Gaylon’s Grace

(Please note: the words in a different colour from the main text are hyperlinks. Please move your cursor over them and then click to get connected to the information.)

Just before starting the New Year’s Weekthun (a week-long urban meditation retreat) at the Shambhala Meditation Centre of Toronto  lead by Gaylon Ferguson of Shambhala International, I had come to two conclusions:

  • My heart friend  is not a friend to me. It’s a one-way street. I’m his friend. He is not mine. How he manifests towards me does not align with my core values, namely, basic human friendliness, concern and support — some of the attributes that are the hallmark of (relative) basic goodnessand
  •  While I honour whatever his own truth is at any given time, and understand from where he is coming,  it does not mean that I choose to live with the situation.

So on Day One of the New Year’s Weekthun, I enter the shrineroom in a state of profound sadness. Like James Bond’s martinis, I am shaken, not stirred. Being stirred comes during the weekthun itself.

This sadness, as it turns out, is a perfect starting point for me where Peaceful Abiding and care for others can be practiced.We have two programmes at the centre running simultaneously: a New Year’s Weekthun; and a Winter Intensive where those who cannot come to the weekthun can practice from 10h00 – 12h-00 and/or from 19h00 – 21h00;

Components of the weekthun fall into three categories: listening, contemplating and meditating:

  • Basic meditation practice — mindfulness\awareness;
  • Teachings: — Mindfulness of Body, Feeling and Life (source: The Heart of the Buddha by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche; and Natural Wakefulness by Gaylon Ferguson); and
  • Contemplation exercise: the first of the Four Limitless Ones (aka The Four Immeasurables) (May all beings be free of suffering and the root of suffering);
  • Loving kindness practice — please click here for sample practices based on The Four Limitless Ones; and Loving-Kindness Meditation Practice;
  • Listen to Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche’s talk on Shambhala Meditation, given on May 2012 at  Karme-Choling in Vermont.

At the end of the last day of the New Year’s Weekthun we sat in a circle to have our last supper together. The Assistant Director of the programme, Louis Allen of Juniper Hill, asks the participants three questions:

(1) What did we learn?  Three beliefs were reinforced for me:

  • the importance of senior students — I was the only participating senior student other than staff members — re-visiting, on a regular basis, basic teachings like the ones Gaylon presented to us;
  • No matter what state of mind you are in at any given moment, you can touch in with your inherent  peacefulness — a  peacefulness that is not conditioned by particular events in your life; and
  • I believe that we are unconditionally happy. But there are so many layers that obscure this basic happiness that we can have a hard time believing that.

(2) What surprised us?  I experienced an identity crisis that started with a dream on February 03, 2012.  I realized that one of the factors that brought on this crisis was that I had become numb. The dream signalled that I had to get back in touch with my feelings. Without touching in with and acknowledging your feelings, you cannot genuinely care for others.

(3) What comes next?  I have to continue to assess what I have learned from the crisis I mentioned in #2 above so that, ten years down the road, I don’t find myself in the same position.

Added January 17, 2013: A sangha friend, who is in India on her annual pilgramage now, just wrote to say:

So Maggie in what state were you when you completed the weekthun?
Sorry you had to go through the painful “awareness” . … Tell me more…

I started the weekthun shaken. I ended up (happily) stirred, as in shinjang, “thoroughly processed.” (Click here for fuller explanation of term shinjang, and scroll down to the section entitled “The Third Noble Truth: the Cessation of Suffering.”)

If you found this post helpful, please share it with a friend. Then consider subscribing to the weblog by clicking on the Subscribe button in the navigation bar and following one of three sets of simple instructions. Thank you.

Leave a Comment

Please note: Comment moderation is enabled and may delay your comment. There is no need to resubmit your comment.