Vishvapani's usual good-natured and reflective approach is just the thing to start us off as he looks at how Sangharakshita's initiative in founding the FWBO might be viewed in terms of the unity of Buddhism.

Excerpted from the talk Three Jewels Buddhism - Finding the Heart of the Dharma Traditions given at the Triratna Buddhist Order Weekend, Wymondham College, March 2008.

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A New Buddha Rupa is inaugurated in Dewale village vihara. Buddha Rupa was donated by Vietnamese Monks and Nuns

Program was arranged by Yogita Moon and her institute. 

It was Ratnasambhava who has  request Vietnamese Monks for donation of Buddha Rupa.

Subhadramati gives a talk for Cambridge Sangha night as part of a series on the Six Distinctive Emphasis of the Triratna Buddhist Community. A talk full of energy, insight and inspiration on Ordination within Triratna. Given at Cambridge Buddhist Centre,  2016.

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Chapter Convenors Retreat led by Dh Ratnashil. 

During this retreat Taran Bhagat led a workshop on Deep Listening. 

It was good to meet Chapters Convenors all over Maharashtra as well as some from UP and Arga.

General Women Retreat led by Dhni. Vidyavardhini on subject Five Precepts. Supported by Bodhiratna, Abhayajyoti and Shuddhavajri.

Good to see young leadership and supported by elders. 

We’re glad to be sharing with you our plans to create a memorial space at Dhanakosa in 2025, a place to remember and contemplate. And we’re asking for your help to bring this project into being.

Dhanakosa is a significant place for many people, a spiritual home. We’re making a space on the Dhanakosa land where you can come and remember people close to you, or as a place to request for your ashes to be scattered, somewhere your friends and family can come to remember you.

Our vision is to offer a peaceful and reflective space for people to visit and remember or to simply sit and contemplate impermanence.

The memorial space will be on the loch shore, on the south side of a stand of birch trees below the meadow, making use of an area of Dhanakosa’s land that is rarely used by retreats and can be accessed without disturbing retreat groups.

There will be a sloping path from the road to a simple stone Buddha, a bench in a dry stone wall area, and a boardwalk out to the water for scattering ashes. We’ll add some native planting to the area. The sloping path will allow wheelchair access to the bench area.

We need £12,000 to bring this place into being, covering the costs of path making, drystone walling, seating, jetty, plants, a stone rupa and fencing work.

Can you help us?

 

All over the Buddhist world, there are Maitreya devotees. Maitreya is the sole bodhisattva recognised and revered by the Theravadins since he’s mentioned in the Pali Canon as well as later scriptures. Metteyya (Maitreya’s Pali name) is the Buddha who will arise in the next world age after the Sangha established by Shakyamuni, ‘our’ Buddha has died out and his teachings have been lost. So Maitreya is known as the Buddha of the Future. ‘Maitreya’ means ‘the Friendly One’ or ‘the Loving One’. In Tibet, he's called Pakpa Jampa – ‘the Lord of Love’, or the ‘Noble Loving One’. Therefore as well as Buddha of the Future, Maitreya is also the bodhisattva of metta or maitri.

At the centre of the Refuge Tree of the Triratna Buddhist Order sit the Buddhas of the Three Times: Dipankara, Buddha of the Past, Shakyamuni, Buddha of the Present, and Maitreya, Buddha of the Future.  Although Maitreya is a major figure in traditions all over the Buddhist world and sits at the heart of our Refuge Tree, Maitreya has remained little-known within Triratna. Maitreya’s sadhana (visualisation and mantra recitation practice) wasn’t one of those transmitted to our founding teacher, Sangharakshita, by his Tibetan teachers - although he did introduce Maitreya’s mantra to the Order and movement.

People who, despite this, have connected with the rich and fascinating figure of Maitreya often ask me where they can find out more. I have to say: ‘Well, there isn’t much’ – not of an accessible nature, anyhow. As an additional complication, if you try to research Maitreya on the internet, what you quickly discover is that there are many small religious groups all over the world who have been attracted to Maitreya as a ‘future saviour’ figure, or whose leaders believe quite literally that they are Maitreya. What they teach is not necessarily related in any way to Buddhism, and does not always look like moving towards wisdom and compassion. As a Maitreya devotee myself, I have written this piece for those people who asked me how to delve deeper and explore their relationships with this figure: Maitreya, Bodhisattva of Maitri (metta) and Buddha of the Future.

