Hi all.

A few years ago Ksantivadin and I digitalised all of Bhante's old Mitrata booklets on The Bodhisattva Ideal lecture series.

There are eight lectures in the original series, and eight pairs of Mitratas in the series. The first of each pair contains a lightly edited version of the talk and often some seminar extracts, and then the second of each pair is just seminar extracts.

(By seminars extracts, I mean extracts taken from study seminars lead by Bhante on those particular Bodhisattva Ideal lectures.)

All the booklets were approved by Bhante and printed between 1985 and 1988. They contain a wealth of Dharma that one may not otherwise come across, which is why we were keen to digitalise them. I hope they're useful for people.

I've included them all here in PDF, and include the mobi (for Kindle) and epub (for other eReaders) formats in the comments below.

Note that the lectures in these Mitratas are what form the Year Three module The Bodhisattva Ideal on the Dharma Training Course for Mitras.

Metta,
Vajrashura

A strong, moving, nuanced set of perspectives from Vishvapani on areas of historical controversy in the FWBO/Triratna, especially those involving our founder, Sangharakshita. 

The talk spans Vishvapani's long involvement with the community in both its light and "shadow" aspects - from first coming across the Dharma in Croydon, UK, at the age of 14 in the 1980s until the present day. It is in many ways a timely look at the past and the present, rooted in the Dharma itself as the most helpful context in which to try to meet and hold the inevitable complexities, while still attending adequately to clearly felt pains. 

We hear about his work in relation to the media, we consider communal history from the perspective of karma, we travel to Auschwitz as Vishvapani engages with a history of family sorrow that has much to offer anyone who finds there are no easy answers to suffering. Throughout we are invited to witness the past with a searching, admirable honesty, learning what we will learn and allowing space for a range of responses that might help give rise to a future where shadows are carried well as part of the Dharma shining on through.

Talk given in Cardiff, Wales, February 2017.

Read 'An Account of Croydon Buddhist Centre in the 1980s by Vishvapani'

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​Download archive updated November 2020 to include the full report from the Adhisthana Kula.

Visit the dedicated space for the Adhisthana Kula report

***

A number of Mitras have gotten in touch to ask where they can get easy access to resources around controversy arising from Triratna's past, including responses to allegations of sexual misconduct and other issues that are still being discussed at Centres and online. Here's a survey of all relevant public information and spaces on this site. We also encourage everyone to use the search facility too - it works well!

- Triratna Controversy FAQ (version 2.0): Web edition | PDF | ePub | mobi (Kindle reader) | azw3 (Kindle app)

Lesen 'FAQ - häufig gestellte Fragen zu Kontroversen um Triratna 2.0' auf Deutsch (PDF)

Other Resources
- Adhisthana Kula (+follow for news of responses to controversy and reconciliation processes in Triratna)

- Archive of Public Responses And Resources Around Controversy (download archive, includes Triratna Story chapters on controversy around gender, Guardian Article, Yashomitra's letter). I've also attached it to this post so you can share it if you like.

- Safeguarding in Triratna (under the main 'Triratna' menu on every page)

- Latest safeguarding policy documents for Triratna (2016)

- The Triratna Story (free eBook)

- Our Development and Values (covering controversy, with links to older web spaces too) 

- Communications Team response to BBC request for comment about 'Inside Out' (September 2016, also in archive above)

- Sangharakshita's statement (in various languages)

- College statement (commenting on Sangharakshita's statement)

- Responding to Triratna Controversy (Triratna News, 2017)

- Podcast: Safeguarding in Triratna

- Munisha's response to the Observer article

- Letter from the Chair of the College of Public Preceptors to all Order Members (March 2017)

- An Update On Restorative Process In Triratna (October 2018)

- How Do We Have the Difficult Conversations? (October 2018)

Our first major update to the Dharma Training Course has arrived!

You will find corrected versions of all the course files on the site, as well as download versions designed for eBook use on all major platforms. As well as PDF, we now provide ePub, Kindle Reader, and Kindle app versions, which means they can be easily used on whichever device you prefer to do your reading on. We hope you'll enjoy this next step in making the Dharma Training Course more accessible for everyone.

Year One  |  Year Two  |  Year Three  |  Year Four  |  Buy on paper

If you discover any errors or encounter any problems using the new versions of the course files, please email us direct at support@thebuddhistcentre.com and we'll try to help.

Hi all.

I'm happy to say that softback print versions of the Dharma Training Course are now available to purchase online from Lulu. Thanks to Lokabandhu for doing loads of work on this!

A number of Dharma books used in the Triratna Buddhist Community are available as print-on-demand titles and eBook distribution on this Lulu page, including the DTCM books.

You can also find the individual years here:

Year One (including the Course Guide for Students)
Year Two
Year Three
Year Four

I hope they are of some use!

Metta,
Vajrashura.

We're happy to announce the release of the new 'The Way Of Mindfulness' module for Year Two of the Dharma Training Course for Mitras. 

View 'The Way Of Mindfulness' | Download 'The Way Of Mindfuness'

Listen to Vidyamala's series on the Satipatthana Sutta

*UPDATE* You can now watch a great short film about the event on Triratna News.

To watch again as-live, please view via Facebook Videos. You will need a Facebook account to watch this.

***

Finding a video of a Mitra ceremony from the past this week seemed a good prompt to let you know about a further step into a digitally connected future with our first ever online Mitra Ceremony! 

Our friend Brian Groves has been attending twice-weekly meditation sessions on The Buddhist Centre Online for the past couple of years. He lives in Modena, Italy, and asked to become a Mitra (by paper letter!) a while ago. We're delighted to announce that his Mitra Ceremony will take place on August 23rd at 7.30pm in the Brighton Buddhist Centre, England. If you're in the area, come along and support Brian. And if you're not, as befits a Mitra in a primarily online context, we'll be streaming his ceremony live. :)

Tune in via Periscope by checking our Twitter account for details of the stream (we'll post them here too). You don't need a Periscope or Twitter account to watch!

We'll also stream on Facebook Live. You will need a Facebook account to watch this stream.

We will post the live links to both streams on the day on social media after 7pm UK / 2pm EST.

Here are a few general resources around what it is to be a Mitra to get you started, as well as some great background on Triratna itself. 

You can read an online version of the Dharma Training Course Guide, and get more detail about the general structure of Triratna. Or try exploring our timeline, and read more about our history over the past 50 years.

To go deeper, subscribe to these three great spaces (just click + follow when you get there):

Triratna News  |  Buddhist Centre Features  |  Community Highlights