CONTENS The Three Doors International Newsletter Issue # 2 – Winter 2011 2
P. 3 - Welcome New and Familiar Readers! Our Editorial letter gives you news and general information about The Three Doors. P. 4 - Our Logo: Depicting the dynamic flow The Three Doors Logo was designed by Mary Ellen McCourt and derives from the classical Tibetan wheel of joy. Its origin and symbolism are highlighted here. P.5 - „It’s like peeling an onion“ The Three Doors gets underway in Europe: Anja Benesch, Mirka Janoskova, Woser Palmo and Hille Huigens share with us what it is like to be a trainee. P.9- One might call it a love letter John Jackson, Academy Teacher for The European Three Doors Academy, reflects on the first Group Retreat. P.10 - A little book about their life Tenzin Wangyal talks about working with the initial group of trainees and the basic idea behind the program. P.11 - Connecting to the power of transformation in cyberspace Basic principles and guided practice sessions of The Three Doors Academy brought to you via our free online sessions. P.12 - The very first Three Doors Graduation Ceremony Laura Shekerjian on becoming an Academy Teacher. P.13 - Taking the teachings to the world: Academy Graduates in action In this new section, graduates share their personal experiences of healing body, speech, and mind, through the Three Doors practices. P.13 - Karen Patrick – Meditation: for a change P.15 - Rose Najia – Big Business and Nine Breathings in China P.18 - Creative Blossoms Our creativity section shows artwork by Academy Teachers and Trainees. P.20 - Ask the Academy Teacher Cheryl Preston, a participant in the U.S. Academy, has launched this forum by posing questions to Laura Shekerjian, one of the Academy Teachers for the upcoming Latin American Academy.
Welcome New and Familiar Readers! We have several exciting announcements! The Three Doors Academy in Latin America will begin in 2012! The Three Doors Academy in Europe was successfully launched and is open to new participants! The Three Doors Academy in U.S. will begin a second training in October 2012! This move to initiate additional Academy trainings, following the launch of The Three Doors U.S. 2011 Academy, arises from the interest, enthusiasm, dedication, and merit of this incredible program. Responding to the western world in its complexities of beauty and neurosis, Tenzin Wangyal has drawn from the vast, ancient wisdom within the Bön tradition to introduce a simple, direct, and profound process for individuals to transform their lives. As he says, this process allows you to go deeper to engage your life, “to create more sharing and more opportunities to share, to have more commitment. Almost like a way to speed up!” (Tenzin Wangyal during a lecture in Amsterdam, May 2011.) For over two decades Tenzin Wangyal has taught within the Bön tradition of wisdom and compassion, witnessing the profound benefits that have enriched western students’ personal, relational, and professional lives. While presenting this legacy in the western world, Tenzin Wangyal continually focuses on how to most effectively present the teachings coherently and effectively in a western cultural context so different from his own. The Three Doors Academy offers an experiential approach to deepen awareness and foster the inherent connection with the authentic self. The program’s power arises from excavating and clearing our primitive fears along with dispelling the shadow forces of confusion that hold humanity in its grip. Through deep engagement with contemplative psycho-spiritual methods, trainees learn forms of fearless self-reflection and the application of specific practices to transform crippling life-patterns into doorways to the luminous self. The training fosters a disciplined commitment to the three doors of transformation: body, speech, and mind. With joy and compassion as guiding forces, we are assisted in opening the door to indestructible confidence, enabling us to live fully, completely, and nakedly. A ripened expression of evolutionary wisdom lies dormant within. Join us as we nourish its seed and awaken its potential. The Three Doors Academy offers a caring, confidential community where we join hearts and hands for safe passage through the rigorous territory of awakening and positive change. The seed of The Three Doors is sprouting The mandala of The Three Doors is ripening in form and expression Become a part of this mandala of transformation Become the change you wish to see in the world. “Wherever you are, I hope this will bring you a lot of transformation and realization. My prayers, my hope, and my support are there.” (Tenzin Wangyal at the Three Doors USA Academy launch, April 2011) The Editors
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Our Logo: Depicting the dynamic flow Origin and symbolism of The Three Doors logo 4
The Three Doors logo derives from a classic Tibetan symbol, the “wheel of joy,” and represents the three doors of body, speech, and mind. Although we can use any of these doors to enter into our true selves, they are in fact indivisible. This indivisibility is expressed in the logo by the flowing movement of the three colors, representative of their dynamic energy. This logo was designed by Mary Ellen McCourt, at the request of Tenzin Wangyal. For many years, Mary Ellen has been creating beautiful artwork related to the practices and teachings she has received. For her, these creations are unplanned:
“[They] just come through me and have to be manifest in form. They come when they come, in their own time. It took almost a year before The Three Doors logo came into my awareness. One day there it was!”
