On Monday March 8, 2010, Josh Silberstein and Lodro Rinzler led a community meeting at the Halifax Shambhala Centre entitled Our Future–Building Strength During the Sakyong's Retreat. The evening began with shamatha meditation, followed by contemplating the following questions with the instructions to "place our mind on the question, bring up images and examples and then rest in that experience."
1. What has the Shambhala Community given to me in my life?
2. What have I given back to the Shambhala Community?
3. What is the world asking of the Shambhala Community?
4. What do we have to fear as a community?
Josh and Lodro's presentation in Halifax is one of fourteen in their North American tour. If your center is not on their route, or if you were unable to attend, here is a recording of the evening, along with outtakes of some highlights. Thank you to Josh and Lodro for their permission to present this audio recording on Chronicles Radio.
Letters to Vajra Dog
Okay, here's a presentation about Shambhala and particularly about the Ladrang and current fundraising efforts. Please send your comments and questions to .
If we have any questions that we can't answer amongst ourselves, I'm sure we can ask Josh and Lodro to chime in.
Barbara Blouin
March 14, 2010
I attended the evening of the Halifax stop on the “Our Future” tour, but left part way through the Q and A because I was so frustrated. Thanks to the Chronicles for making this recording available.
In my experience, this meeting caused more confusion than it addressed. The first person to ask questions said: “In Halifax there seems to be a moderate lack of understanding about what the Ladrang actually is, what’s the overview, and what’s the idea. People don’t seem to have a clear grasp of what it is, and how it fits as a legal entity within our organization.”
This was a good question—comprehensive and clearly presented. I do not think it was properly addressed. There were several other questions of the same sort: confusion about the Ladrang, its nature, and its purposes. As with the first question, I do not think the answers were helpful. The answers seemed to be saying that there is actually no separation between donations to Shambhala International and the Ladrang: it’s all for the support of the Sakyong in his retreat, and to support “Shambhala.”
Huh?
Before I go further, Chronicles readers can see the web site for the Ladrang:
Clicking on all the links will show that this website reveals nothing specific about the Ladrang. I find myself wondering if the pervasive vagueness isn’t deliberate.
Because I was disturbed about this and similar questions, I spent a few weeks researching an article for Radio Free Shambhala in November, 2009:
This article sheds a little light on the Ladrang but, again, reveals how impenetrable it is. Another legal intstrument for gathering and holding money for the Sakyong is called the Privy Purse, which is little known and completely opaque. When I put questions to the Keeper of the Privy Purse, I was politely told (though not in these words) that it was none of my business.
One aspect of the gathering in Halifax that I found particularly galling is that, in some of the answers about the Ladrang, we were informed that ladrangs were a useful Tibetan form of handling resources that we in the West, sadly, lack. Given the amount of corruption in Tibet, which Chogyam Trungpa frequently described, I find it hard to understand why the adoption of a Tibetan form of governance should be something we should aspire to.
Vajra Dog
March 14, 2010
Do you agree or disagree? Is there a lack of clarity regarding the Ladrang? Talk to me.
Joshua Silberstein,
the Sakyong's Chief of Staff
Lodro Rinzler, Shambhala's Development Officer
Okay, here's a presentation about Shambhala and particularly about the Ladrang and current fundraising efforts. Please send your comments and questions to .