Where are the most Buddhists in England and Wales?

Numbers of Buddhists in England and Wales went up from 144,543 in 2001 to 247,743 in 2011 (0.4%) according to an overview recently published by the UK’s Office for National Statistics.

Use the interactive maps in the Overview to see Buddhist numbers area by area, including, interestingly, a rise in mid-Wales (but not the neighbouring county of Herefordshire in which Adhisthana is situated. The last census predates Triratna’s presence here.) The increase should not be interpreted simply as an increase...

The “Triratna gender-diverse Buddhist group” on Facebook

Triratna has many Facebook pages, personal and collective. Padmavyuha (UK) writes with news about one of the newest, with already nearly 90 members.

The Triratna gender-diverse Buddhist Facebook group  is “open to anyone who experiences or identifies themselves as (for example) trans, intersex, genderqueer, gender-questioning or genderless. It’s open to our allies too; anyone who wants to support us better.”

Padmavyuha continues, “The Triratna community is a very nourishing environment for many women and men practising the Dharma, but not everybody experiences themselves simply...

Is Western Buddhism the perfect ideological supplement to capitalism?!

…at least this is what Slavoj Zizek, a Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic who writes an occasional column for the Guardian newspaper in England, has suggested. Vaddhaka quotes him in his book ‘The Buddha On Wall Street’*:

“According to Zizek, what he calls ‘Western Buddhism’ is the ‘perfect ideological supplement’ to capitalism. He believes that the emphasis in ‘Western Buddhism’ on meditation encourages Buddhists to create an inner distance from the ‘mad dance’ of modern capitalism, to give up any attempt to...