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Buddhas in my pocket

An Australian Buddhist Pilgrimage

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Maitripala

Member of Triratna Buddhist Order

Cambridge Buddha

The man reading a book on a seat in a beautiful park in Cambridge rose in response to seeing us.
I was walking with my Preceptor ( the person who Ordained me 17 years ago and gave me my Buddhist name) having just arrived by train.
In that moment of just beginning to take in my surroundings, my first thought as he moved towards us, was that his extended hand was requesting a buddha from my back pack.
During my brief visit to the UK the small amount of buddhas I brought from home had already doubled as people generously donated them after hearing about the Australian pilgrimage. Although my visit is not specifically to hand out buddhas it seems the pilgrimage response is never far from the surface of my being.
Instead, unaware of the buddhas in my back pack, this man was wanting to introduce himself as he had spotted my kesa.
I often forget I have the kesa around my neck as I walk around in public, until I notice people who stare at it, trying to work out what it represents. We don’t usually wear our kesas everywhere but I had decided to do so for the length of the pilgrimage.
So here I was walking with the person who had first placed that kesa around my neck in a moving private Ordination ceremony in Tuscany all those years ago.
And that had triggered this spontaneous connection with one of the 2,500 members of our worldwide Order- a New Zealander living in Cambridge.
As we sat and talked, a buddha moved into his care and the pilgrimage was alive in the lovely town of Cambridge.

Buddha donated by Claire Manchester UK

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Princesses

The largest two Buddhas in my bag landed in the hands of two little princesses (well they did have princess skirts on).

Four and six year olds don’t fuss much with detail and I discovered they make their minds up really quickly about anything.
When I asked them what was it they liked most about their Buddhas they both said in unison, “All of it!”

Sister one ” I am going to put mine under my pillow.”
Sister two ” I am going to put mine on the bench in the kitchen so Daddy can see it when he makes us pancakes!”

Buddhas donated by Tegan and Amitasraddha, Melbourne Australia

 

 

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A flaming sword of wisdom

imageThis little Buddha is off to a new home in Ghent, Belgium. Carried in the pocket of a new friend.

I had laid out all the little Buddhas I had in the UK  on a flat surface to see which one would make the journey.

And he knew straight away which one to pick up.

It was a Manjugosha Buddha, with the flaming sword of Wisdom.

There was lovely link to his friend, someone he respected and valued, who had a strong connection with Manjugosha.

Buddha donated by Alison Shearer UK

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Buddhas worldwide

My bag of little Buddhas has found its way to the English countryside to a place called Adhisthana ( blessing/ grace).
And I do feel blessed to be with people from all over the world representing their Triratna Buddhist communities. We spend time together, meditating, reflecting, communicating, planning projects and building friendships.
On one of the days we looked at inclusion, diversity and environmental issues exploring how we respond to these concerns as Buddhists.
A little grey Buddha from my bag has found a place on the shrine joining many that were donated years ago by a variety of countries.
Buddha donated by Eileen from Ireland .

 

 

 

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In the hands of Buddhadasa

“This is my kesa bag given to me by my friend Paramatha many years ago.
It contains a golden kesa, mala beads chosen by Dhardo Rimpoche to give to Order Members and some red thread just in case it’s needed for a Kalyana Mitra ceremony.”

