How Drala Fields like Karme Choling can Serve the Sangha

By JT Buck

On Thursday,, May 7th, KCL hosted its first Shambhala Sadhana “Household Dinner.” The event grew out of casual conversations among a team of community members who hold the Shambhala Householder principle close to their heart.

Personally, the Householder teachings became central to my practice as our sangha has been upended in recent years. Like many of you, I’ve experienced anew the ways in which our home shrines glow ever brighter as sources of inspiration. Our home environments and patterns of living can become potent vehicles for waking up and lifting up our lives.

So in this time of “Stay At Home,” when so many of us are adjusting to the loss of social connection and outer-world mobility, the question of how drala fields like Karme Choling can serve this sangha have become paramount. As the KCL “household” deepens its inquiry into the practice of “stay at home,” we ‘re also learning together how to manifest our “pixelated shrinerooms.”  We’re slowly mastering the tools of digital community-building.

We find we’re often logging into sessions where we meet faces we haven’t seen in years. We delight in meeting new faces, doing the vulnerable dance of making new friends. For this event, Chef Jason Taylor’s meal of roasted veggies, honey-mustard tofu and baked chicken was delicious and accessible. Table hosts Betsy and Nathan Railla, and local sangha warrior Ella Reznikova, held our conversations and brought us all together splendidly. The practice of the Shambhala Sadhana with umdze Marian English was warm and strong. And it was so good to see all of you together.

We will do this again in June. Details are being finalized, so stay tuned. And stay connected. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche spoke often of this “time of endless gadgets.” As dharma would have it, some of those gadgets are being transformed from obstacles into powerful tools for lifting up our lives. Please plan to join us for evening practice as often as you can, and register for the next “Household Dinner” when it’s announced. Together, we move forward.