CHICAGO SHAMBHALA CENTER

Introduction

The Shambhala Meditation Center of Chicago sees our relationship to the wider mandala, to Shambhala International, to our sister centers, to our wider Chicago community, and to our Midwest community, as being one of reciprocity.  We feel quite rich in what we receive from the wider mandala and in what we are able to give to the wider mandala.  Because of our recent successful experiences with hosting the Sakyong’s visit to the Midwest, we are beginning to take our seat consciously as a big city center, acknowledging—with some surprise—our vibrancy.

What follows is a description of how we see ourselves at this moment in time and what we see ourselves as being able to contribute.  We collected these ideas, thoughts, and aspirations at a Community Gathering held on June 15 and from the work of the center’s Resource Development Committee.

Financial Resources

Sharing with Shambhala International

Our Resource Development Committee will present the following proposal to our Executive Council for sharing our financial resources with Shambhala International.  We propose that we contribute 5 to 15 percent of our net program income, of our unrestricted donations, and of our membership dues to Shambhala International.  We think that, in order to facilitate budgeting, Shambhala International may want to charge each center a monthly amount, based on each center’s previous year’s net income.

Sharing with Other Centers

Since we are fortunate enough to be operating in the black, to have been able to compensate Acharyas according to the guidelines recently proposed, and to own our center, we feel we may have some experience that we could share with other centers in this regard.  We have a policy of sharing our finances openly with the whole center community.  We are at the beginning of a process of developing a center-wide budget that will include all programs that we offer, our regular practice times, our bookstore, and all social events.  At this point we have developed a budget that includes all of our Buddhist classes and programs.

Membership

We are proposing that all center memberships be dual memberships in the local center and in Shambhala International.  Here in Chicago, our Resource Development Committee is proposing to our Council, that membership be opened up to allow people to come in more easily, possibly at the level of $100 per year and that there be discounted memberships for students and the elderly.  All members would have these membership benefits:  our quarterly newsletter, discounts on all programs, and discounts at our bookstore.  Our committee is further proposing a more “committed” level of membership, where members would contribute at least $60/month or execute a contract with the center for contributing their time for a year at certain designated tasks.  These members would receive a key to the center, in addition to the other membership benefits. 

Curriculum

We see ourselves and other centers as a testing ground for programs and curriculums.  We have, and will continue to, apply ourselves very diligently and intentionally to implementing the Shambhala School of Buddhist studies courses.  For all courses not requiring an Acharya, we have a senior teacher, a less senior teacher, a coordinator, and when possible, a Shambhala Guide responsible for each course.  This team meets ahead of time to lay out how they will teach the curriculum and meets for a feedback session after each class.  We have some experience in this regard that we could share with the wider mandala.  (We did not participate in the conference call to do this, but will submit responses to the questions asked.)

Role in the Midwest

As an outgrowth of our role in hosting the Midwest Regional Office of Practice and Study Conference and the Midwest visit of Rinpoche on his recent book tour, we here in Chicago would like to take some role of coordination in the Midwest.  We enjoyed our role of host and liked extending our hospitality to the other Midwest centers.  We would like to initiate increased communication among the centers here in the Midwest to explore how we can share resources, ideas, teachers, and Acharyas, how we can better coordinate Shambhala Training levels, Shambhala School of Buddhist Studies courses, or other programs.  It also seems appropriate that we get together to plan for the future of our Midwest Shambhala Retreat Center.  Most of the centers of the Midwest are at greater geographic distance from one another than the centers in the east or on the west coast, so the way in which we work together will have to be shaped by this factor.  We would be willing to initiate this effort by facilitating a meeting of the Midwest centers at the Shambhala Congress. 

One final thought, it was very powerful and inspiring for us to gather as the Mid-western sangha for the Community Talk given by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.  It would be good for us to repeat this annually or biannually for the visit of Rinpoche or some other major teacher. 

Sister Centers

One of our members had the idea of centers linking as sister centers for a year or more.  During this time the two centers would share with one another how they operate, their successes and challenges, their newsletters, etc.  Delegations of members could visit back and forth.  Perhaps, even teachers could be shared.  This could link a beginning center with a more established one, or could link centers from different countries, or centers alike in their size and location.

Creating Enlightened Society

While we have established the value and the precedent of organizing help for each other when a community member is in need, we want to go further in supporting one another.  Some ideas put forth for doing this are the following: to create a directory of expertise that community members have, so that members could call upon other members when needing that kind of expertise, helping both themselves and the livelihood of the member performing the service, to re-activate the delek system, or to have each member keep five community members in mind and check on them periodically.  Here in Chicago, we will experiment with different ways to stay connected with one another, in the spirit of the delek system, but probably without that name and with new structures that fit our huge urban area and busy lives.  It would be good to explore this as a topic at the Shambhala Congress.

Being in the center of the most diverse part of an immense urban area carries with it much opportunity, challenge, and responsibility.  Our center is located on a main artery in the area of Chicago called Rogers Park, the most diverse area of the city.  To reach out to our community, beyond our regular times of being open for meditation and meditation instruction, we plan to offer monthly How to Meditate classes on Saturday mornings based on Rinpoche’s book, with several Meditation Instructors and our Shambhala Guides taking the lead.  We also want to join with some service already being offered in Rogers Park, such as a food pantry.  We are renewing our active participation in the Midwest Buddhist Council and have a member that would like to help us connect with the wider religious community in Rogers Park.  Finally, we intend to catalog what our members are already doing in the wider community.  We are just at the beginning of engaging with our wider community, but we have strong consensus that we want to do this.  Again, this would be an area in which we could learn from others at the Shambhala Congress.

Acharyas and Senior Students

Recently, we have had a spate of key people leave Chicago.  Bill Brauer left to direct Karmê Chöling, Ben Medrano left to be Kusung for Rinpoche, Mary Fugiel left to go to Gampo Abbey for at least six months, someone else is retiring and moving out of the Chicago area, and another member is moving to Karmê Chöling.

This, combined with the fact that we have few senior students to begin with and that one of the people who left was a senior student and a senior teacher, is causing us some grief and consternation.  It has increased our longing to have an Acharya live in Chicago.  We are able to attract many teachers to our Center.  This fall and early winter we will have the honor of hosting Jim Scott, Acharya John Rockwell, Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, and Acharya Lief.  We are moving toward an arrangement with Acharya Lief—sharing her on a regular basis with the Atlanta and Washington DC centers. 

We are also moving to bolster our Vajrayana energy at our Center by creating a Vajrayana Shrineroom, having monthly Vajrayana practice days, having quarterly Vajrayana practice weekends at the Midwest Shambhala Retreat Center (along with Milwaukee), and making sure our Padmasambhava and Vajrayogini feasts take place.  We also have the goal of increasing our Ngondro Meditation Instructors from three to five this year.  Having Acharya Rockwell teach a Vajrayana weekend here in October should also inspire Vajrayana students.

The upside of not having a lot of senior students at our Center, is that those of us who came along after the Vidyadhara had passed are working with the senior students we have, are stepping into appropriate leadership and teaching positions, and are opening the doors for even newer students to come in, to practice and learn, and to take on beginning leadership roles.  This makes for good energy and for a feeling that the Center belongs to all of us.

Conclusion

We look forward to taking an active role in the continuing Shambhala Congress process.  We would be happy to send more information on any of the points mentioned in this report or other areas. 

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