Tag: 50 Voices

Buddhist Voices

The Fire Within

By Zac on Thu, 23 Feb, 2023 - 17:41

In this latest episode of the Buddhist Voices podcast, Parami and Sraddhavajri engage in a conversation for the Fifty Years, Fifty Voices project. They share their early encounters with the Dharma and its transformative impact on their lives. In particular, Sraddhavajri reminisces about her childhood in Modinagar, India, where her parents were involved with Buddhism and the teachings of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s. She fondly remembers Dharmachari Amoghabhadra, who taught her Karate as a young girl, and how the kindness and...

Buddhist Voices

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices: Satyadaka & Sarvananda (Highlights)

By Zac on Thu, 27 Oct, 2022 - 11:26

“I think it’s about 18 years we’ve lived together, in one form or another.”

Satyadaka’s Annals:

In 1968 I was eight years old. I was into swimming, had just realised I didn’t like mathematics and loved the Narnia books by C.S.Lewis even more than the Alice books by Lewis Carroll.

In 1978 I was taking my A-Levels but was more interested in the life that seemed to be passing me by. I associated life with the Arts in general and with...

Buddhist Voices

Following an Inner Calling

By Zac on Thu, 27 Oct, 2022 - 10:28

Growing up in Chorley, Lancashire, in the northwest of England, Abhaya (1936-2022) recalls his early life as the youngest of four siblings, raised by parents who were run off their feet. With Dad away at the war, mum managed a small chip shop in which he and his brothers used to help out. Following in the footsteps of his older brother Jack, Abhaya would later spend several years at a Catholic Seminary, a period he jokingly characterizes as being like...

Buddhist Voices

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices: Sobhanandi (Highlights)

By Zac on Thu, 15 Sep, 2022 - 11:58

You come to a bridge. You look down. You see fish swimming in the water. But the fish don’t know you’re there, because that’s not their world. So the fish, their world is the water… You are conscious of the fish, seeing them, but it’s not your world. If you put the fish on the bridge, they’ll die. If you’re in the water, they die. That’s the world you live in, but it’s not the only world, because for the
...

Buddhist Voices

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices: Jyotipala (Highlights)

By Zac on Fri, 26 Aug, 2022 - 08:54

I must say, a couple of years before that, I’d actually – in one of my sober moments – not alcoholically, but… emotionally. I’d realised what an idiot I’d been in resigning.

Jyotipala’s Annals

In 1968 I was married and living in Brighton, working as a house painter.

In 1978 I left my wife, got ordained, and moved into the Aryatara community in Purley (not in that order).

In 1988 I was in India as an Anagarika [in robes], where I had been since 1981. I spent most...

Buddhist Voices

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices: Samasuri (Highlights)

By Zac on Wed, 24 Aug, 2022 - 15:48

It’s the wounded healer myth. I guess part of me wanting to be Doctor is my psyche trying to sort all that suffering out… Helping others like I’ve been helped or am being helped.

Samasuri’s Annals:

In 1968 I was not born yet!

In 1978 I was 4 years old, so probably at a play group and living in South Devon with my parents.

In 1988 I was 14 years old. Living with parents and younger brother in South Devon still. At private girls’ school in Exeter.

In 1998...

Buddhist Voices

Aryavacin and Manjugita: Poetry and The Dharma Life (Full Conversation in Spanish)

By Zac on Sun, 26 Jun, 2022 - 11:51

Al igual que muchas de las historias que escuchamos en el proyecto Cincuenta Años, Cincuenta Voces, la amistad ha marcado la vida de los miembros de la Orden en toda nuestra comunidad internacional. En este episodio escuchamos a dos buenos amigos que comparten sus caminos y su historia de práctica del Dharma, con un toque poético. Desde Mérida, en el corazón de los Andes venezolanos, hasta el Centro Budista de la Ciudad de México, Aryavacin y Manjugita están animados por...

Buddhist Voices

50 Years, 50 Voices: Malini (Highlights)

By Zac on Wed, 4 May, 2022 - 12:38

I have a very definite sense of something which is above and beyond mundane living, and that’s what draws me. That’s what Going for Refuge is for me.

Malini’s Annals
1967 - I was 17 and working as a junior secretary in the BBC Arabic service in Bush House. Here I met Ananda to be, who told me about Sakura as somewhere I could get incense however I not only got the exotic fragrance of incense but the...