Tag: 50 years 50 voices

Manidhamma - Resilience and Transformation (Full 50voices Interview)

By Centre Team on Tue, 21 Mar, 2023 - 15:30

In the latest episode of the Buddhist Voices podcast, we are privileged to hear from Dharmachari Manidhamma. It was during a big procession celebrating Buddha Jayanti (the Buddha’s ‘Awakening’ or ‘Enlightenment’), where a life-sized bronze statue of Dr Ambedkar was installed, and slogans of ‘Jai Bhim’ and ‘Victory to the Great Buddha’ could be heard.

As a young boy, Manidhamma fondly remembers making friends and playing while also going to the Buddhist temple and taking part in Pali...

Amritavani - Limitless Potential (Full 50voices Interview)

By Centre Team on Fri, 10 Mar, 2023 - 10:08

In this podcast episode, Amritavani shares her journey towards the Dharma, starting from her childhood fascination with something bigger calling her. She talks about her exploration of different spiritual paths, including yoga, Christianity, and the divine feminine, before finally finding her way to the Dharma through a meditation class in Croydon. It was at the Croydon Buddhist Centre that she met two inspiring order members who left a lasting impression on her, Vijayasri and Sucimani, who made her feel accepted...

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices: Karmavajra (Highlights)

By Zac on Wed, 9 Nov, 2022 - 17:00

It’s very difficult to practice without Sangha. Because you can understand things, but you need to transform emotionally. So if you want to transform emotionally, you need to share with your friends and colleagues.

Karmavajra Annals:

In 1968 when Bhante Urgyen Sangharakshita started our movement, I was not aware of it.

In 1978 I was three years old. I was born in 1975 to a Buddhist family near Nagpur, where the mass conversion took place in 1956 by Dr. Ambedkar. I was living in a...

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices: Sanghadhara (Highlights)

By Zac on Tue, 8 Nov, 2022 - 15:51

“Every day I need to communicate, every day get into communication with people… Within that, holding lightly to my own views and sometimes just letting it go and ‘not taking myself so seriously. So that’s an area of explicit practice for me.”

Sanghadhara’s Annals:

In 1968 I was… still in Deva reals of my previous life

In 1978 I was… fading away from lower devalokas

In 1988 I was… born in this human body that year on the 25th of March, right in the centre of Mexico...

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices: Amala (Highlights)

By Zac on Wed, 2 Nov, 2022 - 13:26

“The Heart Sutra was my moment of conversion, when I was 17 years old.”

Amala’s Annals:

In 1968 I was 14 years old, attending a Quaker High School in Washington, D.C., USA. I was very aware of the Civil Rights movement and the unrest all around me due to race issues. I was also aware of the growing peace movement(s) and started to be active in anti-Vietnam marches in Washington.

In 1978 I had graduated from university two years before with...

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices: Sobhanandi (Highlights)

By Zac on Thu, 15 Sep, 2022 - 11:58

You come to a bridge. You look down. You see fish swimming in the water. But the fish don’t know you’re there, because that’s not their world. So the fish, their world is the water… You are conscious of the fish, seeing them, but it’s not your world. If you put the fish on the bridge, they’ll die. If you’re in the water, they die. That’s the world you live in, but it’s not the only world, because for the
...

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices: Jyotipala (Highlights)

By Zac on Fri, 26 Aug, 2022 - 08:54

I must say, a couple of years before that, I’d actually – in one of my sober moments – not alcoholically, but… emotionally. I’d realised what an idiot I’d been in resigning.

Jyotipala’s Annals

In 1968 I was married and living in Brighton, working as a house painter.

In 1978 I left my wife, got ordained, and moved into the Aryatara community in Purley (not in that order).

In 1988 I was in India as an Anagarika [in robes], where I had been since 1981. I spent most...

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices: Manjuvajra (Highlights)

By Zac on Wed, 10 Aug, 2022 - 09:55

What’s happened over the years is I’ve got more and more confident in the existence of the Buddha, the effectiveness of the Dharma and the joy of the Sangha.

Manjuvajra’s Annals:

In 1968 I was 21 years old, living in London, enjoying the ‘Swinging 60’s’, studying physics at Imperial College, exploring sex and drugs, dabbling in religion and psychology, and spending the summer hitch-hiking with my future wife across Europe to Yugoslavia and Turkey.

In 1978 I was doing research connected with...

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices: Maitripala (highlights)

By Zac on Thu, 4 Aug, 2022 - 12:45

I don’t need to go away from samsara to be really going for refuge. I can be right in the middle of it.

Maitripala Annals:

In 1968, I was 12 years old. I was living with my parents and siblings in suburban Reservoir, Melbourne Australia.
I was second eldest (first daughter) of five children. We had moved up to the city from an idyllic country life in Gippsland to have closer access to secondary schools. My early life...

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices: Dhammadinna (highlights)

By Zac on Tue, 2 Aug, 2022 - 15:22

I want people to have the freedom to do what they need to do to grow as individuals AND I want the movement to have that very strong collective dimension. That can be a source of tension for me.

Dhammadinna Annals:

In 1968 I was 22, and recently graduated from Imperial College of Science and Technology, with a Biology degree. I was a hippy, living with my partner in the Notting Hill area, temping and making clothes, and exploring...

Tag: 50 years 50 voices

Pages