New Indian websites from TBMSG

According to a recent estimate, FWBO and TBMSG centres and individuals worldwide are responsible for nearly 350 different websites. Amazing – but that total is only going to grow. Despite that, TBMSG, the Indian ‘wing’ of our movement, who run a multiplicity of Dhamma and social projects all across India, have been relatively invisible in cyber-space. That is changing with three recent launches of Indian-designed and operated TBMSG websites. All three are for projects currently being funded by the FWBO's Karuna Trust in the UK, but all are looking to develop their international presence and open up other funding relationships: these websites should play a significant role in that.

BH Amaravati, at www.bahujanhitaya.org is perhaps the smallest project of the three, but with (dare we say it) the smartest website. They are a dynamic team based in Amaravati, a town some 150km west of Nagpur in the central Maharastra. Besides their Dhamma activities, they operate a hostel enabling boys from poor rural families to access proper education; 'Sukhavati’, their Women and Children's Empowerment programme, a slum Education Development Project, and the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Youth and Social Center.

The parent trust, BH Trust, based in Pune, has also launched its own website, www.bhtrust.org, where they describe the many social programs they are responsible for - hostels for children, a Child Development Centre, after-school classes and libraries, HIV/AIDS awareness programs, a de-addiction centre, community, sports & cultural activities, and more recently, work with Tribal people who are in many ways even more disenfranchised than the ‘Scheduled Castes’ who make up the bulk of India’s Buddhists. The site contains introductions to their work, an extensive photo library, and – most importantly – details on how to make donations directly to them via Paypal.

Lastly, the Aryatara Mahila Trust, a TBMSG women’s project, also based in Pune, have a new and very beautiful website at www.indiansisters.org. If the difficulties of reviving Buddhism in India are great, those faced by Indian women are even greater. As they say, “Because of poverty and very challenging past conditioning which reinforced feelings of inferiority, many women who have converted to Buddhism face personal and social difficulties - lack of confidence, low self-esteem, inability to take initiative. Through the Arya Tara Mahila Trust, we are building on 25 years of experience of humanitarian work to alleviate poverty in the social, medical, educational and economic fields for women and their families. Also, currently, nearly 50 women members of our orde, along with several hundred other actively involved women, are engaged in teaching and supporting meditation and Buddhist study in many parts of India”.

They’re asking for financial support; they say “To help us to support a child in a hostel for one month costs 800 Indian Rupees (US$18); a three-month course in basic computer skills for a woman or child from the slums costs 1400 Indian Rs (US$32); and the monthly payment of one health worker costs 5000 Indian Rs (US$112)”. Contact them on atmt@vsnl.net if you’d like to get involved.

You can find a map of all TBMSG groups in India (and there are many!) on the FWBO Photos website here

Dharma Marathons on April 13th

In just two week's time, Tim Segaller and Simon Okotie from the London Buddhist Centre will be running the London Marathon to raise funds for the LBC’s Breathing Space project and for the mental health charity Mind.

“I decided a couple of years ago while I was on solitary retreat that I wanted to run a marathon before I was 40.” Simon (who is treasurer of the LBC) said. “I didn’t realise quite what a commitment it is!” This year is the ideal opportunity with all the fundraising going on at the LBC. “As well as creating Breathing Space – a health and well-being centre in the basement of the LBC – the building project will make the centre accessible for people in wheelchairs, provide an expanded reception room / bookshop and kitchenettes, make the community on the top three floors of the building habitable again, provide central heating to both communities above the Centre for the first time, provide a new office for the LBC team…the list goes on.” In short, it will transform the LBC, hopefully in time for its 30th anniversary at the end of 2008.

“I feel particularly inspired by the Breathing Space project,” says Tim. “This project is already making a real difference to people’s lives, whether they are carers in the local area of East London, which is one of the poorest in the country, people who have suffered from depression or those coping with chronic pain. The new space will allow us to do so much more.”

Please support Tim and Simon
You can sponsor them securely and speedily on-line at www.justgiving.com/simonandtim. There will be a prize draw for all sponsors and you could win tickets to a premiere at the Royal Opera House, tickets to the forthcoming Hadrian exhibition at the British Museum (kindly donated by Padmadhara), an organic food hamper and other prizes! Please also cheer them along on the day, 13 April, if you can. Check out Simon’s marathon blog www.writerunner.wordpress.com in the coming weeks for fundraising and training updates and for news about the race.

