In todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, and#8220;The Establishment of Taraloka,and#8221; Sangharakshita shares his rejoicings of the opening of the new retreat centre for women, Taraloka. This track is from the talk, and#8220;Buddhist Dawn in the West,and#8221; in which Sangharakshita outlines what led him to found the Triratna [FWBO] Community. In addition to sharing his thoughts about Taraloka, he discusses developments in ordinations conducted by senior Order Members and a new Buddhist magazine.
Talk given in 1986.
[Music] Dharma Vites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for real life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, come and join us at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. Thank you, and happy listening. There are three main events which will give one perhaps some idea of the way in which or the directions in which the F. W. Burry is expanding and progressing. And the first of these is the establishment of the Women's Retreat Center in Shropshire. There was quite a bit of discussion, I think quite a prolonged discussion, as to what this Women's Country Retreat Center should be called. But the name with which the order members concerned eventually came up was Tara Loka. And of course when it was announced everybody felt well, it was really appropriate. Because what does Tara mean? I mean Tara is the great, I was going to say female Bodhisattva, but Bodhisattva is a very nice male nor female. But Tara is a Bodhisattva appearing, let's say, in female form. This is to put it correctly. And the word or the name Tara means she who ferries across. Ferries across the ocean of birth, old age, disease and death. So in the Buddhist East, especially in China and Japan and Tibet, all sorts of very positive, very beautiful associations have gathered around the name and the figure of the Bodhisattva Tara. Tara also means incidentally, dah. And of course you guide yourself by the stars. Tara, the spiritual ideal represented by Tara, guides you, inspires you, ferries you across. Even in a sense they should. So Tara Loka is the world of Tara. I mentioned Loka earlier on when I spoke of the three locals. So Tara Loka is the world or the abode or the plane or the dimension inhabited by, rained over by, inspired by the Bodhisattva Tara. So the women, all the members and mitterers and friends who have been working and who are working to establish Tara Loka as a women's retreat center, are trying to create a sort of world or abode of Tara, where the Tara principle reigns as supreme. But I'm sure that when they've succeeded in doing that, Tara Loka will exercise an enormous influence, not only on the women who have been involved with the F.W. Bill, but on the movement as a whole and throughout the movement as a whole. So the establishment of Tara Loka, I feel, is one of the three main events of the last year. I also hope that the establishment of Tara Loka will help speed up the process of ordination for women in the movement. When one is ordained one, of course, goes for refuge. That is an individual act. You must want to go for refuge. It's what you want to do. This is what we emphasize very much. But obviously, you are greatly helped if there are facilities, like meditation classes, study groups, and country retreat centers. If you have recourse to facilities of this sort, they can greatly help you in your progress to enlightenment in your clemiting of yourself to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. You're becoming ready for ordination. So I really do hope that as soon as the women's country retreats into Tara Loka is fully established, we shall see many more women preparing themselves for ordination perhaps more quickly than has usually been the case in the past. While I'm on the subject, I don't often speak about the women in the movement as distinct from the men or the men as distinct from the women, but while I am on the subject of the women in the movement, and of course, this is some people might say a rather controversial sort of topic. But let's say that Bante walking where angels fair to tread. I think, conditions and facilities for women in the after video are particularly good, as compared with at least some other Buddhist groups. I have the feeling that in some other Buddhist groups belonging to this or that traditional form of Buddhism, the women are rather under the shadow of the men. The nuns very much under the shadow of the monks and so on. In some Buddhist groups, the nuns can't really do anything without the permission of the monks. So there's nothing like that in the after BPO. Whether women happen to be friends or omnitras or the members, they are at least as independent as the men are. They no more need the permission of men friends or men which was on men or the members than the men friends, men which was on men or the members needs the permission of their corresponding feminine counterparts. I hope that is quite clear. So I really think, and I've given quite a bit of thought to this, that in the friends of the Western Buddhist order, and especially in the Western Buddhist order itself, women probably have far more or far better facilities for personal individual growth and development in the direction of enlightenment than probably any other Buddhist group in the West. I think it would be well if we were more mindful of this, and not only more mindful of it, but perhaps to spread the word around a little bit more than sometimes perhaps people do. Anyway, what I really wanted to say was that I hope that not Hara Loka has been established. There will be in Hara Loka a facility which will enable women in the movement to prepare themselves more quickly for ordination than has been the case in the past. Not that I want to hurry anybody, but sometimes increased or improved facilities can help very much. I particularly want to say chapters of the women's wing of the movement in places like Brighton and Manchester and Glasgow, where we don't at the moment have them, and where therefore a certain imbalance exists in the order itself and in the movement. So perhaps when this anniversary comes around next year, we may have a rather different story to tell. So that was the first of the three main events I feel of this last year, the establishment of Hara Loka. We hope you enjoyed the talk. Please come and help us keep this free at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. And thank you. [music] [music] [music] [music] You You
