Triratna news

Read the latest from Triratna Buddhist Community News below — from thebuddhistcentre.com — a web­site that keeps your fin­ger on the pulse and your heart inspired!

International Retreat at Taraloka 2008

Ordination in Sheffield

Posted 9 weeks ago

Kamalanandi's ordination ceremony in Sheffield. photos (c) Alokavira, www.timmsonnenschein.com Ratnadharini writes with news of an ordin­a­tion in Sheffield, UK, say­ing — “I am delighted to intro­duce a new Order Member to you: Gemma Lyus was privately ordained by Punyamala last Thursday morn­ing, dur­ing a ded­ic­ated ordin­a­tion retreat at Tiratanaloka; her pub­lic ordin­a­tion then took place at the Sheffield Buddhist Centre last week­end, on Saturday 16th March — with myself as Public Preceptor.

She becomes Kamalanandi, ‘She Who Delights in the Red Lotus’.

Sadhu!


[Link]

The Dharma School Seeks A New Head Teacher

Posted 9 weeks ago

Children's parade Peter Murdock in the classroom The Dharma Primary School, Europe’s only primary school to offer an edu­ca­tion based on Buddhist val­ues (based in Brighton, East Sussex, UK), is seek­ing a new Head Teacher.

Current head Peter Murdock is pre­par­ing to move on after more than a dec­ade of lead­er­ship at the end of this year. Since his appoint­ment in 2002, Peter has taken the school through two suc­cess­ful Ofsted inspec­tions (‘out­stand­ing per­sonal and social devel­op­ment’) and evolved the school’s unique approach to learn­ing and self-development through the Buddhist prac­tice of mind­ful­ness. A prac­tising Buddhist for 30 years, Peter has long been respec­ted by staff, par­ents and pupils for his abil­ity to make Buddhist prin­ciples rel­ev­ant and access­ible to all as “a prac­tical way of liv­ing” rather than a reli­gion or philo­sophy.


He said: “It has been an hon­our to be head of such a unique and innov­at­ive school and I have appre­ci­ated the sup­port and trust placed in me by the school com­munity. However, at 58, in my elev­enth year here I feel it is time to move on to new pro­jects and chal­lenges. Impermanence and change are cent­ral to Buddhist teach­ings and although this is a time of trans­ition, it is part of a nat­ural cycle of pos­it­ive growth and cre­ativ­ity that will bring new energy and ideas into the school.”


The school’s Board of Trustees has begun recruit­ing for a new Head Teacher – fur­ther details and an applic­a­tion pack are avail­able via the Job Vacancies page at the Dharma School web­site. At a time when the sphere of Mindfulness in Education is devel­op­ing world­wide, this is a unique oppor­tun­ity for an exper­i­enced teacher and com­mit­ted Buddhist to lead the school into an excit­ing new phase of devel­op­ment. We appre­ci­ate it may take time to find the right indi­vidual for this key post and Peter will stay on as Head Teacher until December 2013 if neces­sary to facil­it­ate the trans­ition.


Tony Owers, Chair of the school’s Board of Trustees said: “Peter’s extraordin­ary effort and com­mit­ment have ensured the school provides a truly roun­ded edu­ca­tion offer­ing not only a sound aca­demic cur­riculum, but also the bene­fits of a prac­tical Buddhist ethos and mind­ful­ness prac­tice. He will be greatly missed. We wish him well as we look for­ward to find­ing an equally tal­en­ted indi­vidual who can bring their own ideas, approach and lead­er­ship to our unique school.”

[Link]

Meditation classes take off at London School of Economics

Posted 10 weeks ago

the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)Erika Mansnerus writes from Triratna’s London Buddhist Centre with news of their new med­it­a­tion classes at the pres­ti­gi­ous London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), say­ing — “Silent lunch­time med­it­a­tions on Tuesdays and drop-in taught med­it­a­tion ses­sions on Friday after­noons are tak­ing place at the LSE. Altogether 10–15 people med­it­ate reg­u­larly. The activ­it­ies began when my friend SuYen Tan from the London Buddhist Centre was study­ing for her MSc degree. The ini­tial idea of paus­ing dur­ing lunch breaks once a week and med­it­at­ing together became a reg­u­lar prac­tice and we found other stu­dents and mem­bers of staff who wanted to join us. LSE Interfaith advisor James Walters gave his sup­port and made space in the Chaplaincy for med­it­a­tion.

