Samsara: The Whirlpool of Existence with Katherine King & Max Roberts-zirker

Welcome to the Whirlpool of Existence - The Painful Realms of Samsara

Saturday, October 18
10am-4pm

Although samsara seems to be all-powerful and all-pervading, it is created by our own state of mind, like the world of a dream, and it can be dissolved into nothingness just like awakening from a dream. When someone awakens to reality, even for a moment, the world does not disappear but is experienced in its true nature: pure, brilliant, sacred and indestructible.
Francesca Fremantle

Life can feel like an endless loop—sometimes marked by overt suffering, sometimes by the subtle sense that something is always missing. No matter how much we fix, patch, or distract ourselves, unease lingers beneath the surface.

As Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche observed:
“The little things we do, the little areas in which we try to entertain ourselves…is both the product of suffering and the producer of suffering. It is the origin that perpetually re-creates suffering, as well as what we are constantly going through as a result of suffering.”

This is the nature of samsara: the cycles of birth and death that we endure until released through enlightenment. In Tibetan Buddhism, the human experience is just one of six realms we might inhabit as we circle through lifetimes. As humans, samsara encompasses our body, possessions, relationships, planet, and how we engage with it all. It is constantly changing. But is the world really so bad? Must attachment always lead to suffering? Do we need to renounce everything to find peace—and if so, why do we resist?

Even in the whirlpool, there are openings to peace.

In this workshop, we invite you to investigate samsara not as a personal failure, but as the shared human situation that also includes the path of awakening.

What you’ll discover
- How samsara functions as a cycle of conditioned existence
- The six realms as mirrors for our inner and outer struggles
- How the sense of separateness fuels the whirlpool of suffering
- Practical ways to work with samsara as a path rather than a trap

Besides teachings and meditation practice, the retreat will include contemplation, journaling and personal reflection, and a guided experience of direct perception - all activities which can help to cut the chain of karmic reactivity.

As Trungpa Rinpoche reminds us:
“By familiarizing ourselves with our own insanity and making friends with mind in all its variety and extremes, we can learn to accommodate others and work with them without fear.”

Because when we stop treating suffering as proof of who we are, it transforms into the path of freedom. Samsara itself becomes the teacher, showing that even in the whirlpool, there are openings to peace.

Teachers:
Kate King
Max Roberts-Zirker

Tentative Schedule

10:00 - Orientation and contemplative practice
10:45 - Presentation: Samsara, Nirvana and the 6 Realms
11:15 - Guided reflection
11:40 - Group discussions
12:30 - Lunch
1:30 - Presentation: Attachment, Detachment, and Selflessness
2:30 - Individual reflection on our own patterns
3:00 - Group Discussion
3:20 - Experience of Samsara & Nirvana
4:00 - End

Our Approach to the Buddhist Path:

2500 years ago, the Buddha recognized fundamental truths about the human experience. The Shambhala Meditation Center of Boston proudly continues the living tradition of these teachings, with a particular connection to the rich Kagyu and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. As part of our Walking the Buddhist Path series, we will explore this topic with both intellect and intuition. You will learn how to engage dharma teachings, contemplate and investigate them for yourself, and ultimately grasp their underlying wisdom.

Through talks, readings, guided contemplation, self-reflection and discussions, we will explore the transformative power of acknowledging suffering in our experience, develop insight into how it is caused through confusion, and why we consistently grab the problem the wrong way around. We will look at the possibility of ending suffering and leave with tools to begin to discover freedom.

Who should join?

This program is for those who are ready to investigate difficult truths, and willing to see their own participation in the chain of suffering. No prior study is required. Everyone is welcome, no matter what level of practice.

• 
  Sponsored

  Juegos de Palabras: Spanish game night at BASE

  Wednesday, Jun 17, 2026 6:00p

  Boston Area Spanish Exchange (BASE)
• 
  Sponsored

  $25 All-Inclusive Day Trip from Boston to New England Botanic Garden (Transportation Included)

  Friday, Jun 19, 2026 10:50a

  New England Botanic Gardens at Tower Hill

Sesh by The Boston Calendar | Advertise Terms | Privacy Policy | About