The Triratna Buddhist Community FWBO is an international fellowship of Buddhists, and others who aspire to its path of mindfulness, under the leadership of the Triratna Buddhist Order (formerly the Western Buddhist Order). It was founded by Sangharakshita in the UK in 1967, and describes itself as "an international network dedicated to communicating Buddhist truths in ways appropriate to the modern world". In keeping with Buddhist traditions, it also pays attention to contemporary ideas, particularly drawn from Western philosophy, psychotherapy, and art.
Worldwide, more than 100 groups are affiliated with the community, including in North America, Australasia and Europe. In the UK, it is one of the largest Buddhist movements, with some 30 urban centres and retreat centres. Its largest following, however, is in India, where it is known as Triratna Bauddha Mahāsaṅgha (TBM)
The community has been described as "perhaps the most successful attempt to create an ecumenical international Buddhist organization," and "an important contributor to Buddhism on the world stage." Practices and activities
Meditation is the common thread through activities. Order members teach two practices: (a) "The mindfulness of breathing" (anapanasati), in which practitioners focus on the rise and fall of the breath; and (b) "The metta bhavana", which approximately translates from the original Pali as "the cultivation of lovingkindness". These practices are felt to be complimentary in promoting equanimity and friendliness towards others. Some friends of the Order may have little, if any, other involvement in its activities, but friendship, Sangha and community are encouraged at all levels as essential contexts for meditation.
The founder, Sangharakshita, described meditation as having four phases. The first two according to his system ('integration' and 'positive emotion', can be correlated to the traditional category of "calming" "samatha" practices, and the last two (spiritual death and spiritual rebirth) can be correlated to "insight" or "vipassana" practices. For those not ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order, the practices associated with the practices associated with the first two are emphasised, though the spirit of the last two are also taught.
These phases are:
- Integration. The main practice at this stage is the mindfulness of breathing, which is intended to have the effect of "integrating the psyche" – improving mindfulness and concentration, and reducing psychological conflict.
- Positive emotion. The second aspect of samatha is developing positivity – an other-regarding, life-affirming attitude. The Brahmavihara meditations, especially the 'metta bhavana' or cultivation of loving kindness meditations, are the key practices intended to foster the development of positive emotion.
- Spiritual death. The next stage is to develop insight into what is seen to be the emptiness of the self and reality. Meditations at this stage include considering the elements of which self and world are thought to be composed; contemplating impermance (particularly of the body); contemplating suffering; and contemplating sunyata.
- Spiritual rebirth. The WBO teaches that, with the development of insight and the death of the limited ego-self, a person is spiritually reborn. Practices which involve the visualization of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are among the main practices in this phase. At ordination, each dharmachari(ni) is given an advanced visualisation meditation on a particular figure.
Centres also teach scripture, yoga and other methods of self-improvement, some of which are felt by some commentators to come from outside the Buddhist tradition. Recently, community activities have begun to include outdoor festivals, online meditation courses, arts festivals, poetry and writing workshops, tai chi, karate, and pilgrimages to Buddhist holy sites in India. For many years, the community charity Karuna Trust (UK) has raised money for aid projects in India.
As among Buddhists generally, Puja is a ritual practice at some events, intended to awaken the desire to liberate all beings from suffering. The most common ritual consists of a puja, derived and adapted from the Bodhicaryavatara of Shantideva.
Retreats provide a chance to focus on meditational practice more intensely, in a residential context outside of a retreatant's everyday life. community retreats can be broadly categorized into meditation retreats, study retreats, and solitary retreats. Retreat lengths vary from short weekends to one or two weeks.
Businesses, said to operate to the principle of "right livelihood", generate funds for the movement, as well seeking to provide environments for spiritual growth through employment. Emphasis is placed on teamwork, and on contributing to the welfare of others: for example by funding social projects and by considering ethical matters such as fair trade. The largest community business is the Windhorse:Evolution, a gift wholesaling business and a chain of gift shops.
Many cities with a Triratna centre also have a residential community. The first of these was formed after a retreat where some participants wanted to continue retreat-style living. Since it was felt that the most stable communities tended to be single sex, this has become the paradigm for communities. Support from fellow practitioners in a community is seen to be effective in helping members make spiritual progress.
