Chair’s Letter – March 2026
Thinking of you all and wishing you joy this spring, inner and outer. This is my 2nd presentation from the Vision Day in January.
Using the image of this imaginary tree I am going to share how our Mythic vision for the next few years could manifest. The tree has roots reaching into the depths and branches into the sky. The roots represent the deepening of our Dharma practice, through meditation, ethical practice, study & reflection, making and deepening spiritual friendships, appreciation and engaging in the Arts and beauty.
The blue roots represent many of the things we do to deepen our Going for Refuge to the Buddha Dharma and Sangha. We do this to benefit beings. They go hand in hand. In order to truly benefit others we need to deepen our practice so that we can reach out with compassionate yellow branches into the world. We have many activities that help spread the teachings of the Buddha. We have a widening range of classes that we offer at both introductory and more experienced levels, weekly and monthly classes, day and weekend retreats and regular events for young people. We reach out further through our outdoor meditations, in the park, on the beach and now in town. The Happiness Roadshow takes off this year, 4 weeks in Hadleigh and Felixstowe. We have Sangha members doing school visits, offering the Dharma in prisons, and we have a people of colour group. Community action reaches out with support to charities and there is an annual litter pick during Buddhist Action month. The list is growing.
In the middle of the imaginary tree we have the trunk where the energy is intensified. It represents our collective practice. It could be on the cushion in the form of collective meditation and puja but I am mainly thinking of our practice where we come together in groups and deepen our connection with other Sangha members. It could be chapters, GFR groups, study groups, Class or retreat teams, work or action kulas, Trustees meetings and Order and Order/Mitra meetings.
The trunk represents the path of responsibility spiritually and practically. Mahamati, the Chair of the college of Public Preceptors, when addressing European Chairs recently and asked, ‘How can we find new ways to support collective practice?’ The Centre Kula team have initiated an example of this. In recent months they have set up afternoons that are about Sangha building through maintaining and beautifying the Centre. They provide lunch and then they get down to work. The atmosphere is so alive and harmonious. There are those who are willing to initiate and lead and make something happen, and it is inclusive of any Sangha member who wants to help out, give back and share their skills. It is also a way for someone very new to make connections and contribute.
When I came along to Triratna at the London Buddhist Centre, there were many Team-based Right-livelihoods (TBRL) and residential communities where you could work and/or live together with fellow Buddhists. This could happen in Ipswich in the not too distant future. But we also have many opportunities now to deepen collective practice. The way our Sangha is structured lends itself to all pitching in, we are all volunteers, we can work as a tribe. If you have a skill there will be a space for you to share it, if you want to take more responsibility you will be encouraged. We all receive so much from being part of the Spiritual Community. ‘We give what is can, take what we need’.
When I worked in TBRL in the Evolution shop connected to the LBC in the 1990s for a number of years I was the shop representative who went to headquarters in Cambridge for regular training days. I remember the image of the stone tumbler being used. As we worked in the shop, made friends and rubbed up against one another we turned from rough edged beings into shiny new beings. Our unhelpful habits got worn away as we learnt to cooperate with our fellow team members. As we pitch in, bringing our energies on board, we can transform through intensified communication with others and our shared values. Some of the Work as Practice days in Cambridge were led by Ruchiraketu. 30 years later I have invited him to Ipswich to lead a day for us. It is open to all the Sangha and is called, ‘Working together, The Path of Integration’. Commit to come on 22nd March, ‘Do not keep too many options open, freedom is found in commitment’.
The Year of Akshobhya will be a year of deepening practice and at the heart of it will be deepening our collective practice. From their our branches will continue to spread and flourish in the Year of Ratnasambhava. Later this year we are hoping to offer Training in Fundraising, and the fruits of that abundance will mature in the Yellow Buddha Year. Maybe we will find a new property to enlarge the Centre. Maybe it will include of TBRL or a community where some could intensify their practice through working or living together.
All this is surrounded in an pale red aura of Amitabha’s love and compassion which will be the focus of Year 3. Then the green aura of Amogghasiddhi, spontaneous compassionate activity in Year 4. The trunk of the tree is symbolically made up of all 4 colours.
To add to this vision there is an International Theme for Triratna world wide for 2026. It is a series of talks that Sangharakshita gave in September & October 1976, 50 years ago this autumn. They were 4 talks given in Brighton based on Bhante’s poem The 4 Gifts. They fit the Mythic tree.
They are, ‘A Method of Personal Development,’ in which Bhante explores the development of progressively higher states of consciousness. The ‘gift’ is a lotus-flower. Do you recognise it?
Then comes, ‘A Vision of Human Existence’, the truth of change and the universal law of conditionality. It is expressed through the wheel that embraces the whole of conditioned existence and the Spiral Path reaching Buddhahood. The ‘gift is the golden net. Do you understand?
Then there is, ‘The Nucleus of the New Society’, the tree trunk, the Order, Mitras and Friends communicating at ever deeper levels and working together. The gift is a shepherds’ round-dance. Do your feet know how to dance?
The final talk is, The Blueprint for a New World’. The gift is a garden planted in a wilderness. Here I see a number of the Sangha meditating on Cornhill with the general public on June 20th, a new garden. Could you work there?
In the Year of Akshobhya our focus will be on deepening and grounding our practice individually and collectively. The qualities of Akshobhya’s will be drawn out in our classes and events and especially in our Sangha retreat in April. I hope you can join Prajnakara and I and our dynamic team, Mary-Jane, Adam Smith, Otja and Paul Jenkins and others.
with metta Shubha
