Welcome to this space for Buddhist families in Triratna!
There are so many lovely Triratna families that have enriched our community - pioneering family life in the sangha, giving support to other families when practice is difficult, and creating opportunities for parents and children to engage. This space is a chance to celebrate all that we've done and to look towards the future and the next generation of baby bodhisattvas!
In this space we hope to:
Guidelines for sharing in this space
We’d really encourage you to share what resources work well for you and your centres, as well as any challenges you've encountered. Please don’t use this space to promote your own Dharma teaching - this is an intentional space where we can genuinely connect with each other and specifically with the material in the course or related issues in Triratna. If you have something to share, please make sure that as much as possible it’s on the basis of your own practice and is relevant to the topic under discussion. You can review our Community Guidelines to get a feel for the spirit we’d like to foster in this space.
Dear lovely friends in the dharma,
Karunagita and Vijayacitta have had discussion about the classes, and due to other things happening and general availability, we would like to cancel the classes in November and December and reset, refreshed for 2023 on our new home on The Buddhist Centre Online.
With all good wishes, the Parents Dharma Team.
We would like to offer a warm welcome to the Online Parents Dharma Class which runs the second Sunday of the month.
This class has run regularly for the last 3 years, going online at the start of 2020, just before the pandemic. It would be lovely to have your company.
We plan to have more of a presence here at The Buddhist Centre Online Buddhist Families Space come Jan 2023.
We will be finding ways to ask parents what would be most helpful to you in your practise.
In the meantime please do join us on the link below on Sunday 13th Nov 2022 and Sunday 11th Dec at 10 am-11.30am UK time.
We will have an intro to the team and a new theme around Parenting as Practice. We'll meditate together and have time to connect and share.
Zoom login is the same - below and on the NLBC and LBC websites:
https://zoom.us/j/93293377673?pwd=YTFuY2VOVzMzNGtWM1ozWjh4Myt2Zz09
All welcome - do join us – and tell people you know!
With all good wishes and Metta from the team - Vijayacitta, Karunagita Warren, Ben, Steph and Sheena
School runs every day, tantrums, tears (from me as well!)… Family life can be a messy life!
Amritavani's Annals
In 1968 I was not yet born into this world.
In 1978 I was 3 years old and during this year my family moved from North Wales to Devon. My dad was in his early 20s and we moved as he found a new job in a shoe shop in Exeter.
In 1988 I was 13 years old. I was living in Exmouth in Devon with my parents and my sister. I went to a Convent School called “The Convent of the Holy Family”. My mum was a bus driver at the time and my dad was running a small business as a Lorry driver and they both worked very hard so that my sister and I could attend a private school.
In 1998 I was 23 years old and it was in this year that I discovered the Dharma at the Croydon Buddhist Centre. I attended drop ins and learned to meditate with Vijayasri and Succimani. That is where it started but for years I would come and go mainly thinking that becoming a Buddhist was probably for other people and not for me.
In 2008 I was I was 33 years old. I became a mitra a year previously as well as getting married to Alex. In 2008 I had my first child, a little boy called George and he totally changed our lives. My interest in the Dharma became stronger and stronger from this point on.
In 2018 I’m now 43 years old. I have two children who are 9 and 6 and I asked for ordination when my youngest child Phoebe was only 6 months old. I was ordained around 18 months ago. I live with my husband Alex and the children in Saffron Walden. I am settling still after ordination and always trying to work with the how to be in the world as a mother, wife and an Order Member.
The European Buddhist Union is piloting a project for Buddhist parents who would like share experience about Dharma practice in parenting.
The first meeting will take place on Zoom this Sunday 13th March, 17.00 - 18.15 PM CET (16.00-17.15 pm UK).
To participate, please email dharmaparenting@europeanbuddhistunion.org and you will receive further information and the Zoom link.
The aim of the meeting is to provide a virtual room where parents or family members can share their practical experience but also tools that can benefit children's Dharmic development.
We will start with 5 minutes' guided meditation and after a brief introduction of the team we will have a sharing moment starting with the question: ‘How do we use our Buddhist practice in daily life in our relationship with our children?’
The group say this is "part of a pilot project organised by members of the EBU who intend to explore, create resources and provide general information about this subject".
Dear all,
This is an open invitation to join the online Triratna Fathers' Group. This is a wonderful opportunity to connect with other fathers within the Sangha and explore the Three Jewels within the context of fatherhood.
If you want to be added to the mailing list, you can email triratnafathers@gmail.com, and we'll send you an invitation to our next online meeting.
Below is a link to a short video, advertising the Triratna Fathers' Group.
Triratna Fathers’ Group Invitation - YouTube
Metta,
Sam
Triratna Fathers Group
triratnafathers@gmail.com
Padmacandra, an Order Member living in West Norfolk and associated with the Cambridge Buddhist Centre in the UK, has her first children’s picture book out as illustrator with Scallywag Press this month (March 2021).
