The Fruition of Lu.

I just finished our Sangha’s October meditation intensive. (Truthfully I didn’t finish it, I had to leave early, dogs with weak bladders at home.) I am filled with gratitude that our lineage offers us a path and all the instruction and help we need along the way.  While all this guidance and assistance on the path is of tremendous benefit, the truth is we have to make the journey ourselves. We can instruct someone how to eat an ice cream cone and describe in great detail how delicious “Moose Tracks” flavor ice cream is.  In point of fact though without eating the ice cream personally one will never know truly how it tastes. (trust me on this one, . . . try some “Moose Tracks” ice cream if you haven’t already). So the work of sitting meditation is the journey and it’s the work that must be done personally.  Meditating however with like-minded travelers on the path is like putting on a really good pair of walking shoes to make the path that much easier to travel.  “I take refuge in the Sangha as my support for traveling on the path of virtue”.

Our lineage founder, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, spoke of Natural Hierarchy in all things. In the American Idiom perhaps that would be “A place for everything and everything in it’s place.” When the Natural Hierarchy is respected the magic of the world we inhabit becomes easier to see. This was described using the terms Lha, nyen and lu. Head, torso, feet.  Mountain top, mountainside and valley. He described the seasons as part of the natural hierarchy as well.  The seasons proceed in their own time and in their own order producing the wonderful world we inhabit. If we put winter between summer and fall chaos would ensue. He describes winter as lha, spring is the transition from lha to nyen, summer is nyen and then autumn.  “The fruit and harvest of autumn are the fruition of lu.” We work, we watch our work progress and then we enjoy the benefit of our labor. That natural hierarchy must be respected if we are to live the full life of a warrior.  As I sat in the October Meditation Intensive on this perfect autumn weekend, doing my work (lha) on the path, the meditation became lighter as the autumn season of lu reminded me that this meditation work will have it’s fruition. I walk the path myself but my journey to the fruition of lu is made easier when I walk with my fellow travelers and knowing that the path has been mapped out for me by our Shambhala Lineage.

Check out the fall schedule of classes and other offerings. Join your fellow travelers and enjoy the fruition of lu that much sooner.