 Jvalamalini at the Chairs' meeting
I've recently been on a 10 day meeting of Chairs/Directors of Triratna Buddhist Centres and projects in Europe; we aim to help each other in our work of creating a vibrant, effective and unified Triratna community in Europe and beyond. More here about our work and aims.
We always have a very full and varied programme and this meeting was no exception. Ratnadevi who has a Ph.D in ritual spent a day with us, helping us to understand and express what we want from ritual, and to think about how well our Triratna pujas serve that. We experimented with writing new verses - and I think most of us came to appreciate our existing liturgy more in the process. Vessantara spent a day with us talking about and practising spiritual receptivity - a theme taken up by Tejananda on another practice day later in the meeting.
Vajragupta gave a talk about how he thinks our community could grow, both by more pioneers starting new Centres, and by existing Centres doing more outreach work, starting satellite groups from which Centres might grow in time. He showed us a map of existing Centres in Europe, and where he thought the next 50 Centres could be in another 50 years. I found this vision inspiring - there is so much of the world so in need of the Dharma.
A highlight of the meeting was a Q & A with Bhante - by Skype! I rejoice in his willingness to use new technology at the age of 87. I had a strong sense of his presence amongst us, and his humour, sensitivity and sharp intelligence were evident. He talked about why he has become vegan - "better late than never!" and said that the most important qualities for a Chair are tact and diplomacy.
We had presentations with slide shows from very different Centres; in Barcelona, Brighton and Colchester, and I showed Bristol.
Apart from the specific content, I always gain from seeing how efficiently and harmoniously the meeting is run, and from just being with other people with similar responsibilities to mine. I have a stronger sense each meeting I go to of us being a community of friends - who enjoy practising together in the shrine room, in meetings big and small, on walks, and over games - our last evening was spent on a hilarious game of Articulate before ending with chanting round a bonfire.
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Shop refurbishment...This month saw a major redecoration of the shop/reception area at the front of the building. A lot of people gave a lot of time and energy to transform the space. It was great to see so many people working together and there was quite a buzz around the place as well as a bit of chaos! One of the reasons for the transformation was a desire to make a more usable space for small groups to use (something that is lacking but much needed in the building) and we hope that it will be possible to use the space more in that way. As ever there are many opinions on how to re-organise, what colours to choose etc and it's always a challenge to make a project like this happen. Many thanks to Amaladevi for overseeing it and to all the volunteers (too many to mention!) for all their hard work.
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 Thanks to Karunavapi
The Trustees of Triratna Bristol recently gave a special thank you to Karunavapi for her contribution to our activities.
Karunavapi is responsible for managing all the body-speech-mind activities we do as complementary to our main Dharma programme, including mindfulness-based and non-violent communication trainings, and the running of the Healing Rooms. Under her care, these activities are flourishing bringing an extra £4,500 income to the Centre above what we'd budgeted for in the first 6 months of 2012. This income is much needed - without it we were expecting to spend up to £7,000 more than our income this year - and gives us the confidence to expand our team very slightly which means Silajala can put more of his energy into Sangha activities.
Karunavapi has also helped these areas of activity integrate better in the work of the Centre as a whole. To this end she has organised a special day on mindfulness in September for Healing Rooms therapists; she'll lead the day with Tim Mason who is a mitra, shiatsu practitioner, and mindfulness based stress reduction trainer.
Karunavapi's other contributions to the sangha include organising and hosting school visits, leading a Dharma training mitra group, Friday practice nights, Saturday morning meditations, and the new mantra group with Beth Jones starting soon, and, as well as being a delightful friendly presence in the Sangha.
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First Vajra Volunteers job done!
This is me, Steve and Rog after we did some work for Steve today. Hooray, our first job completed!
Silajala
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 Getting to know Maharatnajyoti...(jewel of transcendent light) who was ordained by Sangharakshita in 1976 at Padmaloka in Norfolk.
He came across the FWBO (as Triratna then was) in London when he was about 19. His experiments with LSD and his experience of alternative culture sent him looking for somewhere to meditate. At that time there were few places - of the 3-4 entries in 'Alternative London' - the FWBO sounded trustworthy and so he went along to a class where he learnt the mindfulness of breathing. He had a strong experience of meditation and was hooked straightaway feeling that his ideas about meditation had been supported by his actual experience. He bought a book by Edward Conze from the tiny centre bookshop and remembers reading it on the train home, holding it so the cover was visible and others might see that he was in touch with this amazing new world.
Being enthused, he was quickly a regular at classes but he was curious to know what was hidden behind the curtain in the corner of the meditation room and so took a peep. This turned out to be the shrine (deemed unsuitable for beginners to see in those days!) but which Ratnajyoti was very taken by. As soon as possible he attended his first puja and had a strong experience of an eruption of golden light which somehow was connected with people's practice and which gave him a tangible sense of connection too. (This theme of 'golden light' has been there throughout his life and so it's perhaps not surprising that the 'Sutra of Golden Light' is his favourite Dharma text). The puja was something mystical, beautiful and the experience of the offerings, the candles and the incense was absolutely wonderful.
His first retreat he remembers being led by Sangharakshita in Subhuti's parents' house - whilst they were still there in another part of the building! His memory of the second (on a small farm) is that they had forgotten to bring the food but somehow they had a lot of avocadoes with them and they ate those along with nettle soup with nettles gathered from the grounds. Later in the weekend Sangharakshita arrived and led study on Milarepa's songs (the latter being the famous 11th century Tibetan yogi who lived on nettles!) During that retreat, he went for a walk with another retreatant and has a vivid memory of coming to some woodland where there were two paths and he had a strong sense of needing to decide which one to take.
He was soon living in a community with others from the sangha. In those days there was a whole street of squats where many sangha people lived. He also remembers a hare krishna community in the same street as well as a wholefood bakery which kept everyone supplied. He became a mitra and did mitra study and that, combined with living in community, meditation and regular attendance at the centre was what comprised ordination 'training' in those days.
In about 1979/80, after he was ordained, he went with a few others to Manchester with the intention of starting a new centre as they wanted a challenge. Manchester however was a bit of a shock after the world of alternative living they had been used to in London and he missed the feeling of community.
Some time after this, he went to Scotland, initially to Edinburgh for seven years, and then to an arts community in the countryside. He felt the need to distance himself from Buddhism and 'religion' and did a lot of group and process work. He no longer thought of himself as a Buddhist but eventually realise that he was one after all! So he started to ease back into meditation and Dharma practice and to connect up with other Buddhists. This led to him going on retreat at Dhanakosa and to starting to meet up with the guys in the Glasgow sangha. He eventually went to see Sangharakshita who suggested he go to the newly started project that was Buddhafield. He packed his van, gave away any other possessions and drove down to the festival, where to his surprise, he was met on the gate by his old friend Padmapani, who he hadn't seen for 25 years! All that eventually led to him moving to Devon where he lived and worked with the Buddhafield community for four or five years.
And now, here he is in Bristol where he's been for about five years and where he is often in the Centre, in the shop, teaching meditation or leading puja. Talking to him I had a sense of him coming full circle, back to that immersion in the world of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, especially as encountered through meditation, puja and music (another thread in his life). And I wasn't surprised to learn that another favourite Dharma book is Vessantara's 'Meeting the Buddhas'.
Interview with Khemajoti
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