#Sangharakshita

[usunezukoinezu]

''Mindfulness harmonizes and unifies every aspect of Buddhist practice into a concentrated, responsive awareness of body, feelings, mind, and mental objects. Perhaps the most apt analogy – again from the arts – is to say that being truly mindful is like playing a musical instrument, with oneself as both instrument and player. A violinist doesn’t give a bit of attention to the score, then a bit of attention to her fingers on the strings, then a bit of attention to the conductor. To play well, she has to bring about a fusion between herself and what she is doing, a fusion almost between her awareness and its object. Everything must come together in a single, rich experience of energy and expressive skill. She is fully absorbed yet at the same time keenly aware of every movement she makes. This heightened state of awareness is what we need to aim for, body and mind fully engaged in a state of clarity and positivity that saturates and colours the whole of our experience.''

-Sangharakshita, Living with Awareness

[thebuddhistcentre]

The latest video blog from Urgyen House is now available online. Dharmacharini Dhammadinna explores Sangharakshita’s long connection with the Bodhisattva Green Tara and his teacher Chattrul Sangye Dorje. With photographs, video and objects from the Urgyen House archives, that take us from Kalimpong, India to Taraloka, Tiratanaloka, London and Adhisthana, UK, we learn of the great significance of Green Tara in Sangharakshita’s life and work. Visit urgyenhouse.org/blog - Linkinbio! @urgyensangharakshita #sangharakshita #triratna #Tara #GreenTara #omtaretutaretureswaha #TibetanBuddhism #Meditation #Dharma #UrgyenHouse #UrgyenSangharakshita #ChattrulSangyeDorje https://www.instagram.com/p/CmPE4KHtVaI/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[jiei-yushi]

“Free Buddhist Audio Podcast

youtu.be/bc4KFqE0PRY

Sangharakshita and Subhuti launching each other's books and clearly enjoying themselves. Sangharakshita's in fine humour - and it's great to hear him read and quote from the bible!

#podcast #podcasts #Buddhism #buddhist”

https://x.com/freebuddhist/status/1780125375806275828?s=12

[thekotaroo]

Profiles of Pride: June 5th!  🏳️‍🌈Michael Dillon🏳️‍🌈

Laurence Michael Dillon (May 1st, 1915 - May 15th, 1962) was a British physician and the first trans man to undergo phalloplasty.

Dillon had long been more comfortable in men’s clothing and knew that he was not a woman. In 1939, he sought treatment from Dr. George Foss, who had been experimenting with testosterone to treat excessive menstrual bleeding; at the time, the hormone’s masculinizing effects were poorly understood. Foss provided Dillon with testosterone pills but insisted Dillon consult a psychiatrist first, who gossiped about Dillon’s desire to become a man, and soon the story was all over town. Dillon fled to Bristol and took a job at a garage. The hormones soon made it possible for him to pass as male, and eventually the garage manager insisted that other employees refer to Dillon as “he” in order to avoid confusing customers. Dillon was promoted to tow truck driver and doubled as a fire watcher during the Blitz.

Dillon suffered from hypoglycemia, and twice injured his head in falls when he passed out from low blood sugar. While he was in the Royal Infirmary recovering from the second of these attacks, he happened to come to the attention of one of the world’s few practitioners of plastic surgery. The surgeon performed a double mastectomy, provided Dillon with a doctor’s note that enabled him to change his birth certificate, and put him in contact with the pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies.

Gillies had previously reconstructed penises for injured soldiers and performed surgery on intersex people with ambiguous genitalia. He was willing to perform a phalloplasty, but not immediately; the constant influx of wounded soldiers from World War II already kept him in the operating room around the clock. In the meantime Dillon enrolled in medical school at Trinity College, Dublin under his new legal name, Laurence Michael Dillon. A former tutor of Dillon’s persuaded the Oxford registrar to alter records to show that he had graduated from all-male Brasenose rather than the women’s college St Anne’s, so that his academic transcript would not raise questions. Again he became a distinguished rower — this time for the men’s team.