The largest TBC centre in the UK is the London Buddhist Centre in Bethnal Green, East London, which offers drop-in lunchtime meditation sessions each weekday, open to beginners as well as courses and classes through the week. The centre's courses for depression, based on the mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral therapy methodology of Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts, featured in the Financial Times in 2008.[19] This initiative is supported by the local authority, the London borough of Tower Hamlets. The Times has also reported on the centre's work with those affected by alcohol dependency Defining the movement
According to the community, six characteristics define it:
- An ecumenical movement. It is not identified with any particular strand or school of Buddhism, but draws inspiration from many. It calls itself "ecumenical" rather than "eclectic" because it is founded on the premise that there is an underlying unity to all schools.
- "Going for refuge" is central. "Going for Refuge to the Three Jewels" – meaning the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha – is considered to be what makes someone a Buddhist
- A unified Order. Unlike some sangha, the community does not propagate a monastic lineage. Sangharakshita devised a non-monastic ordination system, whilst also allowing the undertaking of the "anagarika" precept which enjoins celibacy. Identical ordination is open to both sexes. While the movement regards single-sex activities as important to spiritual growth, men and women are recognised as being equally able to practice and develop spiritually.
- An emphasis on spiritual friendship. There is a strong emphasis on the sangha, and spiritual friendship based on shared values. The community teaches that spending time with friends who share ideals, and engaging in ritual practice with them, supports ethical living and the arising of the bodhicitta.
- Teamwork. Working together in teams, in the spirit of generosity and with a focus on ethics, is considered a transformative spiritual practice.
- Importance of art. Engagement in, and an appreciation of, the arts are considered to be a valuable aspect of spiritual practice. The community teaches that a refinement of one's artistic tastes can help refine emotional sensitivity and provide a channel for the expression of right living, and spiritual growth. More broadly, the movement seeks ways to re-express Buddhism by making connections with sympathetic elements in the surrounding culture, regarding the arts as such an aspect of western culture.
"The FWBO's attitude to spreading the Dharma is one of heartfelt urgency," wrote Stephen Batchelor, a prominent British Buddhist author, in a book published in 1994. "For the FWBO, Western Society as such needs to be subject to the unflinching scrutiny of Buddhist values."
The Triratna Buddhist Order
The Triratna Buddhist Order is the focal-point of the community, and is a network of friendships between individuals who have made personal commitments to the Buddha, the dharma and the sangha, in communion with others. Members are known as dharmacharis (masculine) or dharmacharinis (feminine), and are ordained in accord with a ceremony formulated by the founder. At ordination they are given a religious name in Pali or Sanskrit. While there is an informal hierarchy within the order, there are no higher ordinations. A small number of members, however, take vows of celibacy and adopt a simpler lifestyle. Contrary to the traditional Buddhist structure of separating lay and monastic members, the order combines monastic and lay lifestyles under one ordination, a practice not dissimilar to that which evolved in some Japanese schools of Buddhism.
As with followers of the Shingon school of Buddhism, order members observe ten precepts (ethical training rules). These precepts are different from monastic vows and do not appear in the Vinaya Pitaka, but were formulated on the basis of the so-called "dasa-kusala-dhammas" (ten wholesome actions). These are found in several places in the Pāli Canon, as well as in some Sanskrit sources. The karma sections of the fundamental meditation texts of all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism also list these acts as basic guidelines for lay or ordained practitioners intent on observing the law of cause and effect.
Beyond this, a commitment to personal dharma practice and to remain in communication with other members are the only expectations. Ordination confers no special status, nor any specific responsibilities, although many order members choose to take on responsibilities for such things as teaching meditation and dharma. In mid-2008, there were around 1,500 members of the order, in more than 20 countries. The wider community
In the Triratna community, as in the Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions, sangha is interpreted as the Buddhist community as a whole. Someone who regularly attends community activities is considered to be a "friend." Friends do not have to regard themselves Buddhists, and can be of any faith, or none. Some choose, after some time, to participate in a formal ceremony of affiliation, and thus become a "mitra." "Mitra" is Sanskrit for "friend", which in this case denotes a person who considers themselves Buddhist, who makes an effort to live in accordance with the five ethical precepts, and who feels that this spiritual community is the appropriate one for them.
Those who wish to join the order must request this in writing. It can then sometimes take several years to prepare for ordination. This is an informal process, the focus of which is to deepen one's commitment.
