The Buddhist Centre

Samādhi is the Sanskrit word for a state of peaceful, integrated absorption the mind can reach through meditation. And people’s faces in meditation have been a source of fascination (and distraction) for documentary filmmaker Hartley Woolf since he began his own Buddhist practice. “I can’t help but enjoy taking in all the different expressions around me in the shrine room,” he says, “and wondering...

Today we meet three Buddhists with a full time professional painting practice, exhibiting at The Art Pavilion in Mile End Eco Park . And we’re treated to a generous and intimate conversation about the tensions and creative dynamics between an explicitly artistic life and an implicitly spiritual, even religious one. All in context of shared joy at exhibiting openly as Buddhists in a beautiful space...

In Triratna, learning to understand what is truly beautiful is seen as a path to Enlightenment itself. In this episode we find ourselves exploring this in an unexpected and extraordinary way at the seat of all Buddhist paths and myths, Bodh Gaya in India. Not far from the bodhi tree, where the Buddha’s great achievement is said to have taken place, you’ll find us deep in conversation with visitiin...

Enter Hinterland sober bar , “the realm beyond what’s known”… And meet founders Sanghadhara and Stephen Jeffreys in their cosy, cool, poetic, liminal space for a cocktail and meaningful conversation about how Buddhism and the Dharma can inform modern culture—and people’s social lives—in new ways.  Hinterland has been a passion project from the start. And on this busy Friday evening on one of the b...

Home Retreats help us inject some of the powerful teachings of the Buddha directly into our everyday lives. This week we’re joined by Balajit, Singhashri and Viveka to talk about what lies behind their latest week-long collaborative venture with The Buddhist Centre [Live] - the enigmatically titled ‘The Three Bodies of Belonging’.  In this episode we dive into the the traditional Buddhist teaching...

Mandarava has always been a maker. Her way into puppetry came initially through trying to make sense of deep family grief. Mandarava’s work is brimful of magic - filtered through fairy tales, her own deep immersion in illustrative art and the realm of stories accompanying long-cherished images, both from childhood and her further adventures as a grown-up. We hear about her exploration of female fi...

The mind liberated from the pressure of the will is unfolded in symbols W.B. Yeats These days, mindfulness is everywhere. How can engaging with images - with imagination itself - take our awareness deeper and help us connect with something truly transformative? Join our guests Vishvapani and Amitajyoti to explore how a Buddhist perspective on consciousness can help move us towards a life touched m...

Prayer to Manjushri, Bodhisattva of Wisdom May all beings experience happiness and its causes Be free from suffering and its causes, Never be parted from happiness And dwell in the condition of equanimity Ever since his introduction to Buddhism in 1976, Mahamati has been attracted to collective, collaborative contexts. He was, from the start, delighted to find a group of people with whom he could...

We are sitting in an East End art studio talking about death. The London tube rolls by outside, surfacing momentarily from tunnels dark as Hades, trundling its occupants inexorably on to somewhere. You can hear at intervals its soothing, almost womb-like background rumble and hush as a reminder of sorts - fitting sound as backdrop to this conversation with Buddhist artist Hugh Mendes, whose celebr...

Kamalashila is dying. So are we - we are dying. Really.  In this recent conversation with Kamalashila following his diagnosis of terminal cancer - and in the closing guided meditation reflecting on death - this is the core theme to which we keep returning: the value of familiarising ourselves with our impermanence: dying and death are going to happen to every single one of us. As Kamalashila says,...

In this latest episode of the Buddhist Centre podcast, we are delighted to welcome back Tejananda, one of the most experienced meditation teachers within the Triratna Buddhist Community. Tejananda will be bringing insights from decades of practice to his upcoming Home Retreat on The Buddhist Centre Live, ‘Emptiness and Compassion: The Divine Abodes’ , starting March 29th.  The retreat is part of a...

Join us for a ‘90s story of inspired Buddhist practice in Missoula, Montana - of great friendship, fierce love, burnout and life lessons learned in the fire of idealism and spiritual adventure. There’s nothing quite like going through a big experience together - and Tipu’s was a very big one for so many people as a new Buddhist community took root in the United States. Founders Buddhapalita and Va...