Padmaloka's Twenty Four Hour Garland of Mantras

Padmaloka, the FWBO’s retreat centre and home of the men’s Ordination Team, has long been known as the home of a series of wonderful paintings by Aloka, the FWBO’s most prolific and much-loved artist. Over a lifetime of painting, he has pioneered a unique fusion of Buddhist iconography and Western artistic styles, yet his health is not good and he knows his time left for painting is limited.
Last year Padmaloka began commissioning Aloka to produce a series of large paintings to fill their shrine room with images of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas – adding to the three already there. In order to do this they are aiming to raise around £10,000 per year for the next few years.

All men involved with the FWBO are therefore invited to join the Padmaloka community for a unique weekend fundraising event - the Twenty Four Hour Garland of Mantras. This will take place over the UK’s August bank holiday weekend, ie 29 Aug - 31 Aug 2008.

The weekend will begin with a talk by Padmavajra, after which the core of the event will consist of an intensive 24-hour period of mantra chanting. During this those present will alternate between chanting, meditating, sleeping, eating etc. Samudradaka, Padmaloka’s Chairman, says “This will be a fantastic opportunity to deeply immerse yourself in the mysterious world of mantra and help call forth the paintings yet to come!”

He goes on to add, “When booking for this event you will receive a sponsorship form. The challenge then is to find people to sponsor you to take part in the 24-hour mantra chant. If you are able to raise at least £108 worth of sponsorship before coming you can attend the weekend for free. Otherwise Padmaloka will ask for their usual weekend rate”.

The weekend is open to all men – but numbers are limited to 108!

To book please contact Padmaloka in the usual way. If you'd like to donate directly, please go direct to the Padmaloka appeal.

Karuna's success with new fundraising initiatives

The FWBO’s Karuna Trust has teamed up with Global Giving, at www.globalgiving.com, a US-based website which describes itself as an ‘eBay for international development’, and is in fact run by the former ‘eBay for Charity’ chief Sharath Jeevan.

Visitors to the site can choose to donate to a list of grassroots projects, some run by local NGOs and some by larger development charities: Karuna have already raised US $7,000 from the scheme for two projects. A UK-based Global Giving website will be launching in Spring 2008.

One of Karuna’s Global Giving projects is helping Dalit 'low-caste' village women combat exploitation; a second aims focuses upon stopping Child-Labour in workhouses where the children are forced to make cheap 'bidis' (the local word for cigarettes). Both provide direct assistance to Karuna’s main partner community in India, the Dalits. Click either link for more information or to donate.

One of the features of the Globalgiving approach is that it enables supporters to direct money to a specific project that they can then follow, as donors get emailed updates on the project at regular intervals.

Globalgiving is part of a wider strategy at Karuna of broadening out their search for funds; over the past five years they have rapidly expanded the number of partner organisations in India (see previous FWBO News report on the 2007 Karuna partners conference in India) while at the same time, it has been harder to find volunteers for door-to-door fundraising even as that approach has itself become increasingly competitive in the UK. This has put Karuna’s finances under some strain, especially as most fundraising these days brings in what is known as ‘restricted income’, ie income that can only be used for one specific project.

Karuna were therefore delighted with their recent ‘upgrade mailout’, an appeal to most of their 5,000 regular donors in the UK to consider increasing their regular donations; this resulted in no less than UK £35,000/year additional income, almost all of which will be used to benefit TBMSG projects in India – these have traditionally been funded from Karuna’s door-knocking appeals ie ‘unrestricted income’.

Many of the TBMSG Trusts in India are currently shifting onto ‘project-based financing’, which will open the doors for them to raise funds in many more arenas – we hope to bring more news of this soon.

Karuna still have some vacancies for their appeals in 2008, please check the Karuna Appeals website or their Appeals blog for some first-hand accounts by volunteers on past appeals. They offer a generous support package and full training. You can also contact them direct on +44(0)207 700 3434 or email the Karuna Appeals Team for more information

Green Tara Trust wins funding for major social project in Nepal

The FWBO's Karuna Trust have succeeded in fundraising a donation of £32,819 for a project in rural Nepal run by Dharmacharini Karunamati. Her Green Tara Trust exists to help mothers, infants and young people in a region recently ravaged by civil war and where health conditions are amongst the worst in the world.

