Saturday March 18th: Subhadramati and friends​ celebrating equal ordination for women 

To celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, we’re teaming up with Manchester Buddhist Centre in the UK to shine a spotlight on one of Triratna’s distinctive emphases – equal ordination for women. In fact, when Sangharakshita our founder created our Order in 1968 the very first person to be ordained was a woman.

Subhadramati, Dhammadinna, Dayanandi and friends will tell this 55 year history through their personal experiences. And we’ll hear what’s needed for the next 55 years to respond to the aspirations of women around the world, through Tiratanaloka Unlimited.

Please join us to hear how women have created retreat centres such as Taraloka and Tiratanaloka, enabling women to deepen their Dharma lives, train for ordination, and become a force for good in the world.

About the event

Everyone is welcome for this wonderful opportunity to hear from some of the most senior and respected members of the Triratna Buddhist Order. Subhadramati currently lives at Tiratanaloka Retreat Centre and is leading their ambitious and exciting project to find a new, much bigger home – Tiratanaloka Unlimited.

March 18 (1 hr 45 mins): USA PST 07:30 | México 08:30 | USA EST 10:30 | IE & UK 14:30 | Europe CET 15:30 | India 20:00 | Australia AEDT 01.30 (next day) | New Zealand NZDT 03.30 (next day)

CONNECT ON ZOOM!

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This event is a fundraiser for Tiratanaloka Unlimited, enabling women around the world to be a force for good!

​Suggested donation: Give what you feel inspired to give!

The last two decades have seen a growth in Western scholarship about women in Buddhism. The Therīgāthā, a selection of 73 poems by enlightened Buddhist nuns over a 300-year period from the sixth century BCE, has had multiple recent translations and commentaries. Scholars including Rita Gross and Anne C. Klein have conducted feminist re-evaluations of Buddhism, while others have explored the experiences of women practising in specific cultures (for example, Martine Batchelor on her experience as a Jogye Zen nun in Korea; Shenpen Hookham’s recent memoir in which she describes her introduction to Tibet Buddhism in India; Martin Seeger on Thai renunciates). Common threads are the inferior place assigned to women in Buddhism and their negative portrayal in classic texts – highlighting a need for reclamation and celebration of women’s contribution and achievements. With this new book, I Hear Her Words: An Introduction to Women in Buddhism, Alice Collett draws on such resources, and her own extensive scholarship, to present an accessible survey of women within Buddhist texts, doctrine and movements. 

Written with a general reader in mind, the first part of the book considers ethical formulations, texts and basic doctrine asking if Buddhism supports gender equality, while the second part looks at the lives of individual women and groups of women from Buddhism’s earliest history to the present day. Context is key to Collett’s textual analysis. Contrasting the work of Eastern and Western women scholars on Buddhism, she questions the usefulness of the Western ‘rights-based’ feminist analytical lens and advocates a broader socio-historical approach to texts, steering the reader away from generalised assumptions about the place and treatment of women in Buddhism based on certain texts or indeed schools of Buddhism. For example, in her investigation of the ‘eight special rules’ that the Buddha is said to have given to the first Buddhist nuns, Collett posits that while the eight rules have been used to cast women as inferior throughout the history of Buddhism, it is possible that they were conceived in the spirit of protection – to safeguard nuns. These women would have been an oddity in the India of the Buddha's time (and in the centuries following), and their acts of renunciation were radical and potentially dangerous in a way that men’s were not. Their vows of celibacy meant nothing in a culture where women lived their lives wholly under the guardianship of men, and those who didn't were considered sexually available. Therefore, Collett argues, the guardianship of monks may have been for the nuns’ protection. If they 'belonged' to the monks, they are unavailable to other men. 

Encouraging readers to approach texts with a critical mind, Collett is at pains to point out that they can be edited or altered to suit the predilections of an individual or school of Buddhism; that sources of texts are often difficult if not impossible to confirm (the legitimacy of the eight rules as a direct teaching of the Buddha, for example, has been validly called into question); that the shared narratives about women in given societies will have inevitably made their way into Buddhist texts; and that some texts may reflect only the views of their authors, small groups or specific movements. 

With that critical framework in place, Collett presents a range of Buddhist texts to show the divergence in how women have been characterised. These include various examples of women and men being portrayed as equal in the challenges they overcame to attain enlightenment. She also presents examples of the harshest vilification of women, including that ascribed to the Buddha in the story of King Udaya, Śāntideva’s vehement tirades in his ‘Discourse on the Application of Mindfulness to the Holy Teachings’, and a particularly hard-to-stomach, stand-alone exposition on the ‘subhuman’ nature of women found in an anonymous commentary on the teachings of Phadampa Sangye. 

Acknowledging the difficulty in dating them with certainty, she suggests that the earliest texts in the Pali canon depict men and women on a more equal footing, while more negative portrayals of women are to be found in later Buddhist texts. The tropes found in those texts will be familiar to modern readers: women have limited minds, are better suited to domestic life, are over-emotional, cruel, manipulative, seductresses, etc. 

Turning from texts to doctrine Collett considers dependent arising, the doctrine of no-self, and the Mahāyāna notion of emptiness, which “whilst not consistently and continuously central in every Buddhist tradition, certainly underpin many basic facets of what constitutes a Buddhist worldview.” Taking each in turn she illustrates their universality using accessible language and examples: all humans are subject to the twelve nidanas (links), composed of the five aggregates, conditioned by their experiences, and are ever-changing with no fixed self. To characterise women as other than this, as having fixed tendencies of cruelty or being over-emotional, for example, is therefore non-doctrinal. 

