Shambhala and Buddhist Social Engagement Program

We had an excellent two day program named “How Can I help? Buddhism and Social Engagement” with Maia Duerr (ED of BPF.org), David Loy, and Richard Reoch (president shambhala International) and organized by Lance Brunner.  My entry to Shambhala, Lexington KY is through activism and Buddhism by birth in India.

I was able to attend only one day, as I was coincidentally giving another workshop next day that involved the message of comming out of the cocoon and being a butterfly. The program involved talks  (practicing peace in the midst of war by Richard, Reflections and Group discussion after that and what brings us to the program and such. Another talk was on compassionate listening and creating space in the middle of conflict by RR. David Loy spoke on his paper in Turning Wheel, “What the Buddha would Do.” Maia talked about Mindful Action: work of Buddhist peace fellowship, showing video clips of BPF participation in Washington Peace rally in sep2005….a huge and successful rally not covered by media.

This whole program created lot of enthusiasm among 30 or so participants. So much so that we are in the process of opening a BPF chapter here. Some of us are quite active in the community and we participated in the local peace rally to support the national effort on Jan 27 at Washington DC, in which many BPF members also participated. More than 150 went to DC from KY. I capture some of it in my BLOG.

We are planning to use the “Dialogue” mode of conversation in our
Buddhist Peace Fellowship meetings. There is great value in using
dialogue to create greater team empowerment, respect for all views and
creating greater shared understanding so we can build a culture of
peace inside out.

I am also a firm believer that Peace and
Freedom cannot be kept with our ignorance and fear intact. So becoming aware of
systemic and political hidden forces that incite and promote war to
serve the interest of few at the expense of All needs to be brought out
to daylight and public awareness.

I am doing just that in my Peace Blog

Shambhala way of ;-)
Fearless Peace~
mita