The white color refers to body, the red to speech, and the blue to mind. Mary Ellen chose the golden color of the surrounding waves as evocative of the luminous source from which all things come: that pure, clear, kind, loving radiance of awareness that nurtures the qualities of body speech, and mind throughout all space and time. Through hours of meticulous work, Dorrie Ameen created the final digital image of The Three Doors logo that is now displayed on our website, newsletter, videos, and other publications. Her efforts and those of Mary Ellen McCourt have resulted in a beautiful and very inspirational image.
“It's like peeling an onion” The Three Doors gets underway in Europe In August 2011, The Three Doors Academy Europe kicked off with its first Group Training Retreat at Finkenwerder Hof in Northern Germany. Anja Benesch and other participants share with us what it is like to be a trainee. 5
When you join the Three Doors program, how do you know what you've gotten yourself into? Well, you can’t really know until it finally happens, and the experience is sure to surprise you with its depth and intensity. For about a year I have been supporting Kallon Basquin and the Three Doors organization to create the first European Three Doors Academy. When he and the Academy Teachers, Raven and John, arrived in Berlin, the journey I had yearned for began.
Twenty-four people from 9 different European countries joined the first Group Training Retreat. After the first day of sharing our suffering and joys, I felt like diving into the safety of this circle which was so capably protected by what Tenzin Wangyal likes to call “the invisible firm hand” (speaking of Kallon).
We left the capital city of Germany to abide in stillness, silence, and spaciousness, within the beautiful natural setting of Mecklenburgische Seenplatte, in a place called Finkenwerder Hof.
pain and happiness dissolved got bigger and bigger, moment by moment. As it says in the teachings, it felt boundless, like the sky, and all that was needed for our qualities to ripen was the warmth of the sun — our own awareness of the limitlessness and openness within us and amongst us.
During the first retreat, we abided in inner refuge for long periods of time, and the space into which all our
Through the gift of the group’s deep listening and awareness, the more we openly shared, the more the refuge space we created expanded to embrace these unique, heart-touching experiences. My confidence that anything could be hugged, healed, and dissolved in boundless space, deepened considerably during that week. What was new to me were the dimensions of boundlessness I discovered being in that group. I was struck by the power in this collectively held space, the depth of trust, and the directness with which we witnessed one another and our own minds. The fullness of our giving and receiving, allowing and opening, created a truly sacred space. I had known for a long time that I wanted to go on this journey, but I never expected how much I would like the trip!
It happened a while ago, just before sunset: a beautiful clear sky. I sit, but don't feel “I”. The sky is pure, wide and free, There is no more “I”, just a warm, embracing “WE”. Woser Palmo, Italy
Of course doing the Three Doors Academy is not like going to Disneyland and finding peace-andhappiness-ever-after. You are getting naked. You are looking at your anger, your dark sides, your behavioural patterns, your addictions, and the way you reject and avoid daily experiences. Sometimes I think I'm going nuts. But then I remind myself that this is just one of my smart egos engaging in pain speech, and I take the red pill of silence. I take many of the red ones these days. I used to be great at creating problems by thinking all day. Now I am confident there is another state in which I am not
constantly disturbed by the inner chatter that makes me go crazy. Raven and John, our humorous and fearless Teachers, guided us well in discovering the benefits of the Ninefold Breathings of Purification and the Tsa Lung Exercises. In the middle of the week, we were given instructions on how to choose the issues we wanted to transform in our training and get started on the famous “63 transformations.” In small groups we discussed how to identify the ways in which our issue is connected to the root poisons, so we could get a clear idea of what to focus on when doing the purification breathings with the channels. We also discussed the levels on which the pain can manifest— body, speech and/or mind—and the ways the issue is related to the chakras. I am telling you: this sounds easy to do but once you're really doing it every day, it can get totally complicated. At least, it gets complicated if you think and talk a lot about it, which is what you're doing when you write down your experiences in your “transformation journal.” John once explained that going through the process of transformation was “like peeling an onion.” You take one skin off and find another layer. And after peeling that one, you find another and then another, and the closer to the core you come, the trickier it can get. The onion's sharpness might make you sob more or laugh harder but the heart of the onion will be beautiful and soft, and after taking off that last layer there will be nothing left.
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And that's what we're doing, step by step: peeling, until nothing remains. No more hurt ego crying for shelter or untamed inner child craving a sweet taste while your empty body rebels on a rotten karmic cushion and your monkey-mind jumps up and down urging you to go somewhere else—anywhere else— and do anything other than hold this experience.
