FWBO News has moved.

The latest stories are now on the new FWBO News wesbite.

Moving to fwbo-news.org

Visits to fwbo.blogspot.com
Jul 2005 - Jul 2006

So tonight I'm moving the FWBO and TBMSG News to it's new home:

fwbo-news.org

It's been a little over two years since I had the idea to start an FWBO blog as a way to plug the gap left by the ceasing of Goldren Drum and the Newsreels. I'm convinced that this is a viable format for informing the movement about the movement, although there is enormous room for improvement.

As you can see from the graph, left, the growth in visits to the site has been quite phenomenal in the last nine months - more than 1000%! 1800 visits to the site in July, and probably 2100 in August if the first couple of weeks are anything to go by.

The new site offers a lot of scope for adding on bits and pieces and making more offerings to readers. I want to show a fuller experience of what the movement has to offer, and in particular want to encourage more participation. This site will remain in place since it is a record of the past couple of years, but also because it rates well on Google. Email subscribers, all 68 of you, should not need to do anything, as I'll be transferring all the current subscriptions to the new site.

A couple of weeks ago I found out that I am going to get some funding from the European Chairman's Assembly - enough so that I can begin to really work on this project which has been entirely done in my spare time to date. It's been a struggle at times, but has brought me a lot of joy as well, and, I'm sure, made a positive contribution to this wonderful, mysterious spiritual community that we participate in. I'm excited about the future.

Positive Feedback.

I'd like to share the positive comments I've over the last few months as people became aware of what I was trying to do - it's made a big difference to me personally:

• Must say thanks for all you've done with our presence on the web. It's fab and I hope us chairmen will give you some more support for it. Viryabodhi (19 Jul 2006)
• Congratulations btw with your excellent news site!! I love it. – Arthakusalin (17 July 2006)
• I came across your website and was very impressed. Very well done indeed, it must have been a lot of work. - Paramashanti (15 Jul 2006)
• And well done for all your blog work, man - excellent stuff! Chandradasa (3 Jul 2006)
• Thanks for doing a great job with the Blogsite. I'm sure it's rapidly becoming one of the most visited websites around the FWBO - Amogharatna (26 Jun 2006).
• hey i've just seen the blog for the first time. what a great resource!! sadhu!! Mokshapriya (28 Jun 2006)
• I like your FWBO blog and check it out every now and then, I think it is a great thing, especially after the end of News Real, it seems an appropriate vehicle. I think it is great you are doing it. - Alokavira (6 Jun 2006)
• ...thanks for all your work with the blog thing. Its fantastic! - Vidyamala (4 june 2006)
• As someone who has been keenly following this site almost since its inception, I wish you a heartfelt congratulations on your 2nd Blogday, and a big Sadhu! to all involved. It's very pleasing to see the site going from strength to strength, especially over these past six months or so. Aside from having you as a featured link on my homepage, I will certainly continue to promote you in any way I can. - Bodhi (30 May 2006)
• I've just looked at the FWBO Blogspot and I would like to thank you for the work that you have put into it. It works very well and your care, consideration, and energy are very clear to see. Padmakumara (30 May 2006)
• If there is anything else I can do for the blog let me know. I am very happy you have started this, IT IS GOOD. - Nityabandhu (27 May 2006)
• I really like http://www.fwbo.blogspot.com. - Hilary Saltburn (3 Apr 2006)
• Thank you for mentioning my Ordination. I feel welcome. - Sraddhabandhu (9 March 2006)

Thanks to everyone, and see you on fwbo-news.org
Jayarava.

Graffiti spotted on a bridge in the UK: make ignorance history
Buddhist direct action?

International Order Convenor

As noted earlier this month Mahamati (left) has been appointed as International Convenor of the Western Buddhist Order. At a recent Order gathering Mahamati was the keynote speaker and as part of that talk he made some remarks about what his job is. Convene means to "bring together", and as such Mahamati said he wanted to "contribute to bringing us together as an Order in harmony and mutual understanding".

As Order convenor Mahamati works with others to maintain the “Order Office” in Birmingham. "A lot of our work is very practical and includes keeping a list of who is in the Order and where they are; producing the Order's collective newsletter, Shabda; maintaining an Order website; and organising the biennial Order convention".

Mahamati says: "I am very interested in looking for ways to make it possible for us all to participate as fully as we would like in planning and contributing to international Order conventions: I find this satisfying, and at times very challenging!".

Another concern is in helping the Order to make decisions at local, regional and international levels. With more than 1400 Order members it takes quite a bit of effort and structure to achieve a concensus on decisions such as, for instance, filling the post of International Order Convenor!