The second part of the book provides a useful history of women in Buddhism, starting with an interesting selection of short biographies of Buddhist women including three early nuns whose stories feature in the Therīgāthā (Dhammadinna, Bhaddā Kundalakesā, Patācārā); Zhu Jingjian, thought to be the first woman ordained in China (in 317 CE); Qiyuan Xinggang (1597–1654) a seventeenth-century female Chan master; Chiyo-ni (1703–75), a Japanese haiku master as well known in her time as Bashō, who produced some 1,700 poems; and Mae Chi Kaew Sianglam (1901–91), a Thai female 'renunciate'.

Collett then surveys the history of women in Buddhist traditions more generally, demonstrating the real-life consequences of negative textual portrayals, as well as the huge influence of women (and deities and bodhisattvas in female form) in South and Southeast Asia (Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Burma, Thailand) where Theravāda Buddhism predominates but there is no formal status for women to live as nuns; East Asian countries (China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan) where access to ordination has not necessarily meant better treatment; and Tibet, where a nuns' order has never been established.

Collett concludes her survey by looking at women involved in Buddhism in the West. Important early figures discussed include Caroline Rhys Davids who published a pioneering translation of the Therīgāthā in 1909; I. B. Horner, author of the first English language book on women in Women Under Primitive Buddhism (1930); and Helena Blavatsky founder of the Theosophical Society which drew on Buddhism in developing its rather esoteric world view. She touches briefly on the role other Western women played in the spread of Buddhism in the twentieth century, before turning to the issues around gender that inevitably came with it and concludes with an exploration of specific contemporary problems encountered within the Theravāda, Tibetan and Triratna Buddhist communities. 

Ambitious in scope and accessible in language and length, this is a useful primer and reference work for those interested in expanding their knowledge of the roles played by (and treatment of) women in Buddhism since its beginnings; and gives readers the opportunity to meet some extraordinary, resilient, and pioneering teachers and practitioners along the way.

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Alice Collett is an academic specialising in women in Indian Buddhism. Her previous books include the edited volume Women in Early Indian Buddhism: Comparative Textual Studies (2013) and the monograph Lives of Early Buddhist Nuns: Biographies as History (2016). She has worked at several universities around the world – in North America, Europe, and Asia, and is currently Director of the South Asia History Project, United Kingdom.

Liz Evers is a member of the Buddhist Centre Online team. She is the author of a number of non-fiction reference books, and currently specialises in biographical research.  

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Purchase I Hear Her Words: An Introduction to Women in Buddhism (2021) from Windhorse Publications. 

Join us for a live book launch event on Tuesday 13 July, where Alice Collett will be in conversation with Danasamudra, co-founder of the Triratna Women Project and Librarian of the Sangharakshita Library at Adhisthana.

Download this review as a PDF

Introducing I Hear Her Words: An Introduction to Women in Buddhism - A Book Launch
Windhorse Publications will be hosting a conversation between Danasamudra and the author of their most recent book I Hear Her Words: An Introduction to Women in Buddhism, Alice Collett.

Tuesday 13th July, 1 hour 30 minutes

11.00 US PST |  13.00 Mexico  |  14.00 US EST  |  19.00 IE & UK  |  20.00 Europe CET  |  23.30 India  |  04.00 Australia EST  |  06.00 New Zealand

About the book
Core Buddhist doctrines and ethics provide no justification for the notion that women are inferior to men, but Buddhism was born and developed in societies that held traditional views of women. Social and cultural norms that position women as inferior to men have found their way into Buddhist tradition and some Buddhist texts.

This book gives access to rarely told stories of the many inspiring Buddhist women who ignored or fought against attempted constraint to become devoted disciples, practitioners, and esteemed teachers.

Come and find out more and hear their stories.

Find out more about this event + link to join

Buy the book here

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Alice Collett is an academic who specializes in women in Indian Buddhism. Her books include the edited volume Women in Early Indian Buddhism: Comparative Textual Studies (2013) and the monograph, Lives of Early Buddhist Nuns: Biographies as History (2016). She is currently Director of the South Asia History Project, United Kingdom.

Danasamudra is co-founder of the Triratna Women Project and Librarian of the Sangharakshita Library at Adhisthana

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Join this event on Tuesday 13th July

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I’m Kusaladevi and I was ordained in 2015 at Akashavana retreat centre in Spain. I live in Nottingham in the UK, with my partner Paraga, who is also a member of the Triratna Buddhist Order. I’m the chair at the Buddhist centre in Nottingham, so most of my days are spent preparing, supporting and leading events for the Sangha (Buddhist community), meeting Sangha members and doing various tasks to ensure things run well at the Buddhist Centre. I also work one day a week for the Buddhist centre online which I really enjoy. I love hillwalking and one of my highlights of the year was climbing Hellvellyn via Striding Edge on our Lake District holiday between lockdowns and the wonderful sense of space, beauty and adventure we were blessed with on that walk.

The last year has presented some surprises and unexpected twists for me! I moved in with my partner in February, which has been a delight - we’ve been in a relationship for 16 years, but never lived together and lived very independent lives. I was also fortunate to start two new jobs, with FutureDharma and Dharmachakra. I’ve loved working in two remote Triratna teams this year, as I’m particularly interested in how Dharma practice manifests through work, communication and friendship.

This year has highlighted my tendencies around how I engage my energies, both within and outside of work. Being in the same space a lot of the time (working from home) has presented challenges in this area - how to transition from work to other activities, when to engage my energy outwardly and when to withdraw to focus on inner Dharma practice. I think I’ll be working this all out for the rest of my life! 