The book, The Tale of the Whale, which tells of an adventure between a child and a whale, has a strong environmental message about plastic pollution, and is suitable for 3 to 8 year olds (read 8 years plus!)
Padmacandra was asked if she would illustrate the book after the publisher at Scallywag Press viewed her portfolio during her graduation from an MA in Children’s Book Illustration at the Cambridge School of Art.
Padmacandra writes: “From an early age I loved to write stories and poems, and to draw. No doubt influenced by my childhood reading, I believed in other worlds, in the possibility of doors appearing in walls with the right repetition of words or actions, of falling into another reality from the mundane.
As I grew up and entered the adult world, this thread went underground, except that in the margins of every sensible written page, little drawings would appear or lines of poetry. Through my practice as a Buddhist, I began to realise that such quiet voices might be trying to communicate something about my unique contribution to the world. I began writing and publishing poetry, and, rather late in life, embarked on an MA in children’s book illustration at the Cambridge School of Art, graduating in 2019.
My aspiration is to introduce children to the power of imagination – the possibility of wider and wilder worlds, beyond those we think we know. If through my art and/or writing I can also communicate values of kindness and wisdom, I will be very happy.”
Padmacandra also enjoys collaborating with others in Triratna around the arts and imagination, and loves being part of the Wolf at the Door Team, which runs creative writing workshops and retreats inspired by Buddhist principles and practice. She is also working on her second, self-authored book with Scallywag.
The Tale of the Whale is available now
Find out more about Padmacandra's artwork
Upayavira has been exploring, often through necessity, ways to meditate with children since 2000 when shortly after his ordination he became a parent. He takes the aim of demonstrating that practicing with your young children present is not just possible, there can be some huge benefits in this form of practice.
Excerpted from the talk entitled Meditating with Your Child which includes a led meditation, 2015. Upayavira has led Meditation for Parents workshops at the Buddhafield Festival and at the Buddhafield Village Retreat, as well at some local Buddhist Centres.
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Lilapa talks openly about how the Brahma Viharas inspired and challenged him as a father. Parenting can be very hard, a connection with the Brahma Viharas, also known as The Immeasurables, can support infinitely expansive and positive states of mind.
Excerpted from the talk entitled Parenting and the Brahma Viharas, part of the series Talks from Adhisthana's Weekend Retreat for Parents, given at Adhisthana, 2018.
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Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast - bite-sized inspiration three times every week! (Apple Podcasts)
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Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favourite podcast service!
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Karunagita, author of A Path for Parents (Windhorse publications 2005), gave this talk at the first weekend retreat for mothers held at Taraloka Retreat Centre, 2014. Here, she introduces the gifts of parenting, including the development of patience, maturity, opening to love and the development of wisdom through direct experience of the three laksanas, as well as the inherent challenges such as lack of time and how they can be approached.
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Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast - bite-sized inspiration three times every week! (Apple Podcasts)
Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! (Apple Podcasts)
Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favourite podcast service!
FBA on Twitter
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What if our children are seen as aspects of our mind – this moment greed, this moment hatred. The Buddha advises us to ‘be with’ whatever arises, just allowing and then seeing what happens. Amaragita takes a look at Buddhist practice in the light of parenting.
Excerpted from the talk entitled Staying at Home, Dancing with the Universe given at the Buddhafield Festival, 2006
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Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast - bite-sized inspiration three times every week! (Apple Podcasts)
Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! (Apple Podcasts)
Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favourite podcast service!
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The London Buddhist Centre and North London Buddhist Centre are offering monthly classes for parents online, every second Sunday from 8th August, 10.30-12.00 UK time. Open to all parents everywhere. The core team is Maitrinita, Karunagita and Rebecca, plus guest teachers. The class includes led meditation, a short talk or introduction to an aspect of the Dharma or practice within family life, an opportunity to connect and talk with other parents and brief ritual.
Please do join us, or pass this on to parents at your centre. If you have your children at home with you, they are welcome too. Although the focus is on parents, they are welcome to sit with you or to come and go (everyone will be muted during meditations and short talks).
Email families@lbc.org.uk to get a link and join our mailing list.
+Follow Triratna Buddhist Families space for more
Amaragita offers three principles for considering the possibilities of deepening into the Dharma in any situation, and they are are worth remembering - or as she says, remembering to remember! Great, gently radical words that are bold enough to imagine and even assume the possibility of a more compassionate future for all beings.
From the talk entitled The Possibility of Practice given as part of the 2015 Mothers Retreat at Taraloka Retreat Centre, 2015.
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Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast - bite-sized inspiration three times every week! (Apple Podcasts)
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Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favourite podcast service!
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Lokabandhu hosts this special evening of story-telling from the Pali Canon - the story of Yasa and the golden slippers - brought to life by a young cast, songs and colourful costumes!
The second evening of story-telling at the 2019 Triratna International Gathering was hosted by Jayaraja and friends. Featuring a king, courtiers, demons, galloping horses and the great Guru Padmasambhava himself, prepare yourself for an entertaining precis of how Padmasambhava came to Tibet.
