Today and tomorrow see two posts from the growing Triratna Sangha in Kerala, South India. Today Arun writes with news of their latest publication and recent - and first - Mitra retreat, saying - “Recently we had one 3-day Dhammamitra retreat here in Kerala. It was a first Dhammamitra retreat in Kerala. There were nine Dhammamitras all of them in the ordination process. We conducted our retreat at the new community Ratnaloka in Thiruvanantapuram, capital of Kerala. We studied the Patang Sutta from the Pali Canon led by Dhammacharis Ratnasiddhi and Bodhipriya from Nagpur. Each day we started with puja and meditation, then Ratnasiddhi led wonderful study on the Sutta, giving three speeches. We looked at and discussed the Maras in our minds which pull us so strongly from the spiritual life; in the retreat I liked this section so much.

Also last Sunday was a very important day for our Sangha, we took one more step forwards in establishing our movement here when our third…

Alex writes from Triratna’s EcoDharma Retreat Centre in the Catalan mountains, seeking volunteers up for some serious building work over the summer. She says - “The EcoDharma Centre will soon begin a three month building project to renovate an old peasant farm house as a retreat facility. We’re putting together a team of four with building experience to head up the project. We’ll provide board and lodging, plus a €3000.00 per person lump sum for experienced members of the core team. We want to start work between early June and end of August. Contact me on alex@ecodharma.com if you are interested - and please let people in your Sangha know about the opportunity”.

Click through the photos and expand the last one for a sense of the scale of EcoDharma’s land and the surrounding area…

Is there a Buddhist view of current affairs? Journal East is certainly setting out to provide one - and to provoke its readers into thinking through their own. Edited and written by Manjusiha from Triratna’s London Buddhist Centre, it’s seen a spate of thought-provoking articles recently. Here’s a few excerpts - for the rest, you’ll have to visit its website at journaleast.com

Suicidal Societies contrasts suicide bombers with the growing number of Tibetan protestors who self-immolate, saying “Yesterday, a rush hour bomb killed 55 in Damascus, Syria’s ‘worst terrorist attack since the start of the uprising… “Two booby-trapped cars loaded with more than 1,000kg of explosives and driven by suicide bombers carried out the terrorist blasts,…

Bodhinaga writes from Triratna’s Sheffield Buddhist Centre with news of their most handsome new Buddha rupa, made by Chintamani, who has for many years worked as a sculptor and painter at the London Buddhist Arts Centre, also a Triratna project.

He says - “On Buddha Day this year the Sheffield Sangha unveiled their new rupa. It is set on a beautifully crafted wooden plinth and has a spectacular backdrop, both made by members of the local Sangha. These, plus the new rupa itself, give a dramatic focus to the Sheffield Centre’s Great Hall.

“The shrineroom was packed with about 110 people for an occasion that was both celebratory and devotional”.

Bodhiketu writes from Guhyaloka, Triratna’s men’s retreat centre in the Spanish mountains, with news of their plans for Triratna’s first ‘One Year Retreat’ - and an invitation to contribute to it. He says -

“Since its founding in 1986 Guhyaloka retreat centre has hosted Triratna’s annual 4 month Ordination retreats for men. There has been a resident community here almost continuously since then, and many changes in how the community here has organised itself. Besides the regular Ordination retreats there have been many working retreats, sometimes for 5 months at a time, and those who attend retreats here now do so as a result of enormous amounts of hard work spanning 4 decades.

In the 90’s we had two interlocking communities in the Valley - a hard-working ‘support community’ and a ‘vihara’, plus several facilities for solitary retreats. The…

Triratna’s Ipswich Buddhist Centre created a splash in the city centre over the weekend as they celebrated the Buddha’s Enlightenment in the Cornhill, Ipswich’s central square. Building on last year’s successful initiative, this year they expanded the Festival to include the Sri Lankan Community (who came and gave away heaps of food), the local Community of Interbeing (Thich Nhat Hanh group), and Soka Gakkai International. Jnanamitra reports - “It was lovely to be celebrating together. It was wet and cold outside - but warm with friendship inside”. The day included people meditating in the window of the local Evolution shop.

The photographs say it all… Lots more on the Ipswich Buddhist Centre’s Facebook page.

Harshaprabha writes with news of the latest developments in the small Triratna sangha in Canada. He says - “I’ve just returned from an enjoyable and worthwhile trip to Guelph, in Ontario Canada, where I co-led no less than eight Newcomers Events of two and a half hours each. I was accompanied and assisted by Nagarakshita from the LBC in London - it was her first visit to Guelph although she has a connection with Canada through her daughter in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The maximum attending any of our sessions was about 10 though the minimum - for one of them - was zero (apart from Nagarakshita and myself of course!) On the latter occasion we did an Order Metta and a sevenfold puja. Eight new people showed a sincere interest in being kept informed of activities in the area, one of whom travelled 3 hours by car to get to us. Those who came valued the introduction to meditation - which were…

Recent months have seen two very different books published by members of the Triratna Buddhist Order: ‘Pilgrimage to Anywhere’ by Rijumati, and ‘Error Message’ by Ananda (writing under his english name of Stephen Parr) - his debut science fiction novel.

Error Message sees the earth threatened with annihilation by a sentient and hyper-intelligent computer network obsessed with understanding Russian jokes, which has spread across 20 light years of space near the Owl Nebula. This is the setting for a cosmic drama which embraces - among much else - an alien artefact that responds to human emotion, time-loops, a secret labyrinth beneath a block of flats in Camden town, a windowless room containing nothing but ladders… and fake detectives who stop at nothing to solve a non-existent…

Vajragupta writes from Triratna’s Development Team to remind everyone of the upcoming Triratna International Retreat - starting four weeks today - and to give us five reasons not to miss it!  They are…

1) It is the only big event for both the Triratna Buddhist Order and Community in the UK. It is a unique gathering, open to everyone, from those newest to our community right through to some of our most experienced Order members teaching and leading…
2) The emphasis is on us practising together: on big rituals – chanting and circumambulating the Buddha shrine, on imagining the Buddha through storytelling, writing workshops, chanting, meditating and more. Down below I’ve listed some of the talks and groups that will be on offer…
3) The event has a unique international flavour…

Triratna’s annual Buddha Festival day is coming up, falling this year on the Full Moon of May 6th.  Over in India, however, they’ve already celebrated a major Buddha festival at Nagpur’s Diksha Bhumi - right on the site of the historic mass conversions of 1956 which kick-started the Buddhist revival in India. Ritayush sends us this report: 

“Jai Bhim brothers and sisters. Encouraged by the success of our Buddha Festival last year, Nagpur Buddhist Centre organised a 2012 Buddha Festival from 26 to 29 January at the Diksha Bhumi, Nagpur. Actually, it was grand and beautiful: the focal point was a 30-foot high Buddha which created calm & enthusiasm at the same time. Two domes, huts, and an art gallery with a Stupa in the background made the scene more beautiful. Thousands thronged to attend various events for all four days of the festival.  

It was a great success and satisfaction…