Some friends, mitras and order members decide, at least for a while, to study teachings from outside the community, including non-Buddhist traditions such as Sufism. History
As the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order, the community was founded in London in April 1967 by Sangharakshita. He had then recently returned to England after spending two decades as a Buddhist and monk in India, following demobilisation from the British army. He had been born in south London as Dennis Lingwood, in August 1925. He would lead the organisation until his formal retirement in 1995, and would continue to exert a decisive influence on its thinking and practices thereafter.
In the 1990s, the order grew in India, and, according to the Encyclopedia of Buddhism, Indian members now make up about half the movement's formal membership. In a book published in 2005, the FWBO's members and supporters were estimated to number 100,000, the majority of whom were in India.
In 1997, the responsibility for ordination and spiritual leadership passed to a "preceptor's college", based in Birmingham. In 2000, the first chair of a preceptor's council was chosen by Sangharakshita. In future, this position will be elected by the WBO to five-year terms.
In 2003, the public preceptors, responding to feedback, decided to move away from a formal relationship to the order and movement, and to concentrate on the ordination of new order members, teaching and dharma practice. At the same time, to increase flexibility, the number of preceptors was expanded.
Name change
In the spring of 2010, the movement's name was changed from Friends of the Western Buddhist Order to Triratna Buddhist Community (which approximates in English to the name used in India - Triratna Bauddha Mahasangha). This followed the movements development in India and other countries', where it was claimed that the word "western" was no longer appropriate. An official history acknowledges this to have been controversial among some Order members.[32] ("Triratna", Sanskrit term meaning Three Jewels)
Although Sangharakshita studied under, and in some cases received initiations from, eminent Buddhist teachers during his two decades in India, including Jagdish Kashyap, Dhardo Rinpoche, HH Dudjom Rinpoche, HH Dilgo Khyentse, and Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, some strands of Buddhism would find that he never worked closely enough with any of these to be considered their "dharma-heir". According to this viewpoint, the community thus lacks spiritual lineage, which some Buddhists believe to be important.
In his introduction to Vajrayana Buddhism, The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying, Sogyal Rinpoche of the Rigpa network within the Gelug school, explains lineage thus:
- "Lineage serves as a crucial safeguard: It maintains the authenticity and purity of the teaching. People know who a master is from who his master is."
Lama Jampa Thaye, student of Karma Thinley Rinpoche and leader of the Dechen association of the Sakya and Karma Kagyu Buddhist tradition makes the point more sharply. "... if a teacher is self-appointed or self-authenticated, whilst they may be very charming, intelligent, or very charismatic, the wisdom we receive from them is their own invention," he says. "It is conceivable they may be wonderfully wise, but more likely than not, the fact that they have taken this position as teacher on themselves is a display of their delusion and perhaps arrogance." Jampa Thaye also criticises the mixing of traditions, claiming this is like "taking one ingredient from each of a hundred recipes" which might lead to spending "the next seven incarnations in the toilet."
Rather than leadership by a guru, the community instead operates through what has been called a "friendly hierarchy," which some critics have said can cause problems. In 1997, Stephen Batchelor, a prominent Buddhist commentator, was quoted as saying that the FWBO operated as "a self-enclosed system" and that their writings "have the predictability of those who believe they have all the answers".
In 1980 Sangharakshita wrote of his "conviction that the less the FWBO is involved with 'Buddhist groups' and with individuals affiliated to existing Buddhist traditions, the better." Currently, however, the community is a member of the European Buddhist Union and Network of Buddhist Organizations, individual members of the order serve on the board of the Network of Engaged Buddhists, and the FWBO's former magazine, Dharma Life, frequently carried articles by Buddhists from other organizations.
MEENA SREENIVASAN
Within minutes of my arrival to the Nagpur retreat site, where more than 500 Dalit Buddhists had gathered, a beautiful, bright-eyed, eleven-year-old girl named Ruchika ran up to me and asked, “Hello Ma’am. What’s your surname?”
“Kyon?” I inquired, which means “Why” in Hindi, although I already knew that she was asking for my surname to determine my caste.
Sure enough, her next question was, “What is your caste?”
I looked her straight in the eyes, found a smile within my heart, and answered, “I’m Buddhist. Like you, I have no caste.”
