A Centre Without Barriers

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 Ireland and mainland Europe public preceptors. There are 19 of us here. This is the Kula period of the meeting. The college is made up of different kulas. The term kula can be translated as family, community, group or, my personal favourite, clan. It is used a lot in Triratna to signify a group of people bonded by a spiritual project. It is sometimes used for a group of Order members who work together to support a Mitra towards ordination. It can also be used for a group working together with a common project.

Here in Glasgow we use it for the groups who work together on a particular task, at the moment that is especially tasks related to the preparation and move to the new centre premises. The council of trustees have the overall responsibility for decisions about the new centre but there are a number of kulas looking at different aspects of the move. Some of these kulas are looking at the practicalities of how to use the space but also some are thinking in terms of the emotional and spiritual aspects of making a major move. For example, what rituals will help us leave Berkeley Street well and what rituals will help us take up the new space in a creative way. I am personally delighted that so many people are contributing in this way and helping the council to make well informed decisions.  

One kula that I am very pleased about is the accessibility kula. It is one of our priorities, agreed through a process of shared sangha vision, that the new centre be as accessible as possible. This is not just in terms of physical accessibility, although that is crucial, but also what will make the centre a place without barriers so that everyone will find a welcome and feel at home. We know that this will take time and so we need to prioritise but it is important to have an idea of our ideal centre and work towards that as creatively as we can.

Another kula is looking at finance in different ways - strategic fundraising for long term sustainability and also fun fundraising to offer sangha building opportunities which will also hopefully make some money, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed those we have held and look forward to the next one which is the Spring Fair on the 21st of this month. From the website:

spring fair fundraiser

The Fun Fundraising Kula is organising a Spring Sale on Saturday 21st March 3pm-6pm

Glasgow Buddhist Centre, Berkeley St

Fundraising for the New Centre

Spring Fair

• Sale of seedlings for indoor/outdoor plants and vegetables

• Any unwanted seeds

• Secondhand books

• Tombola

• Garden produce

Drinks and home made cakes will be available!

Live music!

Please drop off any plants, seedlings or cuttings on Friday 20th March 1pm-6pm.

Any secondhand books you want to donate, bring to the Centre at any time.

I hope to see some of you there. 

Meanwhile, back at Adhisthana, we had a delightful evening last night.  When I became a Public Preceptor and joined the college in 2004, we all knew each other well. There were around 20 of us and we had lived and worked together, led retreats together, practised together. Of that group there are only 5 of us still in the college and, as well as the college now consisting of mainly a younger generation, we are now much more international. Both of those are important facts and I am glad of them, but it does mean people don’t know each other so well. To help us learn more about each other we often have life stories or personal contributions in the evening sessions. I have talked about this, I think, in a previous blog post. 

Last night we had 4 people share a vignette from their life which they felt was emblematic of who they are. A scene which showed some characteristic or aspect of their personality or conditioning. They were incredibly different which was very enjoyable. The first was someone taking a trip to New Zealand on the basis of having seen a slide of the Dhardo Rimpoche stupa at Sudarshanaloka retreat Centre. Then we heard about being a schoolboy at one of England’s ‘public’ boarding schools. Then a childhood experience of a hay barn fire on a farm in rural Ireland. Lastly someone crying with their father in a restaurant in London and reflecting on how her father was of a generation that believed we could leave the world a better place than the world we were born into but realising that, in many ways, it isn’t so.

I think the evening was itself emblematic of the college. There is quite a range of conditioning and backgrounds. This is even more true at the November International meeting with people coming from around the world. That is also paradigmatic of Triratna at its best. There is a quote from Sangharakshita that is often cited in talks about friendship.  It is from a talk given in India in the 70s if I remember correctly but can be found in Living with Kindness. In it Bhante says:

“I believe that humanity is basically one. I believe that it is possible for any human being to communicate with any other human being, to feel for any other human being, to be friends with any other human being. This is what I truly and deeply believe. This belief is part of my own experience. It is part of my own life. It is part of me. I cannot live without this belief, and I would rather die than give it up. For me, to live means to practise this belief.”

This is why the accessibility kula and the vision of a centre without barriers is so important to me. I want us to be able to open our doors to all who want the Dharma and I want everyone to feel they can enter through that door.  

For now, as always,

May all beings be well, may all beings find true happiness and its causes and may all beings be free from suffering.

Where the Bodhichitta has not yet arisen

May it arise

Where it has arisen

May it flourish

Where it flourishes

May it never die