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,…

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…