Sangha Day and other Festivals

I am writing this in Adhisthana.  Recently my blog seems to be done on the move. I guess that is because I am away now quite a lot. I had almost a month in Mexico and I am now back down in Adhisthana for just over three weeks. That is for the college meeting and for an Order retreat based around Canto 103 of the Life and Liberation of Padmasambhava: The Advice to the 3 Fortunate Women on the Departure - yes that text again. It has been with me all year really. That text and the text of Bhante’s 1979 Padmasambhava day talk which was the theme of the Summer Sangha retreat at Adhisthana. Padmasambhava is very present and that feels appropriate and necessary. 

Some people have asked why we have been concentrating so much on Padmasambhava this year. There are a number of reasons but one central reason is that 2025 has been the centenary year of the birth of our Founder and main Teacher, Sangharakshita (Bhante). For Bhante, Padmasambhava held special significance. He writes of his first encounter with a figure of the Precious Guru as Padmasambhava is known. This took place in a temple in Darjeeling and he tells the story in one of his memoirs:

Though I had never seen the figure of Padmasambhava before, it was familiar to me in a way that no other figure on earth was familiar: familiar and fascinating. It was as familiar as my own self, yet at the same time infinitely mysterious, infinitely wonderful, and inspiring it was to remain. Indeed from then on the figure of the Precious Guru – Guru Rimpoche – was to occupy a permanent place in my inner spiritual world” 

Urgyen Sangharakshita – From his book Facing Mount Kanchenjunga. 

Bhante also saw Padmasambhava as having great significance to us as Western practitioners. In the same way that Padmasambhava tamed the gods and demons of Tibet so that Buddhism could flourish, Bhante saw that there are many present day demons that need to be befriended so that the Dharma can flourish in this suffering world. In his 1979 talk he makes that quite explicit:

So there are economic demons. There are social demons, sociological demons. There are political demons. There are even religious demons, not to speak of the odd philosophical demon, all of whom need to be brought under control. So we mustn't think of these demons as just sort of mythological things, you know you can't read about it in you know sort of fairy story type books, it's all rather nice, but you never meet a demon. You're meeting demons all the time, of one kind and another. You're living in a world of demons…

We have to sort of think of ourselves as living in a sort of world of these rather scattered energies and we just have to sort of claim them and collect them and bring them together and incorporate them into the spiritual life, into the life of the spiritual community, so that our individual spiritual lives can be reinforced and the collective as it were spiritual life of the spiritual community also be reinforced.

I find that inspiring, stimulating and very motivating. The world needs the Dharma, needs Padmasambhava. In Mexico I led a number of different events on the theme of Padmasambhava and his relevance to us as practitioners in today’s world. It’s one of my favourite themes and I think it is very timely.

When I was planning what I would be doing in 2025, I thought that we would be in the new centre by summer - ok, call me naive! Or optimistic! Unrealistic? Anyway, that was partly why I decided that I would make my annual visit to Mexico in October. I had imagined that by October, we would have had our grand inauguration weekend and be running everything there. As it happens, that didn’t happen as you all know. Things are moving along slowly as the wheels of bureaucracy grind along (not ours, the relevant departments who need to grant us permits for various things). As I have said a number of times, this is frustrating to those of us of an impatient temperament but I am also sure that it will all be well worth waiting for. Sarah is currently working on a 3D model which is very generous of her and I look forward to seeing that when it is ready. She and Moksadhi are working with the building team kula and will be working with the aesthetics kula when the time is right.

Another kula which is working well is the Accessibility kula. There is a document ready to post and their work will be really helpful as we take possession of Woodside Crescent. I think some of that will already be visible on Sangha day next weekend. I am really sorry to be missing that. I love our festivals and Sangha day is such an important day in our year. I am so pleased that we have a kula looking at issues of accessibility in all sorts of ways. As I said recently, for me it is all about removing all and any barriers which might stop someone coming through our door and being given the gift of the Dharma. Such a precious gift! I can’t bear the idea that anyone who wants the Dharma might find it hard to come to us. Padmasambhava would want to break down all these barriers.

Back to Sangha Day. This year there won’t be Mitra ceremonies although there are a few coming up. They will take place at the next festival which is Parinirvana Day in February 2026. I love Parinirvana day, the celebration of the death - and therefore the life - of the Buddha. There is so much we can learn from the story of the Buddha’s death. I became a Mitra on Parinirvana day 1978 and, for someone who had had a lot of bereavement in my life, that felt appropriate. All the festivals have a joy and a particular atmosphere and Parinirvana day is a sober festival - not sombre or dark but with the gravitas that comes from acknowledging that all things will pass. Everything that is born must die. For me that also gives an imperative to how we live our lives.

Anyway, that is in February. Meanwhile I hope that you all enjoy Sangha Day. That is about friendship and community. It is about how we help each other to transform ourselves, to tread the Path together. I will be thinking of you all and sending love and solidarity.

Here at Adhisthana we will be celebrating Sangha Day too on Wednesday which is the full moon. There are 45 of us on this college meeting which makes it the largest we have held.  We have this International meeting just once a year and there are preceptors from Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Mexico, Mainland Europe, the UK and India. Much of the time will be hearing how things are going in those different areas. Tomorrow we will be welcoming 2 new members of the College - Kalyacitta who many of you will know from Tiratanaloka, the UK women’s ordination team and our very own Nayaka from Dhanakosa, who probably even more of you will know. We will hear their life stories (well, a fairly short version) and there will be a ritual of welcome. There will also be a couple of evenings of rejoicing and farewells as 4 members retire. I always find that moving. The college has changed a lot in the 23 years I have been a member. Of the 11 early college members, only Padmavajra is still a member. Then, of the 12 of us who joined them in 2004, only 4 of us. So, 39 of the folk here have joined since then. More about the meeting next time.

I have to come back to Glasgow for a day on Thursday the 6th. I am coming to sign an interfaith Declaration of Peace which is part of the Glasgow 850 celebrations. I will write more about that next week. And just to finish - it was delightful to see Bertrand today when I arrived. He is on the Dharma Life course here and I look forward to catching up with him and hearing all about how it is going.

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.