Help Emma go to Adhisthana!
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Help Emma go to Adhisthana!
Since the retreat centre Adhisthana opened in 2013 they have hosted five-month long Dharma courses for young women and men. This spring, the third course for women will take place, where they are given a chance to go deeper in their study of the Dharma and meditation. Moreover, there’s an emphasis on living and working as a community and developing friendships within the Triratna Buddhist Movement.
Two women from the Stockholm Buddhist centre, Emma and Camilla, have been invited to the course starting in February. It means a lot to our sangha that two young women training for ordination and working with the young people’s group are being given this opportunity. They are going to bring back deepened knowledge of the dharma, experiences of a more intense practice of Sangha and friendship through working and living together, and a greater understanding of the diversity of our international movement.
Emma has so far raised about half of the course fee, but needs financial help in order to take part in the course. The goal is to raise £2000 which will pay for the remaining part of the fee and travels.
If you live in Sweden we kindly ask you to donate money directly to Emma via swish (to 0730518185) or to her account (Swedbank 8242-0, 3 914 005-8), since gofundme takes a 5% fee off of the donation.
Here follows an extract from Emma’s application letter to the course about what attending would mean to her:
“This summer, I was at the sub25 retreat at Adhisthana, and it was a very powerful retreat for me. It made me want to go back to that beautiful place and to spend more time around other committed young Buddhists. I have considered applying to the dharma life course before, and now would be a perfect time for me to do that, because I feel something has shifted within me this summer.
We were studying the wheel of life in my mitra studies earlier this year, and it made me think how earlier it was quite literally the Buddha playing the melody of impermanence on the lute that urged me to find and practise the dharma, while in many ways I was living in a comfortable god realm. Perhaps I now find myself in a human realm, because the mendicant seems to inspire me much more than it used to, and I don’t know what the implications of that will be. In the chapter we studied in the Creative symbols of tantric Buddhism Sangharakshita says that “when we find ourselves in a truly human state, the next step is to devote ourselves wholeheartedly to the task of spiritual development”. I wonder what it means for me to devote myself wholeheartedly to the task of spiritual development, and I think that the dharma life course would be a good place to start asking those questions.
Apart from a general longing for a more intense practice, perhaps the most important reason why I would like to do the dharma life course is because I want to deepen my practice of spiritual friendship and my going for refuge to the sangha jewel. I am one of those people who find the sangha more difficult to relate to than the other two jewels, but I have always had a strong sense of community in doing puja, especially on retreat, and I have also had glimpses of sangha in communication with some order members and in my gfr-group. It is especially that honest and enthusiastic communication about practice with other women that I hope to experience in more depth. I think that living, working, and studying with other young women at Adhisthana would be a real opportunity for close friendships and communication, in a way that is not at all possible in Stockholm, since there are no communities for women or Triratna right livelihoods here.
The other thing that I would like to get from the course is a more substantial dharma knowledge; both for my own sake and in order to be able communicate the dharma to others. I have noticed that while meditation and devotional practices inspire me and are the main reasons why I practise the dharma, dharma studies and discussion groups affect and move me very deeply, and might sometimes be a stronger catalyst for change and insight for me. I would also like to have more knowledge in order to be more confident in communicating the dharma, so that I could take on more responsibility within the sangha, both as part of the young people’s group and as a future order member.”
Since the retreat centre Adhisthana opened in 2013 they have hosted five-month long Dharma courses for young women and men. This spring, the third course for women will take place, where they are given a chance to go deeper in their study of the Dharma and meditation. Moreover, there’s an emphasis on living and working as a community and developing friendships within the Triratna Buddhist Movement.
Two women from the Stockholm Buddhist centre, Emma and Camilla, have been invited to the course starting in February. It means a lot to our sangha that two young women training for ordination and working with the young people’s group are being given this opportunity. They are going to bring back deepened knowledge of the dharma, experiences of a more intense practice of Sangha and friendship through working and living together, and a greater understanding of the diversity of our international movement.
Emma has so far raised about half of the course fee, but needs financial help in order to take part in the course. The goal is to raise £2000 which will pay for the remaining part of the fee and travels.
If you live in Sweden we kindly ask you to donate money directly to Emma via swish (to 0730518185) or to her account (Swedbank 8242-0, 3 914 005-8), since gofundme takes a 5% fee off of the donation.
Here follows an extract from Emma’s application letter to the course about what attending would mean to her:
“This summer, I was at the sub25 retreat at Adhisthana, and it was a very powerful retreat for me. It made me want to go back to that beautiful place and to spend more time around other committed young Buddhists. I have considered applying to the dharma life course before, and now would be a perfect time for me to do that, because I feel something has shifted within me this summer.
We were studying the wheel of life in my mitra studies earlier this year, and it made me think how earlier it was quite literally the Buddha playing the melody of impermanence on the lute that urged me to find and practise the dharma, while in many ways I was living in a comfortable god realm. Perhaps I now find myself in a human realm, because the mendicant seems to inspire me much more than it used to, and I don’t know what the implications of that will be. In the chapter we studied in the Creative symbols of tantric Buddhism Sangharakshita says that “when we find ourselves in a truly human state, the next step is to devote ourselves wholeheartedly to the task of spiritual development”. I wonder what it means for me to devote myself wholeheartedly to the task of spiritual development, and I think that the dharma life course would be a good place to start asking those questions.
Apart from a general longing for a more intense practice, perhaps the most important reason why I would like to do the dharma life course is because I want to deepen my practice of spiritual friendship and my going for refuge to the sangha jewel. I am one of those people who find the sangha more difficult to relate to than the other two jewels, but I have always had a strong sense of community in doing puja, especially on retreat, and I have also had glimpses of sangha in communication with some order members and in my gfr-group. It is especially that honest and enthusiastic communication about practice with other women that I hope to experience in more depth. I think that living, working, and studying with other young women at Adhisthana would be a real opportunity for close friendships and communication, in a way that is not at all possible in Stockholm, since there are no communities for women or Triratna right livelihoods here.
The other thing that I would like to get from the course is a more substantial dharma knowledge; both for my own sake and in order to be able communicate the dharma to others. I have noticed that while meditation and devotional practices inspire me and are the main reasons why I practise the dharma, dharma studies and discussion groups affect and move me very deeply, and might sometimes be a stronger catalyst for change and insight for me. I would also like to have more knowledge in order to be more confident in communicating the dharma, so that I could take on more responsibility within the sangha, both as part of the young people’s group and as a future order member.”
Organizer
Vajra Darshini
Organizer