I’m amazed at the mysterious process that took place last year and resulted in a very strong, wholehearted and intuitive wish to respond to the Nottingham Sangha by becoming chair at the Buddhist centre. It was an unexpected surprise! It’s such a delight to be learning in this role and serving the Nottingham Sangha. I’m also enjoying being part of Interfaith activities in Nottingham - it’s inspiring connecting with others on the basis of our faith. I’ve found the conversations in the Order and more widely in society around race and diversity stirring and moving and I hope to bring some of my learning from these conversations into my role as chair. 

Although the pandemic has been deeply challenging and difficult for so many, I’ve been moved by the resilience and adaptability of humans and the stronger emphasis on looking out for others and generosity amongst local communities. I’ve also enjoyed some moments of connecting with strangers whilst out walking, even if that’s just a shared smile. I have been amazed at how effective online events and retreats can be and it’s been particularly inspiring to connect with other practitioners all around the world.

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I was ordained at Akashavana in 2019. I live in Krakow/Poland. I live on my own renting a small flat near the river and our Buddhist Centre. I am working for the Buddhist Centre as a Centre manager so my life is mostly focused around the sangha, working closely with my centre team, creating conditions for the centre to grow, and supporting the women's wing in Poland. At the moment I am spending quite a bit of my time sitting in front of the computer, meeting on zoom and leading online classes but also meeting with people on walks by the river in Krakow or hiking in the mountains every now and then. This is now possible in our country. I also visit my family from time to time who live 2 hours drive from Krakow. 

Morning meditation starts my day and thanks to the availability of online retreats I take part in them connecting with the sangha worldwide. I sometimes dance at home in the evenings to the songs that inspire me in the present moment when no one can see me ;)

It has been a challenging year but there were some positive sides of it too. Beginning of the pandemic was quite scary but the first couple of weeks enabled me to slow down and stop some activities which was very pleasurable and insightful. Then very quickly at our centre we decided to run online classes and we all became very busy with that, planning the programme, learning fast new skills, finding new ways of staying connected with the sangha locally. So in a way life continued in it's own, new, weird, busy way – online. I remember from that time how much I missed being out amongst the trees, green grass, flowers, I missed the nature.

The most positive outcome was to see how interconnected we are as a sangha and that did not stop even with the pandemic. We all experienced benefits of connecting with the sangha worldwide which in a way was a blessing of  that strange time. I got a lot from it. I can not imagine where would I be without it really. I remember reflecting at some point on my ordination, I was only few months old, seeing the strength of my practice coming from that commitment and the support that that gave me to be with the suffering both of my own and of others. I felt so much gratitude. Locally our sangha grew in the pandemic and the bonds between us became stronger. We needed one another and that helped us to survive.

My Dharma life has changed in the way that in the past I would travel few times a year to stay with my sangha friends in UK and participate in retreats. Now it has been replaced by more zoom and online retreats. This works and keeps my Dharma practice going but obviously I miss seeing my friends.

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I am Tarahridaya and I was ordained on 23rd January 2005. I live in Pune (Maharashtra) India, with my two children. My son is 24 and my daughter is 21. My son is doing a job and my daughter has recently finished her graduation. My husband is also an order member, call Abhayaraja, we married 28 years ago. We both are working for the Triratna Buddhist movement. At present I am working in the women's ordination process training team.

Generally I am away from my home two to three weeks, sometimes one week every month, for retreats or visits to different Buddhist centers, but in this last year we had to be at home. We could not go out and had to stay fully at our small apartment all the time. Sometimes it was a bit difficult to be there all the time, without any personal space, but later we got used to it and started online meetings, retreats and talks.

This was the first time that I did lots of online dhamma teaching, which we have never done in our life. We also listened to lots of dhamma talks online. Though it's not as effective as when we do retreats in retreat Centers, and sometimes it was difficult, because none of our team members have any technical knowledge and only very few of us could do a little bit or try to do it, but we did not have enough resources like laptops and good quality headphones. Somehow we are still managing well but being on mobile phones most of the time has not been very healthy, I have started to have headaches sometimes. But it had been a great opportunity to learn many different things e.g. without going out we can still lead a national retreat or give a worldwide talk. I did give talks for two different centers in USA, which I could never think of doing before this pandemic.

In this very strange time of the pandemic in the last year, I spent my days doing meditation, then cooking for all for of us and doing other household tasks, while I am at home, I do some study and watch some television. I also have phone communications with at least one to three people, (mostly mitras training for ordination and sometimes order members). This is a short introduction to me.

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I’m Sadayasihi. I was ordained in 2016 in Akashavana, Spain and I currently live in a Buddhist community in Dublin, Ireland with two other women. I work full-time for The Buddhist Centre Online and I’m also involved in activities around the Dublin Buddhist Centre. In my spare time I like reading, playing cooperative board games and continuing my attempts to learn the ukulele! I’m looking forward to the day when I can go for a long hike in the Wicklow mountains again with my partner, Vajrashura.

I started 2020 living with my parents, optimistic about the chances getting a new women’s community up and running by the summer after the previous women’s community I had been in ended in October 2019. Covid put a spanner in the works of that plan – instead I moved out of my parents’ house just before the first lockdown started and spent nine months’ living on my own in a friend’s house on the far side of Dublin.

I have never had an ambition to live alone – so, while it was not as bad as I feared it might be, I still very much missed the ordinary human contact, the casual conversations in the kitchen; just being alongside other people. One of closest friends moved to the UK last March and lockdown made the whole thing surreal – and this was compounded by the fact I have not been able to visit her. I miss her loads but am glad I can continue to speak to her weekly online.

