REGIONAL – The Buddhist Belt, as our area is becoming, holds examples of many different styles of "Middle Way" practice. If you thought Buddhism was some simple monolithic entity, think again. Buddhism comes in as many flavors as Christianity, with its Baptists, Catholics, Methodists, Greek Orthodox, Episcopalians, Copts, and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedists, to mention a few.

Buddhism in its turn varies between the "Great Vehicle," Mahayana, and the "Thunderbolt" vehicle, Vajrayana, with as many as ten schools of Buddhist practice in China, plus Japanese and Vietnamese Zen traditions, and many more local variations across Eastern Asia.

At this time some elements of the Buddhist Belt are still building. Up on the Shawangunk Ridge, in Cragsmoor, the massive Milarepa Center is in the midst of construction. The intensive groundwork on the entranceway and access road has been completed and the building itself is under construction. No firm date for completion and opening the center has been made public.

The Milarepa Center will be the centerpiece of the Dharmakaya organization's project in Cragsmoor. Dharmakaya is largely the work of Trungram Gyaltrul Rinpoche, a lama in the Tibetan Kagyu lineage who has been active in the U.S. for many years.

Tibetan Buddhism has a number of lineages; Kagyu is the largest, though it is split into several groupings... Gelugpa is the lineage of the Dalai Lama, Sakya and Nyingma are the other majors. The Sakyas have a monastic center based hereabouts in Walden, forming the eastern end of our regional Buddhist Belt.

In Walker Valley, the World Buddhists, led by their master Chan Yun, are hard at work constructing the first of two large buildings. One, hard by Route 52, will eventually be a meditation center open to the public. The second, which will be out of sight from Route 52 farther up Oregon Trail, will be a "Zen Center" for members of the organization, which is primarily based in New York City. The World Buddhists are "Pure Land" Buddhists. Pure Land is sometimes called "Amidism" and is centered in China and Eastern Asia. As yet there is no projected completion date for the Walker Valley building.

Just a jog further east from where the World Buddhists are building lies Dharma Drum, a Chan or Zen center on Quannacut Road. Dharma Drum Retreat Center was founded by Zen Master Sheng-yen. Zen is termed Ch'an in China, and it can be thought of as lying at the other end of the spectrum from the Tibetan schools, in terms of simplicity and a certain austerity in its approach.

Sheng-yen, who died in 2009, was one of the four most prominent modern masters of Ch'an Buddhism on the island of Taiwan. He founded his organization to spread Buddhism around the world, with a special emphasis on the US.

Dharma Drum has a Buddha Name Recitation Retreat on September 4-9. In October there will be the Western Zen Retreat. Call 744-8114 for more information.

Another Zen center near Walker Valley is the beautiful Blue Cliff Monastery, on Hotel Road. Blue Cliff is a monastic community founded by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Zen Master with a strong, global following and a major center in France at Plum Village. This month, Blue Cliff is hosting the 2015 US Tour: The Miracle of Mindfulness, in which several dozen monastic teachers are touring the country. The Miracle of Mindfulness Retreat will be held at Blue Cliff August 31-September 5. On Sunday, September 6, there will be a "Day of Mindfulness: together We Are One." Call 213-1785 for more information.

Moving north up Route 209 from the Walker Valley-Cragsmoor nexus, we come to the Shambhala center, Sky Lake, at 22 Hillcrest Lane, Rosendale. Shambhala was the name for a mythical kingdom in the Tibetan and Hindu tradition, and became another variant on the Pure Land concept. When the great Tibetan meditation master Chogyam Trungpa came to the west he brought his radical re-conception of the Shambhala tradition. He introduced it as a style of Buddhist practice shorn of ethnic trappings.

This month at Sky Lake, join Barbara Bash and Crickets & Koi for a "spontaneous Haiku-Brush-Flute event" on the lawn on August 27, 5-7 p.m. A Family Retreat will run from August 28 to August 30, titled "Awake in the Woods." This retreat will explore "the natural sanity of families." Call 658-8556 for more information. Then on August 30, join John Michelotti for a "Mushroom Walk for All Ages" and explore the fungal inhabitants of Sky Lake.