders of Shambhala will need to figure out how to build a Shambhala where the dichotomy between deepening one’s practice and understanding, on the one hand, and going out into the world to serve on the other is no longer a problematic issue, he advised.

The Druk Sakyong Wangmo, Lady Diana Mukpo, also addressed the assembly. She shared her practical experience in using the Four Karmas and the Four Dignities in managing a business she is currently running. She also encouraged us to embrace change in Shambhala, sharing that, during the Dorje Dradül’s lifetime, there were many changes happening all the time. He would always pull the rug out from the community whenever things got too comfortable. “I don’t ever remember being comfortable,” she reassured us.

Going forward, the Sakyong said we will have more leadership training. He envisions that Shambhala will be a place where individuals can come in, get trained, and then go out and serve. “We need to become more professional,” he said. But it is also essential that these people have a good heart; this is why people will come to us.

Additionally, the Sakyong expressed his wish that leaders in Shambhala engage in mentoring their successors.  “As soon as you come into your job you should be mentoring someone else,” he said.

In concluding this inspiring weekend, the Sakyong offered some words of encouragement: “I know that sometimes it seems like I don’t know what I’m doing,” he said, “but I can tell you—I have a plan and we are on course!”

By Chris Montone

We refer to an article originally published on the electronic Shambhala Europe Newsletter of December 2009 and cited or paraphrased again in other electronic communications to our members, including Shambhala Times. It has come to our attention that certain statements in those communications regarding the termination of our cooperation with the Surmang Foundation could be construed to imply that the Surmang Foundation was not in full compliance with the law of the Netherlands. This is not correct. The Surmang Foundation was not registered in the Netherlands, and thus was not required to comply with Dutch law. We regret the possible misinterpretation of such statement, which we now retract. We have removed the statement entirely from the Shambhala Europe Newsletter, the Shambhala Europe Blog, the Shambhala Times, and the historical archive.
– Shambhala Europe

Es un placer anunciar que la página web de los IM en Shambhala Europa ¡ya está disponible en español! No sólo la página web sino que están traducidos al español los documentos que la misma ofrece para IM y Guías de Shambhala.

Se puede pinchar en http://mi.shambhala.es cuya portada se ofrece en la imagen.

Como de costumbre, nuestro webmaster trabajó para lograrlo y ha abierto el espacio a todos los socios hispanohablantes de Shambhala que estén interesados.

¡Que sea beneficiosa!

We are delighted to announce that the MI website in Shambhala Europe is now available in Spanish! Not just the website but also the documents that are offered for MI and Shambhala Guides are translated into Spanish.

Please click on http://mi.shambhala.es.

As usual, our webmaster worked to make it possible, opening the space for all Spanish speaking Shambhala members who might be interested.

May it be of benefit!