SuYen gradu­ated but other med­it­at­ors wished to con­tinue. Last autumn our group began to grow, we did more mar­ket­ing through Staff News, and stu­dents organ­ised a Buddhism Awareness Society that asked me to teach them med­it­a­tion. A reg­u­lar group of five stu­dents met over four Fridays to med­it­ate and learn the Mindfulness of Breathing and Metta Bhavana. After this short course fin­ished, the Society asked me to con­tinue ses­sions over the spring term. I feel deep grat­it­ude to be able to bring the Dharma to my work­ing life in such a con­crete way.

Of course there is also the inter­est­ing con­nec­tion that one of LSE’s hon­our­able alumni is Dr Ambedkar. The his­tor­ical link to Triratna through him and our cur­rent pres­ence through med­it­a­tion feels very priv­ileged”.

With metta, Erika Mansnerus

[Link]

Meditation classes at the London School of Economics and Political Science

Posted 10 weeks ago

London School of Economics and Political Science Erika writes from Triratna’s London Buddhist Centre with news of new med­it­a­tion classes at the pres­ti­gi­ous London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), say­ing — “Silent lunch­time med­it­a­tions on Tuesdays and drop-in taught med­it­a­tion ses­sions on Friday after­noons are tak­ing place at the LSE. Altogether 10–15 people med­it­ate reg­u­larly. The activ­it­ies began when my friend SuYen Tan from the London Buddhist Centre was study­ing for her MSc degree. The ini­tial idea of paus­ing dur­ing lunch breaks once a week and med­it­at­ing together became a reg­u­lar prac­tice and we found other stu­dents and mem­bers of staff who wanted to join us. LSE Interfaith advisor James Walters gave his sup­port and made space in the Chaplaincy for med­it­a­tion.

SuYen gradu­ated but other med­it­at­ors wished to con­tinue. Last autumn our group began to grow, we did more mar­ket­ing through Staff News, and stu­dents organ­ised a Buddhism Awareness Society that asked me to teach them med­it­a­tion. A reg­u­lar group of five stu­dents met over four Fridays to med­it­ate and learn the Mindfulness of Breathing and Metta Bhavana. After this short course fin­ished, the Society asked me to con­tinue ses­sions over the spring term. I feel deep grat­it­ude to be able to bring the Dharma to my work­ing life in such a con­crete way.

Of course there is also the inter­est­ing con­nec­tion that one of LSE’s hon­our­able alumni is Dr Ambedkar. The his­tor­ical link to Triratna through him and our cur­rent pres­ence through med­it­a­tion feels very priv­ileged”.

With metta, Erika Mansnerus

[Link]

News from Triratna Istanbul

Posted 10 weeks ago

cover image for Buda Kimdir - Who is the Buddha Istanbul's second Mitra Ceremony VajracaksuVajracaksu writes from Istanbul with news of Triratna’s pres­ence in Turkey — and their first ordin­a­tion request! He says — “Hello Triratna News, I’ve been mean­ing to write to you all for ages with an update of some news from Istanbul. Generally my classes and events are going well, attract­ing more people for example — about 35% more than a year ago, though num­bers are still small actu­ally — 5, 7, 3 etc.

“One thing I’ve just star­ted is a monthly class spe­cific­ally for carers like school psy­cho­lo­gists, teach­ers, people who work with domestic viol­ence etc. I’m really pleased about this as I’ve been want­ing to do some­thing for people who help people for quite a long time.

“Another sig­ni­fic­ant change for me is that I now teach reg­u­larly on the Asian side of Istanbul at a heal­ing centre and they attract on the whole good num­bers. My first course there was my biggest ever course in Turkey so far with 15 people attend­ing. I go there one even­ing, teach a class, sleep the night there, then teach again the fol­low­ing morn­ing. Watching the effects of aware­ness, med­it­a­tion and the Dharma on people con­tin­ues to be a bless­ing, gen­er­ally ful­filling, some­times deeply so.

“I have a few more spe­cific things to report also. Last August we pub­lished the first Triratna book in Turkish trans­la­tion in Turkey, Bhante’s ‘Who is the Buddha?’, in Turkish ‘Buda Kimdir?’. And we are slowly get­ting our second book trans­lated into Turkish, Bhante’s “Human Enlightenment”.

