Talk Given by Dh. Adityabodhi on Five Viniyata Citta Dhamma in Men's GFR Retreat from 15th to 19th Apr 16 at Saddhamma pradeep Retreat Center. Retreat was attend by 51 mitra and 15 Dhammachari.
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Five Viniyata Citta Dhamma
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Introducing Ambedkar
‘Who are the great world reformers? Vajratara presents the life and work of Dr Ambedkar, who transformed the lives of his followers in India who were oppressed by the caste system. He thought that the Buddhism had a part to play in social transformation, that transforming mind is transforming society. With this in mind, he embraced Buddhism in 1956, bringing millions of people with him. These conversions formed the basis of the vibrant and inspiring Triratna community in India. Vajratara gives a flavour of this community and the work of the India Dhamma Trust who supports Dhamma work in India, transforming hearts and minds and annihilating caste at its root.’
Listen and download: http://www.freebuddhistaudio.com/audio/details?num=LOC2720
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Introducing the Triratna Translations Board
Bhante’s 90th birthday fundraising last year raised well over £100,000 for the publication of his Complete Works, a job which is well under wayand to which Bhante himself added more money specifically for translations. (You can too!) Suvannavira writes from Moscow about the work of the newly formed Triratna Translations Board.
“In a world where so many seem to speak English, why bother translating books by Bhante and his disciples into other languages? Imagine coming to a new country to teach the Dharma, as I have, leading meditation classes in a bare rented room while still not fluent in your new language, and with your nearest fellow Order member hundreds of miles away. How valuable would a few translated books be then?
Or think back to your first visit to a Buddhist Centre. There you are, taking a book off the Centre bookshop shelf. “Oh, that’s interesting”, you think, seeing Un guide sur la voie bouddhique, and then, oh dear, Что такое Дхарма?“Umm… to ta – ko dx – ap – ma?” What if you hadn’t found a single book in your native tongue?
Ninety five per cent of the world’s people are not native English speakers, and even those who are often say that reading the Dharma in their native tongue makes a deeper impression than reading it in a learned language.
Maybe this was why the Buddha himself encouraged people to teach the Dharma in local languages. Can you think of a better, more concrete expression of the Bodhisattva Vow?
However, it’s not enough simply to translate a book; people do need to be able to read what has been translated! This implies publishing and distribution, either as paper books in Centres and bookshops, or online as e-books and free pdf downloads.
Sadhu to Triratna’s many valiant translators around the world who have been plugging away at this work for a long time, with little or no money. You can see some of the existing translations below. Now, Bhante’s birthday fundraising means better funded, planned and co-ordinated translations.
The Triratna Translations Board will
• Form and implement an overall vision and strategy
• Gather and distribute resources
• Facilitate the sharing of skills, knowledge and experience
• Promote excellence in the quality of translations
As Triratna grows bigger and ever more international, having good quality translation will help promote the unity and harmony of Triratna by ensuring we are all studying and practising the same teachings.
For now, we are starting with European languages. The members of the Board are: Nityabandhu (Kraków, Poland), Manibhadri (Chambéry, France), Suvannavira (Moscow, Russia),Viryabodhi (Stockholm, Sweden) and Amalamati (Valencia, Spain), with support coming from Mokshini and Nandavajra of the European Chairs’ Assembly’s Development Team.
Meeting on Skype, we’re a far-flung bunch of people enjoying energetic, enjoyable and harmonious discussions. We’ve started formulating a vision we hope will be both global and sensitive to the specifics of diverse cultural situations.
We notice we are a particularly motivated group of Order members. Perhaps that’s not surprising considering that most of us are working in pioneering situations and therefore especially in need of the translated written Dharma.”
Support the Translation Board’s work with a donation.
suvannavira [at] gmail.com (Contact Suvannavira.)
One Triratna book in French
Triratna books in German
One Triratna book in Polish
Triratna books in Russian
Free Russian downloads
Triratna books in Spanish
Triratna’s Swedish publisher, Bodhiförlaget
Trriatna e-books in Swedish
The Board does not yet have an online presence, but +Follow The Buddhist Centre Online’s existing translations page for a selection of Triratna texts in languages from around the world.
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Rowan Williams In Interview with Maitreyabandhu
Maitreyabandhu in conversation with the ex-Archbishop about poetry, imagination and faith in a troubled world.
For Poetry East
Listen and download: http://www.freebuddhistaudio.com/audio/details?num=LOC2723
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Reality Is Personal
Singhamanas brings the buddha's fundamental teaching of dependant arising to life with compelling stories from this world and beyond.
Listen and download: http://www.freebuddhistaudio.com/audio/details?num=LOC2722
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The Texture of Reality
Jnanavaca explores the notions of conditioned and unconditioned reality, and the relationship between the two.
Listen and download: http://www.freebuddhistaudio.com/audio/details?num=LOC2721
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Sunday Sangha - 25th April at the Glasgow Buddhist Centre
This week we’ll be treated to some readings from Poets’ Way members led by Maria. The evening will have two distinct parts. The fIrst will be a brief description of what goes on in the Poets’ Way, then members will read a poem or two of their own and Maria will read from her collection. The second half will be opened up to everyone. All are invited to bring along a favourite poem to share with us all so we can all enjoy the beauty of poetic words.
