#naropamoment

[naropau]

Naropa Knocked and I Answered

In responding to the question, "How did Naropa find you?" I can't help but respond by saying how grateful I am that it did. It was 2010 and I had recently divorced after 22 years of marriage. My oldest was in college and my youngest a sophomore in high school. I was, needless to say, a tad bit lost. Not terribly so, but more than I thought. I contemplated auditing a few classes at Bowdoin College just to get myself writing, thinking, and engaging again. I mentioned this to a friend. He swung around in his office chair, started typing into his computer, and immediately pulled up the Naropa website. "No you're not," he said. "You're going to get your masters in creative writing. You need to go here," he instructed. "No where else." I was a bit muddled. I never heard of Naropa or ever contemplated getting a masters. Not once. Ever. I looked over his shoulder at the website and was immediately struck with what an important idea this was. At the time I didn't think it mattered where I went, just as long as I went back to school. So I filled out the application one week before the due date, crossed my fingers, and waited. It wasn't until I was accepted and signed up for on-line classes that I realized I would have to take poetry ( I had the grand illusion that I could avoid the poetry classes...this goes to show you how much I knew about Naropa). Poetry scared me. I was so intimidated that first semester, but somehow I managed to write a small portfolio of poems. I was on my way to making a discovery about myself that I never would have realized had I not attended Naropa, and as a result of discovering poetry, I made a discovery about myself. I love beauty. I require serenity. I am easily jarred both emotionally and spiritually. Naropa, and the work I was exposed to and ultimately created, brought me beauty, serenity, and jarred me both emotionally and spiritually. I will always say this. I am a more complete writer having attended Naropa because I am a more complete person. I was sent my "marching orders" to attend Naropa at a difficult time in my life. And so I did. Naropa knocked and I answered. Thank you!

[naropau]

So Grateful!

I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to have attended Naropa. It is here that I met the love of my life who is now my husband. My deep desire for the arts and spirituality led me to Naropa. My major was is in Traditional Eastern Arts with an emphasis in Yoga. My minor was Contemplative Education. I traveled abroad after my studies teaching children’s yoga classes. When my husband and I returned to the states I enrolled in Naropa’s Alternative Teacher’s Licensure Program and attained a CO teachers license in Elementary education. I continued my studies in Waldorf Education at the Rudolf Steiner College and now I have a children’s yoga business entitled Story Blossom Yoga. In addition I am a brand ambassador for Ahava Z Design, changing the face of fashion. Shifting the way things are done in the industry and inspiring women to remember that beauty comes from the inside out.    

[naropau]

Out in the Sticks

As a teenager I attended a funky boarding school of about 45 students in rural New Hampshire, situated on a working organic farm and led an open-minded, peaceful and reflective Quaker tradition. While we sat in silence as an entire community for anywhere between a few moments to 15 minutes to a couple of hours, as a junior I began a sitting meditation practice. I also had the fortunate of taking a month long trip throughout China, Mongolia, and Tibet with a few students and a faculty member that year as I began to study the history of these cultures and their traditions.

For reasons I cannot explain yet for which am endlessly grateful, a Naropa University admissions rep drove two and a half hours away from Boston to a boarding school out in the sticks in order to visit perhaps five students for only an hour. Immediately, I was convinced that I would attend Naropa, for the gesture she had shown in visiting us, which no other college rep had done over the three years I was there, and of course from what she told us about the university’s philosophy, pedagogy, and course offerings. In addition to a business card, I was given a sticker of the Earth. As a matter of fact, the Earth is painted on the barn door at my high school, and the parallel resonated with me deeply.

I circled most of the courses in the catalog and told everyone I knew about my plans to attend Naropa. I took a year off to travel Europe and the States, having spent two summers on a farm in western Colorado, which included hitchhiking across the Continental Divide a couple of times to visit Boulder and the Arapahoe campus. In the autumn of ‘03 I walked in with my straw hat and guitar into Sangha House, the freshman dorms at the time, to begin a memorable four years as a member of the Naropa community. I have a profound affection for Naropa and the people I have known from the university. I wouldn’t at all be who I am today without having attended, and for that I am extraordinarily grateful.

[naropau]

I had jumped off the path of science and started dancing later in life. While in an improv class I was approached by one of my new peers who told me I should be a dance therapist. I had no idea what she meant and was invited to  a dance therapy symposium here in Chicago. I attended and fell in love with the field.

I came home and began researching master’s programs. I found NYU, Hunter, UCLA, and Goucher and began applying. One evening as my boyfriend at the time was reading “Chop Wood Carry Water” he called to me from the living room “there is a dance therapy program in Boulder called Naropa.” My whole body lit up. I didn’t quite know why. But it did. 

And I ripped up my applications, perhaps foolishly, and decided I wanted to go to Naropa.  And then the application came in the mail and I lied down in the park to read it and I cried as I felt that I found home!

Since that summer of 1986 I listen to what draws me and I take the risks involved in order to follow the inner passion and motivation to grow. Naropa guided me, pushed me, and supported my voice; my value; my vision.

[naropau]

Naropa did not find me—-I found it while my wife and I were visiting a number of Buddhist sites in Colorado after having moved there. A flyer on one of the bulletin boards spoke of the Chaplaincy program and I told my wife “This sounds interesting.”

I have now been a chaplain for over 15 years, having been Board Certified in 2006. I was part of Spiritual Care teams sent to Ground Zero after the attack and to Louisiana after Katrina, and I spent 5 years as the Heart Services Anchor Chaplain at one of the top 10 hospitals in the U.S. My Naropa education has enabled me to be of service where the suffering has been greatest. I’m still paying for that education, but in the end I have to admit it was worth it.

Gassho,

Chap. Mikel Ryuho Monnett, BCC, CDCA, SWA

Master of Arts in Buddhist Studies (Concentration in Engaged Buddhism)

Class of 1999

[naropau]

I knew about Naropa even before I moved to Boulder. But I didn’t know Naropa until I took my 80-something mother to hear Allen Ginsberg read (sing?) his poems … and years later took a very ill friend to be uplifted as we chanted with Krishna Das … and later still attended a workshop on Huichol Indian wisdom, led by Brant Secunda, a shaman. Brant was downhome, funny, and grew up in New Jersey. My kind of shaman. And the teachings he passed on, along with the rituals and dances we did, made me now see Naropa as a blessed, sacred place. I integrated those rituals into my life, and my experience of that workshop became one story, “Heart Like a Crystal,” in my recently published book, “Recipes for a Sacred Life: True Stories and a Few Miracles.” Surely, one of the miracles of Boulder is Naropa!—Rivvy Neshama

http://rivvyneshama.com/

[naropau]

How did Naropa find you?

I was considering graduate school when I saw a Naropa M.A. Environmental Leadership ad in Mother Jones magazine. Upon researching Naropa’s website, I was intrigued by its contemplative education philosophy. Being located in beautiful Boulder, CO certainly helped, too. 

[naropau]

MFA in Theatre: Contemporary Performance

I was teaching Alexander Technique as an adjunct at universities and colleges. One of my mentoring colleagues asked, “Do you want to remain an adjunct forever?” I thought about this and said, “No!” She knew about my studies in Buddhism and the somatics and said,”I know just the place for you!” This is how I discovered Naropa’s MFA program in Theatre: Contemporary Performance.