NNBY Youth Conventions (Regional Gatherings) are opportunities for people in the region to get together, to learn, to work in teams, to mobilize resources locally. Regional group of leaders who are responsible to organize regional gatherings in their areas keep connected with group of leaders in another areas, learn and keep sharing their experiences with each other. Trainers from different regions participate in regional gatherings. This gives us an opportunity of an effective networking and coordination. This is one way of creating learning opportunities for our members. Through regional gatherings we also can focus our attention to address local issues and create suitable training modules.
Our Upcoming Youth Convention is at Bhandara district in Maharashtra - India:
Lead By: Dhammachari Kumarjeev
Subject:IDEALSOCIETY as proposed by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
Other guest leaders & their topics:
15th June- Politics in Education : Sayuri (JNU Student)
16th June- Social Revolution: Sameer Meshram (B Pharma)
17th June- Unity in Diversity: Prof Ajay Choudhari

Fees: Rs. 400/- Self contribution.
Date: 14th to 18th June 2018
Age Limit: 18 to 35 years of age

For registration call now at – 8408920323 or  7757085726
For more info visit: http://www.nnby.org/event/youth-convention-2018-bhandara/ 

London BAM friends - 

if you’d like to combine a BAM event with some interBuddhist friendship action then you might like to come to the dawn meditation in London’s Battersea Park organised by Zenways - they say everyone is most welcome (+ friends/family) and they’d love to see you.

21st June
7:30am: Silent meditation followed by a simple breakfast supplied by zenways and a chance to mix, laugh, mingle and share. Meet next to the Battersea Park Peace Pagoda. All welcome.

For more info see https://www.facebook.com/events/1707057852706799/ or contact their coordinator Matt Daigu Farren on 07951 999791.

NNBY Youth Conventions (Regional Gatherings) are opportunities for people in the region to get together, to learn, to work in teams, to mobilize resources locally. Regional group of leaders who are responsible to organize regional gatherings in their areas keep connected with group of leaders in another areas, learn and keep sharing their experiences with each other. Trainers from different regions participate in regional gatherings. This gives us an opportunity of an effective networking and coordination. This is one way of creating learning opportunities for our members. Through regional gatherings we also can focus our attention to address local issues and create suitable training modules.

Our Upcoming Youth Convention is at Gondia district in Maharashtra - India scheduled from 21-24 June 2018

Lead By : Dh Amrutsiddhi
Topic: Youth Freedom …Towards Excellence
Guest lecturer: Chetan Meshram, Sanjeev Lokhande, Anoopkumar
Age Limit: 18 to 35 years of age
Fees: Rs. 400/- per participants for covering food charges only.

Contact for more details: 9881344293 , 9673144067 , 7083290697 , 8999269345
For registration or more info visit: http://www.nnby.org/event/youth-convention-2018-gondia/

This FBA Dharmabyte is entitled 'What happens when we stop and listen?' from the talk 'The Sound of Reality' by Padmavajra.

This richly rewarding talk explores the place and function of sound in Buddhist practice and history, as well as within Padmavajra's own spiritual life.

A wide-ranging cultural journey is made from John Coltrane to Sufi Qawwali, from mantra to Zen poetry, taking in Andre Gide, Renaissance Neoplatonism and the ancient Pali Verses en route. Not to be missed!

Talk given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2004

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“The object of meditation is to transform oneself, not to have good meditations”

Sangharakshita, Peace is a Fire

What Meditation Is and What It Isn’t
Often one of the first things one learns when one comes into contact with Buddhism - and sometimes even before that - is meditation. However, it is not always clear exactly what meditation is, or easy to articulate it! In the last 5 years of The Buddhist Centre Online there have been a number of different responses to that question. The London Buddhist Centre have made some pithy videos both explaining what meditation is - a means of becoming more aware of, and transforming, your experience and making deeper contact with your life; as well as what meditation isn’t: being in a special posture, being religious, or emptying your head of thoughts. 

Paramananda, a much loved meditation teacher, also emphasises the importance of the body in meditation, proposing that it is better to think of meditation as something we do with the body rather than just with our heads. For a more personal take on ‘what mediation is’ you can also listen to a series of short talks from members of the Triratna Buddhist Order talking about what meditation means to them.

