Friends of the Western Buddhist Order

From Wikinfo

Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO) is a pseudo Buddhist movement that was founded by Sangharakshita in 1967, along with the Western Buddhist Order (in 1968). Sangharakshita whose real name is Dennis Linwood was ordained as a Theravadin bhikkhu, although he was later to admit that his ordination was invalid. He spent many years living in India until he was expelled by the Indian authorities in the mid 60's for alleged sexual misconduct. He returned to the UK at the request of the English Sangha Trust. Sangharakshita maintains that having seen that, despite considerable interest in the Dharma, British Buddhism was formalistic, sectarian, and riven by discord, Sangharakshita set out to start a new Buddhist movement.On the other hand the then trustees of the trust maintained that Sangarakshita was expelled from his post as senior monk at the Hamstead Buddhist Vihara because of inappropriate sexual behaviour.

Contents 1 The Western Buddhist Order 2 Distinctive Emphases of the FWBO 3 Activities 4 Practice 4.1 Meditation 4.2 Ritual 4.3 Retreats 4.4 Confession 4.5 Right Livelihood 4.6 Communities 5 Diversity 6 The FWBO post Sangharakshita 7 Chronology 8 Criticism of the FWBO 9 External links 9.1 FWBO Sites 9.2 Outside Views of the FWBO 9.2.1 References

The Western Buddhist Order

Despite the name, the WBO is now a world-wide pseudo Buddhist movement with activities in every continent except Antarctica. Membership of the order is limited by one main criterion, the ability to Go for Refuge to the Three Jewels; that is the Buddha, Buddhadharma, and the Sangha. Since, as Sangharakshita has emphasized, it is the act of Going For Refuge that makes one a Buddhist, it makes sense for this to be the fundamental principle of the order. That said, the order is on one level simply a network of friendships - friendships based on a shared vision of the distorted teachings of Sangarakshita.

Order members are known as Dharmacaris (masculine) or Dharmacarinis (feminine) and are ordained on the same basis, and take the same precepts at ordination. There are no higher ordinations. Although many order members take vows of celibacy, this is seen as secondary to Going for Refuge.

Having conveniently rejected traditional Buddhist organizations, both lay and monastic, Sangharakshita has attempted to create a new type of order, where lifestyle is secondary to commitment to the Three Jewels primary. This is something of a radical departure in many eyes, but it allows members of the WBO to reject traditional forms of Buddhist morality that more traditional Buddhist's see as being fundamental to the Buddhist practice. Sangharakshita found this break with tradition to be particularly useful in allowing him,and other senior male order members to take drugs and engage in extensive homosexual relationships with younger male disciples.

Order members undertake to observe a set of ten precepts. These are different from monastic vows (obviously). The set is claimed to be mentioned in the oldest Buddhist scriptures, the Pali Canon, but never as the basis for ordination. Beyond this, and a commitment to remain in good communication with other order members, there are no requirements on order members. Ordination confers no special status , nor any responsibilities, although many order members do choose to take on responsibilities for such things as teaching meditation, and the Buddhadharma.This lax ethical framework alows order members to escape the kind of moral discipline associated with more traditional Buddhist orders.

There are now more than 1,000 members of the order, in over 20 countries in Europe, India, Africa, Australasia, and elsewhere in Asia.

Distinctive Emphases of the FWBO

Appart from its lax ethical framework there are six characteristics of the FWBO that help to define the movement.

1. The movement is ecumenical. The FWBO is not identified with any particular strand of Buddhism or Buddhist school, but draws inspiration from whatever seems appropriate to here and now. This allows the FWBO to pick and mix from various Buddhist traditions without comming to grips with any of them
2. The movement is unified. The WBO ordains men and women on an equal footing - unlike most traditional Buddhist schools. The movement does regard single-sex activities as vital to spiritual growth and extremely effective at promoting homosexual relationships, but men and women are, in principle, considered equally able to practise and develop spiritually.omen however are seen as being spiritualy inferior to men by Sagharakshita who has said women are to men as men are to angels.
3. The act of Going for Refuge is central. Going for Refuge to the Three Jewels (i.e., the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha), is what makes someone a Buddhist. As such everyone in the FWBO is encouraged to place the Three Jewels at the center of their lives.
4. Spiritual friendship. Spiritual friendship is friendship based on our highest values - especially the Three Jewels. Spending as much time as possible with friends who share our highest ideals supports ethical living.Spiritual friendship is seen as being particularly effective when it finds expresion in homosexual relationships between male order members and younger aspirants to the order.
5. Team based right-livelihood. Working together in teams, in the spirit of generosity, and with a focus on ethics, is a transformative practice. The FWBO has been a pioneer in the area of right-livelihood, operating a number of successful businesses. This model has proved particularly effective in avoiding minimuum wage legislation and maximising the profits of the organisation.
6. Art. The arts help us to broaden our sympathies and to extend our experience; they enlarge our imaginations, they refine and direct our emotions. At their best and greatest they may be bearers of spiritual values, values which in principle are identical with those of the Dharma, values which can help us to transform our lives.

