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This past weekend I went to the Omega Institute for a lecture and meditation instruction with Ani Pema Chodron. A fair amount of the meditation practice was led by Tim Olmsted, who is connected both to Pema's Shambhala tradition and to Tergar, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche's international meditation project.
There is more to say about the impact of the instruction (and of taking time away from daily life to focus on meditation), but I think the place and the teachers might be of interest to some of you. Pema has a strange saintly quality among Americans, buddhists and quasi-buddhists alike. Several people I met expressed a desire just to be near her. Some were going through Official Big Life Stuff. I suppose that's often where philosophy and religion feel most needed and really get expressed: in extremes.
So, Pema (whom everyone refers to by "first name")? Totally famous. Also tiny and funny and wise and fairly reasonable and... worldly, I guess? She talked about diets and appetites and stuff in very conventional ways at a few points, which most of you will know I did not care for. She's pretty blunt, but not in that odd childlike way I associate with monastics.
Omega is like meditation summer camp. It smells like camp. There are rules like camp. The showering facilities are bad like camp, which no one notices because, as at camp, few people shower (that might be a bit of an exaggeration). The campus is a series of cabins, some arranged like dorms and some like motel rooms. And there are lots of bugs, minor irritants, etc. But. The facilities for classes are lovely, sustainably powered, and just generally feel-good. It also has a little lake, gardens everywhere, and chairs and benches all over outside (plus hammocks, if that's what you're into). If the weather's good, you can spend all but your class time outside.
It's a pretty great place to hang out on a spring weekend, in other words. I'm glad I went.
* Pretty much no one but Kim will get this reference, which is just fine. It's not an apt analogy, but it makes me smile.
There is more to say about the impact of the instruction (and of taking time away from daily life to focus on meditation), but I think the place and the teachers might be of interest to some of you. Pema has a strange saintly quality among Americans, buddhists and quasi-buddhists alike. Several people I met expressed a desire just to be near her. Some were going through Official Big Life Stuff. I suppose that's often where philosophy and religion feel most needed and really get expressed: in extremes.
So, Pema (whom everyone refers to by "first name")? Totally famous. Also tiny and funny and wise and fairly reasonable and... worldly, I guess? She talked about diets and appetites and stuff in very conventional ways at a few points, which most of you will know I did not care for. She's pretty blunt, but not in that odd childlike way I associate with monastics.
Omega is like meditation summer camp. It smells like camp. There are rules like camp. The showering facilities are bad like camp, which no one notices because, as at camp, few people shower (that might be a bit of an exaggeration). The campus is a series of cabins, some arranged like dorms and some like motel rooms. And there are lots of bugs, minor irritants, etc. But. The facilities for classes are lovely, sustainably powered, and just generally feel-good. It also has a little lake, gardens everywhere, and chairs and benches all over outside (plus hammocks, if that's what you're into). If the weather's good, you can spend all but your class time outside.
It's a pretty great place to hang out on a spring weekend, in other words. I'm glad I went.
* Pretty much no one but Kim will get this reference, which is just fine. It's not an apt analogy, but it makes me smile.