For some years now the Wellington Buddhist Centre has been blessed to have Suryagita in our Sangha. She has a beautiful voice and extraordinary musical ability which we have benefitted greatly from in every mantra she has ever been present for. But that’s not all!

On special occasions Suryagita has got together with other talented members of our sangha and offered song. Songs of welcome, songs of blessing, songs of appreciation, songs of celebration and songs of joy.

In the last year, we have experienced Suryagita and the Dharma Singers at our dedication ceremony, at the launch of the Te Reo Maori descriptor for our Centre, at the welcome for Nagabodhi and Jnanadhara, and most recently, at our presidential handover. (You can listen to the wonderful singing from this last event below.)

And from Suryagita:

As my name suggests ('Suryagita' means 'She who is or sings a song of the sun or the Buddha"), I love having the opportunity to sing the Dharma - so I was delighted to discover a few other singers at the Wellington Buddhist Centre after I moved back to New Zealand from the UK.

Dharma Singers was born around 2012, and we have sung verses of dharma that I have set to music, plus pieces I have gleaned from others in Triratna over the years. We have entertained at Skills Auctions, sung musical offerings at Festivals and ceremonies, and added life to mantra chanting.

Last year one of our group Malcolm moved to Auckland, and Jasmine is about to leave for Australia, so I am hoping we will find more singers to add to our sweet harmonies!

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After a substantial thirty years as the President of the Wellington Buddhist Centre, Nagabodhi handed on this role to Jnanadhara in a beautiful ritual, with rejoicings, meditation and song on Tuesday 25th February. 

Saradarshini, the Chair of the Wellington Buddhist Centre, writes about this significant occasion:

"How fortunate we are! Not only have we had a fabulous President in Nagabodhi for the last thirty years, now we have Jnanadhara, experienced, dedicated, capable and young (ish). And that’s not all! Jnanadhara found the Dharma at the WBC many years ago and is keen to contribute to the growth of our Sangha. He won't be able to visit us in 2021 but after that, his intention is to visit each year.

Thirty-two of us gathered at the WBC on Tuesday 25th February to witness Nagabodhi handing on the responsibility of President of the Wellington Buddhist Centre to Jnanadhara.

The evening began with Varadevi and Achala, rejoicing in Nagabodhi and thanking him for his 30 years' involvement with the Wellington Sangha. Achala and Varadevi were the first two Chairs of the Centre and have known Nagabodhi since before he became our President.

During this time Nagabodhi has worked with the five Chairs of the Centre and developed personal connections with the whole of the Sangha. His two-yearly visits for two weeks included leading a weekend retreat, giving talks at the open nights at the Centre, meeting with the Council and individually with members of the Sangha. A very popular visitor, he tended to have lunch and dinner dates every day of his visits, squeezing in coffee catch-ups in any spaces.

He has also been leading the men’s GFR retreats and so making deep connections with those training for ordination and subsequently joining the Order.

Nagabodhi responded to these rejoicings with appreciation and gave an inspiring talk on building the Buddhaland in Wellington. He also pointed out how lucky we were to have Jnanadhara as our incoming president.

I led the ritual in the shrine room which began with a short sit followed by the Dharma singers, Suryagita, Jasmine and Trish, singing “Transient as Dreams” a song composed by Suryagita using the words of Kukai’s poem “To a Nobleman in Kyoto”.

Jnanadhara ritually received the keys of the WBC and took on the responsibility of President with the four lines of acceptance we use at our ordination. 

We made our offerings as we all sang “As we all go for refuge” – a composition by Suryagita for the Australasian Great Gathering in 2018

Jnanadhara then celebrated all the people who have contributed to initiating sustaining, developing and growing the WBC. This is where he first came across the Dharma. He left Wellington in 1999 with the intention of returning once ordained and here he is in 2020 as our President.

After a final song from the Dharma singers, a poem and haiku by Ryokan set to music by Suryagita, the ritual ended with The Transference of Merit.

The evening concluded with tea and cake and conversation.

It is with gratitude that the Wellington Sangha farewell Nagabodhi and welcome Jnanadhara. As the current chair of the WBC I look forward to an ongoing relationship with Jnanadhara and him carrying the Centre forward as chairs come and go."

Listen to the singing from Suryagita and the Dharma Singers during the Presidential handover

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10th September was a very special evening at the Wellington Buddhist Centre, as we launched our te reo Maori (Maori language) descriptor. The WBC Council had formally adopted the descriptor in July and we decided we’d launch it with a bit of a celebration during Maori language week.

