Why I call myself a Buddhist

Mandy Sutter talks about becoming a Mitra

When I became a Mitra (friend) of the Triratna Buddhist Community in January, I was surprised by the surprise of my non-Buddhist friends.  They seemed aggrieved. This was the general message: 

'We know you've benefited from meditation, and going on silent retreats. Although that's not our idea of a holiday, we're pleased for you. But why spoil everything by espousing a weird Eastern religion? Can't you keep it secular? And if you have to be religious (though God knows why) can't you stick to your own? Ok, maybe not the Church. But what's wrong with the Quakers? They sit in silence and meditate, don't they?'

Fair enough questions. And I tried to answer them. I talked about the value of meditation, the common sense of the precepts. I talked about enjoying chanting, and finding ritual moving.

This was all true. But my explanation, even as I gave it, struck me as just so much hot air. After a lot of apologetic shrugs at dinner tables and in cafes, I realised that my decision to become a Mitra hadn't been 'thought through' at all. In fact I wasn't even sure it was a decision.

So what was it?

I come closer to the truth when I say that all my experiences within the Triratna Buddhist Community added up and reached a tipping point. I suddenly felt 'at home' with it all.

By experiences, I mean acts of kindness I've felt and witnessed. I mean the teachings of Order Members and the warmth or sometimes lacerating sharpness with which those teachings are delivered. I mean stuff I read in Buddhist books that speaks directly to personal problems I didn't realise anyone else had. I mean the intimacy of joined voices reciting the seven-fold puja (one of the core rituals in the Triratna Buddhist Community) and the hypnotic beauty of the Heart Sutra, the poem at its core. I mean the pregnant sense of strangeness and mystery that often suffuses me when I sit in silence with myself or with others, at home, at Leeds Buddhist Centre, or on early morning meditations on retreat where you enter the shrine room in the dark, meditate while dawn gathers, and step out utterly and completely in the day.

I can no more justify or quantify this than I can tell you why somebody falls in love with one person - perhaps a person from a different background - and not another. My Mitra ceremony felt like a kind of marriage. Most marriages go through rocky patches, I know. I'm going through one even as I write this, not having meditated for a fortnight. But Buddhist practice gives me a home to come back to, a structure to see my struggles in the context of. That's why I was happy to say 'I do.' 

This article has also appeared on the Wildmind blog as well, where there are some interesting comments - and responses from Mandy. You can read them here

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Uddyotani is moving house next year 

but not in quite the usual way...

Over the last year or so I've become involved in a new project - becoming part of a community of people building 20 houses and flats to high ecological standards from straw bale and timber in West Leeds. We want to find ways of making an impact on climate change, both in how we live in our own homes, and as part of a bigger movement of people who are serious about moving to a more sustainable lifestyle.

Until now, most of my response to climate change and protecting the environment has been small individual steps - things like recycling, growing my own food, using public transport, not flying. Getting involved in LILAC is a positive step, about making change happen and challenging our collective sense of helplessness. From a Buddhist perspective it's about challenging a fixed self view and about really appreciating conditionality -that actions have consequences and that what we do today has an effect on the future - on ourselves and on other people.

The LILAC ecovillage is a co-housing project aiming to build energy-efficient houses with a low carbon footprint, to respond to the challenge of climate change and to show how this can be done in a way that is possible and affordable for ordinary people. We are set up on a co-operative model; the community will be planned, owned and run by the members living there. Co-housing means living with a sense of community - living in our own homes within the village but with a shared common house where we can eat together, meet as a community, share resources. The name 'LILAC' is an acronym, from the project's aim to be a 'low impact living, affordable community'. The members so far are mixed, with different ages, backgrounds, interests but with a shared willingness to explore a simpler, more sustainable lifestyle.

For me, it's an experiment in ethical living. It would be great to live in a Buddhist community which is supportive of shared spiritual values and aspirations. For some of us it's not so simple; I'm moving with my partner Laura who is supportive of my Buddhist practice but doesn't share it. What we do have in common is a wish to live ethically without harming others, to explore the challenges of community living, and to make a contribution to the wider community.

If you are interested in LILAC you can find out more at www.lilac.coop. We have planning permission granted for our chosen site in Bramley and if all goes as planned we'll be on site this summer, with homes completed by 2012. We are still looking for members and there are a few houses and flats not yet allocated; we also have loanstock to offer for anyone looking for an ethical investment opportunity.

One thing you can do to help LILAC fulfil its aims is to help us get some money from the Energyshare fund, which we can use to pay for solar power (photovoltaic and thermal) for the ecovillage. To do this, follow the link to www.energyshare.com/lilac  and then click on the red 'support this group' button (you will have to register first). If lots of people like our project, we might be successful and gain some funding!

We don't stop playing because we grow old...

...We grow old because we stop playing"