TRIRATNA
StoriesA treasure-trove of spiritual Odysseys
Stories from some of the remarkable individuals who’ve worked and practised – and lived and died – within the Triratna Buddhist Community over its 50-year history.
Unfolding: How I became a Buddhist and what I did next
An intimate account of Padmasuri's early life, which captures the flavour of the times she lived through, from being brought up in 1950s vicarages to a cloistered boarding school aged 11, She tasted bohemian living in Tuscany, trained as a nurse, travelled the overland hippie trail to Kathmandu, and went on to be a midwife in Cornwall. Then she became a Buddhist.
Her life in the Triratna Buddhist Community is also a sort of history of the ups and downs of a young Buddhist movement growing up in the 1970s and 80s and up to the present day. A life unfolding in surprising directions, filled with people, candour, and humour, told in a simple and engaging way.
Available from Padmasuri, the author. Contact Triratna InHouse for details.
Planting a Seed - Manjuvajra
In 1980 three men from the UK went to the USA to establish a new Buddhist movement. They had neither charisma, the backing of a traditional order, financial support, or experience, but they did have enthusiasm, confidence and naiveté. Planting a Seed traces the development of the Triratna Buddhist Community in the USA for its first 15 years - but it is also a story illuminating the personal struggle that is involved in such a project. The book also offers a fascinating glimpse into the world of American Buddhism in the 1980s and 90s.
436 pages. Available in paperback.
Borrowed Body - Vimalasara
“I could have been born and raised in Africa. But my Spirit was in too much of a rush to be reincarnated...At six weeks I was chucked out into the new year of 1965 which wasn’t prepared to welcome an African baby, abandoned on a harsh English winter’s day.” So begins Pauline’s spirited and moving story of her childhood and teenage years in and out of foster homes...
Available on Kindle.
Introducing the Triratna Buddhist Order - Vol.3
A series of moving portraits of over 450 individuals from all over the world who joined the Triratna Buddhist Order between 2006 and early 2012. Compiled with consent from Shabda, the Order's confidential monthly journal. With photographs, explanations of their Buddhist names, and full index.
613 pages. Available in hardback and kindle formats.
Steps to Happiness: Traveling from Depression and Addiction to the Buddhist Path
by Taranatha, available in paperback.
On the first rung - Buddhadasa
Buddhadasa, a senior member of the Triratna Buddhist Order, writes of the circumstances leading up to his ordination into what was then known as the Western Buddhist Order. He also tells of his formative spiritual experiences whilst on solitary retreat in the wilds of Northern Scotland, and of his subsequent return to the South of England where he began to share responsibility for the welfare of the spiritual community of which he had become a member.
72 pages. Available in paperback.
A Year of Silence
A Year of Silence, by Kiranada, is the remarkable story of a woman's year alone, on solitary retreat on a remote precipice in New Zealand. Isolation, cold, hunger, elemental winds from Antarctic, screams in the night; all of these she survives with deep reflections, observations and insights.
Available in paperback.
Pilgrimage to Anywhere
Hoping to rediscover his deeper purpose, Rijumati, an English Buddhist teacher and businessman, embarked on a journey into the unknown: a round-the-world trip by land and sea that became a kind of pilgrimage. Months – and many crises – later he returned with new reverence for ordinary people and places, a sense of veneration for nature’s wonders and a profound gratitude for being human.
Rijumati, 305 pages. Available in paperback.
Confessions of a Transvestite Buddhist
Confessions of a Transvestite Buddhist: A Quest for Manhood is a frank and open account of an experienced Buddhist working with and through his desire to crossdress as a woman.
Devamitra, 272 pages, available in paperback.
Crap I've got Cancer: The sad, somewhat funny, definitely not depressing cancer memoir
Based on her original blog this book also brings together Suvanna’s writings on a variety of subjects related to her reflections on cancer. From the introduction: “Through all the medical appointments and appearances of Nurse Jackie, the journeys and movie recommendations, her delight in good friends, the moments of sadness, stoicism, drama and farce, the underlying theme of this story, as I’m sure you’ll agree, is not really ‘cancer’, or ‘death’ at all, but love.
Triratna InHouse Publications aims to showcase the amazing range of talent within our community and Order, at least as expressed in literary form. We offer Dharma, personal stories, literature and poetry, translations and more…
