A Great Gathering of the Sangha

By Larry Steele

Shambhala Day may have been our last face-to-face community gathering before COVID-19 changed our lives. Nevertheless, as it is every year, the day marked a great gathering of the Seattle sangha of Shambhalians. The video broadcast from Karmê Chöling linked Seattle with Shambhala centers around the world, in North and South America, Europe, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand.

Juniper smoke from many lhasang ceremonies linked heaven and earth and the morning echoed with shouts of Ki-Ki, So-So!

In her Shambhala Day address, Shastri Trinley Busby talked about how we experience the ups and downs that occur in our lives. Difficult events can become “the key to open another door,” she said. They offer us an opportunity to ask the question, “what have we been choosing” individually and as a society?

“It is not so much what we do, but how we do it,” she said.

Now we begin the Year of the Mouse, which marks the first year of a 12-year cycle in the Asian astrological calendar. At this time, according to a reading sent by Matthew Lyon, “the Mouse finds, or creates, an opening associated with entering into something new and different.”

Seattle Shambhala stepped into the year by welcoming the courageous members of a new Board of Directors. Taking their oaths were Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Tom Gaylord, Alan Ness, Michelle Ringold and Veronica Borgonovi. JoAnn Schindler and Annica Holder will continue to hold a space on the Board as our Center Co-Directors. Heartfelt thanks go to retiring Governing Council members who helped lead our community through a very challenging year, including John Gilvar, Terry Jaworski, Sydney Munger, and Ladan Yalzadeh. John Gilvar also retired from his long-standing role as Rusung.

Membership Coordinator Samuel Taylor introduced an enthusiastic group of new members, including Charlie Davis, Ann Lewis, Ann Watson, Dieny Aras, Jan Neutz, and Anita Montgomery. Welcome, loving kindness, and confidence in basic goodness to us all.

Photographs by Stacy Hall de Gomez and Larry Steele

**4/20/20 – The list of celebrated new members has been edit to include Jan Neutz.**