Welcome Mary Kubicki and Chris Stockinger
About Mary Kubicki
A searcher, dissatisfied like so many others in the 70’s, Mary went to Naropa Institute’s first session in the summer of 1974. There she found what she was looking for in the students who were following Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. These students were brilliant, with fluid minds that were not fixated on themselves, but had whole hearted engagement in life, with all its facets. They seemed to be onto something.
The teachings themselves were a bit harder to understand, but meditation was self-explanatory, speaking volumes without words. A group formed in her hometown of Milwaukee which meditated together every Sunday from 9-5. A center sprung up from that core group, and over the next 25 years Mary helped it grow in roles in the administration and as a teacher. She came to Boulder, Chicago and the major practice centers often in that time, to stay in touch with the greater community and receive teachings.
The most precious part of those experiences was the certainty gained in the awake mind as manifested by Chogram Trungpa Rinpoche and his students. Mind itself was workable; we were never far from our own realization, though it took a lot of trial, error, blood, sweat and tears to work through the fearful perspective we normally function from.
Mary moved to Colorado in 2001, joined the Fort Collins Shambhala Meditation Center and continued working with the teachings and practices given by the Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. She married Chris in 2003, and is delighted to share the continual opening with him that is life in the dharma. Her two grown sons and granddaughter live nearby, and sharing life with them is also a great joy.
She enjoys making really good food, farm to table; reading; appreciates being immersed in nature, awed by the lakes and elk herds and everything that grows near her home in Loveland.
About Chris Stockinger
Ever since he was very young, Chris was curious about how everything works, from the universe to God; how does one experience and verify the truths of life? The church teachings he grew up with couldn’t answer these fundamental questions, leading to deep dissatisfaction and searching without knowing what to search for.
His search developed into philosophical interests. While studying in Vienna in the early 80’s, a series of coincidences brought him to a yoga community, which led to a connection with the Shambhala community.
He still remembers his first meditation session in 1983. This was the missing piece that he was looking for; that we can work with our own mind and understanding how it works is understanding our universe in a fundamental way at the same time.
He started practicing and studying in earnest, taking Shambhala training levels 500 miles away in Marburg, where a little group went together in an old Mercedes, nearly wrecking it on the autobahn in the rush to make the Friday night talk. Dathun was followed the next year by 1986 Seminary, the last one taught by Trungpa Rinpoche. During that seminary one of his classes was led by a young teacher, the Sawang. That was Chris’s first contact with his root teacher, known to us today as the Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.
Continuing in depth training from then on, Chris became a Vajrayana student and held various posts as practice coordinator, center coordinator and teacher.
When he fell in love with Mary he moved to the US. Together they work continuously, training and teaching, with heartfelt longing to help establish enlightened society.
An electrical engineer, Chris has co-founded 3 companies and holds several patents. He enjoys Skyping with his 24 year old son Felix, a software developer who has also founded a company and applied for a patent in Vienna.
Chris’s other interests are helping those with mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders. He works as co-chair of the Behavioral Health Planning and Advisory Council, advising state administrators on spending and shaping of policies.
He is also very interested in new ways of improving the economy. Earlier in life he was a very active musician and song writer, playing bass guitar and double bass. He still remembers with relish his last PE session in high school, because from then on nobody could make him do sports.
Favorite Dharma book/film, everything by Sakyong, Longchenpa, Jamgon Kongrul, Milarepa comic book, The Matrix.
