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The world today is very different from that in which Buddhism originated and flourished over the millenia. Buddhists now practise and teach the Dharma in an age of urbanisation, globalisation, mass communication, and rapid technological change. The challenge we face today is to find ways of communicating and practising the Dharma that are truly effective in these new circumstances. What is needed, in effect, is a renewal of Buddhism. The Triratna Buddhist Community was founded by Urgyen Sangharakshita, in London in 1967, as a response to this challenge. This booklet is an outline of the main principles upon which that new Buddhist movement was initiated and which have continued to animate it ever since. These constitute principles of renewal that may be of wider interest to all our Buddhist sisters and brothers everywhere who are working to bring the Dharma into the heart of the modern world.
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There are over 600 New Religious Movements (NRMs) in Great Britain alone, and more than 2000 in the United States. A Reader in New Religious Movements provides an introduction to the main teachings of a selection of these organizations, focusing on those that are well established in the West. The contemporary—and in some cases controversial—NRMs covered include the Unification Church, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, the Family, Osho, Soka Gakkai International and the Western Buddhist Order.
This innovative volume brings together the views of leading scholars on a range of controversial subjects including human rights, animal rights, ecology, abortion, euthanasia, and contemporary business practice.
In our multicultural society, faiths formerly seen as exotic have become attractive alternatives for many people seeking more satisfying spiritual lives. This is especially true of Buddhism, which is the focus of constant media attention--thanks at least in part to celebrity converts, major motion pictures, and the popularity of the Dalai Lama. Following this recent trend in the West, author James Coleman argues that a new and radically different form of this ancient faith is emerging. The New Buddhism sheds new light on this recent evolution of Buddhist practice in the West. After briefly recounting the beginnings and spread of Buddhism in the East, Coleman chronicles its reinterpretation b...
Londoner Dennis Lingwood realized at the age of 16 that he was a Buddhist. Conscripted during World War II, he went on Army service to India, where he stayed on to become a Buddhist monk with the name Sangharakshita. As hippies flocked eastward in the Sixties, he returned to England to establish the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order.
For over a decade, Jeremy Rinker, Ph.D. has interacted, observed, and studied Dalit anti-caste social movements in India. In this critical comparative approach to India’s modern anti-caste resistance, Dr. Rinker emphasizes the complex interdependence between narrative practices and social transformation in understanding the centuries old caste basis of India’s most fundamental of social conflicts. Through the comparative case study of three modern social movement organizations, this book provides a fresh lens to both better understand and potentially transform caste marginalization and oppression. Through theoretical analysis, auto-ethnographic field notes, and narrative storytelling, Dr...
What does it mean to be a Buddhist today? How are we to relate to the diverse forms that have come down to us? Sangharakshita is one of the modern world's most influential and respected Buddhists. After spending many years in the East, he returned to Britain in 1967 to establish an international Buddhist movement and has developed a broad approach to Buddhism that is at once thoroughly traditional and radically original. This unique introduction provides a summary of his contribution not only to Buddhism in the West, but internationally
'It's not our bank balance, looks, social status or popularity that determines how happy, free and fulfilled we are in life. Finally, what really counts is our state of mind. Subhuti helps us to identify what's going on in our mind, and see clearly what's helpful and what will end in tears.' Vessantara. 'This is a refreshing approach to the classical Abhidharma material, relentlessly experiential and eminently practical.' Andrew Olendzki
How embracing untranslatable terms for well-being—from the Finnish sisu to the Yiddish mensch—can enrich our emotional understanding and experience. Western psychology is rooted in the philosophies and epistemologies of Western culture. But what of concepts and insights from outside this frame of reference? Certain terms not easily translatable into English—for example, nirvāṇa (from Sanskrit), or agápē (from Classical Greek), or turangawaewae (from Māori)—are rich with meaning but largely unavailable to English-speaking students and seekers of wellbeing. In this book, Tim Lomas argues that engaging with “untranslatable” terms related to well-being can enrich not only our u...