“The whole sense that Sangharakshita gave me of the Order was of something where we were deeply involved with one another’s lives, where we were really standing shoulder to shoulder with one another, caring for one another not just spiritually but on all levels, and that’s really stayed with me. And the spirit of that is still alive in the order today. And I feel that The Abhayaratna Trust is one way we can really express that.” Vessantara
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'Standing shoulder to shoulder with one another' - an appeal from Vessantara
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West London featured in survey of Buddhist buildings
Triratna’s new West London Buddhist Centre, UK is the latest feature in the survey, ‘Buddhist Buildings in England’ undertaken by English Heritage with the University of Leeds. As they point out, it’s Triratna’s only purpose-built urban centre in the UK.
See the other Triratna buildings featured in the survey.
See all the Buddhist buildings featured, of many traditions.
Purpose-built Buddhist centres are rare for any Buddhist tradition in the UK. Another one - perhaps the other one - is Wolverhampton Buddhist Vihara, which has a Dr Ambedkar museum on the roof!
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The Mind Precepts
Vimalasara explores the mind precepts and the importance of reciting the "negative" forms of the precepts in English as part of the Women's GFR Ethics Retreat at Jikoji, San Francisco, 2016.
Listen and download: http://www.freebuddhistaudio.com/audio/details?num=LOC2728
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Ethical Speech
Tejavani gives a succinct outline of the speech precepts as part of the Women's GFR Ethics Retreat at Jikoji, San Francisco, 2016.
Listen and download: http://www.freebuddhistaudio.com/audio/details?num=LOC2727
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Who is on the International Council?
Hello
There have been a few changes to the Membership of the International Council over the last few months. Here is the most up to date membership of the council, arranged by area and by strand. Please feel free to contact people in your area if you want to find out more about what the International Council is up to.
The Steering Group meet regularly, and after feedback from all the areas, we’re hard at work planning for the gathering of the Council that will happen from the 1st to the 8th of August at Adhisthana.
| File Name | Size |
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 International Council membership April 2016 | 212.12 KB |
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Women of Faith: International Women's Day at BMAG -1
Samachitta, until recently Chair of Triratna’s Birmingham Buddhist Centre, spoke at an International Women’s Day interfaith event at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BMAG) on 10th March 2016.
Here’s the text of her talk, ‘Women who have inspired me’ in which she talks about the Buddha’s aunt Mahaprajapati, Dipa Ma and Triratna’s own Maitrisara, Birmingham’s mitra convenor for women - whose picture currently appears next to a Triratna kesa in BMAG’s exhibition ‘Faith in Birmingham’.
See the next post for the pictures. (The Buddhist Centre Online does not yet support posts combining attachments and pictures.)
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| Samachitta's talk: Women in Buddhism | 100.04 KB |
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Women of Faith: International Women's Day at BMAG - 2
Samachitta and other women of faith at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery’s International Women’s Day event, 10th March 2016.
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Women GFR Retreat
From 21st to 27th Apr 16 Women GFR Retreat Attended by 8 mitra and 5 Dhammacharini. Meditating in shrine above dinning hall in evening light of 5 to 6 pm meditation session..
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Rewilding the Mind
Last week I lead a rewilding retreat in the Scottish Highlands, a new collaboration between the LBC and the charity Trees for Life.
The degrading of nature and our loss of meaningful participation in its cycles is closely connected to the stunting of our feeling and imagination for what life is and could be. So on this retreat I wanted to make a connection between re-wilding nature and rewilding our minds. Just as we need to develop our vision for where the Buddha’s teaching could lead us, so too we need a vision of what our forests could be if they are to return.
Each day nine of us from the LBC set out with shovels to plant out downy birch and alder up the side of a barren and remote ‘wee burn’ or ‘pricked out’ Scots Pine and rowan seedlings back at the Trees for Life nursery. It was very pleasurable and a kind of relief to get my hands deep in the peaty soils and moss.
Periods of silence, meditation, dharma reflections and communal living were an important part of the week. They are the conditions in which we can re-wild ourselves and allow the qualities of awareness to take root in our minds. The Buddha was a wild man, in the sense of being fully alive and responsive, attuned to nature in its deepest meaning. To reach towards this we humans need careful tending as much as a tree does, probably more.
So what exactly is rewilding? The old Caledonian forests are a rich and diverse habitat, but due to deer grazing and other pressures, there is not much of it left. Many of us were shocked to see how degraded so much land has become. Today the old forests have just 1% of their original reach. Re-imagining the more abundant nature that has existed in our land not so long ago is the work of rewilding. It’s not about going back to a pristine past, it’s about going forward to a future where humans co-exist with the non-human world in a new more beneficial way.