“Last October we had our second Mitra cere­mony for Dogukan, swell­ing the ranks of the Mitra Sangha here in Istanbul to two! All three of us star­ted the 4-year Mitra Training Course in December, which is going very well indeed. It’s a source of inspir­a­tion to all of us. The other big news is that our other Mitra, Onur Pinar, in early March — just a few days ago — asked to join the Order! Which is excel­lent news! This is the first ordin­a­tion request on Turkish soil.

“In late March Vidyadevi will be vis­it­ing Turkey and she’s very kindly agreed to give a talk entitled “Desire For The Eternal: Desire & Passion in the Buddhist Life”. In all the almost 10 years I’ve been here noth­ing has attrac­ted any­thing like this much interest! Two of three weeks before the event it become fully booked. My shrine­r­oom can only hold at the most 23 people but at the moment 25 people are due in it, with a wait­ing list of 7! Let’s see what hap­pens.

“That’s it from me this time. I hope you’re well and thriv­ing in the Dharma.
Kind wishes, Vajracaksu”

Click here for Vajracaksu’s web­site includ­ing details of how to con­tact him.

[Link]

EcoDharma launch Forest Garden project

Posted 11 weeks ago

Looking out from EcoDharma - down to the approach road the EcoDharma Forest Garden project site the EcoDharma Forest Garden project team with their plan at the Eco-Dharma retreat centre Padmasambhava shrine at EcoDharma EcoDharma is a Triratna retreat centre situ­ated in a beau­ti­ful and wild part of the Catalan Pyrenees in Spain. Their com­munity and retreats focus on blend­ing the Buddha’s teach­ing with the emer­ging eco­lo­gical paradigms of our time: sus­tain­ab­il­ity, low-impact liv­ing, inter­con­nec­ted­ness, and an hon­our­ing of the insepar­ab­il­ity of the trans­form­a­tion of self and world.

Last month they began a major new pro­ject — a forest garden, thanks to a grant from a Swiss-based found­a­tion. Guhyapati, EcoDharma’s founder and dir­ector, reports — “The idea of a forest garden comes from the world of per­ma­cul­ture, and offers a way of pro­du­cing food modeled on the diversity, sta­bil­ity and resi­li­ence of nat­ural eco­sys­tems – apply­ing Buddhist eth­ics to food pro­duc­tion and care of the land-base. They are are an innov­at­ive approach to food pro­duc­tion which seeks to address many of the key chal­lenges of our times. They sim­u­late nat­ural pro­cesses in a way that sup­ports biod­iversity, ensures the nat­ural recyc­ling of nutri­ents, and builds nutri­tion and water reten­tion prop­er­ties into the soil. Being low in inputs and largely self-regulating once estab­lished, the approach con­trib­utes use­ful solu­tions towards the prob­lems of cli­mate change, fossil fuel depend­ency, and food secur­ity”.

“A forest garden is not just about agri­cul­ture in a nar­row sense,” explains Liam, a key mem­ber of the pro­ject team. “Applying our eth­ical val­ues to food pro­duc­tion is fun­da­mental to explor­ing how we can live in the world in ways that are less dam­aging and more respect­ful of life,” he claims. For many Buddhists veget­ari­an­ism and vegan­ism are often seen to exem­plify the eth­ical inten­tion to reduce our harm­ful impact on the world. Increasingly it is becom­ing import­ant to apply that sens­ib­il­ity to the wider impacts of food pro­duc­tion. “Industrial farm­ing meth­ods con­tinue to des­troy wild hab­itat, erode and deplete top soil, and neg­at­ively impact water tables and aquifers. Forest gar­dens and other per­ma­cul­ture approaches move away from these exploit­at­ive approaches and replace them with forms of agri­cul­ture that work with, rather than against, nat­ural pro­cesses,” Liam points out. “Today we are chal­lenged to apply our eth­ical val­ues more fully to ques­tions of sus­tain­ab­il­ity and the eco­lo­gical impact of our actions. At the EcoDharma Centre we want to find prac­tical answers that express our eth­ical sens­ib­il­ity in con­crete and mean­ing­ful ways. That is what this forest garden is about.”

Food forests con­tains multi-storied lay­ers of trees and plants, sim­u­lat­ing the vari­ous can­op­ies and under­growth of per­en­ni­als and climbers found in wood­lands. These lay­ers, ground-cover and shade, cre­ate a use­ful micro­cli­mate which can help retain humid­ity and reg­u­late tem­per­at­ures. Together with swales (ditches on con­tour to catch sur­face run off) and ponds, fed by springs and roof water, the sys­tem has been designed with help from Caspar Brown, a good friend of EcoDharma, to make the most of avail­able water and reduce the need for irrig­a­tion.