Gillies performed at least 13 surgeries on Dillon between 1946 and 1949. He officially diagnosed Dillon with acute hypospadias in order to conceal the fact that he was performing sex-reassignment surgery. Dillon, still a medical student at Trinity, blamed war injuries when infections caused a temporary limp. In what little free time he had he enjoyed dancing, but he avoided forming close relationships with women, for fear of exposure and in the belief that “One must not lead a girl on if one could not give her children.” He deliberately cultivated a misogynist reputation to prevent any such problematic attachments.

Dillon qualified as a physician in 1951 and initially worked in a Dublin hospital. He then spent the six years at sea as a naval doctor for P&O and the China Navigation Company.

Dillon had not revealed his own history in Self, but it came to light in 1958 as an indirect result of his aristocratic background. Debrett’s Peerage, a genealogical guide, listed him as heir to his brother’s baronetcy, while its competitor Burke’s Peerage mentioned only a sister, Laura Maude. When the discrepancy was noticed, he told the press he was a male born with a severe form of hypospadias and had undergone a series of operations to correct the condition. The editor of Debrett’s told Time magazine that Dillon was unquestionably next in line for the baronetcy: “I have always been of the opinion that a person has all rights and privileges of the sex that is, at a given moment, recognized.”

The unwanted press attention led Dillon to flee to India, where he spent time with Sangharakshita (Dennis Lingwood) in Kalimpong, and with the Buddhist community in Sarnath. While at Sarnath, Dillon decided to pursue ordination and became Sramanera Jivaka (after the Buddha’s physician). Because Sangharakshita refused to allow Jivaka full ordination, and other frustrations with Sangharakshita’s management of Triyana Vardhana Vihara, Jivaka turned to the Tibetan branch of Buddhism. He went to the Rizong Monastery in Ladakh. He was reordained a novice monk of the Gelukpa order, taking the name Lobzang Jivaka, and spent his time studying Buddhism and writing. Despite the language barrier he felt at home there, but was forced to leave when his visa expired. His health failed, and he died in a hospital at Dalhousie, India, on 15 May 1962, age 47.

After Dillon’s death, his brother said he wanted to burn Dillon’s unpublished autobiography, but the manuscript was saved by Dillon’s literary agent and published as Out of the Ordinary in 2017.

[gussiemiller]

The recent hang with Maestro @aajmusic learning the concept of “Kalyāṇa-mittatā” - (Spiritual Friendship) Sangharakshita - the founder of the Triratna Buddhist Community, emphasised Spiritual friendship—that by having a group of peers as spiritual friends, we learn more about being good people than we would in isolation. He stressed the value of friendships with peers, in particular having at least one Platonic friend with whom we can be intimate and completely frank. Through friendship we have the opportunity to develop the virtues of generosity, compassion, patience and forgiveness. #brothers #spiritual #friends #musicians #sippin (toasting our friendship with #Grappa from Italy 🇮🇹) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cnyl3Efuv-I/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[rdnewhaven]

The Other Side of Boredom When you are really bored, the best thing you can do is sit down and let yourself experience the boredom more fully. It may not be a deep or satisfying state, but at least you are not indulging in the things with which you usually cover up this kind of experience. Your real state of mind is more nakedly exposed, because for the time being there are no distractions. If you can stay with the experience of boredom, you can try to feel your way through into something deeper, truer, and more spontaneous within yourself. — Sangharakshita, "Staying with Boredom" #Kṣānti #Khanti (at New Haven Zen Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/CjArrmYu8N0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[tsultrimpawo]

The Other Side of Boredom When you are really bored, the best thing you can do is sit down and let yourself experience the boredom more fully. It may not be a deep or satisfying state, but at least you are not indulging in the things with which you usually cover up this kind of experience. Your real state of mind is more nakedly exposed, because for the time being there are no distractions. If you can stay with the experience of boredom, you can try to feel your way through into something deeper, truer, and more spontaneous within yourself. — Sangharakshita, "Staying with Boredom" #Kṣānti #Khanti (at New Haven Zen Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/CjArTQmL-3h/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[subflaneur]

[woodlandtrust]

The Call of the Forest - Sangharakshita

What does the forest whisper With every wind-stirred leaf, From many-centuried oak tree To hour-old blossom-sheaf? What does the forest whisper When nightingales are dumb And cícadas fall silent? The forest whispers, ‘Come’.

