Contemporary Vajrayana
Vajrayana creates unusual, effective individuals — people who lead with appreciation, kindness, enjoyment, and connection.
Vajrayana is a life-affirming practice originating over a thousand years ago in India — a path of passionate involvement with the world. Its methods include group engagement, emotional responsiveness, visualization, song, movement, and creativity.
We’re finding new ways to direct Vajrayana’s powerful orientation towards socially constructive outcomes without conforming to the cultural patterns in which it emerged.
Evolving Ground (eG) is a growing community of practitioners establishing contemporary Vajrayana. We train confidence with uncertainty, responsibility, personal autonomy, capability, and flair.
Healthy relationships are the foundation of eG. Personal change through apprenticeship is its heart. Community involvement results in useful, spacious involvement in everyday life — better, more functional, fruitful relationships with ourselves, others, and our circumstances.
We encourage friendly curiosity, rational disagreement, sensitive honesty, and intelligent inquiry. We discourage people-pleasing, moral righteousness, and vacuous spiritual blather.
The Evolving Ground Story
Not long after Charlie Awbery stepped away from traditional Vajrayana, Jared Janes ran into Charlie’s Vajrayana Now site while searching for a spiritual path that didn’t feel like it was in conflict with being a husband, creative, and entrepreneur.
The two of them began talking regularly and became great friends, discovering a shared passion for traditionally-informed Vajrayana practiced in contemporary ways. They also noticed elements of their own relationship that mirrored the informality of village Vajrayana during its first spread in Tibet. This eventually sparked a question…
“Would other yogis be interested in what we’re up to?”
To test the waters, they hosted an online meetup, and after a large turnout, they decided it was the right time to start Evolving Ground.
Since then, their focus has been to establish the ground for a community that will flourish and evolve for generations.
Charlie and Jared have a deep respect for the heritage of Vajrayana Buddhism. The eG perspective is especially influenced by early Tibetan Vajrayana, in particular the village householders and wandering yogis of Tibet.
To be systematic is to know how to use a system. To be meta-systematic is to understand how that system works.
Meta-Systematic View
The yogic lineages that inspire us appreciated individual personalities and differences. Their methods for creative adjustment in everyday circumstances are well-suited to contemporary pluralist society, in which individuals with diverse backgrounds approach spiritual practice.
Today many meditation methods and other spiritual practices are available. Even within Vajrayana, there are multiple lineages, each with their own style and a variety of methods. eG’s starting point is to understand how each works and where it should lead.
A “one size fits all” general model has limited application in varied, unpredictable circumstances. We support community members to find their own path, discovering methods that are a good personal fit. No single individual in eG is following the same, prescribed course as another.
The purpose of practice in our community is pragmatic. Yogic methods integrate uncommon spiritual experiences into everyday life so that we can feel, relate, and behave in better ways. We find meaning, purpose, and enjoyment through functional participation in everyday circumstances, not from an ultimate metaphysical goal.
