Today we celebrate Dr Ambedkar publicly converting Buddhism and formally Going for Refuge to the Three Jewels of Buddhism with hundreds of thousands of his followers. Join us this evening (UK) with the LBC, and on Monday evening (UK) with Manchester Buddhist Centre. 

Lokamitra, who moved to India in the 1970s, to help spread the Dhamma, is giving a talk right now!  If you can't tune in, catch up later.  

In the midst of all the suffering around the world, Dr Ambedkar gives us hope that transformation of self and world is not only possible, it is happening.

From The Abhayaratna Trust, FutureDharma Fund / India Dhamma Trust and The Karuna Trust.

In response to the coronavirus pandemic that is putting many people and communities in desperate circumstances in India, a number of appeals have been initiated by Triratna Trusts and individuals both in the East and the West.

In Europe, The Abhayaratna Trust, FutureDharma/India Dhamma Trust and the Karuna Trust/Karuna Germany are all active in raising and distributing emergency relief funds to people in need in India. In addition, Subhuti launched an appeal on Buddha Day to support Triratna groups in India involved in relief work. There are also a number of Triratna appeals on social media and those generated by Indian centres and groups which are beyond our scope to outline here.

We’d like to clarify each particular Trust’s position in raising money for people and projects in India so that you are clearer about their particular focus. 

Firstly, we want to say that the response from within our community has been tremendous! We thank everyone within Triratna for the very generous donations that you have given, the skills you have shared and time you have volunteered so far. A special, and deep felt thanks goes to the Order members, mitras and friends in India who are going out to local train stations, into slums, or setting up roadside stalls to help feed and support starving migrant workers. They are true Bodhisattva heroes and cannot be celebrated enough!

We know that many of you are giving to all of these appeals and it is a credit to our Order and Movement that we are responding so effectively to support those on the front line in India. However, the work is far from over and our brothers and sisters in India, and the communities they serve, need us to keep giving. The scale and the need in India will be very great for what looks like a long time and they are responding to a genuine humanitarian crisis.

The Abhayaratna Trust
The Abhayaratna Trust makes direct grants to individual Order members known to be experiencing financial hardship. In response to the suffering arising from the coronavirus pandemic, the Trust quickly set up a worldwide Coronavirus Emergency Fund for the Order and made cash grants to Order members in India, the UK, Spain, Mexico and the USA. In India particularly, some of our brothers and sisters in the Order are experiencing acute levels of hardship and The Abhayaratna Trust is working with the Indian Order Office to get financial support to those Individuals most in need of help to afford food and housing bills for them and their families. The Abhayaratna Trust exists to support individual Order members rather than projects or institutions.

So far, the Trust has made much needed grants to 54 Order members in India. Based on information from the Indian Order Office, support is needed for at least another 70 Order members; in addition, some of those who have already received a grant may need further support this summer. To meet this urgent need, we want to raise at least 600,000 Indian Rupees (approx. £6,000).

If you can support this appeal, please donate securely here and visit www.abhayaratnatrust.org to learn more.

2. FutureDharma Fund / India Dhamma Trust
The FutureDharma Fund in partnership with the India Dhamma Trust funds a number of projects and teams in India, including the Ordination Teams, the Movement Coordinator, and the Indian Youth Teams. Many of these are actively involved in coordinating the distribution of food parcels and other emergency responses to the coronavirus.

Furthermore, the Indian Ordination teams are unable to raise their own funds at this time and members of the teams are facing serious financial hardship. FutureDharma has been asked to increase funding for the Indian Ordination Teams. The men's and women's Ordination teams in India play a vital role in our community offering spiritual training, friendship and guidance. It is vital to our movement that they are able to continue these during the crisis.

That's why FutureDharma in partnership with the Indian Dhamma Trust has launched the Thrive Online appeal to fund these projects in India and other projects around the world which are resourcing our Sangha in these unprecedented and challenging times.

If you would like to know more about the projects and to give, please visit: FutureDharma Thrive Online.

3. Karuna Trust / Karuna Germany
Founded in 1980, Karuna exists to end caste-based discrimination, poverty and inequality in India and Nepal. Within days of the COVID-19 lockdown, Karuna along with its sister charity, Karuna Germany, launched appeals to provide emergency aid for their partners in India and Nepal. 

