*** From the outside Triratna can look like a homogenous organisation, but from within for much of our history it’s looked more anarchic and un-systematic, relying on personal connections with each project or centre financially and legally independent. This has had many advantages but one significant disadvantage is that when relations have broken down there haven’t always been sufficient formal or consistent ways of acknowledging and repairing...
Friends, As many of you know, there was a 5-alarm fire in Portsmouth NH on Monday, which destroyed several buildings adjacent to the Portsmouth Buddhist Center. Our center has extensive water and smoke damage, and the building we are in will be closed for some time for repairs. We were covered by insurance and will likely be able to open again at that location some time in the future. In the meantime, starting next week, we will begin...
Manjunaga sets the scene for the beginning of the Movement in 1967.
Given at the Tiratna@50 celebrations for the UK Northern region at Sheffield Buddhist Centre, Saturday 8 April 2017
It’s 60 years since the publication of ‘The Survey’. To celebrate, here is today’s quote:
Yet on the phenomenal plane, amidst the objects of the eternal world, including our own bodies - all seemingly so solid and so real - the holy life had, conventionally speaking, to be lived, and Nirvāna, though in the absolute sense not definable even as the goal, had, in a relative sense, to be attained. Ch1.10
A Note on ‘Disciple’: a Postscript to ‘What is the Western Buddhist Order?’
In the period since this interview was conducted in 2009, my use of the term ‘disciple’ as a description of a member of the Triratna Buddhist Order has given rise to considerable discussion.
The starting point for my reflections on this topic has been my understanding of the nature of Going for Refuge to the Three Jewels. This derives from my understanding of the Dharma and is connected, in turn,...
Some great sounds from a day celebrating Triratna at Aryaloka on the north-east coast of the USA. Bettye Pruitt from Portsmouth Buddhist Center interviews Dharmasuri, Chair of Nagaloka, the Triratna Center in Portland, Maine, about her travels in traditional Buddhist countries. Shaun Bartone leads the singing of the song is “I Became Awake” by Canadian folk singer Tony Dekker of the band Great Lake Swimmers. And then we get a longer harmonized chanting...
I admit I love the title of the event - “The Great Get Together” - who wouldn’t want to join in! - Especially as it is in honour of Jo Cox this year, who, as it says below, “believed that we have more in common than divides us” - well that sums us up too, I should think. Here is the info from the website:
It’s 60 years since the publication of ‘The Survey’. To celebrate, here is today’s quote:
As so often happens in the Mahāyāna sūtras, we find ourselves in this passage in a purely spiritual world which transcends thought and speech. Words are used not conceptually but symbolically, and their truth is not the scientific truth of the intellect, but the poetic truth of the imagination. We are in the realm of the spiritually positive, a world glowing with colour and flashing with light. Ch1.9
Subhuti is one of Sangharakshita’s closest disciples and a long- standing order member. Here is a link to a talk he gave at the London Buddhist Centre as part of their celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Triratna Buddhist Community
A group of us from Exeter and Devon travelled up to the Bristol Buddhist Centre on Saturday 8th April to join in with their celebrations. It was a lovely day and I personally really enjoyed being warmly welcomed by a larger sangha
As part of the day we listened to four short talks on one of Sangharakshita’s poems, Four Gifts:
