Triratna has many Buddhist centres in cities across the world - and it has Buddhafield. Buddhafield is different; it’s a community of people dedicated to practicing and teaching the Dharma as far as possible in the open air, in the fields and woods and meadows of England. That gives it a unique ‘edge’: an unvarnished closeness to the elements, a connection with the Buddha and how he lived, an immediate appreciation of the natural laws of ecology… Necessarily seasonal in nature, over the course of a few weeks in the summer Buddhafielders can find themselves moving between a month-long silent meditation retreat in a remote Devon valley, teaching meditation in the ‘Healing Fields’ of the 200,000-person Glastonbury music festival, and serving up veggie burgers 18 hours a day in the Buddhafield Café.
Now over twenty years old, it’s just published its first book, ‘Buddhafield Dharma: Practising Buddhism on the Land’. It’s a bold attempt to do justice to the many facets of the Buddhafield project: the retreats, the land (Buddhafield is the proud owner of two beautiful pieces of land in England’s West Country), the much-loved Buddhafield Festival, the family-orientated ‘Village retreat’, its practice of Right Livelihood in the Buddhafield Café, and more. At the book’s heart is a collection of ten Dharma talks taken from the ‘Dharma Parlour’, a teaching space in the heart of the Festival.
The book has a generous foreword by Sangharakshita, who writes - “For the last twenty years Buddhafield has pioneered a new approach to the practice of Buddhism. It is an approach that emphasises the importance of our being in touch with the natural world. In Buddhafield we live in the open air, meditate in the open air, listen to the Dharma in the open air and communicate with our friends in the open air… At a Buddhafield event we not only feel in touch with nature but experience ourselves as being part of it. We realise that we have bodies as well as souls. We feel healthier, happier and more integrated. This is to claim quite a lot, but the tens of thousands of people who have attended Buddhafield events over the years can testify to its truth.”
The book is available directly from its publishers Avalonia: http://avaloniabooks.co.uk/catalogue/from-the-east/buddhafield-dharma/
Or find it at the Buddhafield Festival!
Tags:
Buddhafield, book