Wednesday meditation at the centre is going very well.

Who’s coming? An invited group of people, made up of some  members of the Vajrayana group and Ziji group. This meeting may be the first stage of consultation with a wider group of people.

Llew has offered to chair the meeting.

Some collective thoughts, ideas, and questions that came up in the discussion:

• What we present should be separate from the main body of the centre and have a new name. It should be separate from the past.
• London Shambhala may become like an umbrella for all the things that emerge. (Llew questioned if there is a better metaphor than umbrella here that emphasizes supporting diverse initiatives from beneath rather than a lid?)
• The brainstorming session may focus on what general direction we will take as well as what individual programmes we will present. Of these the general direction or vision is most important to begin with.
• Jane suggests keeping hinayana and mahayana as the main focus – the outer mandala – with vajrayana and scorpion seal as the inner mandala.
• What is the path we are presenting? Where are we funneling people?
• Llew suggested ‘looking in’ and ‘looking out’ as two possible approaches. ‘Looking in’ refers to finding the kinds of programmes that the current membership needs in order to be nourished. ‘Looking out’ refers to the path we present to draw new people in. We need to look in before we look out.

Llew will chair the meeting and give some thought to this beforehand.

We briefly discussed this as a timely opportunity to draw the sangha together.

We briefly discussed how we can create a supportive space for students of the Sakyong. CDI are discussing this in an upcoming meeting.