Chairs Homily July 2025
You may not know this about me, but I have an interest in old buses. Especially the iconic red Route-Master London buses that used to be a big part of the London street scene. They were not the most comfortable or reliable form of transport but they did have a beauty about them as they glided around the capital. This morning they appeared in my meditation! They appeared as a symbol for the meeting I am currently attending at Adhisthana. The meeting, or Assembly as we call it in this instance, is for all the European Chairs of Triratna Buddhist Centres. One could imagine a bright red bus, the colour of the Sangha Jewel, as representing a Triratna Centre. Picking up people and helping them complete their spiritual journeys. Maybe even with the Chair as the driver trying to keep to the route as set-out by our founder, Urgyen Sangharakshita. Each bus is a little bright beacon offering a more rewarding way of life, a nucleus for a new way to operate as a society.
The conductor or conductors could be the Order Members, helping us onto the Bus, and looking after us as we travel together and helping us off the bus when our journey takes us elsewhere. But always ready to welcome the weary travellers back on again for their next part of the trip. These red buses can also be seen as a moving symbol for the three lakshanas, as they reveal their dependence upon conditions. If you have travelled on one of these buses you will know that they can be uncomfortable, the springs are closer to those on a horse drawn cart, than a modern car and the seats are rudimentary at best. They would often breakdown, the roads they travelled on were invariably closed or congested. They would rattle and shake and give a good impression of insubstantiality, with the strong possibility of falling apart at any moment. Once, not that long ago, they were ubiquitous, but now we realise their impermanence as they have all but disappeared from the London streets.
That all might seem a rather negative view, but when a bus did come along, as you waited at a bus stop, they immediately elevated one’s mental position. What you had been seeking or waiting for had now arrived and was going to offer you a brief place of refuge. The conductor was always cheery, maybe remembering you from previous journeys. Waiting until you had safely settled before ringing the bell for the shared journey to resume. Often a shout of “Hold tight please”, as the journey of a life-time began. The bus often threw you around as it lurched over the bumps in the road. But looking out of the windows, sometimes from the elevated view from the top deck, you started to see life differently. Looking down into parks and private gardens, little oases of beauty unnoticed at street level. For those that are young enough to have only experienced modern comfortable buses you could visit the Ipswich Transport Museum to get a sense of what I am alluding to.
There is also a lovely Japanese animation (My Neighbour Totoro) that has a ‘Night Bus’ that plays to a similar mystical symbolism emerging from the natural world around us, if we have eyes to see it. The human imagination is a wonderful thing. The fact that I can create a symbol, that appears unrelated to the topic is one of the ways that we come to understand the world in which we live. Our imaginations can take the experiences we currently have stored away, and transform them into an image or symbol that goes beyond our normal conceptual way of using our minds. This can often happen during our meditation when our minds open up, unlimited by our usual conceptual thought constructs. This can be how art and beauty come into our experience, and we start to see that the world is full of light and joy. Even the most mundane of objects takes on a very different role, than originally assigned by our five skandhas, forcing us to look again at all that is around us.
At Breakfast, I was explaining the red bus image to my dining companion, and they mentioned the ‘hackneyed’ phrase, “you wait for ages for one London bus and then three come at once”. And happily we can apply a similar sentiment to the situation we find ourselves in. We now have three women who have been asked to join an ordination course. In chronological order: this September Lisa Haste is going to our women’s ordination retreat centre in Spain for her ordination. Then, a month later in October Sue Double will have her ordination at Tiratnaloka. And in April 2026 Ruth Cheesley will head to Spain for the three month retreat. Each of these women have been individually and collectively working hard to get to the stage where they are deemed ready for ordination.
A big Sadhu to each of them.
Those who have asked for ordination will know that our individual paths to ordination can vary significantly, both in what we have to do and how long it takes. Sometimes the bus goes fast and sometimes quite slow. Like those London Buses it is difficult to predict when they are going to arrive, but with patience and effort that day will occur. It is wonderful that we seem to be having ordinations in threes. Last year it was the turn of the men, and those three new Dharmachari’s are making their presence felt as their effective Going For Refuge permeates into the Ipswich Buddhist Centre and Sangha. I am sure it will be the same in a few months time when the new Dharmacharini’s return from their respective ordination courses, proudly wearing their new kesas.
We have a full month of activities at the Ipswich Buddhist Centre. We have our Dharma Day festival, where we celebrate the teachings of the Buddha. Come along and maybe you will hear some more about the five Skandhas and other meaningful and life changing ideas that the Buddha taught.
See you all soon
Bodhivamsa