The pro­ject will help pre­serve local vari­et­ies of fruit trees. “As far as we can tell this pro­ject is unique in devel­op­ing a forest garden under these par­tic­u­lar con­di­tions, in terms of cli­mate and alti­tude,” says Grace, who has done much of the research into the tree vari­et­ies. “We have been care­ful to learn as much as we can from people in the sur­round­ing area, so that we can use tree vari­et­ies well adap­ted to these con­di­tions.” The first phase of the plant­ing includes over one hun­dred fruit and nut trees, together with vari­et­ies selec­ted for their con­tri­bu­tion to soil nutri­tion.

As well as fur­ther­ing EcoDharma’s aim of increased food self-reliance, the pro­ject con­trib­utes an edu­ca­tional dimen­sion. “We have designed in path­ways and glades. As the wood­land matures people will enjoy spend­ing time amidst the rich biod­iversity. We hope that their curi­os­ity into the com­plex­ity of evolved nat­ural sys­tems will be stim­u­lated, and that a grow­ing sense of won­der and appre­ci­ation can trans­late into respect and care for the nat­ural envir­on­ment,” explains Julie, another team mem­ber. The pro­ject is being run in col­lab­or­a­tion with the net­work Permaculture Barcelona who are devel­op­ing a partnered forest garden at the Can Masdeu social centre in Barcelona, for­ging addi­tional links for EcoDharma into the city.

If you want to learn more about per­ma­cul­ture and the eco­lo­gical applic­a­tion of Buddhist eth­ics, the EcoDharma Centre is run­ning a Permaculture and Deep Ecology course from July 20th to 27th 2013.

[Link]

Leeds Buddhist Centre cel­eb­rates local publicity

Posted 11 weeks ago

Uddyotani in the Leeds shrine room looking out of the Leeds shrine room windows...Jenny writes from Triratna’s Leeds Buddhist Centre with news of some great local pub­li­city, say­ing — “I don’t know if this is of any interest for the Buddhist Centre Online’s news sec­tion, but we have just had a full page in the Yorkshire Evening Post. It’s a very big thing for us of course, just thought I’d men­tion it! You’ll find it here. Best wishes, Jenny”

The piece includes com­ments by Uddyotani, Leeds’ chair­wo­man, who says of her Centre: “This is a haven, this is a beau­ti­ful place. That doesn’t neces­sar­ily mean they will be able to escape from the pain­ful things in their lives. What they can get is a more truth­ful view of the world.”

For more details of their pro­gramme, check their web­site www.leedsbuddhistcentre.org

[Link]

Indian TV fea­tures Sangharakshita

Posted 11 weeks ago

Vidyaruchi writes with news of three inter­views with Sangharakshita, made for India’s Lord Buddha TV sta­tion. He says — “Following the recent Order Convention at Bodh Gaya, we are pleased to present “United for the Dhamma”, a series of three inter­views given by Urgyen Sangharakshita with Maitrivir-Nagarjuna, an Indian Dhammachari.

Made in the sum­mer of 2011, their dis­cus­sions touch on many of the issues, dif­fi­culties and oppor­tun­it­ies facing those try­ing to prac­tise and propag­ate the Dhamma in India today, and include Sangharakshita’s recol­lec­tions of Dr Ambedkar, and of his exper­i­ence of address­ing the grief-stricken fol­low­ers of this great Indian Buddhist social reformer imme­di­ately fol­low­ing the death of their leader. We hope they will be broad­cast, to as many as 30 mil­lion people, later this year. Meanwhile, you can see find them in Triratna’s ‘Sangharakshita Interviews’ album on Vimeo”.

[Link]

Sangharakshita’s new home — Adhisthana

Posted 12 weeks ago

Sangharakshita arrives at Adhisthana The Library building at AdhisthanaLast week Triratna News hos­ted a series of five short videos intro­du­cing the new home for Sangharakshita and the wider com­munity and pro­ject around him, lead­ing up to the announce­ment of the new name on the last day of Triratna’s International Order Convention, then in full swing at Bodh Gaya, place of the Buddha’s Enlightenment.

We’re delighted to bring you news that it is… ADHISTHANA.

