On the 7th April 2018 - exactly fifty years after the first public ordinations into the Triratna Buddhist Order - Saddhanandi interviews Sangharakshita, the founder of the Order and movement.  The interview took place during a seminar on the Bodhicaryavatara held in Adhisthana.   To mark the 50th anniversary of the Order, Saddhanandi and Manjuvajra re-visited the 'Endlessly Fascinating Cry' which was one of the first seminars that Sangharakshita led in 1973.

The interview covers a wide range of topics including a typical day in his life, the moment when Sangharakshita realised that a new Buddhist movement was necessary and why he chose to found an Order, rather than any other kind of structure.  Sangharakshita also talks about the original seminar on the Bodhicaryavatara and how teaching is not just about conveying the meaning of a text but also about trying to convey your own feeling for that text. 

Saddhanandi draws the interview to a conclusion with a quote from the original seminar in 1973: "In other words, he [Shantideva, the author of the Bodhicaryavatara] is trying to talk us into devoting ourselves - in the Bodhisattva spirit - to helping relieve the whole mass of human suffering without going too much into whether it's your suffering, or my suffering, or anybody else's suffering. There's a big black cloud hanging over the whole human race, and it needs to be dispelled by the united efforts of us all."  May the Order and Movement be such a united force for dispelling the cloud of suffering in the world as we move into the next 50 years!

Watch the Lights in the Sky celebrating 50 years of Triratna

Read Sangharakshita's recent writings.

Find out more about the Complete Works of Sangharakshita which include seminar material.