Upaya blends ancient teaching with modern life

| The New Mexican

5/3/2008 - 5/3/08

Inside Santa Fe's Faith Communities

The Upaya Zen Center offers practices and teachings related to Zen Buddhism and how the modern person can live in the world responsibly with kindness, compassion and wisdom.

The center is at 1404 Cerro Gordo Road. For more information, visit the Web site at www.upaya.org, send an e-mail to Upaya@upaya.org or call 986-8518. Here are some of the upcoming events planned at the center,

• May 22-25: Liberation through Yoga and Buddhism

This retreat will be led by two master teachers, Richard Freeman and Roshi Joan Halifax. The spirit of yoga and Buddhism comes alive with guided yoga practice, evening talks, meditation, and silence. Freeman, a teacher of Ashtanga yoga in the tradition of K. Pattabhi Jois, will integrate the yoga practice with Dharma. Halifax, the abbot of Upaya Zen Center, will explore the shared principles of yoga and Buddhism through dharma exchanges with Freeman in the evenings.

"Liberation through Yoga and Buddhism" takes place at Upaya's Santa Fe campus.

The center welcomes guests to come early or stay longer for personal retreat time following the workshop. The cost $525 for nonmembers;
$475 for members.

• July 10-13: Compassion and Wisdom at the End of Life —Practices and Perspective.

Caring for people who are dying can be an intimate, and deeply enlivening experience. Taken as a practice of awareness, it can reveal both deep clinging and one's capacity to embrace another person's suffering. This workshop presents an approach to addressing the practical, emotional, and spiritual issues inherent in being with dying. Through discussion, participants will discover their capacity for empathy and fearless receptivity. The workshop assists participants in developing the skillful and loving means to accompany those facing death. Open to all, this workshop might be of particular interest to professionals or those who anticipate caring for family members or friends facing life-threatening illness. Led by Frank Ostaseski, he founder of Zen Hospice and Roshi Joan Halifax, a pioneer in end-of-life-care.

The cost is $360 for nonmembers; $330 for members.

• July 16- 20: In the Shelter of Each Other— Women's Retreat "Spiritual Ground, Compassion, Resilience and the Shadow"

This annual ecumenical gathering for women explores how women address issues of power and its shadow, and explores compassion and resilience. It includes a unique faculty, teachings, meditation, talks, council, the arts, yoga, healthy diet, and physical practice to strengthen our lives. The instructors are Roshi Joan Halifax, Zen teacher; Mayumi Oda, social activist and artist; Zuleikha, composer and dancer; Mother Tessa, author and co-founder of The Desert Foundation; Cynthia West, poet and painter; Diane Haug, practitioner of Holotropic Breathwork; Rabbi Malka Drucker, author and founder of HaMakom; Barbara Tedlock, anthropologist and specialist in Mayan shamanism; Colleen Kelly, painter and environmentalist; and Claudia Luisi-Flueckiger, therapist. The cost is $550 for nonmembers;
$500 for members.

Upaya Zen Center also offers international programs. Here are some planned this year:

• July 1-Aug. 4: Journey to Mongolia

Monasteries and nomads, horses and yurts, wide deep green grasslands and mountains, lakes and deep quiet: Mongolia, a frontier of the heart, a place for practice and renewal. To and from a Mongolian camp in the Bunkhan, a 3,000 year old charnel ground beside the Tamir River, with Mount Bulgan looming above; participants visit some of the most extraordinary Buddhist monasteries in Mongolia. The cost is $4,400 per person — international flight are not included.

• Aug. 7-26: Kazakh/Altai Mountains — Western Mongolia Horse Trip

Western Mongolia is rich in archaeological sites that vary from ancient petroglyphs to stone carvings from early Turkish nomads. To travel in western Mongolia and visit this area's nomadic people between the snow-covered peaks of the Altai Mountains means to experience something that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Discovers new horizons, and experience the beauty of unexplored wilderness and the freedom of nomadic life. The cost is $4,300 per person — international flights not included.

• Oct.10-31: Mani Rimdu Festival in Nepal

Photographer Thomas Kelly and anthropologist Carroll Dunham lead an intimate journey to the heartland of the Himalayas to witness the swirling colors of the Mani Rimdu festival and meet one of the greatest living Vajrayana masters of this century: Trulshig Rinpoche, senior retreat master for the Dalai Lama. Mani Rimdu tells a story in dance, where monk-dancers reenact the establishment of Buddhism in Tibet. Hidden within this drama of cultural history is the story of an individual's awakening. The dance festival is a performance by radiantly costumed monks in the presence of venerated Trulshig Rinpoche. Meditation and yoga, and the deep joy of walking on trails in the Himalaya will clear travelers' minds.

The cost is $4,100 per person — international flights not included.

Upaya also offers offers the following programs for the community:

• Daily meditation practice is held from 7 to 8 a.m. and from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. The practice is free and open to the public.
• Dharma talks are held at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesays. The talks are free and open to the public.

For information on the free events, call 986-8518.



Inside Santa Fe's Faith Communities is compiled by the individual faith community and edited by the religion editor. All faith communities are welcome to submit an article — send an e-mail to service@sfnewmexican.com or send fax to 986-9147. For more information, call 986-3049.