We will start with soup which will be provided, but please bring some vegetarian food to accompany and share.
5:30 - 8:30pm
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The London Buddhist Summer Magazine Out Now
Giving is a fairly simple thing to do: money to a good cause, time to a friend, food to the hungry, energy to a situation. But sacrificing what you hold most precious – your very own life – is an altogether different giving up. How, and why, would you give your life?
For an offering to be truly selfless, the ideals behind it need to be of the purest kind. Then you would need to examine how you relate to those ideals, since this forms the motive, and the ethical basis, for your offering. Then you would need to do it!
For Buddhists, of course, the Buddha represents those highest ideals. The Dharma is then the means with which you move towards those ideals, and the Sangha forms the context in which you do it.
All these areas are explored in this new issue of The London Buddhist. In a bold new essay, Devamitra examines the motives behind self-immolation, a potentially shocking form of self-sacrifice. Those motives may be quite different in the cases of the most widely known example, Quang Duc, the Vietnamese monk who burned himself publicly in 1966, and the more recent wave of young monks who are self-immolating in Tibet.
Another Buddhist monk, Chatral Sangye Dorje, who recently passed away in Nepal, is a vivid example of selfless sacrifice. Karunamati remembers the life that he gave so completely to the world.
Closer to home, in Bethnal Green, we hear from Sal Campbell, who shares with us her journey towards ordination into the Triratna Buddhist Order. We learn what she has given, and given up, in offering her life to transcendent ideals. In our photo feature, we see Sassirika giving herself to expressions of her ideals through the creation of beautiful works of art.
And finally we enter the day-to-day life of Ollie Brock and discover, through his reflections on living and working full-time at the centre, another way of giving one’s life to the Dharma.
I have been moved to read these stories of lives so fully given. After all, it is a courageous act to move away from the mundane ideals of possession and gratification, and face the challenge of offering yourself to the highest human ideals of compassion, energy in pursuit of the good and wisdom. But as we see, through doing so it becomes possible to transform yourself and change the world.
I hope that the articles you read here, and the events that are happening over the summer at the LBC, also move you to consider how fully you can give yourself to this great project of transformation.
- Vidyadaka
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Bronze Facts
Is your Centre considering buying a new/recycled bronze or brass ritual objects? This fact sheet aims to help people start reflecting on the use of copper and metals in our personal lives and at our Buddhist Centres. Karen at the Croydon Buddhist Centre UK has been involved in the ethical issues associated with mining for years and is happy to be of help via email contact if you have questions or possibly (in the London area) come and talk to your sangha about the issues involved. karenluyckx [at] hotmail.com
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The 3 Cafés Challenge - Full Details
3 Cafés Challenge - Raising Money for the New Vajrasana Retreat Centre
This Saturday morning April the 23rd, Jnanavaca and Maitreyabandhu will attempt to walk from the LBC to Broadway Market, visiting 3 east London cafés, drinking 3 hot beverages and eating 3 pieces of cake, each. They have so far raised over £500 per drink and £500 for each piece of cake = £3,000 in total. This money will buy everything we’ll need for hot beverages at the New Vajrasana Retreat Centre, from installing the new water boilers to new quality cups, cafetiers, coffee tables, spoons and mugs…
You Can Still Sponsor Them Here
Watch All The Videos Here
And come and support them on the day - meet 10am in the LBC courtyard - and follow the journey so far in these videos above….
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Celebrating 125th Birthday of Dr Ambedkar
I recently gave talks at Cardiff, Bristol and Nottingham to celebrate Dr Ambedkar's 125th Birthday. The talks were quite similar, so I have only uploaded the last one. Do listen for a taste of our Indian Sangha and of the life of Ambedkar. Thank you to my hosts and to all those who came to listen!
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Buddhism and the Arts
Taradasa talks on the Arts as the 6th Distinctive Emphasis of Triratna. It is an encouraging talk asking us to look, and look again at our relationship to the fine arts. Whether it's music, painting, sculpture, performance - whatever we respond to in the Arts, Taradasa shows how we can approach it as spiritual practice.
Listen and download: http://www.freebuddhistaudio.com/audio/details?num=LOC2725
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Amaraghosha - The Mystery of Spiritual Rebirth
In this deeply reflective talk, Amaraghosha completes our series of talks about The Journey and The Guide. We explore the mystery of spiritual rebirth in relation to sraddha and the imagination, using stories and quotes.
Amarghosha also introduces Maitreyabandhu's five aspects of uplifiting imagination - aliveness, discovery, unity, playfulness and ascent and compares this with our everyday consciousness.
This talk was given at Croydon Buddhist Centre in March 2016 as part of the regular Saturday Morning Sangha class.
Listen and download: http://www.freebuddhistaudio.com/audio/details?num=LOC2726
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Meditate in the Park for Peace on June 26th
Meditate in the Park for Peace - 26 June 2016 in your local park
for Nuclear Disarmament & for Investment in Renewables and Green Jobs
Why now?