It is not the story or the form you count, it is the root. Recognize the core place of transformation, not the form or the stories. Tenzin Wangyal during the first European Group Training Retreat
For the moment, peeling the outer skins of the onions is fine. This is about taking our daily hassles, worries, and sufferings—and let’s not forget our joys and happy experiences—into our practice. It is about transforming seemingly little things: “Saying 'Hi' to my wife early in the morning despite the fact that I am a “Morgenmuffel” (not-a-morning-person); opening my heart to my father whose choleric outbursts used to make me turn away; giving up being shy with unfamiliar people out of fear; letting somebody know I have a crush on him despite my fear of being rejected; allowing myself to stop working so much and facing the feelings of unworthiness and sadness that bubble up as soon as I do so; giving up helping and supporting everyone around me as I usually do; looking at myself as if I were my best friend. As for what gets transformed and how thoroughly things shift, a spiritual friend in the training group reminded us of this question from The Matrix: “How deep down the rabbit hole do you wanna go?”
What will be left of me once I lift the veil of all these identities, scratch off the emperor's new clothes, and be nakedly seen by everyone around me? I certainly do not know. I’m not always sure what I have gotten myself into, but I am so, so curious to find out. “Let's walk in beauty,” John said in the beginning of the retreat. And so I begin to walk. I am so grateful for the Three Doors program that was envisioned and shaped by Tenzin Wangyal for the western mind, and is now being presented by these wonderful Academy Teachers who clearly speak with his voice and help us take these powerful practices into our bones. And I just love my buddies on the journey! Within six weeks of leaving Finkenwerder Hof in early September, approximately 150 emails have been exchanged on the group mailing list. We're sharing our experiences and asking each other to “Please host me” if we're in pain. We’re sharing our dream work, our poems, and the results of practice in daily life. Life is so much richer now. Its beauty blinds me sometimes, and as I emerge from the dark corners of depression, I am slowly learning to host this beauty. Sometimes I find myself crying because the people that used to scare or hurt me the most have turned from these intimidating, shadowy figures into beings of light and sources of joy. It is all my vision and I am clearly experiencing it changing. “Be aware of the great gift you've given to yourself,” Raven used to remind us after meditation practice. And this is only the beginning of a three-year journey and a lifelong trip! Anja Benesch, Germany Join the ongoing group in Europe The Three Doors Academy Europe will be open for applicants to step in. You can join the existing group for the upcoming second Group Training Retreat in March 2012 (application deadline is January 15th, 2012). Find more about the Application Process at www.the3doors.org or write to us via info.europe@the3doors.org
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A much subtler creature
Honor to our Teachers
“Hardly familiar with the teachings of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, I visited his seminar last May in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I was struck by the truth of his teachings and the direct and immediate experience it gave with respect to the realms of existence and awareness he was talking about. I was also moved by the practices he led us through. So when he announced the Three Doors Academy, and especially when he announced that the participants had to go through a lot of transformations so they are forced to work on themselves and not just listen to teachings and meditate a lot, I felt very drawn. But I still was afraid I might be disappointed. Now after only one retreat and practicing at home for just more than a month, I already see and feel the many transformations I am going through. It feels like being changed to a much subtler creature, one who is much freer, much happier, much more aware, and much more resolute. And this is only the first step. So if anybody seriously wants to work on him/herself and be transformed, I really can recommend this path.�
The date for our first training was coming closer and I was getting very excited. I tried not to have any expectations, but I still had some. But the experience itself went far beyond anything I could possibly have imagined. Our teachers John, Raven, and Kallon were just marvelous. I was amazed by their guidance, by their direct and pure connection, and the way they communicated to us the wisdom of these teachings. We have truly received pure, loving nectar from them. Their openness touched me the most. Their own experiences and the stories they shared with us nourished our hearts, helping us to open and to give up our own pain. It was the most profound personal and spiritual healing. Many thanks to our Lama Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche; our teachers John, Raven, and Kallon; and to those who helped make it happen.
Hille Huigens, the Netherlands
Mirka Janoskova, Slovakia
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One might call it a love letter Written by John Jackson, Academy Teacher for the European Three Doors Academy, after the first Group Retreat We just did not know how it would turn out. We all sat facing one another for the first time, like teenagers on a blind date not knowing what to expect. Then we gathered into a circle and began to share our fears, our hopes, our pasts, our failings, our callings, and our inspirations. One by one we opened our hearts to one another and found it was safe, that we were respected, that we were supported, that we had had incredible journeys to get to this place, and yet there was much further to go. In the sacred space of that circle we began to trust one another, to support one another. Dare I say it --- to fall in love with one another. So began our journey through the Three Doors. Each day we grew closer and our trust deepened: trust in the group, in the practices, and most importantly in ourselves. It was like a family finding itself for the first time.
