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| 1st Annual Pacific Northwest Regional Congress
On the last Saturday in September, almost sixty people from two countries met to discuss working together regionally, to support each other and to share insights and aspirations. We were all involved in every aspect of keeping a centre functioning and happy, from the holders of big vision to the people who pay the bills or find staff for a program.
President Richard Reoch inaugurated our event by offering us a vast yet earthy perspective of what we could achieve: after first leading us in a contemplation of the Six Ways of Ruling, he reminded us that trust is the key to working together.
And trust blossomed. In the morning, groups met based on people’s roles and then a representative reported back to the full assembly, sharing their group’s insights on what is happening and what could come about in the future.
In the afternoon the focus changed, and people met in small groups based on their interests: from planning events through mutual calendaring to cultivating wealth and cultivating sangha through genuine leadership to nitty-gritty social action to envisioning a land centre for the region.
And it became clear that the Pacific Northwest, an area stretching from Alaska and Yellowknife in the north to Oregon in the south, is also a Region. This understanding has freed centres to think not just big but with big heart. Issues of helping out smaller centres, of centralizing monthly donations based on the European model, of sharing the costs of teacher visits, and much more became simplified and made elegant by the idea that we are all able to work together when we combine our efforts and align ourselves with the centre of our mandala: our Sakyong and his vision of a world based on enlightened principles.
The day concluded with ten people from various centres taking administrative oaths with President Reoch; the atmosphere of heart in the room was so palpable that few eyes stayed dry.
At the end of the conference, people were so eager to stay connected and to share with their local sanghas that follow-up discussions within each centre as well as between centre leaders is already being planned.
And all of this hard work to come is being done in an atmosphere of the sixth Way of Ruling: rejoicing.
Respectfully submitted,
Rebecca Hazell |
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