Learning to Meditate
Of course, like many things, it is best to experience meditation for oneself, rather than simply talking about it. The Triratna Buddhist Community has many Buddhist Centres around the world where you can learn how to meditate - and a number of groups on The Buddhist Centre Online regularly post updates on their upcoming meditation classes, retreats and events such as the Coogee Buddhist Group in Australia, Portsmouth Buddhist Centre in the US, and the Sadhamma Pradeep Retreat Centre in India. And if there isn’t a Centre or group near you, you can also meditate online with our Online Meditators Group, which meets on Tuesdays at 2.30pm EST/ 7.30pm UK.

Resources for Meditation: Online and Offline
There are many useful resources online to help you with your meditation practice. There’s this very helpful introduction to the two main meditation practices taught at Triratna Buddhist Centres from Kamalashila: the Mindfulness of Breathing and the Metta Bhavana (Development of Loving-Kindness). There’s also an introduction and led meditation for parents with young children looking to either start or reconnect with meditation. There are many other useful meditation resources to be found on Free Buddhist Audio: talks about meditation and texts around meditation practice, as well as guided introductions, retreat recordings and even recordings of bells to mark the stages of the practices. 

Windhorse Publications has also published a number of books specifically on meditation. Most recently they have published Vajragupta’s book ‘Wild Awake: Alone, Offline and Aware in Nature’ which focuses on going on solitary retreats in nature, as well as ‘A Meditator’s Life of the Buddha’ by Anālayo which explores the Buddha’s life from the perspective of his role as a meditation teacher and practitioner. Later in 2018 Windhorse Publications hopes to publish additional books, including a book on the Satipatthana Sutta by Anālyo. And if you are a parent you may want to check out this list of books on meditation and Buddhism which are suitable for children.

Deepening Your Meditation Practice: Going on Retreat and Retreat Resources Online
Once you know how to meditate one of the best ways of deepening your practice is to go on retreat. Retreats provide a wonderful opportunity to get away from your everyday life and put yourself in the most ideal conditions for meditation. Over the past 5 years the team at The Buddhist Centre Online have been bringing the teachings and resources from Triratna retreats to everyone online: there’s the Tonglen Retreat in 2014, a retreat for mothers at Taraloka in 2015; as well as the complete recordings from Ratnavandana’s retreat on the Brahma Viharas, and the Spiritual Receptivity Retreat in Adhisthana with Vessantara in 2017. There are also recordings from meditation retreats available on Free Buddhist Audio, including one from an Anapanasati retreat in Padmaloka in 2016 and a retreat on the Satipatthana Sutta in 2017.

And for those who would like to get on retreat but simply can’t for one reason or another, it is possible to go on retreat in the conditions of your life: it’s called an urban retreat! We’ve done 3 of these international “Urban Retreat” retreats with an active online component – each time a week of online talks, teachings, led meditations, and other resources – all designed to help you practise the Buddha’s teachings more effectively as you go about your day. You can access these resources online anytime

View the Urban Retreat archive on ‘Sailing the Worldly Winds’

View the Urban Retreat archive​ on ‘Blazing Like the Sun’ (Metta practice)

View the Urban Retreat archive on ‘Living in the Greater Mandala’

Meditation for Transformation
As Sangharakshita makes clear in the quote above, meditation is about transformation. But how does it transform? And is it just about transforming oneself? Yashodeva in this short talk about Metta (Loving-kindness) shares a fascinating story about Anjali, an Order Member who, when held up in traffic due to a car crash with some friends, decided to meditate for those in the accident. Some time after that, a person who had nearly died in the car crash - having had an out-of-body experience during the accident but being drawn to the atmosphere around Anjali’s car and somehow made a note of the car registration number - managed to track Anjali down to ask what they were doing in the car! 

There have been a number of street meditations organised with the very aim of highlighting the power of meditation to transform: in 2015 the Dublin Sangha organised a ‘Welfare not Warfare’ street meditation to mark the Global Day of Action on Military Spending, and did another one in 2016 ahead of the Irish General Election to highlight the need to tackle climate change; last year during Buddhist Action Month the Shrewbury Sangha organised a ‘Transforming Self and World’ meditation which linked to the anniversary of the murder of British politician Jo Cox, as well as a street meditation in Oxford. These actions challenge the idea of meditation as being a private affair, but rather something that is very much part of, and for, the world.

The ‘Metta for Merida’ initiative is another example of bringing out the transformative aspect of meditation not just for oneself but for the world. This group was set up in 2017 with the aim of supporting the Merida Sangha in Venezuela, a country experiencing great economic and social turmoil. Vajranatha, the only Order Member in Venezuela, talks in a short video about the network of meditation creating a collective consciousness around what’s happening in that country.

