Tag: Triratna Buddhist Order

On a cold winter’s evening towards the end of 1969, at number 14 Monmouth Street, a small shop named Sakura, accessed via a side entrance through an alleyway, then down a narrow set of stairs into a basement, a meditation class was being held. Seated at the back of the room was Sangharakshita, dressed in robes, with a western pullover underneath, wearing an abundance of rings and long hair. Buddhadasa recalls this first encounter with a clarity as if it...

“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...

“We used to do rituals in the basement of the shop, invoking Padmasambhava while we made egg sandwiches”

Khemajoti’s Annals:

In 1968 I was living in my birthplace, Swindon UK, with my parents and younger brother in the house we’d moved into in 1960. I was finishing primary school where I’d been a bright, happy child (top of the class) and moving to secondary school where I met children who were more of a match for me. I was moving into the...

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...