My working life became at once far more intense as our team at The Buddhist Centre Online responded to the pandemic by offering events and resources – but it was also one of the sole points of constancy for me in a very changed and changing set of living circumstances. At one point I felt I was getting burned out and had to take a step back and figure out new ways of working. I feel like I’ve learned more about myself: how I work, what supports me to thrive, the importance of team, and not to compare myself with others – and I’m very grateful to my team members, my partner and all my friends who helped keep me afloat when I was a bit at sea!

And where there’s a will there’s a way – in December Laura and Ciara and I moved into a community together (into a house Laura bought) after over a year of meeting up weekly in person (and then online). It still feels like a minor miracle that this happened in the year of a global pandemic! I’m so delighted to be back in a women’s community again. Subhadramati, my preceptor (who ordained me), gave our new community the name “Maitrigandhi” – fragrance of Metta / loving-kindness – a beautiful name that I hope we can do justice to.

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I was ordained in 2010 while living in San Francisco. In 2012 I moved to the UK and currently live in London with my partner Shraddhasiddhi. I spend my days meditating, teaching mindfulness and the dharma, engaging in friendships with other Order members and mitras across the movement, writing, walking and helping out at the North London Buddhist Centre. I’m also actively engaged in various antiracism activities in and outside the movement.

The dual pandemics of coronavirus and systemic racism reveal a deep rupture in our relationship with the planet and each other. I have a sense that we are at the beginning of a massive systemic, even cosmic, shift in how we live our lives, treat one another, and respond to the challenges we face as a global community. This sense has guided me over the last year.

As soon as we entered our first lockdown I knew that people would need safe spaces to practice together and make sense of what was happening. I decided to start offering online classes, retreats and courses. I also started writing a daily blog, to help myself make sense of things and also because I didn’t want to forget what it was like in the early days of the pandemic.

Before March of last year I lived a life in two parts – either I was on long, silent retreats or I was in the world, engaging in my life, work, and friendships. Although there is nothing wrong with that, the last year has provided me the opportunity to integrate retreat-like conditions into my daily life and see that any division between on retreat/off retreat or meditation/non-meditation make no sense in the uninterrupted flow of moment-by-moment experience. The last year has provided me the opportunity to see more clearly the divided mind and explore the creative tension between things that initially appear contradictory.

The pandemic has forced us into a collective pause, an invitation to re-assess what is most important to us and deepen our commitment to co-creating a more loving, just world. Paradoxically, we’ve retreated into our homes only to connect more deeply with one another around the things that really matter - practice, friendship, community, love.

With love and in solidarity,
Singhashri (she/her or they/them)

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I was ordained in June 2011 at Akashavana and now live in Worcestershire, United Kingdom, not far from Adhisthana. I have retired from paid work and live alone.  Although I no longer live at Adhisthana I am still the librarian of the Sangharakshita library and am managing to do some library work during the pandemic. In addition I lead a fortnightly Mitra study group and am on the team for the weekly Hereford class. Beyond that I do a lot of gardening and reading and some writing.

I have been very fortunate during the pandemic. My personal circumstances are good; I am used to living alone and much of the time have relished the peace and the contact with the natural world. Once my initial anxiety had diminished I found life quite agreeable although until support bubbles were introduced I did have times of loneliness. I became a compulsive listener to the news and have had to work hard not to allow the media’s narrative of blame and failure to feed my negativity. I think what I have found most challenging has been the increasing predictability and narrowness of life; I miss the possibilities of casual social contacts and chance happenings. 

In normal times my Dharma life is a mixture of personal practice, teaching and work for various Triratna projects and in many ways that has not changed. This year I have been alone more than at any time in my life and that, and the sense of threat caused by the pandemic, has undoubtedly given my practice more urgency. I have taken the opportunity to examine and change much of what it means for me to live a dharma life  There have been times when practice seemed meaningless but I have found the weekly Order Bodhicitta practice an invaluable anchor - a way of connecting both with the Order and the suffering of the world.  

I have been grateful for the connections brought about by technology and have experienced an unexpected depth and intimacy in online groups that I have been part of. Moments like being in the Bhaja caves at the beginning of the Convention, or taking part in Buddha Day celebrations with sanghas all over the world brought real joy in the midst of difficult times. I have never felt more aware of Triratna’s  internationality.

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I was ordained in 2015 and live in Oslo, Norway.  I share my flat with a young woman who is not a Buddhist. I have a boyfriend who lives just outside Oslo, and we like to go skiing at his cottage in the mountains. I work part-time as Centre manager for the Oslo Buddhist Centre. I take part in teaching most Thursdays, plan and do admin work with Gunaketu, the only other Order member here. I love being outdoors and live close to the forest and I am very inspired by nonviolent communication (NVC) and are working to become a certified NVC trainer.

The last year with the pandemic has been different. I was lucky to get the admin job at the Buddhist Centre just before it started, so I have had a job I could do from home. I used to work partly in kindergarten, and this work suddenly stopped on March 13, 2020, and I was happy to get some economic compensation for lost income from the state. The biggest change has been almost no travelling, certainly not for retreats, and leading most things at the Buddhist Centre on Zoom. We had periods where we could meet, but now it’s been many months without personal meetings at the Centre. It has been quite easy to go on retreats online, and very sustainable, staying home. It has also been possible to combine being on retreat and working a bit on the side and keeping up teaching at the Centre.

Since I both share my flat and have a boyfriend, I have had some personal contact with mostly those 2 persons, and some with my brother and his daughter. Several important events were cancelled, like the 2 months’ retreat with Vessantara and Vijayamala, an NVC assessment plus several retreats locally and in our region. My former flatmate got covid just before she was to move out and was isolated. I was suddenly in quarantine with her for 15 days, and managed not to get ill. In the beginning I was a bit stressed, but found ways to clean and got used to this. I was happy to have my meditation practice then.