Now that this year’s Buddhist Action Month (BAM) is underway, find out more about how you can get involved transforming the world – and keep tuning in to The Buddhist Centre Online for more resources on meditation!

Read all our 5th birthday reviews of the best of The Buddhist Centre Online

Sign up early for this year’s International Practice Week: ‘Turning Arrows Into Flowers’ (Coming in September 2018)
 

Hier soir, à la soirée Sangha, nous avons étudié les trois premières des dix entraves qui nous lient à l’existence mondaine, au samsara. Ce sont l’entrave de l’existence du soi, l’entrave de l’attachement aux observances religieuses (rites et rituels) comme à des fins en elles-mêmes, et l’entrave du doute et de l’indécision.

Sangharakshita, dans un texte intitulé Le goût de la liberté, décrit ces entraves d’une façon très utile : il en parle en termes d’habitude, de superficialité et de l’imprécision.

Je vous joins ce texte, pour votre lecture, votre réflexion, et votre transformation.

Do come and join us and see ethics in action in Woodham!

South Woodham Ferrers CM35JX

This FBA Podcast is called 'Mind and Mental Events' by Subhuti. These five omnipresent mental events (sarvatragas) constitute the basic mechanics of the mind; if you are conscious, they are present.

1. Feeling-tone (vedana)
2. Recognition (or conceptualisation) (samjna)
3. Directionality of mind (cetana)
4. Contact (sparsa)
5. Egocentric demanding (manaskara)

From this we can conclude that:
1. All our experience is feeling-toned. The more conscious we are of this, the less we will react and be driven by our likes and dislikes.
2. We are always interpreting our experience with varying degrees of accuracy and depth. We can make an ongoing effort to raise the level of our experience.
3. The mind is always moving towards things. We can use cetana skilfully to move in the direction of Going for Refuge by practising the precepts etc. But we need to want to go in that direction.

This talk is part of the series 'Mind and Mental Events' from 2001.

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Here, Sucimani talks with me about Dhivati, whose legacy part-funded The Fifty Years, Fifty Voices Project..  Although we don’t have any recordings of Dhivati herself (a reminder to us to record while we can!), we do have a celebration of her life written by Vijayasri and her family have helped us to put together her ‘Annals’. 

Dhivati’s Annals

In 1968 Dhivati was Joyce Mumford, living in Chessington, married to Ian and mother of Bill, Liz and Julia, taking them to Quaker Meeting each Sunday.  She had recently ceased to be Membership Secretary for Mensa, and was now working part time for Palantype transcribing from tape the proceedings of the Standing Committees of the House of Commons.

In 1978 Dhivati/Joyce was living with Tess in Sutton, working full time for Hansard at the House. After trying, as many Quakers did, Transcendental Meditation sessions in the early 70s, where repeating my mantra twice a day had been helpful in concentrating and calming her mind… However, the lack of ethical content in the teaching had troubled her and she started her involvement with the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO) (now Triratna).

In 1988 Dhivati/Joyce was living with Tess in Herefordshire. In May they moved from a cottage in Eardisley to a pair of terraced houses in Kington. She had retired in 1984 and was spending more time involved with the FWBO.

In 1998, after a spell living close to the FWBO in Norwich, where Dhivati was ordained in 1995, she was now living in Sutton, halfway between her family in the Kingston area and the Buddhist Centre in Croydon.  Much of her time was spent transcribing, copy-editing and proof-reading numerous books for publication by WIndhorse Publications.

In 2008 Dhivati was living in a flat in a sheltered accommodation development in Surbiton, close to family and not too far away from the Buddhist Centre in Croydon.

Dhivati died in April 2015, in her 91st year. Ian had died in the March. Though legally separated they never divorced.

The Rohingya people need your money, urgently.

A new Buddhist global project has been set up to help the Rohingya people, a million of whom are living in the world’s biggest refugee camp, Bangladesh, as a result of Buddhist-led violence in Myanmar/Burma. After fleeing their burning villages, many of them now find themselves living in very difficult conditions facing monsoon rains.

Late in 2017 a number of senior Order members published a strongly-worded statementpointing out that there is no Buddhist justification for violence against non-Buddhist minorities, urging Buddhists everywhere to condemn the cruelty and brutality and the Burmese Buddhist leaders to halt the violence.