The project will be tackling some of the effects of the civil war - poverty, poor access to (and destruction of) health facilities, the death toll (over 13,000 lives have been lost since 1996) and the flight of medical professionals – all of which have contributed to high maternal and infant mortality, plus high incidences of sexual violence, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. There are now only 5 doctors for 100,000 people, compared to 216 in the UK. You can read more about some of the background and Green Tara’s involvement here.

The project itself provides a long-term community-based response to the rural health crisis; educating and helping people to help themselves. In particular it aims to improve maternal and infant health and decrease mortality, and to improve young people’s sexual health. It also encourages support and understanding for women and young people in a very patriarchal and hierarchal society, advocating changes to the health system, both locally and nationally, through links with the Nepali government and universities.

More specifically, the project will educate mothers about maternal and child health through group training, a mentoring system, and through providing clean delivery kits and post-natal checks. It will provide sexual health education to young people and encourage behaviour change through setting up peer-led groups and media campaigns. It will train health staff and local volunteers and guide and support the community in advocacy and also work with local GPs, government officials and local NGOs to improve health services and re-write the national health education curriculum. In total it is estimated that the project will directly benefit 5,500 people, predominantly women and teenagers, and indirectly over 100,000 people.

FWBO Fundraisers Kula created

Saturday saw eighteen people from across the UK gather in Birmingham for the first meeting of what will become the FWBO Fundraisers Kula. Many are already involved in FWBO fundraising and others have plans to do so. Planned projects included new premises for the Leeds Buddhist Centre, a schools outreach project in Norwich, the development of the Theatre attached to the Cambridge Buddhist Centre, the creation of a major land-based community by Buddhafield, and a proposed FWBO-wide Legacies appeal – watch this space! Besides introductions, the day included an intensive training offered by Samayasri, an Order Member who is also a professional fundraiser with WSPA, the World Society for the Protection of Animals , plus a ‘surgery’ where people presented their real-life issues and dilemmas around fundraising – many, not surprisingly, being around the area of ‘how do we fundraise as a Buddhist?’ More meetings are planned, and will offer more focussed training to meet specific needs.

Lokabandhu and Siddhisambhava were also there, from the FWBO’s ‘Development Team’. Lokabandhu commented afterwards, “For me, one of the most inspiring parts of the day was a definition of fundraising offered by Samayasri – she described it as a ‘conversation about unfulfilled ambition’, with the fundraiser as the link between someone's aspirations for the world and the means of making it come true.” I found those few words extraordinary, they completely shifted my image of what fundraising is about. I want to know more!”

Karuna Appeals Report 2007

FWBO News is delighted to present this detailed report from Jo, from the FWBO’s Karuna Trust, on some of their fundraising successes this year. Karuna raises and sends over £1m every year to many different projects in India, it is one of the Movement’s greatest success stories.

Jo writes -

“We would like to tell you how the Karuna door-knocking Appeals have been doing over this last year. A lot has happened for us in the last twelve months, which isn’t unusual here on the Appeals Team!

Jo and Santavajri started the year with a visit to India, where they saw quite a range of Karuna-funded projects and attended the first ever Karuna Partners Conference at Nagaloka in Nagpur (see photo, which shows Santavajri and Jo role-play door-knocking at Karuna's Partners' Conference in February).

Back at the Karuna office in London, Jo, Manjuka and Santavajri were joined in February by two new team members, Khemajala and Peter Hunt. The new team then went on to run six appeals, which was one less than planned… Recruitment of volunteers is proving more difficult these days. So if you think you may be interested in doing an Appeal then find out more at www.karunaappeals.org.uk/ and look out for posters, postcards and booklets giving you lots more information at a Buddhist Centre near you. Then get in touch! OK – end of advert.

The Appeals Team has continued to evolve over the year, with Manjuka leaving as Team Leader in October, and Santavajri stepping into his shoes. Manjuka has been fundraising and leading appeals since 1998, has made many thousands of pounds for Karuna’s projects in India, led dozens of appeals, and skilfully supported innumerable men and women through the ups and downs of fundraising. At times, he has been virtually the only person on the Appeals Team, and on more than once occasion has led two Appeals simultaneously! He has been a real stalwart, displaying so much courage, commitment and determination during some challenging times, as well as keeping his playful, soft and kindly side very much alive. We in the FWBO and TBMSG owe him a great deal, so if you see Manjuka, do congratulate him on all he has done over the last 9 years, and don’t let him get away with being Scottish and diffident – make sure he takes it on the chin!!