The retreat began in cool rainy weather, supporting our inner quiet reflection, but after a few days the skies broke open to a beautiful double rainbow and an eagle soared over our heads. It was a turning; everyone’s hearts began to open. We found time to walk in the fields, play on the swings, and explore together. Friday night our warmth and connection culminated in a spontaneous group dance which none of us will ever be able to forget, describe, or explain. It was who we were at that moment—joyful, alive, energized, and totally human. Fireworks shot through the sky from a nearby village as the earth shared in our jubilation. We parted with hugs, smiles, and tears the next day, knowing that we would be back, that the journey had only just begun, that the practices really do work, and that we have an incredible family to support us. John Jackson
John Jackson shares his personal experiences with The Three Doors Practices as a pathway to find more freedom and openness in a 5 minute introduction video – have a look at: http://the3doors.org/about-us/video-presentation.html
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A little book about their life Tenzin Wangyal talks about working with the initial group of trainees and the basic idea behind the Three Doors program The idea of The Three Doors was to create another possibility for transformation. I saw and felt the need to provide this opportunity both for individual transformation and also for the larger sense of collective transformation. But this transformation is still based on the principles of the teachings: The Nine Breathings, Tsa Lung, Five Warrior Syllables, and the Fivefold Teachings of Dawa Gyaltsen. It is supported by the books „Awakening the Sacred Body“, „Tibetan Sound Healing“, and „Awakening the Luminous Mind.“
This is what I wanted to see. And it's been an incredible experience for me. It's thousands of pages and a lot of work for me but it's my commitment to them. Each person has 80 to 90 pages. Everybody almost has a little book that they wrote about their life. It was very inspiring, very moving. I learned so much from them. And they did change. I’d like to see this kind of transformation happening everywhere. I’d like to see it on a social and professional level. I’d like to see it in the way we teach, in the way we do business, in the way we interact with each other, and
In this training program, I gave 18 people a personal invitation. I said to that group: you have to do 63 transformations in your life, 21 in three areas: personal, family and professional. I want to see 63 things that you have changed and I will be the one judging whether they count or not. You cannot come to me and say „I meant to fix my car for five years and now I finally did“. That doesn't count. The ones that count are the deeper, personal shifts.
in the way we die. This is very important for me. So it feels important to bring these teachings to help people make those changes on a very personal level. This is something I admire very much with that first group. They were willing to do that. It took a lot of time but they did it. And some of them said it was the most rewarding experience they ever had in their spiritual practice, and also the most challenging.
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Connecting to the power of transformation in cyberspace So we started this program and I trained the first group of people. I personally don't train the next generations. It's just impossible for me to do. So these people will go to different places. It is like the branching of a tree and I hope it will go everywhere.
The first one started in the U.S., the second one will be in Europe, and the third one will be in LatinAmerica, including Mexico. From there hopefully it will go to more countries. (Excerpt from a talk given in Amsterdam, May 2011)
Connecting to the power of transformation in cyberspace: Basic principles and guided practice sessions of The Three Doors Academy brought to you via our free online sessions Over the next several months, The Three Doors will provide free online sessions with Tenzin Wangyal and Marcy Vaughn in order to give people a taste of what is happening in the Academy Training. The real taste, however, can only be discovered by becoming part of an ongoing training group. We encourage anyone who is interested to take a look at our Application Section. We're starting our series of free online sessions with Tenzin Wangyal talking about the basic principles of these teachings: inner refuge, hosting experience, the power of transformation that comes from connecting to space, the need to bring this connection into our actions, and more.
We're continuing with Marcy Vaughn, Academy Teacher, who presents a 30-minute guided practice which leads you directly into the experience of inner refuge. Marcy is a senior student of Tenzin Wangyal and a teacher for Ligmincha Institute. Together with her husband Gabriel Rocco she designed the curriculum for The Three Doors Academy. In the third and for now last session Marcy Vaughn offers a 45-minute guided practice explaining and demonstrating the Tsa Lung Practices. Enjoy getting a taste of the Three Doors Practices!
www.the3doors.org/academy-curriculum/free-online-sessions-en.html
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The very first Three Doors Graduation Ceremony Laura Shekerjian, one of the Academy Teachers for the upcoming Latin American Academy, on becoming an Academy Teacher. Tenzin Wangyal’s aspiration to bring the wisdom and potency of Bön Buddhist practices to the West has most recently expressed itself in the Three Doors Programs. Kallon Basquin, Executive Director of the Three Doors, eloquently calls it his “heart drop,” the distillation of his heart message to all of us. The first fruit of this program, the first group of students who completed this indepth training, had the extraordinary privilege of having Tenzin Wangyal and His Holiness Lungtok Tenpai Nyima, spiritual head of the Bön, preside over their graduation ceremony during Ligmincha’s summer retreat.
does a student have the chance to learn how to be a human being? He offered us a path to meet ourselves nakedly, to break our hearts open. This path is beyond all Buddhist concepts and beyond all our longing to be somewhere other than where we are. He gave us a way to come home to ourselves. It was an open invitation to us and now to all of you to go beyond everything and just be alive. This vision is for all those who have a calling to go deep into their own souls.”
