It is with deepest gratitude and heartfelt joy that we celebrate the passing of our beloved Teacher, Patricia Shelton, known affectionately as Zenma, into the clear light at the moment of death, Sunday October 30, 2022 at 520 pm.
She was able to receive spiritual assistance from her beloved daughter and several long-term students as she had offered to countless others throughout this lifetime. A meditation teacher since 1970, Ms. Shelton began her spiritual journey as a student of the Tibetan Buddhist meditation master, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and engaged in intensive koan study and meditation practice with Zen Master Seung Sahn. In her extensive career, she taught an accredited course in zen meditation at Boston University, from 1985 to 2000 and founded the Clear Light Society, dedicating her life to the development and implementation of practices to assist individuals and families in the midst of palliative and hospice care. Among these practices is the Clear Light Meditation for the Dying, which Trungpa declared a terma, Mind Treasure, suitable for this time and for people of all (or no) belief systems. In the decade of the 2010s she became a regular visiting teacher at the Buddhist Faith Fellowship in Middletown, in which she lead meditation retreats, talks, and clear light programs.
Beyond her tireless dedication to her students, she was renowned for her exquisite sense of style and simple elegance, exemplifying the art of living and dying. Her book, “Blissful Death”, will be published posthumously and her legacy will live on with the commitment of her students at The Clear Light Society to continue her life’s work.