Other changes on the Team: once the Appeals season got under way, Peter realised that door-knocking wasn’t for him, and he has since left the Appeals Team. So we are looking to replace him with a male fundraiser/trainer in 2008. Please see the jobs section on FWBO News for more information. Another advert! How did that slip in??

Jo led an Appeal for the first time in 2007, and proved to be a competent and able leader. Indeed, the Bristol Women’s Appeal was the highest-earner this year, coming in 6% over target. Sadhu to Jo, and to the women on the Appeal!

We continue to have excellent input on the Appeals from Jayachitta (famous for her Red Noeses Unlimited clowning workshops) and Manjusvara, and Manjuka will stay involved as a visiting trainer in 2008. Manjudeva and Vandanajyoti also offered valuable sessions in Focussing and Dharma Study respectively in 2007.

More about the Appeals themselves: We raised a total of £87,968 annually, which was slightly less than 2006, but more than 2004 and 2005. The Appeals did quite well, with 4 coming in comfortably on target, and two slightly below. 30 people fundraised on the Appeals, comprising a total of 171 fundraising weeks. We in the Appeals Team accounted for 25% of the fundraising weeks, which is on average 5% more than over the past five years… so we are working hard!!

We ran two mixed Appeals in 2007: one for the team of Dharmaduta students, and another in London. We also had a range of nationalities involved, including one German, a Dutch woman, and two Indians.

Here are the names of people who did the Appeals in 2007 and the amount each Appeal raised. Again, if you know any of these people, do congratulate them for giving of their time, energy and effort so generously. We couldn’t have done it without them… as Manjusvara says, our volunteer fundraisers are Karuna’s Secret Weapon, and our most precious resource!

Appeal Results:
Leeds Women
Main Trainer: Santavajri. Fundraisers: Jo Goldsmid, Jo Robinson, Santavajri. Visiting Trainers: Manjuka, Manjusvara, Jayachitta, Manjudeva. Amount raised: £8,729 (annual standing order value)
Edinburgh Men
Main Trainer: Manjuka. Fundraisers: Khemajala, Peter Hunt, Sasanajyoti, David Vasey, Karunajala. Visiting Trainers: Santavajri, Jo Goldsmid, Manjusvara, Manjudeva, Jayachitta. Amount raised: £16,624.
London Dharmaduta Students
Main Trainer: Manjuka. Fundraisers: Manidhamma, Will Sullivan, Thea Wiersma, Sunayaka, Matt Burgess. Visiting Trainers: Jayachitta, Manjusvara, Manjudeva, Jo Goldsmid, Peter Hunt, Khemajala, Santavajri. Amount raised: £14,346.
London Mixed
Main Trainer: Santavajri. Fundraisers: Khemajala, Santosh Kamble, Jo Goldsmid, Vicki Clarke, Peter Hunt, Sraddhagita. Visiting Trainers: Manjusvara, Jayachitta, Manjuka, Vandanajyoti, Jayaraja, Abhilasa. Amount raised: £18,609
Bristol Women
Main Trainer: Jo Goldsmid. Fundraisers: Subhadramati, Katannuta, Julia Simnett, Amitasuri, Vishvantara, Rachel Caddick. Visiting Trainers: Santavajri, Manjuka, Jayachitta, Manjusvara. Amount raised: £17,411.
S. E. London Men
Main Trainer: Manjuka. Fundraisers: Kevin Moore, Karunavajra, Peter Hannah, James Corre. Visiting Trainers: Jayachitta, Manjusvara, Santavajri, Manjudeva. Amount raised: £12, 251.

Sadhu Karuna! If you're interested in doing an appeal next year, contact them or phone +44 (0)20 7700 3434. See also their current jobs advert on FWBO Jobs.

FWBO Jobs - world-wide opportunities across the FWBO

FWBO Jobs is a sister web-site to FWBO News. It has recently expanded and now carries news of a variety of opportunities to join FWBO projects around the world, on a full-time or voluntary basis. Please check it regularly for updates.