Kallon spoke for all the twelve graduates as he movingly expressed his appreciation for what had been offered to them: “This has been a long time coming. I remember when he asked me to come practice with him. What an opportunity! How often
hard to create the opportunity for anyone to work deeply with themselves and benefit from the wisdom of these practices. In the Three Doors, he has achieved the perfect balance between making the teachings accessible to others while maintaining the
Tenzin Wangyal talked about his pure and open intention to bring the transformative potential of these profound teachings to all sentient beings. He recognized that the forms and rituals of traditional practice can be obstacles for many and has worked
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Taking the teachings to the world: Academy Graduates in action pure link with the tradition. That direct transmission from the tradition to this program and all those who work within it was made apparent by His Holiness’s presence and his words. He encouraged us to commit to what we have begun and not let the many distractions of everyday life pull us away from the deepening of our own awareness and our commitment to share this with others. He stated that he was very pleased by what had been accomplished here and wished us well in our efforts to move this into the world. After the ceremony, he asked for copies of the graduation certificates to be put into the archives at Menri Monastery in India. In this way, the Three Doors Program and all its present and future graduates were given a place within the living heart of this ever-flowing tradition.
As the assembled students who attended the summer retreat sang the beautiful refuge prayers written by Tenzin Wangyal, the twelve graduates rose to receive the transmission of blessings of body, speech, and mind from His Holiness who placed a statute of Tapihritsa on their foreheads, a text of the Six Lamps on their throats, and a crystal on their hearts. At the end of the ceremony they stood and expressed their own pure intention to be suitable vessels for what had been given them: “Having received the blessings of body, speech, and mind through the great wisdom and compassion of our teachers, may we have the strength to benefit many others.” Laura Shekerjian
Taking the teachings to the world: Academy Graduates in action Twelve people from the initial Three Doors Group trained by Tenzin Wangyal graduated in June 2011 as certified Three Doors Teachers. Some of them became teachers and mentors in the worldwide Three Doors Academies. Others are offering the teachings elsewhere. All of them are working on fulfilling Tenzin Wangyal's vision of enabling people from various backgrounds to benefit in their personal, relational, and professional lives from Bön's legacy of wisdom and compassion. In this new section, graduates share their personal experiences of healing body, speech, and mind, through the Three Doors practices.
Karen Patrick – Meditation: for a change When I was asked to join the first training group of The Three Doors I felt honored to help Tenzin Wangyal fulfill his vision. The time was right for me because I knew I needed to make changes in my life. However, I never dreamed my life would look like it does today. When we received our first assignments I felt overwhelmed. I was still finishing my preliminary
practices and to fulfill the requirements of the Academy, I was asked to start a daily practice of the Nine Breathings, Tsa Lung, Five Warrior Seed Syllables, and the Five-fold practice of Dawa Gyaltsen. I had no idea how I was going to include that much meditation into a schedule already filled with family responsibilities and a full-time career. During this time, I became very aware my life was changing and my relationship to the lineage was transforming as well. While my devotion and connection to Bön remained strong, my concepts and
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thoughts about Bön shifted. For me, Bön went from being a wonderful spiritual tradition from the ancient Tibetan civilization of Zhang Zhung to the boundless, luminous, living magic present in each moment. I realized that the essence of Bön, the true nature we all share, is available to all as is The Three Doors. During the Academy we were asked to look at blocks in our personal, relational, and professional lives; transform those blocks to uncover our true nature; and record those transformations in a specific journaling method. Professionally, I had been in the counseling and teaching field for nearly thirty years and in private practice for the last twenty. During my career I have worked with many different kinds of people and have taught in professional training groups and in academia. I have also been teaching some form of meditation since 1981. My journal was an effective way to confront the inner truth that this career that I had worked so long and hard to establish was just not fulfilling and that I was no longer fully engaged. Then 2008 happened. I was so grateful to be in the training during the economic era-destroying tornado that hit our world. Many of my clients lost jobs, and/or houses and felt spiritually challenged. What I found during this time was the strength and power of our Three Door practices, and with Tenzin Wangyal’s permission, began sharing them with others. They provide true solutions to real life problems: an inner confidence, love, joy, compassion, and equanimity beyond any karmic condition. On a personal level I was helping care for my elderly parents and an aunt who was suffering from Alzheimer’s. My long-time clients found they could no longer pay me and my income began to fade. I began to drive myself too hard and had a series of illnesses and an accident which resulted in an operation. Since I could no longer medicate myself by staying busy I had to find true refuge in stillness, silence, and
spaciousness. Tenzin Wangyal has said that “If you have time to worry you have time to do these practices.” Beneath the constant busyness and exhaustion I found a true refuge in stillness. Beyond the constant expressions of fear and anger I found the refuge of silence. And when I could abide in the awareness of the stillness and silence, my physical pain and mental fears gave way to the great body of bliss and refuge in spaciousness. This, the true nature that we all share, has deeply informed me and the people I teach. The practices taught in the Three Doors are simple, portable, and powerful. They help us use our own pain as a path for transformation.
