In 2005, I was fortunate to have moved into a neighborhood that led me into stumbling upon Austin's Shambhala Meditation center. It was here that I began attending evening talks, workshops, and classes on mindfulness. During this time, I was also going to graduate school for counseling. Little did I know then, that what I was learning at Shambhala was preparing me to practice as a mindfulness counselor years later.
A few weekends ago, I had the pleasure of helping staff a weekend retreat at Portland's Shambhala Meditation center. It was a revisit to the first retreat of the Shambhala training series called Level I: The Art of Being Human which I completed in 2010 when I became hooked on the discipline of a daily meditation practice.
The vision of Shambhala is rooted in the principle that all human beings have a fundamental nature of basic goodness that can be developed in daily life and radiated out towards others in order to create an enlightened society where people and life's challenges are met with kindness, generosity, and courage.
Shambhala is a spiritual path of both study and meditation that helps us work with our minds and discover the joys of engaging the world with compassion for our self and for those around us. This attempt to live a more wholesome existence for ourselves and others is referred to as The Sacred Path of the Warrior.
At the end of the Level I weekend, we all shared our experience of having meditated together as a group for extended periods of time and this is what came up:
- Our natural innate capacity to pay attention to what we are doing while life is happening is shaky because it comes and goes so we strengthen this muscle through mindfulness/meditation practice.
- Our awareness allows us to notice when we are not being mindful so we practice coming back to our breath and to our body as a way to train our mind.
- When we meditate, we practice Seeing our thoughts, Acknowledging them, and Coming back to our breath as a way to anchor and help us become more of an observer of our thoughts without feeling the need to run in circles with them.
- When you practice sitting with yourself (body and mind), you show up for yourself over and over again which gives you agency over time and leads to a path of inner peace and wisdom.
- Meditation is way to learn how to reparent yourself as you SAY HELLO to every part of you, FEEL every part of you, and ACCEPT every part of you with gentle love and kindness.
- Meditation requires the practice of Bravery + Vulnerability so that we can become a Warrior.
For me being a Warrior means not being afraid of who you are on the inside and learning to trust yourself to meet life's challenges with genuineness and courage.
A daily meditation practice takes time, effort, and commitment. It also has the power to change your life and set you on a path to feeling good each and every day no matter what life throws your way at any given moment.