This month's letter comes from Purna, who was ordained in 1975 during the course of Sangharakshita’s first visit to New Zealand after having first connected with him through reading A Survey of Buddhism. He has had a long and varied Order life, living for periods in the UK and India, supporting the setting up of the Movement. He now lives on an island of the coast of Auckland, called Waiheke, along with his partner Malini; and is a part of the team responsible for the men’s ordination training process in Oceania. You can hear more about Purna's life in his '50 Years, 50 Voices' interview; or a talk he gave at Padmaloka in 2016 on 'Making Correction after Failure'.
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Dear Order Members and friends,
I have just returned from a one month ordination retreat at Sudarshanaloka in New Zealand's Coromandel peninsula. During the retreat we had the pleasure and privilege of welcoming six new Dharmacharis into the Order, one from New Zealand and five from Australia. This was the second one-month ordination retreat we have trialed for the men in Australia and New Zealand, following a long standing practice of the women public preceptors to ordain women more locally and the ordination program developed at Guhyaloka. Our ordination retreats have proved very successful following the flow of the system of spiritual practice, culminating in the introduction of sadhana practice after the ordinations.
Sudarshanaloka or 'Land of Beautiful Vision' was aptly named by Bhante in 1997. It has been easy to take for granted over the years what a stunningly beautiful place Sudarshanaloka is. Seeing it through others' delight, especially those who had not been here before, was a reminder of the multiple levels of meaning that the name carries. As well as the lush green tree ferns woven into the blanket of other trees covering the surrounding hills, the twin rivers on either side of the ridge, and the glimpse of the not so distant sea ... this ordination retreat highlighted a vision of beauty, truth and goodness which stands alone to satisfy the deepest longings of the human heart and begins meeting the suffering of this world.
Siladasa, Ratnavyuha and I formed a core team for the ordination retreat, ably assisted by the support of the Sudarshanaloka residents and the private preceptors who joined us after the first ten days. I have always found ordination retreats the most satisfying of retreats. Those attending these retreats really want to make them work and for most of the guys their ordination will be a spiritual highlight of their life. Our work as preceptors seems to be setting up the conditions and then getting ourselves out of the way. Shantideva's words could equally be sung by the new Order members: 'Today my birth is fruitful. My human life is justified. Today I am born into the family of the Buddha'.
I am also very aware that this month eight women with their preceptors are on an ordination retreat at Vijayaloka near Sydney. The numbers may appear small in comparison with the 19 Dharmacharinis ordained recently at Saddhamma Pradip, a similar number of women at Akashavana, and the numbers of men that will be ordained soon at Padmaloka on their way to Guhyaloka. Not to mention the February news of the first ordinations performed at Sudarshanbhumi, Sudarshanaloka's twin in name, in Nagpur. We all contribute however we can to the ever-widening circle of this precious jewel of the Order. Being acutely aware of the state of the world, whether war, climate change, ethical challenges with how we live and what we consume, as well as the social polarization and fragmentation that is so evident, we really do seem like a garden planted in a wilderness.
On the ordination retreat at Sudarshanaloka I was very conscious of the Order being, in some sense, Bhante's Bodhisattva vow put into action: the manifestation of the Bodhicitta arising within our collective activity. At the request of their preceptors, I led two of the new Order members through the Green Tara practice Bhante received from Chattrul Sangye Dorje. And I wondered to what degree Bhante's Bodhisattva commitment flows from the expression of a similar commitment in his teachers? Chatrul Sangye Dorje came to mind, but moreso Dhardo Rimpoche whom Bhante received the Bodhisattva samvara sila or precepts from in 1962 and whose ashes are enshrined in the stupa at Sudarshanaloka. This beautiful stupa is a reminder to me not only of Dhardo Rimpoche and the example of his life, but also of the flow of dependently arisen events that culminated in Bhante's Bodhisattva vow and the founding of the Order. I sometimes feel I am part of something bigger and deeper than the limited perspective of my personality and my limitations. Bhante's own words of reverence along these lines are deeply meaningful to me: 'I look up to all these compassionate teachers, whose influence has entered into my life and has through me entered into the life of the Triratna Buddhist Order. To them do I look up with devotion and endless gratitude'.
with metta,
Purna
> See April's Features from the College