The Spirit of Glasgow

People often ask me why I decided to move back to Glasgow. It certainly wasn’t for the weather. Why do we settle somewhere? It’s sometimes quite complex, sometimes simple - a job, a person, serendipity. For me, it was definitely coming home. I love Glasgow. Of course, it’s no utopia and it has its share of problems. Sadly there is racism, homophobia and all the other guises of prejudice but I like to hope that there is also a welcoming spirit here that predominates and I certainly hope that can remain the case in the face of an encroaching far right attempt to politicise poverty.

Glasgow has a long history of working class activism and of speaking up against injustice. The People’ Palace in Glasgow Green has some wonderful displays of this. Glasgow elected Scotland’s first councillor from a refugee background, Roza Salih. She made history in May 2022 when she was elected as an SNP councillor for the Greater Pollok ward on Glasgow City Council. Roza came to Glasgow as a refugee from Southern Kurdistan (Iraq) in 2001 at the age of 12 and later became a prominent human-rights and refugees’ rights campaigner, including co-founding the Glasgow Girls advocacy group when she was a teenager. My own ward in Maryhill has another councillor from a refugee background in Afghanistan, Abdul Bostani. I know both of them and they are amazing, lovely Glaswegians.

In June 2007, 3 passers-by stopped a terrorist plot to bomb Glasgow airport on one of the airport’s busiest days of the year. In his new book, Glasgow, a New History, Alistair Moffat describes how the three men - a baggage handler on a break, a taxi driver who had just dropped a fare and a guy picking up his family who had just arrived from Benidorm - jumped in and attacked the attackers. Various other passers by joined in and managed to stop the bomb going off. When interviewed later the baggage handler said “Glasgow disnae accept this.This is Glasgow, we’ll set about ye. That’s it!”

Why am I saying all this? Because I hope that Glasgow, despite its problems and despite the lurking spectre of sectarianism, can continue to be a home for a flourishing Buddhist community. I think the spirit of Glasgow is one that can host a new society alongside the old, to use that rather cliched but still powerful (for me) terminology. Triratna has had a presence in Glasgow since the mid 70s, making it one of the first places to establish the then FWBO. There has been an urban centre for most of that time and we are currently moving into a new phase with a new property and, next year, a new chair. The process of preparing the new place is slow but steady. Tomorrow there will be insulation happening and we now have an appointment to talk to our local MSP to see if she can help move things along with the city council planning department and Historic Scotland. 

As might be obvious, I love Glasgow and I am extremely happy to be home, despite the weather. I also love our Sangha. Last Saturday I had a thoroughly good time at the fun fundraising event. It was a concert, an open mic and way too much lovely food. There was a point where I felt such a huge upsurge of love. Listening to Stephen and Tony jam together and then those of us who did the truly Glaswegian thing of a ‘wee turn’ warmed my heart (I’m all about the cliches today). In this case wee turn is not going weird or being ill but singing a song or two. We were regaled with, among other classics, the Jelly Piece song. Check it out on YouTube if you don’t know it. The whole afternoon was great fun. I thoroughly enjoy these opportunities to bring sangha together in a social, informal way as well as our more Dharmic sangha encounters. At some point I leaned over and whispered to Carunalaka “I love our Sangha”.

Last week I mentioned a talk I was about to give on Transference of Merits. Here’s the link to it on Free Buddhist Audio. 

https://www.freebuddhistaudio.com/audio/details.php?num=LOC6895

It was the final talk in the series about the Sevenfold Puja but also the culmination of our year focussing on the Bodhisattva Ideal. I have really enjoyed exploring different aspects of what Sangharakshita called “one of the most sublime and inspiring Ideals in human history.” I like having an overall theme for the year, especially one which gives huge scope to explore it in different ways. Next year, our overall theme will be Buddhism for Today and Tomorrow. This refers to a series of talks given by Sangharakshita in 1976, so 50 years ago next year. It will be interesting to explore the themes of those talks given that we are now in the tomorrow. Are the same things relevant? How has the world changed? What is Buddhism today 50 years on? What can we offer the tomorrow still to come? There is also a poem by Sangharakshita called the Four Gifts which relates to the same themes.  To open the year I will give a talk called the Four Gifts explaining the themes and then through 2026 we will be delving into them. I can’t wait.  

The city motto of Glasgow is Let Glasgow Flourish. This year has been the 850th anniversary of Glasgow becoming a city and there have been lots of events celebrating that, some of which I have been involved with as have some other sangha members. I think Glasgow is, in many ways, flourishing and I think our sangha is too. 

To finish:

Let Triratna Glasgow Flourish.

Let the Bodhicitta flourish in Glasgow and beyond.

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