Today I fulfilled a long-cherished dream. I finally made it to Gampo Abbey in Pleasant Bay on the far-north western tip of Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia.
In search of serenity at Gampo Abbey
Off the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton, this abbey is part of the Shambhala school of Buddhism, founded in the US by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche after he fled the Chinese crackdown in Tibet.
Shambhala is a form of Buddhism created specifically for Western adherents, based on tenets of the basic goodness of humanity. I first heard about it through the writings of Pema Chodron, an American Buddhist teacher and author, who was the founding director of Gampo Abbey. Apparently, according to the delightful Karma Gyndon, a monastic at the abbey, the only concern about its location was that it might be ‘too beautiful’; meaning, I suspect, that the beauty would be a distraction for the monkey mind.
And the location is indeed gobsmackingly, awe-inspiringly, heart-stoppingly gorgeous. Jewel blue sea, craggy headlands, and fir-tree forests delight the eye in every direction.
You can visit the abbey daily in summer (1.30pm or 2.30pm) for a guided tour with one of the monastics. Our guide was the bilingual Clare from Romania, via Montreal. Those seeking a retreat can check out the Gampo Abbey website for stays of one or two weeks, or perhaps apply to be a volunteer. Longer programs are offered to those with some former meditative or monastic experience, as full-on monastic life can include all-day meditations – not for the faint hearted. Mornings are spent in silence, including duties, breakfast and exercise times.
Monastic life is obviously not for everyone, but in an increasingly frantic world seemingly dominated by electronic devices and social media ‘connections’, good old fashioned silence looks mighty appealing to me.
How did we get to Gampo Abbey?
We drove from Chanterelle Inn in North River Bridge for three hours on the Cabot Trail. The abbey is 12km off the main highway, down a side road that becomes a dirt track into a well-sign-posted car park. Even if you don’t join a guided tour, you are welcome to wander in the gardens or visit the Stupa in the forest. A Stupa is a monument symbolising the enlightened mind of Buddha.
To learn more, follow the Gampo Abbey blog.
#handyhint
Accommodation near the abbey is challenging. We drove on to Pictou on the Northumberland Coast for our evening rest – this took another four hours, so do your research before starting out. It is much smarter to drive, instead, in a clockwise direction, setting out from Baddeck, rather than the way we did it.
