by Ira Abrams, Rusung, Shambhala Meditation Center of Chicago

“The success of our community, and its future, is going to depend heavily on the visible and ‘feelable’ kindness that is in our mandala,” said the Sakyong, Jamgön Mipham Rinpoche, at the concluding session of the Fourth Shambhala Congress. “We can be doing a lot of things right when it comes to programs, but if there is not a feeling of kindness, nothing is really going to stick. As a community based on basic goodness, if somehow we do not exude kindness to other beings, all the posters will be in vain.”

I had my first taste of Kasung practice at Shambhala Mountain Center in 2003, during my 5-week Sutrayana Seminary. I sat on the outskirts of a few talks for “protector practice;” I drilled every second morning instead of doing lujong exercises, and I ended the summer with a mess and banquet that went on into the early hours of the morning and overhauled all my notions of decency, fellowship, and moderation. I took the one year oath when it was all over, and within a year I had taken my oath to serve in the Dorje Kasung for life. But the most important thing that this encounter taught me was that I had been very wrong about what it means to be kind to oneself and others. Read the rest of this entry »