Out of the cancelled 2 month retreat I came up with the idea to do a longer solitary and did 7.5 weeks in a cottage in the mountains. It was great to live simply and have more time to do less, and be much more outdoors. I did Tara pujas and rituals on several mountains in the area, singing the Tara mantra out into the world.

Working at home has given more time to meditate, exercise, do yoga and jogging in the forest. Doing things online has allowed people to attend who live far away. It has also given more space and quiet time in periods, and less traveling around the city, and less money spent.

We have managed to keep the sangha connected and have come up with new, creative ideas of how to meet. It has been a good practice of acceptance of what is and not knowing what life will be like next week. It has also been a way of practicing loving kindness and tonglen to relieve suffering. I have attended quite a few of the Order Bodhichitta practices on Sundays and felt more connected with other Order members.

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Chandrasiddhi (Ella cuyo poder espiritual es como el de la luna).

Hola a todos, qué bello poder compartir con ustedes, muchas gracias. 

Fui ordenada públicamente el 23 de abril en el Centro Budista de la Ciudad de México.

Vivo en la Ciudad de México con mi esposo. Vivimos en un departamento diminuto cerca de la casa de mis padres. Por el momento no tenemos mascotas en casa, pero compartimos el amor de 2 perros encantadores compartidos com mis padres.

Actualmente me gano la vida trabajando en el negocio familiar en uno de los mercados más grandes de Latinoamérica llamado La Central de Abasto. Trabajo junto a mi padre, mi hermano (es 2 años mayor que yo) y una prima que es como una hermana para mí. Comercializamos granos de diversa índole como maíz, lentejas, frijoles de diferentes colores, caña de azúcar, etc.

He estado trabajando en el negocio desde 2012, ha sido todo un viaje encontrar la magia en este tipo de sustento, especialmente porque nunca pensé que trabajaría en ventas, no soy una persona de tipo empresarial. De alguna manera, aunque a veces me encontré resistente a la idea de estar en este negocio, reconozco me dio muchas oportunidades, tales como tener el tiempo para asistir al Curso del Dharma para jóvenes mujeres en Adhisthana en 2016, así como el tiempo para continuar con mi Ir a Refugio desde que era mitra. Me siento muy agradecida por eso.

Debo decir que experimentar las luces y las profundidades de la vida dentro de la pandemia mundial del coronavirus ha cambiado muchas cosas en mí. Tuve un año muy duro en el 2020, mis padres, mi hermano, mi esposo y yo nos infectamos de coronavirus, no tuvimos momentos dolorosamente físicos con la enfermedad, sino sensaciones de incertidumbre, más que nada el miedo de perder a mis padres. 

También otro problema fue que mi padre contrajo tuberculosis ósea en la columna vertebral a fines de 2019, la detección tardía generó mucho dolor en su cuerpo, literalmente se estaba muriendo, de hecho, pensé que lo perderíamos.

En medio de todas las emociones familiares, las ventas del negocio disminuyendo alarmantemente debido a la situación, muchos clientes y proveedores se contagiaron, algunos tristemente murieron, algunos sobrevivieron. Hasta ahora las ventas son bajas para todos. Creo que el apoyo que existe entre mi familia, especialmente el lazo y la conexión que he hecho con mi hermano, me ha dado la confianza y la fe de que todo estará bien, es sólo una fase. 

Afortunadamente está bien mi papá, lo único con lo que me quedo es que no importa cuánto pierda en la vida, de lo que se trata de es de abrir mi corazón a la incomodidad y confiar, confiar en el Dharma que llevo dentro. 

En este momento soy Convocadora de Mitras junto a un maravilloso amigo, Dh. Aryadarshin, también soy parte del Consejo del Centro Budista de la Ciudad de México.

Hasta ahora, estas oportunidades me han dado muchas bendiciones: nuevas amistades espirituales, he podido aprender de mis hermanas y hermanos en la Orden, he podido estudiar temas encantadores del Dharma, y más que nada, he podido seguir adelante con mi Ir al Refugio. 

Sin embargo, en medio de los problemas que tuve el año pasado, no siempre fue fácil recomponerme para dar mi servicio a la comunidad, al menos eso fue lo que pensé al principio. En lugar de eso, descubrí que aunque todos estamos tan lejos, aún con las actividades a través de Zoom,  todavía todos podemos sentir la conexión y la calidez, me doy cuenta de que no me estaba dándome a la comunidad, sino que estaba recibiendo la magia de la Sangha como un amoroso consuelo. 

Las oportunidades que he encontrado después de todo esto, incluso con el triste cierre de uno de los Centros Budistas, el Centro Budista de Coyoacán. Es que la continuidad de Triratna depende de cuán unida esté la Sangha. Así como pasó mi vida personal, no importa cuánto podamos perder en la Orden (en términos materiales) lo importante es abrirnos ampliamente a la incomodidad y confiar en el regalo de las joyas que ya tenemos.

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Hello everyone, it’s so lovely share myself with you, thank you for the invitation. My name means She whose spiritual power is like the moon and I was publicly ordained the 23rd April 2017 in the Mexico City Buddhist Centre.

I live in Mexico City with my husband. We live in a tiny flat near my parents’ house. At the moment we don’t have pets at home, but we share the love of 2 lovely dogs that live with my parents.  At the moment I work in the family business in one of the biggest markets in Latin America. It’s called Central de Abasto (Wholesale Market). I work along with my father, my brother (who is 2 years older than me) and a cousin who is like a sister to me. We sell grains like corn, lentils, beans of different colors, sugar cane etc.

