Yesterday the 35 or so European Chairs began the day with meditation as every day; followed by a presentation on the work of the College of Public Preceptors, from its Chair, Saddhaloka.
They looked at ideas for future international celebrations of Triratna: there's the 60th anniversary of Dr Ambedkar's conversion to Buddhism, which falls in 14th October this year and is so particularly important for our sangha in India. In April 2017 there is the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order, (which became the Triratna Buddhist Community in 2010).
In the evening Clear Vision's Upekshapriya showed the two short films he helped to make in his twenties, which gave rise to the recent hit film 'Pride', which he had shown the night before.
Today the Chairs held their concluding business meeting and enjoyed a number of short spontaneous talks. Feedback on the meeting was sought by asking us to chart our personal highs and lows on a timeline of the week. (See picture.)
The evening saw farewell rejoicings in the merits of four Chairs who are retiring: Samachitta (Birmingham, UK), Amoghavajra (Ipswich, UK), Manigarbha (Akashavana, Spain) and Suryamati (Sheffield, UK). We ended in a particularly moving closing circle in which there was much appreciation of the depth, maturity and friendliness of the meeting, and of the vital support it provides for people doing the demanding job of running Buddhist centres across Europe.