Approximately 860 miles from Mumbai, the city of Nagpur is home to the largest population of Indian Buddhists. Not only is this community bigger than any other Buddhist population in India, but these Buddhists are unlike any others. Previously lower-caste Hindus, the Indian Buddhists in Nagpur converted under the political influence of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, author of India’s constitution, to denounce caste oppression. They became Buddhist for political and spiritual reasons, and today, the implications of their actions continue to unfold.
In the fall of 2010, a leader in the Dalit Buddhist community invited me to Nagpur to share mindfulness practices with children. Spending time with this community was especially important for me because, like the Dalit Buddhists, I’ve experienced the evils of caste oppression. However, unlike the Dalit Buddhists, who were born at the very “bottom” of caste hierarchy, my Brahmin birth placed me at the “top.”
I am American and Indian. My parents grew up in India and moved to the United States more than 40 years ago, where they raised a family. Like many others in similar circumstances, I’m a product of extreme privilege and have a deep sense of gratitude for the opportunities I’ve been given. A few years after graduating from college, I had an unexplainable, heartfelt calling to live in India, and I moved back to the land of my ancestors. During the past five years, I’ve seen firsthand the divisiveness of caste. More than anything else, this experience fueled my embrace of Buddhism. In turn, my mindfulness practice brought me to Nagpur.
Buddhists in a Hindu Country
Although more than 10 million Dalit Buddhists reside in Nagpur, the magnitude of the community and the fact of their religious conversion doesn’t alter the fact that they still live in a Hindu-dominated nation—one which fails to acknowledge them as equals. According to Prashita, a sharp, articulate, fourteen year-old girl who served as my Marathi translator, “In India, people don’t usually ask your name; they ask you, ‘What is your surname?’ and their intention is to know what caste you belong to.”
For a community that converted to Buddhism to transcend caste, I was shocked by how frequently Dalit Buddhists in Nagpur asked what caste I belonged to! When I shared this with Prashita, she told me that people from her community never say, “We are Buddhists. We don’t have any caste.” Instead they say, “We are Mahars,” which are the untouchable caste in the Hindu religion. She then introduced me to a Marathi saying, Jzaat manathun kadhi nahi jzaat, which means “caste never leaves one’s mind.”
According to Prashita, “Conversion does not actually change you. Though you are converted, you need to struggle very hard. In Buddhism there is no caste system; we are all free, we are all equal, but we have to put that in our mind first, and only then can we tell society, convince them about this.” In other words, conversion is a step in the process of changing your mindset about caste. Prashita’s message is profound: that we only go beyond caste from within.
In India, those who are from lower castes are legally classified as Scheduled Castes and are referred to as either Adivasi, which means “indigenous” in Sanskrit, or Dalit, a self-referential Marathi term implying “those who have been oppressed by those above.” According to the 2001 census, Scheduled Castes account for 16.23 percent (167 million) of India’s population. While the government of India’s Constitutional and Legislative Mechanisms affirm that they are adequately protecting Dalits from discrimination, the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights has many documented cases of violence recently committed against Dalits. India does have Caste Reservation, a controversial scheme similar to the American Affirmative Action. However, that National Campaign data shows that Scheduled Caste children who manage to secure spaces in higher education still continuously experience exclusion and discrimination.
In October of 2008, my Buddhist mentor, Dharmacharya Shantum Seth, organized a trip to Nagpur for my root teacher, Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, and more than 40 monks and nuns from Plum Village. The purpose of this visit was to give teachings to the Dalit Buddhists. Of particular importance was a teaching given at Disksha Bhumi, or “Ground of Conversion,” which took place on the anniversary of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism (October 14, 1956). Ambedkar did more than anyone else to bring Buddhism back to India. As my dear mentor, Shantum, explains, “In order to understand the Dalit Buddhist community, one must first understand Ambedkar and where he was coming from, because all of these people are inspired by Ambedkar and, through him, to Buddha.”
Born into the ex-untouchable Mahar caste, Ambedkar rose against the odds to become one of the most educated men of his generation and one of the few Indian leaders of his time to have studied in the United States (Columbia University). However, even with his privileged education, he continuously suffered from humiliating experiences of discrimination because of his caste. His experience motivated him to stand for the complete emancipation of his people and the elimination of the Hindu caste system.