The chapter headings give a sense of the themes:

1. In Relation to the World: Bodhisattva of Metta
2. Wisdom and Love: Same or Different?
3. Buddha of the Future, Buddha of Potential
4. Letting Go of Time: Time and the Timeless
5. Maitreya as King: Power and Service
6. Awakening to Potential; Awakening to Limitless Love

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Find out more or purchase a copy

Maitreya painting by Aloka

Padmasagara explores the awe-inspiring vision behind the image of the Refuge Tree, connecting it to Sangharakshita's great insight into the centrality of Going for Refuge. Excerpted from the talk The Refuge Tree As a Vision of Existence given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre as part of the series The Cosmic Refuge Tree, 2019.

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In his first public appearance since his eyesight began to deteriorate, Sangharakshita begins this new talk with reflections on his blindness, displaying remarkable equanimity and humour in the process. His main subjects, however, are six particular aspects of Buddhist life and practice which are given distinctive emphasis in the spiritual movement he has founded. Here, he defines the ecumenical approach to Buddhism that our practicing spiritual community takes. Excerpted from the talk The Six Distinctive Emphases of the FWBO [Triratna], previously released under the title, 'An Informal Talk at Padmaloka', given in 2002.

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This is a newly combined role to increase attendance at WLBC classes, courses, and retreats, while also securing financial sustainability through fundraising, and potentially room hire. You will develop and implement strategies that attract newcomers and encourage regulars to deepen their engagement with our path of training. Alongside event promotion, you will cultivate relationships with donors, optimise fundraising campaigns and encourage a culture of giving within the sangha.

Team: WLBC Management Team, reporting to Amalavajra as Chair  

Time commitment: two to five days per week, as per your suitability and needs

Financial support: £25,200 p.a. plus £1,700 retreat allowance, pro rata, plus 5% employer pension contributions

Paid leave: 40 days p.a. This includes bank holidays which you can take when you like.

Location: some home working may be possible, but mainly you’ll work at the WLBC  

Click here to download the full job description and information for applying.

DEADLINE
To apply, please submit your CV and a cover letter outlining your suitability for the role to Amalavajra by Sunday 20th April. Interviews will take place 28-30th April.

We are delighted to give you a preview of an important new book by Vishvapani, which is due out in August 2025.

Reimagining Buddhism: Understanding Sangharakshita and his Teachings is a sparkling, deeply felt and penetrating account of the English Buddhist teacher, Urgyen Sangharakshita (1925–2018) – one of the most complex and brilliant figures in modern Buddhism. 

Drawing on the whole of Sangharakshita’s vast output, Vishvapani argues that Sangharakshita was primarily an ‘image thinker.’ He then sets out to trace the contours of his imagination, recognise the inner dimensions of his spiritual life and show how these forces shaped his life, his teachings and the Triratna Buddhist order and movement he founded.

‘Sangharakshita resists easy categorization. He was a thinker but not a philosopher; he commented on many Buddhist scriptures but didn’t pass on the teachings of a particular school; as a Dharma teacher he drew extensively on Buddhist scholarship but considered it merely a tool for understanding Buddhism’s outer expressions. The object of both devotion and controversy, his innovations could exasperate conservatives while his conservative temperament dissatisfied modernizers. He was part of a generation of westerners who studied with spiritual teachers in Asia after the Second World War and a unique figure whose contribution to western Buddhism fits none of its usual categories.’ – From the introduction to Reimagining Buddhism: Understanding Sangharakshita and his Teachings by Vishvapani (2025).

The book explores Sangharakshita’s career as a key figure in Buddhism’s arrival in Western countries and its revival in India, and examines his complex legacy, including the controversy surrounding his sexual activities and some of his views and how they affected his reputation within the Triratna Buddhist Community and beyond.

For those new to Sangharakshita’s life and work, this is a wide-ranging introduction; for more experienced readers it presents his teachings as a whole and in their full depth.