I have been working in the business since 2012. It has been quite a journey to find the magic in this kind of livelihood, especially because I never thought I would work in sales; I am not a business- type of person. Somehow, even though I found myself resistant of the idea sometimes, it has given me lots of opportunities such as have the permission to attend the Young Dharma Life Course at Adhisthana in 2016, as well as time to develop my Going for Refuge since I became a GFR mitra [a Buddhist who is in training for ordination]. Now I am just very grateful. 

I have to say that the experience of the heights and depths of life during the global coronavirus pandemic has changed lots of things for me. I had a very hard year in 2020. My parents, my brother, my husband and I got the coronavirus. We didn’t have painful moments with the sickness, but with the uncertainty around losing my parents. Also another issue was that my father got bone tuberculosis at his spine at the end of 2019. It was detected late because he was experiencing lots of pain in his body. He was literally dying and I actually thought we would lose him.

In the mist of all the family emotions, the sales of the business alarmingly decreased due to the pandemic situation. Lots of clients and suppliers got infected - some of them sadly died, some survived. Sales are still low for everybody. I think the support within my family, especially the bond between my brother and I, give me faith and confidence that everything will be fine, it is just a phase. 

Luckily my father is fine now. The only thing that remains is my deep gratitude and also the learning that it does not matter how much loss is in my life, it’s about opening my heart to the uncomfortable experience and trusting the inner Dharma I already have in me. 

At the moment I am Mitra Convener alongside a wonderful friend, Aryadarshin. I am also a part of the Council at the Mexico City Buddhist Centre. So far, have these opportunities have gave me lots of blessings: new spiritual friendships, learning from my sisters and brothers in the Order, studying lovely Dharma topics, just continuing to Go for Refuge.

However, in the mist of the problems I had last year, it wasn’t always easy to pull myself together to give myself to the community - at least that was what I thought at the beginning. Rather than that, I discovered that even though we all are so far, with the activities via Zoom, we all can still feel the connection and the warmth… I realize that I was not giving myself away, but receiving the magic of the Sangha as a loving comfort.

The opportunities I have found after all of these, even with the closing of one of the Buddhist Centres in Mexico, the Buddhist Centre of Coyoacan. The continuity of Triratna depends on how much the Sangha is united. And, like in my personal life, it does not matter how much we have lost in the Order, in material terms, the important thing is to widely open ourselves to the discomfort and trust the gift of the Jewels we already have.

I was ordained in 2016, at Akashavana in Spain. I live in the east end of London in the United Kingdom with my husband, Manjusiha who is also in the Order. We have a little flat that is close to the London Buddhist Centre. Until recently I worked at the London Buddhist Centre, and now I work for FutureDharma Fund as their Finance Director. I really enjoy my job - it’s a context of integration of my Buddhist values and my finance and development background. 

The early part of the pandemic was exciting, challenging and fulfilling. I used to spend a lot of my time at the London Buddhist Centre teaching yoga, meditation and Buddhism, and all that moved online. It was a great opportunity at the London Buddhist Centre as suddenly our reach extended far beyond Bethnal Green, far beyond London. We had people tuning into our classes from around the world. Recently I led the Parinirvana Day festival during which Nina from New York (who re-engaged with the London Buddhist Centre in the pandemic) became a mitra. That was amazing.

At the start of the first lockdown, I did some emergency pandemic specific financial consulting and found that I very much relished it, enjoying using my skills for the benefit of our Buddhist movement. So, when the Finance Director post at FutureDharma came up, I was very happy to get it.

I was very fortunate to be able to go on a month-long solitary at the end of 2020. It gave me space to reflect on the year that was, and acknowledge and release a lot of tension that had built up. I had a chance to fully decompress. I felt positive shame at allowing myself to get so stressed and worn out. In that month I had time to meditate and practice to build up a reservoir of calm positivity and to reconnect with transcendental values, ready for the challenges of 2021.

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I was ordained in 2007 in Golden Bay, Aotearoa New Zealand. I live in a vibrant suburb in Wellington, about half an hour walk to our Buddhist Centre and 45 minutes’ walk into the city. I live with my long-term non-Buddhist partner, we met in 1980!

As Chair of the Wellington Buddhist Centre, I spend most of my days organising Centre activities and meeting people. I meditate and walk and spend time being part of life in my garden. I like to know which bird is which, where they are nesting, who’s been injured, what territorial battles are happening. Monday morning, I spend with my 92-year-old, almost completely deaf, legally blind father, discussing such things as the nature of consciousness, and his new found interest in the Dharma.

We’ve been fortunate in Wellington as we’ve had one level 4 lockdown which saw our Centre closed from mid-March until mid-May when we entered alert level 2 and began opening again slowly. In June we moved to alert level 1 with no restrictions. We’ve had to operate under level 2 with some restrictions on three occasions and I’ve found that a bit tricky.

I loved the stillness of lockdown the quiet, no planes, few cars, the presence of bird life magnified, everything felt and smelt better! I haven’t had a cold for a year so I love that we’ve all taken on board staying away from each other when we’re sick.

Lockdown meant cancelling retreats, negotiating with landlords, moving all our classes on line, helping our Sangha stay in touch and get up to speed with Zoom and general use of technology. I also helped some doctors and nurses and receptionists, at a health Centre my sister manages, become more confident using Zoom. Our Sangha was fantastic in terms of embracing the move to online classes; the young Buddhists’ enthusiasm for getting online now, really helped with this. 