Current opportunities include –

teaching English to the new Buddhists in India or Hungary;







the new FWBO Fundraiser’s post;









a commissioning editor for Windhorse Publications,







and an opportunity to join the team at the Vajraloka Meditation Retreat Centre in north Wales.




If you run an FWBO or TBMSG project and are seeking people to join you, either full or part time, for pay or as volunteers, please contact FWBO News. You can access FWBO Jobs any time either by clicking the 'Jobs' tab on FWBO News' website, or by visiting www.fwbo-news.org/jobs/jobs.html. Among other things the site contains a fairly comprehensive list of the many FWBO/TBMSG businesses around the world, from Tipu's Tiger vegetarian restaurant in Missoula Montana to english teaching in Berlin to Windhorse:Evolution in Cambridge UK.

Tentative FWBO sprouts in Toronto, Canada

FWBO News is pleased to report on the existence of a small but enthusiastic FWBO group in Toronto, Canada - and the heroic efforts of Harshaprabha to join them. He told FWBO News -

"I first visited the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in 1998 to attend a wedding - my father having moved there in 1993 to remarry at the age of 73!

"Since 1998 I've visited Ontario on a yearly basis. In 2004 I actually moved to Guelph, Ontario with the view of emigrating to Canada, however my job only lasted 7 months and without any other means of support I was forced to return to Britain and my work as an architect. Whilst in Guelph I developed a good and loyal friendship with a number of people who attended my weekly meditation and Buddhism group.

"These friendships with people from in and around Guelph, Wasaga Beach and Toronto continue to blossom, and I'd like to spend a large part of my year in Ontario working full time to spread the Dharma. The rest of the time I'd be back in Britain or elsewhere in the world with other Buddhist friends.

"I don't know how this can be achieved but I'd very much like it to - it would give a second opportunity for people in Canada to have a regular face-to-face contact with an Order member. The other place is Vancouver some 4,000 miles away!

"If you have any ideas or wish to support me then please do get in touch.

Liberty Corner - a new FWBO Centre in Dublin, Ireland

The FWBO Dublin Centre is delighted to announce that they have purchased a new premises for the Dublin Buddhist Centre. They told FWBO News -

“Our new address is The Dublin Buddhist Centre, 5 James Joyce Street, Dublin 1 - in the very heart of Dublin!

“Number 5 is a ground floor unit in a modern award-winning building currently comprised of apartments, offices, performance & exhibition space) and Dance Ireland. There will also be a crèche housed in the building. The building is located at Liberty Corner, a sure sign that our new home is in the right place.

“Since 1990, the Dublin Buddhist Centre (DBC) has been offering yoga, meditation and Buddhism classes to the public. Over that time we have also taught meditation in the private and public sectors, plus primary and secondary schools and regular university classes. In recent years we have started to reach out to more vulnerable populations, teaching mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques to individuals through our 'Blue Sky' programme, working with Multiple Sclerosis Ireland and with 'Fresh Start', a government scheme designed to facilitate re-entry into the workforce by people recovering from depression.

“Besides our work, over the last seventeen years, a thriving Buddhist community has grown up around the centre – there are now have 17 Order Members in Ireland, 16 of which are living in Dublin.

“To secure the existing work and to expand the future work of the DBC, we decided to purchase our own premises – we’ve been renting facilities ever since 1990. We will also be accessible to more people than ever before because the new premises is located very centrally on the north side of the city centre. It is an area that historically has been severely disadvantaged but which has been regenerated substantially over the last five years.

“The new premises is currently a concrete shell which needs complete refurbishment. Could you help us develop it into a peaceful and beautiful urban space to be enjoyed by everyone attending the centre?

"Please click here for more information and ways in which you can help. They have an appeal blog with details of upcoming fundraising events - or just donate right now!"

Karuna women's appeal in local paper

A women's Karuna appeal is in full swing in Bristol, UK - and was recently interviewed for a local Bristol paper. Under the heading 'DEVOTING ALL THEIR TIME TO FIGHTING PREJUDICE', the paper recounted how the women "spend their days praying, meditating and fund-raising" and quoted Amitasuri as saying "If my heart is open, we can meet with one another. Last night I was very moved by people's kindness, with people's honesty with me". It's a little unusual for Karuna's appeals to 'go public' in this way, but the reporter was clearly moved by what she saw.

