NWDA News

Lots to Celebrate, as NWDA Opens New Doors
Letter from the President and Executive Director

Northwest Dharma Association brings people from many traditions together in harmony, as it has for many years. This photo is of the 2005 Change Your Mind Day celebration, in Seattle’s Volunteer Park.

Everything changes…so the Buddha said. A cold winter becomes a wet spring becomes a dry summer. Northwest Dharma Association is changing too. We’re building inclusive communities, partnering with contemplative caregivers, co-sponsoring the international Buddhist Recovery Summit in October. And of course we maintain our online directory and calendar of Buddhist organizations and their events, across Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia. And — the best part — we’re handing off NWDA to the welcome new generation of deep-practicing, forward-looking, socially engaged, eclectic, nonsectarian young Buddhists. Together, with community partners and advisors, the association’s programs are wide open. Inclusive communities…

Compassionate Action

Washington Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal Visits
With Tibetan Community at Sakya Monastery

Abbot of Sakya Monastery Khenpo Jampa Tenphel, Congresswoman Jayapal and her husband, spinning prayer wheels outside the monastery.

U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal made a rare visit to Seattle’s Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism in June, responding to an invitation from the local Tibetan community. Congresswoman Jayapal, a member of the Democratic Party, is the first Indian-American woman to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, the first woman to represent the 7th District in Congress, and the first Asian-American to represent Washington State in Congress. Her district encompasses most of Seattle as well as some outlying parts of King County, which includes areas where most local Tibetans reside. She was invited by the Tibetan Association of Washington, which…

Dharma in Canada

Vancouver Shambhala Finds New Home
Despite Fast-Rising Real Estate Prices

Practicing in the main shrine room: First row Zachariah Finley, Jerry Chapman, Sandy Brooks; second row Paul Belserene, Maria Stella; third row Mariel Gomez, Rolf Erni, Chantal Latendresse; fourth row Nicholas Talloni, Gabriel Latendresse.

We knew it was coming. The specter of homelessness for The Vancouver Shambhala Center was just over the horizon. Our mission statement is to Wake Up! We weren’t caught sleepwalking. Sensing an uncertain future we formed a group six months before we received the notice that our lease would not be renewed. The Vancouver, British Columbia building we were in, is now scheduled for demolition. We looked at options. Another lease elsewhere? Create small satellite centers? Share space with like-minded organizations or rent rooms in community centers, nomad-like, wandering from place to place? We decided to prioritize and settled on…

Dharma Education

In India, Seattle Lama Presents on Links Between
African Americans’ and Untouchables’ Experience

Martin Luther King III, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and others, during the inauguration of the Dr B R Ambedkar International Conference 2017.

Lama Choyin Rangdrol, a Seattle-based African American lama of Tibetan Buddhism, traveled to India in July as an invited presenter to the B.R. Ambedkar International Conference in Bangalore, India. Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, an important figure in India’s history in many ways, is best known among Buddhists for his mass conversion of hundreds of thousands of Indian people to Buddhism. Ambedkar died in 1956. Lama Rangdrol said participating in the conference was very powerful, because he saw so many parallels between the experience of African Americans and Indian people who fall outside the caste system, who traditionally were called untouchables. Also…

Prison Dharma

For the First Time, Washington Prison Inmates
To Teach Mindfulness to Others Behind Bars

Nate, second from right, leads a mindful movement exercise, a component of every class.

Four Washington state prison inmates are making history by becoming the first inmates certified to teach Path of Freedom, an emotional intelligence program based on mindfulness meditation. As certified trainers the four are starting to teach the 12-week curriculum to other men behind bars. The Path of Freedom program was developed by the Massachusetts-based Prison Mindfulness Institute. These enthusiastic and dedicated men are venturing into uncharted territory. Path of Freedom has been taken into prisons across the U.S. and Europe for many years, but only by outside volunteers who pay for and complete a six-week online training course. This initiative…

Sangha News

Blessings Emanate from Island Dharma Center

Jetsun Kushok in 1987 performing a ceremony to bless the land for the retreat center.

Thirty years ago a female Buddhist teacher from one of Tibet’s most esteemed families sat in the grass on a San Juan Island mountainside, and performed a ceremony to bless the land. The blessing has proven fruitful, because now Sakya Kachod Choling, the Washington state Dharma center created by Her Eminence Sakya Chimey Luding Rinpoche, is thriving and growing rapidly. Rinpoche is best known among her students around the world as Jetsun Kushok. She is a fully accomplished lineage holder in the Sakya tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, and also operates a Dharma center in Vancouver, B.C. Through her blessings and…