Mahamati also said that he was interested, with others, in gathering information about the Order: "how many of us are attending chapter meetings, Order gatherings, what are our different life-styles, how many of us are involved in FWBO Centres etc". FWBO News hopes to be able to publish more of this kind of information.

Finally Mahamati spends time meeting members of the Order and chapters. "Something that I appreciate very much is simply the opportunity to meet with a lot of Order members individually and on Order events and retreats. Recently I have attended regional Order retreats in Finland (for the Nordic region) and in Germany (for Continental Northern Europe) and in September I will be visiting India for a chapter convenors retreat and to meet up with chapters in Pune and Mumbai. I feel very grateful for the confidence placed in me by Order members to allow me to serve the Order in this way".

FWBO Playwright on BBC 4

Listen in to BBC Radio 4 at 2.45 on August 11th to hear the latest radio play by Alastair Jessiman, aka our very own Sarvananda. The Sensitive is described as an "offbeat thriller" and involves a psychic brought into help the police solve a missing persons. BBC radio is available on the internet (www.bbc.co.uk) for those not in the UK or not able to tune in on Friday afternoon. The show will be available on the BBC website for a week after the broadcast on the Listen Again page

FWBO News is moving

The FWBO and TBMSG News website will have a new address as of next weekend. On Saturday 12th of August, the site will be moving to fwbo-news.org. There are a number of reasons for the move, but it was mainly to have a web address that was consistent with the name of the website. We're hoping that this will help to promote the site, and make it more recognisable. The old site (this one) will remain in place as it contains many interesting stories that will maintain their historical interest, and also because it ranks well on Google.

Much of the new website is now in place. The content will be expanded so that as well as news there will be a sections for longer articles and essays, book and product reviews, and jobs (although this may become a general 'notices' section).

Thanks for reading and we hope you like the new site.

Jayarava

Vimalasara : Book of the Year

Mental health charity Mind has announced today that Valerie Mason-John’s Borrowed Body, a powerful debut depicting a childhood spent in care, is the 2006 Mind Book of the Year winner. The award, now in its 25th year, is presented today by Lord Bragg, Mind’s President. It celebrates writing that furthers public understanding of mental or emotional distress in all its forms.

Valerie is known to the FWBO as Dharmacarini Vimalasara. She is an author, poet and performer and works as a trainer in anger management, conflict resolution and self-development.

Borrowed Body by Valerie Mason-John was published by Serpent's Tail in 2005, ISBN 1-85242-891-0

Buy Borrowed Body from Amazon UK

FWBO Buddhafield : Dharma Parlour

Since its inception the Buddhafield festival, attended by this year 2000 people, has been a meeting ground for Buddhists, activists and festival-lovers in the UK. This year for the first time a Buddhist teaching element was a central part of the event. Several domes clustered together in the middle of the festival site (near to the Buddhafield café - left) to comprise the Dharma Parlour, featuring a continuous programme of talks and workshops. A novel aspect of the Dharma Parlour was that it featured significant input from Buddhists from outside the FWBO as well as Order members.

The heart of the Dharma Parlour was the Dharma Dome, featuring talks by a range of speakers including Akuppa on global issues and Tim Malnick on practice at work; a symposium on practicing in the family with talks from Amaragita and Karunagita; and talks on activism by Guhyapati, Vishvapani and Christopher Titmuss. On the final day Kamalashila and Padmavajra gave talks expressing their own Dharma practice. Other domes were run by the Amida Trust and the Network of Engaged Buddhists, while the Dome of Enquiry was run by Christopher Titmuss and some of his students. A final dome featured more teaching by Order members.

The Dharma Parlour supplemented ‘the Sacred Space’, which has always been a part of the Buddhafield mix, offering a venue for pujas, meditation practice and meditation teaching. But while the Sacred Space is set apart from the main festival area, the Dharma parlour is an attempt to bring Dharma teaching and practice into its heart.

There was much appreciation of the organisation put in by Dhamavajra, Kavyasiddhi (who ably chaired the events in the Dharma Dome), Akasati, Kamalashila and others. Some commented that they had wanted to see something like this happen for several years, but that the Buddhafield team had their hands more than full in running the festival as a whole. Akasati and her team have brought Buddhist practice to the festival goers by mounting large rituals on a Buddhist theme that most people attended.

Events in the Dharma Parlour were well attended and those involved felt it had been a success, catering to the festival goers have an interest in Buddhism, or whose interest has been aroused by the festival. Over the years Buddhafield has attracted a growing number of Buddhists who practice in traditions beyond the FWBO, and the Dharma Parlour offered them a focus.

