Hope, Hippies and Magic Beans

Zara writes: In mid-June, Debbie, Ben and I made a trip to the Birmingham Buddhist Centre for a younger person's weekend on 'The New Society'. This was a deeply inspirational retreat for younger Sangha members led by the Triratna Development Team.

Ben, Debbie and Zara

In a way, the concept of a new society in the movement is not really 'new' at all. It springs from the bedrock of the FWBO vision in the 1960's, a vision of a more ethical society, built on the Dharmic principles of right livelihood, community living and social change. The retreat was bursting with an infectious energy; a buzz of anticipation which must have been felt in the early days by 'that bunch of hippies led by Sangharakshita', as one order member described it.

The weekend hosted many inspirational talks, including a pitch from the founder of the Llama's Pyjamas charity shop in Bethnal Green, which has made a £19,000 profit in its first year. An order member from South India talked about his experiences as a Karuna fundraiser. Now living in Cambridge, he was a child when the Ambedkar movement swept his village and led his family and thousands like them to convert to Buddhism.

Other talks drew on forming communities and the strong practice of living Dharmically together. A GFR Mitra, fresh from six months of study at Madhyamaloka described the fruits of intensive practice and our very own Ben Niblock shared his feelings about teaching the Dharma. Retreatants were later invited to pitch their own ideas, amongst which were peaceful environmental action, street meditation, Buddhism and the arts and Buddhism in nature. Others included building a yurt community and bringing meditation to socially excluded groups.

By the end of the retreat, I felt stirred by the sense of possibility which had formed from the free expression of shared hopes, intentions and a rather shamanic Padmasambhava puja! In his talk, Ben described a sense of having some 'magic beans' which I think summed up the weekend for many of us.

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The Peace of Wild Things

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Dayaka writes: The Buddhafield North weekend retreats went off very well with the sun shining on both! 

The Men's weekend focused on the image of the Buddha touching the earth at the moment of Enlightenment, something especially easy to connect with when in a breezy field on Addingham Moorside, near Ilkley. 

The Women's weekend attracted a record number of people and dealt with keeping the experience of meditation real.

The next BFN retreat is the Open Retreat which will run from 25 - 30 August and is called: Vajra Body, Vajra Speech, Vajra Mind: Ethics as the Path to Freedom

It will be led by Padmadarshini, Tejapushpa, Dayavajra and Dayaka.  This year we will be using the image of the vajra which usually is translated from Sanskrit as diamond or thunderbolt.  It is associated with cutting through the things that bind us and cause suffering.  Using meditation, body awareness and ritual we will be turning both inwards towards our immediate experience and connecting outwards to the natural world.  

For further information about the Buddhafield North Open Retreat please contact Tejapushpa on  01978 862944 or Dayaka on 01924 270365  

Or go to: www.buddhafieldnorth.org.uk

Making a connection with nature - Buddhafield North Men's Retreat