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TRIRATNA BUDDHISTS - A BACKGROUND
 The Triratna Buddhist Order was founded in London in 1967 by Venerable Sangharakshita. Originally having taken ordination as a Theravadin Bhikkhu in India, during his twenty years of Buddhist practice on the Indo-Tibetan border he went on to take initiations from a number of the Lamas who were escaping from the Chinese invasion and occupation of Tibet. On returning to England, he experienced first-hand the limited context in which Westerners had to practice the Dharma and his response was to found a new Buddhist movement.
Going back to basics was Sangharakshita's response to bringing Buddhism into an entirely new culture. He examined the principles that were underlying all forms of Buddhism and worked out how best to apply them in this new context. So, Triratna is an ecumenical movement, aligned to no one traditional school, but drawing on the whole stream of Buddhist inspiration. Triratna has evolved new, dynamic structures that allow people to live out the Buddhist teachings in our current Age in a real sense and has formed public centres where meditation is taught in many Western countries. As an Order and a Community, Triratna is constantly exploring how the Buddha’s teaching of human potential has extreme relevance in a world that often denies this, and how Buddhists can contribute to a better world through living with awareness.
Triratna has grown into an international movement with activities in more than 20 countries. Venerable Sangharakshita has now handed-on responsibility for the TBO's spiritual vitality to his followers. Triratna is entering a new phase of growth and consolidation, learning from, and building upon its history, and developing into a broad-based, mature and experienced spiritual community. It is playing a significant role in bringing Buddhism to the West.
Permission to use the photograph of Sangharakshita at the top of this page has been kindly allowed by © Alokavira/Timm Sonnenschein and has been copyrighted by him, his website is http://www.timmsonnenschein.com/
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