The Rohingya people have not been forgotten by Buddhists, as shown by the the new global project that recently has been set up to bring help to them: The Buddhist Humanitarian Project is a non-sectarian initiative in response to the current crisis.

The project came out of a visit to the camps by Richard Reoch, former President of Shambala, and Alan Senauke, a prominent American Zen Buddhist teacher and social activist. In his report, Richard gives an account of the testimony of people who have had to flee Myanmar, and who have been shot at and tortured. They speak of the ‘Buddhist Terror’. Women and girls have been subjected to horrific sexual violence and remain vulnerable to trafficking and sexual exploitation in the camps.

We can offer help to Rohingya refugees: by signing an appeal to be handed to the Myanmar State Committee and, crucially, making a donation to the Buddhist Humanitarian project (in US Dollars) or in other currencies via one of the international agencies working with the Rohingya people.

Give in the UK.
Give in Australia.
Give in Germany.
Give in Ireland.
Give in New Zealand.
Give in Sweden.

Don’t see your country or currency here? Google Rohingya crisis + your country to find a local agency.

Read Richard’s account of his visit to the Rohingya camps 

Read both statements against Buddhist violence against mostly Muslim Rohingya people in Burma/Myanmar, signed individually and personally by senior members of the Triratna Buddhist Order including Sangharakshita in 2017 and an earlier statement in 2013.

Listen to Vishvapani’s broadcast in 2017 on BBC Radio Four’s Thought for the Day: ‘Burmese atrocities: the problem with a Buddhist state’

Image Creative Commons 

Dr. Ambedkar was a great social reformer in India who converted to Buddhism with hundreds of thousands of his followers, in order to help them escape the crushing oppression of caste.

Given as part of Buddhist Action Month in 2018, in this talk Jnanadhara explores the life and legacy of Dr. Ambedkar, and especially what Buddhists in the West can learn from the peaceful revolution that Dr. Ambedkar instigated in India.

Talk given in the Dublin Buddhist Centre on Friday 15th June 2018.

Paramabandhu explores in great breadth and depth the profound and central teaching of the Buddha: conditionality.

Drawing especially on incidents from the lives of the Buddha and his disciples in the Pali Canon, he highlights seven points that we should be particularly aware of when looking to understand this important teaching.

Talk given in the Dublin Buddhist Centre on Friday 17th May 2018.

In this FBA Dharmabyte Arthapriya creatively explores the question: What is actually happening?

Arthapriya explores the Buddhist understanding of what we call reality, and how it is less common sensical than we might imagine. In particular, he questions how much our 'outside world' is in fact so strongly conditioned by our state of mind. Covering karma, emptiness, impermanence and galaxies, this is a wide ranging talk!

From the talk 'The Nature of Reality' of a series of three talks entitled 'Reality and what to do about it', given at the Cambridge Buddhist Centre, UK, in November 2010.

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In this wonderful personal talk about Padmasambhava, Vessantara talks about his connection with the strange figure of Padmasambhava.

On the way, he gives an insight into what it’s like to relate to these Buddha and Bodhisattva figures deeply, and how we can do this.

And he explores the effects doing this can have on our mind, our heart and our Dharma lives.

Talk given in the Dublin Buddhist Centre on Tuesday 25th April 2017.

While Buddhist Action Month is no doubt a busy time for the many Centres and groups taking part, several have taken the time to keep us updated on how it’s been going for them.

From Padmasambhava’s arrival in Adelaide, Australia, to the Tree of Intentions in the North London Buddhist Centre to the colourful newsletter produced by the Mid Essex Centre aiming to raise awareness and funds for the homeless and refugees groups have been responding to the theme of ‘Transforming Self, Transforming World’ in their own unique way.  So we can see on the Buddhist Action Month facebook page, the West London Buddhist Centre are holding three events this coming Saturday: a workshop on cultivating wisdom and compassion, a fundraising skills auction followed by a vegan feast.  And In Deal the Buddhist group there even made it into the local newspaper as a result of their activities!

In addition, the Triratna Group in Scottish Highlands are getting set to wish all life well during their 24-hour midsummer meditation at Chanonry Point this weekend.  Members of the Triratna Buddhist Community Highlands and guests from further afield will be taking it in turns to meditate at the world famous dolphin watching site from midday on Saturday June 23rd until midday on Sunday June 24th and will raise funds for Scottish homeless charity Social Bite and Whale and Dolphin Conservation. 

