Vajratara: Looking back on Triratna’s past with gratitude
In 1978 I was born. I was born in February in the London Hospital, just near where the LBC is now. I was about 2 months premature and they had thought I hadn’t made it. After announcing the time of death, one nurse said “lets give her one more go”. They managed to get a heartbeat and I survived, as did my mother who was very ill.
In 1988 I was 10 years old. I lived in a big house in Tooting with my parents and 2 elder brothers along with various lodgers. That year was significant for me. I went to India for the first time and saw visible poverty alongside such beauty I knew my life would never be the same again. I was also very effected by the Zubrugger disaster where so many people died. I realised my life had to take into account the suffering of others. I made a vow to my grandfather that I would become a nun!
In 1998 I was 20 years old. I lived in Leeds and was at the University doing a degree in ‘Philosophy and Religious Studies’. I had become a Buddhist 3 years before at the South London Buddhist Centre. At University I ran the ‘Buddhist Meditation Society’, which is where all my friends were. I was very involved with the Leeds Buddhist Centre, setting up classes and organising retreats. At one point I thought about giving up my degree, but my friend in the Order encouraged me that ‘the Order needs people who can think’. I asked for Ordination that year.
In 2008 I was 30. I was living in Sheffield working as a mitra convenor for women. I lived in a flat in a high-rise tower block looking over the city and into the hills. On my 30th birthday I was leading a puja at the Centre and they surprised me with a huge bunch of flowers.
In 2018 I am 40. I live at Tiratanaloka retreat centre for women and work on the Ordination Team. I am a Private Preceptor and Chair of the India Dhamma Trust. What does that mean to me sitting here on a sunny spring day in a garden filled with daffodils and the sound of the activity of birds? Just that I have spent over half my life practising the Dhamma and that the effects of Dhamma practice continue to reverberate in my being in unexplained ways, leading me onwards to a life I never imagined.
Vajratara: Looking back on Triratna’s past with gratitude
In 1978 I was born. I was born in February in the London Hospital, just near where the LBC is now. I was about 2 months premature and they had thought I hadn’t made it. After announcing the time of death, one nurse said “lets give her one more go”. They managed to get a heartbeat and I survived, as did my mother who was very ill.
In 1988 I was 10 years old. I lived in a big house in Tooting with my parents and 2 elder brothers along with various lodgers. That year was significant for me. I went to India for the first time and saw visible poverty alongside such beauty I knew my life would never be the same again. I was also very effected by the Zubrugger disaster where so many people died. I realised my life had to take into account the suffering of others. I made a vow to my grandfather that I would become a nun!
In 1998 I was 20 years old. I lived in Leeds and was at the University doing a degree in ‘Philosophy and Religious Studies’. I had become a Buddhist 3 years before at the South London Buddhist Centre. At University I ran the ‘Buddhist Meditation Society’, which is where all my friends were. I was very involved with the Leeds Buddhist Centre, setting up classes and organising retreats. At one point I thought about giving up my degree, but my friend in the Order encouraged me that ‘the Order needs people who can think’. I asked for Ordination that year.
In 2008 I was 30. I was living in Sheffield working as a mitra convenor for women. I lived in a flat in a high-rise tower block looking over the city and into the hills. On my 30th birthday I was leading a puja at the Centre and they surprised me with a huge bunch of flowers.
In 2018 I am 40. I live at Tiratanaloka retreat centre for women and work on the Ordination Team. I am a Private Preceptor and Chair of the India Dhamma Trust. What does that mean to me sitting here on a sunny spring day in a garden filled with daffodils and the sound of the activity of birds? Just that I have spent over half my life practising the Dhamma and that the effects of Dhamma practice continue to reverberate in my being in unexplained ways, leading me onwards to a life I never imagined.