One Sangha, Many Cultures

Last night we had a lovely Mandala night class. It was a Mexico night, organised because Adriana, a Mexican mitra, was visiting Glasgow. After watching some extracts from the film Cuna de Luz / Cradle of Light, which tells the story of the setting up and development of Triratna in Mexico, we had a tea break with nachos and guacamole. Then Angela had a lovely conversation with Adriana.  They talked about the differences and similarities in their experience of training for ordination in such different cultures.  It was a lovely, warm, colourful evening.

The reason I wanted to do an evening like this was to emphasise the international nature of Triratna.  I love that, it is one of the most important aspects of our community for me.  I have been really fortunate in that I have been able to travel to lots of our different centres and retreat centres around the world. I love the sameness and the difference.  As well as being one of the really positive aspects of Triratna, it does, of course, bring its challenges. It’s a real practice to work out the underlying principles and not get caught up in what might be a product of how, when and where Triratna was formed. I found that when Paramachitta and I moved to Valencia, Spain in 1992. We came from the LBC, at the time our biggest centre, certainly in the UK.  It was well developed, we did things the way we did them.  I had been there since very soon after my ordination, so 12 years of working in different capacities there - from cleaning the toilets to teaching most of the classes at one time. I was part of the pioneering generation there, arriving in London before it had opened. So, I knew how to run a Buddhist Centre, right? Nope not right! 

I realised how much I had taken for granted. Being in a completely new culture, learning a new language, having to learn all sorts of cultural norms was a real wake up call.  I don’t think I was excessively complacent but, even so, I was jolted into seeing that I couldn’t just assume anything.  Not just in the Sangha, but in everyday things like where to buy things, what is seen as polite or rude. An excellent lesson I must say. Of course, I made lots of mistakes, some hilarious, some more serious but I loved being there and I am immensely grateful that I had those years.

One of the wonderful things about being in Spain was starting to make connections with Mexico. In 1995, I think, I started to visit, leading retreats and workshops, meeting people and eventually ordaining the first few Mexican dharmacharinis. And again, learning that the culture there is, again, very different from Europe. I do recommend the film that we watched clips from last night.

Here’s the link https://www.lightsinthesky.org/films/cuna-de-luz-cradle-of-light

When I lived in Spain I started to feel the need for two of the Jina Buddhas - for their wisdom. Amitabha and Ratnasambhava.  Ratnasambhava’s wisdom is of equality.  That tells us that all beings are equal in their seeking for love and desire to avoid suffering.  All humans have an equal need for the dharma and the dharma is for all.  Yet, beings have different needs.  They will respond differently to the dharma and different conditions will call forth unique and appropriate ways to share the dharma. This needs Amitabha’s discriminating wisdom. I think this is one of the great opportunities we have in our community.  The chance to offer the dharma equally and yet appropriately.  That’s not just true of different cultures but of different people.  I hope that we can meet that, at least to some degree, in our new centre.  

Meanwhile, 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