by Kirby Lindsay, posted 7 November 2014
On November 15th, NalandaWest will celebrate ten years at their location at 3902 Woodland Park Avenue North – at the northeast entrance to Fremont. This 10th anniversary will be spent with the doors open to everyone – those curious, those craving and those celebrating our neighborhood’s Buddhist meditation center.
“We want to help people interested in a contemplative life,” invited Damayonti Sengupta, a member of the Nalandabodhi Sangha since 2007, who came to work full-time at NalandaWest as general manager.
A 10th Anniversary Celebration
On Saturday, the 15th, the free, and open-to-the-public events start at 9a with an open meditation session. At 10a, a panel discussion will introduce representatives from three Buddhist traditions: the Theravadin represented by the Venerable Pannavati, the Mahayana by John Tarrant Roshi, and the Vajrayana by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche. The panel discussion co-moderators are Angela Russell of KIRO 7 News and Tyler Dewar, a Nalandabodhi senior teacher.
At Noon, NalandaWest invites everyone to a meal of Pacific Northwest sourced foods (please R.S.V.P. on-line if you plan to eat,) and at 2p, visitors (including those entirely unfamiliar with Buddhist study) can take an experiential tour through the five fields of knowledge (creativity & the arts, health & well-being, communication, knowledge & reasoning, and inner science of mind.) This open house will give everyone access to the learning and contemplative practice available at NalandaWest and through the Nalandabodhi Sangha.
On Sunday, November 16th, NalandaWest offers another open meditation at 9a, and a second panel discussion – this one with four senior teachers from Nalandabodhi.
Meet The Nalandabodhi Sangha
NalandaWest serves as headquarters for the Nalandabodhi community – or ‘sangha’. Nalandabodhi offers its members study, meditation and mindful activity, in the five sciences to be explored during the afternoon open house on Saturday. Members of Nalandabodhi, like Sengupta, attend programs and classes in these five science fields as they grow in self-awareness and mindfulness.
As they mark ten years, Sengupta reports that the Sangha is doing well, but “we want to improve in connecting to the community at-large. The more we know about the community and what it needs, the better we can be at responding and making it a two-way street.”
One thing often misunderstood, Sengupta explained, is that “Buddhism is not a religion in the same way as Christianity or Islam. It is not theistic. It’s a science of the mind.” It is possible to believe in God, and study Buddhism. As she said, Buddhism “is each individual exploring their mind and knowing it.”
Members of Nalandabodhi, within the Sangha, study and practice self-knowledge. On any day, Sengupta explained, we can find ourselves tugged about by our emotions – reacting to events and people without knowing why. Buddhism, particularly the tradition practice at Nalandabodhi, encourages its students to keep a relaxed, spacious feel, a mindful gap, a pause, “so that those emotions don’t drag you around and over take you,” she explained.
Meet NalandaWest
For those not ready to join a community, NalandaWest provides a place to explore the study of Nalandabodhi or any of the other three schools of Buddhism. “The difference is anything offered by the Sangha follows teachings of our lineage,” Sengupta explained, “NalandaWest [offers programs] not necessarily in the same traditions.”
“We’re increasing our outreach on programs related to the five sciences,” Sengupta offered, but “We still do our big teacher programs.” Classes take place at NalandaWest for members of Nalandabodhi, but some can also be attended by the general public – along with the meditation, book discussion groups and poetry readings. “We have connecting programs,” Sengupta reported, “for different levels of learners.”
Space For Rent
In addition to the use by Nalandabodhi Sanga, and other Buddhist programs, NalandaWest also rents their space to “people that fit into our mission,” particularly non-profits and government organizations. “We have long-term relationship with some of our renters,” Sengupta explained. Charles Coghlan, who teaches the art of Ikebana four times a month at NalandaWest, is thought of as a member of the community. Going in to their next ten years, the NalandaWest leadership want to clarify who they rent to and what kind of events could best use the space.
“We’re trying to look at the plant in a different way,” explained Sengupta, “how to make our renters part of our community – supporting them, putting them on our calendar…” For the first ten years, NalandaWest was run most often by volunteers. Due to the uneven nature of volunteerism, Sengupta acknowledged, a lot of hard work has been done, but some opportunities for renters and/or partnerships may have been missed. “I’ve been learning how things work,” she said about her first months as the paid employee, “and how things have been done.”
The plant at NalandaWest, a former Presbyterian church, includes the main building with:
- an upstairs gathering/meditation room that fits 220 people
- a main floor gathering room, with tables and a small stage, that fits 120 people
- three small, sparse apartments upstairs for teachers
- the NalandaWest bookshop
Across a small outdoor corridor is the office building, with a library, and the Vajar Spot that can accommodate 50 people (although fewer for yoga classes or Feldencrais workshops.)
Sengupta wants to be able to offer NalandaWest as a place for non-profits to hold retreats and meetings during the week, including events of a contemplative nature, about improving body and/or mind. Right now, they can provide wi-fi, tables and presentation tools, and they want to know what else would make the space more useful to the Fremont and Wallingford communities.
According to Sengupta, the last ten years have been about getting going and keeping things going. For the next ten, she said, they want to reach out to the community and find out what partnerships can be created. Sengupta also wishes to further develop the offerings at NalandaWest of the five fields of knowledge for the public.
Attend the open house, on November 15th & 16th, including a meditation session, and see what NalandaWest has to offer – and how it could help our community. Or visit NalandaWest anytime, and see what The Center just east of the Center of the Universe has to offer!
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