Not only that, Sangharakshita has taken up res­id­ence there. Watch him arriv­ing with his com­pan­ions Paramartha and Vidyaruci to a simple wel­come by the res­id­ent com­munity on February 24th.

Adhisthana is situ­ated in quiet rural land near the Malvern Hills, south of Birmingham, UK. It will be a centre for the whole Triratna Buddhist Community and Order, a place where people from all over the world will meet, study and prac­tice together, some­times in small retreats, some­times in large num­bers. It will be a place where people can visit to con­nect with Sangharakshita and what he rep­res­ents, a per­man­ent home for his lib­rary and archives, his images and thankhas, and in time, his final resting-place.

Its offi­cial open­ing will be in the first week of August. 3rd August sees a Dedication Ceremony for the Order with another, for the Movement, on 4th. You are all invited! More details avail­able soon from their new web­site www.adhisthana.org.

Adhisthana is a power­ful word in Buddhist dis­course. Here’s how it’s explained on their web­site:
“From its lit­eral mean­ing of a site, res­id­ence, or pos­i­tion, the word ‘Adhisthana’ is then applied to the power per­tain­ing to such a pos­i­tion. It can there­fore mean the power which belongs to divine forms, and in this sense comes near to the con­cep­tion of ‘grace’. It can also refer to the power that is exper­i­enced in med­it­a­tion or through the recit­a­tion of man­tras. In that it may be trans­mit­ted by a spir­itual teacher to his dis­ciples, it may also be trans­lated as ‘bless­ing’…”

The full cor­rect spelling, includ­ing dia­crit­ics, is “Adhiṣṭhāna” (dots under the s and t, long second a), pro­nounced “ad ish taana” with an aspir­ated d and t.

We wish Sangharakshita well in his new home. Sadhu!

[Link]

Introducing the Sangharakshita Land Project’s new home — part V

Posted 12 weeks ago

Today, in the last of our series of five short videos intro­du­cing the new home for the Sangharakshita Land Project, we meet the com­munity itself: men and women, mem­bers of the Triratna Buddhist Community and Order, liv­ing and work­ing together in a mul­ti­tude of dif­fer­ent ways but all, ulti­mately, aim­ing to cooper­ate to cre­ate con­di­tions for the arising of the Bodhicitta. It’s been winter, and not an easy time to be mov­ing in to an old and unheated build­ing: join them as they tell us a little of how it’s been…

If the embed­ded video player is not show­ing, you can find the video here.

Tomorrow, all being well, Dhammarati will announce the Centre’s new name, already chosen by Sangharakshita, to the assembled Order, cur­rently gathered at Bodh Gaya for the tri­en­nial International Order Convention — and we’ll bring you news of it as soon as pos­sible.


[Link]

Introducing the Sangharakshita Land Project’s new home — part IV

Posted 12 weeks ago

This week Triratna News is present­ing a spe­cial series of five short videos intro­du­cing the new home for the Sangharakshita Land Project and indeed for Sangharakshita him­self. Purchased late last year, on Saturday this week Sangharakshita will announce its new name to the assembled Order, cur­rently gathered at Bodh Gaya for the tri­en­nial International Order Convention.

On day I of the week we repor­ted it’s cur­rently under­go­ing major renov­a­tions — espe­cially to the drains! Today’s theme is ‘Making Sewage Beautiful’, and we invite you to join Mokshapriya once again, as he intro­duces their ambi­tious plans for a nat­ural willow-based wet­land sys­tem to handle the new Centre’s waste water and sewage. As we’ll see, there’s more to a retreat centre than Buddha fig­ures! When com­pleted, it will be Triratna’s largest retreat centre cater­ing for over 100 retreatants plus two com­munit­ies.

If the embed­ded video player is not show­ing, you can find the video here.

The videos were made by Clear Vision, Triratna’s video pro­duc­tion facility.

[Link]

Introducing the Sangharakshita Land Project’s new home — part III

Posted 12 weeks ago

For the third in this week’s spe­cial series of five short videos on the new home for the Sangharakshita Land Project, we take (or double-take) a look at the new shrine room. When com­plete it’ll be Triratna’s largest, with room for 500 people — at present, much vis­ion is required! Join Mokshapriya as he takes a long and ima­gin­at­ive look into Triratna’s future…

At the end of the week, on Saturday, Dhammarati will announce the Centre’s new name, already chosen by Sangharakshita, to the assembled Order, cur­rently gathered at Bodh Gaya in India for the 2013 tri­en­nial International Order Convention.