In 1935 he declared that even though he had been born a Hindu, he would not die as one. The following year at a Mahar conference in Bombay, Ambedkar urged his community to convert to Buddhism. He said, “Religion is for man; man is not for religion. If you want to gain self -respect, change your religion. If you want to create a cooperating society, change your religion. If you want power, change your religion. If you want equality, change your religion. If you want independence, change your religion. If you want to make the world in which you live, happy, change your religion…” Clearly, for Ambedkar, the call to convert was political.
Unfortunately, Ambedkar died on December 6, 1956, barely two months after the great conversion, leaving behind only his book, The Buddha and His Dhamma, which is embraced as the Bible by the Dalit Buddhist community. The book presents Buddhism as ethical and rational, giving minimal attention to the contemplative tradition usually associated with Buddhism. Key to his teachings are his Twenty-Two Buddhists Oaths, of which Number Nineteen reads, “I embrace today the Buddha Dhamma, discarding the Hindu Religion, which is detrimental to the emancipation of human beings and which believes in inequality and regards human beings other than the Brahmins as low born.”
Shantum shared that for Ambedkar, “the path of liberation is liberation from suffering, including discrimination by caste that is coming from external factors that call upon us to change the political and economic situations, by organizing, agitating, and educating.” While my beloved teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, is often seen as the founder of the Engaged Buddhism movement, he is very clear that the Sangha is not a political instrument. Thich Nhat Hanh teaches that the root of our suffering lies within ourselves and we can transform it through the practice of mindfulness. Thus, the transformation of society begins with inner transformation.
The Dalit Buddhist movement is, at its root, a political movement. This explains why many still follow Hindu rituals. However, there is a strong interest in learning more about the spiritual and religious aspects of Buddhism. Organizations including the India Branch of the Triratna Buddhist Community (formerly known as Friends of the Western Buddhist Order) now bring Dharma teachings to numerous Dalit Buddhists, and many attend the popular Goenka-ji Vipassana courses. When Thich Nhat Hanh was in Nagpur 350,000 gathered for his teaching at Dhiksha Bhumi, 10,000 engaged in walking meditation at the Nagaloka grounds, and every Hindi and Marathi copy of his books sold out.
The Triratna Buddhist Community, which has done more for the Dalit Buddhists than any other Buddhist organization in Nagpur, held the retreat that I attended. Prashita believes that such retreats for the community are essential. She explains, “Though people are converted, they don’t have that much knowledge of Buddhism, and that is why they are following the old religion. Coming to retreats is so important, so we can get what Buddhism is all about. Being a Buddhist, we should know Buddha’s teachings.”
When I arrived in Nagpur, I was amazed by my reception. I was surrounded by hundreds of warm hearts and curious minds. I came to understand that my presence was unusual. Although familiar with foreigners from the international Triratna Buddhist Community, the Dalit Buddhists had not previously encountered a very Indian-looking—but American-sounding—Buddhist. That I have a popular Brahmin surname was especially novel to them. Few members of the community had ever left Nagpur, and my adopted city of Delhi seemed like a world away, let alone America. They were deeply surprised that a Brahmin would convert to Buddhism. The more I understood the situation in Nagpur, the greater my efforts to stress the importance of using the Buddha’s teachings to move beyond caste and embrace Interbeing.
I create my livelihood as a school teacher at the American Embassy School in New Delhi. Teaching allows me to carry out many of Thich Nhat Hanh’s practices with the children in my classroom. I believe that bringing mindfulness into the lives of children is the most important thing educators can do. Doing so helps children cultivate the awareness that comes with mindfulness practice, which provides a strong foundation for creating real, lasting change in the world. I was so happy to have the opportunity to share these same practices with the children of the Dalit Buddhist community!
Armed with my mindfulness bell, I led more than 100 children through a program which consisted of belly breathing, singing meditation, smiling meditation, learning how to invite the bell, watering seeds, mindful eating, the two promises, and deep relaxation. During our time together, I discovered that only a few Dalit children had any significant understanding of Buddhism. Since I never mention the Buddha in my Delhi classroom, I welcomed the opportunity to share more openly with these children. Their receptivity to Buddhist mindfulness practices was incredible, and perhaps this is because they rarely have such programs. The children were starving for the Dharma. And, they could really connect with the teachings and feel the Dharma in their hearts.
