Commitment is primary, lifestyle is secondary.
The Six Emphases of Triratna Buddhism
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Triratna shares much with other parts of the Buddhist world as it exists today. We trace our roots back to the Buddha, teach the same core Buddhist teachings, and main meditation practices we teach at Triratna centres are commonly practiced in Theravadin countries. Triratna is committed to expressing these teachings in ways that are fresh and relevant in the modern world, but many other Buddhists do something similar. So what makes Triratna distinctive.
In 2008 Sangharakshita gave a talk identifying the movement’s Six Distinctive Emphases, and though some of the things he mentioned are less prevalent now than when he gave his talk, they remain helpful in identifying Triratna’s approach to Buddhism.
1. The Centrality of Going for Refuge
The first of these emphases is the Centrality of Going for Refuge. Sangharakshita concluded after two decades in Asia that, the long-standing division of the Buddhist community between monastic and lay followers is unhelpful because it suggests that monks are the only real Buddhists. All Buddhists share a common view of life, and all of them go for Refuge to the Three Jewels, which, for Sangharakshita means making a commitment to practising Buddhism. This is the basis of ordination into the Triratna Buddhist Order.
2. A Unified Order
Members of The Triratna Buddhist Order receive an equal ordination, regardless of gender – a change from the monastic ordination as it occurs in many traditional settings. There is no contradiction between doing that and having activities for men or for women in Triratna.
Let us do away with the divisions between monastic and lay Buddhists, between men and women Buddhists, and between the followers of different sects and schools of Buddhism. Let us have an integrated Buddhism and an integrated Buddhist community. Let us base ourselves firmly and unmistakably upon our common Going for Refuge to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.
3. A Non-Sectarian Approach
Triratna is based on the foundations and principles that are shared by all the different schools of the Buddhist tradition. This means that we are able to draw inspiration from the Buddhist tradition as a whole, in light of these foundations, and apply them to the conditions of the modern world. In Triratna we study the scriptures of the different traditions, especially in light of Sangharakshita’s expositions of them. Because we focus on core teachings and see the historical Buddhism as the reference point for the whole tradition, our approach isn’t eclectic - just picking and choosing different aspects of Buddhism.
Our attitude is one of critical appreciation. We do not accept the various schools on their own terms and we certainly don’t confuse the Dharma itself with the various national cultures in which the various Eastern Buddhist sects and schools happen to be embodied. Above all perhaps we try to see what those sects and schools have in common with each other and with ourselves.
4. Spiritual Friendship
Many Buddhists value community, but Triratna is distinctive in regarding Friendship as a core practice and the heart of our sangha, something that can be developed, just as we develop meditation or ethics.
In the course of your spiritual friendship your ego gradually gets worn away. You rub up against one another, challenge one another, encourage one another. You try to get beyond your petty needs and desires, your selfishness, your egotism.
5. Right Livelihood
Right Livelihood is one of the steps of the Eightfold Path, but the traditional explanation simply names forms of livelihood that we should avoid because they are unethical. From early in Triratna’s history Sangharakshita believed that we must pay careful attention the to the economic dimension of our lives. One side of this is finding an ethical livelihood that does no harm to others and, if possible, provides good conditions for Dharma practice. Another, which has been explored very fully in Triratna over the decades, is establishing Team Based Right Livelihood businesses. Only a few of these businesses are still in existence, but the aspiration to create ethical means of livelihood remains.
It’s important that, however we earn our living, that we look at the ethical implications of what we are doing. If we can work together as Buddhists by means of team-based right livelihood with all that implies by means of spiritual friendship and creating dana (or giving), so much the better.
6. The Spiritual Value of the Arts
The Arts have always played an important role in Buddhist cultures, but it is uncommon for Buddhist movement to identify appreciation of the arts and beauty as a central part of a Dharma practice and spiritual life. Appreciating and creating art has always been valued within Triratna along with the important of the imagination.
Beauty should have an important place in the spiritual life because the appreciation of beauty, whether in the form of art or natural beauty, is an essential part of human life.
