A Reading Transmission of the “Treatise on Enlightened Society”

Written while the Sakyong Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche was on year-long retreat in 2010, the Treatise on Enlightened Society sets out the meaning of enlightened society and its relevance for our contemporary world. The Sakyong said he feels that the nature of the treatise itself calls for a social process of transmission, in which all Shambhalians could be empowered to both receive the reading transmission and give it to each other.

In 2012, the Sakyong, Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche, publicly introduced the Treatise and launched what he called a “cascading lung” (oral reading transmission of this text) that enables the treatise to be shared person-to-person, within and beyond the Shambhala community.

The lung may be offered by anyone who has already received it, and it will be offered twice in January at the Shambhala Meditation Center of Milwaukee.

            

Sun. 1/24 at 11 AM during Sunday sitting (please register here).

What the Sakyong is calling the “cascading lung” is likely the first ever “open-source” lung in our community, whereby all people are invited and empowered not only to receive but also to give the reading transmission. The Sakyong aspires to see the text spread along genuine lines of social communication and find its way into the hearts of any human beings who are inspired by a vision for enlightened society.

Once you have received the lung, you will be able to purchase and study the Treatise on Enlightened Society on your own. Several copies are available at the Center. Additionally, you will be able to offer it to others who ask for it.

 

“The notion of enlightened society is at the heart of Shambhala altogether. Even our namesake, “Shambhala,” is inspired by a country and a society that existed. Whether we see this as a literal place on earth or even if it’s a metaphor or mystery, Shambhala has to do with a society that acknowledged basic goodness as a binding principle of that society. It is said that Shambhala, geographically, was at the most western part of the east, and the most eastern part of the west. Therefore it was a mixture of east and west, north and south. Thus it was universal.”

“This basic theme of society is something that all of us encounter daily,” he said. “It is definitely challenging when we see nowadays the level of suffering and disharmony, fear, instability, atrocities and tragedies that are constantly facing society. So if ever there was a time that we doubted the inherent goodness of society, certainly it would be now. That is why these teachings on Shambhala were introduced at this time. In a sense when we are at our most difficult moment, there is an opportunity to self-reflect and wonder if this apparent aggression and selfishness that pervades is in fact human nature. It is a time for all of us to reflect. This reflection is at the heart of the Treatise on Enlightened Society.”

—-  The Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche