2005-06-15 - Rapprochement begins at gathering in Ojai

The Satdharma community in Ojai, California, founded to preserve the teachings of the Varja Regent Osel Tendzin, generously hosted Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche at the end of May for his second visit to the community in the course of the last five months. He had previously visited in December 2004, while receiving teachings from Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche at the nearby Pullahari retreat centre.

At a gathering in the shrine room of the new Satdharma community centre on Sunday 29 May, the Sakyong and Mr Patrick Sweeney, the president of Satdharma, spoke of their mutual wish to begin healing the rift that has persisted in the mandala for fifteen years since the death of the Vajra Regent.

During the event, Richard Reoch, the President of Shambhala, read a letter outlining points on which the Sakyong and Mr Sweeney had agreed. These included:

The inheritance of transmissions and responsibilities of the Sakyong and Mr Sweeney as teachers and leaders within their respective organizations and within the commonwealth of Shambhala as a whole.

An appropriate seat for Satdharma seat within the new structures of the Shambhala mandala.

The importance of establishing a harmonious ground of practice and study involving both Satdharma and Shambhala.

The formative contribution made by Lady Lila Rich, widow of the Vajra Regent, to be honoured through an independent trust fund, seeded and maintained through voluntary contributions. Lady Rich has expressed her willingness to offer her knowledge and experience with the Shambhala teachings to the Shambhala mandala as a whole.

The Sakyong and Mr Sweeney also agreed that a series of programs should be held throughout the mandala after Shambhala Day 2006 to provide space for genuine reflection on the lessons to be learned by our community, acknowledging that there were many practitioners in the Vajradhatu mandala who experienced considerable confusion, pain and anger in the period before, during and after the death of the Vajra Regent.

Anyone who wishes to contribute suggestions for these programs, or to draw any comments, concerns or wishes to the attention of the Sakyong and Mr Sweeney, please email direct to the president at <president@shambhala.org>.

During the event in the Satdharma centre, Mr Sweeney offered the Sakyong a full Shambhala bow, mandala offering, and ya (kyudo arrow). Both then offered khatas to a photo of the Vidyadhara and to the stupa of the Vajra Regent at the Satdharma Center.

The Sakyong, in agreement with Mr Sweeney and Lady Lila Rich, announced that the stupa in Ojai, which holds the relics of the Vajra Regent, will be the regent's stupa for the mandala as a whole. The stupa nearing completion at Shambhala Mountain Center, symbolizing the devotion through which the dharma is transmitted by realized teachers to their students, is to be known as The Heart Stupa of Wisdom Transmission.

In the two weeks since the gathering at Ojai, the Sakyong has held discussions with Lady Diana Mukpo, and with Mr Sweeney. As a result, in a footnote added to his letter which is posted on the Satdharma website, President Reoch adds: "While there is no disagreement about the fact that Mr Sweeney holds the empowerments and authorizations he does, and all are agreed that the essence of what he and the Sakyong agreed about their roles as teachers and heads of their respective mandalas is correct, all three have agreed that further discussion is needed between them to come to a more definitive, and possibly more detailed, description of this."


Mr Sweeney has written to the Sakyong expressing his intention to work with him and Lady Diana "to further this process of reconciliation and harmony."

(This announcement was from the Shambhala News Service)