What does the forest whisper In sunshine and in shade, Down every moss-hung alley, In each deer-haunted glade? What does the forest whisper When full or crescent moon Steeps nodding crests in silver? The forest whispers, ‘Soon’.

What does the forest whisper From depths primeval, where A sound is lost in stillness As clouds dissolve in air? What does the forest whisper When from the darkling bough Drop one by one the dead leaves? The forest whispers, ‘Now’.

But the whisper’s a dream-whisper, For years on years have flown Since oak and ash and holly Could call the land their own. The whisper’s a dream-whisper, For Cities of the Plain Usurp the once-green kingdom Of forests they have slain.

The whisper’s a dream-whisper, For ‘forest’ is a dream Of days when Man through Nature Had sense of a Supreme. The whisper’s a dream-whisper Of a time when he could feel In the pressure of the actual The touch of the Ideal.

The whisper’s a dream-whisper, But dreams are of the Soul And Soul itself a forest Beyond the mind’s control. The whisper’s a Soul-whisper, That like a muffled drum Calls, ‘From your mind-built Cities, O Man, to Freedom come!’

[actorsbookclub]

[aceventurauniverse]

Sangharakshita Quote

[thebuddhistcentre]

And that’s a wrap from the 2022 #Triratna International Council! Thanks for letting a little bit of this realm into your own over the past week or so. May all blessings be yours! 🙏❤️🌈 #Buddhism #Buddhist #Dharma #triratna #sangha #community #Sangharakshita (at Adhisthana) https://www.instagram.com/p/CkihpZuMi7b/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[viryabodhi]

I’m working on the Swedish edition of “The Drama if Cosmic Enlightenment” – a very lively and moving commentary on The White Lotus Sūtra. Almost halfway through editing the text. #Sangharakshita #whitelotussutra #saddharmapundarika #Viryabodhi #Bodhi-förlaget https://www.instagram.com/p/BsX9aillSkd/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1qa6rznwk5c5y

[sushidouglas-blog]

El primer asunto a clarificar es que la palabra "Buda" no es un nombre propio sino un título. Denota alguien que Sabe, alguien que Entiende, que ha Despertado del sueño de la vida debido a que ve la Verdad, a que ve la Realidad.

El Budismo: La enseñanza y su práctica. SANGHARÁKSHITA

[queerasfact]

pride 19/30 | michael dillon

When Michael Dillon was born in Britain in 1915, he was assigned female at birth. He was always uncomfortable with being perceived as a woman, and began taking testosterone not long after finishing university in the 1930s. In the 1940s, he became the first trans man to undergo a phalloplasty (construction of a penis).

Michael also contribute to pioneering ideas of trans ethics. He argued in his book Self: A Study in Ethics and Endocrinology that the role of medicine should be to affirm rather than try to change trans people’s gender identities, saying, “Where the mind cannot be made to fit the body, the body should be made to fit, approximately at any rate, to the mind.”

Following his outing by the press in 1958, Michael left his job as a doctor in the merchant navy, and moved to India, where following a life-long interest in spirituality, he became the first Englishman to be ordained in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

learn more with queer as fact: a queer history podcast

[images: Portrait of Michael in uniform during his time in the merchant navy;   Michael (left) with Sangharakshita, his first teacher during his time studying Buddhism in India. Sangharakshita was a fellow Englishman - from The First Man-Made Man by Pagan Kennedy]

[ivy-kissobryos]

Mara rules over this world; indeed, he rules over all the worlds belonging to what is called the kamaloka, or “realm of sensuous desire,” which includes our own human world. In a wider sense, of course, Mara rules over the entire universe, the whole of conditioned existence, because it is subject to death, which Mara primarily represents. But he rules particularly over the kamaloka, the realm of sensuous desire.

The Essential Sangharakshita by Urgyen Sangharakshita