“Maranga mai ki te Māramatanga” 

A pithy translation - “Wake up and be enlightened”
A fuller version - “Rise up, aspire to enlightened wisdom and compassion”.

As part of our evening Dennis gave as all some tuition and practice in the correct pronunciation. We ended the evening with a song "Te Aroha". meaning love/compassion

Dennis has been patiently correcting our errors as to where to put the macron, and Malcolm pointed out that when we get it wrong the phrase can easily be interpreted as “fly me to the moon”. Satyadevi has been capturing the emotional essence of things in her beautiful poetry.

So how did that happen! It was at a Council meeting in December 2017 when I suggested we explore a Maori name for the WBC. Somewhat naively I thought we’d have this sorted out by our January 2018 opening night! At that time Malcolm and Akashagarbha were willing to take on this project.

The reason I was interested in pursuing this is that although we are Triratna, a worldwide movement, the land beneath our feet is Aotearoa/NZ; we have three official languages, English, Maori and NZ Sign Language. I felt that acknowledging this in some way was important.

There have been 18 WBC Council meetings since that first mention, and it has been on the agenda for 14 of them!

It got off to a bit of a slow start but gathered momentum from August 2018, when the Te Reo Kula was formed; made up of Malcolm, Dennis, Satyadevi and with me as the point of contact for the movement.

In August 2018 following Satyadevi’s chance meeting; Malcolm, Dennis and Satyadevi met with Rangimoana Taylor, a Maori actor and theatre director who works at Te Papa as a "host" on the floor of the museum.

He says he sees himself as a bridge between people to get them to understand themselves, their country and their history. As an 18-year-old he found himself in Thailand and entered a Buddhist Monastery for about 6 months.

He came up with a phrase that seemed very apt.

Between January and April 2019, we worked out our process for informing the Order and local iwi. We realised that we had been looking at a te reo name for the WBC but the phrase we had was a description and could be used by any Centre in the country. We began involving Auckland and Thames Centres more fully. At a second meeting with Rangimoana in March, he suggested our next step was to meet with the Maori Language Commission.

The ABC let us know they were very interested and were taking our phrase as a starting point for their own exploration. We heard from Nagabodhi our current President, and Jnanadhara our next President, both were interested in and supportive of what we were doing.

In May and June 2019 Malcolm, Dennis and Satyadevi met with the Maori Language Commission and our proposed phrase was refined, we began thinking that Maori language week in September would be a possible launch date. We gave an update to the Order in Wellington, Auckland and Thames.

On 6th July 2019 the WBC Council formally adopted the te reo descriptor “Maranga mai ki te Māramatanga” and agreed to launch it on 10th September, during Maori language week.

We let the Order in Aotearoa/NZ know of this decision as well as all of the Wellington Sangha, we also informed local iwi, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Te Atiawa (Wellington), Taranaki Whānui.

Neither of our contacts at the Maori Language Commission were able to attend our celebration sending apologies saying “Please give my apologies and know that we of Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori applaud the effort that the centre has made.”

This year at the WBC we have been unable to participate fully in BAM due to a lack of resources but I think it’s important that we as Buddhists think about the outward facing aspect of our practice, there can be a bit of a tendency to get really focussed inwards, either on ourselves or on the Wellington Sangha. We can forget that we are part of a much larger picture.

This year we have had a focus on Sangha and spiritual friendship and I have been prompted by some of the talks and discussions to reflect on just how lucky we are.

What fantastic conditions we have for practice, a beautiful warm, dry, well-lit Centre with friends to practice with. Getting to the Centre is a piece of cake, hop in the car and off we go, parking outside the door. Even the poorest of us is well-fed and reasonably comfortable at home, I’m so comfortable I find myself complaining about someone being a couple of minutes late or there being only one vegan café within walking distance.

Of course, that made me think of other places and other Sanghas, maybe not so fortunate.

I thought of Venezuela and the Merida Centre, of Eduardo one of our Sangha who is from Venezuela, of Aryavachin, a Venezuelan Order Member based in Nottingham who I connected with on retreat a couple of years ago, and talking to Don another of our Sangha, who travels to South America, I wondered if there was something we as a Sangha could do to support the Venezuelan Sangha.

Aryavacin and Vajranatha provided us with information, video clips and photos; and on 18 June we held an evening at the WBC to raise awareness of the situation in Venezuela and of the Merida Sangha. We also introduced the idea of fundraising to help support Acalamati (formerly Ricardo Rico) who was on his ordination retreat at the time. While Don and I spoke generally, Eduardo was able to give a personal perspective which was very moving. We ended the evening with a gratitude cloud, where people called out what they felt grateful for at the WBC, followed by a Metta Bhavana practice.