More from Alchemy of the Dharma
It's the first full day of the Triratna International Gathering and Adhisthana is basking in summer sunshine!
In this short podcast we get a flavour of the 'Alchemy of the Dharma'. A couple of people share their highlights from the International Gathering so far - from the first talk by Ratnaguna on 'Transforming Self', a classic music concert after lunch, workshops on tai chi, yoga, the activities for children as well as authentic conversations and the possibility of ice cream!
Recorded at Adhisthana, 23rd August 2019.
More from Alchemy of the Dharma
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News, event coverage, mantras and rituals, Dharma conversations among diverse voices from the Triratna Buddhist Community around the world, keeping you up-to-date with the latest in our sangha.
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Our longer form podcast, featuring great in-depth conversations with Buddhists from around the world. Inspiring stories that illuminate for modern times the Buddha’s example of how to live and find true freedom.
The 2019 Triratna International Gathering - 22 to 26 August at Adhisthana - is a feast of inspiration, stimulation and fun. All are welcome, including children!
Here's a short film from the last International Gathering in 2017, focusing on the children's activities, to give you a sense of the play, music and laughter involved.
Book on to the Triratna International Gathering
+Follow the International Gathering space to stay updated on all the latest details
"At the heart of our movement is friendship and Sangha and being [at the Triratna International Gathering] is a really strong experience of a positive community. There's a lot of love and generosity and mutual help...and you can't do that by email or Facebook...You have to be together and eat together and sit together, be in the shrine room with 340 people and meditate together, chant together to experience the power of Sangha and mutual appreciation and love."
The Triratna International Gathering is a biennial event which brings together large numbers of the Triratna Buddhist Community from around Europe. But what's it like? Here's a short video, with some highlights from the last Gathering in 2017, to give you a flavour of what this inspiring, fun and family friendly event is like.
This year's Gathering takes place on 22 - 26 August at Adhisthana and the theme is 'Alchemy of the Dharma' which aims to help us transform the ‘base material’ of ourselves, our spiritual community, and the wider society into ‘gold’, into ‘personal’ riches, shared riches and the sustaining riches of loving wisdom. The diverse programme includes Dharma talks, workshops, meditation, body work, story-telling, children's activities and much more besides!
Book on to the Triratna International Gathering
+Follow the International Gathering space to stay updated on all the latest details
"So it's community - but with our own front door"
The Suvana (meaning ‘happy realm’) project aims to develop Buddhist co-housing in Cambridge, UK. It will be newly built, sustainable, low carbon footprint development, with the community inspired by Buddhist values.
Here's a conversation with Tejasvini and Jeremy Peters, both involved in the project, discussing co-housing as a response to the housing crisis, their plans for sustainable features, affordability, Buddhist almhouses and more.
Visit the Suvana blog or follow on Instagram @suvanacam
Read other posts about the Suvana Cohousing project
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Subscribe to The Buddhist Centre Online podcast: On iTunes | On other podcast networks
News, event coverage, mantras and rituals, Dharma conversations among diverse voices from the Triratna Buddhist Community around the world, keeping you up-to-date with the latest in our sangha.
Subscribe to our new Buddhist Voices Podcast: On iTunes | On others podcast networks
Our longer form podcast, featuring great in-depth conversations with Buddhists from around the world. Inspiring stories that illuminate for modern times the Buddha’s example of how to live and find true freedom.
Booking is now open for the 2019 Triratna International Gathering which will take place at Adhisthana, UK, from 22-26 August! This biennial event brings together large numbers of the Triratna Buddhist Community from around Europe for a feast of inspiration, stimulation and fun. All are welcome, including children.
The theme of the 2019 gathering is 'Alchemy of the Dharma'. Alchemy is the magical art of turning base materials into gold, a potent metaphor for what we are trying to do in our Dharma lives. How do we transform the ‘base material’ of ourselves, our spiritual community, and the wider society into ‘gold’, into ‘personal’ riches, shared riches and the sustaining riches of loving wisdom?
The programme is still being finalised but here are the details so far:
Three talks:
Short talks about the transformative power of the Dharma in Latin America and India
Event on Bhante as Alchemist (by Maitreyabandhu and others)
Study with Saccanama
Various workshops such as:
Batik - Akashalila
Blake - Satyalila and Ratnaprabha
Meditation - Vajraloka team
Mindful communication - Jayaraja
Philosophy - Vidyaruci
Writing - Satyalila and others
Activities for kids
Chai and pancakes stall - Buddhafield
Concerts
Storytelling - Jayaraja and Lokabandhu
+Follow the International Gathering space to stay updated on all the latest details
What does an effective Buddhist practice look like as a parent amidst a family household life? How do we keep alive our values and bring them to the joys and challenges of parenting? In this talk Amaladhi gives us an inside view of life as an Order Member and parent of her young and energetic son, discussing how she engages with parenting as a practice. Whether you are a parent or not she offers a thought provoking exploration of the vast potential of parenting as a context for fully living the Dharma life.
Recorded in Birmingham, 2018.
