3 members of our Manchester Zen Peacemaker Circle - Kaite, Stacie and Zang - went tonight to the Manchester Buddhist Centre (belonging to the 'Friends of the Western Buddhist Order'... the main community of Howard in our circle, and the first community that Zang studied in depth with) for a very rare visit by Sangharakshita, founder of that movement 40 years ago. He is now an old man in his 80s, and no longer teaches often in public. He gave a 30 minute talk, standing up the whole time, in their beautiful shrine room to an audience of over 100 people. His talk focussed on those aspects of the FWBO which make it distinctive from traditional Buddhist lineages- and I think it's worth writing them down here, because they seem to connect with what we're doing with the Zen Peacemaker Community too! There were 6 points: 1 The FWBO and Western Buddhist Order is a community of Buddhists where commitment is primary and lifestyle secondary. Going for Refuge to the Buddha, D...
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