In 2016, parliament will vote whether to replace and modernise the UK’s nuclear weapons system called Trident. It’s made up of four submarines – one of which is on patrol at all times - carrying up to 40 nuclear warheads on board. Each of these warheads is eight times more powerful than the atomic bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima.
Why Triratna?
In his talk on Buddhism, World Peace, and Nuclear War Sangharakshita said: “Full-scale nuclear war means fire-storms and `black rain’. It means the destruction of the ecosphere. It means the death of the earth. It means the suicide of humanity.”
Because the issue is so serious, he calls on us to act:
“Pressure can also be brought to bear by the persistent lobbying of members of parliament, by the presentation of petitions, by public meetings, marches, and demonstrations, by fasts and solemn vigils - even by `love-ins’ and `be-ins’. By these and similar means the government should be left in no doubt as to what the wishes of the electorate really are. If it remains unresponsive to those wishes, or not sufficiently responsive - and the situation is one of extreme urgency, where every day is precious - then more serious measures should be taken and pressure brought to bear on the government by means of mass civil disobedience along Gandhian lines.”
For more extracts and suggestions for actions & tools see the sheet attached
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Second Soup and Sangha
Please come and join me in my home in Woodley for what is becoming a regular event
We will get together to enjoy Soup and, nourished in our body, we will seek spiritual noyurishment through meditation practice in the company of friends - and then we eat cake!
I will provide delicious homecooked vegetarian soup and rolls and we will have an afternoon of meditation practice in the peaceful garden room in my home.
I will need to know numbers in advance so please get in touch with me as soon as possible.
If you want to bring a friend then that is fine. I will have to limit numbers so please get your booking in early.
The date is Sunday 26th Juneso put it in your diary now!
We will meet at 12.00 for lunch, please be on time so the soup doesn’t get cold, and we will meditate and talk about meditation and Buddhist practice until 15.30 when we will have tea and cake and then finish at 16.00.
There will be a suggested donation of £5 for unwaged or students and £15 for waged. This is a suggested donation and you can offer more or less if you wish.
If you are interested and want to know more please call me on 07771171466 or 01189693084, or you can email me on readingtriratna [at] gmail.com
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New right livelihood and community project, Germany
Simone Deiringer is a Mitra in Triratna’s Berlin sangha, Germany, training for ordination and exploring possibilities for a project enabling sangha to live and work together near Berlin.
She writes: “I am looking for somewhere close to Berlin where we can establish a collective project, living and working together. Right now I am investigating a small agriculture and gardening business for sale in the Uckermark (an hour and a half drive from the city): 10 hectares of land with buildings and a working horse!
My plan is to create a situation where time spent looking after basic needs such as food and shelter leaves enough time and energy for spiritual development. The main business would be a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project subsidised by a retreat facility for one or two people and a programme of courses on mental and physical health for residents, guests and neighbours.
The project’s understanding of spiritual development is based on Sangharakshita’s vision: the community will consist of committed Triratna Buddhists seeking to live a total Dharma life. Everyone is asked to take part on a dana basis; to give what they can and take what they need.”
If you are an Order Member or a Mitra who has asked for ordination, and interested in becoming one of 4-6 community members living and working together in the north German countryside, please demozug [at] posteo.de (contact Simone. )
If you’d like to receive a newsletter, demozug [at] posteo.de (contact Simone.)
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Anjali practicing to walk after successful operation of her clubfoot
Anjali is 6 years old from Vadaar Community (Wanderer Community & stamped ‘criminal’ by birth) where People to People is helping 51 children to enter in the educational stream. Anjali is ‘First Generation’ started to go to school. She had a lot difficulties to walk on her own foot at school on her clubfoot. She is suffering by poverty; so was unable to cope up the operation expenses by her parents who wander village to village and ’just collect’ women’s hair and gives/sell baloon or jar against it. They don’t have much earning.
PTP helped her by raising funds for operation of both clubfoot. Now after successful operation, she is learning to walk on her own feet with her father’s help. She previously expressed very happily,” I would go to school after summer vacation on my own feet !”
Thank you so much to Khemadhamma and Yasmine to help Anjali including their generous donors that helped Anjali’s better future.
For more details; please contact - pple2pple [at] gmail.com
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Drop in Meditation Classes in Deal
Beginners welcome
Every Wednesday lunchtime 1230-1330, and, from 7th June 2016, also in the evening from 1830-1930
at The Golf Road Centre
28 Golf Road
Deal
CT146PY
cost £5
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Evening Drop in Meditation Classes in Birchington
Beginners welcome
Every Tuesday, starting 10th May, from 1830 to 1930
at
The Centre Birchington
Alpha Road
Birchington
CT79EG
cost £6
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Buddha Day Festival and Mitra Ceremonies in Deal
Buddha Day Festival
On Saturday 21st May - 1000 to 1630,
Sholden Village Hall, Sholden New Road, Sholden, Kent CT140AF
Led by Satyadakini and Danapriya
There will be four Mitra Ceremonies.
This will be a Dana event. No need to book. Please bring something vegan/vegetarian to share for lunch
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