Triratna Audio Library

New Writings 2015 - 2018

By Sangharakshita
ISBN N/A
Read by Subhadra

New Writings is published at www.Sangharakshita.org/writings.html

1. A Complex Personality – A Note - Among the many thoughts condensed into Sangharakshita's 'Personal Statement' of 30 December 2016 was the reflection that 'Triratna sometimes bears the mark not of the Dharma but of my own particular personality. That personality is a complex one'. What Sangharakshita meant by that has been a topic of some discussion and some six months later he added this Note elucidating his meaning.

2. A Passage to America – In this piece, written in March 2018, Sangharakshita recalls his first flight to America nearly fifty years ago, on his way to teach a term at Berkeley, with reflections set off by viewing the flight information screen above his window seat.

3. A Word on the Mantrayana - Writing in October 2018, Sangharakshita considers the significance of the Mantrayana, also known as the Vajrayana - through the practice of which it is said that with the help of mantras one may be able to achieve Supreme Perfect Enlightenment within a single human lifetime.

4. Blake and the Gates of Paradise - Completed in October 2017, in this piece, taking William Blake for inspiration, Sangharakshita explores how mutual forgiveness would bring us nearer to the realisation of Blake's Jerusalem or, in Buddhist terms, to the creation of a Pure Land on earth.

5. Buddhism and Islam - Starting in his teenage years by reading three translations of the Koran, Sangharakshita has long taken an interest in the cultural, philosophical and mystical sides of Islam, and in 1982 he led a seminar on Al-Ghazali's The Duties of Brotherhood in Islam. In this article, written in July 2018, he reflects on this earlier interest, with further thoughts about contact today between Buddhists and Muslims, post '9/11'.

6. Disparities - Writing in April 2018, Sangharakshita reflects here on disparities of power in various different relationships - and on how one can use whatever power one possesses either negatively or unskilfully, on the one hand, or positively and skilfully on the other.

7. Dreams Old and New 1 and 2 - In these two pieces, written April-May 2018, Sangharakshita recalls some of the dream worlds he has inhabited. They include ashrams, churches, woodlands, and outer space. Sometimes the scene seems contemporary; sometimes from Ages of the past.

8. Evil in Myth and in Human Experience - Completed in September 2017, in this piece Sangharakshita considers the origins of evil, both natural and moral, the value of confession, (as well as rejoicing in merits), and looks in turn at each of the four Māras of Buddhist tradition.

9. Evil Revisited – and Good - In this piece Sangharakshita returns to the subject of evil which he had addressed in September, this time including references to Blake, Nietzsche and Avalokitesvara / Kuan Yin.

10. Four Visits - Written in June 2017, 'Four Visits' is a kind of story; a work of the Imagination, the mode of communication here is symbol, image, and archetype.

11. Green Tara and the Fourth Laksana - Composed during the latter part of December and completed on New Year’s Day 2018, the starting point here is the four sadhanas received from Jamyang Khyentse Rimpoche: Manjughoṣa, Avalokitesvara, Vajrapani , and Green Tara, and their 'correspondence' (in the hermetic sense) with the laksanas, the samadhis, and the vimoksas leading to a series of reflections on the Path of Beauty in western spiritual tradition and its relevance for Buddhists of today.

12. Hints to a Hypothetical Artist - Completed on 12th August 2017, in this essay Sangharakshita writes about two of his literary heroes who, unusually, were not only great poets but also great artists. At the end of the piece he invites a 'Hypothetical Artist' to illustrate one of his own recent pieces of writing.

13. Islam and the Buddha - Following on from his previous piece, Buddhism and Islam, Sangharakshita discusses Shah-Kazemi's Common Ground Between Islam and Buddhism, with special reference to an article of his own published sixty or more years ago, Religion as Revelation and Discovery.

14. Living With Carter – Completed in April 2017. In this piece Sangharakshita tells how he met Carter, a young American hippy, and recalls their life together at the end of the 1960's.

15. My Muslim Friend - Here Sangharakshita writes for the first time about his friendship with Ramzan Ali whom he came to know towards the end of his years living in India. Both Ramzan’s mother and his 'guru' also feature in the story.