If the embed­ded video player is not show­ing, you can find the video here.

[Link]

Introducing the Sangharakshita Land Project’s new home — part II

Posted 12 weeks ago

We con­tinue this week’s spe­cial series of five short videos — and com­ment­ary — on the new home for the Sangharakshita Land Project, with a look at the pro­posed Sangharakshita Library and Exhibition Centre. Mokshapriya — a cent­ral fig­ure in the search for the prop­erty — explains the vis­ion lying behind these two new and import­ant mem­bers of Triratna’s ‘fam­ily’ of insti­tu­tions.

If the embed­ded video player is not show­ing, you can find the video here.

[Link]

Introducing the Sangharakshita Land Project’s new home — part I

Posted 13 weeks ago

This week Triratna News presents a spe­cial series of five short videos — with com­ment­ary — on the new home for the Sangharakshita Land Project and indeed for Sangharakshita him­self. In the first, amid change­able winter weather, Mokshapriya shows us round the main house and explains what it takes to restore an 18th cen­tury English coun­try house in Herefordshire, UK. When com­pleted, it will be Triratna’s largest retreat centre cater­ing for over 100 retreatants plus two com­munit­ies.

If the embed­ded video player is not show­ing, you can find the video here.

You can read some­thing of their ini­tial vis­ion on their blog: an ambi­tious brief that ini­ti­ated an intens­ive — and often gruelling — three-year search by the Land Project team, which finally led to the present prop­erty, pur­chased late last year and cur­rently under­go­ing major renov­a­tions. .

At the end of this week, on Saturday, Dhammarati will announce the Centre’s new name, already chosen by Sangharakshita, to the assembled Order, cur­rently gath­er­ing at Bodh Gaya for the tri­en­nial International Order Convention.

The videos were made by Clear Vision, Triratna’s video pro­duc­tion facil­ity.

Expect mud!

[Link]

Sangharakshita’s Diary, February 2013

Posted 13 weeks ago

Sangharakshita walking in the gardens at MadhyamalokaVidyaruchi writes with his usual monthly roundup of Sangharakshita’s news — this month sadly blighted by insom­nia. He says — “I regret hav­ing to be the bearer of the tid­ings that for Bhante the last month has been dom­in­ated by the exper­i­ence of insom­nia and the effects of insom­nia. Though not yet reach­ing the extent of the worst times dur­ing his annus hor­rib­ilis of 2003 (as described in the third of the ‘Reveries and Reminiscences’ — avail­able on Bhante’s web­site), it has non­ethe­less been unpleas­ant enough, and has neces­sit­ated the almost com­plete ces­sa­tion of the vis­it­ors that usu­ally give Bhante so much enjoy­ment.

Other than the mem­bers of the Madhyamaloka com­munity, the only per­son Bhante has been see­ing is Rosi, his acu­punc­tur­ist, whose twice-weekly treat­ments he feels help him a lot. On days when he has slept bet­ter, he man­ages to write the odd email, and dips into Shabda; and he still tries to have a walk when the weather allows this. Otherwise, plenty of rest, low input, and quiet com­pan­ion­ship is the order of the day.

We are now only weeks away from the move, and I am sure you will all join us in hop­ing that once this is achieved Bhante’s sleep will sta­bil­ize and he will soon be back to his old self.”

Starting tomor­row, we’ll be bring­ing you five short videos intro­du­cing his new home — and, at the end of the week, its new name…

[Link]

Job and Volunteering oppor­tun­it­ies across Triratna — February update

Posted 13 weeks ago

Following last month’s news story about new Job and Volunteering oppor­tun­it­ies across Triratna, fur­ther oppor­tun­it­ies have become avail­able.

If you’re inter­ested in med­it­a­tion, the long-established Vajraloka retreat centre seeks two new team mem­bers; if you want to work col­lect­ively to make money for the Dharma there are oppor­tun­it­ies at Windhorse:evolution and if fun­drais­ing for India inspires you, there are per­man­ent and volun­teer oppor­tun­it­ies at the Karuna Trust. The Green Tara Trust , run by Order Member Karunamati, seeks a full time fun­draiser, and there’s still some spaces with Buddhafield for their sum­mer sea­son of café work­ers and fest­ival volun­teers.