Our guests this week come together for a thoughtful, provocative conversation occasioned by Vishvapani‘s recent article for Tricycle Buddhist review looking at the arresting, perhaps astonishing, fact that one of the most powerful people in the UK – Home Secretary Suella Braverman - is also faithfully involved as a Buddhist practitioner within the context of the Triratna Buddhist Community. Candra...

Alfoxton House in Somerset, England has a long and rich history stretching back over 1000 years. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, and is where the young William Wordsworth, his sister Dorothy and their great friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge helped birth the radical new Romantic movement during a magical year there in 1797. In June 2020, a new Triratna Buddhist community received the ke...

If you enjoy this conversation, come explore the theme online on our Home Retreat with Vidyamala and Vishvapani! “ Imagine an enormous subterranean chamber all lit up from within. We are living in a tiny chamber next to – indeed, part of – the larger one. We can see nothing at all of what’s going on in the large chamber. In fact, we have no idea that the large chamber is even there .” Sangharakshi...

We’re coursing this week in the heady, fascinating realm of generative and assistive AI, already seemingly omnipresent in our lives via undeniably productive next gen software tools like ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion. How do our not-computer-generated guests from different walks of Buddhist life engage with this rapidly evolving area of tech in their own work - as humans, as Dharma practitioners? H...

The construct of race is an integral part of Western society’s DNA and if we are to address the social injustice of racism, we need to have the race conversation. Yet all too often, attempts at such a dialogue are met with silence, denial, anger or hate. Is it possible to navigate diverse conversations about race without confusion? Can we authentically create a culture capable of responding to the...

We're delighted to share a special Triratna Day 2023 podcast episode with you, recorded earlier this week and hosted by our friend Jnanadhara. He's joined by Saddhanandi and Nagabodhi to discuss the upcoming online gathering of the Triratna Buddhist community on the 8th of April, which celebrates its founding in April 1967.  Saddhanandi and Nagabodhi reminisce about past Triratna Day celebrations,...

A wonderful conversation highlighting the themes of a brand new Home Retreat – the latest addition to our growing archive of in-depth, beautifully resourced online spaces to help take your practice of meditation and Buddhism deeper.  Balajit, Singhashri and Viveka join us to discuss the opportunities and challenges of engaging with the gnarlier bits of our emotional lives, amid so much pressure of...

Dharmachakra has been a going concern since Dharmachari Ananda first strapped a reel-to-reel tape recorder on his back in London in 1967 to record the first public lectures by Urgyen Sangharakshita under the auspices of the then Friends of the Western Buddhist Order. It has evolved over the decades to become an amazing Triratna Right Livelihood team – most importantly, a team of friends, working o...

A real beauty of a ‘lost’ episode from our archives! Recorded in a very lovely garden in Mexico in 2019, with nature sounds all around, Bodhikamala and Sanghadhara, who’ve been soul mates of a sort since before the age of 10, explore with us their long history of friendship as young people. A shared love of the arts, of musicals, and Harry Potter brought them together in summer camp and, eventuall...

What do you get when you invite a set of experienced American Dharma teachers and friends from different Buddhist traditions to gather together post-Covid and share their practice and experience of American Buddhism? Well, something like this! The bright joy and sense of common tradition is palpable. Hear four Gen-X Triratna Order members with deep connections to our community, both in the UK and...

The Triratna International Council has been a going concern for 11+ years–but in many ways it's just getting started. Meeting again in person for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic, it's undergoing something of a renaissance; renewing itself through the work of Buddhists from around the world, all united in their heart wish to work together to help exemplify a path of everyday practice for...

Welcome to a new season of the podcast! ❤️ Since the 1970s Kamalashila has been exploring meditation and, as an author and teacher in the Triratna Buddhist Order, shaping our understanding of meditation in all its practical magic and mystery. These days he spends much of his time at home in rural England, leading in-depth meditation retreats online for members of the Order. Join us in his garden a...

In this final episode of the current season of the podcast, Bodhilila, Chair of the West London Buddhist Centre , is in conversation with Lama Rod Owens, bestselling author of ‘Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation Through Anger’ .  Their exchange weaves across a number key Dharma threads, beginning with a sense of how being in the body can be a way to step out of systems that stop us reaching our...