Shambhala Training Level I

I should probably be studying, but I feel the need to write about Level 1 while its still fresh. Plus, the tweet by the Dalai Lama on twitter is the essences of what is taught in Level 1 it felt right to quickly type it up.

"Genuine love should first be directed at oneself – if we do not love ourselves, how can we love others?"

-Dalai Lama

This past weekend I attended Shambhala Training Level I : The Art of Being Human. I had been torn about attending, did I really want to be part of the Sanga? Did I really want to try more meditation? There were many 'questioning' emotions that I couldn't put into words. Was it fear? In a sense, it was, but it was also a questions if this is something for me or not. One hurtle was the asked price to pay for the training, I could only afford a fifth of it because the week before was the first week of classes, buying supplies, books, and my paycheck was less than half of the normal amount due to pay cut and in reflecting the holiday break in December. But again, the gracious warm and openness of the Sanga. Pay what I could, and make up later for donations. Most people would balk at the amount asked for 'just sitting' as they would think, but there is so many people involved, supporting the center, and paying for food because both breakfast and lunch were provided it wasn't expensive at all once you broke it down. Its just I'm a poor college student... alas.

As luck would have my friend Audra was also interested in meditation and attended with me. Her money situation was even worse than mine but they were open and accepting of her situation as well. Saturday morning was started at 8:30am with breakfast of fruit, bread, and oatmeal with a selection of brown sugar, raisins, and milk to add. It was all very yummy. Though, I will admit Audra and I picked up breakfast tacos on the way just so we didn't look like pigs. We need not have worried, I should have taken note from Jetsun's birth Celebration and the Winter Solstice Party that the Sanga loves food.

After an hour the bell was run to make our way to the shrine room. There was a long pleasant talk by Doria, who was our director for the training, about being gentle with ourselves as we practiced, being gentle with others, and what basic goodness is. We has meditation instruction by Besty and then we rotated sitting and walking meditation, stopping for short breaks and interviews. Lunch was offered with Mediterranean salad and break. Very yummy, though I have to admit I picked out the olives and mushrooms and sheepishly returned my plate while every one's else was picked clean.

After lunch we had another talk, then more sitting and walking meditation. We broke for half an hour for tea and then more sitting and walking meditation. As you can see, lots of sitting and walking meditation. One thing that I noticed though that a lot of people who were repeating Level 1 for the experience kept talking about how 'torturious' their first Level 1 was and I couldn't help but have a giant question mark above my head. I wasn't finding it a torture, a challenge yes, but torture? I wonder if the few times I came to sit during public sits helped.


That night Audra and I went to dinner with a few of the teachers and people who were also attending the training at a coffee house called CandleLight. It was nice, very nice and Audra and I immediately felt sweat drops at the back of our heads because of our tiny bank accounts. I paid for Audra and thankfully we were able to find something to eat and keep our combined check under $20, oh the woes of being a college student.

The next day was breakfast of quish, fruid, and bread. I had never had keish, so while I didn't find it bad to my taste buds I don't have anything to compare it to either. More sitting and walking meditation at a longer duration before a break of a disscussion group talking about what we feel we learned and our experiences. Then after another short meditation session Doria came in to talk once more and we were given Shambhala: Sacred Path of the Warrior by Chogyam Trungpa and lunch was offered before we left.

I enjoyed the experience, though I don't think I accomplished following my breath as instructed during most of the meditations I feel like for a few times I did. I think I will take Level II, though not for several months as I feel the need to take things a little slow. Although I doubt most would see that, since I'm already trying to think how to save up $1,000 to travel to Colorado for the Sanga Retreat with the Sakyong in June.