ADVANCED PROGRAMMES

The events, programmes, classes and courses listed in this section require previous attendance of programmes at the London Shambhala Meditation Centre or at other centres within Shambhala International. Please contact the centre for further details.

Click here to see a selection of past events, programmes, classes and courses in the advanced category.

SCHEDULED PRACTICES

Stroke Practice

Stroke Practice gatherings are an opportunity for all warriors with the transmission to practise and study the Shambhala teachings further. The Dorje Dradül repeatedly emphasised the potency of executing the Stroke of Ashe, encouraging us to come together for group practice. The session may also include chants, sitting, study, discussion and even a little sake! Please bring your brushes and chants.

Open to graduates of Warriors Assembly.

Please contact Edward 07727 028115 () if you plan to attend, or if you need more information.

Dates vary according to the lunar calendar. From 7:30 pm. .

Werma Feast Practice

In this event we come together to eat, drink and celebrate a glorious feast of the Great Eastern Sun. Inviting the werma and drala to join us, we purify and reconfirm our warrior vows.

Feast preparation is usually from 5.00 pm onwards, with the feast practice itself starting at 7.30 pm.

Please plan to arrive as early as possible to assist with preparation and check beforehand for the timing of individual feasts.

Open to all graduates of Kalapa Assembly, Rigden Abhisheka and Shambhala Vajrayana Seminary who have received the lung.

Please note that there is a suggested donation of £10.00 for this event to cover food and drink. Please contact Edward 07727 028115 () if you plan to attend, or if you need more information.

Dates vary according to the lunar calendar..

WEEKEND PROGRAMMES

Friday 17 to Sunday 19 February

The Birth of the Warrior

Shambhala Training Level Two

This weekend looks at how to recognise the habitual patterns that prevent us opening to the experience of basic goodness. How to feel the fear and do it anyway!

After discovering our basic tenderness and intelligence that arises through contacting our basic goodness we also discover why we close down to our fundamental nature. Afraid of our brilliance, afraid of our own fear, we create a cocoon of habitual tendencies and interpretations that keeps us distracted. At the root, fear means the fear of death which means simply the death of “me”.

Ego is the name for all the ideas, images, and feelings we have about who we are or want to be. It is also the root of fear. Stepping out of the cocoon of “me” is a slow process of learning about fear. Through relating properly and thoroughly to fear we discover that the way out is through the way in.

Jane Hope is a long-term student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche,
and a founding member of the London Shambhala Meditation Centre. She has been appointed by the Sakyong
as a 'shastri', or senior teacher, for the UK and the Ukraine.

To pre-register please send a deposit of £20 payable to: 'The London Shambhala Meditation Centre' c/o London Shambhala Meditation Centre, 27 Belmont Close, London, SW4 6AY.

Upcoming dates for The Birth of the Warrior in 2012 will be:

Friday 25 to Sunday 27 May 2012 with Peter Conradi

Open to all who have completed Shambhala Training Level One.

For further information please email:

The weekend begins with a talk on Friday at 7.30 pm, and continues on Saturday from approximately 9.00 am - 6.30 pm. Sunday continues from 9.00 am ending roughly at 6.30 pm with a small reception. Lunch is provided on both days.

Prices: £120 (£100 if booking before February 10th). Concessions available.

Friday 13 to Sunday 15 April

Warrior in the World

Shambhala Training Level Three

Level Three is about developing courage, the ability to step out and develop confidence in all aspects of your life. When we step out of the cocoon we begin to discover a larger vision, we are taking the first step beyond mindfulness towards awareness. We discover we can enter this world in a sane and gentle way rather than from the aggression and separateness of “me”. By having the daring to be true and genuine and by being willing to experience the sharp edges of reality we can be free from the bondage of poverty mentality or need for the protection of arrogance.

Jim O'Neill is a long-term student of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and has been appointed by the Sakyong as a 'shastri', or senior teacher. He also works full time as a psychoanalyst.

To pre-register please send a deposit of £20 payable to: 'The London Shambhala Meditation Centre' c/o London Shambhala Meditation Centre, 27 Belmont Close, London, SW4 6AY.

Upcoming dates for Warrior in the World in 2012 will be:

Friday 22 to Sunday 24 June 2012 with Orhun Cercel

Open to all who have completed Shambhala Training Level Two

For further information please email:

£120 (£100 if booking before April 6th). Concessions available

Friday 15 to Sunday 17 June

Shambhala Training: Great Eastern Sun

The Great Eastern Sun is a two-day programme to introduce the graduates of Level V to the Sacred Path programme, to the initial sections of the Letter of the Black Ashe, and to invite membership in Shambhala.

Please note that this programme is a pre-requisite for the Sacred Path Levels A to Golden Key.

Orhun Cercel has been meditating since 1990 and is a student of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. His varied career has taken him from investment banking to Chinese medicine and psychotherapy.
He travels in Europe teaching Shambhala programmes and has been appointed by the Sakyong as a ‘shastri’, or senior teacher.

To pre-register please send a deposit of £20 payable to: 'The London Shambhala Meditation Centre' c/o London Shambhala Meditation Centre, 27 Belmont Close, London, SW4 6AY.

Open to all who have completed Shambhala Training Level 5.

