Tag: 5 Years of The Buddhist Centre Online

5 Years of the Buddhist Centre Online: #10 Revived Indian Buddhism

“The greatest thing the Buddha has done is to tell the world that the world cannot be reformed except by the reformation of the mind of man and the mind of the world.” - Dr Ambedkar

Around the seventh century BCE Buddhism began to go into decline in India, the land of its birth. It was only in the late nineteenth century that it began to be revived: firstly, through the work of institutions such as the Maha Bodhi Society, which was...

5 Years of the Buddhist Centre Online: #7 Triratna and the Internet

“Media used to be one way. Everyone else in the world just had to listen. Now the internet is allowing what used to be a monologue to become a dialogue. I think that’s healthy”. - Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

“I have one major problem with the internet: it’s full of liars” - John Lydon.

As long as the world wide web has been in mainstream use, debates about the pros and cons of “The Internet” have bubbled - sometimes raged - away. On the one...

5 Years Of The Buddhist Centre Online: #3 Buddhist Voices Around The World

“In essence, a spiritual community is a free association of individuals. You can no more have a spiritual community without individuals than you can have an omelette without eggs.”

Sangharakshita, What is the Sangha, page 55.

A Sangha, or spiritual community, needs committed individuals practicing the Dharma in the context of their own particular lives in order to exist. The central myth of the Triratna Buddhist Order is the figure of the 1,000 armed Avalokiteshvara: the idea being that each...

5 Years of The Buddhist Centre Online: #1 New Online Spaces and Physical Places

“Civic spaces are an extension of the community. When they work well, they serve as a stage for our public lives. If they function in their true civic role, they can be the settings where celebrations are held, where exchanges both social and economic take place, where friends run into each other, and where cultures mix.” [1]

Since The Buddhist Centre officially launched 5 years ago many web spaces have sprung into being which allow greater community building across Triratna as...