Activities

Right from the beginning there has been an emphasis on teaching meditation in urban centers. Retreats in the countryside soon followed, as did lecture series on aspects of Buddhist thought and practice. Residential communities developed out of retreats, when people decided they wanted to live together, and team-based right-livelihood projects were started to fund activities. Eventually, permanent retreat centers were established.

Centers were quickly established in other countries including New Zealand and Australia. The FWBO is now actively teaching Buddhism and meditation in France, Germany, Poland, Estonia, Sweden, Finland, South Africa, Mexico, USA, Venezuela, New Zealand, India, Malaysia, and elsewhere.

More recently FWBO activities have diversified to include outdoor festivals, online meditation teaching, arts festivals, poetry and writing workshops, yoga, karate, and pilgrimages to Buddhist holy sites in India.

For many years the FWBO charity Karuna Trust has raised money for aid projects in India, including supporting the small school for Tibetan refugees established by Dhardo Rimpoche, and a range of projects to assist the Dalit or ex-Untouchable community.Recently however a significant number of Indian disciples have resigned from the movement because of Sangharakshita's sexual behaviourand the superior attitude of white WBO members.

Practice

Because it draws on the whole of the Buddhist tradition it is able to offer a shallow pick and mix variation of more traditional Buhhist practice..

Meditation

Many meditation practices are current within the FWBO reflecting the take it or leave it attitude of the movement. Sangharakshita has described the way he teaches meditation as having four phases, and the practices fall roughly into these four phases. The first two are, broadly speaking, calming or samatha practices, and the last two are insight or vipassana practices.

• Integration - The main practice at this stage is the Mindfulness of Breathing, which has the effect of "integrating the psyche" (improving mindfulness and concentration).
• Positive Emotion - The second aspect of calm is developing positivity. The Brahmavihara meditations, especially the 'metta bhavana' or cultivation of loving kindness meditations, are the key practices for developing positive emotion.
• Spiritual Death - The beginning of insight is to examine aspects of reality and to see how all things are impermanent, lacking an essential nature, and lead to dissatisfaction. A key Buddhist technique for developing this insight has always been the breaking of things into parts. In the Six Element practice one looks at one's whole psychophysical organism in terms of earth, water, air, fire, space, and consciousness. Other techniques are contemplating impermance, especially of the body; contemplating suffering; and contemplating Shunyata. This leads to a spritual death, as through insight into the nature of things, one's sense of onself as a separate, isolated being is broken down. It is important to approach these meditation practices from a strong base of integration and positivity.
• Spiritual Rebirth - With the development of insight, and the death of the limited ego-self a person is spiritually reborn. In the ultimate sense this is Bodhi or enlightenment. Practices which involve the visualization of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are the main practices used in the FWBO in this phase, though typically it is only members of the order that do them.

Other common practices include just sitting, a formless meditation with no focus where one just sits and nothing else. Just sitting can be a good practice to help assimilate experience from other meditation practices. A similar practice that has recently become popular is Pure Awareness where the focus of the meditation is whatever happens to be in one's mind at the time - one allows sensations and thoughts to arise, observes them, and lets them go. Walking meditation is popular on retreats. The focus in this case is the physical movements of the body, or the soles of the feet. This is an integrative practice.

Ritual

Worship or Puja can be thought of as a kind of theatre, in which one recites verse, performs physical acts such as mudra and prostrations, and uses imaginative imagery to evoke a particular experience. The experience is one which includes comapssion for all living beings, and a desire to liberate them from suffering. The FWBO has a range of pujas but the most common one is composed of verses from the Bodhicaryavatara of Shantideva. It consists of seven stages: worship, salutation, going for refuge, confession of faults, rejoicing in merit, entreaty and supplication, and transference of merit & self-surrender.