On Saturday 22 June we had a movie night with Venezuelan snacks and drinks provided by Eduardo and watched a wonderful movie “Tocar y Luchar”. About 25 people attended and a number of others watched the movie the following week. We raised $NZ 1,160 which we are in the process of transferring to Mexico where Acalamati will be until the end of the year.

On Tuesday 5th March just over 30 Sangha members, including Vajrajyoti from Auckland and Shamani from Christchurch, crowded into the old Wellington Buddhist Centre reception to ritually mark their move to a new Centre. The move is an important one for the development of the Wellington Sangha - even if it is only 3 metres across the hallway - as it is into a space twice the size, and infinitely more functional, than the current space.

The final move is still a few weeks away as there are some last things to do in order to get the space ready, but the dedication ceremony was a significant milestone along the way.

Saradarshini, the chair of the Wellington Buddhist Centre, outlines the evening and explains how the move came about:-

We’ve been here for 6 years, moving in after a period of homelessness. This space has served us well and we’ve certainly occupied it as fully as we can and found creative ways of working around ill-placed pillars, lack of a separate shrine room, poor heating and cooling and proximity to a lot of activity with accompanying noise (necessarily noisy neighbours as they go about their business, panel beating, beer brewing and such like).

As we’ve grown in both numbers and activity there has been contention for space and at times it has been quite uncomfortable in here. So it is with appreciation and some relief, we begin our transition into this new space.

The idea to move came seriously into focus late 2017, prior to that a few of us had been keeping our eyes open and investigating financially unrealistic spaces, such as the old Paramount cinema on Courtenay place.

All the Sangha was invited to talk about what they wanted to do and at some point, it occurred to us to look at renting the whole of the space at the back of this building which is about twice the size of where we are now. Some of us started looking in there when we were at the Centre, listing all the disadvantages, but at the same time noticing how quiet it was, how much cooler it was in summer, how much warmer it was in winter and we began to wonder if there might be a way.

We drafted a plan and checked we could afford to rent it and went through our refit requirements with the landlord and his builder and it all seemed very feasible. Then Asangamati improved on our draft turning what would be very functional to something that was quite beautiful and inspirational. We are having a special shrine wall built by Trace in addition to the fit out. We negotiated the refit agreement and the new lease and in July 2018 all was agreed, meaning we were ready to move in as soon as the refit was complete.

Saradarshini thanked everyone who had been involved directly and indirectly and pointed out that it has taken the involvement and commitment of the whole Sangha in making this happen.

Achala, the original founder of the Wellington Buddhist centre 40 years ago, spoke of the importance of the dedication ceremony and two greetings were read: one from Nagabodhi, the current President of the Wellington Buddhist Centre, and the other from Jnanadhara, their future President.

Then the ritual dedication, led by Achala, began. We all followed him into our current shrine room, and saluted the shrine, and Suryagita led us in the Maitri Mantra. Then the Chair and the two Mitra Convenors took the 3 traditional offerings from the shrine and everyone else collected a cushion as a symbol of their dharma practice and we processed behind Achala into the new shrine room. After saluting the heart stoppingly beautiful new shrine Saradarshini, Asangamati and Achalamuni made the 3 traditional offerings. The WBC Dharma Singers offered a setting of the “118 Parables of Bodhicitta” composed by Suryagita and the Avatamsaka Sutra also set to music by Suryagita. After the dedication ceremony led by Achala, we all made offerings while chanting the Avalokiteshvara mantra and concluded with a period of just sitting.

Look at photos of the progress of the refit over the last few months

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We're still inching towards having the refit complete on our new Centre so we can fully move in. We used the shrine area today for part of our Order Day but actually moving in and relinquishing the old space is a few weeks away. 

It looked like things were moving quickly late September....

Our move is getting closer! There's a list of things still to be completed in terms of the refit before we can make our big shift 3 metres across the hallway into a space twice the size and infinitely more functional!

We've dedicated the space and I have copied below greetings from Nagabodhi our current President and from Jnanadhara our future President.

It shouldn't be long now.

