Dear Ipswich Sangha
I have recently returned from the Uk and Ireland Order Convention where 600 Order members gathered in Norfolk. It’s title was, ‘Unwrapping the Four Gifts’, which is the International theme for Triratna this year. Sangharakshita presented the Four Gifts in the form of a poem, (see below), and four talks given in 1976, 50 years ago. They make up the book, Buddhism for Today and Tomorrow. They are:
- A Method of Personal Development / the Lotus Flower
- A Vision of Human Existence / the Golden Net
- A Nucleus of the New Society / A shepherd’s Round Dance
- A Blueprint for a New World / Garden in the Wilderness
We had a wonderful program of talks, study/discussion groups, meditation and ritual and time to meet with friends.
From my notes, here are a few things that struck me.
- Personal development arises from an existential hunger for growth, an appetite for something to change.
- The Buddha’s core teaching – Dependent arising, is like a golden net, with delicate interweaving strands and plenty of space, as opposed to the knotted tangle of string of conformity, speculative views and cyclic existence.
- Sangharakshita dreamed the Order, the Nucleus of the New society, into being. Creating the Order was the principal work of his life. A pivotal moment was taking the Bodhisattva Ordination from Dhardo Rimpoche in which one of the precepts says, ‘It is a bad thing not to form a spiritual community. 50 years since the talk there are around 3,000 Order members worldwide. He succeeded.
- A blueprint for a new world is the regeneration of human culture/rebirth: something new and refreshing coming into the world. I went to a workshop on ‘Building the Buddhaland’, which was about creating a culture of teamwork and experimentation which I hope to share in some form within our Sangha. To accept the gifts is to give the gifts. Where are the limits on what you are willing to give?
Four Gifts
I come to you with four gifts.
The first gift is a lotus-flower.
Do you understand?
My second gift is a golden net.
Can you recognize it?
My third gift is a shepherds’ round-dance.
Do your feet know how to dance?
My fourth gift is a garden planted in a wilderness.
Could you work there?
I come to you with four gifts.
Dare you accept them?
At the beginning of the year, along with the International theme, we launched the Year of Akshobhya, the blue Wisdom Buddha with the Earth-touching gesture of supreme confidence and unshakability. I have continued to work personally with confidence and a new area of practice arose, that of integrating masculine and feminine spiritual qualities. When I was ordained, I took up the meditation practice on Akshobhya, but about 6 years later I went on an Order Five Female Buddhas retreat led by Vessantara, during which he introduced their meditation practices. On coming home, I took up the practice of the female Buddha Locana. She is the blue wisdom Buddha who holds the Vajra-bell to her heart. She is the ‘One with the eye’, who is the Mirror-Like wisdom. She contemplates the Bell with an open Dharma eye. The male and female Buddhas together form a perfect balance of compassion and wisdom. The vajra is a thunderbolt of truth and metta, while the vault of the bell opens to the spaciousness of the void. It is like allowing for focus and breadth in meditation, directed energy along with relaxation and openness to whatever arises.
I started chanting the Akshobhya and Locana mantras alternately which had a strong effect. Questions arose like why are the Wisdom Buddhas the antidote to hatred? Ideas of sharing some of my experience came forth so I decided to lead a Day retreat at the centre on the vajra and bell on 25th October to deepen the ‘Wisdom Year of Akshobhya’.
Vajra and Bell perfectly balanced: Equanimity the antidote to ill-will and aversion.
Come and let’s go into the realm of the Blue Wisdom Buddhas.
with metta
Shubha
When through intense aggression I wander in samsara,
On the luminous light-path of the mirror-like wisdom
May the Blessed Aksobhya go before me
His consort Buddha-Locana behind me;
Help me cross the bardo’s dangerous pathway
And bring me to that perfect Buddha state
