In his first blog post since joining the Centre team three weeks ago, Ratnadeva reflects on his journey to the Centre and the nature of urban practice. ‘”It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,” he used to say. “You step into the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no telling where you might be swept off to.”’ These words of Bilbo Baggins come to mind as I sit in the basement of the West London Buddhist Centre typing this blog entry…

This week sees a significant change for our Centre team and our sangha: last Tuesday, Ratnadeva joined the team to take on the role of men’s Mitra Convenor, as well as teaching and administrative tasks at the Centre. You can learn more about his forty year spiritual journey from Irish Catholic Opus Dei zealot to Buddhafield neo-pagan, aspiring hippie at Sangha Night next week…

Bodhilila reflects on the value of retreat time during the Christmas period and shares plans this year’s City Retreat at WLBC. “Dear friends – As we approach the end of the year it’s hard to escape the approach of Christmas and all the expectations that brings. Whether or not it is a festival that has any religious or personal significance to us…” Read more…

Bodhilila, WLBC’s Chair and a former professional musician, shares some of the personal resonances for her of the viola and piano recital by Paul Silverthorne and David Owen Norris coming up on Saturday 8 December. “I get excited whenever we have a concert because, as someone who worked for over 15 years as a professional musician, I love hearing music performed live by really good musicians. Yet the next concert has me more excited than usual, for personal reasons…”

With a free mindfulness taster session coming up on Saturday 1 December 1-2pm, ahead of the eight week mindfulness courses starting in January, Sophie Crocker, WLBC’s Mindfulness Coordinator, launches into a spur-of-the-moment enquiry into the nature of mindfulness and uses it to reflect on how useful it can be to drop our agendas in favour of engaging in a more curious and open-ended dialogue with our own and others’ experience. Includes a guided meditation.

Bodhilila talks about what it means to ‘Go for Refuge to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha’  and shows appreciation for her teacher Sangharakshita, founder of the Triratna Buddhist Movement and Order, who passed away on Tuesday 30 October.

Following the death of Sangharakshita, the founder of the Triratna Buddhist Order, on Tuesday 30 October 2018, the team at West London Buddhist Centre is holding a meditation session 2-3pm on weekdays for 49 days to keep him in mind. This post, updated regularly, is a log of memories, poems and readings shared during this time.

We are sad to inform you that Urgyen Sangharakshita, the Founder of the Triratna Buddhist Order, passed away this morning. Here at the West London Buddhist Centre, as well as our…