Young FWBO Buddhists gather in Sheffield

Last month saw a gathering of 35 young Buddhists from FWBO Centres all over the UK. They met at Whirlow Hall Farm outside Sheffield, for a busy weekend connecting with one another, practicing together, sharing inspiration, and making plans for finding ways to inspire more young people with the Dharma. Demand for spaces was so high that eight participants ended up camping!

They explored a total of six specific questions, three near the beginning of the weekend and three near the end -

* What is it about the FWBO that inspires your practice?
* Where is your radical edge?
* What do you want to make happen in the FWBO?

* What are the DOMINANT THEMES that have emerged for you?
* What DISCOVERIES have you made?
* What would you like to EXPLORE FURTHER?

The last questions gave rise to a rich collection of ideas, available on the FWBO News Resources page.

Lindsay Hannah from Taraloka, one of the organisers of the weekend, commented afterwards -

“On the weekend retreat there was a real sense of energy and enthusiasm from those present to go back to their centres and run events for young people. Some individuals were interested in becoming young person’s facilitators at their centres and I hope we can identify a named young person’s facilitator for every centre or region in the UK in the coming months. We have also set up a Kula of inspired young FWBO Buddhists on facebook, this is a closed group where we can get to know each other and inspire and support each other to run initiatives at our centres to inspire other young people; it’s in addition to the public group which is at www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49821059114 and now has over 200 members.

“In 2010 there is a weekend retreat for young women at Taraloka (January 29 -31st), we hope to establish activities for young people on the FWBO international sangha gathering in May and there will be another mixed retreat from October 8-10th, again near Sheffield (details on Facebook) I also hope events will be run at individual centres (these have already been organised in Cambridge, London, and Sheffield).

“We need to inspire young people in the Dharma to ensure we pass the Dharma and the WBO onto the next generation! There’s energy building amongst the young Buddhists in the FWBO to try and inspire more young people to join us – it is important and exciting!

“Young people at FWBO centres are very welcome to contact me or they can check out our facebook group at: www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49821059114”

Three talks from the weekend are available on FreeBuddhistAudio at www.freebuddhistaudio.com/talks/details?num=LOC185