Centres

Hello from the Buddhist Centre of Cuernavaca. Cuernavaca is about 60 miles south of Mexico City. The name is derived from the Nahuati language and means "surrounded by trees”. However its nickname is “City of Eternal Spring”. There are lots of green spaces - very green just now as we are in the rainy season. I arrived here last Wednesday, met with the community here for lunch then with the group of women who are preparing for Ordination. Thursday I went off to Cintamani retreat centre to lead a weekend retreat for Dharmacharinis. More of that later.

I have to be honest, I had - and have - some Centre Envy. The centre here is fairly new and it’s the first time I have visited it. The centre they had before was gorgeous but they had outgrown it so they moved here just earlier this year. It is spectacular. It has 3 shrine rooms, various meeting rooms and a community slightly apart from the bulk of the centre. 2 Dharmacharis and 2 Dharmacharinis live in the community. 

I think the thing that has struck me most is how tastefully it has been decorated and prepared. The main shrine room is big but really simple. The others are also simple. Meeting rooms are comfortable and spacious and the garden is just a lawn so it’s easy to maintain I guess and is pleasant for sitting and chatting. There’s a wee shop at reception with books and artefacts like wee rupas, vajras etc. Also it sells biscuits and snacks. The way it is set out the reception person can also take for the shop.

I am, of course, looking for ideas for Woodside Crescent. Here it is obvious that the design and decor has been done by someone with a very good eye - the chair, Saddhajoti. She has overseen it all and has made it really beautiful. Sadly I don’t have that kind of aesthetic sense even though I can appreciate the finished job. Fortunately there is an aesthetics kula forming now and I am really happy to leave such matters to them. 

The weekend retreat was based around Canto 103 of the Life and Liberation of Padmasambhava: the Advice to the Three Fortunate women before the departure. This is the text that we looked at on a recent women’s day at the GBC.  It is such good material and it worked well as a basis for the retreat. We meditated on bits of the text, studied it and had Pujas dedicated to Padmasambhava. So, as you see, Padmasambhava is still exerting an influence on me and on the movement. Quite a lot of the dharmacharinis here have Padmasambhava as their Yiddam (the figure they meditate upon given to them at Ordination) and so there was a LOT of enthusiasm for the text. I plan to use the text as the basis of the women’s winter retreat at Dhanakosa. 

In an hour or so, I am off for a wee holiday for 4 days with Jnanadakini and Dayachandra.  They were the first women I ordained here and we have been friends for around 30 years. 

While here I have been reflecting on my time as Chair of the GBC. It wasn’t what I expected to do but I am really glad that it worked out as it has. Given all the other ‘hats’ I wear within Triratna, I haven’t been able to give as much to the centre as I would have liked to but I feel very satisfied with how things are going for us in Glasgow. The council is harmonious, the kulas are mainly functioning well and the centre is well run by Gunasiddhi and Keirstan with Moksadhi.  Moksadhi is doing a great job as project manager and, although I can get frustrated sometimes by the slowness of the project due to permissions pending, I trust that she and others working with her are on top of things. I do hope that it doesn’t drag on too long but, however long it takes, we will have a fabulous new centre. I have always seen this as a legacy project from my point of view. It is important to do it well for future generations as well as for those of us currently involved and I trust that is what is happening. 

One concerning thing is, of course, finance. We are not sustainable as things are at the moment. The finance kulas are well aware of this and, hopefully, we can rally round and improve our standing orders as well as Dana for classes and events. We are running a wonderful service and we want to be able to pay it forward by making it sustainable into the future. I am hoping that Padmasambhava might help out with this - money, after all, is energy and can be used for the good. It can be transformative.

Here’s to the transformation of each and every one of us and the transformation of the world. A world in which there is so much suffering of so many kinds. 

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.