A brief posting on the above theme. The company of which I am co-director, Mindful Carers Ltd, is only progressing slowly and has changed its aims, at least in the short term. As to a work project run on Buddhist principles, I definitely think what we need most is a residential care home. That's some years away, and frankly the social care funding situation has never been worse, prompting me to develop a presentation called "Who in their right mindfulness?". Anyway, I'm seeking the best advice I can get. Do call me for more details (see below).

  I hope we'll get Mindful Carers groups (or something similar) around Triratna Centres. They could be a forum for looking at many aspects of care and developing practical responses.

We had a good BAM evening last year on Homelessness, with a long-standing friend of the Centre who works in this field. We'll maintain the link this year with a collection of tinned/packaged food for people moving into their own accommodation. Also a local mitra does a great job as a volunteer chaplain at the hospice. Of course, there's a vast ocean of need in the wider world and it's not easy to set priorities. I'm surprised sometimes how an explicitly Dharmic aspect emerges...e.g. I heard about a mitra who volunteers with a befriending scheme and found himself visiting an ex-Order Member whose reduced mobility means he is often at home.

Thanks and Metta to all- Dayasara from Ipswich...email me on dayasara2012@gmail.com or phone/text on 07748-375923

Dear friends, 

it feels a bit like spring as I write this, and perhaps that is an auspicious time to turn our minds to Buddhist Action Month 2017. 

I know that some Triratna Centres and their respective 'engaged Buddhist' groups have already got plans for June and what they want to see happening during Buddhist Action Month; but for others this might be a first reminder that it is not too soon to turn our minds to the early summer and start thinking what might be a good action to take for our sangha. 

The buddhistcentre online have created us a new 2017 Buddhist Action Month space, so here is an invitation to join the space - just click on the link above and then on +FOLLOW in the header image. 

If you are a member of a Centre that already has concrete plans and ideas for what you want to do in June, please share them in the 2017 BAM space - you may well give other people good ideas and inspire them to get in communication with their Centre and decide on some collective actions. 

Buddhist Action Month 2017 is three months away but here is something to literally prepare the ground for it:  a tree planting and meditation retreat, organised by Satyadasa from the LBC with Trees for Life in the Highlands - it sounds great! 

This is the event page on the LBC site where you'll find more info:

Re-wilding the Mind

Dates are from 27/05/2017 to 03/06/2017, and it is led by Satyadasa
 

Dear friends,

In just over 2 months our Triratna Buddhist Community will mark the 50th anniversary of its founding on April 6th, 1967.  I hope many of you will be able to join in with your Sangha at your nearest larger Centre for the day for the celebrations.  ​
 
All over the world Triratna Centres and Groups will gather to celebrate and many will already have developed plans for the day. 
However, in addition to meeting and practising with friends in our Sangha on the day itself, we want to create an online presence of this event, so that we are all aware of each other, we have a sense of our world-wide Triratna Sangha, and also to have a record of who we are and what we are doing at this time. 
The invitation is for every Triratna Buddhist Centre, Group or Project to share images or videos of your Sangha: we’d like every Buddhist Centre, Project and Group to be represented!

Perhaps you, and/or your engaged dharma group, want to create one or more short video clips to mark the occasion - perhaps noting what we have to offer the world, and how we can reach out as a hand of Avalokiteshvara .... 

Please see the detailed instructions for what’s wanted, how to do it, and where to upload it. You can start uploading and sharing straight away so we can have a build up towards the event. The sooner we upload images/clips into our social media spaces, the more the buddhistcentre online and clearvision have a chance to locate your clip and use it. 

It would be great if we could all participate and build up a picture of all of us in Triratna world wide for this event! Any questions, contact one of us on the form attached. 

If you enjoyed the talk by David Loy 'A Crisis for Buddhism?' you might well appreciate this short article where he continues on some of the themes: Buddhism must awaken to the ecological crisis 

Here's a taster: 

"As we begin to awaken and realise that we are not separate from each other or from the earth, we also begin to see that the ways we live together and relate to our environment also need to be reconstructed in order to become more sustainable and socially just.

Buddhism provides a wonderful archetype that can bring individual and social transformation together: the bodhisattva. Bodhisattvas have a double practice – as they deconstruct and reconstruct themselves, they also work for social and ecological change. Actually, these are two sides of the same practice. As we start to see through the delusion of our separateness, our self-preoccupied habits don’t suddenly disappear. We need to develop less self-centred and more compassionate ways of living in the world, but how do we do that? By devoting ourselves to the well-being of others, including the health of the earth’s ecosystems. Such concerns are not distractions from our personal practice but deeper manifestations of it."