We now have internet at the Centre for the first time. We continue to use Zoom for Council meetings and some study groups and Chapter. We run some classes both on Zoom as well as at the Centre. I’ve enjoyed developing a friendship with Saddhavati from the Highlands who attended our Saturday morning meditations.

Chair has been the main focus of my Dharma practice and Covid hasn’t changed that, I didn’t end up with more free time. I have felt the loss of longer retreats and time with visiting Order members. My appreciation of the wider Order has deepened with the Bodhicitta practice, the Sikkha training sessions and the online convention.

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I’m Bodhikamala. I’m 32 years old and I live in Mexico. I was ordained in 2017 with other 6 beautiful and courageous women. At the moment I live with my husband, also an Order member, inspiring and hardworking, named Ruchiramati, and a lovely dog called Coco.

At the moment, I’m the Chair of Toluca Buddhist Centre; Toluca is a large city located to the west of Mexico City, right in the middle of the country. I love spending most of my time being part of the Centre’s team, working for the Sangha, preparing courses, writing articles, teaching, and above all, making friends and connecting with others!

There’s been many challenging situations since the pandemic started. Our Centre is very new and, of course, in Mexico the lockdown has been long, so we started to move most of our activities online. Although it hasn’t been easy, and there was a learning curve (and yes, we are still learning everyday!) many great things have happened in this context: we have met lots of new people who joined us from different parts of Mexico, and even from abroad. The Sangha has grown, while the local community is still present, stronger and deepening in their practice.

I’m very grateful because we, as Order Members, but also our Sangha, have received a lot of support from the Order, at an institutional level but also in a personal way. I know that we will face new challenges, but I’m confident that we will face them together!

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Hi, my name’s Vandika and I was ordained in 2006 in Dunkeld, Scotland, with many other women from around the world.  I live in Somerset, south west UK and, after many years living alone or in communities, now live with my partner. We both have “Long Covid” after catching the virus a year ago, so we’re supporting each other with that. I work part-time for the Triratna International Order Office, support and care for my elderly mum and try to fit in some art-making when I can too…

Since the global pandemic began, my life has changed enormously (see above!). Catching the virus so early on caused the first few months to be a blur of illness and fatigue, which meant my awareness of the pandemic’s impact on the wider world didn’t arise until much later. And whilst my health is slowly improving, the virus is still affecting my life, in terms of both energy and capacity. One positive aspect is how much my Dharma life has changed as a result. Being so ill caused a real shift in priorities - a going forth - that motivated me to join the Order Office team and to bring the Dharma more consciously into my painting practice.  

The challenges of the past year have been around letting go of being able to work as I did in the past and accept my limitations without pushing against them. It’s very hard not to help when you really want to! Finding restorative ways to stop and relax can be hard too, even after 25 years of Dharma practice! But I’ve also learned so much about patience, forbearance and simplicity, as well as how strength and shraddha can manifest at the most difficult of times. These are the gifts of the past year for me…

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I was ordained in 2018 at Akashavana, Spain. I live alone in a small apartment in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which is on the East Coast of the US about 50 miles north of Boston. I’m retired from paying work but for the past few years have been the manager of the Portsmouth Buddhist Center and part of the teaching team there. I also have family living nearby, including a seven-year-old granddaughter. We formed a family “pod” in December, so I get to spend time with her and her parents a couple of times a week.

Today, as I write this, our country is moving past a half million official deaths from Covid 19. I have suffered very little in practical terms from pandemic restrictions, but watching it all unfold has been heartbreaking in so many ways. At the same time, living through our national political drama and our reckoning with systemic racism amidst the resurgence of white supremacy and nativist movements has been intense, to say the least. On the personal front, I spent much of the year talking regularly to my sister, who was in a deep depression following the death of her husband in 2019. The isolation imposed on her by the pandemic definitely took its toll. She collapsed and died alone in her apartment in late October.

The focus of my Dharma life has become to face mindfully all that arises within me in response to these events. Meditation is the main container for that, but the greater solitude of socially-distanced life has also been helpful. These last few winter months have been an especially difficult time, as I ventured into some of the dark corners of my – and my sister’s – childhood conditioning. During that time, it has been challenging to give time and energy to the sangha when I felt depleted of generosity, and challenging to show up authentically without letting the darkness inside me dominate my interactions.

But challenges are also opportunities for transformation. I am, thankfully, beginning to feel my internal winter loosening its grip and find my desire to share the Dharma renewed and clarified by the painful work of the past year. As my energy returns, I also aspire to be part of the larger movement for transformation that is happening, and must happen, in our society.

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I’m Viriyalila. I was ordained in 2005, and live just north of Boston, Massachusetts (USA). Nine years ago, I embarked on a four-year path of training in traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture, an aspiration I had kept close to my heart for nearly twenty years. I now have a thriving acupuncture practice located close to my local Buddhist Center.

When the pandemic emerged we were in the throes of opening our new Buddhist Center. I found it really difficult to accept that we needed to close down before it opened. What better medicine than the Dharma in a time of crisis? Equally so, I resisted closing my acupuncture practice. I felt deeply conflicted as a healer, knowing that I had many resources to help ease people’s suffering. In the end it was the phrase ‘do no harm’ that convinced me to let go and close the doors. So, like millions of others, I stayed home. 

After 25 years of practice I was honestly surprised by all the negative mental states that arose. It began with a deep attachment to a sense of identity tied to my work. It was quickly followed by extreme horrified anxiety over the stories of our front line healthcare workers. I also discovered a fierce independence in that I did not want to be told what to do! As I turned towards these difficult emotions with love and compassion, a great joy arose, a deep appreciation for knowing and being able to rely upon the Dharma. It brought an expansive sense of love for all beings, everywhere. The Brahma Vihara (sublime abodes or immeasurable) meditations became my constant companion over the past year, helping meet the complexity of the human heart in myself and others. 

