Contemplative Creativity Lab: exploring creative processes that arise from meditative discipline
Contemplative Creativity Lab is an extension of the Shambhala Art/ Dharma Art teachings. Shambhala Art celebrates art that springs from the meditative mind. A reminder to appreciate the uniqueness of everyday sensory experience, the art of everyday life, rather than over-planning or employing gimmicks. Seeing the simplicity and brilliance of “things as they are” provides the ground for genuine creativity, which is the expression an awake heart and mind and the activity of non-aggression.
First Thought, Poetry, Meditation, Movement, Brush, Square One, Object Arranging, Painting, Contemplation, Music, Photography, Discussion, & Collaboration
CCLAB was founded in 2013 by Los Angeles teachers of Dharma Art, as taught by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and developed by Steven Saitzyk, with the desire to share such teachings with others. It ran for 10 years as monthly gathering and is now as an occasional pop-up. The encouragement of these teachings is to let go of concepts about “Art” and collaborate, connect with our innate curiosity, willingness to be a fool, trust in the process of coming back to the present moment (Square One), and see where it goes. One does this by using contemplative, creative practices that cut through concepts and draw on nonverbal wisdom, which are especially potent in times like now.
CCLAB is led by Shambhala Art* teachers and special guests. Visit Shambhala Los Angeles upcoming programs for CCLAB dates. (Check out our MeetUp Group for photos of past labs.)
Recommended Reading
True Perception by Chögyam Trungpa;
Place Your Thoughts Here: Meditation for the Creative Mind by Steven Saitzyk
Comments/Inquiries
Please send all questions to [email protected]
CCLAB CALENDAR
Contemplative Arts & Disciplines
The Way of Flowers: Mindful Ikebana
with Anjie Cho
February 1st (2025)
Who Leads C-Lab?
Anne Anderson Saitzyk (MFA – Painting) is an artist teaching painting and drawing at Art Center College of Design extension (ACX) and occasionally in other locations in the world. She has served as co-coordinator of Westside Shambhala (L.A.) and as Director of Contemplative Arts at Shambhala Meditation Center of Los Angeles. Anne met the Shambhala Buddhist dharma through the Dharma Art program in 1997 led by Steven Saitzyk and has since become a practitioner, meditation instructor, Shambhala Art teacher/administrator and a co-founder of Contemplative Creativity Lab. She’s inspired by the magic of community art practice and collaboration and strives to encourage this activity.
Ladan Yalzadeh (MFA – Creative Practices) has worked across disciplines including theater, live art, writing and film. Her explorations are focused on reconnecting with the transformative power of creativity as means of liberation. Ladan is continuously struck by the natural harmony between the creative practice and contemplative practices. Ladan also works in the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion field in the Outdoors, helping highlight the vast histories, wisdoms and contributions of Underrepresented Communities to our society. Ladan is the recipient of several honors including 2009 Noor Film Festival’s Best Short Film Award for The Florist, the AFI Directing Workshop for Women Scholarship in 2004, where she was the first Iranian-American recipient, and the Nell Shipmen Award. Her work has been presented in Iran, Germany, Chile, UK, Spain and the United States. Ladan has been meditating and practicing mindfulness since 2008. She is a Shambhala Art teacher and facilitator of the Contemplative Creativity Lab and is the co-founder of Authentic Presence. Authentic Action. http://www.ladanyalzadeh.com
Angela Lloyd, MFA is a Shambhala Art Teacher and an award winning recording artist, master storyteller and musician. A student of Laura Simms, she started meditating at Laura Simms’ Annual Storytelling Residency in 1987 and is a member of Shambhala. She has completed levels of Miksang, a contemplative practice of photography; and is an enthusiastic member of the Dorje Kasung. Her particular interest in the Shambhala Art teachings is how language arts (speech, silence and humor) are used to create a safe container for inter-related arts experiences for body, mind and speech. www.angelalloyd.com
Debra Dysart has been a student and practitioner of Shambhala Buddhism since she found Pema Chodron’s Wisdom of No Escape in a Barnes and Nobles in 1997. She also met her husband Malcolm in that same bookstore around the same time who told her about the Shambhala Center in Los Angeles. Debra is a Shambhala Art teacher and meditation instructor, has taught contemplative writing, and is a former Co-Director of the Shambhala Meditation Center of Los Angeles. She sings with the Verdi Chorus, a community-based opera choral group in Santa Monica.
Carolyn Sykes is a harpist, and has been performing in Australia, Asia, Europe and the United States for the past 30+ years. She came to Los Angeles 19 years ago to study for her Masters Degree at the California Institute of the Arts. Since then she has established her private teaching and performing studio Pacific Harps, a boutique music booking agency Music For Events, and the Los Angeles harp dealership for Camac Harps. She moved to the US from Australia in 1987, but did not discover Shambhala until 1999 when she came to the center to listen to a week of Khandro Rinpoche’s teachings. Since then she has held roles in the mandala of the Los Angeles center that include: dekyong, membership director, community mandala director, and coordinated programs from levels to visiting teacher programs. She is delighted to be able to teach in the Shambhala Art mandala.
Amanda Tasse is an Assistant Professor of Emerging Media in the Media Arts & Culture Department at Occidental College and a Shambhala Art Teacher. She holds a PhD in Media Arts + Practices from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. She started meditating with the Zen community and is now a member of Shambhala. She is a former Fullbright student and has won a number of awards for her animated films, including a Student Academy Award and an HBO films award. Her PhD research focused on emerging technology, mobile interactive animation, and experimental films which explore connections between wellness, feedback, visualization, contemplation, and science.
Darryl Burnham met Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1974 and has been practicing, studying, and teaching since then. He lives in Monrovia with his wife Laura. He is a Shambhala Art teacher, a meditation instructor, contemplative photographer, musician, poet, writer, and co-leader of the Healing Circle. Practicing life constantly expands his intimacy with his teacher, the sangha, and Laura in the company of their two aged cats, Louis and Cali.
Elayne Rail Since 1978, Elayne Rail has been a student of the Vidyadhara, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and currently his son, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. She is a Shambhala Training Assistant Director, Shambhala Art teacher, and the Shambhala Meditation Center Kado (“Way of Flowers”) Coordinator. Elayne is especially interested in expanding the study and contemplative practice of Kado/Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) in the Shambhala community, as part of Shambhala culture and the Shambhala-Buddhist path. She also wishes to provide opportunities for the general public to learn about this contemplative art form.
What a work of art is all about is a sense of delight. Touch here, touch there, delight. It is an appreciation of things as they are and of what one is — which produces an enormous spark. Something happens — clicks — and the poet writes poems, the painter paints pictures, the musician composes music
– Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, The Teacup and the Skullcup
*Shambhala Art is a five part program. It is about art that springs from clear perception and pure expression. To artist or non-artist, the creative process often seems mysterious and magical. How do we give a physical reality to some ephemeral inspiration or abstract truth? How do we create forms that communicate some essential nature beyond the limits of their container? The Shambhala Art Program’s purpose is to explore the creative process and the product we call art from the point of view of clear perception and pure expression. It is about the source of inspiration, how the creative process manifests and finally how what we create communicates that inspiration. See also www.shambhalaart.org.