At the last minute I had to cut my Nagpur trip short because I was invited to meet President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the US Embassy in New Delhi. When I shared this with the children, they became very excited and made a special card for me to present to the President and the First Lady. As I watched these precious children work so hard on the card, I felt a deep sense of gratitude for having been born and raised in the United States of America. Although there are class divisions in the USA, it is incomparable to the legacy of centuries of caste oppression in India.
Growing up, my family made trips to India, where I witnessed older-generation relatives make comments about how non-Brahmins are “dirty,” and refuse to touch anything that had been touched by one of “them.” When I was in Nagpur these memories kept arising, and I could feel the seeds of anger growing within. As these feeling arose, I went to my breath, embraced my anger with mindfulness. Then, as I gladly drank from the same cup and ate and from the same plate as my newfound Indian Dharma Brothers and Sisters, I connected inwardly with all of my ancestors and tried to make peace.
Ambedkar is seen as a Bodhisattva for the Dalit Buddhists, primarily because he gave them hope. But hope, as Vaclav Havel reminds us, is “definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” When I was a child, it seemed inconceivable that we would ever have an African-American President. Here I am, age 30, and the inconceivable has become true.
Just hours after I returned from Nagpur, I made my way to the US Embassy to meet the President and First Lady. I never expected I would get to present the Dalit Buddhist children’s card to them, but not only did they receive it; they also graciously signed the card, which I then couriered back to the very happy children!
During my brief moments with Barack and Michelle, I held the children in my heart. I practiced Tonglen even as I shook the President and First Lady’s hands, looked into their eyes, took on their suffering with my breath and said, “Keep the hope alive.”
You can visit Meena’s blog, “A Year of Mindfulness in the Classroom,” at http://mindfulteacher.posterous.com. After 5 years of living in India, Meena will be moving back to the United States during the summer of 2011.
The India Dhamma Trust supports the public preceptors who work in India and the men's and women's ordination teams who are part of the Triratna Buddhist Community there.
The public preceptors and the ordination teams provide training for people who have asked for ordination and for mitras by running retreats, giving talks and leading workshops. They provide friendship across the movement and support for order members. In addition they play a key role in promoting harmony and take spiritual responsibility within the movement in India as a whole. They provide much of the backbone for the movement's work in India, including the social projects and provide leadersip, guidance and support to the wider movement there.
There are currently five public preceptors who work in India, twelve people working full time in the ordination teams and a number of part time workers.
There are four women working for the women's Ordination team: Jnanasuri, Karunamaya, Vajrasuri and Vijaya
And x men working for the men's team...
Here are some profiles of the public preceptors and members of the Ordination teams.
Jnanasuri has had a remarkable life. She has been involved in a number of moments of historic importance for Buddhism in India. She was present in 1956 in Nagpur when Dr. Ambedkar converted to Buddhism with hundreds of thousands of his followers. She was one of the first two Indian women to join the Triratna Buddhist Order, in January 1987, during the first ordinations by women into the Order. And in 2007, Jnanasuri became the first Indian woman to ordain other Indian women. This was certainly the first ordination by an Indian woman in India for very many years. And it is possible that this was the first time in history that an Indian woman had fully ordained other women on Indian soil.
Subhuti was influential in the building of the London Buddhist Centre, which opened in 1978 and was its first Chair. He developed training for men preparing to be ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order at the Padmaloka retreat centre, near Norwich in England. He also helped to found Guhyaloka, a retreat centre in Spain, where men make final preparations to become members of the Order.
As well as being involved in the spread of the Dharma in the West, particularly in Britain, Subhuti spends several months each year working with the community's Indian wing, the Triratna Bauddha Mahāsaṅgha.
Ratnasiddhi and Abhayadana
Ratnasiddhi was ordained in 1991 and is a member of the Men's Ordination Team. He has worked in many social projects and now runs retreats, leads study and provides kalyana mitrata. He is very motivated by the vision of creating Sangha and sees his work as inspiring men who have asked for ordination. In return, he finds that he is often inspired by the dedication and commitment of his friends.
Abhayadana was ordained in 2008. As a child she was drawn to becoming a Buddhist, but due to the sub-caste she was a member of, was not able to participate in Buddhist practice in her village. She was delighted when she came across the Triratna Buddhist Community and her serious desire to practise as a Buddhist was recognised. She felt that finally she was seen as a human being. Her desire is to give back some of the gifts she feels she has received and so she works for the Ashvagosha project, which used storytelling and drama to teach the Dhamma in the slums.
