Membership

Becoming a member of the Shambhala Meditation Center is a statement about your personal inspiration, curiosity, and commitment to the path of awakening. It means participating in a community of practitioners who aspire to relate to each other with honesty, warmth, and openness. We inspire one another to deepen our practice of mindfulness, awareness, and compassion. We also provide each other an opportunity to practice compassion and patience.

We invite anyone interested in our Shambhala Center to consider becoming a member. Becoming a member of our Center simultaneously brings membership in Shambhala, a global community committed to cultivating mindfulness, awareness and compassion―personally and in society.


Membership is a way to express appreciation for what Shambhala provides and help make it available to others. This involves three areas of engagement and support:

Practicing meditation

Making a connection to mindfulness-awareness meditation or related contemplative practice and integrating this practice into daily life is considered the best way for members to support Shambhala and benefit the world and ourselves.

We have two public meditation offerings:  Café Shambhala and Tuesday Tune In evenings. 

Volunteering

All of the work of our Center and much of the work of the Shambhala global community is done by volunteers. Giving our time and talents to the work of the community is a vital form of support and viewed as part of members’ practice.

Providing financial support

We rely on membership dues to pay our basic operating expenses and view financial giving as part of our practice as well. Part of your donation will be used to support Shambhala Global Services. We set no minimum or suggested amount at our Center, preferring to rely on the generosity of our members. Presently we have no mechanism for paying dues online. Most of our members set up monthly auto withdrawals from their checking accounts. Some mail checks. If you use Zelle, you can add us as a recipient using the email [email protected].  Here is a link to a pdf of our paper membership form.  Hard copies of this form are available on the sideboard in our Center’s foyer. Page two of this form guides you through how to set up auto withdrawal to pay your monthly dues.

Why does membership matter?

Although membership is not required to participate in much of what the Center has to offer, without our community’s financial and volunteer support, we would not be able to offer all the wonderful programs, practice sessions, and events that we do.  It is because of our members that the profound tradition of meditation is able to survive and flourish. Payment of membership dues is the financial backbone of our Shambhala Center. Membership donations are tax-deductible.

What are the benefits of membership?

Connection with our community by becoming a member helps support your practice and strengthen your understanding of Shambhala Buddhism in many ways:

  • Members receive ongoing meditation instruction with a personal meditation instructor
  • Members are invited to community events, programs, and classes
  • Membership pin
  • Printed directory of local members
  • Automatic membership in Shambhala’s world-wide network
  • Access to member resources at www.shambhala.org

 

“The point of meditation is not merely to be an honest or good person in the conventional sense, trying only to maintain our security. We must begin to become compassionate and wise in the fundamental sense, open and relating to the world as it is.”
― Chögyam Trungpa, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism