Buddhist Voices
Buddhist Voices

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices: Samasuri (Highlights)

By Zac on Wed, 24 Aug, 2022 - 15:48

It’s the wounded healer myth. I guess part of me wanting to be Doctor is my psyche trying to sort all that suffering out… Helping others like I’ve been helped or am being helped.

Samasuri’s Annals:

In 1968 I was not born yet!

In 1978 I was 4 years old, so probably at a play group and living in South Devon with my parents.

In 1988 I was 14 years old. Living with parents and younger brother in South Devon still. At private girls’ school in Exeter.

In 1998...

Buddhist Voices
Buddhist 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...

Buddhist Voices
Buddhist 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...

Buddhist Voices
Buddhist 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...

Buddhist Voices
Buddhist Voices

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices: Suryaka (Highlights)

By Zac on Wed, 27 Jul, 2022 - 12:26

I need some sort of channel in my life, so that my energy can flow into it, really strongly.

Suryaka Annals
 
In 1968 I was 4 years old and lived in a small farming village in South Yorkshire in the UK. I lived with my parents and older sister. My grandma lived across the road and aunty, uncle and cousins also lived in the village. It was a safe place to grow up, everyone knew everyone else.
...

Buddhist Voices
Buddhist Voices

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices: Rijumayi (Highlights)

By Zac on Wed, 20 Jul, 2022 - 15:21

No-one was ‘sugar-coating’ things, or trying to give me priorities I didn’t subscribe to. I think there’s a real framework for transformation in the direction that I was looking for.


Rijumayi’s Annals:

In 1968 I was not yet born.
 
In 1978 I was not yet born.
 
In 1988 I was short. Tearing around on a bike, going to primary school, playing sport and generally surviving childhood.
 
In 1998 I was...

Buddhist Voices
Buddhist Voices

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices: Jayadevi (Highlights)

By Zac on Wed, 6 Jul, 2022 - 12:28

I’d be a bitter, burned-out trade unionist, I think, if I wasn’t a Buddhist…

Jayadevi’s Annals

In 1968 - I was living in Hackney, at St Paul’s Church of England Primary School. Winning the school scripture prize, attending Girl Guides, Church (C of E) and Sunday School.

In 1978 - I was a student in Liverpool studying English Lit and Psychology with Divinity. In a long term relationship with a boyfriend. The nearest I have ever come to being married!

In 1988 - A full-on GFR Mitra...

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Fifty Years Fifty Voices: Atula (Highlights)

By Zac on Thu, 30 Jun, 2022 - 14:35

I had to come into relationship with what was happening to me. I couldn’t run away any longer.
 

Atula Annals:

In 1968 I was in my hometown, Whitstable, Kent, struggling as a self-employed carpenter. Getting myself into terrible debt.

In 1978 I was living and working on-site as the foreman and worker (mainly worker!) in the Sukhavati/Old Fire Station/LBC building project. It was the last phase. I’d been involved with the ‘Friends’ for 7-8 years and ordained 2 years. Some time...

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Buddhist Voices

Aryavacin and Manjugita: Poetry and The Dharma Life (Full Conversation in Spanish)

By Zac on Sun, 26 Jun, 2022 - 11:51

Al igual que muchas de las historias que escuchamos en el proyecto Cincuenta Años, Cincuenta Voces, la amistad ha marcado la vida de los miembros de la Orden en toda nuestra comunidad internacional. En este episodio escuchamos a dos buenos amigos que comparten sus caminos y su historia de práctica del Dharma, con un toque poético. Desde Mérida, en el corazón de los Andes venezolanos, hasta el Centro Budista de la Ciudad de México, Aryavacin y Manjugita están animados por...

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Fifty Years, Fifty Voices: Akasasuri (Highlights)

By Zac on Mon, 20 Jun, 2022 - 16:24

The first mettā bhavana I was completely blown over and that was it. I thought ‘If that is a way of living, I’d quite like to live that way.’
 

Akasasuri Annals:

In 1967 I was 13 years old; a happy child in a little village in the South of Holland, near the Belgium border. I was attending secondary school in a nearby city 10 miles away. I had a lot of friends and was regularly send out of the classroom due...

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