So far, Karuna has made large grants to 24 different long-standing partner organisations providing either food aid, medical supplies or counselling and support for the most vulnerable communities, reaching an estimated 135,000 people. The vast majority of those who have been helped are daily wage labourers – people who live hand-to-mouth on the income they receive each day. Without the ability to work, they have had no savings to fall back on and are not able to afford basic needs like food or healthcare. They remain highly vulnerable and, in response, Karuna's relief work continues. 

Karuna supports a range of partners and a significant number are social projects run by Order members or Mitras. They have been working around the clock to respond to the near endless suffering they encounter. Even though lockdown is easing in some Western countries, huge numbers in India continue to suffer acute levels of hardship and deprivation.

To support Karuna to continue this vital emergency work and to find out more, visit the Karuna appeal webpage.  

4. Buddha Day Appeal
On Buddha Day, Subhuti launched a new Appeal for Triratna-led relief work in India. A GoFundMe page was set up and, through the Dhammaloka Trust (a charity registered in the UK), the funds raised were transferred to TBMSG Nagpur, which is holding them on behalf of the Coronavirus Response Committee, made up of Dhammacharis and Dhammacharinis from various centres in India, which is coordinating this relief effort across India.

Up to a 100 Triratna locations and groups have responded to the crisis including 34 Triratna Centres, 15 Triratna social projects (Bahujan Hitay) and other Triratna organisations such as Aryaloka Computer Education, Bahujan Hitay Society, National Network of Buddhist Youth, Triratna Youth Council, and alumni of the Nagaloka Training Institute.

At the time of the appeal they had distributed food parcels to nearly 12,000 families and 60,000 people across India (Maharashtra, Uttarpradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Tamilnadu etc) and the work continues. As well as going to the slums in many villages, towns, and cities, Order members, Mitras, and friends are going daily to principal railway stations to give out food parcels, water, and oral rehydration salts to the thousands of destitute migrant workers travelling back to their villages without money, food, and water. The crisis is now getting worse as the economic consequences of the Lockdown hit poor Indians harder and harder.

Please support this appeal by visiting its page here.

Thank you for supporting these appeals and for standing in solidarity with our Movement in India.

Mahasraddha, Director, Abhayaratna Trust
Padmadaka, CEO, Karuna Trust 
Nandavajra, Director, Future Dharma Fund
Vajratara, Chair, India Dhamma Trust

Some of you may have heard reports about what is happening in India - the suffering of migrant workers and daily wage earners who are struggling to find food in the lockdown.

What is really impressive is how the Sangha has responded to the challenge. The ordination teams are galvanised and inspired. They are leading the Sangha: guiding and encouraging Order Members, mitras and friends to provide a coordinated and wholehearted response to the immediate practical needs of the people around them. People who thought they had been forgotten. They are spearheading the way, providing a vision of what the Buddhist compassionate response to suffering looks like. 

They are also responding to people’s Dharmic needs, learning how to use zoom and YouTube to give talks and run workshops. They are spending a lot of time on the phone, supporting those who are locked down in sometimes quite demanding situations: cramped homes and the difficulty of obtaining food.  As India goes into economic recession, many people are losing their jobs. The Three Jewels have never been so urgent or vivid in people’s lives, and the teams in India want to honour that and help people deepen their Dharma practice.

They need our support to carry on giving guidance and the gift of the Dharma, responding to the needs of the people they serve. Could you help by giving us a donation or doubling your standing order?

Dr Ambedkar’s life was far from easy. He had to struggle with discrimination, poverty and disappointment. Yet, in the heart of his struggle arose the profound desire to help alleviate the sufferings of all beings. He spent the rest of his life honouring that vow. 
Vajratara, Chair of India Dhamma Trust, explores what were the conditions for Dr Ambedkar to make that vow, and how we can learn from his example.

Flowers like the blue lotus, the red lotus, the white lotus, the water lily, and the moon lily do not grow on the dry ground in the wilderness, but do grow in the swamps and mud banks.

Vimalakirtinirdesa 

Dr Ambedkar’s life was far from easy. He had to struggle with discrimination, poverty and disappointment. Yet, in the heart of his struggle arose the profound desire to help alleviate the sufferings of all beings. He spent the rest of his life honouring that vow. 
Vajratara, Chair of India Dhamma Trust, will be exploring what were the conditions for Dr Ambedkar to make that vow, and how we can learn from his example.

The talk will be live streamed on the Triratna India YouTube channel. 
Sunday 26 April 2.30pm UK time, 7pm India.
 

