Vishvapani has been studying, reflecting upon, and living out the Dharma life as presented by Urgyen Sangharakshita, Triratna’s founding teacher, for over 40 years. To mark the fourth anniversary of “Bhante” Sangharakshita’s death in 2018, this new audio essay delves deep into the heart of what Vishvapani calls a “unique and strange” intuitive approach to Buddhism that, at its best, seems to capture and vibrate with the essential vital energy of the universe.

Many people’s lives have been touched and profoundly changed in relation to Sangharakshita’s teaching, which is never less than ambitious, bold, imaginative and uncompromising. Here Vishvapani looks at what lies at the core of “the organic whole” of Sangharakshita’s approach to Buddhism, tracing its roots through the words of Lama Anagarika Govinda, John Middleton Murry and the Diamond Sutra back to the original spirit of the Buddha’s revolutionary approach to spiritual life.

For anyone concerned with trying to understand Sangharakshita or Triratna, this is a brilliant primer on the principal ideas that animate our community today; and an excellent general introduction to the work of a pioneer of “Western” Buddhism, whose life was dedicated to the cultivation of a new garden of the Dharma where the flowers of wisdom and compassion might bloom resplendent.

Listen to or read ‘The History of My Going for Refuge’ by Sangharakshita

Vishvapani is a writer and teacher of Buddhism, mindfulness and meditation. Find his work at Wise Attention