For a full list of cur­rent oppor­tun­it­ies across Triratna, check the ‘Jobs and Volunteering’ page on this site.

[Link]

Live blog­ging from Triratna’s International Council in India

Posted 3 months ago

Viveka from San Francisco and new friends from India on the Interational Council Morning light on the giant Buddha at Nagaloka A flower mandala decorating the shrine at NagalokaIt’s been a quiet period for Triratna News recently, with just one bul­letin in the past three weeks. However there’s a lot going on in Triratna and on thebuddhistcentre.com, with the second-ever meet­ing of Triratna’s International Council tak­ing place in India this past week. Some 30 rep­res­ent­at­ives from the US, Mexico, Australasia, Europe and the UK, and India have been gath­er­ing to review Triratna world­wide and to explore its next steps — for many, their first time in India, an intense exper­i­ence in itself on top of a packed week of Council busi­ness!

Candradasa, Director of the Buddhist Centre Online and a pas­sion­ate online com­mu­nic­ator, has been doing a remark­able job of live multi-media blog­ging with many of his fellow-attendees, and you’re invited to fol­low the action on the ‘Triratna’ space on this site. If it’s your first time there, just click “+fol­low” to get the full exper­i­ence…

You’ll find Yashosagar in song, Vajrajyoti delight­ing in the pup­pies and the mon­keys, Dassini on the train, and a won­der­ful video tour of Nagaloka’s open-air shrine room — all along­side ser­i­ous present­a­tions on how to estab­lish eth­ical norms in an inter­na­tional com­munity, how to deepen and intensify prac­tice, and Lokamitra talk­ing about the 40 mil­lion Indians who con­sider them­selves Buddhists (and a link to his PowerPoint present­a­tion explain­ing how Triratna is work­ing with them all across India).

Triratna’s International Council is made up of men and women from the ‘three strands’ of the Triratna Buddhist Community — the Order, the College of Preceptors, and the pub­lic Buddhist Centres and other pro­jects which together make up the ‘Movement’. For a simple over­view to Triratna’s inter­na­tional struc­ture see the newly-published online book­let ‘How Triratna Works’.

[Link]

Ordination cere­mon­ies in India and the USA

Posted 3 months ago

Hridayasri's ordination in San Franscisco17 women have recently been wel­comed into the Triratna Buddhist Order, in two recent ordin­a­tion cere­mon­ies held on almost oppos­ite sides of the world. Karunamaya writes from India, say­ing — “At the Public Ordination on 27th January at Triratna’s Saddhamma Pradeep Retreat Centre, Bhaja the fol­low­ing women were ordained :-

1. Naina Kasare: from Khed becomes Yashodipa — she who has the lamp of suc­cess
2. Shraddha Suhase Dapoli becomes Yashoshri — she who has the pure radi­ance of suc­cess
3. Puja Nanded becomes Danadipa — she who has the lamp of gen­er­os­ity
4. Leela Waghmare from Jalana becomes Sashiprabha — She who has moon light
5. Vimala Wankhede from Jalana becomes Sashirashmi — moon beam
6. Suman Wathore Jalana becomes Sashimani — She who has the moon-like jewel
7. Prathibha Shirke from Ulhasnagar becomes Gunarashi — she who has a heap of vir­tue
8. Mangala Kamble from Ulhasnagar becomes Gunakirti — she who is renowned for vir­tue
9. Shila Pagare from Ulhasnagar becomes Gunamati — she who has a mind of vir­tue
Their Private Preceptor was Jnanasuri and their Public Preceptor Karunamaya.

10. Manda Raipure from Aurangabad but becomes Amitadana — unlim­ited gen­er­os­ity
11. Leela Ghanbhadur from Aurangabad becomes Aryadana — noble gen­er­os­ity
12. Vijaya Nile from Dhule becomes Achalajoti — immov­able light
13. Shobha Magar from Ulhasnagar becomes Danachitta — she who has the mind of gen­er­os­ity
14. Shaila Gunwardhan from Ulhasnagar becomes Punyachitta — she who has the mind of mer­its (mer­it­ori­ous mind)
15. Lobha Tirpude from Ulhasnagar becomes Shraddhachitta — mind of faith
16. Vaijayantabai Adhav from Ghatkopar, Mumbai becomes Prasannadipa — she who has the lamp of hap­pi­ness
Their Private Preceptor was Karunamaya and their Public Preceptor Jnanasuri.