Dear friends,
As you probably know, I had to cut short my trip and fly back to UK on the 9th of February as I’d just heard that my mother had died. Naturally I was pleased to be able to get back there so quickly so as to play my part in what followed, but I am of course very sad to have missed out on my time with you, catching up with old friends and practising Dharma with you all.
And I’m truly sorry not to be with you right now as you stand together on the threshold of your new centre space, ready to dedicate it. 
I remember going into that dark room a couple of years ago and imagining what it could be like to have such a space for your activities. And now you’ve very nearly pulled it off: a much bigger space, divided and shaped according to your own vision and needs. 
I’m so happy for you, and excited not just for you but for all the people who will walk through its doors to join you, whether for an evening or maybe for the rest of their lives!  
At a time like this, when a sangha takes a step forward like this I don't just think of the people already involved, looking forward to having a bigger centre to enjoy. I think of all the people around Wellington, up in the Hutt Valley and along the Kapiti Coast who, whatever they are doing at this moment, have no idea that the benign influences and potencies of the Buddha-Dharma are going to enter their lives in this place.  A centre space is so much more than a room or a building, it’s a seed of unknowable possibilities unknowable potential. And for those of you already involved, it's a place of striving, sharing and hopefully ever more harmonious collaboration.
So you are all strong in my mind. I am with you in spirit, with my congratulations, blessings and very, very best wishes. 
Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!
Nagabodhi

Dear Wellingtonian Triratnarites,
I'm personally eternally grateful that the Wellington Buddhist Centre doors were open to me when I came along in the mid-nineties. It's wonderful to know that that door will now open out into a bigger, brighter and more welcoming space for people to discover the Three Jewels and enter deeply into the Dharma-life. Congratulations to Saradarshini, the WBC Council and all the Sangha for making it happen! With warm wishes and heartfelt congratulations, 
Jnanadhara
PS I'm looking forward to my visit early next year and meeting old friends and new. See you then!

On Tuesday 26th February we celebrated Akashagarbha who had been the men’s Mitra convener for 12 years and had a ritual passing the baton to Achalamuni who has taken on that responsibility.

Chris Bicknell rejoiced beautifully in Akashagarbha speaking under three headings: selflessness, love of the dharma and friendship. His sentiments were echoed by all of the men who have been in a Mitra study group with Akashagarbha, some of them citing their relationship with Akashagarbha, his availability and willingness to share his dharma knowledge and personal time contributed to the fact that they are still here in our Sangha and training for ordination. There was an overflowing of appreciation.

The ritual handover was in the context of a 7-fold puja led by Saradarshini. After the confession verse Akashagarbha rejoiced in Achalamuni using Padmavajra’s points on what qualities are needed in a Mitra convener.  

They both then approached the shrine, each offering a candle. They turned to face each other and after bowing Akashagarbha handed the baton to Achalamuni and returned to his seat.

Achalamuni then accepted the responsibility using 4 lines of acceptance and spoke very movingly of what he hoped to give in this role.

We then continued with the 7-fold puja from the rejoicing in merits verse. The spirit of Sangha feels so alive at the Wellington Buddhist Centre.

Five friends and artists who all go to the Wellington Buddhist Centre in New Zealand have just been having their second exhibition together. The artists are: Kathleen Beeler, Amalaratna, David Litchfield, Anne Munz and Achalamuni (Donald Woolford).

The name they have used for their exhibition, Dharma-Rama, is a made up one. 

Achalamuni explains the origin of the name and the significance of working together: "'Dharma' is obvious, but the 'Rama' part comes not from Pali or Sanskrit but from words such as panorama and has the sense of surrounding.  And the two words sounded good together.

We are a diverse group of people who use different art media and styles and whose work in this exhibition looks very different, but we are all united in a common commitment to spiritual practice and the support of one another through the Wellington Buddhist Centre.

Working together as a group for the exhibition is certainly an opportunity to practice friendship.  There are numerous questions to be worked through – who should have which areas in the gallery, what publicity is needed, and what costs we can afford.  But although we have our own separate spaces in the gallery for our art, we worked together to help each other set up, from hanging the art to printing the labels."

Here they each describe their art and its connection with their Buddhist practice:

"My Buddhist practice of awareness involves being open to how my art will turn out and not trying to force the outcome. I maintain equanimity if the painting process doesn’t go as hoped and I just start again with a new version if necessary." - Amalaratna

"I have tried to create lines that don’t have obvious shapes or regular patterns. I have also tried to escape from repetitive patterns and marks, and to be creative rather than reactive." - Achalamuni

"I try to use my art to open myself to the world and to try to shape how I deal with it." - David

"Sometimes when I am taking a photograph or filming, I enter a state of dhyana.  When I look through the lens, I enter another world. I appreciate Triratna because it includes the arts in practice." - Kathleen

"I have painted in oils all my life; but since I became a Buddhist I have felt a serenity which I hope is reflected in my art." - Anne

The Wellington Buddhist Centre have just launched a new blog on The Buddhist Centre Online!