A brilliant talk by Zen teacher David Loy. It's called A crisis for Buddhism, but feeling very inspired by it: https://oneearthsangha.org/articles/a-crisis-for-buddhism/

Buddhist Action Month may have ended, but the excellent talks that emerged from it continue in recorded form.  Hear Vessantara's engaging talk given at the Cambridge Buddhist Centre as part of BAM.

Over the centuries, the Dharma has been practiced by people following many different lifestyles – from homeless wanderers to kings and queens in their palaces. If there isn’t one ‘Dharma lifestyle’ then what do all these different ways of living have in common, and how can they all be expressions of the Buddha’s teaching? What are the principles underlying them all, and what does all this mean for us in our 21st century world?

In our program to deliver practical actions in line with the Buddhist precepts and as part of Buddhist Action month we;

Have donated the Dana bowl each week to a charity chosen by the Sangha. So far we have donated

£40 to the Green Tara Trust operating in Nepal

£50 to WaterAid providing access to clean water in deprived parts of the world

£50 to Addington School for special children to help to give two boys a day out to remember as they leave the school. Cathy works at this school with children with autism and other special needs and she will be organizing the day out.

£50 to the Samaritans for the amazing work they do for people in distress.

We held a 'Soup & Sangha' event on Sunday the 26th with a teaching from Ratnaprabha from the West London Buddhist centre and from which we raised £40 for the Karuna appeal.

Mick went litter picking in his street, Stuart donated food to the local food bank. Mick George and Eduardo have been cycling more.

Cathy went vegan.

Stuart distributed materials for Amnesty International and has engaged with a number of local charities and the local organic food Co-op.

Loose change was given to the Dana bowl by everyone.

Our meditation each week was around some aspect of the metta bhavana choosing groups near and far for our focus.

And a lot, lot more!

Today is 1 July and I guess that means the end of Buddhist Action Month. I have been enormously inspired and delighted to read and hear of all the many actions and events that have been taking place in Triratna Groups and Centres around the world - sadhu to us all! 

Over the past month, many of us have been engaged in actions and sangha gatherings around the theme of 'Buddhist Action'. It has been an opportunity to reflect on our interrelationship with the world around us - how does our lifestyle and our consumption habits affect the world and the people in it? Both now as well as the effect on future generations? 

Do we want it to be the way it is - are there changes we'd like to make? To what extent is our collective lifestyle in the West an ethical issue? To what extent it our individual lifestyle based on simplicity, contentment, awareness of others, generosity etc and hence sustainable and helpful: this may make us more aware of the potentially radical nature of a dharma lifestyle!

I tend to think that our individual & collective dharma practice is capable of contributing to signifiant social transformation  - especially if we make the transformative nature of it quite explicit and keep moving beyond a  our cultural conditioning of individualism and materialism. 

It may be the end of BAM 2016, but it can be the beginning of integrating greater awareness of the consequences of our actions on the planet and all the people who live in it! And a continuing exploration of 'What does the Bodhisattva Ideal mean for us in the 21st century?!'

Let's continue the exploration of this theme over the rest of the year - on the buddhistcentre online this conversation can continue on the Compassion in Action page. You can post any thoughts, discussion points, details of events or action points that relate to the theme of compassionate action/ 

Of course, the ultimate compassionate action and one that the historical Buddha exemplified, is teaching the dharma or supporting those that do it. I have just started reading Analayo's  book Compassion and Emptiness in Early Buddhist Meditation'  - I am only a few chapters in but so far it is very readable and enjoyable  - highly recommended!

But there are millions of beings  - humans and animals - who don't and never will have access to a Buddhist Centre, and who also may well not have any voice or many possibilities to change their lives without support: how can we reach out to some of them? And should that sound too grandiose and 'too much' then we might just have to lift our gaze in our local communities, people just outside our front door, and notice what might of benefit to ease their life and gain greater perspective on the choices they can make. 

The intention to benefit all beings ,

Which does not arise in others even for their own sake,

Is an extraordinary jewel of the mind,

Its birth an unprecedented wonder.

It is the panacea that relieves the world of all pain, ,

And is the source of all its joy

If even the thought to relieve

Living creatures of merely a headache

Is a beneficial intention endowed with infinite goodness,

Then what need is there to to mention

The wish to dispel their inconceivable misery,

Wishing every single one of them

To realize boundless good qualities?