Images top to bottom: Vishapani, Christopher Titmus, Guhyapati, Kamalashila, Akuppa, Padmavajra, Kavyasiddhi, The Dharma Palour Audience, Sikka and Akasati, Night Ritual

Images byAkuppa and Lokabandhu
Text by Vishvapani

The FWBO in Hungary

Dharmapala Staff and Students on Retreat with Gypsies April 06.

Sinhagupta is Director of the Centre of Communication and Ethics in International Business (Anglia Ruskin University). Several years ago in Hungary she met Mireisz Laszlo, the head of the foundation that runs the Gate of Dharma College in Budapest. She has been in regular communication with him now for about 7 years, and was present at the opening of the Gate of Dharma stupa and new shrine room, which took place 4 years ago.

Founded in 1991, the Gate of Dharma College includes the following in its mission statement:

…convinced that Buddhist principles are not foreign to Hungarian and European spirituality, we aim at enriching Hungary’s culture.

Gate of Dharma presently has 260 regular students in four grades, with the opportunity to study the various Buddhist schools, and Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese, Tibetan and Japanese, related religious philosophy, western philosophy, and the oriental martial arts. So far more than 100 students have graduated. They may take up a monastic vocation, but the Buddhist Teacher Degree issued by the College also enables the graduates to work as primary school teachers, social workers and teachers of religion.

The College is accredited by the Hungarian Committee of Accreditation and, interestingly, is state-funded, as are all Hungarian institutes for religious education. As such, it is housed in an extensive building, has a library of 10,000 volumes, an up-to-date computer system, a 40-bed dormitory for students from the country, and is able to grant its students a stipend.

On the staff at Gate of Dharma College is Dr Tamas Agocs, who agreed to accompany Sinhagupta to UK to meet Subhuti and Bhante. Subhuti, then instituting the FWBO’s own Dharmapala College in Birmingham, was clearly interested.

When Tamas showed him a list of the various Hungarian Buddhist groups associated with the Gate of Dharma, Subhuti noticed a Romany (gypsy) group listed. Tamas told him they were ‘into Dr Ambedkar.’ How so? Apparently Tibor Derdak , a white Hungarian Buddhist working with the gypsies, had ‘found a book about Ambedkar in Paris and been inspired by it.’

Subhuti conducts the mitra ceremony for Aniku, sister of gypsy leader and mitra Janos Orsos

In June last year Subhuti visited the Gate of Dharma College and the southern village of Alsoszentmarton, where the Tiger Cub Grammar and Vocational Secondary School (for gypsies) is located. The school serves the people from five gypsy villages in this region. Only 1% of gypsies take the final exam at high school, in comparison with 70% of the general population. This school offers classes in Roma language and Buddhist studies, as well as the national curriculum. Here Subhuti connected with Tibor, and with gypsy leader Janos Orsos, and invited them to India last December. Both became FWBO mitras in India, and since then there have been 5 more gypsy mitra ceremonies.

Subhuti and five of Dharmapala College’s Dharmaduta students are sharing in their second retreat with the gypsies as I write this, as the interest in Ambedkarite Buddhism grows, along with the academic connections between the Birmingham and Budapest Colleges.

- story by Catherine Baker

Ordinations in Scotland

Twenty-eight women were ordained in Dunkeld, Scotland on the 30 July:

• Clare Barton-Harvey becomes AMITAJYOTI. She whose light is immeasurable/boundless.
• Dot McGahan becomes SURYAMATI (long "u"). She whose mind is like the sun.
• Gordana Avramovic becomes JNANESVARI (long first "a", "s" pronounced "sh"). Queen, "noble lady" of knowledge.
• Sue Ilsley becomes PRASADAMATI (long second and third "a"). She whose mind is bright, pellucid, kind and calm.
• Agnes Verbon becomes DAYAPADMA (long second "a" and long last "a"). Lotus of kindness.
• Maureen Brandon becomes MOKSAVAJRI ("s" pronounced as "sh", long "i"). Vajra of liberation.
• Fiona Jeffrey becomes Mokshalila (long "i", long last "a"). She whose play is liberation.
• Heather Fitzsimons becomes GUNAKARA (dot under the "n" and a long first and last "a"). She who is a mine of virtues or who scatters virtues.
• Chris Holdsworth becomes SUBHAGA. She who is well blessed.
• Robyn Smith becomes ARYAJAYA (long first "a", long last "a"). She of Noble Victory.
• Rosemary Bartlett becomes DHARMAVAJRI (long "i"). She who is a vajra with egard to the Dharma.
• Jo Coates becomes KSHANTIKA (both long a's). She who has patience, tolerance, spiritual receptivity.
• Elisabeth Lynn becomes ANANTAMANI (dot under the last "n"). One who has or is an infinite, boundless, eternal jewel.
• Barbara Trznadel becomes SUNETRI (long "i"). A good leader.
• Jenny Lam becomes SASSIRIKA (Pali) (long second "i", long last "a"). Glorious, shining, beautiful (through her contact with the Three Jewels).
• Rose King becomes SUVARNAMAITRI (dot under the "n", long "i"). She whose friendship is golden.
• Tere Valverde becomes SADDHAJOTI (Pali) (long second "a"). She having the light, the radiance of faith.
• Kathleen Winter becomes DHARMASHURI (long "u", long "i"). The heroine who embodies the path to Enlightenment.
• Jo Hughes becomes KAMALAGITA (long "i", long last "a"). The song of the red lotus.
• Martha Rios-Lopez becomes AKASAVAJRI (long first and second "a", long "i"). Vajra in the sky/in space.
• Maggie Fasse becomes AMARACITTA (long last "a"). She whose mind-heart is deathless.
• Laura Thomson becomes VANDIKA (Pali) (long first "a" ). She who worships or praises.
• Chandra Birenbaum becomes KARUNADAKINI (long 2nd and 3rd "a", long second "i", and first "n" and "d" have a dot underneath). Dakini of Compassion.
• Ginny Layton becomes SURYAMANI (long"u"). Sun-stone, sun-gem, (jewel of the sunlight).
• Cherry Collins becomes TARAGITA (all vowels long). Song of Tara.
• Sheila McIntosh becomes SATYAVAJRI (long "i"). She who is a diamond or thunderbolt of truth/reality.
• Cristyn Emmett becomes SHRADDHAMANI (long second "a", stress on the syllable "ma"). She having the gem of faith.
• Belinda Birch becomes SATYASHRI. She whose radiance is Truth.

Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!

A Connection with Dhardo Rinpoche? (part 5)

Tenzin, Dhardo Rimpoche III
photo by Viryabodhi

There is something very special, something very pure and auspicious about Dhardo Rinpoche’s connection with us. Rinpoche said he considered all of Sangharakshita’s disciple to be his own, and he said he always prayed for our spiritual success and for the success of our Dharma works.

There was a reason why Dhardo Rinpoche always prayed for us and considered us to be his disciples. That reason does seem to be Rinpoche’s intention, perhaps his prayer or vow to take the Dharma to new worlds, and his adoption of Sangharakshita as his means for realizing that end. These were both clearly in his mind at his first meeting with Bhante; Rinpoche tells us his first thoughts were "I cannot go to Europe and teach the Dharma, but I can teach this man, and he can…".

From the beginning, Rinpoche saw Bhante as the vehicle for fulfilling his wish to take the Dharma to the West. In a sense Bhante was Rinpoche’s Upaya, the means of expressing his wisdom and compassion. From the beginning, Rinpoche saw Bhante’s potential as a teacher. Rinpoche said that he could see that Bhante was capable of teaching - of successfully communicating - even the difficult Dharma instructions he had only just given him. This, Rinpoche said, was a very rare quality.

From the beginning, Rinpoche foresaw Sangharakshita’s return to the West and teaching – he seems to have planed it. From the beginning also, he foresaw us: Bhante’s disciples. Rinpoche always prayed for our spiritual success and for the success of our Dharma works. This is Dhardo Rinpoche’s connection with us - his prayer, his bodhichitta, his bodhisattva vow. Dhardo Rinpoche was a bodhisattva of a very advanced level. Every morning before he started to meditate, he took up to an hour checking and purifying his motivation; he would not begin his sadhana until certain that he was doing it for all beings. I think we can take him at his word when he says that he "always" prayed for our success. No doubt it was a sincere and powerful prayer; a bodhisattva’s prayer.

Rinpoche said he always prayed for us, and he was thinking about us right up until his death. Just before Dhardo Rinpoche died, he asked for a message to be given to Bhante; it was a last wish, a final prayer to his chief disciple – the man who made his compassion real. It was also a prayer both to us and for us. "Please", Rinpoche requested us, "would we ask Bhante to live a long life, and continue to teach." May all of us continue to fulfil prayers of that remarkable man, the bodhisattva from Dharsendo.

