20/20 — A YEAR OF CLEAR VISION
WANGAPEKA STUDY AND RETREAT CENTRE
AN OVERVIEW
WANGAPEKA STUDY AND RETREAT CENTRE
AN OVERVIEW
WHAT IS THIS?
The 20/20 project is a year-long exploration focussed on what “clear vision” implies for dharma practitioners and others, as well as centres like Wangapeka, in this rapidly changing world. The disruption and uneasiness of changing climate, social instability, fundamentalism and political/economic reactivity affect all living beings now. As practitioners, we aspire to engage with these macro-patterns to inspire clear seeing and creative action, rather than succumbing to the paralysis of denial, blaming, fear or despair.
As supporters of dharma centres it is our responsibility to understand that existing methods of planning are not going to be sufficient to respond to the new causes and conditions that are being thrust upon us. If we learn to be open to all new and radical possibilities we may, through clear seeing, enable these oases of sanity to survive and meet the needs of practitioners in the future.
Developing clear vision implies willingness, on both a personal and collective level, to look deeply into what is, taking responsibility for our own responses. Sharing deeply with others creates a synergy from which aspiration, support, compassion, creativity, bravery and practical action flows.
Despite the ripening of past ignorant action, this planet’s beauty, potency and resilience continues to inspire. There are no fixed outcomes, and our time frame is vast, like the universe that is our home.
THE 20/20 TEAM
Bonni Ross and Matthew Eades are joined by Keith Rowan, Rachel Clark, Kath Mitchell and Graham Sandlant. This team is supported by close-knit circles here in Nelson, New Zealand, by the Elders and Board of Trustees of The Wangapeka Educational Trust and by all our personal networks of Dharma brothers and sisters, friends, family members and kindred spirits worldwide.
This project will be crafted by and for community. The definition of community is anyone who is inspired to show up and commit. We hope this includes you!
CONTENT
For now, as we begin, the project has two main objectives:
1. The Namgyal Legacy - An online, accessible archive of video events featuring teachers and community leaders fortunate enough to have received direct teaching and inspiration from Namgyal Rinpoche. Offering widely different expressions of dharma in addressing contemporary themes, our elders are the Namgyal Legacy, and demonstrate the multifaceted, universalist basis of his transmission. This archive will help future generations appreciate the strength and flexibility of our foundation in meeting the challenges and conditions of their world.
2. Community Sharing Circles - We hope to catalyze committed local groups in New Zealand and our international community (5 to 15 people) to engage in a monthly Circle process based on resource material supplied by the 20/20 team. Supportive guidelines in how to use sharing circles skillfully (as meditations on generous listening and speaking spontaneously, with authenticity and respect) will be provided. Group feedback, insights and struggles will be encouraged, and posted via our website and other media.
3. Other Possibilities - The scope of this project will morph and grow organically, in response to the feelings and ideas it generates. If we can all learn willingness to go beyond our preconceptions and expectations, as open systems do, we will experience the emergence of newness and goodness that is unimaginable with our present data bank. We are paradoxically inspired, by a quote from Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche:
The 20/20 project is a year-long exploration focussed on what “clear vision” implies for dharma practitioners and others, as well as centres like Wangapeka, in this rapidly changing world. The disruption and uneasiness of changing climate, social instability, fundamentalism and political/economic reactivity affect all living beings now. As practitioners, we aspire to engage with these macro-patterns to inspire clear seeing and creative action, rather than succumbing to the paralysis of denial, blaming, fear or despair.
As supporters of dharma centres it is our responsibility to understand that existing methods of planning are not going to be sufficient to respond to the new causes and conditions that are being thrust upon us. If we learn to be open to all new and radical possibilities we may, through clear seeing, enable these oases of sanity to survive and meet the needs of practitioners in the future.
Developing clear vision implies willingness, on both a personal and collective level, to look deeply into what is, taking responsibility for our own responses. Sharing deeply with others creates a synergy from which aspiration, support, compassion, creativity, bravery and practical action flows.
Despite the ripening of past ignorant action, this planet’s beauty, potency and resilience continues to inspire. There are no fixed outcomes, and our time frame is vast, like the universe that is our home.
THE 20/20 TEAM
Bonni Ross and Matthew Eades are joined by Keith Rowan, Rachel Clark, Kath Mitchell and Graham Sandlant. This team is supported by close-knit circles here in Nelson, New Zealand, by the Elders and Board of Trustees of The Wangapeka Educational Trust and by all our personal networks of Dharma brothers and sisters, friends, family members and kindred spirits worldwide.
This project will be crafted by and for community. The definition of community is anyone who is inspired to show up and commit. We hope this includes you!
CONTENT
For now, as we begin, the project has two main objectives:
1. The Namgyal Legacy - An online, accessible archive of video events featuring teachers and community leaders fortunate enough to have received direct teaching and inspiration from Namgyal Rinpoche. Offering widely different expressions of dharma in addressing contemporary themes, our elders are the Namgyal Legacy, and demonstrate the multifaceted, universalist basis of his transmission. This archive will help future generations appreciate the strength and flexibility of our foundation in meeting the challenges and conditions of their world.
2. Community Sharing Circles - We hope to catalyze committed local groups in New Zealand and our international community (5 to 15 people) to engage in a monthly Circle process based on resource material supplied by the 20/20 team. Supportive guidelines in how to use sharing circles skillfully (as meditations on generous listening and speaking spontaneously, with authenticity and respect) will be provided. Group feedback, insights and struggles will be encouraged, and posted via our website and other media.
3. Other Possibilities - The scope of this project will morph and grow organically, in response to the feelings and ideas it generates. If we can all learn willingness to go beyond our preconceptions and expectations, as open systems do, we will experience the emergence of newness and goodness that is unimaginable with our present data bank. We are paradoxically inspired, by a quote from Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche:
We cannot change the way the world is,
but by opening ourselves to the world as it is,
we may find that gentleness, decency and bravery
are available - not only to us
but to all human beings.
but by opening ourselves to the world as it is,
we may find that gentleness, decency and bravery
are available - not only to us
but to all human beings.
and by a statement made by Namgyal Rinpoche:
Extraordinary beings,
with extraordinary qualities of consciousness
can change the future of the world.
with extraordinary qualities of consciousness
can change the future of the world.
