Mining for Hidden Treasures

From the mid-seventies through to the mid-eighties, Urgyen Sangharakshita led many seminars on a wide variety of texts for groups of Order members and Mitras. These seminars were highly formative for the young movement, as Sangharakshita expanded the vision for what it means to live a Dharma life.

These seminars were all recorded and later transcribed. Some transcriptions have been carefully checked and edited and are now available in more accessible book form. However, a huge amount of material remained unchecked and unedited. Recently the Dharma Team at Adhisthana have been exploring how to make more of it available.

Reading through the transcripts can be a bit like working as a miner, sifting through silt and rubble to find jewels. Sometimes the discussion is just a bit dull. Sometimes we see Sangharakshita trying to engage with the confusion of ideas many of us brought to Buddhism. At times some of the views captured in these transcripts express attitudes and ideas that many in Triratna have found unhelpful and which form no part of our teaching today.

But amongst this are brilliant flashes of clarity and understanding. Teachings that have become part of our Dharma landscape but are easily taken for granted. We see our task as bringing them back into focus through making them available online, ensuring they do not get lost and forgotten.

We encourage you to engage with the seminar transcripts in this light. 

English (UK)