Flowers like the blue lotus, the red lotus, the white lotus, the water lily, and the moon lily do not grow on the dry ground in the wilderness, but do grow in the swamps and mud banks.

Vimalakirtinirdesa 

Subhuti will be giving a live talk today at 3.30pm to celebrate the 129th birthday of Dr Ambedkar.  You can find it here! 

The Order in India is doing the best they can in an extremely demanding situation: helping people in the lockdown with practical support, emotional support and giving support and encouragement.  Like many of us, they are moving most of their teaching activities online.  Today, however, they are celebrating the great example and inspiration of Dr Ambekar. 

This is a more personal celebration of Dr Ambedkar's birthday by a young Buddhist, Dikesh Shambharkar, and her family in Nagpur.  Do have a look, you'll feel you are in an Indian home celebrating with a family.  Happy Birthday Dr Ambedkar, who gave so much to the world!

You can see more videos from the National Network of Buddhist Youth on YouTube.

Happy Dr Ambedkar Jayanti!

Dr Ambedkar would have been 129 today. You might be wondering how we are celebrating in India? Online of course, so you can join in!  Did you know we have a Tiratna India Youtube page? This page has been live-streaming talks, celebrations and songs to 5000 people!  Rumour has it that Subhuti will appear there at 3.30 this afternoon...

To subscribe to the Triratna India Channel click here.

I am writing to you in a very critical and uncertain time, and I know that a number of you are concerned about our Sangha in India. India too is on lockdown, and people's conditions are very different from ours: food is hard to come by and expensive, many people don't have homes or sanitation. There is mass migration with migrant workers returning to their home villages. If people do have homes, they often live with many family members sharing a small space.

The Sangha in India are responding to the needs of others as best they can: bringing practical and emotional support to those that need it.

Understandably the ordination team members we support are also concerned about their livelihood since they usually fundraise for half their wages. Indian fundraising is dependent on one-off gifts after face to face appeals, which is not possible at this time. However, the teams remain positive and inspired, looking to find creative ways to reach out to others.

Our big news

As you know, we're a small charity, run by a dedicated team of volunteer trustees, that concentrates on fundraising for Dhamma work in India. The most essential thing that we do is to fundraise for the Indian Ordination Teams, enabling them to do what they do best: travel all over India spreading the Dhamma and training the next generation of Order Members to do the same. Travelling isn’t possible at the moment, but the Sangha still needs advice and support, encouragement to deepen their Dhamma practice in a time of uncertainty and fear.

We have decided that the most effective way for us to operate, particularly in this difficult time, is to partner up with Future Dharma Fund.  The team at Future Dharma will take over our communications and fundraising, bringing with them a wide pool of experience and training to draw from.  

The trustees at India Dhamma Trust are very pleased about this new development. It means we can share ideas and knowledge, working together on the common project of spreading the Dhamma all over the world. What the India Dhamma Trust will bring is a specialist interest and experience of India. Around a third of the Order is in India, and around half of the world’s Mitras training for Ordination. The India Dhamma Trust will continue to ensure that funds are distributed to India in the most effective way.  

What you can do

The main thing you can do is not do anything!  Or if you do something, increase your donation to the India Dhamma Trust  to help ensure we can maintain the Indian Ordination Team’s wages in a very demanding time.  

Your donations will continue to go directly to India and to the India Dhamma Trust’s small overheads.  Future Dharma Fund will be helping us in our work, and we will continue as an independent charity who needs your donations. 

We would like you to continue to give to both India Dhamma Trust and Future Dhamma Fund - India Dhamma Trust will give solely to India, particularly the Indian Ordination Teams, and Future Dhamma Fund will give to projects all over the world.

We’ll keep our own board of trustees on the India Dhamma Trust who can oversee funds going to India and ensure they are spent most effectively.  

I will also be a guest on the board of Trustees for Future Dharma Fund, bringing the perspective of fundraising for the Indian Sangha to their decision making.  

Remember, we still need your donations to help spread the Dharma Revolution in India!  Your donations are essential to enable the Indian Ordination teams to continue their work.

I have been keeping up to date with the news in India, and friends in India have been telling me what is happening. The current crisis in India falls disproportionately on the scheduled caste community. For the Indian Sangha, the desire to bring back Buddhism to the land of its birth, and with Buddhism, harmony, and love for a common humanity, is paramount.  

