Shambhala Art Explores the Question of Art and Beauty

By Andrea D’Asaro

The classic question: “Is beauty inherently present in an object or is it solely in the eye of the beholder?” will be explored in an upcoming Shambhala Art Evening. “This question goes to the very nature of our experience of ourselves and our world,” says Seattle Shambhala art coordinator Shelley Pierce. The event includes a Shambhala Art exercise, talk and discussion led by the International Director and Assistant Director of Shambhala Art, Steve and Anne Saitzyk.

Shambhala Art Evening on Monday, August 14 at 7:30 pm

“It’s auspicious to have both Anne and Steve Saitzyk with us—Steve is one of the founders of the original Dharma Art program and studied with the Shambhala founder Chögyam Trungpa,” says Pierce, whose ikebana flowers enliven the shrines and alcoves of our Shambhala center. Steve Saitzyk tells us “These teachings are about making friends with our experience with gentleness, about realizing the sacred quality of everything and communicating this through symbol.”

The Monday evening presentation initiates new Seattle Arts programming including a Shambhala Arts weekend, led by Pierce and Ladan Yalzadeh, on Saturday and Sunday, November 18-19 called “Coming to Your Senses.”

Shambhala Arts Weekend, November 18-19

Creating art is part of the Shambhala warrior tradition, which proposes a fresh and inquisitive approach, says Anne Saitzyk. “The mind shifts from the self-referencing mode of “How am I doing?” to a more open, curious mode of “What’s occurring?,” and “How does this feel? We have to set aside our critical and often overstuffed minds to see a dissolution of the barrier between ourselves and the world.”

Pierce, who teaches monthly ikebana workshops, has studied Shambhala Art for decades and is certified as a Shambhala Art teacher. She suggests that impermanence opens to beauty. “When you see a real rose it’s a fresh perception of sight, smell and feel that won’t be here tomorrow. In the same way, spring brings us to summer in all it’s rich vividness—because it will soon give way to fall.”

She refers to the words of Chögyam Trungpa who connected art and meditation: “The arts are inherently meditative–they can gather the mind and body into nowness and wake us up.” She notes that Trungpa initiated Shambhala Arts “to help cultivate discipline, non-aggression, and appreciation on the spot.”

“… unconditional expression manifests out of nowhere like mushrooms in a meadow, like hailstones, like thundershowers.” – Chögyam Trungpa

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