West London emerges from the Flood – and Edinburgh says “thank you”

Last summer the West London Buddhist Centre experienced serious flooding on two separate and entirely unrelated occasions – one causing the ceiling of their shrine room to collapse and one covering the floor with water.

Undeterred, they embarked upon the necessary repairs and are now scheduled to be fully up and running again in time to celebrate Buddha Day on Sunday the 18th of May. There will be a free open day from 12 to 5, with talks, meditation, and an exhibition of Buddhist art works, followed by celebrations for the Sangha in the evening.

Among the artwork is a piece by local Buddhist artist Jason Etienne, titled “Basic Buddhism 2” – clearly inspired by the twin sources of British graffiti artist Banksy and the legendary biographies of the Buddha, which speak of lotuses springing up behind each step of the Buddha as he roared his lion’s roar..

Meanwhile, up in Scotland, the Edinburgh Buddhist Centre, who last year experienced major floods of their own, are just celebrating the second anniversary of their new Centre. Their new Director, Vajrahridaya, has written an open letter to all who have ever contributed to the FWBO in Edinburgh. Since those many people are now scattered around the world, we have pleasure in reproducing part of it here on FWBO News. Vajrahridaya writes -

“I, along with the Trustees on the Edinburgh Buddhist Council would like to take this opportunity to thank you and express our gratitude for all the support and help you have contributed towards the stability and growth of our local Sangha in Edinburgh.

“We would like to acknowledge that your help and generosity, in the form of either Donations, Standing Orders, Gift Aid, your practical help, your encouraging presence and words or even just coming along to the centre to support us, has contributed towards the creation of this new centre and thus our Sangha.

“It is due to our collective effort and enthusiasm that we have managed to buy our own new premises and establish our Sangha, the spiritual community in Edinburgh. So Sadhu! Sadhu!! Sadhu!!!

“We hope that you will continue to offer your valuable support and help towards the growth and development of our Sangha and we very much value and welcome your ideas, thoughts and vision for spreading the Buddha’s Dharma in this modern world.

“Yours in the Dharma, Vajrahridaya”

Sadhu Edinburgh!

London Buddhist Centre reviewed on CNN

The London Buddhist Centre's meditation classes have been favourably reviewed on CNN, under the heading 'Meditation - the key to calm', with the reviewer, Brigid Delaney, concuding it was a "surprisingly effective exercise". Click for details...

FWBO Projects Receive Community Funding

The UK government recently announced the results of round 2 of the ‘Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund’, which attracted bids from over 1,200 UK faith-based organisations. The funding was given to “groups with practical solutions to build capacity among faith communities to support inter faith work”. The successful applicants were the Brighton, Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, and Croydon FWBO Centres, the Clear Vision Trust, Dharmachakra (now known as Free Buddhist Audio), and the LBC’s Globe Community Project.

A full list of the 343 successful organisations is available online (pdf file). The fund is administered to the Community Development Foundation (CDF). FWBO News will be chasing up the recipients to find out how they will be using the money.

Story by Lokabandhu