I have found that as I deepen my refuge in stillness, silence, and spaciousness, I stop relying so much on the conceptual mind to analyze and direct my life. Now, I find flow between my work, family responsibilities, writing, painting, traveling to retreats with Tenzin Wangyal, and teaching the Three Doors Program. The opportunities to teach are organically arising from the enthusiasm I feel towards these practices and I welcome being able to help others feel their effects. When a room full of people chants the five Warrior Syllables they know something is happening even if they don’t know what it is and they find themselves wanting more. I am honored and challenged to give to others these practices in the same pure way they have been given
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to me. I study with Tenzin Wangyal as much as I can. I watch his videos and attend as many retreats as possible. I download CD’s of the retreats on my ipod and listen when I am at the gym or doing housework. My long car trips to see my mother become a personal retreat by playing CD’s and taking advantage of the time to listen and reflect. I believe that practice informs everything and study adds a precision to practice. I enjoy teaching The Three Doors practices and being a part of this pioneering effort to teach people who have not had prior training. I work to let go of the ego while teaching so the dharma can play through. What am I finding? It can best be described by a women
who came to a recent class, Awakening Authentic Speech. She had no prior meditation experience but had heard Tibetan monks chants and was curious what it was all about. After teaching the syllables and leading the first session of practice I asked each member of the group to share how they were doing. She said, “I really loved chanting the syllables, but afterward when we just were abiding…” She smiled, paused, and then continued thoughtfully: “It was like when I was a little child, laying in a meadow on a warm summer day, and pretty soon it was like I wasn’t there at all. It was like I was all that nature and goodness.”
Taking the teachings to the world: Academy Graduates in action Rose Najia – Big Business and Nine Breathings in China I’ve been living in Taiwan for the last five years, teaching both there and in China. In fact, I’ve spent the last thirty years teaching in Asia. I started a Gestalt Training Institute in Tokyo in the early 1980s, was later invited to Taiwan, and then in 2006 started teaching in China. My curriculum is a combination of different awareness and healing practices I’ve combined under the umbrella of The Garden of Radical Presence. I teach dream work; Gestalt awareness practice; nature awareness and how to use and make flower essences; non-violent communication; compassionate parenting; collaborative improvisation; various approaches to body awareness using touch, art and performance; and I’ve just opened a small children’s center in Guangdong province.
When I was invited to attend the first Three Doors training group, I was thrilled because I knew immediately that my students in China would deeply benefit from these practices and that they could be easily integrated into the curriculum I was already teaching. I began by sharing the Nine Breathings practice. The results were immediate. The atmosphere in the classroom changed tangibly. Some people were amazed by how quiet their minds suddenly became. Later I taught Tsa Lung to all my classes. One student who had a very violent temper
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and often beat his wife told me that when he started a daily practice of Nine Breathings and Tsa Lung, his violent outbursts stopped. He had been in this calmer state for three months because of the practices. Last year I was asked to do a presentation on awareness at a big business award ceremony in Shenzhen, in southern China. Six hundred people were there in the huge conference room of a five-star
hotel. Arriving at the hotel, I was amazed by the “high production values” of the event: spotlights whirling around the space, bubble machines, smoke machines, company flags waving, incredibly loud music, students and business people from all over China gathered together shouting cheers and company slogans, confetti flying. Some big government education people were there. Lots of awards given, lots of happy tears shed. The first speaker on the program was a vice-president of the Korean company, Samsung Electronics. He gave a long power-point presentation about successful business practices. I listened to him wondering how, as the second speaker, I could follow his talk with a quiet, subtle awareness exercise—such a different world. Turning my attention inward, I suddenly felt that the Three Doors practices were my partners, each one a specific presence. Collaborating
with these limitless partners, I felt sure I could find a way to communicate something of their essence to these six hundred people. Then the speaker began talking about how all successful companies must let go of fixed ideas and “innovate, innovate, innovate.” In fact, this was his main theme: successful companies in today’s competitive world must let go of old ways of thinking and innovate constantly.
