4th international council meeting
Adhisthana 2016The summary below includes the priorities going forward for the International Council over the next year or two: what each of the strands is taking forward, and what the Council as a whole has set as priorities. These include a response to diversity and access, a review of the system of training, and support for kalyana mitrata where there is disharmony.
In addition to the coming together of College, Order and movement from across the world, one of the highlights of the meeting was the unanimous blessing of the What is a Triratna Centre document.
A quick introductory chat and précis with Viveka from San Francisco, U.S.A., about the themes of the event as people start to arrive from around the world…
Summary of Day 2
Today was devoted to looking at our relationship with a suffering world and how we might meet its needs as a community.
The morning saw short but heartfelt talks from
• Akuppa (UK), on climate change and the effect it is already having, including its relationship to refugee crises;
• Viveka (North America), on moving towards greater ethnic diversity in Triratna;
• Yashosagar (India), on combatting poverty and discrimination, looking at the teachings of Dr Ambedkar.
All three speakers talked about mindfulness and love as the means of transformation of self and world. Akuppa left us with a set of deep questions to consider and Viveka’s talk in particular stirred some great urgency of feeling.
In the afternoon we heard reports from
- Jnanadhara (Ireland), on Dublin’s COP21 march on Sangha Day;
- Viveka (North America), on the work Triratna’s San Francisco sangha have done to develop ethnic diversity awareness;
- Vajrajyoti on Buddhist recovery work in New Zealand;
- Prajnaketu (UK), on the growth of Triratna’s young sangha over the last few years;
- Parami (UK), on the recent strong growth of Triratna’s ‘gender diverse’ sangha.
In questions and answers, and in pair work, we explored our responses.
