Imagine 2018 for the Jewish Film Festival

Staffing "Awakened Heart" (Part 2)

[Originally written in Hebrew on Fri. Oct. 22].

This weekend I am volunteering as a staff member in the program 'Awakened Heart," the fourth weekend program on the Shambhala Warrior training. In this program you learn to listen to the heart and feel it, beating, sensitive, vulnerable and courageous.
When I first participated in the program it was a very emotional experience for me. I think I also cried a little. A good kind of healthy cry. And I really felt my heart and started noticing it more. What happens to it in different situations, how the body and the heart respond to things around, and to internal things. I started noticing its beatings, and to times it's very quiet, but still there, very busy with pumping enough blood so I will live. I don't know if I thought of all this at the time. But I felt. I experienced. I experienced the feeling of being a person with a beating heart. And to look at that.

There were more emotional and mental things that happened in that program, but you can't express them in words. These programs are very centered in the personal experience. So for each person it's a bit different, even though there are definitly things that are common among the participants.

So this weekend I am volunteering. I will help the team of people who are on the spiritual path I am on, friends for the road, as they say, sangha, community, in order to help others look deeply at the sensitivity and courage of our beating heart. When you volunteer, you also learn a lot from the experience. It is a meditative act in itself. Because while you staff the program, the awareness to yourself and others is very high, and there is a great aspiration to be very very good to others and yourself, to be of benefit, and to be kind. And then it's possible to experience this kindness within you and within others. That feels very warm. Like a warm welcoming home.

In general, this program includes- talks, a lot of sitting meditation (this is the time in which participants are reflecting, feel and experience a lot), and there is also walking meditation (sometimes even outside, in the middle of Manhattan!) and sometimes some contemplation activities. As volunteers, we prepare the food (fruits and vegtables, crackers, cheese, cookies and cakes, coffee and tea), and we also escort the participants to their interviews and meditate in between. We can listen to the talks , meditate with the group and participate in discussions.
So maybe this gives you some idea about the program. Perhaps I can add a picture here later =)

Love,
Yael

Staffing "Awakend Heart" (Part 1)

This weekend I am volunteering to staff 'Level IV' at the NYC Shambhala Center. It will be an opportunity to meditate and to allow others to meditate as well. I especially like Level IV: Awakened Heart, because when I first did it, it really did allow me to feel my heart more closely, and feel its fragility and warmth. It was very special for me, and I am happy to be there for the program to allow others to explore their own experience and maybe feel their heart throbbing inside their body too. :-)

From the Website's Program info:

In Shambhala Training Level IV, we learn how to awaken and open our hearts so that we can communicate fully with the world.

“Basic goodness is very closely connected to the idea of bodhicitta in the Buddhist tradition. Bodhi means ‘awake’ or ‘wakeful’ and citta means ‘heart,’ so bodhicitta is ‘awakened heart.’ Such awakened heart comes from being willing to face your state of mind. That may seem like a great demand, but it is necessary. The sitting practice of meditation is the means to rediscover basic goodness, and beyond that, it is the means to awaken this genuine heart within yourself.”
— Chögyam Trungpa

Budrus- Israelis & Palestinans unite for a village cause

Going tonight to see the movie 'Budrus' at Quad Cinema.



From the film's official website:

It takes a village to unite the most divided people on earth.

Budrus is an award-winning feature documentary film about a Palestinian community organizer, Ayed Morrar, who unites local Fatah and Hamas members along with Israeli supporters in an unarmed movement to save his village of Budrus from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier. [...more].

A Talk: The Shmbhala Buddhist Path

Going tonight to hear a talk in the Shambhala center about The Shambhala Buddhist Path: From Level I to Vajrayana.

This talk will present the Shambhala path of the warrior, the Shambhala lineage practitioner, from "Level I" weekends, and first meditation instructions, until entering the Vajrayana path, which is a more demanding, committed and advanced part of the path. Some lineages, such as the Kagyu lineage, believe that some people were incarnated in a way that enables them to start their path (in this lifetime) straight with with Vajrayana path. In Shambhala, we practice a lot of shamhata, mindfulness meditation, as a foundation before we advance to deity visualization and chants. I am writing this in a very simplistic terms, just to give a short note about it.



Quotes from the program invitation:

One key component will be an introduction to our core curriculum, The Way of Shambhala, which provides a structured path of meditation and an introduction to the foundations of Shambhala Buddhism—wisdom teachings and practices rooted in the ancient traditions of Shambhala and Tibetan Buddhism. The series of weekly courses and weekend programs integrate practice and study, exploring mindfulness-awareness meditation and teachings on contentment, joy, fearlessness, and wisdom, all with an emphasis on application in everyday life.

Shambhala Vision
Throughout history, people have aspired to create societies that express the dignity of human existence within a wise, flourishing culture. This is the vision of Shambhala - a legendary enlightened society. The first king of Shambhala is said to have receive teachings on the inseparability of spirituality and daily life directly from the Buddha. The Tibetan meditation master and founder of the Shambhala community, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, carried this tradition into the modern world. Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, his son and spiritual heir, continues this tradition.

"Seeds of Peace"- Empowering youths for coexistance

Organization's Mission:

Our mission is to help young people from regions of conflict develop the leadership skills necessary to advance reconciliation and coexistence.

Treaties are negotiated by governments; Peace is made by people.

Seeds of Peace is doing what no government can. It is sowing the seeds of peace among the next generation of leaders. It is educating them to develop empathy, respect and confidence. It is equipping them with communication and negotiation skills. It is enabling them to see the human face of their enemies. By empowering them to emerge as tomorrow’s leaders, Seeds of Peace is working to forge the personal relationships so critical to peacemaking and reconciliation.

Incredible Trailer:

Encounter Point & Burdus Trailers - Israeli-Palestinian 'Bridges'

Here's a continuation of my exploration of documentaries and online footage of Jewish Israelis and Palestinians communicating with each other in non-violent terms:






Encounter Point- Interview with producer







From the website of the The Parents Circle - Families Forum

The Parents Circle – Families Forum : Introduction

"Peace is possible when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable (…) the members of the Parents Circle have experienced this truth In the depths of their Suffering and loss. They have found that there Is more that unites us than Divides us, that we are All members of one family, the human family (…)" Desmond M. Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus
Letter to The Parents Circle – Families Forum, April 2004

It is, as far as we know, a world precedent that bereaved families, victims from both sides, embark on a joint reconciliation mission while the conflict is still active.
Consisting of several hundreds of bereaved families, half Palestinian and half Israeli, The Families Forum has played a crucial role since its inception in 1995, in spearheading a reconciliation process between Israelis and Palestinians. The Forum members have all lost immediate family members due to the violence in the region.