“We want to make a positive difference in the world through our actions,” explained event organiser Gerry Beasley from Rosemarkie. “The theme of Buddhist Action Month is ‘Transforming Self, Transforming World’ and this is what we aim to do when we meditate. Mediation looks passive, but it is actively and radically transformative. As well as practising for our own benefit, we meditate for all beings, so we thought it fitting to meditate at this spot to raise money for whales and dolphins as well as for people who find themselves homeless.”

Sadhu to all and do keep an eye on the dedicated Buddhist Action Month space and share what your Sangha is doing!

Sangharakshita’s writings from 2015 to 2018 are open to all and are now available in Kindle, ePub and PDF format.

You can find them individually on his website.  There are thirty pieces altogether, covering a wide range of topics. The two most recent pieces, from April-May 2018, are Dreams Old and New 1 and 2, where Sangharakshita recalls some of the dream worlds he has inhabited, including ashrams, churches, woodlands, and outer space. 

Mindful Carers Limited is a very small company with a project as vast as the ocean -
to bring more Buddhist values into long-term care (LTC). Co-Director, Dayasara has worked for many years in nursing and nurse education; his final paid job was in dementia care and he continues to volunteer in this field.  Dayasara would like to see a residential care home run on Buddhist principles, but the current social care funding situation makes that rather challenging to achieve, so at the moment his particular focus is on frail, older people and others who need support to live
well.

He writes about this project:-

I became a Buddhist and was ordained in 2001. Around that time I got to know an older Order Member who was in failing health, and visited him at home, then in hospital, and finally in two care homes.

Our friendship prompted reflection on the particular needs of Buddhists in LTC, and I did a PhD on this. In parallel I argue that the care sector provides many opportunities for Buddhist work projects (Team Based Right Livelihoods).

But where to start? Two years ago I was approached by a mitra friend who works in care, the company name emerged, and suddenly we were Co-Directors. Our initial business plan didn’t progress, but then I did some home support work with a relative of a Sangha friend. That came to an end when the lady was admitted to a care home. However, the company continues with a quarterly newsletter, and I often visit Buddhists who have care needs.

A “Buddhist atmosphere” is difficult to define but, I think, easy to recognise. I now feel that the best care context to develop this would be a care home. This would be especially sensitive to the needs of Buddhists and those of Buddhist sympathy, whilst being open to all who wish to be there. Quite a high proportion of people die in care homes, so there could be an overlap with Buddhist involvement in hospice care.

That is some distance away. I am 64 and due to my own health issues I haven’t driven for 3 years. It may turn out that a previous venture, Buddhist Care Network may be more suitable for promoting interest and
sharing information on all forms of LTC and the Buddhist values involved with them.

For more information about this project or to subscribe to the ‘Mindful Carers’ newsletter email Dayasara at dayasara2012 [at] gmail.com.

See other Team Based Right Livelihoods

This FBA Dharmabyte is another dip into the Yogachara from Subhuti called 'Our Illusory View'. This is the last in a brilliant four-part series by Subhuti on the Yogachara school of Buddhist philosophy, which provides a comprehensive psychological overview of the workings of 'consciousness'.

What can we do about the veils of our basic delusions? Where do ethics come into all this? Time to steep ourselves in reality again for another session with Subhuti as he grasps the slippery snake of the mind and tries to help us see which end is which!

Please note, these 'rambles' were given without notes and may contain quotational misrememberings and inevitable slips of the tongue!

Rambles Around the Yogachara: Talk 4, given at London Buddhist Centre, 2003.

This talk is part of the series Rambles Around the Yogachara.

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Here you can see a video, made by Diana Platas, of two mitras from Cuernavaca, Olga Cuellar and Blanca García, who have begun a project in which they visit an after school club for underprivileged Mexican children and tell them stories as well as introduce some meditation. The project has been running for several months now.

Sorry but so far we don´t have subtitles for the video.

This FBA Podcast is a talk by Ratnaprabha entitled 'Sowing Seeds In the Soil of the Mind - The Alaya.'

The alaya, or storehouse consciousness, is the Buddhist equivalent of the unconscious mind. It is like a garden, in which every experience and action sows a seed which may later sprout and create our unfolding life.

This talk describes how this relates to the six sense awarenesses, the mind as a sense, and the contaminated mind which reads everything in terms of self and not self.

Mindfulness finds a creative path between leaving the alaya on autopilot, and allowing the contaminated mind to interfere and fill the garden with weeds and rubbish.

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