first report from the Jnanasiddhi Center for Youth Development, Amravati

This year has seen the founding of the Jnanasiddhi Center for Youth Development in the Indian city of Amravati, central India, where there has been for many years a flourishing TBMSG centre. They’ve recently sent us this report of their first few months operation. Jnanaratna, its founder, says -

“Jnanasiddhi Center for Youth Development, Amravati started on the 7th Jan 2009. It is the initiative of Jnanaratna, a young Dhammachari from Amravati, who, with the help of Amoghasiddhi , Kumarjeev and Ratnasiddhi, has been working for the youth since his ordination four years ago.

Vision of the project
The vision of the project bring is to bring together and & help to grow all Buddhist and non-Buddhist youths age between 18 to 40, of all the different castes and social backgrounds, both employed & unemployed, and to help them all to become the true individuals.

Mission
Our mission is to reach out to thousand of youngsters with different activities and try to bring them together in our events so that they explore their talents, share their views and learn from each other.

Our Activities
We took the NVC (Non-Violent Communication) training for youth at Jnanasiddhi on the 15th- 16th Feb 2009. Kumarjeev conducted the training, there were 25 participants present, and it was very inspiring moment for the youth.

A workshop on NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) was held on the 6th & 7th of April. Aruna Korana led the training, and 20 youth participated in the event. NLP is concerned with the transformation of the thought process: if the thought changes, the personality of the human also changes . Success, relationships, can all transform through the practice of NLP. Aruna also demonstrated the use of our senses to the fullest capacity .

Dhamma talk series
We have celebrated the Jayanti (birth) of Dr. Ambedkar by two series of talks, one on the personality of Dr. Ambedkar and his education, and one on the social conditions of today’s Ambedkarite youth. The first talks were given by Dhammachari Amoghasiddhi and Mahendra Mundre.

In his talks, Amoghasiddhi explored the life of Babasaheb in different ways , putting the personality of Dr. Babasaheb as the true practitioner of the Buddhism . He said , if we put the same effort as Babasaheb in the five Viniyat Chetsik Dhammas, it will help to us to became true Buddhists and individuals. He quoted many example from his life which highlights the morality.

Other events
On the occasion of URGYEN SANGHARAKSHITA’S birthday, August 26th, we asked all people to join with the Jnanasiddhi Youth Development Center, Amaravati, India, to go green and spread metta to whole world.

We celebrated Bhante’s birthday with planting trees in the near town . We were remembering his qualities:

1) Bhante gives the shelter of the fwbo/tbmsg
2) deep understanding of the dhamma
3) his own interpretation of the dhamma
4) experience of the higher stages of the meditation .

and many more. We planted 83 trees in the near the Jnanasiddhi center on the early morning of 26th Aug 2009 at 7am to 9am, and followed this with meditation and puja practise from 10am to 12pm. Through the whole month from 26th August to 26th Sept 09 , we will plant trees for the long life and gratitude to Bhante’s contribution to the new world.

For further details and to donate us for this cause, please contact me at jnanaratna@rediffmail.com