In Scotland rewilding means encouraging re-growth of broadleaf and native pine forest. With that come the pine marten, capercaillie, wood ants and a host of wonderful flora and fauna. We do not make the aspen groves grow or the mushrooms do their delicate woodland work, but we can gently encourage the conditions in which they might flourish.
Thanks to everyone on the retreat and the knowledgable ‘focalisers’ from Trees for Life for helping make this a rewarding, informative and inspiring week. Trees For Life is a special organisation, which works with care, respect and dedication, knowing that the intention and spirit of the work is an important part of the task.
Do read George Monbiot’s “Feral” for an account of rewilding or check out Rewilding Britain.
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One Wild Day
See poster for full details
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The Buddhas path to recovery
Another one of eight themed day retreats for Triratna East Surrey and local communities at Lloyd Hall.
As ever, offered on a Dana basis.
Full details on website and Facebook.
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Sraddha and Imagination
In my Buddhist community sraddha is the word we use to describe the confidence one develops around something. This faith or confidence must be won for oneself through following our own intuitive sense of rightness. Something seems or feels to be right and so one tests the water around it through a variety of investigations and principally through giving it an authentic trial.
For example one may have read about meditation, seen the figure of a meditating Buddha or been around a person who one experiences positively and who meditates and so you give it a go. When you give it a go you begin to feel different; you calm down, you see things more clearly and you experience peace …….. and so you develop confidence in it.
But we also need imagination; we need to imagine a way of being beyond our current one. And so the faculty of imagination is seen as critical if one is to really grow and develop. We need to honour and cultivate our capacity to imagine ways of being that are richer and more satisfying than our current ones even if our current ones are really good!
I hope you can meditate with us this week:
Thursday 7 - 8.30 pm
Sunday 8 - 8.50 am
Much metta
Padmadakini and Dharmalata
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The Texture of Reality - Part II
Devamitra explains 2 of the Buddha's 3 core characteristics of reality - impermanence and insubstantiality.
Listen and download: http://www.freebuddhistaudio.com/audio/details?num=LOC2729
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Absolute and Conventional Truth
From the series of evenings exploring the message of Shantideva. Guided reflections on absolute and conventional truth. Bhadra shares how emptiness and conditionality combine to fuel bodhicitta and create the foundations of Sangha
Listen and download: http://www.freebuddhistaudio.com/audio/details?num=LOC2730
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12th June: day of prayer + action for people and planet
This faith-based event just happens to fall in BAM.
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Men's Mitra Afternoon - 14th May at the Glasgow Buddhist Centre
Dhammarati is visiting Glasgow and will be leading an afternoon of study and practice at Glasgow Buddhist Centre on the 14th May.
The afternoon will start with lunch from 1.15pm and will end at 5.30pm. Please bring veggie food to share.
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Launching of Ashvaghosh Prabodhan Manch at Nagpur
We are very pleased to announce that PTP have launched a cultural team at Nagpur. In this team all are learning to Dhamma and they are spirited to see this wing as a Dhamma Practise to spread Buddha’s Teachings in villages and slums. Though the team members are not a professional but they have strong inspiration of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar.
This Cultural wing dedicated their songs to Babasaheb on the 125 Birth Anniversary while celebrartion at Katayyuta Training Center at Nagpur. Dhammachari Amoghasiddhi and Tejadhamma inspired participants. Dhammamitra Rajan took wonderful efforts to happen this evening. Thanks to Khemadhamma for encouraging us to formation of cultural wing.
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Song presented by Rajkumar
In this first programme, local singers, the Ashvaghosh Prabodhan Manch (APM) team members presented their songs. Now APM is taking shape and preparing themselves to reach into remote villages of Nagpur.
Contact for more details : pple2pple [at] gmail.com
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Song presentation in group
APM team’s preparation is gradually improving and preparing for Buddha Jayanti programme for Nagpur slums.
Contact for more details : pple2pple [at] gmail.com
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Sunday Sangha - 1st May at the Glasgow Buddhist Centre
5:30 - 8:30pm
A team-facilitated impromptu night – an invitation to anyone who wants to help us co-create space with whatever we bring. This will be our first such event for sundaySangha nights so come along and help create a unique experience.
The evening will start with soup which will be provided, but please bring some vegetarian food to accompany and share.
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