16. 'My Uncle Leonard' and 'A Brace of Uncles' - Written over a couple of evenings in November 2017, here Sangharakshita remembers some of his uncles.

17. 'News from Nowhere' - and from India - In 'News from Nowhere', William Morris, one of the great Victorians, compares the England of his day with the socialist England of the future, when privilege and inequality would be swept away in the fires of revolution. Taking this as his starting point, Sangharakshita contrasts Morris's conception of revolution with the Dhamma revolution started in India by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.

18. Rainbows in the Sky – In this piece, completed on 22 January 2018, Sangharakshita recalls rainbows from his childhood days, through to his Going Forth in 1947, and most recently as appeared over Adhisthana on his ninetieth birthday. And he affirms the place of Padmasambhava – the Rainbow-bodied one – in the life of the Order from the very beginning, and explains that a remark he made in 2009 about a re-founding of the Order 'can only be in the sense of making the original foundation stronger'.

19. Rebirth Revisited - Sparked off by reading Bhikkhu Analayo's recent publication, Rebirth in Early Buddhism and Current Research (Wisdom Publications 2018), Sangharakshita reflects on the place of rebirth in both the sravakayana and the bodhisattvayaana, these two main forms of Buddhism being based respectively on the ideal of the Arhant and the ideal of Supreme Perfect Buddhahood.

20. Science and Poetry – A Note - After reading Stephen Hawking's 'A Brief History of Time' and Carlo Rovelli's 'Reality Is Not What It Seems', in this piece written over three nights towards the end of June 2018, Sangharakshita reflects on the connection between science and poetry, and their common language of insight, intuition, inspiration and imagination.

21. Some Reflections on the Garava Sutta - In the Garava Sutta the Buddha declares that it is painful to live without honouring and respecting anyone. In this important article Sangharakshita explores the implications for contemporary Buddhists.

22. The Bodhisattvas are also necessary - written in early 2018, in this piece Sangharakshita commences with a story told to him by one of his teachers, and from there he goes on to reflect on the significance of Bodhisattvas in his life and that of all Buddhists.

23. The Good Friend, the False Friend, and the Spiritual Friend - In this piece, written in May 2017, Sangharakshita's starting point is the Upaḍḍha Sutta of the Saṃyutta Nikaya and the Buddhaas oft-quoted words to Ananda about the place of kalyana mittata (Skt: kalyana mitrata or spiritual friendship) in the spiritual life. From there he goes on to explore the nature of friendship from a whole number of different points of view.

An extract from New Writings 2015 - 2018

From: Four Visits

'You didn’t expect to see me', said the angel, seating himself on the arm of my chair. I knew it was an angel because I had seen paintings of them, and there was Milton’s wonderful description of the Archangel Raphael in Paradise Lost. Like them, my celestial visitor was young and beautiful with aureoled golden hair and a pair of iridescent wings and was clad in a loosely flowing robe of dazzling whiteness. 'No, I was not expecting you', I replied. 'After all, I am a Buddhist, not a Christian. If I had been expecting anyone, it would have been a bodhisattva.' 'You used to be quite fond of me and my brethren', responded the angel. 'You may not have been aware of it, but we used to visit you from time to time, and though you could not see us you used to draw pictures of us.' 'That was a long time ago', I protested. 'I could not have been more than thirteen or fourteen, and since then I have been more concerned with bodhisattvas than with angels.' 'That may well be so', was the beautiful being's response. 'But has it not occurred to you that your bodhisattvas may have been angels in disguise? May not one of us have been your own guardian angel, watching over you and protecting you from harm?' 'I was never conscious of the presence of any such being,' I said, 'though some Buddhists have the idea of a punya devata, which I suppose is a little bit like the Christian guardian angel.' 'Have you forgotten you once heard a warning voice? And did you not describe it as an angelic voice?' 'I remember it very well,' I admitted, 'and I remember thinking how strange it was that I should have described that voice as angelic rather than describing it in Buddhist terms.' 'Well, now you know. It was the voice of your guardian angel.'

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