I am back at Adhisthana for the March meeting of the College of Public Preceptors. We have two meetings a year - in November we have an international meeting with at least some, if not all, of the Public Preceptors attending from all the different areas of Triratna worldwide. That could be around 40 people coming from India, the UK and Ireland, Mainland Europe, Latin America, Oceania and the USA and Canada. The March meeting is much smaller as it is a meeting for the UK and I

Another long blog post! Last week we celebrated Parinirvana Day. There was a lovely atmosphere, sober and serene but also joyful. After a welcome and a Metta practice led by Vajracetana, I gave a talk on the significance of celebrating the Buddha’s Parinirvana. Parinirvana means nirvana without remains. In other words the body of the Buddha, like all conditioned phenomena, is subject to illness, death and decay. In one beautiful scene in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, which tells

I’m writing this in the Mitchell Library - one of my favourite places to work. I have just finished preparing a talk for the class tonight. It is on Positive Emotion. We are exploring Bhante’s talks from 50 years ago: Buddhism for Today and Tomorrow. As part of the first of those talks (a method of personal development) we are looking at the Triratna system of practice. This was first outlined in a talk given by Bhante on an Order convention in 1978. https://www.freebuddhista

Just a fairly short blog post this week, following on from the last one. (Actually, not that short in the end and rather self revealing. All about being an anagarika which wasn’t entirely where I thought I was going). Perhaps a little niche in its appeal but hey ho, here we go! Last week I was still at Adhisthana leading the Anagarika Convention. I have been giving a lot of thought as to why it is important for me to practice as an anagarika. The word literally means homeless

Hi companions in the good life, I am writing this from Adhisthana where I am attending the Anagarika Convention. 23 of us are gathered to share our experiences, meditate and do puja together and to reflect upon our lives as anagarikas. Our theme for this convention is Creating a Living Anagarika Sangha and we explored that in small groups over the first couple of days. Today we are having a silent, meditative day followed by a couple of days of study. On the first day, we rep

Last Sunday was Burns night, the celebration of the anniversary of Scotland’s national Bard. While I know some people find Burns a controversial figure or incomprehensible, personally I find his poetry and his essays inspiring and still relevant. His message is a humanitarian one and I think some of the themes treated by him are messages that we, as Buddhists might find pertinent. I explored this on a day retreat I led at the GBC in January 2024. The link to the talks from th

Hi everyone. Last night I attended a Mitra group to talk about and answer some concerns and questions about Bhante and Triratna’s past. Interestingly this has come up a few times recently. In this particular group I visited there are a number of women about to have their Mitra ceremonies on Parinirvana Day on February 15th. They wanted the opportunity to clarify - or at least approach - the topic. I hope it was helpful. It occurred to me that, although I hope people becoming

Happy new year. So, here we are in 2026 and GREAT NEWS for the start of the year! All our planning permission requests have been granted. We are entering a new phase now of Woodside Crescent. It has been quite a journey already but, for many of us, it has been mainly spent in the waiting room. There are still details to be ironed out and some of the kulas which have been formed will now step into new or more action. There is much to be done and there will be more information