(and fall flat on it!)

This week I was reading the latest issue of Shambhala Sun and came across an article dealing with some of the meditative obstacles I’ve become familiar with. Shozan Jack Haubner’s “True Confessions from the Cushion” is an honest look at just what goes on as we meditate and brought humility to the fore of my attention. As meditators, we are involved in a very messy game with our own minds, and we set as many traps for ourselves as can be imagined. The moments of clarity are stunning but the long stretches of frustration are stinging. I could immediately relate to the comparison of meditation to internet access.

Oh, I’ve suffered the torment of lost spiritual connection and lost internet connections often enough in my life. But when our patience, humility and methods become stronger, the path does develop a sense of ease, even when we stumble and GMail isn’t loading.

Tonight I recieved a new newsletter from Zaadz, a social networking site that encouraces conscious capitalism. “How to make money, change the world, and live happily ever after…” lays out a vision of a movement from a knowledge economy to a values economy. You can read more there about the great potential we have to create genuine and lasting change in the world with conscious capitalism, but I want to focus on a company that may be a surprise leader in this emergence.

Nintendo has made huge strides in the past few years to change an industry in a positive and conscious way. With their DS and Wii systems, they are pushing gaming out of the narrow confines of mere entertainment and fostering social, mental and bodily interaction that the video gaming world hasn’t known.

The first breakthrough came when the video game industry came under criticism for not aiding the development of young people and otherwise failing to provide social good, notably from neuroscientist Dr. Kawashima. Rather than ignore or deny the criticism, Nintendo embraced the challenge and brought Dr. Kawashima on board to develop Brain Age, a game for the portable system DS that promotes cognitive health.

Nintendo’s next system, the Wii (as in We space), has become an unprecidented sales success by appealing to a wide demographic that transcends age, gender and other divisions gaming usually is unable to. This new system is more social than its competitors, more family-friendly without alienating avid gamers and is focused on innovative play, which includes a new level of physical activity fostered by the Wiimote.

The Wii encourages players to physically play in games. In Wii Sports players use real movements to swing a tennis racket or throw a bowling ball, rather than sitting still and pressing buttons. In an era when obesity and lack of physical activity is rampant and a huge problem, this may be one of the greatest social goods any entertainment company has produced; kids and adults are having a ton of fun while becoming more active.

And Nintendo is running with this push to make gaming healthier. Nintendo announced this week that it will release a new controller, the Wii Balance Board, that senses body movement for the Wii Fit product. Now aerobics, yoga, other exercises and games with full body motions will be key features of Nintendo’s offerings.

Not only is Nintendo pushing mental and physical health, the Wii is causing a decrease in television watching. Families and other groups in Japan are choosing to spend time with the Wii rather than watching television, with ratings dropping as more homes acquire Wiis.

With the most innovative and affordable system of this generation, Nintendo is on course to be the leader of the market. While the Microsoft and Sony behemoths are stuck trying to create mere entertainment hubs, Nintendo has reinvented itself as a lifestyle company. It has embraced gaming as a positive cultural force and is injecting new value and better values into the industry. While doing this it is still creating games of the caliber it has been known for over the course of generations.

So, is Nintendo a new global leader in conscious capitalism? I would venture to say yes. Nintendo is enjoying tremendous financial, critical and popular success and at the same time is having a real impact on the quality of life of millions of people around the globe. Nintendo is doing good, creating social value, and doing well financially. Zaadz claims this is the future of business, and I’m inclined to agree. Value and values are a potent pair, as Nintendo is proving.

I’ve been meditating for several years now, with a loose Buddhist orientation, but I’ve done so without the privilege of a community or teacher. Lately I’ve been trying to decide on a tradition and sangha (a Buddhist community) to join in order to deepen and anchor my practice. Taking into consideration my location and religious tastes, I hope to make a selection soon.

Halifax, my home city, is an odd place to consider a hub of Buddhism, but it is actually home to one of the largest communities of Buddhists in North America. Our port city is central to the early history of the continent’s European colonization, but it’s also the international home of Shambhala Buddhism, founded by Trungpa Rinpoche. Other, smaller Buddhist groups also have taken root here and the Shambhala Sun Buddhist magazine is published in Halifax. For more on this, read “Halifax a quirky heart of Buddhism“.

Buddhism is loosely divided into three branches, Nikaya, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. Zen, for instance, is in the Mahayana branch, while Shambhala would be considered to be of the Vajrayana branch. Each of the three branches can generally be said encompasses more teachings than the previous. Mahayana includes and expands on the Nikaya texts and teachings and then Vajrayana includes Mahayana teachings and adds further teachings. It’s a nuanced and confusing unfolding, but it can be summarized as one of increasing complexity and inclusion.

My personal affinity is more with Vajrayana, largely because I like comprehensiveness and the emphasis on tantra, or bodily spirituality. In balance with this, I have a lot of interest in Mahayana in general and Zen in particular. It turns out that the two sanghas I am most interested in happen to be Zen and Shambhala centres, which makes my decision very hard.

The Atlantic Soto Zen Center in Halifax offers monthly newcomer sessions on the first Monday and seems to be an accessable, though not well known, Zendo. It is associated with an Atlanta centre and offers weekly services. I’m not very familiar with the community, so I would be diving in a bit blind, which could be fun.

Soto is the largest of the Japanese Zen branches, and focuses on shikantaza meditation, quiet mindfulness. My practical experience with Zen has come primarily through work with Genpo Roshi’s Big Mind process, which is an emergent form of Zen practice. The formalism of traditional Zen brings up aversion in me, but I suspect that working with that and overcoming my bias would be helpful.

The Halifax Shambhala Meditation Centre, as I mentioned, is the home of the Shambhala tradition, founded by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. It has a very robust calendar of practices, with weekly meditation instruction, 2 weekly meditation sessions and other frequent events. The sangha’s presence in the community is strong, and I’ve heard a lot of praise for the work done through it. This vitality of community is a strong draw for me to this organization.

Shambhala is a recently revealed Buddhist sect that builds on Tibetan tradition with the teachings of Chögyam Trungpa. Trungpa was a very controversial and important figure in bringing Buddhism to the west, and had a lot of serious shadow issues that have been noted. Despite this controversy, Trungpa is revered as a great master and his teachings are likewise valued.

I’m still working out the fit of these two options with my life, and I’d appreciate any insight or personal experiences you might have in regard to these two forms of Buddhism.