On the very edge of North Carolina’s Western border, the Wolf Mountain
Shambhala Group gathers once a month for Buddhist practice.  The small group consists of roughly eight people, some coming from as far as Reliance, TN, drawn from North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee.  They meet on the second Sunday of each month in the home of Barbara Kroeplin, a three-decades student of the Shamabhala path, who serves as the group’s leader.

Services are held from 9:30-11:30 a.m.  They begin with chants, drawn from traditional Tibetan sources but recited in English, followed by Tibetan yogic stretching exercises.  Next, the group performs an hour of silent seated meditation, followed by an hour-long book discussion on a selected text by Shambhala’s founder, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.  After the formal service is over the group has a pot-luck lunch.

The group meets so infrequently because the members are so isolated—Wolf Mountain Shambhala Group is the only Buddhist group in the Tri-State area, and they intentionally keep a low profile so as not to stick out in their heavily Christian environment.  Members also visit Shambhala centers in other regions, such as Lexington, KY, Birmingham, and Atlanta.  Despite the challenges the group has a solid cohesion and has been operating consistently since 1996.  The members of Wolf Mountain Shambhala Group are all Caucasian and mostly women, with ages ranging from late thirties to early seventies.

JW