In March 2020, Jack Kornfield wrote in response to the coronavirus:
“It is time to be the medicine, the uplifting music, the lamp in the darkness.
Burst out with love. Be a carrier of hope.” 

I also remembered a line from Milarepa’s Song of the Yogi’s Joy. He sings, “the greater the fear the greater the joy I feel.” By turning towards the uncertainty, sitting with my fears and anxieties, gradually they turned into immense gratitude and tender-hearted compassion. And in this open heart, joy and equanimity arose.

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My name is Moksadhi. I was ordained at Akashavana, Spain in 2019 and l live at Dhanakosa Retreat Centre in the Loch Lomand and Trossachs National Park in Scotland. There are currently 7 of us on the team, living and working here. My working hours are spent mainly in the office but outside that I love to be outdoors - swimming, strolling, running, hiking, drinking tea. I also seem to spend a lot of time with friends on zoom!

When the first lockdown happened I was living in London, working at Lama’s Pyjamas (Buddhist charity shop) and living in Samayakula community with 11 other women. Although I still work for Triratna and live in community, the conditions are very different at Dhanakosa to Bethnal Green. The second lockdown has been very different – much more space and far less people! It has definitely been a year of big change. I’d made the decision to leave London just before the pandemic hit and at times it has been challenging to move to an isolated place in an isolating time.

I’ve been missing my friends but I so much appreciate and feel nourished by living with the beautiful wild land on my doorstep. Every morning after mediation I go to the loch or burn for a swim and take time to connect with the elements. The quiet at Dhanakosa has provided great conditions for meditation and I’m really enjoying sitting, connecting with earth and sky. When I was between London and Dhanakosa, I spent some time living with my sister and nephews which was a real gift to connect with them more deeply. I now zoom and play Minecraft every week my with nephews – something I never thought would happen!

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Hi, I’m Parami and, in 1980, I was ordained on a weekend retreat by Sangharakshita. I live in Glasgow, Scotland on my own in a flat in a high rise block in a very working class area (back to my roots). I’m lucky that 3 other Dharmacharinis (Order Members) live in the same high rise block and, before lockdown, we meditated together a couple of mornings a week. A friend called it a vertical community. My days are varied with different Triratna responsibilities and with activist / social action type activities.

My lifestyle had changed drastically not long before lockdown began. Having spent most of the previous 40 years living in communities I had moved home to Scotland to live alone. Lockdown forced other changes. I have always travelled teaching the Dharma and, of course, such travel became impossible. Plans to travel to Spain, Mexico, Venezuela and Australia and NZ were all cancelled or put on hold. 

The biggest challenge was early on in the pandemic when decisions had to be taken by myself and team about the three month ordination retreat we had been scheduled to lead. It was due to begin in late April 2020. It became clear that would not be possible and this meant creative thinking - and communication - with the 23 women who had been invited. I think we did this well and I’ve been impressed by how those women responded and have continued to deal with having to constantly let go of expectations around what will be one of the most important events of their lives.

More personally, I’ve still visited lots of Triratna centres around the world but all from my living room. For years, I hadn’t spent so much time on my own nor in the same place. Pre-pandemic, I would have expected to struggle with this as I’m an extrovert and a restless soul. I’ve surprised myself by being content and happy to be so settled. I’ve loved being in Glasgow, and the view from my balcony sustains me. 

I dread to think how I would have found this last year without the internet, without good friends and, most importantly, without the Dharma and a meditation practice. My heart goes out to the many who are less fortunate. Post-pandemic I hope we remember positive lessons learned about simplicity and solidarity.

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Kia ora, Namaste, my name is Akshobhini, I was ordained 3.5 years ago at Akashavana, Spain. I live in Auckland, New Zealand, where I have lived for the last 10 years. I live with my husband Dh Sujiva and our 8 year old son, Kabir. I am a Dharmacarini (Order member) of British East-African Indian (Gujarati) descent, a mother, and a medical doctor (Paediatrician). I attend a weekly Chapter (Order meeting) and have a creative practice of making malas in my (very little) free-time.

In the last year, as a doctor, I have kept working through the lockdowns, and juggling home life, with home-schooling, and family life. I am immensely grateful for the situation in New Zealand, gratitude for ‘what is’, has been a strong practice. I have felt deeply the pain of the health sector as frontline warriors, in the global coronavirus pandemic.

My Dharma lifestyle is to be active in the world, to have a right-livelihood of working with vulnerable children, young people and families in the field of child abuse. I attempt to bring qualities of grounded-ness, clarity and compassion to the work. Another practice is to be there for my family, to bring mindfulness to parenting, and to be kind to myself when the juggle gets too much!

This last year has been challenging for me in some ways, and for so many globally. I have been heartened by the amazing resources made available in the Order in the last year. I especially look-forward to the weekly Bodhicitta Practice (meditation practice developing compassion for all beings). Connecting with the Order in this way, has kept my sense of our global Order alive, with us all there together virtually ‘turning towards suffering’, I connect to universal suffering and can ‘share the load’.

The conversations in the Order about race and diversity have also been very moving for me personally as a woman of colour. I am grateful for my friends in the Sangha, and the support of Dharmacharinis locally for allowing a space for deeper conversations about race to take place.

May we continue to thrive as women supporting each other, as an international sangha that is unique, precious and connected, collectively we bring diversity to who we are. With gratitude to my teachers, and those whose shoulders I stand on today,

yours in the Dharma,

x Akshobhini.

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