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The man with gold sneakers

He was rummaging through a couple of shopping bags looking at his purchases as I sat down next him at Fed Square.
I am beginning to wonder if the loving kindness practice is slowly transforming my sense of what’s an appropriate gap to leave when sitting near strangers.
Because as I sat down I noticed he turned his back on me slightly, like he wasn’t used to someone sitting so close. But rather than rejection it felt like he was being polite and sensitive to me in a way that he thought might be needed.
After a few minutes I spoke to his turned back, ” Your shoes are amazing!”
He spun around with a broad grin and eyes shining and replied,
“Yes, they are aren’t they!”
Those gold sneakers looked like they wanted to be noticed even if his body language said otherwise.
This man with very kind eyes then showed me how the sneakers even had little USB ports in the side of each shoe and when charged up the soles radiated disco colours. He was disappointed this feature had recently broken as he wasn’t sure I really believed him.
I relaxed into easy conversation with him and he told me where he was from, what he had been shopping for, and all about his not so easy childhood and family dynamics.
He showed me the tracheotomy scar from the serious accident he had as an 18 year old many years ago. And I heard how currently he was living in the garage on his property as he’d had a house fire earlier this year and was still waiting for the insurance company to settle.
His last purchase today had been a polished stone cross from the big city Church nearby. I helped him thread it onto the rope necklace he had just purchased so he could wear it straight away.
From that first moment he had turned around to reply to me he was open, honest and engaged. Sharing words made the space between us so alive and interesting.
He then asked me what I was doing in Fed Square and I told him about the Buddhas in the Pocket pilgrimage.
Before I could get them out of my bag and offer him one he laughingly asked,                  ” Can I have one !?’
As I revealed the little pile of Buddhas he went straight to the white Budai.
We talked about its meaning and he liked the fact this Buddha depicted generosity and abundance. He said, ” I try to lead a generous life.”
At the end of our conversation I gave him a card so he could look at the blog and see what I would be writing about our time together if he wished.
We were leaving on warm first name terms so it felt natural to give him a parting hug.
I know sometimes the people I meet often seem to relax because I am so open with them but today it felt like this man had a purity and uncomplicatedness that was a gift to me .
Memory of it still makes me smile.

 

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Buddha donated by Alison Melbourne

 

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In the hands of Dharmamati

“This is a little fragment of paper from 1968.

I came across it during a time when  I hitchhiked overland from England to Australia.
I was given this leaflet by a guy when I stayed a night in a hotel in Tehran. It just had information on it for guests.

But there was this little piece of text included that I was totally struck by.
It says
‘ Love is like a fire without  it home is cold and dark’

I have always resonated with the idea love is what is basically needed in the world.
Love is what is really important in the world far more than almost anything else.
It was one of the many little things that you encounter during travel, especially when you are young , that opens you up to a different way of seeing things.
I was very aware that in Britain at that time you would be very unlikely to find that sort of sentiment in a hotel.
The people I met in Tehran were incredibly warm. And I found all through the Middle East in 1968, people who were friendly, open, always inviting me in to places and helping me out.
They seemed very trusting of strangers. I grew up in an atmosphere that was quite different. So it’s a memory I have kept all these years.”     Dharmamati

 

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Birmingham Buddhas

Thank you to my dear friend Veronica for initiating a  ‘Buddhas in my Pocket’ display at the Birmingham Buddhist Centre and extending Indra’s Net. I was very touched to see little Buddhas appearing there, ready to accompany me back to Australia.

 

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Recognising purity

The little Buddhas sat waiting on the table looking much fresher after a 24 hour flight than I felt. It only took a minute for the man with the infectious smile to choose the only white Buddha within the group.
In the small amount of time we spent together he told me about his father and mother who had died many years ago, about the brother in Barbados who he had only seen once and about his girlfriend.
Again I enjoyed the simplicity of letting time and presence do the work of connection. He was a man who went about life in a simple way, so at first glance I imagine his knowledge and interests could often be greatly underestimated.
In those few minutes he was able to easily explain why white appealed to him, the vibrancy, the purity. He liked that white contained an equal balance of all colours of the spectrum. And he commented on Renaissance artists and their use of white.

When his girlfriend arrived he asked if she could choose a Buddha too. So a green Buddha also found a new home.
The familiarity of this simple task of handing on some Buddhas, as I had been doing in Melbourne, somehow helped me arrive more fully in Birmingham.

Buddhas donated by Pasadadipa and Inge from UK

 

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Buddhas in my pocket

An Australian Buddhist Pilgrimage