Centenary

Hi from Adhisthana on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of our founder, Sangharakshita. I’m here on the Summer Sangha retreat alongside 120 others including 12 from our Glasgow sangha. Yesterday was a lovely summer day, around 26 degrees in the afternoon. Today it is pouring with rain! The retreat began with a morning of ritual yesterday during which the Padmasambhava rupa was ceremoniously placed onto the shrine. For anyone who hasn’t seen the Padmasambhava rupa here at Adhisthana I can share that it was a master class in ingenuity. It is huge and I’m not sure how much it weighs but it’s a lot. It took 12 people I think to move it and place it on the shrine where it will be for the duration of the retreat. In the afternoon we listened to the talk given by Sangharakshita on Padmasambhava day 1979 at the London Buddhist Centre. If you have never heard it, I highly recommend it. I was there and it was one of those moments that made me sure that this was the right community for me. It’s long, so make a cuppa and sit back to enjoy.

Here’s the link:

https://www.freebuddhistaudio.com/audio/details?num=151

Today is a special day and there are around 40 people coming to join us for the day celebrating the centenary. Some parts of the day will be live streamed through the Buddhist Centre online. By the time you read this, you might have already joined us for some of the day. One of the things I am enjoying is the International nature of this event - reflecting the International nature of our community. This was very close to Bhante’s heart. It was important to him that our Order and community was open to people from all cultures. There are people from Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales, France, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Canada, India, Japan, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. How fabulous is that!

We will begin at 7.00 am which is the time that Bhante was born. We will be around the burial mound and will mark the moment. I am writing this at 6.00 am so I will go soon to get ready. This evening at 7.45, I will be leading the puja here using the ‘Bhante box’. A bit earlier, Carunalaka and Candrika will be leading it in the GBC. Today through the world it will be celebrated. In case you miss it, it is a box that contains a signed photo of Bhante, a book to sign, a candle and incense and cloths for the shrine. It was initiated in 2003 when centre chairs at the Convention in Wymondham, England collected the box for their centre.  The idea is that the things in there will be used on Bhante’s birthday every year for 100 years. Over 20 years have gone already. I think I have attended it every year wherever I have been. The original idea (dreamed up by Danavira, a Glaswegian who was, at the time, chair of the Cambridge centre) was that we could see in the photo our sangha aging and passing away while newer, younger sangha members grew. I love it as an idea. 

And don’t forget our Urban Padmasambhava festival 22nd to 26th September.  More details soon.

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.