For further information please email:

£120 (£100 if booking before June 7th). Concessions available

Friday 7 to Sunday 9 September

Awakened Heart

Shambhala Training Level Four

Level Four is about inquisitiveness and opening, allowing yourself to be touched by your experience.

Jane Hope is a long-term student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, and a founding member of the London Shambhala Meditation Centre. She has been appointed by the Sakyong
as a 'shastri', or senior teacher, for the UK and the Ukraine.

To pre-register please send a deposit of £20 payable to: 'The London Shambhala Meditation Centre' c/o London Shambhala Meditation Centre, 27 Belmont Close, London, SW4 6AY.

Open to all who have completed Shambhala Training Level Three.

For further information please email:

£120 (£100 if booking before August 31st). Concessions available.

Friday 14 to Sunday 16 September

Windhorse

Shambhala Training Level W

Windhorse is a wind of delight and power. The experience of wind connects us completely and powerfully with the present, and the stability of the horse aspect allows us to ride this energy.

In this level we will receive instruction in a simple and profound practice that allows us to embody this energy to connect with the meek, perky, outrageous and inscrutable qualities of our own warriorship and to connect with the drala energy in our own lives.

Jim O'Neill is a long-term student of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and has been appointed by the Sakyong as a 'shastri', or senior teacher. He also works full time as a psychoanalyst.

To pre-register please send a deposit of £20 payable to: 'The London Shambhala Meditation Centre' c/o London Shambhala Meditation Centre, 27 Belmont Close, London, SW4 6AY.

Open to all who have completed Shambhala Training Level A.

For further information please email:

£120 (£100 if booking before Friday 7th of September). Concessions available

Friday 23 to Sunday 25 November

The Drala Principle

Shambhala Training Level A

This first weekend programme of the Sacred Path of the Warrior introduces the study of the Shambhala root text “The letter of the Black Ashe”.

The text describes the whole path of warriorship from a beginner to master warrior who manifests completely authentically in the world and is able to show others the way to be genuine.

Peter Conradi is a long-term student of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and has been appointed by the Sakyong as a 'shastri', or senior teacher. He is English Professor Emeritus at Kingston University, and the author of a number of books including Going Buddhist and Iris Murdoch: A Life. He is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

To pre-register please send a deposit of £20 payable to: 'The London Shambhala Meditation Centre' c/o London Shambhala Meditation Centre, 27 Belmont Close, London, SW4 6AY.

Open to all who have completed Shambhala Training Great Eastern Sun.

For further information please email:

£120 (£100 if booking before November 16th). Concessions available

Friday 7 to Sunday 9 December

Open Sky

Shambhala Training Level Five

Having developed trust in basic goodness we can appreciate the freedom of 'open sky' and celebrate our journey along the path of warriorship.

Letting go is having the courage to fully manifest and give up our reservations, hesitations and logics. Having made friends with ourselves through the practice of meditation we can relax and live our sensitivity and tenderness. Through this we discover the joy of discipline, living each moment fully awake. This naturally connects us to others and caring for our world. The sun of goodness shines in the vast open sky of freedom from fixed mind.

Jane Hope is a long-term student of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, and a founding member of the London Shambhala Meditation Centre. She has been appointed by the Sakyong as a 'shastri', or senior teacher, for the UK and the Ukraine.

To pre-register please send a deposit of £20 payable to: 'The London Shambhala Meditation Centre' c/o London Shambhala Meditation Centre, 27 Belmont Close, London, SW4 6AY.

Open to all who have completed Shambhala Training Level Four.

For further information please email:

£120 (£100 if booking before November 30th). Concessions available.

COURSES

Tuesday 7 February

Wisdom in Everyday Life

A five week evening course

In this series of 5 classes, we will look into how meditation uncovers our wisdom. This wisdom is always present, and can be applied to transform confused situations and emotions into effective actions. No longer deterred or depressed by obstacles, we can include everything as part of the path. The challenges of daily life become opportunities for both contemplative practice and social action

These classes also look at the qualities of an accomplished warrior whose vastness of mind and skills in enriching the world are fully manifest. Here the practitioner is introduced to the vajrayana teachings of Buddhism, which reveal the sacredness of the phenomenal world. Students will receive essential instructions for transforming confused emotions and situations into wisdom as they arise. The accomplished warrior is no longer deterred or depressed by obstacles, but with tremendous forward vision and strength and fully manifesting the aspect of our true nature called “Dragon” we can playfully include everything that arises as path. In this way the warrior is able to skilfully benefit the world.

To pre-register please send a deposit of £20 payable to: 'The London Shambhala Meditation Centre' c/o London Shambhala Meditation Centre, 27 Belmont Close, London, SW4 6AY.

Dates: Tuesday January 10th, 17th, 24th 31st and February 7th.

For more information please contact:

7:30 until 9:30pm

£50 (£40 if booking before January 3rd).

Tuesday 12 June to Tuesday 10 July

Joy in Everyday Life

This series of five classes expands the meditation experience by cultivating the noble heart of the Mahayana teachings, opening the path to the virtue and celebration of compassion. Through practical methods we further develop kindness towards ourselves and others. We experience the joy and invigoration that comes from discipline. We call this aspect of our true nature “Lion” which represents the qualities of cheerfulness, health, and freedom from doubt.