Lineage as the Heart of Ritual

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Price per person: $54
Patron Price: $81
Price for Centers: $199
Price for Groups: $149


Lineage as the Heart of Ritual: How we Invoke Lineage through Ritual in Our Households and Our Lives

with Suzann Duquette

Walker Blaine

Andrea Doukas 

Timothy Quigley

 

These times of chaos can be stressful and also provide an opportunity to experience our lives, routines, and homes in fresh ways. This course is being offered to support empowering our households, increasing our confidence, and enriching our lives through deepening our connection to lineage and ritual.

Lineage is at the heart of ritual. By exploring this relationship, we can bring a new appreciation to seeing and being in our households during this period of the pandemic, and beyond.

These talks explore the view of lineage as ritual, the Sakyong lineage, how lineage empowers ritual, and how we can further our training as umdzes and chöpöns to manifest from a deeper level.  

Topics covered in the class will be:

Integrating Ritual into our Everyday Lives 

Engaging in ritual can become a seamless part of our daily lives. Through cultivating a relationship with daily chants, connecting with the lineage, and making offerings, we can strengthen and support all our activities so that we can “be cheerful in the morning, kind in the afternoon and inspired in the evening."

The Living Lineage Holder, the Lineage, the Deity, the Practitioner

Does fostering a connection with a living teacher through the imagination empower our practice when we are unable to see or meet with them? What is the relationship between ourselves and the historical and semi-mythical figures in our chants and iconography? How do we invoke the magic of the lineage when we are on our own? During one session we will practice and explore the relationship between what is human in ourselves, in the lineage holders, and in the deities through stories and discussion of shrines, offerings, and chants.

Inviting Drala Into Our Homes 

The idea of Shambhala household is that from the portal of our meditation room, we can invite drala into every aspect of our lives - both by making offerings, and by transforming our own attitude toward the magic of our world. We will discuss shrine room offerings, kitchen shrines, indoor and outdoor lhasangs at home, and generally cultivating an environment that invites drala.

Online Embodiment: How to Umdze Online

Exploring the subtle nuances of creating an online practice environment, we will look at how to umdze online chanting and practices. Zoom meetings can sometimes feel like a  disconnected, flat or one-dimensional experience. By engaging in embodied presence, voice exercises, and our physical environment, we will cultivate skills that transform online meetings into something truly meaningful and alive.

Chants for the Pandemic and Their Meaning 

Remarks on the pandemic chant practices. We will explore how to integrate practice instructions given by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche for this time. 

 

Prerequisite for this course: Shambhala Training Level III or Shrine server and/or Umdze training at your Center or Group.

 

About the Teachers

Suzann Duquette has been a student, leader and teacher in Shambhala for 45 years. Appointed by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche as Rupa, or Form, Acharya, a key aspect of her work is developing and teaching Shambhala Ritual Academy with other core faculty throughout the sangha and online. Her work with the Ritual and Form Group of the Rupa Acharya also contributes to ritual education in Shambhala. This training program as well as other Academy programs are designed to create a community of strong and vital Shambhala umdzes and chöpöns. As Werma Acharya, Suzann leads selected Scorpion Seal meditation retreats. She also teaches Daoist-Qigong in the lineage of Dr. Eva Wong and Mudra Space Awareness, as presented by the Vidyadhara, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. She and her husband, Jan Enthoven, run a B&B in Barnet, Vermont.

 

Walker Blaine has studied and practiced in the Shambhala tradition for 35 years. For the last ten years, his primary focus in the community has been background support of the Shambhala path through composition of practice instructions, program support, transcription coordination, Tibetan translation work, and caring for thetexts and instructions of the Shambhala Buddhist tradition. Walker’s ebook, The Great River of Blessings, an account of the Rinchen Terdzö received by the Sakyong in the winter of 2008-2009, can be downloaded here. His two CDs of Buddhist music can be sampled on iTunes. In 2016 he premiered a five-act Shambhala comedy, Norbu and the Mystery of the Missing Ratna. He lives with his wife Patricia and their son Griffin Arrow in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Walker is currently writing a book on the Shambhala Buddhist tradition.

 

 

Andrea Doukas has been a student of Shambhala Buddhism since 1973, and has served as Director of the Halifax Shambhala Centre and Director of the international Office of Practice and Education. She currently serves as Director of the Shambhala Chöpön Corps and core faculty for the Shambhala Ritual Academy. As well as extensive experience as a chöpön and teacher in the Shambhala Community, she has a Masters degree in Creative Writing from the University of New Brunswick. Andrea lives in Herring Cove, Nova Scotia.

 

 

Timothy Quigley has been a student in the Shambhala lineage since 1991. Mr. Quigley recently served as the Interim Executive Director and Director of Practice and Education for the Shambhala Meditation Center of New York. He currently serves as the Director of the Umdze Corps and is part of the core faculty for Shambhala Ritual Academy. In 2015 he accompanied a group of Shambhala representatives who were part of the first Buddhist delegation ever to meet with a presidential administration in the West Wing of the White House. As a musician and composer he has toured all over the world and played on many records. He lives in Montpelier, Vermont with his wife and 15 year old daughter.

 

 

Registration Options

Individuals: $54
Patrons: $81
Centers: $199. 
Groups: $149.

Generosity Policy. We aspire that everyone can attend our courses without finances being the obstacle to participation.  We rely on the generosity of our patrons to susidize those without the ability to pay the suggested price.  To receive flex-pricing, or to support students in need, please use the Pay Another Amount option when you register. 

Registration questions? Write to [email protected].

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