Santideva, bodhicharyavatara, ch 1

WRITTEN BY MOMTAZ

PHOTOS BY LISA LENS

Trying to stay fit at a Retreat Centre, believe it or not, has it challenges!  Before I moved to Taraloka, I would walk to most places; to work, to the shops, to the Buddhist centre, etc. I used to attend several gym classes a week prior to yoga became my main form of body movement.  I do prefer exercising in a group rather than on my own, though, I used to find something a little artificial and pretentious about gym classes.

At Taraloka, our office is only a few steps from our lovely home.  So there isn’t much walking involved in getting to work and access to facilities outside Taraloka almost always involves a car trip, with the nearest shop several miles away.

Despite having beautiful countryside surroundings at my doorstep, planning in walks to keep fit felt oppressive and another thing to fit into my daily schedule. So, to make it more enticing, I started barefoot walking along the canal and around Bettisfield mosses.  I love the different sensations under my feet, observing the changes in the landscape and listening to the variety of bird songs. I have also found that bare foot walking has improved my blood circulation and I no longer need to wear socks in bed. I now go walking most days, come rain or shine! 

Outdoor activities at Taraloka really intensified with the lovely weather we had in May.

This has led to a number of green gym activities for the Taraloka community.  The basic premise behind green gym is that it offers an alternative to conventional gyms, but with far less carbon footprint, using outdoor activities as a means to increase health and well-being.  The workouts are intended to be relatively inexpensive, with the social benefits of group activity and the joy of engaging with nature whilst getting fit[i].

As a community we decided to consciously take part in more green gym activities during Buddhist Action Month (BAM) in June. 

Hryidayagita kicked off the green gym craze by introducing weighted hula hoops to the community and a few of us are now active fans.  We have 2 hula hoops and we often practice in pairs out in the gardens of Taraloka.

Maitridevi discovered a spot for wild swimming at Hanmer Mere which is only 3 miles down the road.  Maitridevi, Maitrisiddhi and Elaine cycle down there regularly and have a good swim.  They are all very good cyclists and swimmers!  Trish, Hridayagita and I have joined them on occasions. 

On 21st June, we headed out to the mere for our community night. Six of us cycled to Hanmer, whilst four travelled by car.  At Hanmer, a path through the woodland on the eastern side of the lake leads to a sandy bay, and the mere itself is surrounded by lush greenery.  The lake is alive with nature, clean and inviting.  I do enjoy the luxury of swimming in a wild lake.

I am also keen on practicing with the hula-hoop.  I am at a point where I can mambo as well as walk whilst keeping the hula-hoop going.  I even convinced Suchitta to have a go and she got really good at it.  It was a great community night out being with others who were engaging in healthy, outdoor activities and that helps to keep my motivation up too.

I have asked a couple of community buddies to describe their experience in their own words:

Hridayagita:

Living in a rural environment, I have found hard to keep fit.  When I lived in
Worcester city, I would cycle to work, cycle home, cycle out in the evening to dance
class, Tai Chi class and Sangha night.  Over the seven years I’ve lived at Taraloka,
I’ve realised I’m more of a “keep fit by doing interesting classes” rather than the
type who enjoys going down the gym!
 
So, I was really excited by the suggestion we had a green gym for BAM, and it didn’t
disappoint.  Cycling the 3 miles to Hanmer mere for a wild swimming session in the
cool, dark water pool was delightful.  I swam all the way across and back this time
and it was stunning - quiet and peaceful with just the sound of the water as I swam,
not the echo and music of a public pool!  This was followed by some hula hooping –
the latest Taraloka craze - which was great fun, especially when trying to sing at
the same time.  And then a cycle home (up quite a steep hill for the flatlands) and
chips from our local chip man “Grandad”.  I felt refreshed, re-vitalised and open to
the beauty of our surroundings.  As it was summer solstice that night, we continued
with the outdoor theme and had a silent walking ritual around all the Buddha’s in
our landscape.  Beautiful.

Samantabhadri:

“I've come to love the Shropshire meres: wonderfully present but ancient as the hills. Our sunlit solstice at Hanmer held both of these. Very rare glacial lilies flowered on the far edge of the water. I came to walk and watch. I wandered along the mere-side path, reaching no end but hoping to see how far it went. I watched my fellow community members in delightful and possibly eccentric activity: swimming, hula-hooping and skipping. Childhood revisited, lots of laughter and action for ourselves on that bright, longest evening of our Buddhist month.”

