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Book now for Green Earth Awakening!
We'll be bringing you a flavour of Buddhafield's spirit, the community they are building, the challenges they face, the events they run, and their importance to the wider Triratna sangha that holds Buddhafield dear as an essential part of their practice lives. And we'll be back later in the summer with Part 2 leading in to the main summer Festival itself, an event not to be missed!
Listen to talks from and about Buddhafield
About Buddhafield
"In Mahayana scripture the word buddhaksetra, which literally translates as ‘Buddha-field’, indicates ‘the field of influence of a Buddha’. Buddhafield obviously refers to that as well, but actual fields - green ones, sometimes muddy ones! - are at the heart of it. (So far these have been mostly English fields, though the phenomenon is spreading with new developments springing up in Holland and New Zealand, and a few other first stirrings elsewhere.) Buddhafield is the Triratna Buddhist Community as lived in the great outdoors, amongst the elements. It consists of practitioners who, from freezing January through to the end of autumn, conduct Dharma activities on the land.
It's a way of practising Buddhism that has a noble precedent: the Buddha himself lived and taught on the land. For most of his long life, he wandered here and there at the edge of society, meditating, reflecting, and communicating his Enlightenment. Even during the monsoon rains, the period for intense meditation retreat, his community didn’t shelter in conventional buildings but meditated in leaf huts or caves. Likewise those attending a Buddhafield retreat meditate in tents, yurts, benders, geodesic domes, under the open sky and under trees..."
Kamalashila, Buddhafield's President
Photographs copyright and courtesy Mim Saxl: www.mimsaxl.com