These verses can be thought of evoking an image of the Buddha as being like a far-off mountain. First one glimpses the mountain-top peeking through some clouds; then the clouds clear and one has a stunning vision of the mountain; in that moment one knows that one must go to the mountain; but one realizes that one has many unnecessary burdens; having unburdened oneself one stocks up on energy; then one asks for directions; and finally one expresses gratitude and devotes any good that accrues to the benefit of all beings.

Retreats

Retreats provide an opportunity for practitioners to focus on their practice with little or no interruption. Even just a few days of intensive practice can make quite a difference. Beginners' retreats are usually 2 or 3 days, whilst a regular program of two-week retreats is avilable to more experienced and committed members. The typical retreat program would include several sessions of meditation, some Dharma study, and a puja or devotional ritual in the evenings. Afternoons are usually free for people to rest or meet together. More intensive retreats might have less study and more meditation.

Confession

Unlike in the Christian tradition, Buddhists do not confess in order to be forgiven. Buddhists believe that actions have consequences, and that regret after the fact is only useful if it prevents a repetition of the deed. Hence true confession can only be made when it is accompanied by remorse and resolution not to repeat the deed. Confession is seen as an act of purification. Sangharakshita would do well to take this on board given his past behaviour

Right Livelihood

Early on in the history of the FWBO it became apparent that it needed to raise funds for various projects. This became especially apparent with the decision to purchase and renovate a disused fire station in Bethnal Green. At this time several small businesses were set up including a wholefood shop and a building team. These were run by collectives of people who almost immediately discovered that working together as a team seemed like a very good spiritual practice in itself. Right livelihood is one of the limbs of the Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path and consists essentially in applying Buddhist ethics to work. Right livelihood businesses now contribute substantial funds for the movement as well as providing very positive environments for spiritual growth.

Communities

Another practice that emerged from the early milieu of the FWBO is residential spiritual communities. The first community was formed after a rereat when several of the participants decided they wanted to try to continue the retreat-style living. The most stable communities tended to be single sex, and most FWBO communities these days are single sex affairs. Some of the most intensive situations are where people live, work and have sexual relations together as a spiritual practice - the constant reminders about ethics, and the support from fellow practitioners, is seen to be particularly, particularly where one partner in the sexual relationship is more spiritualy developed and than the other.

Diversity

As an international movement diversity is a distinguishing feature. While England remains the main stronghold, the movement in India is disintegrating rapidly. Most Indian members come from the lowest strata of Indian society, from the castes that were formerly known as untouchables (Untouchability was outlawed by the first Independent Indian government). These people have little real knowledge of Buddhism which makes them easy prey to the pseudo-buddhism of the FWBO.

There are a wide range of people involved, from academics to working-class people, artists, accountants, and doctors. About 1 in 6 are celibate, and another 1 in 6 are married in traditional families. Many live in single-sex communities and work in right-livelihood businesses - a lifestyle which has come to be called semi-monastic with the added advantage of being able to pursue sxual relationships.

A recent innovation has come from a group of people who are involved in the festival scene in the UK. Buddhafield both attends festivals such as Glastonbury, and runs its own outdoor events which regularly attract several hundred people.

The FWBO post Sangharakshita

In the 1990s Sangharakshita began handing over spiritual and administrative responsibility for the FWBO and WBO to a group of senior men and women disciples. This transfer was completed by 2000. Since then Sangharakshita's health has declined, but thanks to his foresight the movement continues to thrive.

Leadership is vested in the College of Public Preceptors, a group of 12 men and women hand picked by Sangharakshita who take overall responsibility for ordaining new members, and for ensuring harmony in the order and spiritual vitality in the movement. With over 1,000 members, and a continuing commitment to consensus decision-making,providing the word of Sangharakshita's hand picked preceptors always prevails, the order is now having to explore new ways of communicating on issues of concern to all particularly now that the dark side of the movement has been widely exposed. One such issue, which has highlighted the need for change, is the name of the order, which is now considered to be inappropriate since the movement is no longer, if it ever really was, a purely Western one. However, getting consensus from 1,000+ people is a difficult business and progress in making the change has been slow.

