These feel like crucial times for our order, and at times like these it’s especially important that we communicate well with one another. There have been some very fine examples of that over recent months, with people telling their tales of the past without rancour, and receiving some wonderfully empathetic and sensitive responses.
However, at times we have also fallen into less helpful communication patterns, polarising into ‘us’ and ‘them’, and imputing motives to other Order members when the information we have...
I’m keen to encourage more open discussion of climate change and the ethical issues it brings with it. I’ve facilitated a few sessions with Triratna groups on this topic, so have put together some notes for anyone who wants to hold a short workshop on this topic. Alongside this, I’m going to put together a short video on climate change and why it matters to Buddhists, which I will post here soon.
To celebrate 60 years since ‘The Survey of Buddhism’ was published here is your daily quote:
If we learn to pass from a knowledge of the conditioned nature of particular groups of phenomena to an understanding of conditionedness as a universal law, and from an understanding of this law to a realization of the supra-logical Truth which it represents, then we shall see the texts dealing with the doctrine of Conditioned Co-production not as a tangle of ‘contradictions’ but as the complementary
Summer time is here and we’re pleased to announce a new issue of our magazine, The London Buddhist, and a fresh programme of events. Whether you’re just starting to explore meditation and Buddhism or have been coming to the centre for years, we hope there’ll be something to catch your imagination. Enjoy!
*** From the outside Triratna can look like a homogenous organisation, but from within for much of our history it’s looked more anarchic and un-systematic, relying on personal connections with each project or centre financially and legally independent. This has had many advantages but one significant disadvantage is that when relations have broken down there haven’t always been sufficient formal or consistent ways of acknowledging and repairing...
Friends, As many of you know, there was a 5-alarm fire in Portsmouth NH on Monday, which destroyed several buildings adjacent to the Portsmouth Buddhist Center. Our center has extensive water and smoke damage, and the building we are in will be closed for some time for repairs. We were covered by insurance and will likely be able to open again at that location some time in the future. In the meantime, starting next week, we will begin...
Manjunaga sets the scene for the beginning of the Movement in 1967.
Given at the Tiratna@50 celebrations for the UK Northern region at Sheffield Buddhist Centre, Saturday 8 April 2017
It’s 60 years since the publication of ‘The Survey’. To celebrate, here is today’s quote:
Yet on the phenomenal plane, amidst the objects of the eternal world, including our own bodies - all seemingly so solid and so real - the holy life had, conventionally speaking, to be lived, and Nirvāna, though in the absolute sense not definable even as the goal, had, in a relative sense, to be attained. Ch1.10
A Note on ‘Disciple’: a Postscript to ‘What is the Western Buddhist Order?’
In the period since this interview was conducted in 2009, my use of the term ‘disciple’ as a description of a member of the Triratna Buddhist Order has given rise to considerable discussion.
The starting point for my reflections on this topic has been my understanding of the nature of Going for Refuge to the Three Jewels. This derives from my understanding of the Dharma and is connected, in turn,...
Some great sounds from a day celebrating Triratna at Aryaloka on the north-east coast of the USA. Bettye Pruitt from Portsmouth Buddhist Center interviews Dharmasuri, Chair of Nagaloka, the Triratna Center in Portland, Maine, about her travels in traditional Buddhist countries. Shaun Bartone leads the singing of the song is “I Became Awake” by Canadian folk singer Tony Dekker of the band Great Lake Swimmers. And then we get a longer harmonized chanting...
