“Excursions”
is a blog post category presenting content that is peripherally connected to
the Houston, Texas area in either the thematic and/or the geographic
senses.
***
Gampo Abbey is home to the sole monastic community associated with Shambhala, a
prominent international network of lay Buddhist practice centers based on the
Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, as expounded by the teachings of its provocative
founder, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
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Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
Photo from Wikipedia. |
The
current principal teacher of Gampo Abbey is Trungpa Rinpoche’s understudy Pema
Chodron, who is probably the most well-known and most enthusiastically received
western Buddhist nun in the world at this time.
Without
question, she is one of the most gifted monastics ever to offer teachings to
the English-speaking world, and is often cited as having been the catalyst of
comprehension by many newcomers to meditation and Buddhism. “I didn’t understand any of that stuff until
I heard it from Pema,” is a declaration frequently issued by her devoted fans (see
interesting news media articles here and here).
A Shambhala
lay group has been established within the greater Houston area. You can read about their local background and
programs on their website. Should you happen
to choose Houston Shambhala as your practice center, and you one day find
yourself pursuing their programs in depth, your eventual retreat destination will
likely be Gampo Abbey in the remote Cape Breton Highlands area of the Canadian province
of Nova Scotia.
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| Getting away from it all, literally and figuratively: about 2,600 miles from Houston. Googlemaps plots it about 60 miles south of its actual location. |
My
family “did the tourist thing” at Gampo Abbey, which is open to the public during
limited intervals in the summer months.
 |
| If you make the long journey to this area, check with the Abbey’s website to verify that tour times have not changed. |
In
other words, I did not visit the Abbey in any “official capacity” or formal
sense of attending training, services, or a retreat. If you’d like to learn more about the Abbey
in terms of its history, philosophy, and programs offered, their web page descriptions are very thorough. Rather
than repeating any of that carefully-crafted content, I thought I’d instead bring
you on a two-part photo tour!
 |
| The
Abbey is perched on a coastal promontory hundreds of feet above the sea. Standing here, one gets a visceral sense of the
impermanence of all created phenomena (one day, the ground upon which the Abbey
sits will return to the sea as the high cliffs continue their erosional
retreat)… |
 |
…and
the immediate clear space of mind.
View
looking northwest across the Gulf of St. Lawrence. |
 |
The
main meditation hall overlooks the vastness of the Gulf. The uniquely-designed hall fuses diverse
Buddhist lineage influences, including Tibetan and Zen.
I extend my thanks to Megan for a wonderful guided tour, and for making the core concepts of
Buddhism clear and accessible to my family in a way that I myself hadn’t been
able to achieve. |
 |
| The
Gampo Buddha, flanked by photos representing teachers from its twin lineages
(Karma Kagyu on the right, and Trungpa Rinpoche’s Shambhala on the left). |
 |
| There
can never be too many garden Buddhas and Bodhisattvas... |
 |
| …and
there’s always room for local symbolic enhancement, including a moose antler
backdrop. The Cape Breton Highlands teem
with moose, and mature males shed a set of their massive but impermanent antlers
annually. |
 |
| A
beautiful lily graces the Gampo gardens.
|
The
Abbey and its associated support buildings and retreat cabins are situated
within a short walk of each other, but a Guan Yin memorial has been situated on
a nearby high mountain peak (the entire property is reported to encompass about
230 acres of land).
 |
| A
portion of the rugged footpath up the peak to Guan Yin. |
 |
| Cairns
have been mindfully staged along the path.
|
 |
| Upon
encountering this impossibly-balanced little stone, my immediate thought was, “One-pointedness.”
|
 |
| The
spectacular view looking back down the path toward the main Abbey grounds. Unfortunately, there’s little visible
evidence of scale in this photo. For
reference, these coastal mountains in this area are approximately 1,150 feet
high. |
 |
| The
Guan Yin statue, in profound forest solitude.
|
 |
| Close-up
of Guan Yin, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. |
Stay
tuned for Part 2 of this touristy trip, in which the Abbey’s Stupa of
Enlightenment will be presented.
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