I reorganized my presentation while listening to him speak and based my comments on his research. It was easy to build a bridge from what he said about innovation to the importance of having a method for releasing fixed ideas and clearing a space so new qualities and viewpoints could emerge. When it was my turn to speak, I introduced Nine Breathings as a method for creating the space for innovation, that is, a method for releasing the old patterns and accessing the always-present spaciousness in which something different can happen. I asked my old students in the audience who had learned Nine Breathings to come up on the stage. There were about thirty-five men and women who, all together, demonstrated the practice as I explained it. The audience was very attentive. Then, all sixhundred of us did Nine Breakings together. The effect of the practice on that previously noisy, restless crowd
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was immediate and powerful: palpable peace and spaciousness. After resting in that space for a few minutes, I asked people in the audience to share how they felt. I asked, in what situations, with whom, and when can you imagine doing Nine Breathings to bring benefit to yourself and others? Some of my old students said that they were using Nine Breathings in their staff meetings. They said when conflicts arise they just stop the meeting and do Nine Breathings together. Then the conflicts either dissolve or become easier to solve. Because of that, they find their business meetings are becoming shorter and more efficient. A saleswoman said she was going to do Nine Breathings before meeting with important clients so she could be calmer and more present. A mother said she wanted to do Nine Breathings when she started to feel anger toward her child. One man said that when he goes boating with his family on the weekend, he’s going to suggest that the whole family do Nine Breathings together in the boat so they can really relax and enjoy their time together.
Even though I was aware of the transforming effects of the Three Doors practices in my own life, I was amazed at how quickly Nine Breathings transformed a huge crowd of rowdy people who were gathered together for a commercial purpose. I mean, there were no external “spiritual” supports in the environment for the practice; this was not a meditation hall, far from it. I was struck by the power of the essential nature in all of us and its ability, or can
I say desire, to burst through even the smallest crack in our consensual reality and bring its silence, peace, and unity to us in the hectic material world.
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These days, I continue to teach Tsa Lung and Nine Breathings as a regular part of the curriculum in my awareness training courses in China and Taiwan. About my own personal practice, after graduating from the Three Doors training, I have returned to doing the Ngondro (preliminary) practices which I found so comforting and supportive. I feel a new muscle has developed in my brain which is helping me to more quickly embrace painful experiences within the arms of the refuge of stillness, silence, and spaciousness. My ability to feel acceptance and kindness toward my own and others’ suffering is increasing, though recently I had an experience which seemed a bit out of reach of those embracing arms. So I am benefiting, expanding, and at the same time, sensing the limits of my skill and the need to continue working on accepting and transforming my consciousness and behavior.
Creative Blossoms Our creativity section shows artwork by Academy Teachers and Trainees gemini 18
Two sisters live in my body side by side. One is loud and raw, harsh and bubbly, fun to be with, if you are alike. She talks without thinking and pushes through her will, approves herself to no end while flirting with all things. Delighted by her own voice, she entertains the mass. She ignores any warning, just follows her head, aware of all the judgments, when the glasses are breaking pretends to be concerned, while inside breaking up laughing. The other is silent and deep as the ocean. Her tears of awe are sparkling under the moon. She does not dare to utter a word, or touch a tree, for fear of breaking the face of the world. She walks on tiptoes, her eyes wide open. Her face is shining as she listens to the wind. She holds her breath, keeping still, just watching, while inside she is shaking , and crying from joy. Viktoria Zalta
confidence when I got home after the retreat it wasn't a farewell, it was the beginning. a treasure in my heart discovered within that circle growing every day to bring the jewels' light outside. sharing what we shared with others seems so difficult at times. but with time and wounds softly healing the sun's bright light will reach out everywhere. This confidence is what I host now and keep in mind with every step. Anja Benesch
Creative Blossoms
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Abiding in refuge
Self-portrait revealing Drawings by Cheryl Preston
Refuge I am the silence from which words, thoughts, emotions arise. I am the stillness from which movement and motion arise. I am the blue sky radiant with the light and warmth of the sun. I am the center of the victorious mandala. Anne Taylor
Doorway of light
Ask the Academy Teacher Have you ever had a question that would not go away until satisfied with an answer? The opportunity to ask questions and initiate a dialogue contributes greatly to our learning process, so we are happy to introduce a new addition to our newsletter: Ask the Academy Teacher. In this forum, we are inviting people involved in or interested in the Three Doors program to send any questions they may have to those who have the role of Academy teachers and mentors - you're hereby invited to send us questions for the next issue to newsletter@the3doors.org ! Our Three Doors Academy teachers have journeyed down the path and process of transformation and stand at a distinctive vantage point. Cheryl Preston, a participant in the U.S. Academy, has launched this forum by posing questions to Laura Shekerjian, one of the Academy Teachers for the upcoming Latin American Academy. Cheryl - In the Academy, we are asked to reflect upon viewpoints that are pivotal to our self-awareness. As a senior student of Tenzin Wangyal and teacher for the Latin American Academy, what insights might you have on the viewpoint? Laura - For me “viewpoint” refers to the way my mind, body, energy, and emotions, come together to create a whole-being stance from which I then think, feel, and act. When this stance is connected to old pains and insecurities, it becomes an identity I feel quite invested in and yet trapped within as well. When it reflects instead the open, luminous self that I know myself to be, then my thoughts, feelings, and actions flow from that. My work as a practitioner is to slowly shift my center of gravity from the small, constricted selves who hold a very limited viewpoint, to this much larger place of the expanded self. I sometimes think it would be so much easier to really grasp the power and autonomy of these smaller selves if we could magically project them into the space in front of us and quite literally see how their bodies are shaped, what emotions play on their faces, and how they think and act. This capacity to stand at a distance and see these selves or bodies or “viewpoints” as experientially real and yet so distant from the open witness of higher awareness, would not only drive home how potent they can be in their blind separateness, but how painful it is to be trapped within them. “Oh, I really do act this way. Yes, there I am. How sad and how humbling to look at this closely!” The clarity and compassion that can come from seeing this directly in all its particularities motivates our practice.
We achieve that “standing back” by inviting these selves or pain bodies into our clear inner vision, and allow our open-hearted compassion to flow towards them. When I see and hold my own constrictions in my meditation I often feel a great tenderness towards them. How hard they labor and how sincere their aims! I can feel their confusion at how things turn out for them. They are unable to see how their profound limitations prevent action that is clear and ultimately wholesome. The warmth I then extend to them allows them to release back into the inner ground that birthed them and receives them in their dissolution. That inner ground is a source of great joy and strength for me, when I am able to fully connect with it. This is the ultimate viewpoint that I long to live more of my life within. Cheryl - We are accessing deeper levels of self-inquiry in the academy, plunging into the depths of hope and fear. What wisdom would you like to share in this regards? Laura - Any wisdom I may possess derives from the repeated experience of working through the small moments of ordinary life that pull me into my habitual defensive responses. For example, I do a lot of university teaching, offering classes that are about self-discovery, connecting to one’s emotions, and so on. Since the material we work with is deeply personal, it is not uncommon that when people have difficulties they get frustrated or angry and direct that towards me as their teacher. When I first began teaching I would feel very charged by these moments. I would be upset with myself for somehow failing them and/or upset with them for being so “difficult.” As time went on and I applied my practice of resting
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into inner spaciousness more thoroughly, I was able to not take those moments personally but let them pass as statements of the student’s condition or our shared condition. For a long time, I felt that not getting personally charged in these moments was sufficient “progress.” However, recently I have noticed something different happening in those moments. Not only don’t I internally engage their frustration, I find I am naturally extending a greater degree of kindness towards them. It is as if the space between us is so clear that it enables me to see through the cloud of their pain, and “touch” the person inside. I find myself doing this with a smile or just a few words—nothing more than that. What I have recognized is that most people are later embarrassed to realize they displayed their pain body so blatantly (as I certainly am!) and are grateful for a way to return to connection with the group and with me. By my staying open and genuinely caring about their growth, they have a way to come back into the flow of the class. This is all non-verbal. I can also see that when I don’t engage their pain in any way that fuels or opposes it, they have an opportunity to see themselves clearly. They are not distracted by my response; they are left with themselves. If they can
see what is there to see without judgment, they learn from it. In turn I learn that when I don’t block the moment by slipping into a self-oriented defense, I have access to an abundance of resources. The moment itself pulls into our shared space whatever resource is needed and we all benefit. Cheryl - If someone is on the sidelines, considering The Three Doors Academy, in either the US, Europe or Latin America, what advice might you have for them? Laura - To anyone considering a Three Doors Academy program I would offer these questions: Have you experienced a reluctance or inability to really turn towards yourself with openness and fearless honesty? Have you felt the need for more consistent support and guidance in this kind of process? Have you had moments where you lived joyfully and engaged your life with whole-hearted presence? Are these moments compelling enough for you to commit to increasing their frequency and depth? If so, then the Three Doors program might be a way for you to realize your aspirations.
Laura is a senior student of Tenzin Wangyal and a teacher for The Three Doors Latin American Academy, which will begin in February 2012. Cheryl is an Academy trainee. She has entered The Three Doors U.S. Academy with many others to form a warm and caring community for transformational change through body, speech and mind. The Three Doors (Inc.) 554 Drumheller Lane Shipman, Virginia 22971 United States of America Email: info@the3doors.org Executive Director: Tenzin Wangyal Director of Operation: Kallon Basquin The International Newsletter of The Three Doors, Issue #2 Winter 2011 has been edited by Laura Shekerjian, Cheryl Preston and Anja Benesch. Layout by Anja Benesch. Cover layout by Sarah Edgehill. Contact the editors: newsletter@the3doors.org
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