Speaking to the Indian Sangha inspires me with hope and enthusiasm for a better world. I am so glad we can be part of that Sangha, and with this new development, give more to the people who can benefit the most.
Thank you for your continuing support,

Vajratara 
Chair of India Dhamma Trust

I confess, when I sat down to record this podcast yesterday I somehow didn't expect it to have the impact it did. I'd seen all the news stories, shaken my head, wondered at how human beings can meet such complex, painful realities as what's unfolding in India right now. But here they were - my friends - talking about what I can do about it. What you can do too. 

We're spending a week - in whatever ways we can manage - with the Home Retreat. In this case, the Worldly Winds we're all trying to sail through are blowing strong. More like a hurricane. More like a typhoon. A lot like a disaster. Make no mistake, we all have troubles right now. But still, this...

When we talked it over in the Toolkit team this morning, it seemed clear. We don't want just to honour the best in our global community in all the ways of this particular space: meditation, Dharma, friendship, inspiration. We want to make sure our own practice – our own sense of what resources look like - is shot through with a sense of giving and generosity. For the sake of all beings. And for our own wellbeing. 

And so, an emergency appeal from us to you, dear friends. Will you help?

The humanitarian crisis unfolding in India is of a scale that can seem overwhelming. It is understandable that, in the midst of our own undoubted trouble, we may wish to turn away. Perhaps we may even feel a sense of hopelessness. But when you listen to our guests from the Karuna Trust and the India Dhamma Trust, the moral force of their work is itself a bright example of the best kind of human response to suffering. 

Working with 50+ NGOs on the ground in India and Nepal, the Karuna Trust has set itself the aim of raising £200,000 in 6 weeks. This money will enable local people to alleviate immediate food shortages affecting 300-400 million day-labourers left without work or money after the sudden lockdown. In this episode, we hear about amazing work going on in densely packed slums right now that you could support from wherever you are. And how your donation will bolster the longterm planning that's already happening to set up conditions for dealing with the aftermath of it all. Help Karuna's partners in India rebuild broken lives.

If you do one thing this weekend, please hear this appeal marked by proper urgency and surprising hope. Witness how we can all make a difference, even when things are as tough as they are. 

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Give now to the Karuna Trust and help some of the poorest people in India

Donate to the India Dhamma Trust and their work to support the highest dignity and freedom for all

Support FutureDharma: transforming lives around the world

Listen to an episode about new Dalit leadership initiatives in South India

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Theme music by Ackport! Used with kind permission.

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We have just finished a very successful fundraising workshop for the Indian Ordination Teams and fundraisers. They do extremely well fundraising for Dhamma work in India, despite difficult circumstances. The IDT match fundraise the money they raise. This is an amazing achievement, something we doubted could happen in India, and thankfully we were wrong! Over the two days we had in Bhaja, we shared ideas and inspirations, good initiatives and things we have learnt from what went wrong. Most of all we want to celebrate the dana economy, East and West, and encourage dana paramita, the practice and perfect of giving.

Vajratara is in Nagpur, India to meet with the Indian ordination teams. Our major news is that we are supporting a new venture: Ratnaloka, an Urban Dhamma Training Centre. We have got some land ready to build a Centre solely for training people for ordination. We would like to build a beautiful place, a real realm of Ratnasambhava, to hold workshops and retreats. Many people in India, particularly women and young people, find it difficult to find the time and money to go away for retreat, but with this Centre they can deepen their Dhamma practice nearer home. We will run residential and non-residential workshops. To do this we need your help! Would you consider making a donation to help build Ratnaloka?

Amoghasiddhi from India, Vajratara from the India Dhamma Trust and Padmavajra gave three talks celebrating two remarkable men: Dr Ambedkar and Sangharakshita.  Watch the talks here!

14 October commemorates the day in 1956 when 400 000 people embraced Buddhism in India, leaving behind social injustice and entering into a Buddhist path of practice.  The man behind this momentous occasion was the great social reformer Dr Ambedkar.  Having tried social and political action to remove inequality in society, he believed that the Buddhist path itself was the key to a powerful and peaceful social revolution.  

Amoghasiddhi, one of our most senior Order Members from India, and Vajratara from the women’s ordination team and India Dhamma Trust, will lead an evening celebrating this occasion.  Find out more about how Buddhism can create the conditions for social change, something that is as relevant now as it was in 1956.

To be held at Manchester Buddhist Centre.  Find out more here.

