Building Updates

Originally Published in the May 5, 2021 Newsletter:


A Building Update from
Executive Director Jessie Friedman

Hello Precious Boulder Shambhala Community,

In our ever unfolding Boulder Shambhala Building Epic, we want to give you a quick update on our status. The tear-out, dry-out, asbestos and mold mitigation/prevention are complete with all air quality tests coming back clean from mold and/or asbestos! A long, fastidious process finally completed. Additionally we had a super-hero team comprised of — in no particular order — Tamara Sell, Michelle DeRaismes, Marcia Usow, Ulrike Halpern, Victoria Zuleta, Lynda Faires, Rafaella Gianini-Bialek, Lori Chase, Maria Asztalos, George Ramsey, Jim Fladmark, Errol Korn, and Jon Pratt. The beauty they created out of chaos and the place for Drala to descend happily is overwhelmingly appreciated by staff and the community. A number of others offered guidance and assistance, among them Dennis Southward, Emily Takahashi, Elizabeth Martin (please forgive any omissions).

These combined efforts, strength, and devotion of our Boulder sangha form the indestructible foundation from which we will sustain and perpetuate our lineages and our unique path of Shambhala for generations to come. Thank you!

A section of the Main Shrine Room remains cordoned off for storage of the contents from the offices throughout the building, which needed to be emptied in order to attend to the water damage, mitigation, and pending restoration. However, the rest of the Shrine Room glows brilliantly once more, radiating the blessings of the Lineage, and slowly we are beginning to hold feasts, various practice sessions, and programs in this extraordinary space, all simultaneously streamed via zoom. We will keep you well informed about practice and programs which will occur in the Main Shrine Room, and in-person participation will be available to members of the Shambhala Community. As we are still working with limited capacity, we will provide online sign-up sheets for in-person attendance. And in this light, we are delighted to let you know that the Werma Feast on Monday May 10th will be a hybrid streamed and live event from our Main Shrine Room, and we can accommodate 15 Werma practitioners (not including staff). Please sign up HERE. It is so very moving to be able to begin bringing the sangha back into the Shrine Room. Humbled by a shocking year, by losing access to what many of us took for granted, and by the incomprehensible, intense suffering throughout the world, deep within our bones we feel a strong river of infinite gratitude and devotion to our Sakyongs and to the transmissions of Buddhist and Shambhala Dharma that we have the astonishing good fortune to hold.

Additional updates include that we’ve ended up in a bit of a holding pattern as Shambhala’s insurance company has retained an attorney to investigate the work of the boiler company who had installed a new boiler a month or two prior to the freeze, and see if they are responsible for any aspect of the freeze. That, naturally, means that Shambhala has now directed our new General Counsel, John Skari, to handle our side of the communication with the insurance company representatives and attorney. We are confident we will be taken care of one way or the other, while this delay is certainly wearing on everyone. Our attorney is on the job with letting the insurance company know that any further hold-ups are simply unacceptable.

Our current Building-Restoration Team comprised of Dennis Southward, Rusung Pfefferkorn, Eileen Malloy, Steve Vosper, Agness Au, Daniel Naistadt, and myself (with others soon to augment) will begin weekly meetings next week. Our wish and intent is that everyone feels informed and connected. Dorje Dzong is both a Boulder Shambhala and global Shambhala jewel, that thousands treasure with immeasurable depth of heart as an emblem of our profound Lineages, Practice, Teachings, and Sangha. Thank you all for your enormous care during this time! We are doing our best to keep you informed, and hopefully information and updates will begin to spread further through our weekly Team meetings.

We will continue to keep you posted!

With great love for our Lineage and Sangha,
Jessie

Jessie Friedman
Boulder Shambhala Center Executive Director