A Buddhist Manifesto: The Principles of The Triratna Buddhist Community
Essay by Subhuti
The world today is very different from that in which Buddhism originated and flourished over the millenia. Buddhists now practise and teach the Dharma in an age of urbanisation, globalisation, mass communication, and rapid technological change. The challenge we face today is to find ways of communicating and practising the Dharma that are truly effective in these new circumstances. What is needed, in effect, is a renewal of Buddhism. The Triratna Buddhist Community was founded by Urgyen Sangharakshita, in London in 1967, as a response to this challenge. This booklet is an outline of the main principles upon which that new Buddhist movement was initiated and which have continued to animate it ever since. These constitute principles of renewal that may be of wider interest to all our Buddhist sisters and brothers everywhere who are working to bring the Dharma into the heart of the modern world.