Chenrezig & Shambhala in Philadelphia

After the last post, I decided to virtually stick around Pennsylvania and inevitably ended up in the major urban center of Philadelphia, where today the weather is as sunny and clear as here in southern Alabama.

While I am often on a quest, in these postings, to find centers that have constructed a structure evocative or fully based on Tibetan Buddhist architecture, I am fully aware that such projects are not always feasible, financially or land wise. Nor are they always a goal or a necessity of a dharma center. Seeing the re-use of many spaces, particularly older structures in urban areas, for use in a dharma center, is always interesting.

Such appears to be the case with both the Philadelphia Shambhala Meditation Center and Chenrezig Tibetan Buddhist Center of Philadelphia.

Chenrezig Tibetan Buddhist Center was founded as a non-sectarian organization in 1991 and is directed by Ven. Losang Samten, who is also the founder of sister Chenrezig centers in the USA. Losang Samten, born in Tibet, is a resident of Philadelphia who attained his degree at Namgyal Monastery in Dharamsala, India- the seat of H.H. the Dalai Lama.

The Shambhala Center of Philadelphia is part of a vast, international network of Shambhala centers, whose headquarters are in Nova Scotia, founded by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. The network's spiritual and administrative head is Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.

Both centers function in historic urban areas of Philadelphia- the Shambhala Center in the Rittenhouse District of Center City (which I can personally attest is fairly idyllic, for an urban neighborhood), and Chenrezig Tibetan Buddhist Center in the Spring Garden neighborhood of Northern Philly.

Crazy Wisdom in the Wyoming findings

So I realize this morning that I have, without a doubt, fallen down the rabbit hole.

And I'm not coming out.

The way I have decided to approach this project is not by means of a state by state exploration or a methodical review of centers by sect. The process is random. I have a wooden bowl with 50 cards, each with a state name. And each day I pull one and take to the web or my small library for the adventure. The plan is one center per day.

I have a pretty good understanding, from my prior readings and research, of the states that are heavily populated with dharma centers. But I am by no means an expert on the network, so there are states for which, when I pull a card, any finding will be news to me.

Wyoming is one such state.

I don't mean this project to be a dissertation. It is a form of a daily ritual as well as a learning experience. When I set off on the web today and started googling around to see what exists, dharma center wise, in this Rocky Mountain State, not much initially came up. Creative word search combinations soon had me on a mounting trail of websites that offered tidbits of information on dharma practice and history in Wyoming. Nothing direct, but compellingly linked to figures I am familiar with from my prior readings.

Laramie Shambhala Dharma Center is the first center I came across. I quickly learned that the Vidyadhara Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche was the founder. Vidyadhara is a Sanskrit term, the literal translation being 'awareness holder' (Rigpa Wiki). Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche was one of the early figures on the North American Tibetan Buddhist scene and his name will appear many, many more times throughout these pages. His role in the early dissemination of teachings of the Vajrayana in North America is paramount and his history lively. Crazy Wisdom is one of his many works as well as the name of a seminar he delivered, the Crazy Wisdom seminar, in Jackson Hole in 1972.

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, the son of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche as well as his dharma heir, is the current director of Laramie Shambhala Center. The legacy and practices of Shambhala will also be referenced numerous more times in these pages. As a lineage, Shambhala draws from the Kagyu and Nyingma schools of Tibetan Buddhism and was founded by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in the mid 1970's. Shambhala is a vision, as set forth by Chögyam, a practice, a philosophy and a global community. In Tibetan Buddhist mythology, Shambhala is also a place. Shambhala is incredibly exciting. For now, that is all that shall be said.

I've emailed the folks at Laramie Shambhala Center in hopes of getting information on the Center's history and role in the whole network of Shambhala Centers, which is vast.

G'day! Wyoming: I look forward to a return.