Chronology

1925	Sangharakshita born
1943	Sangharakshita conscripted
1944	Sangharakshita takes refuges and precepts from U Thittila, thereby officially becoming a Buddhist Sangharakshita posted to India, and later transferred to Ceylon
1949	12 May: Dennis Lingwood ordained by U Chandramani, and given the name Sangharakshita.
1957	A Survey of Buddhism is first published
1964	Sangharakshita is expelled from India and returns to England after 20 years in India
1967	Founding of the FWBO after being expelled from the Hampstead Buddhist Vihara. Aspects of Buddhist Psychology Lecture series
1968	Founding of the Western Buddhist Order 7 April, 12 men and women ordained Noble Eightfold Path Lecture series (later published as Vision & Transformation)
1969	Aspects of the Bodhisattva Ideal Lecture series
1971	Sangharakshita takes a year off, leaving order members to run things on their own.He spends this time with a young disciple who is later to complain of sustained sexual abuse by his teacher (see FWBO Files)
1972	First single-sex retreats
1975	First ordinations in New Zealand. Sukhavati project started - a derelict fire station is transformed into the London Buddhist Center and a residential community. Out of this project would also come the first team-based right-livelihood businesses.
1976	Padmaloka Retreat Centre purchased, Sangharakshita makes it his base for the sexual expoitation of young disciples
1978	Indian wing of the FWBO founded. Known as the Trailokya Bauddha Mahasangha Sahayaka Gana (TBMSG)
1980	Formation of Aid for India, now known as the Karuna Trust, to raise funds for aid projects in India, particularly amongst the so called "ex-untouchable" Buddhists.
1990	Death of Dhardo Rimpoche, one of Sangharakshita's main teachers
1992	Sangharakshita addresses the European Buddhist Union.
1997	The Guardian publishes an article by respected journalist Madeline Bunting which exposes sexual abuse within theFWBO. It also draws attention to widespread instituitional sexual abuse at the FWBO's Croydon Centre and a the suicide of a number of young men who had been subject to such abuse. The FWBO response is largely ignored and seen as the whitewash it so obviously is.
2000	Sangharakshita hands on the headship of the order to the College of Public Preceptors.
2002	The order reaches 1,000 members. Major changes announced in the "mitra system"

Criticism of the FWBO

In recent times there has been quite a lot of justifiable criticsm of the FWBO. There was a highly critical article in The Guardian in 1997, and there has been an internet-based campaign to warn people of the potential dangers of the movement, and its founder, by a former member of the Order who was sexualy abused by Sangharakshita and subsequently had a nervous breakdown.

While it is clear that there have been problems in the movement the FWBO has been in complete denial.Claims that the movement is a hotbed of sex, especially between men, and that the founder is a "sexual predator" are undeniable and widely acknowledged within the FWBO itself. Sangharakshita was sexually active for a long period, and his partners were most frequently from within the younger male ranks of the FWBO. This has led to justifiable doubts about the appropriateness of this behaviourfor for a Buddhist teacher. Like other spiritual groups where sex has been an issue there have been some difficulties, unlike many other groups who have been open about such problems, the members of the order continue to seem to be willing to address such issues.

Another justifiable criticism of the FWBO is that, in stepping outside the traditional structure of Buddhism, it does not have the checks and balances that exist in traditional schools. The argument is that in traditional organisations the cultish and expoitative behaviour that has existed within the FWBO would have been detected and taken care of, and that there is an appeal to a higher authority. It clear that Sangharakshita is a law unto himself, and that this is a fundamental flaw in the structure of the FWBO.

External links

FWBO Sites

• FWBO Official Site
• Karuna Trust raise money for Indian aid projects
• Windhorse : Evolution is an example of a right-livelihood business
• Buddhafield teach meditation at fairs and festivals, also hold retreat camps and their own outdoor festival.
• Wildmind. Online meditation instruction.
• Windhorse Publications Publish books by Sangharakshita and a range of other Buddhist teachers including Ayya Khema.

Outside Views of the FWBO

• Martine Batchelor analyses responses to Steven Batchelor's book, including Sangharakshita's review.
• Journal of Global Buddhism Research summary by Sally A. McAra, (2000). Investigates Order members' narratives about their transformative relationship with the land, focusing on the retreat center Sudarshanaloka in New Zealand.
• A Review of Extending the Hand of Fellowship by Sandra Bell, University of Durham. Journal of Buddhist Ethics
• Working in the Right Spirit by Martin Baumann, University of Hannover. Journal of Buddhist Ethics. The application of Buddhist Right Livelihood in the FWBO.
• Perceptions of the FWBO in British Buddhism By Dharmachari Vishvapani. Although written by a member of the WBO it attempts to summarise views of the FWBO from the outside, including many criticisms.
• [http://www.fwbo-files.com. Highly detailed criticisms of Sangharakshita's sexual behaviour and his appropriation and distortion of Buddhist teachings.

References

• Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Friends_of_the_Western_Buddhist_Order" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friends_of_the_Western_Buddhist_Order, used under the GNU Free Documentation License