Submitted as part of an appeal – funds are required to help sponsor large tantric rituals that are part of the new Dhardo Tulku’s Geshe study program. Email justratna [at] yahoo.com (repace [a] with @)


Previous parts: 1 2 3 4

Karuna Trust Newsletter

This year's Karuna newsletter – currently winging its way to donors - allows children in India robbed of their past to tell their stories themselves.

At the heart of the publication are pictures taken by children and young people in Karuna-supported educational hostel projects. The photographers range in age from 8-16 and many had never held a camera before, let alone taken a photograph. These are children whose lives were destroyed by the tsunami in Tamil Nadu, Tibetan refugee children in Kalimpong and Dalit (oppressed) children in Pune. So often charities produce material from their own perspective; this approach allows us to see and hear children’s stories as directly as possible. We get a glimpse of their world that we might never get as outsiders.

Padmadhara (Pratap Rughani) is an award winning documentary film makers and photographer, and Manjusvara (David Keefe) is a published poet and creative writing teacher. Together they lead the children through how to work the cameras, and simple writing execises to add text to the images. "Free of pre-judging their shots as "good" or "bad", they respond directly to what interests and excites them to share". The experiment seemed to have an empowering effect for girls in particular. Usually they would defer to the boys, but camera in hand Vanadana (pictured left) "her whole demeanor suddenly changed and instead of merely being a passive observer, she started to assert herself and became much more confident".

There are some powerfully moving moments in this little booklet, like the story from Chennai. Padmadhara and Manjusvara were initially puzzled that all the children answered "no" when asked if they had photo's at home. "Puzzled at first, it suddenly dawned upon us that these kids had lost all their possessions in the mud water" - their name for the Tsunami which had devastated their homes.

The children in this newsletter have been the survivors of poverty, prejudice, war, and natural disasters, but as this books shows those events are not the whole story of their lives. They definitely need our help, especially in the form of donations to Karuna Trust, but as Padmadhara and Manjusvara say: "their potential is immediately apparent and their work shows a wealth of talent".

Look out for a copy at a centre near you.

International Convenor of the WBO

Subhuti


Mahamati

Subhuti announced on Wednesday that after nine year as Order Convenor, he was stepping aside; and that, after extensive consultation with the order, Dharmacari Mahamati had been appointed as the new International Order Convenor. There had been a "generally very positive response indeed to Mahamati's appointment, without a dissenting voice".

Subhuti said: "On behalf of [the team involved in the consultation process] I would like to thank everyone very much who sent their responses, comments and ideas, and who generously agreed to check our assessment of what was being said". Response to the consultation process, he said, "has been uniformly positive and helpful, even when raising doubts or questions, and some were very appreciative indeed."

Mahamati will be giving the keynote talk at the August Men's UK National Order Weekend, on the subject of "The Profound Inner meaning of Life in the Order" so it will be a good opportunity to hear what Mahamati's vision of life in the order is. (These kind of talks are most often recorded and made available via Dharmachakra.)

Dharmapala College Study Seminar

Saramati


Sagaramati

It's Not Too Late! Join the Dharmapala College European Study Seminar in a rural setting near the wonderful city of Berlin!

‘Pratitya-samutpada, Tathagatagarbha, and All That!’

- With Saramati and Sagaramati.

for Order members (and mitras by invitation - pleases contact us, details below)

Date: Sat 19 - Sat 26 August
Venue: Retreat Centre near Berlin
Cost: 210 / 245 / 280 Euros
To book contact: btberlin[at]fwbo.de (replace [at] with @)
Further info: info[at]dharmapalacollege.org (replace [at] with @)

T: +44 121 449 3700

Karuna Make a Million!

For the first time in its 25 year history Karuna has crossed the £1 million benchmark in donations to projects in India and Bangladesh. These projects help some of the most disadvantaged people across the Indian subcontinent to help themselves; Dalit people across plains India, indigenous people in the Himalaya and in Bangladesh, street children, Tibetan refugees and victims of natural disasters. The projects focus particularly upon education; the most effective means of enabling poor communities pull themselves out of poverty. And all this is largely due to the 7,000 or so individual supporters who donate to us on a regular basis, and to those hearty fundraisers who have braved the weather of inner and outer varieties to go out and knock on their doors. So a big thank you to all of those supporters or fundraisers.

Obituary.

FWBO News is sad to report that Shraddhavati died peacefully in her sleep just after 3 am Monday morning in Shrewsbury Hospital. Shubhavyuha said in an email to order members: "The nurses where with her. Her daughter arrived very shortly afterwards. Sanghadevi, Bodhaniya and Varabhadri arrived shortly after that and did a simple ceremony around her bedside".