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In December there was an enjoyable evening at Wellington City Gallery with Maitreyabandhu from the London Buddhist Centre. He was talking with two Wellington poets, Bill Manhire and Jenny Bornholdt, who were reading and talking about their poetry.

Click on the link below to listen.

If you’re an enthusiastic younger Order member who’s looking for a change, please consider coming to Wellington for four months or longer. We can offer rent free accommodation and living expenses, plus the use of Achala’s car for the five months of 2019 that he’ll be away. As you’d be staying in Achala’s house, we’d prefer it if you can come before he leaves in early July. You’d be welcome to stay on after he returns (at the end of December), sharing the house with him through the NZ summer and autumn, after which we’d review the situation.

Your role at the Wellington Buddhist Centre could be adapted according to your interests and abilities, but the main focus would be helping to grow our enthusiastic sub35 group and fully engaging with other Centre activities. Ideally, you’d be under 45.

If you’d like to visit and contribute but can’t commit to coming for that long how about a shorter visit? The Wellington Buddhist Centre Council will be looking after Achala’s 2-bedroom house while he is away from July until mid-December 2019. One or two people could visit for a month or two or however much time they wanted; you’d have free accommodation and a car

Wellington is a vibrant, progressive, cosmopolitan, jewel of a city, surrounded by water and hills. There are wonderful hiking and cycling opportunities for those who like the outdoors.  The South Island is just a ferry ride away.

For more information contact saradarshini@gmail.com

The Wellington Buddhist Centre is moving, but not very far! Just across the hall from our old premises!

Our new premises will be twice the size, with a quiet, well insulated environment and more suitable for those who come to practise meditation and learn about Buddhism with all the courses, drop-in classes, and events we offer.

We have been in our current Centre for 6 years now, after a short period of homelessness from our previous premises. Over these 6 years we’ve gradually been outgrowing our present space and soon realised we needed to look around for a larger one.

Lots of people were involved with many ideas discussed and at some point Varadevi suggested that we looked at renting the entire warehouse space sitting disused in the back of the building. It was twice as big as our current space and oddly shaped but we started imagining where walls could go to turn it into just the space we required. The space lacked natural light as the windows were high but an advantage of the space was that we could create dividing walls for how many rooms we might need, as well as their size and shape. We would also be staying with the same landlord, in the same building, and our imagined new entrance would only be 3 metres from our current entrance.

Other rental options were still being looked at but a group of us began talking to the landlord about a refit and with Asangamati and Trace’s involvement, our basic design was improved immensely. It soon became obvious that we couldn’t find a better rental option especially as our Sangha was growing and our need for a bigger space was becoming urgent.

The refit agreement and the terms and form of the lease were agreed in July 2017; with the plan to sign the lease when the refit was complete. As we agreed to a 5-year initial lease, the refit was paid for by the landlord and is being carried out by his builder. That doesn’t mean to say we have nothing to do! A GFR Mitra Chris Bicknell is project managing from a customer perspective and Asangamati is our aesthetics adviser. Our current lease ran out at the beginning of January but we are able to stay on until we move.

In February, with building work continuing, we began planning our Dedication Ceremony of our new premises to coincide with a visit from our President Nagabodhi during his visit from the UK. Sadly, Nagabodhi can’t be with us for the dedication as he had to return to the UK following the death of his mother. Achala, the original founder of the Wellington Buddhist centre 40 years ago, will now lead us in the Dedication Ceremony.

It is a very exciting time at the Wellington Buddhist Centre. Our Sangha is growing, our sub 35 group is feeling much more established with four young people taking responsibility for it, and our present meditation and Buddhism course was over-subscribed.

The move to our new space feels very exciting. Although our current Centre has been a wonderful interim space as we have adapted to high rents while wishing to stay close to the centre of our city, it has been too hot in summer and too cold in winter, with road noise as well as the revving engines from the motor  mechanics next door!

Over the last few months I’ve been regularly checking out the progress in the back room. Away from the road, and backing onto a remote corner of the Gardens of Government House, I feel a beautiful stillness and silence with dappled sunlight and blue sky shining down from the windows high up. Our beautiful new premises promise to be a true refuge of inspiration for all who enter our doors.

- Saradarshini

Ps we're planning to move in at the beginning of March

Last November while she visited Wellington Vimalasara lead a weekend retreat at Strathean Retreat Centre north of Wellington. Strathean was full to capacity and we had a great mix of Sangha, young and older, those who'd been around for ages and those quite new.

The retreat coincided with Bhante's funeral. Strathean kindly provided a wifi password and a number of retreatants were up in the early hours taking part in the funeral from far far away.