The India Dhamma Trust helps support Dharmacharinis, including Abhayadana, who devote themselves to helping the Dhamma transform the lives of people in India.  She is over in the UK at the moment: she attended the International Council meeting and is now on retreat at Tiratanaloka.  Hear about her work with women in India.

At the time of writing, several Indian Order Members are participating at the International Council at Adhisthana. Next week they will be travelling to Centres in the UK to offer insight into the difference the Dharma and Triratna have made to their lives. From the conditioning of so called ‘untouchability’, embracing the new identity and consciousness offered through the Buddha’s teaching, is an inspiring example of how their, and all, lives can be transformed.  We invite you to come and share in their stories and lives at the following venues.

Tuesday September 10th – Cardiff Buddhist Centre from 7.15pm

Wednesday September 11th – Shrewsbury Buddhist Centre 7.30pm

Thursday September 12th – Ipswich Buddhist Centre 7.30pm

If you can come to any of these events you are sure to have your perspective on a life in the Dharma broadened.

The women’s ordination team, with Karunamaya and Padmasuri, led a one month’s Dhamma training course for young women in Nagpur. The culminated in Bodhgaya where those on the course led a 5 day retreat for women in Bihar. Watch this documentary and hear the participants talk about their experience. For me it seems an especially significant course. The young women learn about the Dhamma and Dr Ambedkar in the very heartland of modern Indian Buddhism. They then travel North to the heartland of ancient Buddhism, giving the gift of what they have learnt to those women in the very poorest part of their country. Women in India giving the gift of confidence, friendship and the Dhamma to each other. A smile for the future!

The India Dhamma Trust support the women's ordination team that enables these, and other projects and retreats to take place.  Thank you, this is where your money goes!

Happy Dhamma Day everyone! A day to celebrate the gift of the Dhamma we have been given, and to enable others to benefit from the same gift.

'Go now and wander for the welfare and happiness of happiness of many, out of compassion for the world, for the benefit, welfare and happiness of gods and humans. Teach the Dhamma that is beautiful in the beginning, beautiful in the middle and beautiful in the end, with the meaning and the letter. Explain a holy life that is utterly perfect and pure. There are beings with little dust on their eyes who will be lost through not hearing the Dhamma'.  

Please consider giving a donation to help the Dhamma flourish in the land of its birth. There are many who long to have the conditions to deepen their understanding of the Dhamma, and you can help.

India Dhamma Trust are in the midst of a transition with important effects upon the work we support in India

About a third of our regular donors give via the MyDonate website. Unfortunately, this is closing at the end of June, so we have had to find a replacement service.

Because of this we will now be using Virgin Money Giving as our platform for online gifts. It offers the same ease of use we had with MyDonate, along with the same facility to administer Gift Aid for us.  It also offers the chance to offset their administration fee.

There is naturally a risk in this transition that some of our regular gifts may fall through a gap, and thus affect the crucial work we support in India. Because of this, we request our MyDonate donors to follow these two steps in the following order ( If you wish to join in supporting us only the first step is required).

1) Go to the following address to complete the form there, including the Gift Aid option if eligible. (Cut and paste this web address to your internet browser or use the button in this post - be sure to click the button for regular gifts)

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/donation-web/charity?charityId=1016737&stop_mobi=yes

2). Once your new gift is set up through Virgin Money Giving, cancel your existing one through MyDonate.

Although the closure of MyDonate is unfortunate and unexpected, it does perhaps afford an opportunity to our current ongoing gifts and consider the possibility of increasing them. This would naturally be very welcome to India Dhamma Trust and our beneficiaries in India.

The money that we and our partner fundraisers in India raise currently keep the ordination processes in India functioning at their current level only. As there are approaching 2500 people who have now requested ordination in India, increased gifts will better enable the teams to respond to the growing need, which can mean more ordination team members and preceptors. Please consider an increase to your current gift as you make the transition to Virgin Money Giving.

Thank you very much for giving this your attention. The process should be easy, but if you would like any help please contact us via info@indiadhammatrust.org  or phone Dhammavijaya on 07984859474.

With thanks from India Dhamma Trust and our brothers and sisters in India for your continued support.

As well as the creative non-residential training for young men outlined in our last past, residential training is also available at retreat centres at  Bhaja and Bor Dharan. In these, young men have the opportunity to live in a residential spiritual community, and to support the retreat centre. These photos are from the Vidarbha and North Indian regions.