Karuna's door-knocking appeals raise just over UK 1 million pounds/year for Dhamma and social work in India, and are a unique way to combine spiritual practice with effective and meaningful work for the benefit of others - Buddhist Right Livelihood in the very best sense.

Karuna's appeal dates for 2008 have been released and are on the Karuna Appeals website.

Meanwhile the Karuna Trust itself has a brand-new website, and very handsome it is too!

Dates for Karuna Appeals 2008

The dates for the Karuna Appeals in 2008 have just been released on www.appeals.karuna.org

Peter Hunt from the Karuna ofice says "If you have always thought ‘I would really love to do one of those Appeals’, then maybe 2008 is the year for you to do it. It is an opportunity to raise money for some of the most marginalized people on Earth while experiencing community living and taking your Dharma practice onto the streets. This is a breadth of practice that is hard to find in many other contexts; so why not take the plunge? Visit our website for more info about Appeals."

The dates are:
Spring Appeals
Men’s Appeal: 6th April – 17th May Brighton
Women’s Appeal: 6th April - 17th May Newcastle

Summer Appeals
Men’s Appeal: 8th June – 19th July London
Women’s Appeal: 8th June 19th July London

Autumn Appeal
Mixed Appeal: 7th September – 19th October Oxford

The Karuna Trust team send a total of over £1,000,000/year to social and Dharma projects in India; they are one of the great success stories of the FWBO. Much of their money is raised in these door-knocking appeals, which have pioneered a unique and effective approach to fundraising as a spiritual practice. The appeals website contains several ‘blogs’ from former fundraisers where you can read how they got on and the many challenges they faced.

24-hour fundraising drawing at the LBC

Aaron Matheson, an artist from the London Buddhist Centre mandala, has recently completed a 24-hour-long fundraising marathon - drawing the view from the balcony of the centre looking out onto the road. He says -

"We raised over £700, which is incredible. Thanks to those who sponsored me. The drawing itself was a lot more fun than I expected it to be! It felt all absorbing, a huge task. And I loved the sense of completing one cycle of the earth- (that natural rhythm which defines our lives), which I didn't think about before. It felt exhilarating much of the time. Who says you've got to suffer to raise money?

Lots of people came to see me, and some posed. Drawing them under pressure of time lent an urgency to it. I got interested in the perceptual space - shown by the way the railings seem to bend away from you in peripheral vision. Our vision as a whole isn't a flat screen but more like a sphere. Also, the way that things that are distant seem compressed when you draw them.

I also like the way everybody is looking out of the Buddhist Centre towards the rest of the world. Seems to echo the other-regarding nature of the LBC and our 'Breathing Space' project. I admire the altruism of the people here, so it came into the drawing naturally. The Dharmachakra, central in the first page of the drawing, is also in their gaze - the turning wheel of the path of wisdom and compassion. Contemplating all life through this vision, the people on the balcony are trying to find kinder and more positive ways of living. That's how I see it, I think.

Click here for a glimpse of the completed drawing on the LBC's weblog.

Possible new retreat centre in the Low Countries

Since 2004 METTA VIHARA, a Dutch FWBO charity started by Akasasuri and others in 2001, has been actively seeking a retreat centre for the FWBO (known locally as the VWBO) in Holland and Belgium. In 2005 the trustees decided to create 'a virtual' retreat centre as a way of demonstrating the projects’s viablility to the bank and potential dnors, and this has been an extraordinary success.

Akasasri says “last year and again this year we coordinated, planned and organised all the retreats in Holland and Belgium, running 20-22 retreats a year at 3 different locations spread over both countries. We (she and her friend the newly-ordained Manigarbha) are on all the retreats - we do the shopping, the bookings, the finances, the mail-out's, the PR, the setting-up of the retreats, the cooking, plus co-leading and leading some of the retreats etc. Everything is stored in our living room (mats, cushions, blankets, food, shrine material, etc); we bought a large van to transport everything from our house to the various retreats and back".

And nearly all retreats (but 3) in 2006 were fully booked with a waiting list – a remarkable and heroic achievement. There are 5 order members committed to living at the future retreat centre: Sarojini, Sobhanandi, Khemasiri, Akasasuri and Manigarbha; with nearly all the other Order Members in the Lowlands are involved in some way in attending, leading and co-leading the retreats.