Thank you!  Momtaz

[i] The official Green Gyms are run across the UK by TVC (The Conversation Volunteers) which are free outdoor sessions where you will be guided in practical activities such as planting trees, sowing meadows and establishing wildlife ponds. The emphasis is very much on health and wellbeing of volunteers as well as helping them to contribute something positive towards their local community. 

I thought that you would like an update on some of the things that we have been doing as part of Buddhist Action Month.

Each week we have picked a charity receive the contents of our Dana bowl which has been receiving Sangha members' loose change as well as regular attendance monies. So far we have donated £41 to the Green Tara Trust that provides pre and post natal maternity care in Nepal where the effects of the earthquake are still being felt http://www.greentaratrust.com/ . We have also donated £60 to Wateraid https://www.wateraid.org/uk/ that works to provide clean drinking water to some of the world's most disadvantaged communities.

Each of the Sangha members has a Pledge sheet where they have made pledges to do something to make the world a better place ranging from contributing to the Food Bank, going vegan/vegetarian, promoting and attending socially active events, getting the bike out, planting for wildlife and growing food, metta meditations, becoming organ donors, recycling more and talking excess 'stuff' to a charity shop, practicing non-violent communication, volunteering and much more.

Ask yourself - what difference can I make today?
 

The Port Fairy Buddhist Community screened the Film "  This Changes Everything"

In the town of Koroit on Sunday morning June 26th. The event was well supported by Sangha members, Friends and some from the wider community.

Our Sangha's contribution to BAM this year has been more modest than last year but we have been delighted to participated in the Australian BAM effort which was spearheaded by the excellent month long programs offered by the Sydney and Melbourne Sangha's.

We are looking forward to being part of BAM again in 2017

It's almost the end of Buddhist Action Month, but Engaging as Buddhists goes on all year. Its not always easy. It takes skill, energy, resources and courage. This is why the Ecodharma Centre is supporting Buddhist Action through our Engaged Buddhist Training and other courses bringing the Dharma to empower social change.

Here's our new video on Engaged Buddhist Training!

The venue where our sangha gathers is on a street that sees many of Exeter's 'street homeless', and sangha members wanted to know  - what is the wise and compassionate response? So for the theme 'connecting communities' we had a talk by Brett Sentence from the charity Julian House - "Julian House works for a just society where socially excluded people are supported and empowered to build sustainable, independent lives."  Could Brett give us a simple answer? "No!" he said regretfully, "it can be very complex. But I would ask you not to give money, that just perpetuates the situation. Give food, drinks by all means. And do please report someone you meet to us so that we can keep up with who is out there and needing help.  But the most valuable thing you can do is just have a normal conversation. Street homeless people get so isolated from simple, everyday communication."   Then last week we had 3 members of our sangha talking about the positive work they do with local communities, which included homeless and vulnerable adults with addictions. "Many people DO recover from addiction. Many people we've worked with talk about a sort of 'awakening' moment, from when they turn it all around."  Very inspiring, very moving. Vidyadasi

BAM! It all starts here... for the gardens at Taraloka at least, with our COMPOST. I love it, and I love making it. So it's time to dish the dirt. Let's start big, with some facts about soil and our planet.

1) It can take about 1,000 years to make just a couple of centimetres of soil.

2) The human population is rising globally, and almost all of the new growth is being housed in towns and cities that, by definition, are not providing food for their citizens.

3) About 2 billion hectares of soil have been degraded for example by chemicals or deforestation over the past 40 years - equivalent to 15% of the Earth's land area. Soil is being lost at 10 - 40 times the rate at which it can naturally regenerate. This is due entirely to human mismanagement, carelessness or ignorance.

4) One third of all living organisms on our planet live in the soil. Without this subterranean life, there would be no gardens (and a lot more besides!) and it is vital to have soil that contains as much life as possible, i.e., beneficial bacteria, fungi, worms, lovely worms, beetles and so on.

Soil is not a fixed thing, any more than light is. Think of it as a living entity working WITH plants rather than an inert medium in which to raise them. And the good news is that the best way to nurture soil is with*normal garden compost*, which anyone can make in their garden or allotment, or with a wormery. There is nothing quite like a lovely, steaming compost heap.

Here at Taraloka we have 3 large compost bins, made from pallets, so nothing fancy. (There's also a cage beside them where I make leaf mould, otherwise known as Black Gold in my mind.) Last year Maitrisiddhi, Anne and Rebecca built 3 spanking new bins to replace the original ones that had rotted away, and they are wonderful.

I try and layer the heap, a bit like an enormous Black Forest gateau (remember them?!). The Retreat Centre, community and gardens provide both the green and brown waste that makes for a healthy and balanced heap.

Green waste comes from uncooked veg, fruit, mown grass clippings, and clearing from the garden and so on. I get enormous satisfaction that flowers that I've grown from seed will go onto the heap when they're 'finished and dead' and in fact are anything but. They continue to be part of the seasonal circle of life and 6 - 9 months later will be providing nourishment to the soil. At the moment I'm looking on with delight and amazement as butternut squash seedlings are appearing all over the place - it must be from the compost...

Brown waste comes from things like the non-shiny cardboard boxes of our deliveries, shredded paper from the office, wood ash from the log burners, and the contents of our vacuum cleaners. So none of this is going to landfill. I don't want to lower the tone, but one of the best things you can put on a compost heap to help it in its work is pee. I won't name names, but there is one faithful contributor in this way in the community, to whom I'm very grateful.

Each year in Spring and Autumn we have a few Gardening Days, when volunteer gardeners come to blitz the place, and those are the times when our compost is spread on the flower beds, woodland planting etc. Taraloka could not look the way it does without them. Taraloka could not be what it is without them. Neither could it be what it is, or look as it does without the compost bins and the miracle of the glorious living, nurturing substance that is made in them.

Suchitta
 

Apart from the fact that we can continue with our skilful actions engagements and all through the year, should you feel that you'd like to end the month doing something  to have a positive effect on the world and reach out to yourSangha as well as your local community - here are some ideas for 10 minutes actions which you can still do - even today! 

• a daily dose of FMI's: five minute interventions {not sure what they are? Look it up here, page 22 of the BAM Handbook, or see below *) 
• guerilla gardenIng: take a bottle of water and a trowel and pop into your local poundhsop (or equivalent). Buy some bedding plants, find an unloved public container or bit of soil round a tree. Plant what you've got, water them and enjoy having transformed your world around you a little bit! It needs it... 
• switch to green energy!! Although it might only take 5 minutes .. 
• write an appreciative card to a friend
• write to your local BAM kula at your Buddhist Centre and let them know that you appreciate what they've done and encourage them to go on!  Buy them cake!

Any other suggestions for 10 minute BAM actions? 

five minute interventions:  page 22 of the BAM Handbook 

We can be ‘a friend to the world, a friend to all beings’ - ‘everyday Bodhisattvas’ if you like! Bhante has talked about being able to be friends with anyone (animals included!). Offering friendship, attention, and unconditional positive regard to others is something all of us can do, regardless of our perceived skills or abilities. We can all just relate on a very human, very mettaful level and that is something of great value, and something which is lacking for so many people. So one of the things we could do is pledge to engage in five minute interventions (FMIs) with people, friends, strangers, neighbours – anyone we encounter. There is so much loneliness all around us, so many people really do live lives of quiet despair – let’s share our metta! 

Karunaprabha is a Triratna order member living in Pune, India. Here she talks about her life, about Dr Ambedkar, and about her work with the Green Tara Foundation which helps young girls and women in ten slum districts in Pune. She loves her work her, and says she has benefitted so much from contact with the Dharma in her life she really wants to give back - as she says, "we have compassion - but we must express it somewhere!" 

Today at 3pm in the Castle Park the Colchester Buddhist Centre and friends will meditate for Peace, at a time when the world so badly needs it. 

On June 26 there will be an action planning day. This will be a chance for interested people to brainstorm what the Melbourne Sangha could do collectively rather than simply as individuals to be as effective as possible in addressing the climate crisis. It will start with a short talk by Tejopala on climate change and the five precepts.

This post could be entitled 'How to do something positive for the world and have a really good day at the same time': the Exeter & Devon Triratna sangha met with members of other local Buddhist groups - Western Chan fellowship, Gaia House group and Diamond Way - at Dawlish Warren, a little seaside resort south of Exeter, and followed Neil, our beachcare officer, along the beach, away from the shops selling flip flops and ice cream.  

10 minutes on the beach was deserted, and along sandy dunes and glorious sunshine we spent an hour filling out bags with plastic and other human-made rubbish. The main stuff I found was bits of plastic rope (lots of it!), plastic netting, fragments of plastic bags,  fragments of plastic containers and I easily managed to fill most of a large bin liner in an hour. Neil said we'd find the same amount again if we came back in 2 or 3 months .... 

It was great doing it with members of other Buddhist groups - a really easy way to get to know other practioners, just chatting as we were moving down the beach pulling at bits of plastic and later over a picnic on the beach. A very satisfying and enjoyable afternoon!