Tag: 50Voices

…there was something which came through Bhante which really was full of Dharma qualities, and that’s what started Triratna…

 Vessantara’s Annals
In 1968 I’m 18, and spend eight months working in clerical jobs, earning money before going to Cambridge University to study English. I’ve adopted a hippie view of the world and spend hours in my friend Les Doyle’s attic bedroom, which is painted black and decorated with silver foil, listening to early Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix. I’m reading about eastern religions,...

I asked him, “If I would go there, will I get food?” And he said “Yes, obviously there will be a feast and you can have enough to eat.” And I thought then, “I’ll go.”

Ratnakumar’s Annals
In 1968 I wasn’t born.

In 1978 I wasn’t born.

In 1988 I was four years old, having been born into a low caste Hindu family in Orissa.

In 1998 I was about 14. I went to the birthday celebration of Dr Ambedkar with my cousin and decided that day to learn...

Who needs perfection?  

Perfection is useless in the human life…

Listen to two component conversations with Manjusvara—and subscribe to the Buddhist Voices podcast for more full-length recordings from Fifty Years, Fifty Voices.

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A few months ago I remembered that I’d heard a talk Manjusvara gave in 2007 called ‘20 years in the WBO’ on the 20th anniversary of his ordination. I thought it might contain some useful material for this project, so I looked it up on Free Buddhist Audio, only to discover that it...

50 Years, 50 Voices is our beautiful new online project to document 50 years of people’s commitment and practice within the Triratna Buddhist Order around the world.

This week we are delighted to release the first extracts from the recordings commissioned. And most fittingly these are by Ananda, one of the very first batch of Order members ordained in 1968. Here he is talking delightfully about his first meeting with Sangharakshita and his own quest for an exotic, magical way...