We are aiming to publish Reimagining Buddhism in August, which will mark the 100th anniversary of Sangharakshita’s birth. You can support us to do this by sponsoring the book's production.

Sponsor the book

Uncontrived Mindfulness; from Awareness to Wisdom with Vajradevi
A home retreat exploring awareness, acceptance, and wisdom.
Friday 1st August - Tuesday 5th August

Reserve your place here

Awareness is crucial to Insight, but a Dharma perspective is even more important. Without 'Right View' informing what we're aware of, we run the risk of reinforcing 'wrong views'. Wrong views are naturally present in the unenlightened state, but we can train ourselves to become aware of those ideas and distortions through learning to watch our minds. Mind watching reveals how we are relating to whatever is happening in experience, whether it be a thought, an emotion, or an arising through one of our senses.

We can relate to experience with acceptance, interest, and impartiality. Or we can resist and proliferate around what is happening, seeing a painful state grow before our eyes, feeling that we are seemingly powerless to stop it. All our dukkha; our dis-ease, dissatisfaction and disappointment come from this resistance.

We can see Right View as a 'curative' perspective. It helps us see how we cling and how through that clinging we create our own suffering. Mindfulness and Right View give us tools to relate to ourselves in ways that don't create further suffering for ourselves or others. We have freedom from fixed views and wise attentiveness in the palm of our hands.

There will be talks and led meditations, using the framework of the Satipatthana Sutta, the Buddha's primary teaching on Mindfulness. We’ll relate the sutta to the aspects of Spiritual Death and Spiritual Receptivity in our Mandala of Practice.

We will meditate using all 4 postures (walking, sitting, standing and lying down). The emphasis is on continuity of awareness outside of formal practice times. You will receive encouragement to stay present to whatever is happening, and whatever is needed, in any moment. This is a receptive and flexible approach to awareness with kindness as an implicit thread running through it, and understanding and wisdom, a potential in every moment.

Reserve your place here

Rivendell was established by the Croydon Buddhist Centre and began running retreats in 1986. Since that time it has become a much-loved retreat centre, serving the Triratna community, offering beautiful retreat conditions that can be deeply transformative.

Rivendell Retreat Centre is recruiting for a Full-time Team Member.
You would be living at Rivendell with Mokshaghosha forming the residential
community.

Our team is looking for someone who wants to create community and offer a deeper experience of the Three Jewels to those coming on retreat.

The team at Rivendell currently consists of 2 Dharmacharis and 1 Dharmacharini and two training for ordination mitras. We are seeking an order member or training for ordination mitra who has the willingness and aptitude to take on one or more of the following areas of responsibility. Relevant experience and skills are welcomed but someone with suitable transferable skills and adaptability will be given full
consideration.

• kitchen management including menu planning, organising volunteer cooks, food ordering and stock control
• bookkeeping/ financial administration
• office administration and office reception
• maintenance skills – e.g. building work, carpentry, plumbing etc
• gardening/ woodland management including the use of garden machinery

The role is open to persons of all gender identities. We require good communication skills, an ability to take responsibility and initiative, to work co-operatively and harmoniously with others. This includes participation in team days and team retreats including two working retreats per year. There is a requirement to provide cover for the centre when retreats are running including fire warden duties. This responsibility is shared with other team members.

All roles require a willingness to contribute to a variety of different tasks around the retreat centre, consequently, there is a need for you to be generally physically fit. Experience of community living and/or TBRL is helpful but not essential.

Rivendell is on the edge of the beautiful Ashdown Forest and the High Weald countryside of East Sussex. It’s located 40 minutes by car from both Brighton and Eastbourne and London by train is 1 hour 10 minutes away. The nearest large Triratna centres are Brighton and then Croydon. More local sangha connections can also be made in Tunbridge Wells and Eastbourne.

Given Rivendell’s location you will need to hold a clean driving licence.
A full support package, including support for car use is offered along with accommodation in the community annexe at Rivendell.

For an initial informal chat about the position please phone Mokshaghosha on: 01825-732594

The closing date for applications is 9th May 2025

The successful applicant would ideally be in place by mid July 2025