Membership

Becoming a member of the Shambhala Meditation Center is a statement about your personal inspiration, curiosity, and commitment to the path of awakening. It means participating in a community of practitioners who aspire to relate to each other with honesty, warmth, and openness. We inspire one another to deepen our practice of mindfulness, awareness, and compassion.

Although membership is not required to participate in much of what the Center has to offer, without our community’s financial and volunteer support, we would not be able to offer all the wonderful programs, practice sessions, and events that we do. It is because of our members that the profound tradition of meditation is able to survive and flourish.

Becoming a Member

You can fill out a membership form available at the Phoenix Shambhala Center, or submit the membership form online.

Paying Your Monthly Dues

Suggested Phoenix Shambhala Center dues are $40 per month. Members are welcome to give more or less than this amount as they feel inspired. There are multiple ways to pay:

  • Bring a check made out to Phoenix Shambhala Meditation Center. Checks can be dropped in the red donation box, or in the lockbox on the wall in the library.

  • Attach a voided check to your application form to set up monthly automatic debit, and indicate the amount you would like to give on the application.

  • Pay via a monthly subscription using PayPal. To enable this, fill out our online membership form and enter your desired amount in the “I would like to give” field.

  • Use the donation form on our website. Please include “For [month] membership” in the comments field for clarity.

The Benefits of Membership

  • Members can receive ongoing meditation instruction with a personal meditation instructor.

  • Members are invited to borrow books from our library.

  • Automatic membership in Shambhala’s world-wide network and access to member resources at www.shambhala.org.

The Practice of Membership

Shambhala is more than a place to meditate and take classes. If you are inspired, it can become a lab for living in a different kind of culture — the culture of a community that practices the teachings on basic goodness with each other, and learns together how we might create a society based on basic goodness.  In a world of isolation and individual consumerism, we can’t underestimate the value of that connectivity and sense of community.

Read more about how membership can enrich your practice in this blog post by previous Membership Coordinator Lynn Vineyard: Membership in Shambhala – A Treasure Hidden in Plain Sight.