And now they are on the verge of realising their dream – purchasing a property owned by a nature reserve organisation. It’s an old farmhouse, built in 1880, about 100 meters from a large estuary, with 5 acres of land, located halfway between the Amsterdam Buddhist Centre and the Ghent Buddhist Centre and easily accessible for the Buddhist Centres from Arnhem, The Hague and Antwerp. See photos of the building here.

Akasasuri says “Voices in our local sangha say 'this is THE place' and all are very keen for this to come off. WE ARE READY TO GO - JUST SOME MORE MONEY REQUIRED!

For their appeal they have created a website www.mettavihara.nl, have a proper brochure, became a member of the Buddhist Union and advertise in national papers, buddhist magazines and some new-age magazines.

Click here for a fuller introduction to the property and the appeal.

Mettaloka retreat centre appeal

A retreat centre for The Low Countries (Belgium and The Netherlands)

An old farmhouse, built in 1880, about 100 meters from a large estuary, with 5 acres of land, located halfway between the Amsterdam Buddhist Centre and the Ghent Buddhist Centre and easily accessible for the Buddhist Centres from Arnhem, The Hague and Antwerp.

Have a look at the pictures.

We need another ₤ 70.000,- will you help us?

Over the years Dutch Order members have, between them, lived and worked in the UK for 147 years helping to build up the FWBO and the WBO in the UK and beyond. Will you help us now that we would like to create better conditions for spreading the Dharma and building Sangha in the Low Countries? At the moment we hold 21 retreats a year even though our Sangha is still relatively small. We’ve been renting places for over 20 years.

The residential community will be Akasasuri, Khemasiri, Manigarbha, Sarojini and Sobhanandi.

Akasasuri writes -

Dear friends,

I'm writing to ask for your support for establishing a retreat centre in The Low Countries (Holland and Belgium).

A few months after my arrival back in Holland (2003) I've been involved in trying to establish a retreat centre here......from property search to fundraising. Currently Manigarbha and myself share a flat and we organise all our retreats, nearly every other weekend, from home. We go on all the retreats supporting/leading/co-leading some of them; doing the cooking and organising on nearly all of them.

This is THE place

Voices in our local sangha say 'this is THE place' and all are very keen for this to come off. We feel very well supported by the Sangha in Belgium and Holland and it has been a great delight to be on the receiving end of so much financial and emotional support, especially the faith and trust that people have put in Bhante's explanation of the Dharma and through that in us who are trying to get this off the ground.

The residentail community is keen to start and so is the Sangha here in The Low Countries.

WE ARE READY TO GO…JUST SOME MORE MONEY REQUIRED

Please send any contribution, however large or small, to:

Natwest account 65912225, branch sort-code 01-06-88, made out to Akasasuri, BIC: NWBK GB 2L, IBAN: GB55 NWBK 0106 8865 9122 25

Triodos account in Holland 212442511, made out to Metta Vihara, Bilthoven, BIC: TRIONL2U, IBAN: NL13 TRIO 0212442511

Heartfelt metta,

Akasasuri on behalf of Khemasiri, Sobhanandi, Sarojini and Manigarbha

‘pilgrimage’ for Buddhafield

At the end of July Eric Friar from Bristol will be undertaking a ‘pilgrimage’ to raise money for the Buddhafield land appeal. He intends to walk along the St Michael ley line between Cwm Les Boel (near Lands End in Cornwall, UK) and the ancient stone circle of Avebury.

He is hoping for sponsorship and invites supporters to contact him on erichafriar [at] yahoo.co.uk

He says, “I will walk about 185 miles, on top of which I will do some legs by public transport, to arrive at Avebury in time for Lughnasad. I'm thinking of posting the route and inviting people to join me for as long or as short as they like. I will be travelling light and sleeping out, so people will need to bring their own food and
shelter”.

The Buddha and his followers walked everywhere, and were known as ‘yatrikas’, meaning simply ’walkers’. For several years Buddhafield led annual walks, known as Yatras, along the Ridgeway to Stonehenge for the Summer Solstice celebrations. It’s therefore a pleasure to see this tradition being maintained.