While in far-away San Francisco, she who was Dawn Pavli has been ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order as Hridayashri — ‘Radiance of the Heart’. Her Private Preceptor was Suvarnaprabha and her Public Preceptor Karunadevi.

To all, a very hearty SADHU!

[Link]

Update from Coddington Court and the Sangharakshita Land Project

Posted 4 months ago

the library building at Coddington Court aerial view of Coddington CourtRatnadharini writes with some news of Triratna’s new retreat centre at Coddington Court, south of Birmingham UK — future home of Sangharaskhita and formerly known as the Sangharakshita Land Project. She says — “It’s a big pro­ject! For those of you inter­ested in details … major devel­op­ments have included a nat­ural wil­low sew­er­age sys­tem (not a reed bed) that will deal nat­ur­ally with the out­flow from the sewage set­tle­ment tank without using elec­tri­city. Thanks to Ajjavin and Yashodeva, we now have sens­ible storm and foul drain­age, as well as new water and gas sup­plies. The neces­sary trenches — which, in the wet­test year on record, have been giv­ing rise to com­ments about the Somme — are nearly all filled in.

Apart from installing essen­tial ser­vices, the pri­or­ity has been Bhante’s new accom­mod­a­tion, where the paint is going on the walls and a new con­ser­vat­ory is arising on the south elev­a­tion. Sanghadeva has been mainly work­ing out­side, remov­ing the oppress­ive metal fen­cing (left over from when the prop­erty was a school) and thin­ning out under­growth to leave space around the trees and allow light to come through. We’ve been very grate­ful for the con­tri­bu­tion from volun­teers, and Suvannamani has been cook­ing for fluc­tu­at­ing num­bers. We’ve also been mak­ing con­tact with the local com­munity — who seem to be look­ing for­ward to hav­ing the Court back in use, and us as neigh­bours.

Work on what-will-be-the women’s com­munity is nearly fin­ished; which means the team will now move there and enjoy the lux­ury of cent­ral heat­ing, leav­ing what-will-be-the men’s com­munity free for work to begin. Then there are four other large build­ings to con­sider — includ­ing the spe­cial ‘Dome’ which will house the lib­rary, exhib­i­tion space, and pil­grim accom­mod­a­tion. Mokshapriya, Vajrasadhu and the archi­tect have been pre­par­ing build­ing plans and writ­ing plan­ning applic­a­tions; now the chal­lenge will be to have the pro­ject up and run­ning by the end of July — when events begin.

Now build­ing work is under way, we really do need your help — espe­cially any Order Members or Mitras / Friends with build­ing exper­i­ence; it would be fant­astic to put together sangha teams for spe­cific pro­jects — so please do get in touch. We will also need to redec­or­ate the entire site — which means a pro­gramme of paint­ing from now until the sum­mer; so if you can wield a paint­brush and roller — or would be will­ing to learn — just ratnadharini [at] gmail [dot] com (let me know).

With metta, Ratnadharini

[Link]

Meditation week­end for 18-35s this week­end at Rivendell

Posted 4 months ago

Rivendell shrine room this weekendHow about med­it­at­ing in a forest of stars? Triratna events for adults under 35 have really taken off in recent years. This Friday sees the latest: a young people’s med­it­a­tion week­end at Rivendell Retreat Centre, UK.

The Five Stages of the Path week­end is for young men and women famil­iar with med­it­a­tion and puja as taught within the Triratna Buddhist Community. Living and med­it­at­ing together, you’ll explore your own exper­i­ences of mov­ing from calm towards insight.

Singhashri says “Coming across the Dharma in my early 20s, it was import­ant to me to see and prac­tise along­side other young people who were as ser­i­ous about gain­ing insight as I was. And it was import­ant to be taken ser­i­ously in doing that. As a young Order mem­ber from America, it’ll be great to be teach­ing along­side Kamalashila, a Triratna teacher who has inspired me in my own prac­tice.

I’m also excited about the way the shrine room has been dec­or­ated: we’ll be med­it­at­ing in the forest with the Buddha him­self!”

Join them for med­it­a­tion, prac­tice reviews, group dis­cus­sion and fun. There are still places avail­able.

February 8–10

£115/135

[Link]

Login

Printed from: http://www.manchesterbuddhistcentre.org.uk/sangha/news/triratna-news

Scan to visit this page: