Fifty Years, Fifty Voices | From the Triratna Buddhist Community

Celebrating 50 years of the Triratna Buddhist Order (1968-2018)

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices starting to capture the vibrant, messy reality of what it’s like to be part of co-creating the new lineage which is the Triratna Buddhist Order.

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Vijaya: Vijaya’s first meeting with Bhante Sangharakshita and her devotion to the sangha he founded

Vijaya: Vijaya’s first experience of ordaining someone else – being part of a chain back to the Buddha

Vijaya: Vijaya’s first experience of the Dharma, of compassion and the spirit of the Order

Vijaya: The meaning of Vijaya’s name – working with depression and a shared experience of grief

Vijaya: “Who I am? I am just a little part of this process which is coming from the Buddha.”

Prasadacarin: A thread of faith in the Dharma

Prasadacarin: On Padmapani, two-armed Avalokiteshvara, as a human form

Prasadacarin: Why Prasadacarin committed to Triratna as a sangha

Prasadacarin: Discovering Stockholm Buddhist Centre and other young Buddhist practitioners

Prasadacarin: How Prasadacarin first came across the Dharma

Prasadacarin: “It was quite mindblowing that people were actually trying to practice…”

Aryavacin y Manjugita: Reflecting on the next 50 years of Triratna

Aryavacin y Manjugita: Aryavacin’s encounter with Amoghasiddhi during his Ordination course

Aryavacin y Manjugita: Our Order names – the meaning given at ordination, how we responded at the time, how we connect with their meaning now

Aryavacin y Manjugita: Our ordinations – the impact on Sangha in Mexico and on Venezuelans

Aryavacin y Manjugita: Manjugita reading one of her poems ‘The Mirror’ (El Espejo) – the metaphors she delights in

Aryavacin y Manjugita: “…and I fell in love with the Order”

Aryadhi: Being diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome and finding support

Aryadhi: Working with alcoholism as a Dharma practitioner

Aryadhi: A first friend in the Order

Aryadhi: How Aryadhi got started as a Buddhist

Danayutta: Her Order name and connection to the Buddha

Danayutta: Marriage, living situations and security

Danayutta: Joining a community

Danayutta: Asking for ordination

Danayutta: Seeing the Buddha on her first retreat

Jnanadakini: Meeting with the Order as a practice in itself

Jnanadakini: Taking the Dharma through Latin America

Jnanadakini: A huge name for a huge continent

Karunadevi: Personal change and social change

Karunadevi: Cultural difference, families, hierarchy and growing as an individual

Karunadevi: What started you off as a Buddhist?

Karunadevi: Introducing Karunadevi and her spiritual background

Manjusvara: Proving yourself in life before you get ordained

Manjusvara: The danger of projection when you identify as an Order member

Manjusvara: The right amount of perfection

Manjusvara: Ethics and being guardians of awakeness

Manjusvara: Work as practice and not hiding from life

Megha: What makes your heart sing?

Megha: Taking on responsibility as a Preceptor

Megha: Community living in 1975

Megha: Come and see the Dharma for yourself

Ratnakumar: How he would like to live and be remembered

Ratnakumar: A gradual transformation

Ratnakumar: Caste and fighting

Ratnakumar: On first hearing about Doctor Ambedkar

Vessantara: On ‘energy’

Vessantara: Bhante’s strengths in the early days of the Order

Vessantara: Receiving his name

Vessantara: Meeting Subhuti for the first time

Vajratara: Looking back on Triratna’s past with gratitude

Vajratara: Myths that attract – Avalokiteshvara and Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Vajratara: What draws you on in practice?

Vajratara: Vajratara’s eureka moment

Vajratara: Early experiences around suffering and personal responsibility

Ananda: First meeting with Bhante

Ananda: Recording Bhante’s talks on tape

Ananda: Buddhism, poetry and feelings

Ananda: Ideas of male friendship at the time

Ananda: Ananda’s trajectory on the path

Amoghasiddhi: Being named Amoghasiddhi

Amoghasiddhi: Early days of the Order in Nagpur – a visit from Sangharakshita

Amoghasiddhi: Childhood tragedy and discovering Buddhism

Amoghasiddhi: Asking for ordination and reading Sangharakshita

Amoghasiddhi: A breakthrough with a poem – finding the Bodhisattva spirit

Amitamati and Ratnadeva: The scientific life and the Dharma life

Amitamati and Ratnadeva: Is the Buddha’s teaching scientific?

Amitamati: Social science research into sewage workers’ lives

Amitamati and Ratnadeva: Marxism, Ambedkar, and Buddhism

Amitamati: A silver god and conversion to Buddhism

Ratnadeva: Buddhafield, myth and connection to nature

Amitamati: Finding the Dharma with a dance

Amarapushpa: Life story and connection to the Order

Chandrasiddhi: Life story – meeting Buddhism in Mexico

Amarapushpa & Chandrasiddhi: Names – The Siddhi

Amarapushpa & Chandrasiddhi: Names – The Deathless

Amalavajra and Jayaraja: Generosity and imagination

Amalavajra and Jayaraja: Fundraising as a “tantric” Dharma practice

Amalavajra and Jayaraja: Saying the unsayable and successful fundraising

Amalavajra and Jayaraja: Manjusvara, poetry and manifesting the feminine

Amalavajra and Jayaraja: On competitiveness and growing up

Amalavajra and Jayaraja: Being met and learning how to love

Amalavajra and Jayaraja: How we met

Purna: An encounter with Padmasambhava

Purna: Purna’s dream of gratitude and connection to his teacher

Purna: Working for the Dharma in India

Purna: Reading and listening to Sangharakshita

Vessantara: “…there was something which came through Bhante which really was full of Dharma qualities”

Vajratara: “I just would be an unintegrated mess if it wasn’t for the Sangha…”

Ratnakumar: “I asked him, if I would go there, will I get food?”

Megha: “I knew I needed to have people who could reflect back…”

Manjusvara: “Who needs perfection? Perfection is useless in the human life…”

Karunadevi: “…these issues that were very controversial, they didn’t make me want to run away. But they did make me wonder whether I could be a part of the Order”

Jnanadakini: “I didn’t know what kind of adventure it was going to be…”

Danayutta: “The moment she opened the door and I saw the Buddha… I felt fine”

Aryadhi: “I think it was the missing piece of the jigsaw, as it were.”

Ananda: “So my impression of Bhante was that he was a magician who had some secrets that I wanted to get…”

Amoghasiddhi: “I don’t want to do any job anywhere. I just want to devote myself…”

Amitamati and Ratnadeva: “It’s like the laboratory of our minds”

Amarapushpa & Chandrasiddhi: “It’s not something that has to do with ideas and concepts…”

Amalavajra and Jayaraja: “It’s kind of like I’m definitely feeling like I’m Santa Claus…”

Purna: “I couldn’t have done it any other way, as hard as it was…”

Celebrating 50 years of the Triratna Buddhist Order (1968-2018)

Fifty Years, Fifty Voices starting to capture the vibrant, messy reality of what it’s like to be part of co-creating the new lineage which is the Triratna Buddhist Order.

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